Western Standard

The Shotgun

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Gordon Brown's international tax

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants an international tax on the financial transactions. His argument is that it is bad that the rewards are given to so few and the costs of failure is borne by so many. That is perhaps a fair argument, but here is a novel idea, let's not bail out people who mess up.

Seriously, I agree with Gordon Brown that socialized risk and privatized rewards suck. But the solution is not to socialize rewards but to privatize risk. That way bankers actually have an incentive not to do something so risky that it would put them out of business. This "too big to fail" concept is ultimately going to destroy our economy. The mind set that a company that is big enough can do whatever it wants and if it screws up the government will come to their rescue is going to bring down the capitalist system.

I'm glad that Jim Flaherty was among those that gave Mr. Brown's proposal a flat no.

Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on November 8, 2009 at 05:03 AM
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Alberta Tories back Stelmach; Wildrose Alliance responds

Christmas has come early for Danielle Smith and the Wildrose Alliance. In Red Deer on Saturday night, Alberta Progressive Conservative party members voted 77.4% in favour Premier Ed Stelmach’s continued leadership of the party.

According to a report in the Edmonton Journal, Alberta PC members are increasingly out-of-touch with grassroots sentiment in the province. In a poll conducted last month by Bruce Cameron, 57% of Albertans expressed their disapproval of Stelmach’s leadership and the party has plunged in the polls to only 34%.

Keeping Stelmach around is exactly the outcome Wildrose Alliance operatives were hoping for.

In response the desperate, partisan vote Saturday, Wildrose Alliance leader Danielle Smith said:

"The outcome of tonight's vote was exactly what we expected, but it goes against what I am hearing across the province. Albertans are upset with this government for destroying investor confidence in our energy industry, for mishandling our health care system and for taking us back into deficits. Tonight's decision by the Alberta PC's doesn't change a single thing that the Wildrose Party will do in the coming months. We will work hard to show Albertans that we are the alternative to the PC's and that we will give Albertans the kind of government they expect and deserve."

Smith is on message and riding a tremendous wave of support and excitement for her leadership and the fledgling Wildrose Alliance. She has bravely blazed a trail to government, making it safer passage for high-profile candidates who should now begin to come forward.

Posted by Matthew Johnston

Posted by Western Standard on November 8, 2009 at 01:55 AM
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Aint no party like an “insolent sex party”: Beyonce rocks the kasbah; Islamic censors object

I’ve argued before here that religious conservatives, Islamic or Christian, have the same right as so-called liberals to use the tools available to individuals in a free society to build and sustain a conservative culture. The way individuals express preferences, including conservative preferences, however, must be through non-coercive means. So the “tools” available to conservatives in a free society must be limited to the bundle of rights that make up property rights.

This is basic libertarian theory, and here’s how it works: If you object to pornography, don’t buy it. If you object to sex and drugs, practice abstinence. If you don’t like what’s on TV, the radio or the internet, turn it off.

If you want to be a conservative activist in a free society, you can legitimately refuse to associate with people involved with pornography. You can refuse to deal with homosexuals or the drug culture.  And you can boycott advertisers that support producers of salacious content, for instances.

What you can’t do as a member of a free society is demand that the state prohibit the things you dislike, or subsidize the things you like. The only legitimate prohibitions in a free society are against “those acts by which one man harms the person or property of another,” to quote American philosopher Lysander Spooner.

This brings me to the reaction of Islamic conservatives to Friday’s performance by pop singer Beyonce Knowles in Egypt. Opposition politicians in the country are calling the performance an "insolent sex party" and were demanding the concert be banned.

Thankfully, pro-freedom voices won this debate and the concert went ahead as planned. Event organizer Ahmed Beltagi said of the demand by conservative censors to ban the event that "We are Muslims too...this will not stop Egypt from hosting an award-winning, first class artist."

Western critics of radical Islam will rightly celebrate this victory for free expression, and will insist that this is another example of the threat Islam poses to progressive values. While the latter is true, the West has plenty of its own censors and authoritarians.

Beyond the obvious example of Canada’s draconian human rights tribunals that censor and bully publishers and pastors, I’m reminded of the attempt by Liberal MP Dan McTeague to ban rap musician 50 Cent from performing in Canada. The devoutly Catholic McTeague espouses authoritarian views on both economic and social policy and is, sadly, too often praised by socially conservative MPs within the Conservative Party.

So here’s what I take away from the Beyonce controversy:

1. Conservative Islamists should not be criticized for being conservative, but for being authoritarian.

2. Muslims is Egypt are showing a greater appetite for freedom of expression that is worth celebrating.

3. Western critics of Islamic conservatives should also look homeward at the authoritarian elements within the Christian conservative movement.

