Faceless Voting - Religious Accommodation To The Extreme

Can you vote wearing a KKK hood? What about a bank-robber face cover or a Halloween mask? You'd think the answer is obvious and generally, that's the way it is. Unless...

One more thing: in some cases one can vote without showing any appropriate ID whatsoever. All it takes is for someone else with an ID to vouch for the unidentified voter. Combined with the vague rules on faceless voting, it leaves the door wide open to electoral fraud.

NDP Accepts Contributions From US Unions

Honesty? Integrity? Ethics? Accountability? Transparency? Yeah, right!

OTTAWA - A U.S.-based union's financial contributions to the New Democrats in Canada have raised some questions for the party's federal branch.

The United Steelworkers of America's headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pa., filed paperwork with the U.S. Department of Labor that shows tens of thousands of dollars sent to the NDP in Ottawa between 2007 and 2010.

Records show the American union sent $5,000 last year, more than $39,000 in 2009, $8,500 in 2008, and in excess of $17,000 in 2007 to the New Democratic Party of Canada or the New Democrats of Canada.

While union contributions to provincial political parties are legal, they were banned along with corporate donations at the federal level in 2007.

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Not to mention that this was a US union. What do you think would happen if the Conservatives were caught receiving donations from a US-based lobbyist organization? (Let alone - from one that arm-twists people into being its members?) Heck, rumors alone were enough to accuse Harper of receiving illegal campaign contributions. Remember that incident with Elections Canada raiding a Conservative party office and seizing computers? I wouldn't be surprised if even now there are still those accusing Harper of not providing a complete list of those who contributed to his leadership campaign 8 years ago.

But what typically means a long-lasting scandal (if not worse) for the Conservatives, is apparently a-ok for the NDP:

Steelworkers and NDP officials tell QMI Agency there's nothing wrong with the union's contributions.

They insist the paperwork filed in the U.S. simply isn't labelled properly and that in all but one case union money actually went to provincial NDP associations.

Officials say the only exception was in 2009 when most of the money was actually to cover the USW's sponsorship of the federal NDP's Halifax convention.

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What's that? Did they say there's nothing wrong with a US union sponsoring a Canadian political party?! That's not just wrong, that's illegal, darn it! Oh, sure, it was the provincial NDP where all the money went; the federal party didn't receive anything, well, maybe just once, that doesn't count, does it? By the way, since when the provincial laws actually allow political contributions from foreign entities, be that unions, corporations, individuals or lobby groups?

Also, since when the federal NDP and their provincial branches actually happen to be separate entities? Sure, they may be registered as such, but they operate as two parts of the same whole; you can't be a member of one and not of the other, because their membership is handled through the provincial wings of the party. An argument that "all the money went to the provincial party" is therefore nothing but a bookkeeping trick. It may be enough to satisfy an auditor, but the very fact that what's now the leading party of the left has to resort to such bookkeeping tricks to shelter unlawful political contributions is indeed disturbing.

The NDP tries to portray itself as a political party that is determined to bring integrity, accountability and transparency to the House of Commons. Now it looks like they owe their reputation of being "scandal-free" to a mere lack of opportunities.

NDP - Do We Even Know What It Stand For?

First of all - why do they keep hiding their party constitution? Maybe there's something in there that they don't want us to see?

By the way, the URL that appears in the video (http://www.ndp.ca/ndp-durpal/files/CONST03.pdf) no longer works. They must have hidden their constitution someplace else. Secret agenda anyone?

The preamble to the constitution says:

"The principles of democratic socialism can be defined briefly as: That the production and distribution of goods and services shall be directed to meeting the social and individual needs of people within a sustainable environment and economy and not to the making of profit; To modify and control the operations of the monopolistic productive and distributive organizations through economic and social planning. Towards these ends and where necessary the extension of the principle of social ownership;"

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Here you have it. In other words - the NDP wants businesses to merely break even, if not to operate at loss with the help of "social planning" and "social ownership". And don't get too excited about their promise to reduce small business rate: it will come with the "cap-and-trade" scheme that will effectively place even higher tax burden on businesses.

If NDP Leader Jack Layton wins a minority government May 2, supported by the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois, he plans to make Canadians pay a new charge estimated at $21.5 billion over the next four years for the right to emit man-made carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Under Layton’s proposed cap-and-trade plan, this money will be paid by ordinary Canadians in higher retail costs for goods and services, along with job layoffs and lower salaries and benefits for workers.

Layton’s plan is to impose cap-and-trade on us soon after the NDP takes power.

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So much about helping small businesses. And let's not forget: the corporate tax - that's just how much it costs to keep the money in the business. Most of the tax applies when the money is distributed to the shareholders in form of dividends. And that's where the NDP policies of taxing the "high income" (e.g. anyone who earns above the poverty line) will come into play. Whatever the businesses won't pay through "reduced" business taxes and the "cap and trade" cash grab, they'll pay on their personal tax return - through dividend taxes and "poverty reduction" surtaxes for the "rich".

