Dion's Tax on Everything

I wonder how much the Conservatives are paying Stephane Dion. This Carbon Tax idea must be one of the biggest strategic blunders the Liberals have made with Dion as leader, and that is saying something.

First off, Dion is going to lose more of whatever miniscule amount of credibility he has left. He earlier promised not to introduce a carbon tax, so the conservatives have easily charged that he broke his word.

Second he has left himself wide open to the claim that he's trying to raise taxes. The conservatives have rightly labeled the idea as a permanent new tax, and I don't think anyone will believe that this plan won't increase taxes overall despite Liberal claims of offsetting tax cuts.

Third, it's not a very good idea. The tax will increase the cost of everything from heating and cooling to manufacturing and transportation of everything that we buy. That's why it's been called a tax on everything. Of course, the hardest hit businesses will be Canadian manufacturers that will have to pay a tax that none of their competitors have to pay. This comes at a time when the high Canadian dollar is already decimating the industry.

Finally, there couldn't be worse timing. A carbon tax might not always be a terrible idea, if oil drops to $20 a barrel and governments want to protect the environment by ensuring we don't needlessly pollute, go ahead introduce a carbon tax. Today the market is doing a fine job of encouraging energy efficiency and there's no need for a new tax to help. In fact a new tax now will just destroy the economy and cause untold hardship, everyone is reeling from the high cost of energy, we cannot afford to pay more.

I Have a Little Crush . . .

. . . On Jessica Simpson.

OK. Maybe not, truth is I don't even know why she's famous actress? Singer? it doesn't really matter to me. BUT the T-shirt looks good on her. Hopefully she starts a trend.

BTW, look at those incisors, proof positive we were made to enjoy a thick, tender pork chop every now and again.

Truth? and Reconciliation?

Canada has launched a so called 'truth and reconciliation' committee into Canada's residential schools. I'm a little apprehensive. The last time I heard about the issue several years ago, Canadian government lawyers had agreed to pay natives compensation for 'cultural genocide' and stuck churches with half the bill. Many Anglican, United, and Catholic churches were closed outright to pay for the bill. Now that the settlements are being paid out, alcohol and drug abuse has spiked again on reservations.

Don't get me wrong, there were documented cases of abuse, and those people should be pitied, apologized to and compensated. But, let's set the record straight, the teachers and religious that relocated to the remote reservations left everything out of an act of love and service to the native people. They sacrificed themselves to give the natives a better life. The only reason churches were likely involved is that nobody else would go and make that sacrifice.

Lorne Gunter, says give the commission a chance, I guess we don't have a choice. But I sincerely hope that five years from now we will see a balanced report that recognizes the selfless acts of service and doesn't simply create another opportunity to reinforce the native sense of victimhood.

Job Well Done, Hillary

The math doesn't look good for Hillary Clinton now that Barack Obama has enough delegates to secure the nomination. Hillary won another big race on the weekend, but it came just a little late, winning the Democratic Puerto Rico Primary with a 2 -1 margin, after similar victories in West Virginia and Kentucky.

Normally, I wouldn't care. First, I'm Conservative. Second, I'm Canadian. But I do care who wins the nomination for two reasons. I believe Hillary Clinton is the best candidate for President. Second, the President is still the leader of the free world, so every body cares.

Between Obama, Hillary, and McCain, I wanted Hillary to be the next President of the United States. My logic is simple Barrack Obama is an extreme left wing leader prone to making big mistakes; if Barrack Obama became President it will be dangerous for the whole world. John McCain would be a better President than Obama, and he has articulated some conservative positions such as appointing constitutionalist judges. However, with a democratic controlled he will almost certainly fall in line with the Democrats on every issue that matters.

Hillary, on the other hand, is pragmatic and adaptable enough to know where the American people stand, and I believe she would have used the office of President to more effectively control a democratic congress than John McCain could.

Hillary ran a decent campaign, especially in the last few months. I wish the results had been different.

