Visual Proof of North Pole Donations

With my post yesterday regarding fraudulent and incorrect data submitted to Elections Canada by the Liberal Party, a few commenters asked for a link to the data in question, which showed 8 individuals from 3 provinces donating to the Liberals with Santa Claus's postal code. Here are the screenshots captured from Elections Canada's web page regarding the donations in question:


These records can be found at the Elections Canada online database by searching under the quarterly reports for December 2006.

Liberal Elections Canada Filings Make Mockery of Elections Canada with Santa Claus Filings

Do Santa and his elves support the Liberal Party of Canada? Apparently they do, according to data submitted by the Liberal Party to Elections Canada. In the December 2006 quarterly report, eight individuals from three different provinces gave money to the Liberals; the problem is that all of them were submitted with a postal code of H0H 0H0, the postal code Canada Post has assigned for letters to Santa Claus.

This chart shows the information which the Liberals passed on to Elections Canada:
The difference in treatment offered by Elections Canada to the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party continues to be obvious. It seems that, in the eyes of Elections Canada and Chief Electoral Officer the Liberals can do no wrong. This has reached the point were the Liberals have submitted laughable and erroneous information to the agency, with no apparent castigation or punishment.

More on Missing Liberal Donations - Anti-Ignatieff Bias??

Last week, I wrote about $105,793.80 in donations which the Liberal Party had received in donations targeted on behalf of former leadership contestants which, for whatever reason, were not transferred to the individual in question. Today, I decided to look into who exactly was missing the most money, and it was, perhaps unsurprisingly, Michael Ignatieff.

According to the relevant Elections Canada database, Ignatieff's campaign received 508 transferred donations in the amount of $190,011.50; however the Liberal Party also collected another 124 donations totaling $96,223 which were not directed on to him. That works out to over 33% of the money collected on his behalf not be transferred to him. His missing funds account for over 90% of the untransferred funds.

In contrast, Dion was only missing less than 3% of the money owed to him. Gerrard Kennedy and Hedy Fry were each missing less than 2% and Ken Dryden was missing less than 1%.

Is this any indication of a bias within the Liberal Party against Michael Ignatieff and his former leadership campaign? Why has such a disproportionate number of his donations not been passed on while other former candidates received their full amount of close to it?

Perhaps for another possible instance of anti-Ignatieff bias in these numbers concerns the donations made by Liberal MP Ken Boshcoff (recently in the news for admitting that Dion's Carbon tax was designed to "transfer wealth from the oil patch to the rest of the country"). On June 16 and June 20, he donated money to Dion, Scott Brison, Martha Hall Findlay, Dryden, Ignatieff, and Kennedy. Of the 6 donations, 5 were transferred in full to the campaigns, but not a penny was transferred on to Ignatieff's campaign.

Why is the Liberal Party not sending over a third of the money they collected on his behalf? Does anyone have any theories??

Missing Liberal Donations??

With the recent posting of the quarterly financial reports from Elections Canada, there is a lot of interesting information just waiting to be uncovered. One such item relates to $105,793.80 in missing Liberal funding. Apparently, the Liberal Party raised $792,739.70 on behalf of their leadership candidates, yet only $686,945.90 was actually transferred on to the former contenders.

I have a screen capture from the Elections Canada database showing this (I cut out the individual entries between the header and the totals in order to show them together properly).

So what happened to the other $105,793.80?

UPDATE/CLARIFICATION: It was suggested by a commenter that the missing funds could be accounted for by the Liberal Party skimming a certain percentage of these donations into their own fund. However, this is not the case. The vast majority of donations are passed on to the candidate in full, while in other cases, zero dollars are passed on. The amounts of donations in question range from miniscule amounts under $50 up to the maximum allowable of $1100. All other donations in these exact same amounts were passed on in full.

95% of the Bloc Quebecois's Funding Comes From the Canadian Government

For a political party that espouses separation from Canada, the Bloc Quebecois seems to have no qualms against accepting money from the Canadian government. In the first quarter of 2008, they managed to raise only $36,850.78 in donations; at the same time, they accepted $758,350.39 in funds based on the number of votes they received in the last federal election.

95% of their money comes from Canadian taxpayers; only 5% is raised on their own initiative from individuals seeking to support Bloc policies.