Posted by Matthew Johnston

Posted by Western Standard on November 8, 2009 at 01:13 AM
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Seeds of Liberty: The Marc Emery Story

As publisher of the Western Standard I have commissioned two writers to co-author a full-length book on the life and work of Canadian publisher and libertarian activist Marc Emery.

Emery, #3 on the Western Standard’s Liberty 100, is currently being held in a B.C. prison awaiting extradition to a U.S. prison on charges related to selling marijuana seeds. You can learn more about his case here.

The monograph has been completed in draft form and editing work is now being done to ensure Emery’s libertarian activism and political views are documented accurately and comprehensively. A final draft of the book is expected in two weeks, at which time it will be copy-edited and printed.

Here’s the current draft outline of the book:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

FORWARD

CHAPTER 1 – Introduction: The Political Extradition of a Canadian Libertarian Activist

CHAPTER 2 –Libertarian Ideology and Marijuana Decriminalization: The Ideas That Drive Marc Emery

CHAPTER 3 – Canadian Marijuana Policy and the Influence of the United States: Ceding Canadian Sovereignty

CHAPTER 4 – The Intellectual and Political Development of Marc Emery

CHAPTER 5 – Marc Emery and Canadian Electoral Politics: Building a Coalition for Freedom

CHAPTER 6 – Marc Emery’s Other Political Activities: Sowing the Seeds of Liberty

CHAPTER 7 – The Political Extradition Marc Emery: A Story of Fear and Loathing

CHAPTER 8 – Conclusion: How Will History Judge Marc Emery?

Are we missing anything?

I invite Western Standard readers to submit any thoughts they have on the Marc Emery story before the final draft is completed. Please send your comments to matthew.johnston@westernstandard.ca and indicate whether or not you would like to be acknowledged in the book for your contribution.

I will release more information on the book in the days to come, including information on where to pre-orders. The profits from the book will be used to launch an advocacy organization that will work toward marijuana policy reform and the release of Marc Emery from prison should he be successfully extradited as expected.

Sincerely,

Matthew Johnston
Publisher
Western Standard

Posted by Western Standard on November 8, 2009 at 01:09 AM
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Saturday, November 07, 2009

Republican victory in Virginia and New Jersey a message to Obama?

McLaughlin and Associates have released a poll that shows the results of the Governor races in Virginia and New Jersey was at least partially a message to President Obama. The Republican victories there may be a prequel to the 2010 Congressional elections.

You can look at the full results here.

Question: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: One of the reasons I voted for (Christie/McDonnell) is to send a message to the Obama administration that I am unhappy  with the direction they are taking Washington and the country

New Jersey: 68% agree 23% disagree
Virginia: 74% agree 22% disagree

Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on November 7, 2009 at 07:49 AM
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Shut up Adam Vaughan

From the man who wanted to tax night clubs for using sidewalks, comes this brilliant piece of policy: telling developers what kind of homes they can build.

Toronto Councillor Adam Vaughan wants to ensure that 10% of condos built are "family friendly." He is concerned that downtown will become a "Child free zone." Has Mr. Vaughan given any thought to the possibility that most people with children don't want to live downtown? And if they did the developers would build homes for them to capture that market.

This is just pure idiotic micromanagement by a dimwitted political hack.

Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on November 7, 2009 at 04:33 AM
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The Action Democratique du Qubec is doomed

A couple weeks ago the ADQ membership elected a leader, Gilles Taillon , who is dedicated to moving the party more to the centre. The lesson of the turbulent rise and falls of the ADQ demonstrate one thing: the party is at its best when it is unabashedly conservative.

The next piece of news that came out of Quebec was that the ADQ was cutting ties with the federal Tories. These ties were once a source of pride for the ADQ party elite. It gave them credibility and resources that they otherwise lacked. Now they want to pursue a "Tory-free identity."

Finally yesterday, two out of six of their caucus members, including Tallion's main opponent Eric Claire, rebelled and are now sitting as independents. A party of this size simply can't afford this sort of internal strife. The Liberal Party of Canada has suffered defeats, in part, due to internal conflict far less vicious than this.

Eric Claire declared "This is no longer the party I worked for." He's right, the party he worked for had a chance of winning.

Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on November 7, 2009 at 04:21 AM
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Friday, November 06, 2009

Friday Night - The Prisoner

Posted by PUBLIUS on November 6, 2009 at 07:43 PM
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Thursday, November 05, 2009

O, New Brunswick

It's not that I believe governments should be in the business of educating the young. It's not that I believe that government has any business promoting citizenship. It's that I find it galling that some people have such a problem with the national anthem. Personally I prefer the Maple Leaf Forever, but O, Canada is alright. Unless you're not too keen on the whole Canada part.

