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• What the hell is going on with the NDP in Quebec and Micheline Montreuil?
  

  Please read this article and tell me what you think. There are some pretty serious claims of discrimination here which I sincerely hope aren't true. However the underlying issue doesn't change even if Micheline wasn't discriminated against:

  Why is our party overturning the decisions made by a Riding Association?

  I hereby demand that the party explains itself, and if necessary take action to remedy this situation. I anticipate this might be a point of miscommunication, but if this is anywhere near the truth, we have to demand better!

• I love quirky footnotes; Thomas Mulcair's moment of brilliance
  

  If I were to abruptly summarize the disscussions surrounding Thomas Mulcair it might look like this:

  "he's a former Liberal-liberal with far too moderate an outlook to represent the political left"

  In fact that has usually been it for the discussion, meanwhile those who see no such issue are carrying on their business. Those who see him as a vibrant addition to the NDP team are usually equalliy abivalent to the discussion.

  It remains to be seen whether Mulcair is a Neo-liberal wolf in sheeps clothing. Nevertheless his work in Quebec and in the caucus must be appreciated. He has to earn the trust of the rank and file, and I don't expect he'll do it by throwing out his political history. Rather by owning it, and demostrating his feistiness he's likely to proove himself as dependable and reliable.

  So it is. However, maybe articles like this can offer some insight into what makes Mulcair tick... especially in the footnotes:

  "It is ironic that many who have made intolerant and sometimes overtly racist statements now come to the defense of women’s rights. There is a certain parallel here with those who defend the military intervention in Afghanistan in the name of women’s rights at the same time as those governments systematically attack the gains that women have made in their own countries."

• 5 Easy ways to help Tom get to Ottawa!
  

  With your support, Tom King and Jack Layton’s NDP can win in Guelph. Show your support either by volunteering, taking a lawn sign or making a donation.

  1. Take a sign

  Taking a sign during the campaign is an easy way to show your support. It's free, effective, and we deliver it early in the campaign.

  2. Volunteer

  Volunteering for Tom's campaign will help get the NDP message out to more people. By offering a little time before and during the campaign, you can help to grow the NDP community in Guelph!

  3. Donate

  Your donation helps build an even stronger NDP — today and for the next election. Your donation to Tom King’s campaign is eligible for a generous tax receipt.

  4. Join

  Canadians from all parts of the country are joining Canada’s NDP because they want Parliament to work and get results for people.

  5. Connect

  Endorse Tom, tell your friends, subscribe to the Tom's podcast, join a Facebook group, and sign up for the Guelph NDP eNews. Host Tom for a meet-and-greet in your neighbourhood is a great opportunity to share views and learn more about Tom!

• Jim "Cap-in-hand" Flaherty's disingenuous ploy flops, suprized?
  

  There is nothing more cute, more heart filling, or tear-jerking than to see an honest politician consult and confer with the country to determine the course of the economy. Of course, I didn't see that today. History repeated itself today when finance minister and Mike Harris throwback #4 humiliated the Canadian public with his CEO's Pet approach to economic policy. His plea to manufacturers to reduce prices for the changing value of the Candian dollar was nothing more than a dramatic ruse.

  If your memory needs a jog, please refer back to March of this year, when NDP MPs on the finance committee fought for ATM fees to be eliminated. Flaherty, indeed cap-in-hand, went to the big banks and asked them to consider it voluntarily. They told him to stuff it.

  However, I think he knew that-- afterall he needed a clear political conscience. Flaherty can now say he's worked on it, and brought the issue to a resolution. It's the disengenuous and cynical behaviour of the entire Conservative government which gridlocks progressive minority opposition motions and committee work in political spin. If this tactic is familiar, it's because it's been used in Ontario by Liberals to sabotage the Proportional Representation movement. Across the nation do-nothing, lassais-faire, and morally bankrupt policians are doing nothing in a whole new way

  What's particularly telling is the timing with which Flaherty took to making a demogogary of the public interest. The soaring dollar has been on what might be a short-lived vacation above the USD- it may hold, it may not and please don't ask me for predictions. Today however it took a tumble and inched (metrically of course) closer to the USD. Whether it was a good idea to lower costs or not is irrelevant, because Flaherty knew what their answer would be either way. We're nolonger sitting at the same table as the CCCE, Retail Council of Canada, or the Canadian mega-Banks-- we're begging at the front gate, and Flaherty is the security guard.

• Comencify the Britcoms
  

  "... and what friends do for each other? They process each other's nuclear waste. Tell them it's very profitable, and entirely safe... Which it is"

  I have become enamoured with a new BBC Britcom Hyperdrive. You know that awesome Zombie movie called Shaun of the Dead? Yes well Ed is now a starship captain in a Red Dwarf-like, laughtrack-less, action-packed, hilarious show.

  The show is styled similar to Corner Gas, yet another genious Canadian sitcom. However, some highlights for me include that the entirely 'unusual suspects'.

  Anyways, if you are in Canada, without cable, or TV, or a life-- and worst of all with no BBC I highly recommend this show.

  I suppose I could also go to sleep, but where's the fun in that?!

• A Secure and Prosperous foreign policy
  

  The Daily Show's John Stewart takes on American foreign policy, and helps to break down the rhetoric of Security and Prosperity: oppression and exploitation.

• Agent Provocateur
  

  Ottawa Indymedia offers some coverage of the Montebello SPP protest. The mainstream media has barely covered this, and is not likely to budge on the real stories such as this one. Bless the internet in all it's glory.
  

  Police provocateurs at Leaders Summit?

  Stuart Trew, 21.08.2007 09:03

  On August 20, in the Green Zone protest outside the Leaders Summit in Montebello, Quebec, the president of the Canadian Energy and Paperworkers union, Dave Coles, confronted what could be rock-throwing police agents posing as legitimate protesters.

  On August 20, in the Green Zone protest outside the Leaders Summit in Montebello, Quebec, the president of the Canadian Energy and Paperworkers union, Dave Coles, confronted what could be rock-throwing police agents posing as legitimate protesters. As seen in the video by filmmaker Paul Manley (linked below), Coles ends up diffusing a potential incident. But at the end of the scuffle, the riot police just let the two masked men through the line, and the arrest appears to be staged. Other anarchist protesters in the crowd are convinced that at least one of the men is a police officer, a provocateur working for one of the security forces who was instructed to shake things up to justify the police response.

• 98km/177km; Camp NeeKauNis' 75th anniversary weekend (part 1)
  

  Disclaimer: this post explains my journey to Camp NeeKauNis this weekend. I highly recommend reading this to get a sense of the full-experience, though it is highly bike oriented. The post