3,224 Fewer Tragedies

3,224 fewer children had their lives prematurely snuffed out at Canadian hospitals and abortion clinics in 2005 according to Statistics Canada. With a total of 96,815 abortions in 2005, the annual rate has dropped below the 100,000 threshold. Perhaps the most encouraging news comes from the age breakdown:

Teenage women, under the age of 20, experienced the largest decline in rates, from 13.8 for every 1,000 women in 2004, to 13.0 in 2005. The induced abortion rate for these women has declined gradually since 1996 when it peaked at 18.9.

Clearly there's a shift happening in the attitudes of young women, who seem significantly more responsible than a decade ago despite continuous pressure from society to sacrifice their morals.

There's a lot of work to be done, but anyone who cares about the unborn in Canada should pause and give thanks for this good news.

Hamilton Diocese Ordinations

Hamilton Diocese ordained 3 new men into the priesthood on Saturday! It's an answer to prayer, and a hopeful sign for the diocese that these young men have committed their lives to the service of Christ and His church. One of the young men Fr. Jason Kuntz, went to high school with my wife, another spoke recently at our church about his calling and his journey through the seminary. I wanted to attend, but in a typical Patrick move, I went to Church of Our Lady in Guelph, when the ordinations were at the Cathedral in Hamilton. :(

"No problem," said I (to quote myself). I would simply go inside and pray for the new priests briefly in the church. However, my plan was foiled, as I tried each door only to find that it was locked up tight with two other people trying various doors.

Now, Church of Our Lady is something of a landmark in Guelph a large stone church towering over the downtown. Like many grand historical structures, it takes money to maintain, and the Parish has often looked to the general public for support. There's nothing wrong with that, Guelph is a more beautiful city because of the church, but if the public is helping to support the church, it should be open to the public sometime outside of regular mass times.

I understand that vandalism is a problem, but a group of committed volunteers or a private security company could easily address this issue and make this beautiful house of worship more accessible.

To Quote Myself

Trade news bulletins are understandably poorly written, but Patrick O'Neil wonders if this isn't a little excessive:

Commentary by Victor Aideyan, Farms.com Risk Management

While inputs will remain high, livestock prices should also be favorable in 2009. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides a gauge of livestock and crop intentions through its quarterly reports. Sometime those reports create angst and uncertainty among producers, as was the case with the March Hogs and Pigs report as well as the March planting intentions report. From a swine perspective, the biggest surprise was the prediction of larger than expected hog supplies through September 2008. “The initial reaction on the production side can only be described as shock and despair,” says Farms.com Senior Risk Management Consultant Victor Aideyan. “The Hogs and Pigs report was a negative surprise, to say the least.”

While the market reacted with lower prices for the first few trading days following the report, they have since rebounded, says Aideyan. “Farms.com Risk Management believes that tightening hog supplies in the 2nd quarter compared to the last quarter will support hog prices between April and early June,” he adds. For pork producers, it will continue to be important to manage input costs, including corn, meal, and any protein sources. “The price risk management work you do during this period will determine your level of profitability, if any, during 2009,” points out Aideyan. “Barring any exceptional events, we expect the meat complex (hogs and cattle) to hit all time highs in 2009.”
. . .
“The implication for corn is that it seems destined for higher prices going into this summer, at least,” predicts Aideyan. “This is good news for cash crop producers as corn and soybeans will go higher, but bad news for livestock producers.”

“Given tight reserves, Farms.com Risk Management believes that in the spring of 2009 the competition for acres between soybeans and corn will be even more pronounced than this year,” Aideyan notes. He adds cautiously, “But don’t forget, the crops are not planted yet, and things could easily change.”

I count 9 third party references to himself or his organization. That's gotta be nearly as bad as naming your blog after yourself.

What Goes Up . . .

Monthly Corn Futures

Grain prices are at or near record levels, ethanol production has sky rocketed, and riots are happening around the world as food prices increase. Have you heard this story yet? It's been hard to miss as story after story covers the 'Food vs. Fuel' debate or the 'Food Crisis.'

