Excerptcize

Archive for January, 2010

Following through with what his spokesperson indicated at the time of the prorogation of parliament,  Prime Minister Harper made five new appointments to the Senate this past Friday, bringing the Conservative Party to a total of 51 seats in the 105 member body. While that number does not represent an outright majority, holding a plurality in the chamber (much as the Conservatives do in the House) will manifest itself with a larger Conservative presence on reconstituted committees once parliament reconvenes, as well as greater sway of Senate’s agenda. Kady O’Malley has a nice rundown on each of the new senators here at the CBC’s Inside Politics blog.

Wasting no time in indicating how this new found power in the upper chamber will be wielded, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson held a press conference on Friday with two of the new senators. Much as they have since first forming a minority government in 2006, it appears the Conservatives will ride the perennially popular stance of being “tough on crime” as much as possible; all 5 new appointees shared the ‘tough’ credential, while Minister Nicholson made sure to colour the Opposition with dread “soft on crime” label. The minister even went so far as to imply that opposition parties, especially Liberal members of the senate, were actively preventing the administration of justice. The Globe and Mail was quick to note that:

In fact, of the 17 crime bills introduced by the federal Conservative government in the last session, only two were held up in the Senate for more than six months. Most died on the order paper when Mr. Harper prorogued Parliament in late December.

As a campaign stance, being “tough on crime” is one of the oldest plays in the book as it is a virtually an unassailable position; who could be said to be against improvements in public safety? But what does getting “tough” mean from a governing standpoint? So far, it seems to consist of widening the scope of, as well as lengthening mandatory minimum sentences. Much of the governments introduced crime legislation on this front has been amended through debate in the House (funny how a minority government will do that.) As has been noted by many others, this does not sit will with Mr. Harper. With the new arrangement of the Senate and most of the uncompleted work of Parliament ‘dying on the docket’ when it was prorogued, some bills are set to be reintroduced in the Senate in their original language when parliament reconvenes. With so much attention being heeded crime and public safety, it is worth taking a moment to take a look at crime levels as they currently stand in Canada:

From the ‘The Daily‘, a regular feature of the Stats Can webpage, here is the overall police reported crime rate, as well as the Crime Severity Index:

Declining Crime Rate: 1998-2008

And from the Juristat report ‘Homicide in Canada 2008′, the homicide rate per 100, 000 people from 1961-2008:

Canadian homicide rate: 1961-2008

• Slow Week, Fast Week This last week of the year (and decade) has been very enjoyable and relaxing for myself as I've just returned home from a visit to my families house in Northwestern Ontario but it appears that...
• A Red/Green Coalition? That's what Justin Beach is suggesting over at his blog. Justin is a great writer who also happens to run a fantastic Canadian Music News blog, North by East West; I don't know where he...

• Does Your Education Really Make a Difference For Your Financial Future? One of the age old questions that many people have is whether having a good education will predispose you towards being wealthy. While there are...
• Australia Raises Interest Rates: How does This Affect Me? Perhaps the biggest financial news this week was that Australia, the Land Down Under, is the first G20 country to raise interest rates since the...

Dana and Yuji Kaneko skate with son Koji on the GE Ice Plaza at Robson Square

Just over two months ago, after a nearly 10 year absence, outdoor skating returned to Robson Square. In my own humble opinion it has been nothing but a spectacular success; on every occasion I’ve been, the rink has been full of smiling, excited people of all ages. Granted, I live within walking distance of the rink, and as I grew up being able to skate outside my back door on a rink built by my father most years of my life, I am extremely biased to having a positive view on the new skating facility and the corporatey, corporate investment by GE that it is. That being the case, I decided to seek out the opinion of some others.

Some skaters were there for the first time, while others had previously been multiple times. Everyone had nothing but positive comments about the facility itself , as well as the staff. One trio of skaters that I met bookended the evolution of skating at Robson Square very nicely. Dana and Yuji Kaneko both remember skating at Robson Square as kids, in addition to participating in other activities like public music recitals. The closing of the rink was just one more element contributing to an underused downtown core. When they learned about the reopened rink from friends, they bundled up, boarded public transit, and along with their son Koji made their way into the city. Like everyone else they had a great time. The image they formed of Mom, Dad and Child going for a recreational skate is one that is quintessentially Canadian. Many thanks are due to the City, Province as well as GE for bringing outdoor skating back to the heart of downtown Vancouver. The province maintains a webpage where you can view information about hours of operation of the rink, rental prices and more here.

