Harper and Graham get it done for New Brunswick

Stephen Harper was in New Brunswick today, providing $210 million for road improvements across that province.

Tuesday Harper will be in Thunder Bay, announcing $15 million in funding for a molecular medical research centre. This is one of several projects that are estimated to create 400 jobs in the region. (Not to mention that Harper will welcome one time Liberal, Joe Commuzi, to the Conservative Party)

My guess is that this summer, Harper will criss-cross all over Canada, announcing funding for this here, that there...money for major projects everywhere...except for in NFLD and Nova Scotia.

You think major projects requiring federal funding in those provinces may find it a little sparse?

Newfoundland already gets $2,325 per person from the feds each year, and Nova Scotia gets $2,838 per person, in transfer payments. That is $4 billion each year, before any additional transfers for road work, port improvements, or other infrastructure projects which are funded by the federal government. Projects that create jobs and pump money into the local economy.

Through belligerence and petty politics, Premiers Williams and McDonald (to a lesser extent) are putting those extra monetary benefits at risk.

Those that take the greater federal largesse for granted, would do well to look at the bigger picture, and what the federal government already provides, before going to war with them over a $100 million dollars.

--

The political philosophy of retreat -- explained

--

Will Denis Coderre show his support for Canadian troops?

We know that Denis Coderre likes parades. In fact, just last summer he marched in a parade that called for Israel to stop its war against the terrorist organization Hezbollah.

But will the aptly named Liberal defence critic attend a parade of Quebec's finest when the Vandoos Regiment parades in Quebec city on Friday before shipping out to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban terrorists?

Even if Coderre does attend, which side of the line will he stand on?


--

The daily "Who gives a crap?"

I'm an urban voter, and hell, I'll go so far as to admit that I voted Liberal provincially in the last election. Urban/rural, doesn't matter, all we want to do is to elect someone that is going to represent our interests.

Which leads me to this Randy Hillier that Warren Kinsella has such a hate on for...and I don't get it. Is Hillier outspoken? Sure. Does he speak for me? No. But does he represent the views of some of the people in the area in which he lives. You bet.


I know that rural and urban folks have different priorities, even different outlooks on life. But Hillier does speak for a large number of people from his area, and he is likely to get elected to represent them. It's democracy, and it's the way things should work.

Warren's a known political operative, a "pit-bull" even, but I don't think his attempt to change the channel from McGuinty raising taxes, by trying to silence/ridicule/demonize a rural voice, is going to work. It might have in the 90's, but people have seen this before with Harper and his scary secret agenda. Voters have been there, seen that, not scary.

Kinsella's ravings about Randy Hillier won't make me vote against John Tory. No sir. But Dalton McGuinty's bold faced lie about not raising taxes, then raising taxes, guarantees I won't be voting Liberal this fall.

Urban voters aren't so dumb as to think that some outspoken fella from out on the farm running for the Tories is going to mess with their way of life. It's just not going to happen. People, especially those in Ontario, are open to others having different views than their own. It's what makes this most multi-cultural of provinces work so well.

And the story here of Warren attempting to pit rural citizens against urban ones, well that just ain't cool man.

I genuinely believed that McGuinty was going to get re-elected, now I'm not so sure. I sense a bit of fear and desperation in the Liberal camp with this whole Hillier schtick.

It's almost as if whoever advised McGuinty to raise taxes is starting to feel the heat.

--

Atlantic Accord battle all blow, no show..

It seems, conveniently, that the "fight" may be over.

I have been of the opinion for quite some time now that this whole Atlantic Accord Affair is a political set-up. And the entire, Danny "Apoplectic" Williams, Rodney "Fight or Die" MacDonald, and Bill "Martyr to the Cause" Casey, crew are in on it.

Let's face it, if a new deal has been signed and there is federal/provincial peace. All sides are going to come out ok.

Peter MacKay and Gerard Keddy will have won the "let's work for Nova Scotia from within the Conservative Party" vote, and Bill Casey has wrapped up the Nova Scotia nationalist vote. Should it be successful, watch for the same thing to happen in NFLD.

By being the provincial strong man, standing up to Ottawa, both Williams, and now MacDonald, have locked up provincial Conservative majority legislatures in their next election.

And by "giving in" and making a new deal, there will be lots of love and votes directed to federal Conservatives in the next federal election.

What we are witnessing is political strategy at its finest. Sink low..then rise above.

Now I think this whole thing is a set up, and I believe Bill Casey will be re-admitted to caucus in a big show of party solidarity.

Even if, somehow, none of this is a brilliant political construct from the depths of the strategic mind of Stephen Harper, Casey should still be let back into the Conservative caucus. He's a Conservative lifer, and a classy guy, and deserves to be given a free pass.


--

Aibus barking up a catless tree

In an attempt to bypass the Department of Defence, Airbus is soliciting MPs directly trying to reopen the bid for transport aircraft for the Canadian military.

Airbus is talking about fairness in the procurement process, and how the sole sourcing is undemocratic. Nice sentiment, but it's not going to change any minds.

The fact is, the Airbus A-400 has yet to be built. No Air Force in the world has them in their fleet.

Canada is buying 16 C-130J Hercules, because they are reliable, available, and serving in dozens of militaries all over the world.

Advice to Airbus. Forget what's fair, and open and transparent.

You want Canada to buy your airplane? Then give us 25 A-400s for the price of 16 hercs, and the first 8 off the assembly line.

Anything less and your chances are less than zero.


--

Take advice from Scotty Reid? No thanks.

Stephane Dion is a weak, ineffectual leader. So it stands to reason that Scotty "Beer and Popcorn" Reid might be able to weasel his way into Dion's confidence.

Scotty is in fine form today in the Star, telling Dion to pull the rug from under the Conservaitves in the fall and trigger a general election.

Lets hope Dion's smarts are able to make up for his lack of leadership, and he keeps the requisite ten-foot pole between himself and any of Scotty's sage advice.

Because let's face it, with Dion skidding along the bottom in personal support numbers, including a distant 4th place finish in his home province of Quebec (behind Jack Layton even!), unless Harper is found in a closet with hookers and hamsters over the summer, the fall is not the time for Dion to try and go to the polls.

I think this advice has more to do with the Scott Reid wanting to get rid of Dion, so the horse he backs (Ignatieff?) can become leader, than it does wanting to see Dion succeed.

Scotty obviously does not have Dion's best interests at heart.

Remember that banning people from the Liberal Party for life that Scotty and his crew introduced? Well maybe Dion should look into reviving that.

With advisors like Scotty, who needs enemies?


--

Space case Denis Coderre claims UFO sighting!

Awesome. He MUST have been kidnapped, and they tinkered with his modesty and inherent human goodness. It explains a lot.

Young Denis describes his UFO sighting





--