Council of Canadian Government!!

Post-election Canada and the New Liberal Government

By William Doyle-Marshall

Tears of joy and disappointment have been wiped off many faces. Lawn signs and other campaign material are being removed to be stored up for another run at this four-year game. Yes, that’s what veterans do because election campaigns cost lots of money and we finance the undertaking in the hope that next time things will be better.

   While Stephen Harper goes off and do whatever he wishes in his retirement members of the new parliament would have to fix everything he broke and that starts with a lot of things that are non-partisan, Elizabeth May, the lone Green Party Member in parliament, says. They would have to think of repairing the damage and rebuilding the kind of country they want, starting with cooperation in the parliament, May believes. This chore is now in the hands of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal team; the Conservatives without Harper; Thomas Mulcair and his reduced New Democratic Party line-up and the one-woman Green Party of Elizabeth May.

Anxious Canadians listen to promises!!!!

   Political parties made promises as they campaigned to gain voters’ confidence. We heard what would be done to improve living conditions of First Nations’ communities; raise in minimum wage to $15.00 an hour; environmental improvements; rejection of the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement; they will do something for students about debt and possibly abolish tuition, money will be spent on infrastructure, culture and sensible economic development initiatives. Now you the voters (who are the employers of these politicians) in government and opposition have to keep very close tabs on their affairs. Your involvement here is essential. The term ‘holding them accountable’ must have serious meaning. And yes, there are things you can do. Get community groups together for action. If every citizen takes a small step and let these parliamentarian know they are on probation, things will be better.

Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi and Frances Littman

  As far as Elizabeth May is concerned it’s time for all Canadians to make sure they are thinking about the collective well-being of the country as a whole not the middleclass versus the billionaires class, versus the poor. Simply put, it is time to pull together. “So in that spirit we are advocating something that I think is a brilliant notion: the Council of Canadian Governments,” May contends. It exists in Australia that is a lot like Canada – Commonwealth country with divisions between the State governments and federal government.

   The Green Party Leader visualizes federal, provincial and local government around the same table to serve all the big goals. Canada currently has no energy policy, no transportation policy, no education policy, no cultural policy, no housing policy, no manufacturing policy. “We have adhocary with each level of government pulling in different directions. No wonder people think: how come I am paying taxes municipally, provincially, federally and those levels of government don’t seem to be willing to work together,” she observes.

  The Council of Canadian Governments would be all about pulling together: federal government, provincial, territorial, representation from municipal government, not every Mayor in Canada but a good representation at a seat at the table for First Nations, Metis and Inuit leadership looking at all big picture questions. Then when we establish a goal, we are all pulling in the same direction.

   “It doesn’t need to open the constitution to do this, it just needs to say that maybe the constitution as devised in 1867 doesn’t work all that well in 2015. So we think our ideas are good ones. We hope and actually I am quite certain other parties will follow and pick up on these ideas.

   The Green Party’s platform in regards to short term and long term on refugees and immigrants: calls for an overhaul of Canada’s policy. There are 50 streams to be able to come into Canada and we need to be able to help to streamline policies when we have refugees and when we have immigrants so that the process for them to become citizens, there needs to be a way, says Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi, the unsuccessful candidate for Cowichan-Malahat-Langford. She insists there is a need to ensure that the skills and the education that immigrants and refugees are bringing are recognized quicker. Trudeau said unequivocally since his election, his government plans to welcome 25,000 refugees by next year. But May would prefer 40,000.

   “We have always been a country of humanitarian and helpers,” Hunt-Jinnouchi contends. She told a Victoria gathering she needs only to put herself in the situation of the women and grand ma’s running with their children, running from the war and having bombs and shellfire on them. She regrets Canada was part of starting that. “We dropped four air strikes so we can’t be involved in war and not expect people are going to try to find peace and shelter. So it’s very mixed messaging and like no other time our Prime Minister is putting that fear mongering with smoke screens about niqab and whatever to get people afraid,” Hunt-Jinnouchi continues.

October 22, 2015  

no need for war monger politicians

War is Terrible, Wrong, Alien and Must Be Stopped

By William Doyle-Marshall

The horror of war which is captured in Ritchie Yorke’s book “Christ You Know It Ain’t Easy: John and Yoko’s Battle for Peace” was launched at an opportune time, when Canadians were going to the polls to elect a new government -- the Liberals with 184 seats in the House of.Commons It was particularly relevant when Stephen Harper and his Conservatives were campaigning and trying to motivate Canadians to vote with fear in their hearts.

Speaking with me about the reality of war, Yorke noted the majority of victims of World War Two were soldiers but today the majority of people dying in a variety of war activities are individuals off the firing line who are getting killed. He thinks everything about war is awful. “I don’t think a single redeeming feature that makes war a good thing on any level. I think it’s terribly wrong, totally alien. I think war is wrong! Wrong! Wrong!”

