Jack's Boundless Energy

Like the frustrated bridesmaid determined to finally become a bride, after having worked so hard to attain bridesmaid status following a very long period when she was merely a guest, here is Jack Layton bringing the New Democratic Party into the home stretch of either the official opposition or, unbelievably, the new government of Canada. He's sounding breezily confident of late, although perhaps slightly more guarded in his statements to the press since suddenly what he commits to may come back to bite him.

They will certainly - all of his promises, should he ever attain power, either through himself attaining a minority government, or finagling one by finessing a coalition-that-isn't-a-coalition with himself at the helm - come back to bite the voting public. Who may themselves take to biting their fingernails in frustration at the sudden flight of foreign investment, the moans of corporations stung with higher business taxes, and the agony of resulting higher unemployment figures, as fall-out leading to the economy staggering back into enfeebled recession.

Let alone all the expensive new commitments to the Province of Quebec which will call in all of its suddenly-discovered needs which Jack expansively guaranteed his government would be only too privileged to pay for, to keep Quebec happy. Because Jack believes in asymmetrical federalism, in the unique nationalism of Quebec, in the entitlements of Quebec to be its unqualified deserving self with little-to-no-interference from the federal government.

There are, after all, in the grandly-released, and little-focused-on election platform 205 policy promises as a starter as 'first steps' recognizing the needs of Canadian families in the process putting Canada on the highway to a soaring debt that will make the current one look attractive by comparison. A lovely new green plan will be unveiled to finally do justice to all the deserving environmental programs that have been ignored.

A new publication just released has some nifty little details the public can cue into for future prospects in that department. Little tidbits like the conclusion that Spain's efforts to be green resulted in "2.2 jobs (destroyed) for every job created", coming to us courtesy of Kenneth Green and Ben Eisen, writing for the Frontier Centre, explaining "while the capital needed for one green job in Italy could create five new jobs in the general economy". And that researchers at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos released data that the cost of each "green job" in 2009 Spain costed in at $791,597.

Green is a lovely colour, but it's an excessively expensive one to paint the economy with. Spanish researcher Gabriel Calzada Alvarez and company discovered that each "green" megawatt of energy installed "destroys 5.28 jobs on average elsewhere in the economy". Leading Spain finally to the conclusion that its bold new environmental venture into sustainable renewable energy alternatives were simply economically unsustainable.

In Italy and Germany, as in Spain, rampant corruption spread through the exciting new green corporate world of sustainable energy. Everyone eager to take advantage of this splendid new direction in business opportunities. "In Italy, however, rather than having numerous individuals defrauding the government, the Mafia is involved", while in Germany utilities are required by law to purchase solar energy at 59 cents per kWh, whereas conventional sources range from 20 cents to 3 cents.

But the thing is, no one is interested in boringly irrelevant details. The interest lies in the attractiveness of 'doing the right thing' since, after all, there is an environmental crisis at hand; the world is using up non-renewable energy sources at an astounding rate, and in the process adding further to the degradation of the environment. Add to that the fact that as the world's population rises and more people are demanding the privileges seen in the industrialized wealthy world, depletion becomes more assured.

There will certainly have to be some manner of functional address to be realized to this very real problem, simply not necessarily one reflective of proven failures, administered by rookie governments with no past experience in all the areas that the NDP is so eager to dip its fingers into as a purely social-welfare dedication to solving difficult problems. Layton has promised $20-billion for new green initiatives to be paid for by a cap-and-trade system yet to be devised.

But that amount represents only a fraction of the entire projected new spending commitments which come in at about $69-billion, in an economy which is still struggling to fully compensate for the downturn before full confidence can be assumed, and with it new jobs. Higher taxes can be assured with a newly-installed NDP government, but taxes alone won't be sufficient to pay for all the promises, let alone address the deficit and debt.

Canada will become more indebted, over and above the already burdensome amount that resulted from addressing the emergency of the downturn. And this is what Canadians are getting set to vote for? Reason appears to have floated into the upper stratosphere, beyond recall, as people are mesmerized by the picture of a courageous, scrappy populist, who faced down cancer surgery followed by a hip fracture, and still hobbles about tirelessly, and pugnaciously out there, capturing admiration.

Should the impossible come to fruition, we will begin to live in interesting times.