Parties which receive at least 2% of the vote in elections receive quarterly payments of $0.4375 per valid vote. Apparently the Bloc is content to receive this cheque four times a year, since it seems they don't feel the need to augment it with any serious fundraising campaigns of their own. They only took in 607 individual donations, with only 33 people making a significant donation (more than $200). In contrast, the Conservative Party took in donations of $3,525,352.31 from 33,833 contributors.

If the Bloc Quebecois is truly serious about separating from Canada, should they not also turn down these Canadian election allowances?

Does the Liberal Party not Know Carolyn Bennet Paid Down Her Debt???

In light of this week's decision by Elections Canada to give the former leadership contenders more time to pay off their debt, I decided to look at what the Liberal Party was doing to help them. I noticed that the Liberals' contribution website also encourages people to donate to help them with their debts. One problem with this, is their collecting money on behalf of Carolyn Bennett, a candidate who has already paid off her debt:


Is the Liberal Party just so incompetent and clueless that they don't know who still owes money and who doesn't? Or maybe, they just assume Bennett would still be in debt on the basis that all but one of the other candidates are in debt? After all, the Liberal Party that doesn't seem to mind borrowing money and going into debt?

NDP Proud of Ties to the CBC, while Pretending it is Impartial

Rather than even pretending that the CBC is a neutral and non-partisan Canadian news outlet, the NDP is promoting their by-election Candidates for their ties to the left-wing broadcaster. An NDP friend of mine forwarded an email to me he recently received soliciting donations to fund the three by elections which have been called. They email (pictured below) included the following text:

"Two popular CBC personalities are leading the charge: world-renowned aboriginal writer Tom King in Guelph and award winning host of CBC Radio Noon Anne Lagacé Dowson in Westmount--Ville-Marie."

They don't even have the shame to pretend that these journalists randomly came to be NDP supporters - they proudly announce their affiliation with the CBC as though this were an NDP credential.

However, if any conservative ever protests against the obvious biases in the CBC's reporting (e.g, Krista Erickson feeding questions to Pablo Rodriguez, quoting the Prime Minister and other Conservatives out of context, etc.), they feign outrage that we would dare to question the CBC's "impartiality."

It's time for the NDP and the other parties of the left to stop trying to simultaneously insist on the neutrality of the CBC while recruiting candidates there.

Only True Heads of State Should Engage in International Diplomacy

This week, Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama has been engaged in a European and Middle Eastern tour, where, among other activities, he has been meeting with foreign heads of state. This is completely inappropriate, seeing as he is not currently a head of state. He has already met with at least Angela Merkel (Germany) and Hamid Karzai (Afghanistan). He is a senator, not the President (no matter how much he might think that he already is).

On the world stage, only official heads of state ought to engage in diplomacy with one another. Aspirants need to wait until they are elected in order to do so. To do so lacks accountability and can breed confusion as some could think that his statements reflect accurate and current American policy positions.

This problem was seen in Canada during last year's climate conference in Bali. Stephane Dion, even though he was not a head of state arrogantly attended the conference feeling that he had the right to speak on Canada's behalf. Having two different delegations to represent Canada, one official and legitimate and the other intruding and out of place, did not make Canada look strong and respectable on the world stage.

Domestic politics are for within the country. Politicians should not attempt to engage in foreign policy without a mandate to do.

Shawn Brant's Hypocrisy and Arrogance Laughable

Shawn Brant, the leader of last year's illegal native seizure of the 401 and other highways, has made statements attacking police Chief Julian Fantino for doing his job properly. Apparently, because the OPP and the province of Ontario didn't capitulate and give into native demands makes them "arrogant, aggressive, and provocative." How does Brant not see the hypocrisy of his words? I certainly can think of few people as arrogant, aggressive, and provocative as him!

He acts like a bully, inconveniencing people greatly and committing crimes with nary a care in the world. Through his actions and words, he has lost any sympathy I ever had for his plight. When someone breaks the law, it is the role of the police to step in and restore order, not to mollycoddle and cater to their demands.