If you are making a trip into the downtown core to go skating, it may be IS prudent to call ahead first to ensure that there are no planned events altering skating hours, or that warm weather has not overwhelmed the machinery that maintains the ice surface is Vancouver’s ‘winter’ temperatures. Call 604-646-3559 for the latest conditions.

• Undue Canada Bashing From Colbert Continues Stephen Colbert's assault on the Canadian speed skating team and Canada in general continued this Thursday on 'The Sport Report' (pronounced The Spore Rapport) when Stephen once again attacked Canada in regards to his beef...
• On The Importance Of Signs As we've moved into the homestretch of final preparations for the Olympic Games, which kick off with the opening ceremonies here in Vancouver on February 12th, the city has been doing a fantastic of installing...

• Moving to Providence Following the war, the economy shifted from maritime endeavors to manufacturing , particularly machinery, tools , Jewelry, silverware and textiles. At one time, Providence boasted...
• How to Rotate Inline Skate Wheels It is important for you to know why it is important for you to rotate the wheels on your skates, and it is also important...

The CBC has a story up indicating that later today, Clara Hughes will be named as Canada’s flag bearer in the Opening Ceremonies of the upcoming Winter Games. There could not be a more appropriate representative for Canada. Many congratulations to Clara as well as her friends and family. Clara is an outstanding athlete and person. More to follow.

Update: True to the earlier reports, Clara Hughes was introduced this afternoon at Richmond City Hall as the Team Canada flag bearer for the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, which are set to happen two weeks from today. Regardless of ones feelings of the games themselves, I think it’s fair to say that they try and bend towards an ideal. Reasonable people can disagree about how successful the games are at fulfilling that ideal, but Clara Hughes is an embodiment of it. Not all athletes should be thought of as role models, but Clara Hughes can’t help but be one, and Canada could not hope for a better sports ambassador on the world stage. Hughes accomplishments in sport are many, and at 37 years of age, she is still a medal threat; at a race in Norway last November she just missed the podium, finishing 4th. Clara is the only Canadian, and one of only four athletes in the world, to have won a medal in both the summer and the winter Olympics. Across four previous Olympics, she has won 5 medals, including a gold in the 5000m at the Torino Games in 2006. After winning that medal, inspired by American speed skater Joey Cheek, Hughes donated $10,000 of her own money to the organization Right to Play and has been an advocate for that group ever since. As a member of Canada’s cycling team in 1996, Clara won the first Canadian medal of those games with a third place finish in the road race. I remember having a crush on her then, and it’s safe to say that I still do. I am very much looking forward to Clara and the entire speed skating team putting on an amazing display in a few short weeks.

PHOTO BY: JONATHAN HAYWARD/The Canadian Press

• Looking Forward, Looking Back [/caption] Today is certainly a big day for Canada at these games as the Womens hockey team will go for gold later this afternoon. Womens curling semifinals have just finished, the men will play later...
• There's Gold In Them There Hills! [/caption] A lot of Canadians (myself included) were predicting that the gold medal drought on home soil would end on the first full day of competition by Jennifer Heil in womens freestyle skiing competition. That...

• Best Reads of the Week: Season Tickets to a Sports Bar Edition One of the reasons why I loved the recession is the creativity of small business owners to get customers coming through the door and filling...
• Ready for the 2012 Olympics? As this year winds down, many athletes worldwide are winding up for next year's big summer games. The 2012 Olympics are scheduled to take place...

This afternoon will see announcements on two big news stories that are only mildly related. On the political front, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is set to appoint five new Conservative senators later today. In sporting news (and since it’s the Olympics there is some political aspect built in) Canada’s flag bearer for the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

While the reasons for the PM’s prorogation of parliament are myriad, and to a certain extent only known to himself and his inner circle of tactical geniuses, one reason that is clearly evident is the fact that parliament not being in session gives him the perfect opportunity to make some appointments to the senate. While not gaining an outright majority in the upper chamber, the conservatives will have a plurality of members, shifting the balance on key committees as well as their ability to affect the agenda.