 The Lennon Peace anthem crafted in a one week bed-in in Montreal in 1969 resonates today as it did then.  Yorke, the rock journalist and activist has detailed his recollections of that week and The Toronto Varsity Rock Concert. John meeting (Pierre) Trudeau. And his Traveling the World For Peace with Ronnie Hawkins in his new book “Christ You Know It Ain't Easy: John And Yoko's Battle For Peace” was launched in Toronto early October -- two days before Lennon’s 75^thbirthday.

 Yorke hopes young people would read his book because he is confident they are the ones who might change the world. “They are the ones who are voting and they are out there being part of the issues,” Yorke emphasized.

   “Canada next Monday is having a federal election. People should be out voting against the forces that bring war and I can hardly tell you which of the candidates support war and I think that’s what has to happen. People have to go out and vote: they don’t warn this. Please stand up for peace, stand up for another way of doing things.”

 He questioned why would you want for example to go and kill somebody you haven’t met, you don’t know. It’s sort of understandable if someone done something in your life and impinged on your space or your person or property then you might want to do something about that. “But to go and shoot people you have never even met, that’s insane. That’s totally crazy in my world,” the author continued.

   Ritchie was given an ultimatum to either quit his job then as a writer for the Globe and Mail or stay with the Lennon project. It was rather easy for him because he was convinced that working on the side of peace and goodwill and humanitarianism was obviously more important than a journalistic career. “What we are all trying to do is make a better world for ourselves and our children and that’s what I was trying to do,” he concluded.

While he is not certain about the success of that effort, Yorke is aware that there are much room for improvement. “I’d like to think we’ve made some progress but I think there is a lot of room to go to keep doing it to make it better,” he said this week while in Toronto promoting his book. Yorke reflects on his close relationship with Lennon and concludes that the message of the Beatle was very simple “war can be over if you want it. If you want to do something about it and most people have to support war and most people have to support the whole notion of killing other people do it because that’s the only way we would stop it really. We got to get the politicians in there who are totally against war and there is not a lot of them, I don’t think. People talk about it but talk is cheap. Doing something about it that’s what we need to have more of, I think. This is an issue we need to have people talk about all the time.”

   This quote from the book is a worthy climax against those Canadian politicians who are campaigning on the issue of fear. “Still war and suffering drag on. In the past year, 24 million people were displaced by various ill-fated wars, bringing the total of the world’s refugees to 42 million. It is a sobering thought to realize that 44 per cent of all refugees are children. Another damning statistic. During World War I (1914-1918), 95 per cent of war casualties were armed participants and 5 per cent were civilian casualties. Almost a century later, 97 per cent of war casualties are civilians. What the hell are we doing allowing this absurd behaviour on this planet? Where is love and compassion when you need it?”

  Hopefully you now understand the importance of scrutinizing your conscience and always voting according to that. No time to be swayed by half truths or blatant lies. Canadians and others should get themselves a copy of Yorke's book and prepare themselves better for dealing with the new Trudeau Liberal Government. Politicians are your employees and not the other way around.

Trans Pacific Partnership not in our best interest

End divisive, cynical wedge political manipulations

By William Doyle-Marshall

Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party is determined to be always the representative of her party’s constituencies. She made this absolutely certain when she addressed a Town Hall meeting at the Legion Hall in Langford, British Columbia. Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi, Green Party candidate for Cowichan-Malahat-Langford was among speakers.

  “Our job is to work for you. Whoever your MP is, is your employee. This is a very long job application process that Frances (Frances Litman candidate for Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke) is going through because we are asking you to hire us to work for you. We want to build the strongest, healthiest, economy with the most local jobs everywhere,” May said.

  To the applause of the audience she emphasized “We are tired and we think Canadians are tired of politics that seek to divide this country as though Ontario is against the Prairies or B.C. is against Alberta. We are one country and we will accomplish anything when we do it together. So our goal is to start thinking about Canada, thinking like a country again. We’ve had too much divisive, cynical political manipulations based on how to create what the political insiders call the wedge issue.. It’s a terrible idea.”

  She is disturbed that political parties and the other parties are looking for an issue that will divide Canadians to motivate people to vote only for them that is whatever party we are talking about. “This wedge issue thing. I think it’s terrible. The job of parliamentarians should be to work together to forge political consensus so MPs all together in parliament at the end of an election start trying to figure out what is the common ground; where do we start ensuring that we protect our health care system and build on it; how do we ensure that our young people start out in life with a good start, whether we are talking our kindergarteners or our kids coming out of university,” May continued.