The Ultimate Example of Power-Hungry Unions Run Amok

Apparently, one of the city of Montreal's workers' unions is complaining that private property owners and shopkeepers are responsible for keeping their properties clean and neat. This union's sense of entitlement is so high that they are offended over a city bylaw obliging individuals to sweep outside their properties. Apparently the union considers the city to be enlisting "volunteers" to do their job instead of them. Seriously, this is not a joke.

As reported by the National Post on Saturday, the matter was referred to labour arbitration, and the union won. The arbitrator agreed with the union that sweeping and tidying streets and sidewalks was their domain and ordered the city to make sure that the cleaning of Montreal was handled by its union employees only.

No union so be so powerful and hold such a sense of entitlement that they can act in such an arrogant, intrusive, and greedy manner. Shame on them!

More Revelations from the Elections Canada Liberal Donations Database

In continuing with this week’s theme of unmasking the Liberal Party’s poor donation record, here is the info as requested by some of my readers.

Requested Names

John McCallum – Gave nothing to the Liberal Party but did donate to leadership contestants ($228.64 to Ignatieff and $28.64 to Hall Findlay, Kennedy, Bennet, Fry, Dion, and Brison)

Ken Dryden – $962.56

Maria Minna - $225

Scott Brison - $1100 (maximum)

Pablo Rodriguez - nothing

Bob Rae – $1084.60

Paul Martin – $962.56

Jean Chretien - nothing

Justin Trudeau - nothing

MPs who Gave Full Amount

Carolyn Bennett

Scott Brison

Irwin Cotler

Ujjal Dosanjh

Mark Eyking

Karen Redman

That’s a grand total of 6 MPs giving the maximum amount ($1100) out of a total Liberal caucus of 95. As a percentage it works out to 6.3%. What great team players they are!

Mainstream Media FINALLY Picks Up Story on Liberal Loan

On June 2, I wrote a blog entry about the Liberal Party's $2 million loan from the Banque Nationale du Canada. On July 3, I wrote about the lack of attention on this story by the mainstream media. But today, a full week after I wrote about it, John Ivison has finally mentioned it is a National Post article. Yay! I particularly like his description of the loan:

"The financial statements also show a $2-million loan with a punishing 9% interest rate, collateralized against the assets not only of the party but of a number of riding associations. This is highly unusual and indicated a degree of financial stress long suspected but never admitted by the party."

After my post yesterday, I received several requests for the donations, or lack there of, made by other members of the Liberal Party. I promise that I will look into them today and post the results later this afternoon.

However, I will first address the repeated and erroneous allegations by an anonymous poster or poster that Stephen Harper did not donate to the CPC in the same way that Dion did not donate to the Liberals. Have a look at the following screenshot if you continue to doubt the Prime Minister's donations. He donated a total of $1100 which is the maximum amount allowed under Canada's election laws.

Perhaps Belinda Stronach was too Poor to Donate??

Yesterday, I publicized the fact that Stephane Dion failed to donate to the Liberal Party in 2007, all while encouraging rank-and-file members of the Party to give generously. But, he's not the only one; several prominent prominent members gave either nothing at all or very minor donations. So today, I'm going to unmask them as well. All data was obtained through Elections Canada's searchable online records.

Prominent Liberals who gave ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to the Liberal Party in 2007:
1. Belinda Stronach
2. Denis Coderre
3. Garth Turner
4. Ralph Goodale
5. Martha Hall Findlay
6. Wayne Easter
7. Dominic Leblanc
8. Mauril Belanger
9. David McGuinty
10. Keith Martin

Prominent Liberals who gave LESS THAN HALF THE MAXIMUM ($1100)
1. Michael Ignatieff ($462.60)
2. Ruby Dhalla ($462.56)
3. Hedy Fry ($382.24)
4. Paul Szabo ($255.27)

In addition to the above mentioned names, 31 other Liberals gave zero dollars to their party and 16 gave less than half the maximum donation. Keep in mind that each of these individuals earns at least $147 thousand.

How can the Liberals expect Canadians to support them financially when even they won't write a cheque to their so-called Victory Fund?

To Improve Liberal Fundraising, Why Doesn't Dion Himself Donate?

