The Proletariat Congress

One in five Canadians are uninsured for drug costs and 3.5 million Canadians have no coverage at all.

There are 33 million Canadians and counting according to the last census conducted. Even those who are covered, they are covered to various degrees under a variety of programmes; either through a private plan they have bought, a plan provided by their workplace or a provincial plan.

I take a plethora of medication but I am one of the lucky ones who has coverage. If my household didn’t have the generous prescription drug plan offered by my fiancé’s workplace we would be paying through the nose. We wouldn’t qualify for social assistance if we needed it. We would be like the many Canadians caught between a rock and a hard place.

Why should Canadians have to pick between putting food on the table and buying their medication? Why should it be a choice at all?

There’s a patchwork of coverage across the country. “When it comes to health care, every Canadian should have equal access, it doesn’t matter where you are in the country,” [Layton] told the Canadian Pharmacists Association’s annual meeting.

At least there are some politicians who know what Canadians really need.

We don’t need a Ballistic Missile Defence Shield; we don’t need our politicians debating about whether or not we should take away the right for gays to marry; we don’t need politicians who cut taxes and trash a childcare programme. We need politicians who look out for Canadian interests that actually matter to everyone.

Why get “tough” on crime when there are people are dying because they can’t afford their prescription drugs?

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. And the Conservatives are the weakest link. They are out of tune with what Canadians really want. We want healthcare. We want strong cities. We want to see our environment last long enough for the next generation to enjoy.

Layton asks for support on drug plan

Or even Dion seems to know what Canadians want. He may be rejecting Mayor Miller’s call for a 1-cent of the GST but he knows what needs to be done to keep the heart of the country ticking. He knows tax cuts don’t achieve anything because it takes money out of the government coffers that could be used for the betterment of the nation.

“The Prime Minister is committed to decrease the GST by one additional point, that’s $5.5 billion. I will use it to fight poverty, and I will work with municipalities on that.”

Dion acknowledged “tremendous” needs to fix Canada’s infrastructure. “I want to deliver what I am able to deliver, and I want to be strong partners with (municipalities) for all the needs we mentioned today: Poverty, infrastructure, environment, immigration, aboriginal.”

Dion rejects cities’ call for 1-cent of GST

While he chooses to close a door, he leaves the window open and acknowledges that the cities have needs and knows what matters.� Provided that he does make good on it, it shouldn’t matter that he has a different plan than that the mayors of Canada have in mind as long as all roads lead to Rome.

Accountability means being accountable for the actions, or inactions that you have either done, or have failed to.

When you’re a leader, it means ensuring that there is a consistent level of integrity and that your followers are accountable for their actions. They have made the choice, and you the leader must ensure that they are accountable for what they have decided to do.

Unfortunately, this is not the case in Canadian politics.

The only people that must be held accountable are those who cross the floor to join the Liberals, but not the ones who join the Conservatives.

Politicians like Belinda Stronach and Scott Brison who both were previously Conservatives, having turned Liberal were called to account for their actions; for them to face their constituents. They had to explain their actions; they had to face the media circus and a barrage of questions in Parliament regarding their actions.

They survived re-election as Liberals.

There are two new turncoats who have crossed the floor after the most recent election who have not be held accountable because the Conservatives fail to understand that accountability applies at both ends of the spectrum.

The two MPs in question are David Emerson of Vancouver Kingsway riding. He crossed the floor immediately after re-election as a Liberal. It’s common knowledge in Canada that Vancouver is not a Conservative stronghold, which is known for its liberal attitude towards Marijuana and is home to people like Marc Emery, who heads the BC Marijuana Party, and is a haven for vegetarians and vegans alike.

There had been numerous calls for a byelection, in which Emerson would stand as a Conservative beside a new Liberal candidate, but that didn’t happen. So much for that promise of accountability, eh, Prime Minister Harper?

Or, what of Wajid Khan of Mississauga-Streetsville riding? Has he been called upon to be held accountable? There have been calls, but newly elected Liberal leader Stéphane Dion has decided to shrug it off. The loss didn’t appear to bother him, as he has been quoted by the media as believing that Khan was always a Conservative at heart.

As for Wajid Khan, the GTA MP who turned Conservative a week ago and hosted Prime Minister Stephen Harper in his Mississauga-Streetsville riding yesterday, Dion said that loss was inevitable, too. “Mr. Khan, was in fact a Conservative … I don’t feel like I lost a Liberal.”

The only Liberal MP that didn’t cross the floor that Dion is writing off as a no big loss is Jean Lapierre who has tendered a letter of resignation, indicating that he plans to give up his seat in the next federal election, whenever that may be. Though, it might be sooner than later as the Conservatives are running low on borrowed time.