As for their social policies - we all know where they stand on babies' right to life. So when Jack Layton promises "greater abortion access" (which means - to make abortion available in every walk-in clinic at taxpayer expense, screw the provincial medicare rules) - I doubt that could surprise anyone. But what about other issues, like foreign policy, environment, national unity?... Here's something that seems to be way too much for a party that positions itself as mainstream, populist, middle class. Let alone - for a party that is eager to form the government.

FiveFeetOfFury on Ezra's Show

Yes, things have finally started to change in the mainstream media. Finally, we have a channel that offers some media exposure to common sense bloggers - without trying to portray them as bible thumping, gun-toting extremists or as "paid professional brigands" of the Conservative party.

Here's Kathy Shaidle, the author of The Tyranny of Nice, on Ezra Levant's show:

H/t Blazing Cat Fur.

Get Rid Of Destructive Human Rights Commissions

Kathy Shaidle on yet another act of power abuse by the freedom-snatching "human rights" commissions. Note that this time the victim is not a Conservative journalist or a pro-family preacher. He is a stand-up comedian:

Did you hear the one about the country that fined a stand-up comic $15,000 for heckling back at a heckler?

Where? North Korea? One of the "dumber" regions of the U.S.?

No and no. The answer is: Canada.

On April 21, a verdict came down in a human rights tribunal case dating back to 2007. That was when Guy Earle, a stand-up comic, got into an altercation with a couple who’d dropped in on his open mike night.

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And, as if the fine was not enough the Orwellian tribunal slapped Guy with a life-time ban from performing in BC. All in the name of tolerance, multiculturalism and human rights, of course... Heck, these kangaroo courts make McCarthyism look like a Teddy Bears' picnic.

Layton-Led Coalition?! Lord Have Mercy On Us All...

With the NDP surging in the polls and the Conservatives stuck in mid-30s - that's what EKOS projects:

While numbers could still change significantly in the final week of the campaign, Graves said current figures suggest the NDP could take a “breathtaking” 100 seats. With that count, the once-unthinkable scenario of a Layton-led coalition with the Liberals begins to emerge, he said.

“It’s hard to imagine a 130-seat diminished Harper government would be able to hold on to power against a clear majority of seats and a major advantage in popular support for the NDP and the Liberals,” Graves said. “The idea that you could have a Jack Layton-led coalition sounds preposterous, but that’s what the numbers suggest.”

Current numbers would likely produce 131 seats for the Conservatives and about 69 for the Liberals, according to Graves. Together, the NDP and Liberals would have a clear majority with 38 more seats than the Conservatives, as well as a collective 20 more points in popular vote.

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I still remember what Ontario looked like after 5 years of Bob Rae's NDP rule. If the NDP seizes power on the Federal level, things will be much, much worse.

With the Snake Oil Jack in charge, say goodbye to your rights and freedoms - Mr Layton and the NDP see nothing wrong with the freedom-snatching "human rights" commissions taking away our freedom of speech as well as our right to a fair trial. Here in New Brunswick, we'll be forced to fund private clinic abortions on demand with our tax money; maybe they'll even succeed in enshrining abortion into the Charter. That was Paul Martin's idea, but the NDP is far more pro-abortion than Paul Martin's Liberals. (P.S. The ill-famous injunction that prohibits peaceful pro-life witnessing near abortion mills - that was brought in by the Ontario NDP government.)

Equality? They like that word. Back in early 1990s, when Bob Rae government made ethnic quotas mandatory, "whites need not apply" became the official hiring policy in Ontario. With the Federal NDP in charge, expect the "no whites and cockroaches allowed" footnote to appear on every help wanted ad from coast to coast. Considering that the NDP also proposes to boost business taxes - with the predictable effect on real (private sector) jobs - of course they'll have to hold those few that will have left for the special interest groups.

If you are upset about deficits - brace yourself for plenty more of them. In spite of all the tax hikes they propose, Layton and his team plan to return to balanced budgets no earlier than 2015/16 - 2 years later than the Conservatives. And, of course, they won't forget about "Canada's role in the world", by which they mean siphoning money from the taxpayers to their friends in the "Socialist International".

The private member bill C-311, to force the protocols of the elders of Kyoto on Canada, came from the NDP. And there was another bill, C-389, that would enshrine one's perverse desire to use the opposite sex dressing rooms as a fundamental human right. And they also want a mammoth state-run union-controlled McDaycare network, where they and all their supporters and think-alikes will have unrestricted power to indoctrinate our children into their values. Heck if these folks ever seize power - it will be even worse than president O$@ma south of the border.

The only hope is that all those speculations about coalition (especially - the one led by the NDP) will send a wake-up call to all those Conservatives that have decided that Harper is not Conservative enough for them; to all those right-wing voters that plan to cast a protest vote or not to vote at all. Hopefully, they realize what's at stake and get out and vote. The best protest vote we can cast this election - is a protest vote against the radical leftist coalition.

