Liberals Scolded by Elections Canada and Learn that 'The Sky is No Longer the Limit'!

Apparently, before the Liberals were able to hold their swanky (yet clearly illegal fundraiser) last night at the Ottawa Congress Centre, Elections Canada informed them that it was, in fact, in direct contravention of the Canada Elections Act.

The Liberals hastily changed the rules of the auction to no longer allow corporations to bid as well as to limit bids to the maximum allowed by the Act ($1100). Since the entry price was $150, the maximum bid possible was $950 (and that is assuming the individual in question had not donated any money so far in 2008).

I have a few friends who are Liberals, and one of them went to the revised event last night. Apparently there were about 100 guests (not including MPs) who would have paid for tickets. Here are what the auction items went for:

Golf with Paul Martin - $1000
Lunch with Iggy and a set of signed books - $650
Lunch with Justin Trudeau - $550
Tennis with Bob and John Rae - $400
Breakfast with Romeo Dallaire- $350
Tickets to the Hockey Game with Ken Dryden - $300 (there were 15 of them for a total of $4500)
Dinner with Carolyn Bennett and her husband - $250

Now we know exactly what the Liberals are worth, and it isn't much!

My favourite part of this scandal is that the meager proceeds now have to be split among 8 different ridings! Assuming they sold 100 tickets, the night would have made approximately $22700. Divided by 8 ridings is less than $2900 each! Renting out the Congress Centre can't be cheap, so I wonder how much of a profit that actually got to make last night.

Liberal Fundraiser to Break Elections Canada Laws??

This evening, the Liberal party of Canada is holding a fancy fundraiser at the Ottawa Congress Centre at a pricy $150 per ticket, featuring Leader Stephane Dion and the Liberal Caucus Members and Candidates.

The event also includes an auction which clearly contravenes laws on political donations. Items include a golf game with Paul Martin, watching hockey with Ken Dryden, tennis with Bob Rae, lunch with Michael Ignatieff, lunch with Justin Trudeau, and lunch with Scott Brison.

The invitation also says the following:

"The sky is your limit during this auction!
A successful bid is not a political contribution and is not eligible for a receipt for income tax purposes. Your successful bid will not affect your annual political contribution limit of $1100. As such, individuals, partnerships, corporations, and associations are free to bid as high as they want. We greatly appreciate your support for this fundraising activity!"

How can the Liberal party justify thinking that the auction does not count as a political donation?

Furthermore, for all of the politicians and former cabinet ministers participating in the auction items, does that not count as a donation which would put them over their political contribution limit for this year?

For more information, see the following story from the Globe and Mail:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
LAC.20080213.DONATIONS13/TPStory/National

Can Parliament Please Stop Paying Liberal MPs?

Liberal MPs should start forfeiting portions of their salary after their latest incidence of failing to do their jobs as they are supposed to.

MPs are paid by the government of Canada to actually do their jobs and represent their constituents, including being present for votes and taking a stand on issues. Indignantly walking out of the House of Commons because things aren't going your way is neither mature nor appropriate.

This is only the latest in a series of incidents in which the Liberals opted to sit out of votes rather than take a definitive stance. Remember how Stephane Dion complained about the latest budget? Well he clearly didn't oppose it enough to vote against it - he and his entire caucus abstained from voting.

The Liberals need to start behaving like grownups and actually do the jobs which they are being paid for.

Happy Two Years in Government!!

Today marks the second anniversary of the Conservative Government! Yay!

Although the Conservative Party of Canada won the election on January 23, 2006, it was not until February 6, 2006 that Stephen Harper was sworn in as Canada's current Prime Minister and the cabinet was sworn in to become Canada's government. Some of the faces in Canada's cabinet have changed over the last two years, but we remain a strong, principled, and committed government.

I am proud of the government and I look forward to seeing the Conservatives continue to govern until October 2009!

Do You Think it is Easy to Make Priorities???

Stephane Dion is most definitely not a leader for Canada and Canadians should not trust him with our country. The man is one of the most wishy-washy and foolish leaders of the opposition Canada has had in a very, very, very long time...