Dozens of francophone schools in New Brunswick have applied for an exemption to O Canada after the province's education department mandated that schools that did not want to play the national anthem each day develop other activities to promote patriotism.

[…]

New Brunswick has nine anglophone districts, and five that are francophone. The National Post reached all but one francophone district yesterday, and all reported that some schools had applied for the exemption. Reports out of New Brunswick suggest there are about 40 in total, and the department is not aware of any anglophone schools opting out.

One of those wacky coincidences we're not supposed to talk about.

Posted by PUBLIUS on November 5, 2009 at 07:22 PM
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Government: Saving us from the Horrors of the Farmers' Market

So how's that "conservative" thing working out for you, eh?

The federal Competition Bureau has served notice to the Ottawa Farmers' Market that any informal agreements to set prices could violate Canada's new and tougher price-fixing law next March.

The Oct. 7 letter from John Pecman, the bureau's acting senior deputy commissioner, to market vendors comes after the Citizen reported on Sept. 27 that some farmers charge more for their fresh produce at the Lansdowne market than at other markets where they also have stalls.

Gerry Rochon, a farmer from Edwards who is vice-president of the Ottawa Farmers' Market, said some vendors used to have "friendly discussions" among themselves to agree on prices -- but those days are over as a result of the Competition Bureau warning.

[...]

However, next March the law will make it a criminal offence for competitors, or potential competitors, to agree or arrange to fix prices, allocate markets or restrict output, and such agreements will be illegal whether or not they actually injure competition.

Posted by PUBLIUS on November 5, 2009 at 07:10 PM
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Ezra Quote of the Day

"Ezra referred to himself as a "One man stimulus programme for lawyers and bureaucrats."

As seen in Sobering Thoughts 

Posted by PUBLIUS on November 5, 2009 at 06:49 PM
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Newfoundland Lt. Governor wears sealskin coat

According to the Globe & Mail, Lt. Governor John Crosbie wore a sealskin coat in support of the seal hunt. I'm pretty sure this won't change anyone's mind, but as someone who enjoys a good "fuck you" I can appreciate the gesture.

There are two statements in this article that I would like to point out. The first is by the director of Canada's chapter of the Humane Society International:

There is no compassionate human being alive who can see what I've seen on the floes and support the commercial seal hunt.

The second statement is by a local:

“I don't really have that much against the wearing of a seal coat,” St. John's resident Wallace Taylor said. “The people up there [in remote areas] depend on it for their livelihood.”

Do you hear that "humane" society? People's jobs, that means their ability to feed their children and lead a decent life. So what is humane or compassionate about destroyingsomeone's livelihood? Or are you people just so arrogant that you don't care about your fellow human being?

Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on November 5, 2009 at 03:53 AM
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UTSU marches on Queen's Park and then does nothing

I still get e-mails from my old "student union" at the University of Toronto. I got one earlier that was letting me know about:

The Day of Action is finally here. On November 5th, we will see students, faculty, workers, social justice activists, families and community members coming together to demand access to education and well-funded social services.

Basically the plan is to meet up with members of the Communist Party and stand in front of Queen's Park to listen to self important nimrods make foolish speeches. No one from the government or opposition will pay any attention.
How do I know this is what is going to happen? Because it is exactly what happened every other time they've had one of these marches. Hey just because it didn't work before doesn't mean it won't work now. If at first you don't succeed, do the same thing over and over again. And waste student resources.

The only thing that CFS and their lackeys in UTSU are good at is getting elected to student government. And they only do that by relying on the apathy of the people they claim to represent.

Have fun being out in the cold today.

Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on November 5, 2009 at 03:38 AM
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Much too early to call a winner in Toronto mayoral race

A poll has been released for the upcoming mayoral race in Toronto. The candidates have yet to announce but there is a wide field of possibilities. On this list is former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, John Tory.

This is how the numbers turned out for the top three possible candidates:

John Tory 46% of decided voters
George Smitherman 21% of decided voters
Adam Giambrone (groan) 14% of decided voters

I would not get too excited about this poll. These are decided voters and 47% of those polled are still not decided. Also you will notice that the top three are in order of name recognition. If asked who they would vote for in municipal elections most people will pick whatever name is most familiar.

So despite the appearance of a huge lead this race is still wide open. A strong campaign from either Mr. Smitherman or Mr. Giambrone could greatly change these numbers. Both have potential since Mr. Smitherman has access to the Toronto Liberal machine and Mr. Giambrone may be able to make use of David Miller's old network.