Baby Joseph Is Breathing On His Own

The baby defied all those who regarded him as a write-off by being able to breathe completely on his own:

On behalf of Baby Joseph’s family, Brother O’Donnell told LifeSiteNews that that their son was weaned off ventilator support 12 days ago and has been successfully breathing on his own since then.

Baby Joseph, who has been at the center of an international right-to-life debate over the past few months, has defied critics by responding so well to treatment. After the Ontario hospital treating Joseph’s progressive and terminal neurological disease threatened to remove his life support against his parents’ wishes earlier this year, pro-life groups rallied to Joseph’s cause.
...
“Our mission to save Baby Joseph and help his family was never based on any prediction of the future, but rather on the value of his life here and now. Our critics, on the other hand, looking into the crystal ball that ‘right to die’ advocates seem to always think they have, claimed our intervention was futile because Joseph would only end up having a machine do his breathing for him,” said Fr. Pavone.

“We don’t have to answer their criticism; Joseph is doing that for us, with every breath he takes,” continued Fr. Pavone. “Baby Joseph’s victory over the culture of death is especially powerful now, as we prepare for Easter, a time when Christians everywhere celebrate Jesus’ victory over death.”

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I wonder what will be the reaction of all those involved in the case when they hear the news about baby Joseph. Of those "doctors" that didn't care about their little patient, that kept refusing to perform much needed surgery, insisting on removing the baby's life instead; of those judges that, by siding with the hospital, practically handed down a death sentence for an innocent baby; of all those who up until the last minute tried to block the baby's transfer to a US hospital, who wanted an implied "right to die" to become a duty...

Will they realize how close they came to murdering an innocent baby? Will they regret their attempts to deliberately kill him just weeks ago? Or will they try to justify their actions by claiming that baby Joseph isn't much more than a "blob of tissue" and that his life wasn't as valuable as the life of some other patient who needed the hospital bed and the equipment then used by baby Joseph?...

Save The Earth, Kill The Humans? An Inconvenient Truth For "An Inconvenient Truth"

Mark Steyn weighs in on the Gaia worshiping cult. The article was published 5 years ago, but not much has changed since.

Here's an inconvenient truth for "An Inconvenient Truth": Remember what they used to call "climate change"? "Global warming." And what did they call it before that? "Global cooling." That was the big worry in the '70s: the forthcoming ice age. Back then, Lowell Ponte had a huge best seller called The Cooling: Has the new ice age already begun? Can we survive?

The answer to the first question was: Yes, it had begun. From 1940 to 1970, there was very slight global cooling. That's why the doom-mongers decided the big bucks were in the new-ice-age blockbusters.

And yet, amazingly, we've survived. Why? Because in 1970 the planet stopped its very slight global cooling and began to undergo very slight global warming. So in the '80s, the doom-mongers cast off their thermal underwear, climbed into the leopardskin thongs, slathered themselves in sun cream and wired their publishers to change all references to "cooling" to "warming" for the paperback edition. That's why, if you notice, the global-warming crowd begin their scare statistics with "since 1970," an unlikely Year Zero which would not otherwise merit the significance the eco-crowd invest in it.

But then in 1998 the planet stopped its very slight global warming and began to resume very slight global cooling. And this time the doom-mongers said, "Look, do we really want to rewrite the bumper stickers every 30 years? Let's just call it 'climate change.' That pretty much covers it."

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There's more on the history repeating (and the global warming reverting to global cooling) in this SunTV interview. And here's something you don't see every day - Ezra Levant celebrates Lenin's birthday "Earth Day" - his own way :)

Happy Easter everyone!

Campaign Life Candidate Evaluations

Advance voting begins tomorrow, so if you still haven't found out who is who in your riding - check out this resource. Too bad however that in many ridings, the choice is between three (or more) staunchly pro-abortion, anti family candidates from the left and an "unknown" Conservative who wasn't allowed to respond to the CLC questionnaire. Unless he is an incumbent who has a strong pro-life, pro-family voting record, we're offered a mere lesser evil.

Still, I'm not ready to cast a protest vote. I know that many wouldn't approve of my choice, yet let's not forget: There is a political party that decided not to proceed with the inquiry on whether New Brunswick abortion funding policy violates the Canada Health Act and there's another party that had launched that inquiry in the first place. There is a political party that managed to pass a resolution in support of the Unborn Victims of Crime Act at its policy convention and there's another one whose leader once proposed to enshrine abortion in the Charter. The party that succeeded to remove at least some of the abortion funding from the maternal health aid package versus the party that responded with the motion condemning the abortion funding cuts and denied its MPs to vote their conscience...

Well, you got the idea. We can't have a perfect, right of centre pro-life pro-family government, I know that. Maybe next election. For now, the choice is between the government that may take baby steps in the right direction and the coalition of the three left-wing parties that will only make things worse. I chose the former.