So, Dion, who insists that Canadians withdraw from our mission in Afghanistan by 2009 at the latest, is now encouraging NATO to invade Pakistan in order to pursue militants there! His position just makes no sense whatsoever! Apparently it's okay to go after Taliban terrorists if they're located in Pakistan, but if they're inside Afghanistan, they we need to stop fighting them.

Stephane Dion is not a leader.

It's Time to Grow Up, Dalton...

Reading the news this morning, I see that the provincial and territorial premiers are having a dinner meeting with the Prime Minister in order to discuss pertinent issues. In a CTV article, Dalton McGuinty is demanding that the federal government give Ontario millions of dollars.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080111/
premiers_080111/20080111?hub=TopStories

Dalton needs to learn how to run his own province and not always going running, crying to the federal government for more money. The province will need to adapt to changing realities in the world, rather than always asking for a welfare handout. I know that do so isn't easy, but it seems that Dalton is just not up to actually being a premier which sometimes involves making difficult decisions and actually developing policies for Ontario.

Safe Schools

I just saw on the website for the National Post that the Toronto school board has released a report which paints a bleak and depressing picture of safety in Toronto area schools.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2008/01/10/
report-paints-bleak-picture-of-toronto-school-safety.aspx

When I was a child I went to schools which were safe and it never occurred to me that not all children might have this same experience. To me it is fundamental to learning that children need to be safe and secure while at school. According to the report, at one school 12% of students have been threatened with guns or shot at while on the school's property. This is absolutely unacceptable and needs to change.

In order to create a safe learning environment for students, the schools need to make sure that anyone who would threaten this principle is not allowed into the school or onto any of its property. There is no place whatsoever for weapons at a school and the school and its board must be firmly committed to ensuring this stops. More of an emphasis must be put on security in order to stop problems like this. Guns, knives, and other weapons must be searched for and discovered before they are brought onto school property. If students/visitors know that their weapons will be found, they will be less likely to bring them to school and commit crimes. And any weapon confiscated cannot be used to harm another student or a teacher.

Some people might say that policing and searching students will appear harmful to freedoms and individual privacy.. However, when children's lives are at risk, we must do the utmost we can to ensure that their schools are safe and violence free. Offenders must be punished and expelled from the schools. Anyone who would harm another individual at a school does not deserve the right to go there!

Helping Canadian Manufacturers and Producers

Earlier today, the Prime Minister announced an initiative to help the manufacturing sectors across Canada. Although I am not sure about the specifics for the program, I applaud this move by the Conservatives. In the global economy in which we live, Canadian industries will not be able to survive and thrive unless they adapt to many realities. This money will help industries, workers, and communities respond to the changing nature of their lives and learn to adapt and strengthen. A strong Canada needs a strong manufacturing sector and I am proud to see the Conservative Government ensure that this continues.

Lower GST!!!

I just needed to make a quick post in order to celebrate the new, lower GST rate that all Canadians will pay as of today. 5%!!!!! Yay!!! I can't wait to go out and buy some new stuff just to celebrate paying less tax!

A great big thanks to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, and the Conservative Government of Canada for making this happen!

I survived!

I have finally finished and handed in my last paper for the semester this morning! I am thrilled to be free from school for a couple of weeks.

I am especially looking forward to going home to see my parents and my dog all of whom I miss very much. Unfortunately, my parents only have dial up Internet and, as such, I doubt that I will be able to post much here as they always time my Internet usage quite slowly to make sure that I don't surpass their meager download limits. And I don't really like using it all that much either just because it is so horribly slow. Alas...

Temporary Hiatus

Although I enjoy writing this and expressing my political views, unfortunately I will not be able to update until late December or early January. I am a student and it is now the time of final papers and exams, and I am forced to temporarily stop writing here in order to ensure that I manage to complete my courses successfully this term.

Wish me luck!

More crime bills!!!

This has been an amazing week so far for the Conservative Government! They have been moving strongly to tackle crime with several announcements over the past few days. First, on Monday they announced much-needed amendments to the Youth Criminal Justice Act (as I wrote in my previous post).