Dion shrugs off lost MPs

Interestingly, while the Conservatives have declined to comment in relation to accountability in the case of the two turncoat MPs that jumped off the Liberal bandwagon to board the political death-trap that is the Conservative bandwagon, they would have had no qualms with rabble rousing if the case had been that a Conservative MP had opted to join the Liberals.

Or, why there have been a series of patronage appointments, which were supposedly an element of the Liberal era, where entitlement was the trump card.

One of such appointments was commissioned by Harper, a proud advocate of his much touted ‘Accountability Act’. This promise was the centre-point of his election campaign, something that was posted in all of his television ads; something repeated throughout the debates… ad nauseum.

An important component of this act was the establishment of an appointment commission, that would oversee appointments, and ensure transparency in the process. Unfortunately, it seems that the Conservatives are skirting around this to get in their own people…

That’s not to say it has gone unnoticed. In fact, there is quite the vocal opposition to it, as it flagrantly violates the Accountability Act.

After the rejection, Harper said the idea of an appointments commission was essentially dead. However, the commission exists under the accountability act and opposition MPs want to know why appointments are being made when positions on the commission itself – which is designed to make the appointments system more transparent – haven’t been filled.

Government officials say it’s unfair to expect the commission would be running so soon after the accountability act was passed. The Tories have made 118 appointments in the past several months, and critics say many are clearly patronage appointments. The Liberal governments of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin were often criticized for doing the same.

Unfair to expect immediate accountability? No, it’s unfair to think that the Canadian public is so gullible that we don’t see through this bald-faced façade of Conservative-sanctions corruption.

The only amusing element of this ordeal is the elegant mudslinging that keeps the government ticking.

Liberal MP Mark Holland (Ajax-Pickering) said the point is the Tories have painted themselves as “holier than any government that has ever come before them and are beyond reproach. It’s the hypocrisy of it all … because they have gone and made patronage appointment after patronage appointment, which is completely opposite of the image they are trying to portray.”

Tory MP Pierre Poilievre (Nepean-Carleton), parliamentary secretary to Treasury Board President Vic Toews, said the Liberals have no “authority to lecture” the Tories, adding “they engaged in a Roman orgy of patronage during the 13 years of Chrétien and Martin and then went on to try and block the very creation of this public appointments commission.”

Bolded are the parts I found to immensely tickle my funny bone.

Tories criticized for host of patronage appointments

In all of this, I find it most intriguing that the only parties not to lose people to other political parties are the NDP and the Bloc Quebec…

This isn’t to say that they aren’t disgusted with the whole lack of accountability on the part of the Conservatives.

Bears shit in the woods, the grass is green and the sky is blue.

Ontario MPPs have decided to give themselves a 25% raise.

Oh, the poor provincial politicians are starving because they cannot afford that new luxury trip now that the lobbyists are being forced to curb their briberies in light of the Federal Accountability Act, which only embraced 31 of the 52 recommendations originally proposed by the federal Tories in the last federal election. The other 21 recommendations were ditched because the Conservatives wanted loopholes so they could continue to govern with their heads shoved twenty leagues up their collective tight ass.

The humanity of it all! The provincial politicians are only earning 60% of their federal cousins, while the civil infrastructure crumbles around us, the TTC goes to hell and schools are forced to cut programs and not run deficits in order to give students a fighting chance.

McGuinty says it’s not fair that Ontario politicians make only 60 per cent of what their federal cousins, so he’s bumping that up to 75 per cent.

It’s just so unfair that the MPPs are earning about ~$88,000 per annum… that must be real hard on the families not being able to afford more than one vacation per year, what with inflation and all.

This is the same government, dominated by Conservatives under John Tory and Liberals under Dalton McQuinty that have refused to raise minimum wage to $10/h, instead of leaving it at the mere paltry, laughable sum of $8.15/h, which for a full time job doesn’t even put a person past the official line of poverty for Canada.

Of course, not all Ontario MPPs are self-serving bottom-scum suckers…

New Democrat Peter Kormos vows to donate his $22,000 raise to charity to remind voters what the Liberals and Tories gave themselves for Christmas 2006.

Raises ‘right thing to do,’ premier says

EDIT: Since I wrote this entry this morning, there is now a follow up, in which the Premier Dalton McQuintyof Ontario flaunts his disregard for the voters by saying he won’t apologise for the 25% pay raise that the Ontario MPPs gave themselves, and doesn’t appear to care that it looks like a Christmas present that the MPPs have given themselves.

McGuinty said it didn’t matter that the move looks like a Christmas present from politicians to themselves.