Personally I don't have a horse in the race yet. I have an old vindictive bias against John Tory, but I will wait to see how his (potential) campaign will take shape.

Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on November 4, 2009 at 09:34 AM
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She's Everywhere!

I've never seen so many mentions of Ayn Rand in the media! She's sweeping the country! Of course, the media, being leftist for the most part, is indignant. The below article from Slate is just too amusing. The hatred really leaps off the page. The cheap shots and innuendoes. Usually only a living figure, like Rush Limbaugh, gets this kind of treatment. How does a woman, who has been dead for twenty-seven years generate such vitriol? Because of her uncanny ability to strike just the right nerve. Not bad for a "third-rate philosopher" and "mediocre" novelist:

Ayn Rand is one of America's great mysteries. She was an amphetamine-addicted author of sub-Dan Brown potboilers, who in her spare time wrote lavish torrents of praise for serial killers and the Bernie Madoff-style embezzlers of her day. She opposed democracy on the grounds that "the masses"—her readers—were "lice" and "parasites" who scarcely deserved to live. Yet she remains one of the most popular writers in the United States, still selling 800,000 books a year from beyond the grave. She regularly tops any list of books that Americans say have most influenced them. Since the great crash of 2008, her writing has had another Benzedrine rush, as Rush Limbaugh hails her as a prophetess. With her assertions that government is "evil" and selfishness is "the only virtue," she is the patron saint of the tea-partiers and the death panel doomsters. So how did this little Russian bomb of pure immorality in a black wig become an American icon?

For the Objectivists in the audience, don't get all hot and bothered. This is the MSM's way of paying her a compliment.

Posted by PUBLIUS on November 4, 2009 at 07:25 AM
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Tearing Down the Wall

Bush I, Kohl and Gorby met again:

Kohl, 79, who went on to become the first chancellor of a reunited Germany, appeared the most visibly moved by the moment, recalling the heady days that led up to the Nov. 9, 1989, collapse of the wall and Washington's and Moscow's willingness to let it fall.

"We achieved reunification together, with peace and freedom and with the support of our neighbours," Kohl recalled.

"We don't have many reasons in our history to be proud," Kohl said. "But those years when I was chancellor, ... I have every reason to be proud. I have nothing better, nothing to be more proud of than German reunification."

Proving that you can take the General Secretary out of communism, but not the communist out of the General Secretary.

"America also needs a perestroika," Gorbachev said, noting the push for change with the election of U.S. President Barack Obama. "A lot will now depend on America.... Leadership will have to be proven."

Posted by PUBLIUS on November 4, 2009 at 06:59 AM
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Black Eye

There's an epidemic in Ontario. And it's not swine flu.

Illegal marijuana cultivation has reached epidemic proportions in Ontario and justice officials in the United States have branded their northern neighbour a "source country," the province's top police official said yesterday.

Marijuana is exported south and traded for crystal meth and crack cocaine, which are then brought back into Canada, OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino said.

"The going terminology is 'brown south, white north,' " he said, adding marijuana is also being exchanged for guns.

"It's a black eye on Canada when you have the United States ... refer to us as a source country of marijuana."

Investigating and shutting down marijuana grow-ops make up 60% of the workload of the force's drug enforcement unit, OPP Insp. Brian Martin said.

"60%" for a harmless weed. Well, that's not how the Commish sees it:

"(Marijuana) is the precursor, if you will, to so much of the violence and other activities ... that end up victimizing the most vulnerable communities," he said.

I wonder if anti-drug fanatics are conscious of channelling 1930s PSAs. Or that the arguments against cannabis are essentially the same as those that lead to the Volstead amendment. The difference, of course, is that middle class people find cannabis repugnant. 

Posted by PUBLIUS on November 4, 2009 at 06:56 AM
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Conservative Government Acts Conservatively

I'll put aside my cynicism for the moment. Maybe, just maybe the government is doing this for the right reasons. Whatever the motive, this is a small but significant blow for freedom:

A Conservative MP says she's close to having enough opposition support to kill the long-gun registry in a vote on her private member's bill Wednesday. Candice Hoeppner says she has commitments from eight Liberal and NDP MPs to vote in favour of legislation that would end the decade-old registry and destroy existing data in the system on about seven million shotguns and rifles. 
 "I probably have eight (opposition) members who have indicated they'd support the bill," the Manitoba MP said Tuesday. "I would like to have 12 to really make sure it passes." A parliamentary vote in favour of Bill C-391 on second reading Wednesday won't make it law, but will send it to the next stage of legislative approval and make it that much more difficult to derail at a later stage. 
 Repealing the long-gun registry would still leave registration of hand guns and restricted weapons intact, and rifle and shotgun owners would still require gun licences.

