gdp's Comments

Macleans.ca : Michael Ignatieff plots his revenge

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 16:24:11 +0000

It's painfully clear to me that my issue with Ignatieff is not his character, its his being steeped in a world of lofty ideals and next to nothing to show for those ideals, with nothing of censure for failure. I don't think the guy understands the world as it exists, only the one he would build in his head. And I'm not interested in becoming a non voluntary funder of lofty but ill managed ideals...had more than a lifetimes worth of that thanks...

Macleans.ca : What Stephen Harper has in common with Glenn Beck

Fri, 3 Sep 2010 18:32:26 +0000

"...in Stephen Harper’s Canada...", Just a sec. The opposition has been telling us that this is most definitely NOT Harper's Canada because, according to the story, the LPC and the pumpkins have been standing on guard for us. Such as that is... "...the gulf between cultural visions on the left and right is so wide the two sides cannot even speak comprehensibly to each other." Really? I'm pretty sure that it was Ignatieff that scuttled 18 months of involved refugee reform with the full acquiescence to his immigration critics demands. He did that because the Quebec wing squawked loud enough to scare him onto a bus. Of course, Ignatieff the noble did this just in time for another round of national angst due to yet another boat of rent seekers allowed all and sundry merely for lying correctly. So yea, at least spread the vitriol around Wells....

Macleans.ca : The Commons: Supporting the troops

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 15:07:39 +0000

Strange, as a vet I see the current government as the first one in thirty years to even broach the subject, let alone do something about it. And then there is the fact that the position never existed until the current government... If the LPC has the barest hint of a clue, they'll shut the hell up over this, as in most of our opinions, they created and enabled the rot, the very same rot I battled through for a decade until I could do no more and had to leave early due to PSAC incompetence and malfeasance...

Macleans.ca : Helena Guergis in conversation

Fri, 6 Aug 2010 17:32:37 +0000

As an example of a young new political class, those two fail most miserably... Let her run. Let her constituents decide. Personally, if it comes down to risk mitigation, dumping these two early is a definite example of proactive governance...

Macleans.ca : Ottawa’s stimulus fiasco

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:39:35 +0000

We desperately need to have a meaningful conversation as to who replaces Sheila Fraser this fall...she is the single person in the public sector I accept as working in my interest without qualifications on my part... It's way to important to leave up to the status quo, and the inevitable political horsesass braying...

Macleans.ca : Ottawa’s stimulus fiasco

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:35:13 +0000

Martin was a key reason I voted Liberal in the recovery of the "peso crisis". Even though I knew it would hurt me personally. As to overall governance, Martin was wholly entrenched in the mire of the LPC at the time, and frankly, if they weren't who they are, I would have no problem with a younger Paul Martin as the head of a LPC that moved centrist. He isn't, they aren't, and the CPC is at least alive to deal with the stimulus fallout...such as it is. Frankly, the LPC is hoping to get to the fall with a passable candidate, and it won't work this time. They have to go much, much deeper to reinvent themselves as the default choice for Canadian voters. To be truthful, I am taken a bit by surprise that this is bad as it gets. Given $56 000 000 000 reasons to pander, at least it was applied evenly, more or less. And very little is completely missing, a problem the LPC had the last go round with government intervention... Not that any of that makes it a good idea...

Macleans.ca : UPDATED: How Harper picked his GG is more important than who he chose

Thu, 8 Jul 2010 16:17:11 +0000

Pretty sure I read that the opposition also had some input into the decision. Given the overheated rhetoric that passes for media attention in this country, knowing or not knowing if there is truth in that will take the bloviating out of at least a half dozen unneeded or wanted MP monkey blurts before they get up a head of steam....

http://www.themarknews.com/ : The Upside of Wedge Politics - Warren Kinsella — THE MARK

Tue, 25 May 2010 18:21:51 +0000

I wonder how many folks are aware of how much of the descent of Canadian politics is the direct result of this critters efforts? First task to reform of the waft and weft of our adversarial system (you know, the paralyzed one we all suffer under) is to ignore this guy and all the others just like him...