Conventional wisdom in the mainstream media is that grain prices will stay high forever, and food prices will continue to increase. History suggests otherwise, as the chart above shows, big spikes in grain prices are not uncommon; they are usually followed by a sharp, unexpected drop. Most agricultural commodities follow a cyclical or Boom-Bust pattern. Although government support for ethanol and bio diesel certainly, helped the economics of over supply and low prices are the biggest drivers behind the higher levels of demand.

Clearly, growing grain will be very profitable this fall, especially for farmers that forward sell some of their production at these high levels. These profits will generate a supply response. Farmers around the world will grow more food, and my expectation is the response will be much quicker than many analysts predict.

North American crop yields top the world largely because of technology, but there's excellent ground around the planet. I fully expect that the production will jump by leaps and bounds, possibly this year as Western management style pushes into places like Eastern Europe. Case and point is a large Canadian livestock producer I know who is leaving the business to manage a 7,000 acre grain farm in the Ukraine. Have no fear, farmers will continue to feed the world.

All this said, the 'crisis' has brought a number of good ideas to the forefront. Governments in North America should be clear that they will not offer subsidies to new ethanol plants, governments should continue to open their borders, and in the short term food aid should be increased, as Canada has already done.

Elections Canada's Bold Move

It looks to me like Elections Canada is skating on thin ice. The Globe and Mail reported:

RCMP officers raided Conservative Party headquarters in downtown Ottawa yesterday to execute a search warrant requested by Election Commissioner William Corbett.

The police worked behind closed doors of the 12th-floor suite and at a mailroom on another floor. They were searching for information related to Mr. Corbett's investigation into whether dozens of Tory candidates improperly claimed advertising expenses that should have been declared by the national party.

It's obviously a complicated issue. Elections Canada is with holding campaign reimbursement funds from the Conservative Party and investigating whether the party declared expenses properly. The Conservative Party is suing Elections Canada for the funds that are being held.

There is often a blurring of lines between candidate's campaign budgets and the National Campaign. For instance, on an earlier campaign I was involved in the National Party's call centre did local polling to aid the candidate in a key riding. On a separate campaign for the Canadian Alliance, the local campaign was given the opportunity to pay for generic National Party advertisements on local radio and TV stations.

I don't know the particulars of the latest issue, the Conservatives obviously believe they are within the rules, but both arguments clearly rest on technicalities. The scandal today is that Elections Canada, a neutral agency, has made a media splash by engaging the RCMP and leaking the story to the media. Predictably, the news headlines on the radio during my drive home yesterday and into work this morning simply reported that the RCMP was raiding Conservative Party headquarters, suggesting that something criminal had happened. Clearly this is not accurate, the news will pass because there's no real story, but the damage has done and the Conservative Party is going to look a little more murky to the general public.

William Corbett will do well to remember that his position rests on being neutral and foregoing politically motivated attacks. He should apologize immediately.

I Don't Really Care

The NHL Playoffs begin today. Once again the Toronto Maple Leafs have long been eliminated from the playoffs. It's sad to say, but I don't really care. Now that it's been over 40 years since Toronto won a Stanley Cup, 3 consecutive years when they did not make the playoffs, and 4 years since the season was cancelled because of the player's strike. It's safe to say that I am firmly off the bandwagon.

I'm not planning on following the playoffs very closely this year, and I may not follow the season next year, until Toronto starts to win. It's a sad reality, but most Toronto Fans should know that there's no incentive for the team to do better unless folks start tuning out. The team can make incredible profits because we keep on watching, and buying tickets regardless of the effort they put forward. If they notice their revenues drop, maybe they'll show up to play next season.

A Choice

I've got about an hour before I should go to bed. I could start on my income tax, or I could start reading the books I borrowed from my brother in law, Dante's Divine Comedy. Book 1 in the trilogy is all about Hell. So I've got a choice:

Hell or Income Tax. . .

Right now I'm undecided.

Watch What you Eat

It happens to me every Easter season, I bite into something that looks a lot like chocolate and I need to spit it out immediately. I've learned the lesson again this year:

'Chocolate' or 'Chocolaty' Confection is not Chocolate!

I don't know what the difference is. My suspicion is that Chocolate is made by companies like Hershey, Neilson, and Cadbury, while chocolate confection is made by companies like Lux, and Palmolive.

