Stephen Taylor

Mr. Kilgour shouldn’t think that he’s among friends in the Liberal Party. Those Grits sure can be mean to their own, or former own, especially when it serves their special interests or they feel slighted.

David Kilgour left the Liberals because of their institutionalized corruption. Today Paul Martin Liberals are doing everything they can think of to entice him back to vote with the government on motion(s) of non-confidence.

However, they weren’t that pleased with him, not all that long ago. One of my Conservative insiders tells me that senior Liberal staffers were burning Kilgour and tarnishing his reputation.

While Kilgour deserves much credit for getting Prime Ditherer Paul Martin to pay attention to the crisis in Sudan, senior Liberals previously ratted out Kilgour to the Conservative Party concerning what they called Kilgour’s ‘other adventures in Africa’. In fact, senior Liberals claim that the PMO was called in to clean up the mess.

This information came to the Conservatives before the Liberals desperately needed Kilgour’s vote to support the survival of their corrupt government and before he quit the party. Some Liberals ratted on Kilgour when he was one of their own! Now they depend on the Honourable member’s vote. Mr. Kilgour should know that his “friends” in the Liberal party attempted to destroy his reputation.

Politics does make for strange bed fellows!

UPDATE: Just saw David Kilgour on CBC’s The Hour. Kilgour always appears to me as a nice guy and a genuine MP who believes in his issues. This makes me less likely to believe the Liberal slander.

Uh oh…

Mustachioed leader of the NDP Jack Layton is trying to appeal to Quebeckers again, by selling out Canadian unity. Layton wants to redefine Canadian federalism and endorses a combination of “Quebec’s national character” and the “federal Canadian state”.

We’ve heard of creative solutions such as the Belgium approach to federalism, but Layton is sure to scare many in Canada with his talk of the “Quebec nation”.

Does Layton believe that he’ll pick up seats in Quebec, in competition with the left-wing separatists, when he himself starts speaking in their political language?

While Quebec should have more autonomy to make its own decisions, use of the term “nation” is misplaced.

“I know that the Quebec wing is in the middle of adopting an interesting proposition on the place of the Quebec nation in an asymmetric, co-operative and flexible Canada” — Jack Layton

Is this the Clarity flub redux?

UPDATE: Welcome SDA readers! Thanks Kate for the “smalldeadanimalanche” 😉 (you heard it here first, folks)

Prime Minister Paul Martin has signed over a paltry $5.75 Billion over to Ontario to “address” the fiscal imbalance between Ontario and Ottawa.

First, that’s $5.75 Billion over 5 years… just over $1 Billion a year back to Ontario.

Second, McGuinty puts the fiscal “gap” at $23 Billion.

If Ontario sends 23 Billion more dollars to Ottawa than it receives, it now can say that the gap stands at $21.85 Billion.

Not much of a difference. This hardly addresses the fiscal imbalance.

So, what does this deal amount to? Positive optics for the Prime Minister who has gone on a spending spree before he inevitably faces the electorate this year. McGuinty can hardly claim that he got a good deal. While Ontario and Alberta are the only “have” provinces under the current equalization formula, Ontario is where the Liberal swing votes are. Alberta can keep dreaming for rectification of the fiscal imbalance under a federal Liberal government.

While provincial debts mount, premiers face angry voters. However, the federal Liberals are lauded when they announce record surpluses.

I believe that most of this country’s problems are rooted in the fiscal imbalance. Consider Quebec’s demands for greater provincial autonomy and power over their own finances, take Newfoundland’s anger with Ottawa concerning offshore oil revenue, and look at the economic reconfiguration of Ontario’s healthcare and education services under Harris, Eves and now McGuinty.

Martin cannot simply buy Ontario voters with a fraction of their own money. The Conservative Party should run their non-Adscam campaign on addressing the fiscal imbalance; it is one of their greatest strengths.

Perhaps the Conservative Party slogan could be:

“It’s the fiscal imbalance, stupid”