The Value Of Ethical Oil

Ezra Levant discusses the BP oil spill. Not the biggest oil spill ever. Not the most environmentally damaging (nowhere near the "worst in history"). But the one that received a lot more publicity than any other oil-related accident. Can we call it the "ethical oil spill"? Watch the video (I wish I could embed it here) and see for yourself.

Child Murder Preserved By Today's War Against Science

The title alone says it all, doesn't it?

This is probably one reason why abortion is so strongly supported by humanists – because the case for abortion is a militant case against evidence, science and reason, and one of the strongest forces against science today is Humanism.

(No Apologies)

There are scientific facts - that life begins at conception, that abortion kills a baby and that it damages the mother's health. And there's the abortion lobby with its supporters of all stripes and their lies about legal and "safe" abortions:

Abortionists in this country are actively burying risk research just as tobacco companies did many decades ago. There are now literally piles of genuine medical research which show what most would deem dire elevated risks from abortion -- not just to the baby killed in the procedure -- but to the woman and also to the future siblings of the aborted baby.

Just as tobacco companies once deep-sixed any negative research on the smoker's health and well-being, abortionists and their extensive lobbying web of far-left, social-engineering "feminists" now scamper to squelch every new research study which demonstrates elevated risk associated with their killing-field business model. In this diabolical scheme, abortionists are far, far worse than tobacco companies could ever have been, if only for the single reason that abortion is controlled not by known capitalistic corporations, but by the very people whom the public trusts for its healthcare.

We give our medical doctors all benefit of doubt and trust them implicitly to tell the truth, the whole truth as they know it and nothing but the truth -- every single time.

Not even the most deluded ninny ever went to a tobacco shop seeking trustworthy medical advice.

No, that kind of trust is reserved to the medical community. So, when medical practitioners are less than fully truthful about risks to their wholly personal and invasive procedures, the public has a due right to be not only dumbfounded but outraged at the professional betrayal.

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It's because of their betrayal, the pro-aborts can get away with using euphemisms such as "reproductive health" (or even - "maternal health") to describe nothing but abortions on demand.

Ezra Levant's "Opening Rant" On SunTV

Too bad I can't embed Ezra Levant's presentation. Just follow this link to hear it in full. Meanwhile here's just one quote:

When someone is threatening you for speaking your mind we'll be there to help you fight the battle for freedom

This is Sun News Network. Not a "Fox News North", but a made in Canada independent television network, determined to break the monopoly of the club of think-alikes, otherwise known as the Canadian mainstream media.

P.S. Here's one of their first reports - Fixing Canada's Broken Healthcare System. Something you won't find on the CBC.

Liberal Agenda: Control What You Can't Shut Down

During the debates, Ignatieff accused the Conservatives of trying to shut down everything they can't control. Well, here's an example of just the opposite - how the Liberals try to control everything they can't shut down. And, unlike Ignatieff's accusations, we're not talking about mere withholding of public funds to a supposedly charitable organization. We're talking about the situation when Ontario Liberals can't officially dismantle the province's Catholic education system - so they chose to take it under full control, devoiding it of its Christian values, leaving nothing but name only of its Catholic identity:

The Code covers 15 grounds including “systemic discrim­ination for gender issues” (p. 6). With the full approval of the then-Minister of Education, self-confessed lesbian Kathleen Wynne, schools and education are now OHRC’s main field: it oversees the complaints, initiates discipline, and controls the collection of data. It covers everything in schools: policies, leadership, relationships, religion, discrimination, account­ability, transparency, etc. (p. 9).

The document makes clear that “The Code has primacy over the Education Act,” (page 11).

Nota bene: This is important. The Education Act ac­knowledges the public school and Catholic and French school systems in Ontario as autonomous systems with their own authorities. This Act was again approved and constitutionally guaranteed in 1982 when Canada’s BNA Act was repatriated from Britain.

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Well, if it was possible for the Liberals and their allies on the left to elevate those "human rights" commissions above our constitutional rights - elevating Orwellian tribunals above the Constitution itself is just the next logical step in achieving their goal of controlling everything they can't shut down.

40 Days For Life Vigil - Lives Are Being Saved

According to the 40 Days for Life website - 432 babies that we know of:

On another day recently, two volunteers were praying when a woman in her mid-20s walked out of the abortion center — in tears.

She walked over to the people praying and said, “Don’t worry. I didn’t get an abortion.”

...

A couple was seated in the front, and their children were in the back. The mother spoke to the prayer volunteers in a somewhat abrupt manner. “I’m pro-choice,” she said. “Why should I be pro-life?”

The vigil participants answered, covering many points. But the woman didn’t seem convinced.

So the vigil coordinator asked her, “May I pray with you?” She answered “yes,” and they prayed.

One of the others then offered the woman information about the local pregnancy resource center, which she took.

The prayers must have had an effect.