Macleans.ca : Game changer—big bucks, big brains

Fri, 21 May 2010 13:36:20 +0000

Can't help but think that this sort of practical science will play much better with the average Canadian than a spate of dubious humanities studies right now. Not that we don't need inputs from the humanities, but right now, practical trumps theory in most peoples minds...thus, most peoples desire for the right person for these chairs over forced gender equality.

Macleans.ca : Mind the gap? I bet Peter Donolo does: Attempting to explain the "sideways Ekos V"

Fri, 21 May 2010 13:29:45 +0000

"...a sacred Canadian institution." Interesting take. My read is many Canadians are willing to question the efficacy and need of many "sacred" inertial entitlements by default, a message wholly owned by the CPC right now. Right or wrong, the idea of the LPC looking for meaningful change in an existing department is laughable, as all Ignatieff offers is muddled mixed messages on reforms, or entirely new fiefdoms. After the last year, less government is the new default, not more.

Macleans.ca : Mind the gap? I bet Peter Donolo does: Attempting to explain the "sideways Ekos V"

Fri, 21 May 2010 13:22:51 +0000

Keeping in mind the woeful disinterest as acted upon by the 4 out of 10 Canadians who REGULARLY don't vote, and the painful political ignorance of many Canucks, I think glib dismissal of the cross branding between provincial (which tends to dominate their worldview) and federal parties is being willfully disingenuous. You and I might know otherwise, but I am comfortable saying that most Canadians see them as one and the same, which makes the prior point valid. As an aside, it also feeds back into certain forms of punchy messaging, something the Federal LPC is also having real trouble with...

Macleans.ca : Mind the gap? I bet Peter Donolo does: Attempting to explain the "sideways Ekos V"

Thu, 20 May 2010 20:50:27 +0000

Over and above the lousy numbers for both Ignatieff AND the LPC, can someone of party affiliation make clear where the LPC begins and Ignatieff ends? I can't help but note that at times Michael claims the overall numbers are about attacks on him, and at others he claims his numbers are torpedoed by the parties ability to dizzy itself with flavour of the minute sound bites. I must admit, my read is that Ignatieff is not only a lousy candidate, he is all but disconnected from the party machinery. If that is the case, just who is driving that Valdez from the bunker?

http://www.themarknews.com/ : Pick the Next Governor General - The Mark — THE MARK

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 12:55:55 +0000

Orr was the guy who helped clean up teammates and team support people who had fallen on hard times...with his OWN money. He did that out of pure altruism...hard to imagine anyone else on that list who would do the same...

Macleans.ca : The Commons: A mysterious stranger enters the story

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 02:05:46 +0000

Every time I slip up and click on a QP report, I am compelled to think of it as a live action, street corner theatre version of Doonesbury, written during the really bad years... It is time for voters to demand change. Make the children sit quietly and write a 500 word essay, with proper punctuation and grammar, laying out what they are willing to be held to account for that day. And we, the babysitters, er, teachers in that scenario will use the time productively to market our childhood on Ebay...

Macleans.ca : The end of the Liberal empire

Wed, 7 Apr 2010 18:53:51 +0000

The central point, and the one that I am pretty sure is hardest to swallow, is that the LPC as currently constructed is not a winner. Which makes all the suggestions pretty moot, does it not? As Canadians find less and less in the old regionalism from the center top down model, and more and more in the new feed from the regions to the center of national government, there is less likelihood that the LPC of old can reconcile its priorities. Seeing as a complete rebuild is required (perhaps not in the offeing, but certainly required) the LPC can reinvent itself as a new approach to Federalism, and cast the CPC as the party of top down. By regional, I don't mean rump niche ridings either... Personally, I don't think they have it in 'em... Our first task has to be for both parties to marginalize the Bloc as a combined priority, so that we can move past that shocking intransigence and make room for some kind of narrative that would include all regions, instead of the current situation of ignoring the one they can't have... with Alberta and Quebec's intentions taken for granted, both parties play to their weakness's instead of a currently non-existent national strength. Good stuff though, in a media environment full of twitter patter, one has to move a mountain of dirt to find a gem like this!