Today's Toronto Star has an article describing the new Liberal fundraising tactic of developing small grassroots donations. But Stephane Dion himself doesn't seem to favour donating to the Liberal Party, since he didn't donate to it during 2007. Going through the Elections Canada lists of donors over $200, Dion's name is suspiciously absent from the list.

Dion encourages rank-and-file members to donate, proclaiming the "giving to your party is the best way to give to your country," yet he, with his 218,000+ salary, he can't spare a few hundred dollars for the Liberals.

Maybe Dion, like most Canadians, realizes that the Liberals are hopelessly out of touch with Canadians and have no hope of winning the next election, and has decided to avoid betting his money on a losing horse.

When searching the database of Liberal Donors for "Dion", only the following entries appear:

No Stephane Dion. How can this man encourage Canadians to donate to the Liberals, when he doesn't support his own party financially?

Liberal Debt Goes Unreported in Mainstream Media

Yesterday, I wrote about the Liberal Party's $2,000,000 bank loan. However, as expected, the mainstream media has failed to even mention this fact in their reports. The Canadian Press story on Elections Canada's recently released fundraising numbers does mention that the Liberals were vastly outpaced by the Conservatives and that they made little more than the NDP; however, there is nary a mention of their sizeable loan!

Liberal Party Debt!

According to Elections Canada's online records database, the Liberal Party received a $2,000,000 bank loan from the Banque Nationale du Canada in 2007!

How delusional are the Liberals to think that they actually have a chnace to win an election and form a government if they need to rely on a loan?!? Neither the Conservatives nor the NDP were forced to take out a loan to cover operating expenses.

All Canadians Suffer when the Order of Canada Inducts Undeserving People like Henry Morgentaler

The decision announced yesterday to induct Henry Morgentaler into the Order of Canada has completely debased and devalued the entire system because his so-called "contributions" do not warrant official state recognition. The Order of Canada ought to be restricted to individuals who make Canadians proud and who are worthy of our praise. Making it easier (in a system that had already been far too easy to acquire an abortion) is not a contribution of which we should be proud.

Although I myself am firmly pro-life, I do understand (although I do not agree with) why some people are in favour of abortions being available. I understand their motivation and agenda, but I cannot in any way understand why this man is being celebrated. It is one thing to reluctantly allow abortions, but it is another to glorify the procedure. Abortion should never be celebrated or honoured - it is not a "good" procedure; it is regrettable and unfortunate.

Morgentaler’s appointment to the Order of Canada debases the entire system because his so-called “contributions” do not warrant official state recognition. The legacy of enabling the termination of 1/3 of all births in this country does not constitute a contribution to society or “desiring a better country.” It’s appallingly ironic that as survivor of a Nazi concentration camp himself, Morgentaler holds so little regard to human life.

Morgentaler’s crusade does not constitute “desiring a better country”, as the Order’s mantra states. The Order of Canada needs to be focused on individuals who promote a better Canada, not one devoid of morality and principle.

The inclusion of individuals like Morgentaler and Buzz Hargrove (who has done far more to hurt Canadian workers with his stubbornness and arrogance than to help them) in the Order of Canada is reprehensible. As of yesterday, it has little worth in my mind anyway; it has become little more than a false, superficial honour bestowed on the most undeserving of individuals.

Police Inaction in Native Seizure of Lawrence Cannon's Office Unacceptable

According to the Ottawa Sun, a group of Native and pro-Native protesters has seized and are currently occupying Lawrence Cannon's constituency office in Buckingham. This blatantly illegal and criminal action; however, has not prompted the police to swiftly remove them. Instead the protesters are "occupying the offices [...] under the watchful eye of police."

When a group, no matter what their heritage, ethnicity, or motivation, illegally enters and occupies any space to which they are not lawfully entitled, it is the obligation of the police to remove them. If a group of drug dealers had broken into and occupied a private residence, there is little doubt in my mind that the police would arrest them and charge them. Why the double standard when it comes to native protesters?

More Smug Elitism for Liberal Senators - What a Shock!!!

Earlier, I had written about Liberal Senator Larry Campbell who wanted to dictate that Canadians spend their post-tax money only on things he considers good for the community, not as the individual sees fit. Now another senator, Celine Hervieux-Payette, the Liberal leader in the Senate is trying to overrule parental authority. In discussing the recent anti-spanking bill passed in the senate, she said it was important "to make sure that parents who are not properly educated" learn it is unacceptable to physically discipline their children.