From what I understand the key ingredient is cocoa butter rather than cheap vegetable oil. Look for it. If you're going to eat something that's not that good for you, it should at least taste good.

Canadian Diplomacy Pays Off

Back in January I wrote about John Manley's report on Afghanistan. It was brilliant in that it outlined why the mission is important, and why Canada should continue to fight the mission. One of my friends in the Military said the report should be required reading for every Canadian.

A key recommendation in the report was that Canada should give other NATO countries an ultimatum that Canada would withdrawal our troops unless an additional 1,000 fighting soldiers were committed to the Kandahar region. Looks like it's working. France is likely to commit 1,000 additional soldiers to Afghanistan next month. The Times article states:

The Ministry of Defence has made a working assumption that President Sarkozy will announce a deployment of “slightly more than 1,000 troops to the eastern region”, one said.

The deployment would deliver a significant fillip to the military operation in Afghanistan, ensuring that other countries such as Canada remain engaged. It would also provide concrete evidence that France was keen to forge a new relationship with NATO. . .

President Sarkozy is said to be still deciding whether the extra troops should be sent to the south to fight alongside the Canadians or east to the border with Pakistan. In the latter scenario, the presence of French troops would allow the US troops currently policing the border to be sent south.

This is how diplomacy works. Canada has been pulling more than its weight in Afghanistan, and it has re-earned credibility on the international stage. As a result, Canada has made a very reasonable demand of it's allies and they are responding. Now more than ever we should support the mission and help Afghanistan recover from the years of Taliban rule that have ravaged the country.

Rick Mercer Skewers Human Rights Commissions

Rick Mercer has some fun blasting Ezra Levant while standing up for our right to free speech. It's 2 minutes and 19 seconds well spent. Go to the Mercer Report Website, select Season 5, Episode 18, and hit Rick's Rant. (Be warned there's a lot of good material on the site, so you'll want to come back later for more. I honestly just discovered the website, I'll likely check it out every week!)

In his Rant, Mercer explains how the publisher of the Western Standard has spent 2 years and $100,000 defending himself from a complaint brought against him for republishing cartoons of the prophet Mohammad. He called the Western Standard a 'nutty magazine,' but he drove to the heart of the matter saying: "Hey, it's a free country, or it used to be. Since then he's spent over a $100,000 defending his right to republish the cartoons. . . . If we're not careful, if we force the Ezra's of the world to shut up, our freedom of speech could be next."

Rick Mercer gets it. The Human Rights Commissions in Canada are the greatest threat to Human Rights in Canada. ~ More on this later.

h/t: www.freemarksteyn.com

Stations of the Cross

Don't miss what could be your last chance this Lent to take in the Stations of the Cross at your local Catholic Church. Many parishes hold the Stations on Fridays in Lent, but you'll want to check your nearby parishes to confirm the details.

I'll confess, before I was Catholic, I had only heard of the Stations of the cross once. It was at a university christian club meeting when an evangelical friend of mine said she was going to stations of the with one of her Catholic friends. She had a relatively positive impression of them, and we left it at that.

The next time I encountered the stations I was well on the way to becoming Catholic. I went with my future in-laws to the Martyrs' Shrine in Midland, Ontario. We walked by 14 large (almost life size) statues of Jesus in many of the events of his suffering and death on the cross. We said a short prayer at each station as we reflected on each part of His passion.

Since then it has become one of my favourite Catholic devotions. It's a wonderful opportunity to acknowledge your sins before Christ, and to get a real sense of just what Jesus went through to grant us forgiveness. When we last went to the Stations at our Parish, a sweet lady came up to us and told us how she gets chills every time she comes to stations. I know what she means, many of the reflections are so descriptive, you can almost feel the cross pushing down on your shoulder.

I found out recently, that Christians have been praying these prayers and reflections since the 12th century. Maybe this Lent is a time to find out what you've been missing . . . If you don't have time to get to a church, you can always pray the prayers on your own. You can find a version attributed to St. Francis of Assisi here.