The naming of the flag bearer is one that always tends to receive a lot of press. The fact that much attention is heeded the flag bearer itself becomes a story, as in the past many athletes have declined the honour as they thought it would serve as a distraction. As the media loves ‘curses’ there is even a supposed one that descends upon the chosen flag bearer. Of course reality shows that flag bearers have gone on to career performances in the games, suffered great disappointment and everything in between. All the athletes deserve plaudits for their life of dedication to sport, and I’m sure whoever is named as our representative to march in the opening ceremonies they will do an excellent job.

Tune to your regular news sources for updates on both these stories.

• Stephen Harper: Tactician Extraordinaire [/caption] Amidst reflecting on the year gone by, looking forward to the coming one and forming resolutions that will more often than not be forgotten by February, the end of 2009 also brought the opportunity...
• Slow Week, Fast Week This last week of the year (and decade) has been very enjoyable and relaxing for myself as I've just returned home from a visit to my families house in Northwestern Ontario but it appears that...

• Reasons I Will Avoid the 2010 Olympics Yes, it's just about that time again when the governments of the world pretend to put aside their differences in an insincere show of sportsmanship...
• Will the Winter Olympics 2010 Be Good for the Canadian Dollar and Canadian Economy? Between February 12 and 28, 2010, all eyes around the world will be on Vancouver, BC, Canada for the 2010 XXI Winter Olympic Games.  More...

The Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament protest wends it's way to Victory Square (photo by Jess Sloss

January 23rd, 2010 saw thousands of people of all political stripes (as well as those lacking any stripes) from across the country come together in peaceful protest to demonstrate their displeasure with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s newest habit of proroguing parliament when it is convenient for him and his government to do so. With excellent traffic co-ordination from the VPD some 2000+ (my estimate, may not reflect reality, awaiting more official crowd estimates) Vancouverites convened at the steps of Art Gallery and marched to Victory Square. There, demonstrators heard speeches delivered from representatives of Fair Vote Canada, the BC Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Council, the Sierra Club and a Conservative angered with his party leader’s crass tactical maneuvering. All of the speakers came at the issue from a slightly different angle, yet all made substantive and important points. As audio and video of the demonstration become available online I will highlight what was said in more detail here. The CAPP Facebook page is a good place to join in the discussion, view photos and some video clips of Saturday’s action.

• Oh Yeah, That Whole Senate Thing [/caption] In my haste to post on the prorogation of parliament, I completely forgot to mention one of the more tangible reasons for Mr. Harper to do so; Senate appointments. As I understand it, (mostly...
• Tough On Crime Stance Continues Apace Recently the Prime Ministers Office has been engaging in some populist pandering as part of the ongoing Conservative  electoral tactic of 'getting tough on crime'.  Last month the hubbub was over reports that convicted child...

• Victory Carries Risk Under the guise of a second minority mandate, Canadians may have handed Conservative Leader Stephen Harper a poisoned chalice. Over the next few years, it...
• Ernests Gulbis Wins against Mardy Fish in Farmers Classic There are many different times when watching tennis that you will encounter an upset which you did not expect. This weekend was one of those...

Tonight in Vancouver at the fabulous Commodore Ballroom, the 3 finalists in The Peak Performance Project put on an stellar final showcase before the prizes were handed out. Many thanks are due to the Peak radio station for sponsoring and Music BC for facilitating this most welcome new, yearly addition to the Vancouver music scene. The bill featured We Are The City, The Left and Bend Sinister, with each band taking home a share of $275,000 at the end of the evening.

The final placement of each the bands went in the reverse order of the performances with Bend Sinister placing third and receiving $50,000, The Left finishing second, netting them $75,000 and We Are The City ending up the big winners, snagging $150,000. Were I to have my druthers, Bend Sinister would have come out on top, with We Are The City and The Left rounding out second and third place, but now is not a time for bitterness. It is one for celebration of the amazing talent that this region has musically and for the strong commercial viability it has as well.

A healthy round of applause to those who made this event happen and congratulations to all the bands.