“Choice might be fine for someone else,” the woman said. “But I’m keeping my baby.”

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These are the most recent reports. The Lenten 40 Days for Life vigil ends tomorrow, but the message we send as well as our prayers, are here to stay:

May I also let you know some good news I have just received. It appears the number of abortions at both Chaleur Hospital and the Georges Dumont are signficantly less in 2010-11 compared to 2009-10!!! I am waiting to confirm exact numbers but it looks like about 100 less for all hospitals. Maybe all the fuss some of us have made -with 40 Days for Life etc. - have borne fruit! Thanks be to God. Let us thank him for that, and ask him to help us save all the precious little ones.

(From New Brunswick Right to Life e-mail release.)

Obviously, we wouldn't dare to attribute this change in its entirety to our vigil. But if it turns out that there was at least one woman choosing life and at least one little New Brunswicker that was given a chance to see daylight thanks to our 40 Days for Life vigil, then our efforts last fall weren't in vain.

Green Party Leader - "Very Militant" In Promoting Abortion

Rebuking her own statement from five years ago (in which she tried to position herself as "personally opposed" to abortion, yet unwilling to take any steps to abolish it,) the Green party leader Elizabeth May reaffirmed her commitment to unrestricted abortion on demand:

April 15, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Canada’s Green Party leader Elizabeth May says she is “very militant” about promoting “access to legal, safe abortions, whenever a woman needs one.”

In an interview this week with the Georgia Straight, she said her views have been “massively misreported” since she made some confusing statements in 2006 suggesting she was “against abortion.” “Being misreported on it has driven me slightly mad,” she said.

When she made the comments, she was simply trying to tell some nuns “why their belief in right to life means that they should support abortion,” she explained.

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So much about the politicians that are "personally against" whatever policy you can think of, yet have so little belief in their "personal" opposition, that, of course, they wouldn't dare to "force their beliefs on others" by voting against what they claim not to agree with.

Especially when it comes to the Green party of Canada. The one that has had the redefinition of marriage in its policy book since early 1990s - about which it was bragging so proudly back during the marriage debate. The one that was involved in numerous controversies concerning pro-population control candidates which referred to humanity as "cancer of the planet" and that still runs articles about how "we need to do something about population" right on its official website. Of course they have to support abortion - not so much as a personal choice, but as a backup plan in case birth control fails, as a mean to keep the population from growing. It's a part of their belief system.

Many voters see these green parties as protest political movements, led by environmentally conscious students and concerned citizens who love the planet. Unfortunately, very few are aware that the green vision of "loving the planet" often involves hating the people (born and preborn) who live on it.

Pro-Life Students Demand Judicial Review

Carleton University pro-life club asks the court to judicially review student union's decisions and policies:

The clubs status was revoked after CUSA acted on sections 5 and 6 of their Discrimination on Campus Policy. Section 6 reads, “CUSA further affirms that actions such as any campaign, distribution, solicitation, lobbying effort, display, event etc. that seeks to limit or remove a woman’s right to choose her options in the case of pregnancy will not be supported. As such, no CUSA resources, space, recognition or funding will be allocated for the purpose of promoting these actions”.

This section is in direct contravention of CUSA’s Constitution, which declares that CUSA will “promote and assist in maintaining an academic environment free from prejudice, exploitation, abuse or violence on the basis of… political affiliation or belief” (Article 2.1.d).

Carleton Lifeline exhausted the internal appeal mechanisms, culminating in a challenge of the decision and policy in a hearing before the CUSA Constitutional Board. In a meeting that did not follow CUSA’s own protocol, and violated policies, the Constitutional Board unanimously ruled against Carleton Lifeline’s challenge. On December 16, 2010, the Constitutional Board ruled in favour of the policies and upheld the ban on pro-life groups on campus.

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It's about time someone reminds those activist-run "student unions" that universities are not "Charter-free" zones and that union "anti-discrimination" policies can't override freedom of speech and freedom of association, let alone the right to a fair trial. But will the judges be willing to look at the case impartially and to find enough will to hold those Komsomol-like organizations to account?

Debates...

Ignatieff, bashing Harper, challenging him to "try" forming a government should he win another minority. Sure, all we need to do is just to cancel the last two installments of the business tax reductions - and there will be plenty of money for (insert long list of the Liberal spending priorities here). He's got a plan to battle crime and to enhance Canada's "role in the world": instead of "jets, jails and another word with J Iggy couldn't come up with", we need gun control and more funding for NGOs run by Liberal protegees...

Layton, being the most adequate of the three opposition party leaders, trying to play middle-class populist but sometimes letting his Marxist internationalist views slip out, especially when talking about Canada's "role in the world" and multiculturalism. He promises to reduce taxes for small businesses and to encourage job creation with tax incentives... Is this the same Jack Layton that wants to double the CPP payouts - with respective increase in premiums? And, talking about "large corporations", "big oil", "big banks" etc - it's about time he learns that the general corporate rate applies to all business profits above $500,000. In other words, a business with roughly 10 employees too counts as one of those evil large corporations.