Bill C 484 Unborn Victims of Crime

Bill C 484 Unborn Victims of Crime Act is scheduled for a vote on Wednesday. The bill may seem controversial because it acknowledges the value of an unborn child. However, the bill is not about abortion; it’s about protecting women and protecting society’s most vulnerable.

As I understand it, the bill simply ensures that if someone assaults a pregnant woman and harms the unborn child, the offender would be charged with two crimes, 1 for harming the mother, the other for harming the child. This is entirely logical as young women and their children are vulnerable targets from (ex) boyfriends, lovers or husbands who may try to harm the young woman and kill her child over a fear of becoming a father. If this seems far fetched, a simple google news search yielded the recent stories of Tyrone Vesperas, Gil Magira, and Gerard Baker.

Tyrone is a Hawaiian man who allegedly stabbed his son, Tyran, 14, to death as Tyran stepped in to protect his pregnant mother, who was also stabbed. Her unborn child later died.

Gil is a British man, who was terrified of becoming a father and was jailed last week for putting abortion tablets into his pregnant wife's food. Gil Magira crushed the pills into a sandwich which he fed to his wife when she had refused to have an abortion voluntarily after becoming pregnant in November 2006. His wife, Anat Abraham, 38 at the time, felt unwell and went to hospital but the baby survived. The following morning Magira put more pills, which he had bought on the internet "at considerable expense" into her breakfast cereal and yoghurt. Unfortunately, this time Gil succeeded.

Gerard Baker, is a Canadian who killed Olivia Talbot and her unborn child by shooting Olivia 3 times in order to "get rid of the baby."

There are already 37 US states that have similar laws. Such crimes are simply so deplorable that our country must have laws to reflect the gravity of the crime. I trust that women's groups and Members of Parliament will support this measure as a means to increase protection for young women, and their wanted children.

UPDATE: The bill passed second reading and is being sent to committee. My MP Michael Chong was among the MPs who supported the bill.

Stock Up on Fur Coats

This story by Lorne Gunter is a must read. In case you don't have time to follow the link, I'm going to quote liberally from it:

Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966 . . . In just the first two weeks of February, Toronto received 70 cm of snow, smashing the record of 66.6 cm for the entire month set back in the pre-SUV, pre-Kyoto, pre-carbon footprint days of 1950.

And remember the Arctic Sea ice? The ice we were told so hysterically last fall had melted to its "lowest levels on record?" Never mind that those records only date back as far as 1972 and that there is anthropological and geological evidence of much greater melts in the past.

The ice is back.

Gilles Langis, a senior forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service in Ottawa, says the Arctic winter has been so severe the ice has not only recovered, it is actually 10 to 20 cm thicker in many places than at this time last year.

. . .

Last month, Oleg Sorokhtin, a fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, shrugged off manmade climate change as "a drop in the bucket." Showing that solar activity has entered an inactive phase, Prof. Sorokhtin advised people to "stock up on fur coats."

He is not alone. Kenneth Tapping of our own National Research Council, who oversees a giant radio telescope focused on the sun, is convinced we are in for a long period of severely cold weather if sunspot activity does not pick up soon.

The last time the sun was this inactive, Earth suffered the Little Ice Age that lasted about five centuries and ended in 1850. Crops failed through killer frosts and drought. Famine, plague and war were widespread. Harbours froze, so did rivers, and trade ceased.

It's way too early to claim the same is about to happen again, but then it's way too early for the hysteria of the global warmers, too.

You said it Lorne. All that I'll say is my snow tires sure came in handy this year.

I've got some reading to do . . .

A friend of mind sent me a link to a new online magazine, http://www.c2cjournal.ca/. I'm lovin' it. (great now I'm hungry) The online journal aims to contribute to the national arena of ideas by promoting principles of: Democratic governance, Individual freedom, Free markets, Environmental stewardship, and Peace and security. Best of all, the editorial board is stacked with Western Alumni, including 2 of my classmates.