Lessons In Disrespect

Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe is on a roll. He's content with his role in life, too. Highly supported by the province's electorate, he's comfortable with the knowledge that none of the national parties have anything approximating his edge. French-Canadians seem to enjoy seeing the rest of Canada squirm. Why else would they keep electing to Parliament, a party and a leader whose only function is to keep thumping away at the public consciousness that Quebec must be sovereign?

Of course, the pundits would have it otherwise, that most Quebecois have no intention of supporting sovereignty; that ship has long since sailed with an empty cargo hold. What they like is that Gilles Duceppe is so adept at holding the feet of the ROC to the fire of uncertainty. Everyone wants to make Quebecers happy.

Particularly Gilles Duceppe, whose concern as party leader is not with the well-being of Canada, but that of Quebec. And whatever he can squeeze out of Canada to benefit Quebec he will.

Relentlessly he blasts and blames Canada for not doing enough for Quebec. That Quebec is entitled to far, far more than she currently extracts from the rest of Canada. The 'equalization' transfer payments that Quebec has relied upon for far too long, permit the province to live in a manner unseen by the other provinces, even those whose largesse pays for Quebec's standard of living. It is never quite enough, however.

It never occurs to Gilles Duceppe and his caucus that there is something irritatingly immoral about an openly-separatist party being permitted by a democratic society to sit like a canker on the body politic, grating and nauseatingly entitled to receiving all the taxpayer-funded emoluments required to sustain it, to allow it to run campaigns that slur the country, along with election campaigns, convincing Quebecers to support separation.

That the federal government recently promised to guarantee $4.2-billion in loans for the Lower Churchill Falls energy generation project and delivery lines, angering the province that considers that action a "slap in the face" to Quebec is rather rich, given Quebec's unwillingness to re-visit an historic agreement with Newfoundland that enriches Quebec, ignoring Newfoundland's equal entitlements.

And when a Conservative candidate for the 2011 election campaign made mention of the fact that is is 'normal' for federal money to flow more heavily toward Conservative-held ridings, Mr. Duceppe denounces that as "disrespectful" to Parliament. Unsurprisingly, most onlookers would be amazed to witness Gilles Duceppe being "respectful" to Parliament.

For stating an obvious, if unfortunate truth, to be labelled "completely stupid" and "disrespectful" is pretty rich, considering its source.

The Issues, Gentlemen, and Lady

So what's gnu with the electioneering gaffes and lavish and costly promises with the leaders of the major Canadian political parties, during the 2011 election campaign? Well, a lot of people, viewing and hearing the election advertisements have got really turned off by their content. As though they weren't more than sufficiently irritated by the unneeded election, to begin with.

Let's see, Jack Layton is popping up here and there, hobbling with his trusty cane while recovering from hip repair surgery, even as he recovers from prostate cancer therapy. Going on about the critical inadequacies of Canada's universal health care system.

He, on the other hand, was fortunate enough to receive sterling care for his two maladies. Which is why he is up and about, here and there, hither and yon, castigating the Liberals, the Conservatives, their platforms and promises, while recuperating, thanks to the quality of care he received.

Michael Ignatieff is enjoying himself blasting the Conservatives for their corporate tax reduction which the Liberals first started, and for the looming acquisition of F-36 stealth warplanes and the prison and judicial-reform program they have launched. Which the Liberals also signed off on.

But one issue that the Conservatives refused to touch, at real risk of alienating Quebec voters and losing important votes, the Liberals promise to fund: Quebec City's professional-league sport arena. Along with a whole slew - in excess of $8-billion tax dollars - of other promises, all guaranteed to paint Canadian families' futures pink.

Canada's shame in supporting, or at least not wishing to upset Quebec on another issue, by passing legislation to disallow asbestos mining on Canadian soil - which still includes Quebec - has been addressed by Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe. All asbestos, even chrysotile which Quebec's industry lobbyists claim is 'safe' is carcinogenic.

But Mr. Duceppe duplicitously claims that asbestos can be produced and used safely within Quebec. "If (asbestos production) is done in a responsible way, then it's safe", he insists.

One must, then, assume, that even in Quebec the extraction process and installation is not done safely. For a new report has been issued suggesting that many construction sites in Quebec contain asbestos levels at or above provincial norms. This study was released by Quebec's Public Health Department.

Yet Quebec insists its asbestos industry is safe, despite air samples felt to be sufficiently elevated to present as an elevated risk for asbestos exposure. And this is the asbestos that is routinely exported to countries like India where workers there are exposed to cancer risks in a country far less concerned with workplace safety than Quebec.