"Gilles Duceppe as a prime minister of Canada - certainly not." - that's the only thing he said that actually made sense. Apart from that he sounded like an angry unemployed conspiracy theorist at a bus stop, trying to utter as much anti-Harper rants as possible while he still had the microphone. During his "one on one" with Harper on the economy, his typical argument was "this is not true". He bashed the government for treating Tamil stowaways as "second class refugees" - right after suggesting that multiculturalism doesn't fit in Quebec. (Apparently he was looking forward for those stowaway to fit someplace else in Canada.) And when he started nearly shouting into the microphone that Harper's government would abolish abortion - that wasn't even funny.

Fortunately, Harper didn't dignify that with response, although he did have to utter some token phrases about multiculturalism and Canada's "role in the world". Repeating the phrase "let me be clear" a little too often, he made it clear that he was the only person there with more or less common sense policies. And another thing that was certainly made clear is - if it's not Harper then its the other trio. Which might probably sound somewhat funny on stage, but united a coalition government, this leftist trio will be no laughing matter.

Update: Did Iggy paraphrase Mao?

Ontario Catholic Schools Becoming A Tool Of The Gay Lobby

They were lured by the temptation of having all expenses paid. They traded values for job security. They chose conformity over resistance, comfort over struggle - and the results are obvious:

Daniel Costain says that after 13 years of Catholic education, he has never heard one of his teachers quote the catechism, and suggests that many teachers don't seem to know what their Church teaches on issues like homosexuality.

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Instead, Catholic teachers' union is planning a $3M propaganda campaign against the Conservatives. The union executives literally snatch the money out of its members' pockets to defend the very same government that is staunchly anti-family, that forces its "equity policy" (which includes not just acceptance, but active celebration of abnormal behavior) on all schools including the Catholic ones, with no exceptions. (Ok, so the union big shots have long forgotten what the Catechism says about promiscuous and perverse relationships, but how about "Thou shall not steal"?!)

It became quite obvious that it would come to this some 10 years ago, when the courts used the "public funding" argument to force a Catholic school to let a perverse student bring his sexually deviant friend to the prom. But did anyone really expect the teachers, the school boards and all those other people in charge to contribute so actively to their own demise?

The Greatest Profession On Earth

The feminists hate it, just as they hate everything associated with it, including family-friendly tax breaks (which they regard as "a burden"). Real women however, think otherwise:

CINCINNATI, Ohio, April 4, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Not only do these six moms have 44 children between them, they are beautiful, vibrant, hardworking women on a mission to spread the beauty of what they deem “the greatest profession on earth”: motherhood.

Brought together by dynamic pro-life leader and mother of nine, Jenn Giroux, these six women began traveling the United States in February 2010, calling their presentation “Speaking of Motherhood.” They witness to women on college campuses, at women’s conferences, and even in high schools, presenting a “counter-cultural” view of motherhood.

Founder and former executive director of Human Life International America and founder of the Association of Large Families (AFLA), registered nurse Jenn Giroux holds an array of titles, but looks on her motherhood as the crowning achievement. Known for her speaking and writing on the spiritual and physical harms of contraception, Giroux’s plan for “Speaking of Motherhood” developed out of her public speaking.

“There is a huge need out there for us to show the positive side of motherhood and to once again elevate motherhood to the respect that it deserves,” Giroux said in a telephone interview with LifeSiteNews.com while traveling with her five companions to a speaking engagement. ”It is the greatest profession on earth for women and it has really been completely denigrated by the feminist movement.”

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But those mothers have a tremendous advantage over their opponents: unlike the feminist ideology (that can't last without doublethink,) family values and motherhood make the most sense.

Feminists are locked in a pre-1970s time warp, in which all women who stay at home are victims of someone else’s choice. The “problem” with family taxation isn’t that it “bribes” women to stay home. The problem, as Professor Lahey perhaps privately admits to herself, is that many women are only too thrilled to take some time off from paying work to raise their children, provided that option is economically realistic. Her problem is that the extra money (read freedom) provided by family taxation might mean “too many” women (as she, in her wisdom, defines it) make the “wrong” choice.

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People being able to leave at their own free will - that's what every utopian leftie fears the most. That's what put an end to the socialist rule in the Eastern Europe in 1989 and that's what will eventually put an end to the leftist social engineering in the Western world. All it takes is enough people willing to make it happen. The hard work which Jenn Giroux and her friends do to defend motherhood and family values, is an important step in the right direction.

Fast-Tracking End Of Deficit - Now You're Talking

Finally, we hear some promises from the Conservatives to tackle spending growth and to try to eliminate the deficit sooner than in 2015:

The newly released Tory platform calls for a review of government operations expected to cancel out $4 billion in spending in three years.