The most recent edition focuses on faith and politics. The best article I've read so far was by Kyle Jantzen, who provides some historical background on the relationship between church and state in the Western World and in Canada. It's a concise, well written article that helps put some of the frustrations of Christians and the suspicions of skeptics into perspective. Give it a look. I'm sure I'll be killing some time on that website in the near future.

Liberal Song

I've watched this again and again. So much fun.

Iranian Muslim Hitchhiker

Here's something for the "It goes to show what I know file:"

I picked up a hitch hiker today. He was very polite and grateful. He told me that he was Iranian and had two daughters, Michelle and Maria. He named Maria after the virgin Mary. He noticed the rosary on my review mirror, and said many people have these in Iran. I was surprised, but he said that there are about 70% of the population is muslim and that about 10% is Christian and another 10% is Jewish. He told me that he was a muslim, but that Jesus and the virgin Mary were very close to his heart. He said that there were 124,000 prophets from Adam through to Mohammed, and he seemed to geniunely believe that being muslim was somehow an extension of Christianity. Sometimes, he even goes to the Catholic Church to worship. He served for 3 years in the Iranian military during the Iran – Iraq war 2 years because of conscription, but he volunteered for the third year. He said he would gladly join the Canadian military if he was called to because Canada is his country now.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

Prayer Vigil Draws Attention

After frigid temperatures last year, the relatively milder weather may have helped the Kitchener – Waterloo prayer vigil get noticed. There were many people walking down King Street in front of Grand River Hospital on Monday, January 28th. Many of them briefly walked along side the wide cross section of pro-lifers who were praying for an end to abortion. The crowd included pro-life heroes that have been fighting for life for over thirty years as well as young families with children and a sizable contingent from the city’s two universities.

Although K-W Right to Life sponsors this event each year, this year was significant as it marked the 20th anniversary of the 1988 court decision that struck down Canada’s law on abortion. Even the mainstream media recognized the significance of the day. CTV news was at the vigil with a video camera, interviewing K-W Right to Life President Jane Richard and lingering to take video footage of the march, of the candles, and of the faces of people praying, walking, and remembering where we have come from.

The anniversary matters, because even though abortion has been legal in Canada for almost 40 years, unborn children have had no protection at any stage of development since January 28, 1988. This means that a child in Canada who is about to be delivered can be brutally dismembered or murdered in any number of ways, but minutes later the child has all the rights and privileges of any other Canadian. It just doesn’t make sense, and yet, this has been the case for 20 years.

20 years is a really long time. 20 years ago, the Soviet Union was withdrawing after an 8 year invasion of Afghanistan, Ronald Reagan was President of the United States, Eighties music was popular, and the Maple Leafs had only gone only 21 years without winning the Stanley Cup. In fact, many of the university students that joined the vigil would have only just been born. They, like us, are the lucky ones; in the last 20 years approximately 2 million unborn children have had their lives snuffed out while still in the womb.

Technology has also come a long way in 20 years. 20 years ago, Compact Discs were just establishing themselves as the dominant music media, DVD’s hadn’t even been invented, and state of the art computers had 16 colours. Medical technology has also advanced giving people an ever greater knowledge of life in the womb. Fetal surgery, 4-D ultrasound technology, and dramatically higher survival rates of premature babies have all drawn attention to the simple fact that unborn children are undeniably human.

After 20 years, it’s no wonder that attitudes have changed. Today two thirds of Canadian women support legal protection for unborn children at some point before birth, and support for protecting the unborn is even higher among young people. In this environment, a diverse group of volunteers came out to make a statement about the tragedy of abortion, to encourage each other, but mostly to pray. KW Right to Life President Jane Richard said, “I’m always encouraged by the pro-life movement, our voices aren’t heard most of the time, but events like these are a chance to come together and pray and this is more powerful than we know.”

Even though the atmosphere was generally quiet and prayerful, there was a silent bond between participants, with smiles and hellos accompanying heartfelt prayers. There’s nothing like trudging through snow and breathing fresh crisp air while supporting a noble cause to create a sense of camaraderie. Perhaps next year, a local church or pro-life restaurant owner will help further that sense of camaraderie by hosting the volunteers after the vigil with hot chocolate and cider.