Post Good Will Post Editorializing: I wrote earlier that now is a time for celebration and not bitterness, so I hope this does not come across as mean spirited; if you are like me and strongly believe that Bend Sinister should have placed, if not first in this competition, then most certainly came in second ahead of the Left, make sure to visit CBC Radio3, Canada’s Independent Music Superstation. The Peak is an amazing radio station that deserves nothing but plaudits for all the heavy lifting they have done in their first year of existence. They are however, still a very young entity. Radio3 is there pointing the way. They have been playing Bend Sinister for a few years now, and addition to each of the other finalists also having music available for the Radio3 webstream (which means you can listen to it on demand and add it to any number of your own personal playlists) many other Peak Performance Project participants like Adaline and Ben Sigston also have freed their music to R3. With Radio3 ‘Breaking New Sound’ and The Peak featuring our great Canadian talent in playlists that feature the biggest bands in the world, nothing but good things are possible. That is a public-private partnership that is very easy to get behind.

• Canada's Subsidised Culture This is the third in a series of posts highlighting the merits of governement supporting artistic endeavours.  I talked about Canada's government funded public broadcaster, and more specifically CBC Radio 3 here and about Canadian...
• Innovation Stiffling Government Aids Groundbreaking Artistry To follow up on an earlier posting that contended that government sponsored initiatives are capable of producing innovation in broadcasting I thought it was also worth highlighting our CanCon radio requirements and the Canadian Music...

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US Speed Skating - Powered by The Colbert Nation

Stephen Colbert and the Colbert Nation’s  sponsorship of the US speed skating team was a story I wrote about when it first came about, but I foolishly haven’t been posting on any of the latest developments. Back in November, City of Richmond spokesperson Ted Townsend wrote to Stephen inviting him to come to the games as an official ombudsman to ensure no funny business would happen (at the time Colbert was hammering Canada about not letting the US get enough practice time at the Richmond Olympic Oval.) Stephen stated he would be coming to the games, but only if it were as a member of the US Olympic Team (I guess he couldn’t stand to wear a pink toque the whole time.) So began Stephen Colbert’s Skate Expectations: Kicking Ice and Taking Donations On The Slippery Slope Down The Icy Path To The Frozen Road Up To Vancouver ’010 and his bid to join the US Olympic Team.

First came his attempts to join the skeleton and bobsleigh teams. These efforts failed despite Cobert’s “God given talent for lying down and surrendering to the effects of gravity”. He was further hindered by the fact that most members of the bobsleigh squad do not enjoy “a little vomit on their Lycra.” Next, Colbert tried to “HURRY HARD!” his way into the Olympics as part of the curling team. Once again his efforts were to no avail. Not giving up though, Colbert dug deep, remembered that his first love is speed skating and orchestrated a hilarious race with World Champion Shani Davis. All of Stephens well developed cheating instincts failed him, as Shani went on to decimate him, despite a head start of over 10 minutes. However, Colbert’s wily ways did catch the notice of the coaching staff, and he will be joining the team as an assistant sports psychologist. This is a fantastic development and I look forward to some great pieces of journalism from Stephen during the games. I’ve often wrote that I strongly believe in using the Olympic platform to shine a light on the fair city of Vancouver, both the good and the bad. The Colbert Report has and continues to be an excellent force for peering into some of the darker cracks in society and I fully expect to him to highlight some of the social issues that are present in this city. Previously I suggested that Colbert and Rick Mercer pair up for some international comedy dueling, but after thinking on the viability of this, I remembered that CTV is this years host broadcaster in Canada, and as Mercer is a CBC employee this would not work. Perhaps John Dore is up for challenging Colbert.

Apologies to those with Canadian IP addresses; you will need to click here to view the above clip, as the Comedy Network does not allow for embedded video clips.

• Paralympic Torch Relay Going on right now (it's 8:09pm PST) is the Paralympic Torch Relay. In fact, it's passing right beneath my window! And it will be back in about half an hour! This torch run is somewhat...
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CBC and The New York Post both have stories up at their sites discussing the potential future of Intrawest, the company that owns the Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort that will play host to the alpine events during the 2010 Olympics. The whole scenario is a somewhat confusing mix of creditors and debt holders, so you should just go and read either of the articles, but there seems to me to be two different elements to this story. The first angle is the leveraged buyout of Intrawest that occurred in 2006 by the hedge fund Fortress Investment Group. This purchase was highly leveraged, and wouldn’t you know it, the Lehman Brothers happen to be one of the creditors in that deal (you remember the Lehman Brothers, right?) Fortress recently missed a $524 million payment on the debt incurred during the purchase of Intrawest. As Lehman is currently restructuring under bankruptcy protection, they are looking for funds wherever they can find it to make good on the more $1ooo billion creditor claims against them. As such, they have indicated that they could foreclose against Intrawest as early as February 19th (right in the middle of the games) and begin to auction of it’s assets (including Whistler-Blackcomb.)