Posted by PUBLIUS on November 4, 2009 at 06:52 AM
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Maine increases access to medical marijuana

I am a little hesitant about the arguments involved in medical marijuana. I prefer arguing for legalization for the sake of personal responsibility and opposition to the nanny state. For one thing I don't like to give the implication that marijuana is healthy for you. Perhaps it is better than tobacco or alcohol, but it is still not good for you.

But still this is at least a step in the right direction.

Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on November 4, 2009 at 06:25 AM
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CFS hacks and the Campus Conservative Watch

In response to the Campus Conservative's CFS Watch, we now have the Campus Conservative Watch. This site is highly amusing so I encourage you to take a few moments to look at it. It seems that the main complaint is that conservative activists are actively pursuing conservatism.

One of my favourite points in when the complain about a conservative media bias. They point to "institutions" like Maclean's and Western Standard as evidence of this bias. Frankly Maclean's is at best a mixed bag. They have the king of fiscal conservative journalists, Andrew Coyne, but they also have columns by Andrew Potter. Where the balance lies I'm not sure, but you can hardly call Maclean's a mouth piece of the radical right.

And we humble bloggers of the Western Standard wish we were the mouth piece of the radical right. We are pretty open about our political views. Can the editorial board of the Toronto Star say the same thing?

My next favourite part is the evidence that they provide. There are two key parts of this "evidence." First is the Campus Conservatives being "caught trying to infiltrate student unions." By which they mean running for student government. Do they even know what the word activist means? Or are they just pissed that someone opposes them?

The second key part is the Millennium Leadership Fund. They make it sound like this was some sort of secret but it was written into the constitution that was publicly available. No one was hiding the fact that the Campus Conservatives were interested in funding conservatives. Why would they?

Besides I took the MLF out of the constitution. I did this in 2007 because I was just elected to the position that was suppose to be in charge of it, and I had no idea what it was. The institutional memory of the Campus Conservatives didn't even recall what theCFS is trying to sell as a scandal. I guess this is because people like Adam Dafaillah are off being productive members of society while old CFS hacks are still leaching of student fees.

Overall I would call this attempt pathetic. The average student is not going to be outraged by conservatives being conservative.

Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on November 4, 2009 at 03:30 AM
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Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Thinking of the Children

Dalton solves a problem.

Full-day kindergarten has a few noisy advocates in the education research community, and, no doubt, near-universal support from working parents (or prospective parents) of children below kindergarten age. The specific question few are asking right now is whether there is any meaningful developmental difference between full-day and halfday kindergarten; in other words, whether this policy is likely to actually deliver any social benefit in exchange for the staggering, probably permanent cost to taxpayers. Or will it simply socialize the cost of child-care that working parents now pay to day-care centres and private nannies.

For parents lucky enough to have relatives to baby-sit, it's a non-issue. For those forced to rely on daycare and nannies (for the rich) it's a gift from the heavens, or more accurately a bribe from their friendly neighbourhood statist. Much easier to keep the kids in one location during the workday. This is another one of those "problems" created by government and "solved" by more government. One of the main reasons mothers of young children work is financial need. Thanks to punishing marginal tax rates on the middle class. It was a mere two generations ago that one parent could provide a decent lifestyle for a family of four. If the Dalt was truly concerned about his legacy he might consider cutting taxes, allowing parents to raise their own children rather than unionized government employees. The federal Liberals lost their bid for universal childcare in 2006. The Dalt has succeeded where they failed, through the backdoor of full day kindergarten. 

Posted by PUBLIUS on November 3, 2009 at 06:54 AM
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With Conservatives Like These.....

So why is Stephen Harper all chummy with Dalton McGuinty? Is that he recalls the old maxim that Ontarians vote for one party at the federal level, and another for Queen's Park? Or is it that he recognizes a fellow tax and spender?

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Prime Minister Stephen Harper are working hand-in-glove to gut the province's already hard hit, job-bleeding economy.

How? By simultaneously pursuing two policies that will have devastating consequences for Ontarians, continually raising both the price of goods and services and the taxes we pay on them.

Taken together, they will prolong and deepen the recession.

The first policy is McGuinty's decision to move to a 13% Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) on July 1, 2010, prompted by Harper giving him $4.3 billion of taxpayers' money to do it.

[…]

That's because it fails to take into account another policy McGuinty and Harper both support.