They followed that up strongly yesterday by tackling the horrible problem of drugs and the drug trade in Canada. Those criminals convicted of drug traffiking would be automatically subject to mandatory prison terms. I personally find it surprising and repugnant that currently drug traffikers and dealers are not being sent directly to prison for minimum sentences already... If someone chooses to engage in such a harmful and illegal activity which ruins thousands of Canadian lives each and every year, there must be serious consequences!

And now today, the Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson is addressing the rising issue of identity theft. Although I have never been a victim to this and I am very carefully in disclosing my personal information, I am worried about this type of crime. Your identity can be stolen by someone down the street from you or by someone halfway around the world and you might never know that someone has been masquerading illegally as you. Identity theft is a rising concern in today's society and I am very proud of the Government for not only recognizing this but also fighting back.

Youth Crime: A Serious Problem

Yesterday, the Conservative Government of Canada introduced very important legislation to fight back against youth crime in Canada. For far too long, young offenders have been given a blank cheque to commit harmful crimes, including property crimes as well as violent offences, without receiving anything more than a slap on the wrist or a few years probation.

There is no deterrence for these young criminals to stop committing crimes unless we make a meaningful stand with real accountability for violent and/or habitual offenders. For too long, Canada's youth crime laws have ignored the principle that crime in wrong. Breaking the law is wrong and we need to send that message to these kids. If you do commit a crime, you must pay for your actions.

Another vitally important component of the proposed legislation is that it would make it possible for teenagers charged with committing a crime can be held in custody until the completion of their trial. When an individual is suspected of committing a violent offence, they should not be free in the community until it has been proven in a court of law that they are not guilty of the offence. It's better to be safe than sorry when it come to violent criminals, no matter how old they are.

Dion the Hypocrite Once Again

Sorry I haven't written much lately, but unfortunately sometimes being a student and having essays and tests gets in the way of being a Conservative! ha

I just want to take this opportunity to comment on the sheer hypocrisy Stephane Dion has been demonstrating lately. He has the audacity to introduce a new plan in order to reduce poverty in Canada, despite the fact that the former Liberal government had 13 long years to do something about poverty but did practically nothing. It's the exact same way he has been attacking the Conservative Government on the environment, even though it was under his Liberal government that Canada's environmental record became so shameful. It was the Liberal Government who signed on to the Kyoto protocol but they allowed green house gas emissions to skyrocket by 33%!

More Aggravation!!

This morning, I was in one of my classes, and this guy sat down next to me, and he seemed nice enough and everything, and we were getting along pretty well, just chatting randomly, nothing in particular. We got along, that is, until, he said that the Prime Minister was "ruining" Canada. According to him, Canada is "undertaxed" and we spend "far too little" money on social programs...

Wow, just wow...

Well of course I immediately took the opportunity to correct him of this opinion - however, I didn't do a very good job of doing so. I explained that the Conservative Government and Prime Minister Harper were helping Canadians be leaving more of their hard-earned tax dollars with them, rather than using the money on social spending with the sol goal of buying votes and campaign volunteers as the Liberals did every single year they were in power.

Right is Right, and Liberals and Socialists are fools

So, I was in my Canadian politics course this afternoon, and the professor asked us all, "who here likes free market economics?" and I, of course!, raised my hand. But to my dismay, out of the more than a hundred people in the class, only about 8 or 9 of had our hands raised. Then the prof asked, "and who here would like to see government intervention and control in the running of the economy?" and OVER HALF of the class raised their hands!!! What a bunch of fools... but you know what, the most infuriating part of it all, was the look on the prof's face when she saw all those riased hands. It was obvious she agreed with them, and not me and the other few sane and conservative members of the class.

I mean, before I came to university this year, I had heard that campuses across the country were just swarming with liberals and socialist professors, but I never though it could be this blatent and obvious! I had always though that university would be a place to learn new ideas, meet new people, and debate important issues, but instead we're just all supposed to be Liberals! As much as the Liberal Party of Canada likes to go on about tolerance, they are some of the least tolerant people i have ever met, if you don't agree with them politically!