"Consolidating our fragmented computer system across government, I know we can save all kinds of money there. We've got 80,000 public servants retiring over the next few years. We don't need to replace all of them," said Harper, giving examples when he was challenged to describe where those cuts would come.

Factor those into Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's deficit projections from last March, and you end up with a $3.7-billion surplus by the 2014-15 fiscal year.

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That sounds like a good start. And allows us to look forward for the Conservatives to finally be Conservatives, if only they are given the opportunity to work without having to appease the opposition with every move.

But why stopping there? How about not replacing any of the 80,000 public servants scheduled to retire in the coming years? That will be a mere 2.2% reduction in Canada's 3.6-million strong public service, but with all the extra billions saved on wages and more than generous benefits, it would be possible to end the deficit if not a year earlier then at least by late 2013.

That in turn will prevent further increases in public debt, avoid burdening future budgets with even more interest payments and it will free up some room for the long-awaited second step towards ending tax discrimination against families. (Yes, I'm talking about the income splitting.) So, Mr. Harper, how about giving it a try?

Leaders' Debate: Send In Your Questions

From the Canadian Taxpayer's Federation e-mail release:

Dear Supporter:

CTV, Global TV, and CBC are hosting the federal leaders' debate scheduled for Tuesday, April 12th and are inviting questions from the public. It’s important they hear from taxpayers. Can you take a minute right now and send in a question or two? Here are some suggested topics:

1. Taxpayers pay $84.4-million a day on federal debt interest. Do you think this is a good use of tax dollars, and if not, why is there not more urgency around balancing the budget and paying down debt?

2. Will you commit to no tax increases during your term as prime minister?

3. Will you commit to not increasing your MP compensation in the next term or at least until the budget is balanced?

4. Will you commit to making the auditor general’s audit public on how Parliament spends half-a-billion tax dollars when it comes out later this year?

5. The federal government hands out billions in direct subsidies and loans to business in Canada. Instead of high business taxes, why not lower them for everybody and end subsides for select businesses and industries?

6. Employment in the civil service has grown by 3,700 bureaucrats since 2005, a 13% increase. Do you think this is responsible or sustainable given the deficit?

7. What plan do you have to address the costs associated with an aging population whereby fewer taxpayers support higher costs associated with social security and health care?

8. The tax-funded compensation of all elected officials in Canada is subject to public disclosure except elected officials on native reserves. Will you support a law requiring the compensation of reserve politicians be posted online?

9. MP Pensions are wildly out-of-line with public expectations. For every $1 contributed by an MP, taxpayers contribute $4. Is that reasonable? Don’t you think it’s time to reform pensions to a dollar-for-dollar arrangement as many provincial legislatures have done?

10. Senator Raymond Lavigne recently quit his job in order to hold onto his pension after being convicted of fraud and breach of trust. If elected, would you put in place the necessary reforms so that convicted fraudsters such as Lavigne would not get access to the taxpayer-funded portion of their pension?

Questions posed in your own words will have a better chance of being considered. Submission deadline is this Thursday, April 7th. Please e-mail questions to question@electiondebtate2011.ca, and be sure to include your name, address, and daytime telephone number.

Thanks for all you do,

--Courtenay, Shannon, Troy and the rest of the CTF team

Here's a great opportunity to forward an inconvenient question or two to the political party leaders. Especially - to the opposition and especially to Mr. Layton. He claims that "businesses can absorb the cost" of higher CPP premiums. I'd like to know who told him that.

As someone who was self-employed (and not once,) I know what it is like to pay 10% to a compulsory pension plan in exchange for a very vague promise of very little in a very distant future. Now he wants to raise that to 15-16% or higher? Let's hold him to an account. The time is running out (the deadline for questions is tomorrow,) so let's not miss the opportunity.

NB Cuts Taxpayer Funding To Provincial SOW Branch

Finally, we have a provincial government with the right set of priorities. Not only did they manage to slash the deficit more than in half without raising income taxes or the HST, but also they had the courage to cut taxpayer funding to advocacy groups, including the so called "advisory council on the status of women":

Premier Alward says the government would rather spend the funds on direct services than advocacy. He has also maintained that the council could continue operating with private funding, noting that most organizations in the province are not taxpayer-funded.

But Rosella Melanson, the council’s executive director, has complained that it would be difficult to raise funds.

Interim Liberal leader Victor Boudreau complained that by cutting the funding the government is “essentially muzzling every woman in the province of New Brunswick.”

But Landolt said these feminist advisory councils advocate radical views that most women would never support. “They represent nothing and their resolutions are irrelevant because they reflect no one but the personal views of the people sitting on the council,” she said.

She said they perpetuate the idea that women are “victims needing special care and treatment.” “Times have changed. Women on the whole are very competent and capable,” she explained. “Over 60% of university graduates are women. We’re quite capable of making our own minds.”

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There's absolutely no reason why the government should fund advocacy groups. Especially when the government is forced to decimate its capital budget and delay much needed tax reductions in order to bring the deficit under control. Those complaining about the government "muzzling women" better look at pro-life organizations that operate quite successfully even without public funding and learn from their example.