That is, creating a North American cap-and-trade market in carbon dioxide emissions, ostensibly to lower greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming.

My guess is that Harper is using the cap-and-trade as protection for his political flank. See, even us evil Tories like the environment, except we want a "market" solution. Cap-and-trade is a pseudo market, created by government to trade government permits to pollute, all premised on faulty science. As with Harper's support for a free vote on same-sex marriage, it's a cynical ploy. With same-sex marriage he knew, the Tories holding a weak minority, that a free vote would fail to pass the bill. A law that would probably have been ruled unconstitutional anyway.

With cap-and-trade the Prime Minister can rest assured that a purely Canadian market would be pointless if the Americans didn't join. Thus his support for a North American "market." The Americans, however, even under Barack Obama are not going to establish a cap-and-trade system. The Democrats are using vast amounts of political capital to push their long cherished goal, a socialization of American health care. Whether it comes in stages, or all at once, is irrelevant. Whereas Blue Dog Democrats can go back to their districts and trumpet expanded health care coverage, they'll have a harder time selling cap-and-trade. A job killer, in key mid-western states, is never a vote winner, especially in a recession. Present sacrifices for some distant - alleged - gain make for poor stump speeches. It's not that it won't be close, the House has already passed its version of cap-and-trade. Still, it will be a long road before anything might reach the President's desk. Even if the bill passes, there will come bilateral negotiations to establish a North American market. Negotiations where Harper can scuttle a deal by playing the nationalist card. For all the Prime Minister's selling out of conservative values, he has no interest in becoming the architect of NEP II. 

Posted by PUBLIUS on November 3, 2009 at 06:50 AM
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Canada is fighting the European ban on seal products

According to the Montreal Gazette, Minister Day has announced that Canada is appealing the EU's ban to the WTO. I am a little skeptical about the international trade dispute process, but I'm glad that Canada isn't just letting it go.

This is what the spokesperson for the International Fund for Animal Welfare said about Canada's objection:

It goes against public opinion. The European public has been very clear that they don't want to provide a market for the seal hunt. It's just another knee-jerk solution by our politicians to put our dead seals into a market that doesn't want it.

Who the hell is she to decide that no one in Europe wants this product. If no one wanted this product then no one would be trying to sell it. Politicians don't "put our dead seals into a market" private businesses do that. How arrogant can this woman and the European Union be to make that decision for millions of people?

And to conclude...
 
...but for seals.

Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on November 3, 2009 at 06:25 AM
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Monday, November 02, 2009

To aid or not to aid...

In the latest issue of Saint Mary's University student newspaper The Journal, the age old feel-good issue of sending aid to Africa appears to be alive and well:

So what should Canada be doing to keep its promise? ... to increase and provide more effective aid to developing countries, implement debt relief, and fairer trade rules in advance of 2015... In order for Canada to do its part and provide effective foreign aid, the government must reach the UN target of giving 0.7% of the national income (GNI) to foreign aid, and enact BillC-293 to make ending poverty the exclusive goal of Canadian foreign aid.


The issue normally brought up is whether or not this aid will actually work. According to some, aid sent to Africa will not only fail to work, but will actually make things worse:

[E]vidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that aid to Africa has made the poor poorer, and the growth slower. The insidious aid culture has left African countries more debt-laden, more inflation-prone, more vulnerable to the vagaries of the currency markets and more unattractive to higher-quality investment.


Government corruption and the existence of totalitarian regimes in Africa are the root cause:

The most obvious criticism of aid is its links to rampant corruption. Aid flows destined to help the average African end up supporting bloated bureaucracies in the form of the poor-country governments and donor-funded non-governmental organizations.


The article lists many disturbing examples of corruption and failure, and I urge everybody to read them all. Unfortunately there are too many to list without copy-and-pasting the entire article.

On a side note, does anyone remember the One Laptop Per Child campaign? Yuck. The Dalhousie University student newspaper The Gazette recently had an opinion editorial on the campaign and its failure:

I imagine that brightly coloured laptops sit in a small closet in rural Africa and slowly collect dust as the days pass. The school that owns them cannot secure power to recharge their batteries, the broken dreams of a grand philanthropist idea that was supposed to revolutionize the world.


[Cross-posted at The Right Coast]

Posted by Dane Richard on November 2, 2009 at 03:54 PM
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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Societe Saint-Jean-Baptiste wants Prince Charles to apologies for what?

According to the National Post, the SSJB want the Queen's heir to say sorry for the following wrongs:

1. Acadian deportation
2. Deporting or executing the leaders of the 1837 Rebellion
3. Uniting Upper and Lower Canada 1840
4. Executing Louis Reil
5. repatriation of the constitution without Quebecs permission.