“There is never a right time to do this. That’s why we have this 40 per cent gap (with MPs).”

McGuinty delivered an impromptu five-minute defence of his latest about-face today, pointing to much higher salaries for MPs, like his brother David McGuinty, who represents the same Ottawa riding as the premier.

“My brother, God bless his soul, as a backbencher in Opposition, he’s making more than my cabinet ministers,” McGuinty said. “That difference is not sustainable.”

What’s the matter?� Suffering from irreversible small penis syndrome any?

Want further proof that Liberals are worthy of being labelled amoral bottom suckers?

“Right now as a cabinet minister, I’m making less than the mayor of Windsor,” said Energy Minister Dwight Duncan.

Or how about….

Democratic Renewal Minister Marie Bountrogianni also made no apologies.

“There are many that believe our work is more important on a day-to-day basis than our federal counterparts,” she said.

Well, what about all the people earning minimum wage?� How are you going to explain your pay raise to them?� Why do the politicians have the authority to give themselves such a pay raise, while creating mounds of bureaucratic paper work and red tape for those looking for a day’s fair pay.

The only financially moral party is the provincial NDP under Howard Hampton (at least for the province of Ontario).

The Conservatives support the 25 per cent pay hike, but the New Democrats were fuming today about a move they called repugnant and unjustifiable, and at least two members vowed to donate their $22,000 raise to charity.

McGuinty: No apologies for 25% raise

When the federal Tories were the opposition party, they couldn’t get enough of ‘accountability’. They courted her, wooed her, and took her down the aisle, swearing to protect her. Now the honeymoon is over and the Tories could care less about accountability. She’s just the worn down, neglected housewife who is nothing more than an albatross around the neck of the Tories.

The Liberals were consistently the target of Tory election time ads, which portrayed the Liberals as amoral, corrupt Quebeckers who would take your tax payer money and squander it on their precious ad firms to appease Quebec and the unilateral minded separatists. Likewise, during question and answer period in the House of Commons, everything was about being ‘accountable’ to the Canadian public and transparency in government transactions; something the opposition Tories saw the Liberals as lacking.

Fast forward more than a year. The Tories, under Prime Minister Harper are in power, though they rule over a minority government, which has has the power of a feeble gnat.

They have come under fire for conduct related to fees paid to delegates in the 2005 convention.

The Conservative government is proposing to open a loophole in its vaunted accountability act by declaring that party convention fees not be counted as political contributions under the law.

The Conservative government is proposing to open a loophole in its vaunted accountability act by declaring that party convention fees not be counted as political contributions under the law.

The Tories are fine with accusing their political rivals of rampant corruption, accepting bribes, avoiding being accountable and side-stepping any attempts for transparency. However, when the tables are turned, the Tories don’t like being wrong and will change the rules to suit them, even though this is contrary to the ‘accountability’ and ‘transparency’ principles they had pimped out during the last federal election.

They now want to change the accountability act to add that “payment … of a fee to participate in a registered party’s convention is not a contribution” as long as the fees don’t exceed the cost of running the convention.

If this was any other party asking for such a change, though it is unlikely, the Tories would be the first to jump on board and start crying foul.� They are unable to play by their own rules and elect to follow a trendy American line of thought: “do as I say, not as I do”.

The amendment would be done to an act that was promised during the last election.� The Accountability Act was to seek to fix what the Liberals did, but, instead it seems to be permitting the Tories to act like Liberals under the guise that they have saw through an election promise, as shallow as it is.

It should be noted however, that the other parties are crying foul on this Tory slip up and reciprocating Tory� election time rhetoric to drive home that hypocritical behaviour will not go unnoticed, no matter how much one party proclaims to be ‘ethical’ and ‘accountable’.

“The Tories seem to be now admitting that they have broken the law,” said Steven MacKinnon, national director of the Liberal party.

“They’re trying to use the blunt instrument of Parliament as a form of pardon for their violation of the law and trying to fix these mistakes retroactively.”

Even NDP MP Democrat Pat Martin, one of the accountability act’s most vocal supporters, said the Conservatives are pulling a fast one.

“They’re trying to prove the point after the fact,” Martin said. “I guess that’s the advantage of being the ruling party — you can correct your mistakes by statute after the fact. “We won’t support it.”

If politicians start calling bullshit on something that would otherwise benefit them, something is fishy.

At least the Tories won’t be in for longer if they keep up with this current line of hypocrisy.� The Canadian public may be willing to try something new but they are impatient when something doesn’t go their way.� I guess that little time out that the Conservatives had during the 12+ year reign of the Liberals wasn’t enough.� The Tories just didn’t learn.� Perhaps another twelve years is in order…

Tories seek exemption for accountability act