Further to Fortress’s tangling with Lehman Brothers, the hedge fund has also been sparring with VANOC/the Canadian Government. According to the New York Post,

VANOC guaranteed that it would make Intrawest whole for the time that its events take place at its resorts. But now, according to a source, Canadian officials are threatening to pull that roughly $50 million guarantee. That, the source said, has compelled [Fortress fund manager Wesley] Edens to privately say he has a legal right to keep the Games from taking place at Whistler.

There’s nothing like a sexy story about the possibility of Olympic events not taking place! I do think that it is important to give credence to what Bill Singer, a securities lawyer in New York had to say to the CBC:

I can’t imagine that it will ultimately mean much, because I would assume between [Canadian] government interest and the Olympic Committee there would be something that would be accomplished just to forestall [this.]

For their part, Intrawest had this to say:

We have a 2002 agreement with VANOC to host the Winter Olympics and have every confidence that VANOC will honour its financial commitments. Intrawest is looking forward to a successful Olympic Games.

The word ‘bankruptcy’ is a loaded one in the English language, and it carries even more weight these days in light of the past few years of economic turmoil. It is easy to forget that well established procedures are in place for navigating corporate entities through bankruptcy protection, and more often than not they emerge from protection as a viable company. And while this story is an interesting one that deserves to be followed, I too, in my extremely limited understanding of financial wizardry would not expect this current story to prevent a successful games from happening.

• GE Ice Plaza [/caption] Just over two months ago, after a nearly 10 year absence, outdoor skating returned to Robson Square. In my own humble opinion it has been nothing but a spectacular success; on every occasion I've...
• Anti-Olympic Voice Turned Away At Vancouver Airport [/caption] On Saturday, after undergoing several hours of questioning from Canadian customs officials, Martin Macias Jr., an activist with ties to the Olympic Resistance Network attempting to travel to Vancouver to cover and participate in...

• Golf as an Olympic Sport? Top golf players are full of enthusiasm as their appointed ambassadors work to have golf included as an Olympic sport. Players are citing that the...
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The Sea-to-Sky Highway; An Olympic Waste?

This past Monday, the local 24 Hours newspaper featured an article entitled “Let the Bailout Games begin“. While the piece,  by 24 Hours staff writer Bob Mackin does contain many good pieces of factual information, I do

have to take issue with some of the analysis and accounting within. To start with, Mackin writes the following:

Amid the Great Recession a year ago, VANOC’s message was all about being the shining light to guide B.C. to recovery because it had a billion dollars to spend. Spring came and chief executive John Furlong admitted a profit was unlikely.

Both of these sentences are accurate enough, but I have no idea how one idea is related to the other. The way they are linked in the piece makes it seem like the author is concluding and implying that since the odds of VANOC generating a profit have diminished since a year ago, spending on games related endeavours does not aid in economic recovery. I am no economist and I don’t have any specific numbers to cite (partly because I am having a hell of time getting the relevant data from the Stats Can webpage) but I am quite confident in asserting that injecting a billion dollars (or more, depending on what number people are tossing around as the ‘cost’ of the Games at this time, more on that later) is, and has been, very beneficial to economic recovery.

Mackin’s article then goes on to mention the Olympic Village in Vancouver. While the term ‘bailout’ is more than appropriate to apply to the measures the city was forced to take a year ago to ensure financing for the village, the article, along with many others when discussing the athletes village look at the $1 billion dollar price tag on the project as if it is money that is gone down the tubes, never to be seen again. Nothing could be further from the truth. Once the games are finished most (if not all) of the units will be sold on the open market, and in case you haven’t noticed, Vancouver’s insane real estate market has more than recovered since last year. While a profit is no longer expected from these sales, the city does expect to break even, and with the recovery of the housing market, turning a profit is not out of the realm of possibilities. What is most distressing about the village is the potential for there to be no lasting affordable housing legacy. This would be shameful, and ideally will not come to pass with the healthy rebound in prices Vancouver has seen this past year. Further to serving as the Athletes Village during the games, new housing and hopefully affordable housing post-games, the facilities at the site are also state of the art ones that feature some of the latest technologies in energy efficiency; this further adds to the value of this investment.

• Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, DFA (And Sports Psychologist) [/caption] Stephen Colbert and the Colbert Nation's  sponsorship of the US speed skating team was a story I wrote about when it first came about, but I foolishly haven't been posting on any of the...
• Does This Mean Whistler Will Disappear? CBC and The New York Post both have stories up at their sites discussing the potential future of Intrawest, the company that owns the Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort that will play host to the alpine events...

• Will the Winter Olympics 2010 Be Good for the Canadian Dollar and Canadian Economy? Between February 12 and 28, 2010, all eyes around the world will be on Vancouver, BC, Canada for the 2010 XXI Winter Olympic Games.  More...
• How The Federal Reserve Helped The Rich Become Super Rich! Here's an incredibly interesting video about how the Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan directly helped the rich become Super Rich by keeping interest rates artificially...

Sarah 'Esther' Palin, during her resignation speech last July (Image: AP)

On Friday I wrote the following:

[...] socially conservative, right wing political factions in the US have truly earned the label ‘noise-machine’. Social conservatives in the States are vocal, well organized, well funded and extremely active in all levels of politicss [They] recycle talking points through an endless echo chamber that greatly increases the media attention given to what are often fringe opinions. The huge media saturation that these groups are able to attain inflate their perceived strength.

While I do believe this to be true, it is just barely so. The Obama adminisration is still less than a year old, and prior to January 20th, 2009 the leader of the US was a man, who after countless disgraces,  is still adored today by a third of the populace. Even with the majorities in Congress that Democrats gained in 2006 and strengthened in 2008, passage of any legislation is still a tenuous and delicate balancing act. With a large majority in the House of Representatives and a vaunted (at least in most media circles) ‘supermajority’ of 60 of the 100 seats in the Senate, any and all legislative victories are still extremely hard won, as the GOP, masters of legislative procedural abuse (tactics Canadians are also becoming more familiar with) are also very good at rejecting, in unison, every single policy proposal that attempts to wend it’s way through Congress. It’s also further worth noting, that were it not for a few hundred voters in Minnesota who pulled the lever for Al Franken, the Democrats would have ‘only’ 59 seats in the US Senate (a body that hilariously refers to itself as ‘the greatest deliberative body on the planet’) and the House and Senate majorities, along with Obama in the White House, would not have been sufficient enough to pass anything this past year.

It also seems that on the day I decided to write about over perceptions of ‘conservative’ strength, events had conspired to highlight how strong and pervasive it truly is.

Last week it was announced that Sarah Palin would be joining Fox News Channel on a multi year deal to provide “political commentary and analysis.” She also made her debut on the ‘fair and balanced’ broadcaster, and from a ratings stand point, was a smashing success, as nearly 4 million people tuned in to her appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor”, double the combined audiences of MSNBC and CNN. Those who love Palin really love her. Andrew Sullivan, who at his blog The Daily Dish has written about Palin in near abject horror since she was thrust onto the national stage by a desperate John McCain, commenting on the ongoing fusion of Fox News Channel and the Republican National Committee, noted the following after watching her interview with Glenn Beck:

• Different Flavours Of Social Conservatism The other day while discussing the prorogation of parliament with my dad, an interesting point came up that is worth mentioning here. I was saying how depressing it can be paying heed to events as...
• Olympics and all that Thursday evening saw a divided panel come together for a public forum on security and civil liberties during the 2010 Olympics at the SFU Harbour Centre.  The forum was organized by the Impact on Communities...

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The other day while discussing the prorogation of parliament with my dad, an interesting point came up that is worth mentioning here. I was saying how depressing it can be paying heed to events as they unfold in the US, as right wing ‘conservative’ commentators have honed the act of endlessly spouting partisan vitriol into a science, whereas when reading comment threads on the CBC about a story such as Omar Khadr’s, how surprised and taken aback I am by the extremely base language that is rather prevalent. My dad was not surprised by this in the least. My differing reactions to the same kind of mindless commentary coming from both sides of the border highlight three worthwhile points.