And another thing - if New Brunswick government is forced to spend hefty sums of taxpayers' money on legal defense against the Morgentaler's abortion mill and its ridiculous demands for public funds, it would only be fair if an advocacy group that openly sides with the abortion industry, is also forced to foot the bill.

40 Days For Life: 253 Babies Saved — That We Know Of

Let's not forget that the Lenten 40 Days for Life vigil still goes on. While the snap election campaign stole the spotlight in Canada, let's not forget about the devoted people who pray for the unborn in spite of the harassment from the pro-aborts and about the lives that their prayers have saved:

Thus far in the current 40 Days for Life campaign, there have been …
… 253 babies saved from abortion — that we know of!

It’s the “that we know of” part that gives me the greatest hope.

Who knows but the Lord Himself how many lives have been saved because Planned Parenthood can’t find an abortionist in Columbia, Missouri, where a 40 Days for Life vigil is going on?

Abortions have not taken place there since January!

Who knows how many lives have been spared because Golden Gate Health Care closed its abortion centers in San Francisco and San Mateo, where 40 Days for Life vigils have been held?

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The Helpers of God’s Precious Infants in Ottawa-Gatineau invite you to participate in the first Pro-Life Mass and Rosary Procession on Saturday April 9th, 2011. This is a pro-life procession with recitation of the Holy Rosary. If you can't attend - how about joining the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants spiritually and reciting the Holy Rosary at home?

The Failure Of Multiculturalism And How To Turn The Tide

Speech by Geert Wilders in Rome, on March 25th, 2011:

As Westerners, we share the same Judeo-Christian culture. I am from the Netherlands and you are from Italy. Our national cultures are branches of the same tree. We do not belong to multiple cultures, but to different branches of one single culture. This is why when we come to Rome, we all come home in a sense. We belong here, as we also belong in Athens and in Jerusalem.

It is important that we know where our roots are. If we lose them we become deracinated. We become men and women without a culture.

I am here today to talk about multiculturalism. This term has a number of different meanings. I use the term to refer to a specific political ideology. It advocates that all cultures are equal. If they are equal it follows that the state is not allowed to promote any specific cultural values as central and dominant. In other words: multiculturalism holds that the state should not promote a leitkultur, which immigrants have to accept if they want to live in our midst.

It is this ideology of cultural relativism which the German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently referred to when she said that multiculturalism has proved “an absolute failure.”

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Howard Rotberg from Canada Free Press is not as optimistic as Geert Wilders. He reminds us that failure to tell right from wrong could lead to the collapse of the Western Civilization. And he is right.

Liberals' Tax Hikes - Didn't Work For Ontario, Won't Work For Canada

Remember how Ontario went from tax cuts and balanced budgets to deficits and tax hikes? Back in late 2003, the PCs were looking forward for a balanced budget. McGuinty's Liberals however predicted $2.2B deficit - and used that as an excuse to cancel personal tax cuts (scheduled for 2004,) to reverse corporate and small business tax cuts and to abolish the Equity In Education tax credit. Did that address the shortage? Of course not! By the time Ontario Liberals released their first budget, the deficit swell to $5.5B. Again, they responded with more tax hikes; the 2004 Ontario budget introduced the health premiums and cancelled a few more tax incentive programs such as the Ontario Home Ownership Savings Plan. Still, the deficit didn't get any smaller. It was about $6B for 2004 and Ontario has been in red ever since.

Now, Ignatieff promises to do the same on the Federal level. His rhetoric is almost identical to that of Dalton McGuinty 8 years ago - he won't raise taxes, but he favors "strengthening the CPP" (which means yet another premium hike) and he wants to reverse those tax cuts "for large corporations" (under the current rules, that means - any business with more than 7-10 employees). On top of that he promises lots of new spending - childcare, subsidized university education, a billion here, a billion there... How is he going to pay for all that? No, raising business taxes won't be enough.

Ignatieff claims that reversing the recent business tax cuts will add $6B to the tax revenues. Many independent experts suggest it's just $4.5B and even that doesn't factor in the capital flight. Considering all those businesses that will move to a lower tax jurisdiction should Canada increase its corporate tax rates, factoring in all the losses the provinces will suffer because of the reduced tax base, Ignatieff's tax hike is likely to bring... no increase in tax revenue.

Guess who is going to pay for the Liberals' campaign promises then. That's when we'll be reminded of Michael Ignatieff's views on the GST hike, on carbon tax, on higher CPP premiums etc. And, since his government will be greatly dependent on the NDP and the Bloc, then its obvious that their guiding principle will be "why do you need money when there's government that gives you all sorts of freebies"? Unless the Conservatives win enough sits to stay in power, expect to be treated like a child who is well taken care of by the nanny state and therefore - doesn't really need anything more than a pocket money allowance.