  Questions from the audience offered May the opportunity to speak about the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) which was signed by Prime Minister Harper in secret without informing members of parliament about its contents. In the document which has to be ratified by the Parliament of Canada, May noted that Harper signed an Investor State Agreement with the Peoples’ Republic of China which does nothing to advance Canadian trade interests. She informed the community gathering that under the Investor State Agreement foreign companies are given the right to file legal suit against Canada if they don’t like a decision made by a municipal level government, First Nation, a court decision, provincial governments or federal government. “They don’t have to prove that the decision they don’t like was made in a discriminatory manner against trade principles. They don’t have to prove the decision we made was wrong or the science was wrong. All they have to prove is that they were planning to make money here and our decision reduces their expectation of profit. Then we owe them hundreds of millions, who knows, billions,” May noted. She was adamant that this TPP will among other things, increase the cost of pharmaceutical drugs, hurt our auto sector, open up supply management for dairy and for poultry and it will allow ten more countries that didn’t already have the right to suit us, the right to suit us.

   “And by the way,” May continued, “the claims about how much money is involved, how big the new market is, how many people live in the TPP: when you hear the bragging claims just remember TPP replaces NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed 20 years ago: between the U.S. Mexico and Canada). So all the trade and all the money and all the people living in Canada, the USA and Mexico, are part of that big number they are claiming as though it’s a new number. Subtract NAFTA and what we have is a new agreement with Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam, Brunei, New Zealand, Australia. The biggest part of the trade claim and the money claim and the market claims you hear from Stephen Harper about TPP is the part we already had under NAFTA.”

What all this means? The boasting by the Conservatives about how strong their economic plans have been and the benefits Canada will gain from this new TPP agreement has many holes that elephants can fall through and die.

 October 14, 2015

Vote Wisely October 19

No Time for Apathy: Vote Wisely October 19

By William Doyle-Marshall

Apathy, dishonesty, attack ads, misleading comments and downright lies have become the foundation of this election campaign. Even the television debates should be scrapped as they are now fodder for stupidness. I get the impression that pollsters, media houses and generally some members of the public use them to make serious decisions. How unfortunate!

Gone are the days when politicians presented voters with choices aimed at addressing concerns and communities’ needs. What we see in this campaign for October 19 general election is tremendous grand standing that has replaced conversations around issues. One major dishonesty that comes to mind is the use of marijuana. Stephen Harper keeps telling the nation that the New Democratic Party (NDP) wants to put marijuana into the hands of children. Thomas Mulcair never said that nor did he imply any such incredible thing. Make marijuana legal and take it out of the hands of criminals or words to that effect were uttered by the New Democratic Party and the Liberals.

   In case some of you may be tempted to claim that I am trying to scare you, pause for a moment and look at things around you. What about those missing and murdered First Nations Women: why isn’t there a serious investigation or national inquiry into their disappearance? Our First Nations communities: is it okay for them to live in poverty? Why is there no national plan for medical services so that our cost of drugs could be reasonable? How many seniors you know who maybe struggling to make ends meet? Are you holding down three jobs to barely survive? Are you earning more than $15 an hour? Are you paying a reasonable fee for your child care? Are you stress free when you have to get someone to care for your child while you go to your job? Ask your family or friends who have served in our military about their level of satisfaction with treatment by our government? Are you pleased with the “Gold Digger clause” which denies spouses of vets from obtaining their benefits? According to your answer to these questions and your level of comfort, then you know you have a responsibility to yourself and those close to you to go out and vote as your conscience dictates.

 Stephen Harper is determined to continue telling the nation lie after lie. With the few remaining days before polling, it is worthwhile to casually thumb through the pages of the number one bestseller “Party of One: Stephen Harper and Canada’s Radical Makeover”. Chapter five should be of importance to this election time. It deals with the Unfair Elections Act. Chapter sixth is aptly titled “The Big Lie”. They are well worth reading. You would understand why it is very difficult to believe anything your Prime Minister tells you.

   Big news these days is the conclusion of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. Harper and his cronies will tell Canadians it is the best thing since slice bread. Well reflect on the North American Free Trade Agreement signed by Brian Mulroney. In promoting it through his election campaign, the then Prime Minister promised Canadians they would get “jobs, jobs, jobs”. We have lived to see the direct opposite. American companies closed shop and either returned home or sent their businesses to Mexico and other parts of the world where workers earn cents and pennies. Canada was no longer a viable place to do business. This resulted in the Ontario New Democratic Party Government under Bob Rae being forced to incur a deficit to slow down the mammoth unemployment that was staring Ontario in its face like a tiger in your mirror. In spite of the challenge the government was able to invest in social housing and transit which was eventually destroyed by the Mike Harris Conservative Government with its nonsensical “commonsense revolution. This is my way of reminding Canadians that the Trans Pacific Partnership may not be what the Conservatives are promoting it to be. Yes, it is the biggest trade agreement in the world but 20 years ago NAFTA was also the model for big trading partners (Conservative governments). Remember workers and Canadians as a whole did not reap any benefits. From a right wing political viewpoint Mexico, America and Canada, it was a great deal. But what happened to our manufacturing jobs? Trade Union leaders will tell you they are gone and will not return. Politicians talk about how many jobs are created through these arrangements but they are silent about job losses. If these trade deals were good for Canadians we should not have 2 million people unemployed or under-employed. Those empty political promises should have had positive impacts on all of us. Our bank accounts would be in the black rather than showing negative zeros.