Who is she to decide how a parent chooses to rear their children?!? And the elitism she has shown in claiming that parents who advocate their right to raise their children as they see fit are "not properly educated" is absolutely despicable and disgusting.

There is a great deal of difference between physical assault and spanking. Hervieux-Payette needs to wake up and realize that just because she is a senator, she doesn't know better than ordinary Canadians.

Flying Banana Failure Shows that Individuals are a lot Smarter with Money than Culture Bureaucrats

Ordinary, hard-working men and women have once again shown that they are much smarter than bureaucrats in understanding the value of money and the value of public "art". While the Canada Council of the Arts gave $95,000 to an artist planning to fly a giant helium banana over Texas, normal people contributed only $12,018.

Apparently, when it's your own money to spend, stupid ideas aren't given much priority. When you're a bureaucrat freely spending taxpayers' money, then you spend it on idiotic projects like a flying banana.

Banning Bottled Water is Going Way Too Far

This report from the National Post that the Toronto and Ottawa-Carleton school boards are considering banning the sale of bottled water in their elementary and secondary schools is a sign that governments are going way too far in encroaching on individual prerogative. The nanny state is apparently expanding to the point where it will make it difficult to choose one's own water source.

Let people choose whether or not they want to purchase bottled water, rather than taking away the option. Some people, myself included, prefer the taste of bottled water over tap water (I like the taste of Dasani water the best), and we should not be forced to drink tap water for the school boards to make an irritating environmental statement.

If students find the bottled water too expensive, of poor taste, or environmentally problematic, then those students can drink tap water. I'll stick with the bottle though.

What Will Happen to Dion's Spending Promises if Carbon Emissions Go Down??

If Dion's Green Shift ever comes to be enacted (and I certainly hope it does not), I'm wondering how he would continue to pay for his spending promises if carbon emissions decline.

When announcing his plan yesterday, Dion made several spending initiatives (which do not count as tax cuts), such as their child tax benefit, their larger working income tax benefit, etc. The money to pay for these spending initiatives is supposed to come out of the revenue raised by the carbon tax. These are expensive initiatives that need large sums of cash in order to be paid for.

Even though the carbon tax would escalate over four years, what would happen if Canadians become so good at reducing their carbon output that not enough revenue is gathered??

Liberal Commercial so Stupid it's Hilarious

Has anyone else seen the Liberal commercial designed to promote their carbon tax plan? It is by far, the most ludicrous, stupidest, and silliest thing they have done for a long time! The Liberal caucus stands around clapping like fools as images of trees and animals are shown.

They complained that we weren't engaging in a debate on the substance of their carbon tax, and they respond by not promoting the specifics of their plan. What Idiots!

My favourite part of the add is the look on Bob Rae's face; he clearly doesn't want to be there. He's the smartest one of the group obviously.

Liberals Want to Dictate How We Spend our Own Money

Liberal Senator Larry Campbell recently said that he believes that Canadians shouldn't be free to spend their money as they see fit. In a National Post article, he said the following, "There's always this idea that, if it's your own money you're spending, you can do whatever you want. Sorry. That doesn't happen in my world. You should be looking out the good of the country and the good of your community."

Do Stephane Dion and the rest of the Liberal Party agree with statement or do they believe, like most sensible Canadians, that we should have the freedom to spend our post-tax money as we see fit??

Can Someone Please Explain why the Government Pays for This???

According to an Ottawa Citizen article, Canada's government employs a parliamentary poet laureate, which costs taxpayers up to $83 ,000 annually (plus costs to select a new one every second year). Seriously, I want to know how and why Parliament thinks this is an acceptable use of taxpayers' hard-earned funds...

Party of the money is for a stipend, part for translation, and part for travel costs. Some of the previous holders of the office have written poems to commemorate important occasions, while others have apparently refused to write on request.

Heritage Canada is already notorious for wasting our money, and this is just further proof that the department's budget should be cut. Positions like Poet Laureates should not be filled while we have long wait times in hospitals, not enough police officers on the streets, and our military still requires increased funds to operate at a satisfactory level.