First, Canadian social conservatives not only exist, but they make up a larger part of the populace than I know I instinctively feel is there. To make a generalization, Canadians tend to be shy and reserved with many of their personal viewpoints. In the States, abortion is a very visible, vocal and dividing issue. In Canada it just does not have the same power.

Second, socially conservative, right wing political factions in the US have truly earned the label ‘noise-machine’. Social conservatives in the States are vocal, well organized, well funded and extremely active in all levels of politics. As such, an entire cottage industry has formed to recycle talking points through an endless echo chamber that greatly increases the media attention given to what are often fringe opinions. The huge media saturation that these groups are able to attain inflate their perceived strength (which is not to say that they aren’t strong.)

The last thing I wanted to point out are some aspects of the US media that magnify the already over represented, vocal minority of social conservatives. Thankfully, Canadian reporters as a whole have not completely devolved into he said/she said, stenography ‘journalism’. The same can not be said for their US counterparts. And while Canadian journalists are bad for spending to much time on the ‘horse race’ aspects of politics, they do deliver policy analysis. The Villagers of D.C. however are in perpetual campaign coverage mode (did you know there’s less than 11 months until the midterm elections? Are the Dems in trouble? Stay tuned..) When that is the model used to deliver news, it is self serving to portray two competing sides as if they were in extremely close competition. It is mind numbing the extent that US news reports will feature blatant lies voiced by one side of an argument as a rebuttal to a perfectly reasonable and true claim. Readers are treated to both claims, yet sadly, truth distinctions are rarely made. You need to suggest that ‘death panels’ are going to be installed before many media outlets will even bother to think of doing a fact check.

• Looking Forward, Looking Back [/caption] Today is certainly a big day for Canada at these games as the Womens hockey team will go for gold later this afternoon. Womens curling semifinals have just finished, the men will play later...
• Friday Announcements This afternoon will see announcements on two big news stories that are only mildly related. On the political front, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is set to appoint five new Conservative senators later today. In sporting...

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I’ll have more to say on this later today, but it looks like  all of the tax cuts that Prime Minister Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty have enacted during their tenure (4 years in February!) have come home to roost. What prize have our fine feathered friends brought us? Why it’s nothing less than a forecast return to structural budgetary deficits. A brief historical view of Canada’s budgetary balance and debt in visual form:

*Figures from The Department of Finances Fiscal Reference Tables

What you’ll notice is that for the first half or so of this graph outlays were consistently higher than revenues, ie. we consistently had yearly deficits, hence that ballooning green area, which is the Accumulated Deficit (Debt). For many years we had deficits, so that debt line just kept going up and up. But then things changed. You can see that around 1997 revenues started to exceed outlays. We went from consistently having a deficit (a ‘structural deficit’) to having a surplus. We even used some of that surplus to pay down the debt (the green line going down.) If you’ve actually looked at the above graphic, one of the most important pieces of information is what is not on it, and that is any data from 2009. That’s the time period where all economic graphs you look at have a daunting cliff dive.(Update: I have replaced the original graph in this post with a more accurate one that also includes projections through 2014.) Now look at the most recent points for 2008-9. Revenues have been significantly down in this period. During this same time the government has enacted a series of ‘stimulative’ measures, something I happen to agree with, that equals higher expenditures in 2009 than what has been the trend. That means we are back in a deficit situation. And the Parliamentary Budget Officer says that is going to continue for at least the next four years. That does not jive with Mr. Harper and Flaherty’s assessment of having a balanced budget by that point in time. More to come. I have read that Mr. Flaherty believes that we will be returning to balanced budgets shortly (trying to find a source of this still) and that “the government says it won’t increase taxes or cut provincial transfers to balance the budget.” Clearly when we are facing structural budgetary shortfalls we should decide ahead of time against using one of the two possible mechanisms for fixing this situation. And for some inane reason, ever time I hear this reported on the choices are phrased as either there can be tax increases or cuts in spending. I’ll have to teach those Conservatives a lesson their mothers and fathers should have already taken care of; using both strategies.

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