So when is it OK to call Spin what it really is; Lying?

Message for you Sir!

This is a super quick post. I didn’t do any research, I just read a post over at The Rural Canadian, which basically contained a rebuttal of some over the top spin by our beloved Prime Minister. It was Akin who proved to be the source.

Basically, the ‘Spin’ was that the Senate had to be packed with appointee’s, and Parliament had to be prorogued, because the Liberal Senate was obstructing his law’n’order bills. ( I take my prorogue’s with sour cream and bacon. Harper spices his with spin and lashings of patronage).

So James Cowan, Liberal Senate Leader draughts a letter to the Minister of  Justice, which details precisely how many bills have been passed or delayed, and precisely who and how they didn’t get passed, or enacted into law. It’s long, and full of persnickety details, which makes it less than exciting, but the substance is that bill by bill, it was the Government who failed to enact bills already passed by both houses. They declined to bring bills forward for their second readings, etc. etc. Just read it, and your’ jaw will start to drop at just how empty this piece of bullshit, (Sorry, I mean Spin), by the Conservatives really is.

For those of us who have read Flannagan’s book, Harpers Team, we are already aware that the CPC’s operating principle is that it doesn’t have to be TRUE, it only has to sound PLAUSIBLE. The underlying assumption is that people just don’t care enough to fact check. I was happily tripping along, thinking that sure, of course the Liberal Senate is screwing with the Conservative Agenda. Sounds plausible right? Nothing new there, ‘it’s the way it works’, etc. Well I’m sure glad that somebody was fact checking eh? ‘Cause I was very wrong in that casual assumption.

I will vote here to say that this is a case where the polite word for a politicians’ Lie, (Spin), can be given the Lie, and we can call a lie; a Lie. ( God, just try to proofread that sentence. Where do the comma’s go? Shouldn’t there be a colon, or semi-colon or something in there?)

Anyay, have a read of the letter, and maybe you’ll be wanting to call the Prime Minister a liar, and in good conscience too.

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Elizabeth May Appointed to Senate?!

This Globe and Mail article is a good synopsis of Canadian political situation at this moment.

A second Reuters piece discusses much the same.

Spot Elizabeth May

There is a real eye opener, that has some very interesting, and potentially controversial implications.

“And Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is endorsing the proposed coalition government and says she has spoken with Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion about the possibility of her being appointed to the Senate.”

Holy cow! Appointment to Senate? First off, is this Elizabeth May’s entree to cabinet? Jack Layton will have

Jack Layton

something to say about it if that’s the case. The Dippers AND Dions fellow Liberals will not want the GPC sitting on the front bench in Parliament. It would be good for Canada, and Elizabeth would make a brilliant Minister of Environment, but that’s another question. They will not want the GPC to have such a prominent role PERIOD.

Secondly, The GPC has a long standing commitment to democratic reform. How well does it sit in YOUR craw that she may have an appointed seat in the Senate? The counter argument is solid, and obvious. In what respect is it undemocratic that someone who received just short of 1 million votes should sit in the Senate?

Dig a bit deeper. The CPC will probably fashion a wedge to split soft Liberal supporters, on the issue that the coalition is a constitutional coup. If they succeed in managing the debate, then the electorate will be debating the democratic legitimacy of this coalition Government. Square the issue for the GPC, because the democratic legitimacy of Senate appointments does raise an ethical quiver with most people (I believe).

The GPC stood to gain simply by standing above the fray, and pointing to the children battling in the Parliamentary sandbox. Isn’t it a terrible shame, support the clean Party that wants to do politics a different way. Ask yourself this question. Is the Green Party of Canada going to do better with Elizabeth in the Senate, and perhaps in Cabinet, OR will the GPC do better by picking more support amongst an increasingly disillusioned, and disaffected electorate?