Stephen Taylor

Canadians might have thought that the budget showdown was over when Chuck Cadman stood, chewing his gum, to vote to keep the government alive in the closest confidence vote in Canadian history.

But, it’s not over yet. The budget still has to go through the finance committee, on which the Liberals and NDP lack majority influence. Tories plan to examine the budget bill and the NDP amendment very closely and stretch out the committee work to push the 3rd reading past the summer Parliamentary recess date.

Why would they do this? The answer is simple and amounts to some simple parliamentary strategy. Jack Layton, fresh off of his first taste of power, made a public statement declaring that the budget bills should pass before the summer break or the Liberals will lose NDP support. So, what does this mean for the Conservatives? Divorce the NDP from the Liberals by stalling the budget in committee, allow the NDP to take the high-ground by letting them say to the public that “they tried to make Parliament work”, and leave the Liberals without a final vote on the budget.

The NDP will respond by demanding that Parliament work through the summer, and depending on the polls, the summer break might be cancelled.

However, if the polls show a strong Liberal lead, the Grits may table their own confidence motion staging their own demise and will run on the budget that almost was. Conservatives may try to bank upon this by counting upon low summer pro-corruption turnout versus a high(er) summer anti-corruption voter turnout. While the Labrador byelection saw a predictable Liberal win, it saw an increase in voter turnout, which mostly turned out to vote Conservative.

Allow defeat before the summer break to force an election in the middle of summer? The NDP might just go for it if they’ve matured into their own party, instead of cheap Liberal backups.

From the “not at all helping things” department, comes a chilling political endorsement from Iran’s supreme spiritual leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei through his spokesman Hojatolislam Gholam Reza Hasani.

“You need to vote for Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani,” said Hasani. “This way we will finally be able to have for ourselves the atomic bomb”

Rafsanjani was previously President of Iran from 1989-1997 and was a special and trusted advisor to Ayatollah Khomeini. The influential Iranian politician served on the Revolutionary Council at the founding of the new Islamic Republic

He is considered a front-runner in the Iranian presidential election to be held on June 17th.

I’ll just sit back and let the headline in the Globe and Mail do the talking:

Pollution rising in Canada, declining in U.S., watchdog finds

“But how can Canada fail at something so noble and so just as environmental protection, especially in comparison with the big bad United States”, you might say? Well, sorry to shake your myopic Liberal-induced self-aggrandizing worldview, but it seems George W. Bush is doing more to reduce environmental pollution than Canada’s Liberal Party.

Check it…

The direct release of dangerous pollutants — including lead — into the environment increased by 5 per cent in Canada during a five-year study period, the Commission for Environmental Co-operation of North America reported yesterday.

During the same period, on-site pollution levels in the United States decreased by 14 per cent, said the commission, which the governments of Canada, the United States and Mexico established to monitor North American environmental trends.

Some truth is offered to counter the Liberals’ Canadian bedtime story:

The study’s conclusions, therefore, will surprise those who believe the rhetoric of Canadian politicians, said John Bennett of the Sierra Club of Canada.

(Yes, that Sierra Club)

“Our politicians talk a better game” about cleaning up the environment, he said. “But when the Americans act, they usually act much more strongly.”

In fact, U.S. anti-pollution laws, especially the federal Clean Air Act, have been more effective than Canada’s patchwork of federal and provincial regulations, he added.

This record is shameful and we, as Canadians, must demand better from our government to reduce environmental pollution. The Conservative Party of Canada proposed a “made in Canada clean air initiative” last year during the federal election campaign. It’s time to take another look at a real plan for environmental protection, instead of the Liberal plan which, in practice, does little to reduce environmental pollutants and buys billions of dollars worth of carbon dioxide credits from India and China.