And, it would appear, Conservative campaign workers have been going out of their way to produce situations certain to be of embarrassment to their leader. While Stephen Harper unveils one benefit after another for the Canadian electorate, highlighting the modest-but-appreciated goodies contained in the rejected budget, heavy-handed vetting by campaign workers, outing and ousting campaign-event attendees with connections to the Liberals in a show of undemocratic nastiness erupts.

As for Elizabeth May, long may she stew. She may not have the opportunity this time around to be present during the televised major party leaders' debate. Evidently it was largely felt last time around she added nothing of value to the debate; rather that her presence was detrimental in the exchange of ideas and information-values.

Her hubris in running against the Conservative-safe seat of Peter MacKay in Nova Scotia last time is only relatively reflected by her insistence that she is prepared to win the Saanich-Gulf Islands seat, and finally take her place in the House of Commons, from where it will be a short leap to the PMO.

What a collective performance. Yawn.

Power To Power

Quebec is pathetic. It signed a historical energy deal with Newfoundland decades ago that proved to be costly to Newfoundland, while ensuring that Quebec reaped the benefits. It refused to re-negotiate the pricing that Newfoundland signed on to with Joey Smallwood thinking the was doing something positive for his province, not realizing the shark instincts of Quebec's entitlements.

And there the matter stood, with resentment emanating from Newfoundland over the unfairness of it all, and Quebec feeling complacently entitled to its profits. And then Newfoundland found its own provincial energy source and became a "have" province, much to Quebec's chagrin. And discovered with its own bold determination it was capable of surmounting Quebec's claims to pre-eminence in hydro energy.

"This is a day of great historic significance to Newfoundland and Labrador as we move forward with development of the Lower Churchill project, on our own terms and free of the geographic stranglehold of Quebec which has for too long determined the fate of the most attractive clean energy project in North America," said Premier Williams. "The benefits of this project for our province will be enormous, including thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of economic activity. From day one, our government has taken a long-term, strategic approach to developing this project. Our priorities have remained steadfast; that is to achieve maximum benefits for our people, and to secure stable rates and markets with a good return for the people of this province. This agreement achieves these goals and also solidifies a mutually beneficial partnership with Emera Inc. and the Province of Nova Scotia. Today marks the beginning of a new era of Atlantic Canadian cooperation and together we are telling the marketplace both in Canada and the United States that badly needed competition in the hydroelectric marketplace is on the way."

The Lower Churchill hydroelectric project, an agreement between Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia for a new energy consortium that would benefit the Atlantic Provinces and cut into Quebec's revenue source quickly became a source of belligerent irritation between the provinces. Newfoundland and Nova Scotia sought backing from the federal government for loan guarantees for the $6.2-billion project, against Quebec's protests.

And finally, on the re-election campaign trail, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has given his support for the project, promising loan guarantees to the Newfoundland government in support of the Lower Churchill. "We will consider financial support to projects that are of national or regional importance, have economic and financial merit and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We will do this in a way that is equitable across every region of Canada."

Well, hurrah!

But this doesn't suit Quebec, its nose is definitely out of joint, anticipating lost revenues from its customers who now have alternate energy-source options. The government of Quebec has issued warning it will impact on the federal election campaign should the federal government dare offer funding for the Lower Churchill. "Our government has always been clear we will not let the federal government interfere to offer financial support for the construction of transmission lines", Premier Jean Charest addressed his legislature.

But it's set to go. The project will, on completion, send power from Labrador's Lower Churchill River to Newfoundland, then on to Nova Scotia through underwater cables across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. And Quebec can go gnash its teeth in frustration. Its attitude is an affront to Confederation.

Top 20 Photos From the Gulf that Obama Doesn't Want You to See

It's Day 74 and President Barack Obama is laser-focused -- spending every waking moment -- on the Gulf oil spill. Uhm, plus comprehensive immigration reform. And firing general officers who insult his battered image. Oh, and regulating CO2 emissions, too.

Although Obama appears to have ordered a media blackout of the Gulf disaster, a relative few shocking photos have leaked out thanks to enterprising area residents. You won't be seeing these in your local paper, that's for sure.




















Maybe after Key West, Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale are coated in oil, the President will begin paying attention.


Cross-posted at: Doug Ross @ Journal.