Some quick notes on these complaints

1. A fair thing to complain about. It was a horrific moment in Canadian history. I'm not sure if the Crown should be saying sorry to Quebec though. Perhaps it would be better to say sorry to the Cajuns inLouisiana.

2. They were criminals who were punished. In general I have a lot of sympathy for the Upper and Lower Canada rebellions in 1837. I think their cause was just. But they were still criminals. As Wilfrid Laurier put is "rebellion is always an evil, it is always an offence against the positive law of a nation; it is not always a moral crime." So as an offence to the law, it was punished. No need to say sorry

3. The Durham Report makes it clear that the Act of Union was meant to stomp out French society, but it didn't. In fact East Canada's culture flourished at this time and Quebec'spolitical influence was substantial. I guess Prince Charles could apologies for having tried and failed, but what purpose would it serve?

4. Same response as #2.

5. There was a constitutional debate about this, the Quebec government lost. Why would you ask the Crown to apologies for that.

I think saying sorry for historical wrongs is silly to begin with. But this is a particularly silly list. 

Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on October 31, 2009 at 08:27 AM
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The case for allowing the BNP fascists to speak

The British National Party, a blatantly fascist organization, was recently given a forum on the BBC's Question Time. For the most part BNP's leader's performance was met with ridicule and outrage. There is however an organization that denounced the BNP's freedom to speak.

James Lawson at adamsmith.org, makes the case for why freedom of speech should be defended even for fascists.

Looking back at Question Time

The BNP are an abhorrent body, favouring a dangerous ideology with roots in Nazism. After a recent tour of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps, my hatred for National Socialism is unrelenting. However, the extended mass hysteria following Griffin’s appearance, itself generated unprecedented publicity for the BNP and allowed Griffin to appear as the victim. Had the BBC denied the BNP a slot on Question Time, the effect would have been to intensify this further and allow the party to garner greater sympathy.

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Here is the first clip of Nick Griffin on Question Time:

Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on October 31, 2009 at 06:25 AM
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Will there be a Scottish independence referendum in 2010?

It has long been the stated goal of the Scottish National Party (SNP), the governing party in the Scottish Parliament, to hold a referendum on Independence. Their difficulty is that the SNP are in a minority government. They need either the support of the Liberal Democrats or the Labour Party to bring about a referendum.

The Labour Party is completely against it. The Scottish wing of the party appear content with the current constitutional makeup of the United Kingdom. They would oppose the referendum bill and certainly campaign for the status quo if there is a referendum.

The Scotsman is reporting that several SNP Members of Scottish Parliament are privately giving up hope of a referendum in the near future. This may be premature considering the Liberal Democrats are not completely settled on their position.

The Liberal Democrats oppose Independence for Scotland, but they wish to see the Scottish government receive more powers. By Canadian standards the Scottish government is extremely limited in their powers, and the Liberal Democrats favour a more federalist system in the United Kingdom.

So the Liberal Democrats may be brought on board by introducing a third option in the referendum. This option is being called 'devolution plus' and depending on how it is phrased is most likely to receive the plurality of votes.

On a side note, I must say that the Independence debate in Scotland takes on a very different tone than the one in Quebec. There does not seem to be much rancor or hostility. Scotland is changing and the Scottish seem to be very open minded on the debate of how that change should take shape.

Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on October 31, 2009 at 04:18 AM
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Conservatives are corrupt and no one cares, so what is the solution?

According to this Canadian Press article, a majority of Canadians think that the Conservatives are favouring their own ridings with government funds. This is hardly surprising. The Liberals have been beating this stick for about a month now, and people are always willing to believe the worst about politicians. A lack of faith that is well founded. Pork barrelling is an ancient tradition that goes back to the Romans. Itcertainly has a bases in Canadian history. John A. MacDonald was shameless in the way he handed out government money.

Sadly no one is shocked, no one is surprised, and as far as I can tell no one cares. The Conservatives still flirt with majority level support and the Liberals are still in trouble. If this scandal was going to have an impact it would already have happened. It is not that people don't think theConservatives aren't corrupt, it is that they think that all the parties are corrupt. So it pretty much cancels itself out.

The truth is I don't blame political parties, not really. The true culprit is the decision making process of government. And there is no way totruly reform it. Individual interests will always win out against collective rationality. That is, politicians and civil servants are human too and no human is perfectly altruistic.

So if the problem is government itself, what is the solution? This may shock you, but the solution is less government. You give politicians andbureaucrats less money and resources to play with, you get less corrupt behaviour.

Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on October 31, 2009 at 03:50 AM
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Government Madness

This excellent column appeared at the Libertas Post:

In the Grip of Madness

“Thank God we had the federal government last week to bail out the private sector!” That is what a rather statist friend of mine declared a year ago as the economy tanked, almost gleeful that the financial crisis seemed to be proving how much we all need a massive federal establishment to both regulate and rescue us.

Never mind the federal government’s own indispensable role as an enabler in the crisis, from its reckless monetary policy to its jawboning banks into making dubious mortgage loans. Never mind the long-term danger of its assumption of colossal new obligations and the moral hazard in the message its intervention sends. My response to my friend was of a more narrow focus. “Thank God we have the private sector to bail out the federal government not just last week, but every week!” I exclaimed.

Think about it. Taxes on the private sector pay a majority of the federal government’s bills. For most of the rest, the government borrows by selling its debt obligations, mostly to private-sector entities–including banks, insurance companies, and individuals.

The federal government is the world’s biggest taxer and the world’s biggest debtor. If those of us in the private sector didn’t pay our taxes or didn’t buy Washington’s paper, the feds would have gone belly-up decades ago. We’ve rescued Washington to the tune of tens of trillions of dollars over the years. A big difference between Washington’s bailing out the private sector and the private sector’s bailing out Washington is that the private sector has to work, invest, employ people, and produce goods to come up with the cash. It can’t create it out of thin air like BenBernanke can.

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Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on October 31, 2009 at 03:23 AM
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Friday, October 30, 2009

I'm Old. Give Me Your Money.

The whiniest generation enters their golden years. Reach for your wallets folks. 

Canada's largest seniors' advocacy group has escalated its pension reform campaign with the release of a paper calling for a new, national pension plan to replace the Canada Pension Plan. A new public retirement savings plan that is "universally accessible, affordable, adequate and sustainable," is need to replace woefully inadequate CPP benefits, says CARP, formerly known as the Canadian Association of Retired People. 

 […] 

The position paper for a new universal plan contains few specifics. CARP says it could be a single national fund modelled on the CPP or a system of provincial and even regional funds. "The focus of debate should be on whether the various options would provide the level of robustness and sustainability that is critical to providing an adequate level of retirement security for all Canadians," says the paper. "The current economic crisis has focused public attention on the need for Canadians to prepare for their own retirement and on the absence of a universally accessible vehicle to do so effectively."

All of which is elaborate code for: We blew all our money, didn't save enough and we're asking our children and grandchildren to bail us out. On behalf of the young taxpayers of Canada: Cut down on your lattes, stop living off your credit cards and get out of my pockets. The word Canadian was once synonymous for rugged self reliance. That was before the Boomers took over. 

Posted by PUBLIUS on October 30, 2009 at 08:16 AM
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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Soldiers. In Our Schools.

Quebec union and student groups don't like military recruiters (whatever the semantics) in high schools. Hmmm.

The Canadian military has no business recruiting in Quebec schools, argues a newly formed coalition made up of unions and student groups.

If the army wants to recruit, it should open recruitment centres and "leave schools alone," said Réjean Parent, head of the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ).

When it made its debut last month, the coalition called it worrisome to see the army in schools recruiting youths who aren't even 18 yet.

"We're not against a military career," said Xavier Lefebvre Boucher, head of the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec, which represents 21 CEGEP student associations in the province. "What we simply say is get out of our schools."

The article, oddly, doesn't explain exactly why this group opposes Canadian soldiers providing information to high school students. The most obvious answer is that the province's unions and students lean heavily toward separatism. A bout of service in Her Majesty's forces, meeting people from other parts of the country, might just spark federalist feelings among the Quebecois young. The province's traditional isolationism, which has blurred into a sort of pacifism since the Quiet Revolution, also plays a part. All that monarchial symbolism probably doesn't help. 

Posted by PUBLIUS on October 29, 2009 at 08:24 PM
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Nancy Pelosi: Tax increase or not?

Speaker Nancy Pelosi attempts to make an argument that allowing the sunsetted tax decreases to expire is not a tax increase.

She is correct in a sense, but in a more important way she is not. She is right that the law is that the tax cuts were temporary. Perhaps it should be viewed more as a limited tax holiday than a tax decrease.

Still the truth of the matter is that Americans are going to pay more taxes this year than they did last year. The machinations of Congress matters little to the average American who is seeing the government take a bigger cut of their pay cheque. This is especially bad at a time where the USA's economy is recovering.

Who is willing to argue that taking more capital out of the market will be a positive for the economy.

Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on October 29, 2009 at 06:50 AM
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