Macleans.ca : The shame of the fourth estate

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:47:26 +0000

Look, when the national newspaper of record holds as its esteemed senior pundit a guy like Simpson, who, fresh out of Queens went to work for a couple of weeks for Ed Broadbent and has been cubically contained ever since ( 37 years, should we talk about his backflip with a full double twist over CCS as an example?), the entire industry needs a shaking out. Twitter patter Taber, and most of the sycophants at the Star, the well summed problem at the Post (however, calling it the worst is a photo finish...), Larry reduced to Metro, and the sad, sad state of television reporting (not even they call it journalism any more...) means that we as a nation have been long under served by the fourth estate. Which, upon reflection, is probably why the industry, without exception, is in such dire straits...looks like we had a look at the product and shopped elsewhere... And fwiw, I haven't had a scrip to Macleans for going on 6 years now...

Macleans.ca : Why is Iacobucci playing along?

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:28:17 +0000

Don't suppose you have a date or link to that? It indicates at the very least, that the LPC's chief bulldog has no idea of what is, and what is not privileged information. Which bears directly on the issue, does it not? For the record, I want it stated very clearly the difference between whistleblowing, leaking privileged information, and outright handling of documents of national security for matters outside that limited mandate. I think that some are hoping if they shake the tree long enough, something juicy might fall out, utterly without regard to the implications for people STILL ON THE GROUND!

Macleans.ca : The Commons: A good day spoiled

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 04:49:33 +0000

I honestly cannot decide who is the worst. I keep thinking its Harper, because although I am not a traditional liberal, even a slam dunk call like voting away the 10%rs and being able to make a claim that you are magnanimously accommodating of the enemy in times of fiscal restraint, he goes right into hyper partisan mode and muffs an easy toss just out of pure spite. That said, they all are making even a professional cynic like myself shake his head in disgust... We really need some national leadership. And I have no idea how long we might have to wait...

Macleans.ca : The Commons: ‘I have the feeling that nothing will satisfy the honourable gentleman’

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 06:36:31 +0000

Pg 203-208 of Confronting the Chaos, by Dr. Sean Maloney, talking about his happening to be in the Tactical Ops Center, on Dec 12 2005. There was an incident with a patrol to Ghorak to deal with an armed occupation of a school, escorting the USAID rep, a job that the PRT was singularly capable of doing. They were attacked by an IED, and... "The ops officer, Capt. XXXXXXX came in. A significant incident report went to NDHQ in Ottawa immediately. They were calling the PRT back. The first thing Ottawa wanted to know wasn’t the state of the casualties, or what was being done about them: it was the state of the detainees! The PRT was instructed to contact the patrol, which was still in contact with the enemy, and tell it to make sure that the Geneva Convention was applied. Ottawa wanted confirmation. There were, shall we say, a number of shocked people in the TOC." "Simultaneously, Ottawa called the TOC and instructed the PRT not to turn the detainees over tot he Americans because, apparently, the sensitive souls in Foreign Affairs didn't want Canada to be accused of being complicit in a KAF version of Abu Gharib.... Nobody in the Ottawa bureaucracy seemed, at the time, to give a sh!t about our four casualties; the welfare of the detainees seemed to have absolute priority over the welfare of Canadians in the minds and actions of the bureaucrats, if the volume of message traffic was measured and compared." I wonder if this was Eileen Olexiuk's priority as Canadian soldiers bled. Note that the soldiers were still in contact with the people who planted the explosive when Ottawa was worried about the insurgents. It's so ugly that we may have to rebuild DFIAT because of their callousness.

Macleans.ca : CIDA's Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund: millions raised, nothing spent

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:45:47 +0000

I wonder how many people so eager to point a shaky finger are aware of the fact that 20 months prior to the disaster, the World Bank announced that there were over 10 000 NGO's active in Haiti. TEN THOUSAND The place was/is a disaster, and that was BEFORE the earthquake. Needless to say, a little prudence, on top of the IN FACT supplied aid and succor that the Forces and others immediately offered seems like a reasonable situation. Unless you think handing over some One Hundred and Thirty to One Hundred and Fifty Five MILLION well intentioned dollars to; "Haiti ranks 177th out of 179 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2008." is a really swift idea without some strings attached. http://www.heritage.org/index/country/Haiti I thought the internet was supposed to educate people, turns out it was wasted on so many...