  One thing is certain, it would be a disaster for Canada to continue going down this road to hell in a dirty, rusty wash pan.

Canadians must Vote sensibly on October 19

Time to Bury Apathy And Vote Sensibly October 19

By William Doyle-Marshall

Apathy, dishonesty, attack ads, misleading comments and downright lies have become the foundation of this election campaign. Even the television debates should be scrapped as they are now fodder for stupidness. I get the impression that pollsters, media houses and generally some members of the public use them to make serious decisions. How unfortunate!

Gone are the days when politicians presented voters with choices aimed at addressing concerns and communities’ needs. What we see in this campaign for October 19 general election is tremendous grand standing that has replaced conversations around issues. One major dishonesty that comes to mind is the use of marijuana. Stephen Harper keeps telling the nation that the New Democratic Party (NDP) wants to put marijuana into the hands of children. Thomas Mulcair never said that nor did he imply any such incredible thing. Make marijuana legal and take it out of the hands of criminals or words to that effect were uttered by the New Democratic Party and the Liberals.

   In case some of you may be tempted to claim that I am trying to scare you, pause for a moment and look at things around you. What about those missing and murdered First Nations Women: why isn’t there a serious investigation or national inquiry into their disappearance? Our First Nations communities: is it okay for them to live in poverty? Why is there no national plan for medical services so that our cost of drugs could be reasonable? How many seniors you know who maybe struggling to make ends meet? Are you holding down three jobs to barely survive? Are you earning more than $15 an hour? Are you paying a reasonable fee for your child care? Are you stress free when you have to get someone to care for your child while you go to your job? Ask your family or friends who have served in our military about their level of satisfaction with treatment by our government? Are you pleased with the “Gold Digger clause” which denies spouses of vets from obtaining their benefits? According to your answer to these questions and your level of comfort, then you know you have a responsibility to yourself and those close to you to go out and vote as your conscience dictates.

 

 Stephen Harper is determined to continue telling the nation lie after lie. With the few remaining days before polling, it is worthwhile to casually thumb through the pages of the number one bestseller “Party of One: Stephen Harper and Canada’s Radical Makeover”. Chapter five should be of importance to this election time. It deals with the Unfair Elections Act. Chapter sixth is aptly titled “The Big Lie”. They are well worth reading. You would understand why it is very difficult to believe anything your Prime Minister tells you.

   Big news these days is the conclusion of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. Harper and his cronies will tell Canadians it is the best thing since slice bread. Well reflect on the North American Free Trade Agreement signed by Brian Mulroney. In promoting it through his election campaign, the then Prime Minister promised Canadians they would get “jobs, jobs, jobs”. We have lived to see the direct opposite. American companies closed shop and either returned home or sent their businesses to Mexico and other parts of the world where workers earn cents and pennies. Canada was no longer a viable place to do business. This resulted in the Ontario New Democratic Party Government under Bob Rae being forced to incur a deficit to slow down the mammoth unemployment that was staring Ontario in its face like a tiger in your mirror. In spite of the challenge the government was able to invest in social housing and transit which was eventually destroyed by the Mike Harris Conservative Government with its nonsensical “commonsense revolution. This is my way of reminding Canadians that the Trans Pacific Partnership may not be what the Conservatives are promoting it to be. Yes, it is the biggest trade agreement in the world but 20 years ago NAFTA was also the model for big trading partners (Conservative governments). Remember workers and Canadians as a whole did not reap any benefits. From a right wing political viewpoint Mexico, America and Canada, it was a great deal. But what happened to our manufacturing jobs? Trade Union leaders will tell you they are gone and will not return. Politicians talk about how many jobs are created through these arrangements but they are silent about job losses. If these trade deals were good for Canadians we should not have 2 million people unemployed or under-employed. Those empty political promises should have had positive impacts on all of us. Our bank accounts would be in the black rather than showing negative zeros.

  One thing is certain, it would be a disaster for Canada to continue going down this road to hell in a dirty, rusty wash pan.