Ok, Maybe They Honestly Don’t Know What Those Words Mean

conservative party, democracy and good government

When the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is criticizing the Conservatives, you know something’s up. (Jason Kenney used to be their CEO, and all of the federation’s provincial directors have roots in conservative parties.)

Today, they’re upset that the government tried to keep a pay raise for senior officials under wraps. “What’s got my goat,” explained the CTF’s John Williamson, who gets extra points for using that goat expression I love so much, ” is that this is a government that was elected to be more transparent and accountable.”

Wait a minute…he’s right! It’s almost as this is becoming a bit of a recurring theme.

Bees is a Funny Word

ecology, economy, food

Last night I watched a Nature of Things documentary called “Beetalker: The Secret World of Bees.” (In my defense, I didn’t know the name of the documentary before I started watching it.) Anyway, it was pretty interesting, made even more so by supplementary interjections by my girlfriend, Claire “Bees are so cool!” Salloum.

At one point in the doc, Dr. Mark Winston claimed that, “without bees, human society as we know it would not exist.” Now I’m a pretty eco-conscious guy, but even I wanted to laugh at such a silly statement. That is, until he explained that without bee pollination, the overwhelming majority of our agriculture couldn’t exist.

That would be a problem. Because, like, we humans totally love to eat.

That’s why I was a little concerned today to learn that diversity in bees and wild flowers is declining, bees are being killed by pesticides, and that bumblebees could even face extinction.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Sure Chris, I understand that we need bees to make food, and I like to eat, but protecting bees will hurt the economy, and that’s the most important thing. I want jobs, not bees!”

Good point. However, according to Simon Potts from the University of Reading, the economic value of pollination worldwide is over $100 billion Canadian each year. (And according to Doug Woodward–a Green Party member from St. Catharines who may or may not know what he’s talking about–Potts is “low by a factor of maybe 1000.”)

In conclusion, whether you’re into survival, money, or both, bees are your friend.

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Conservative Party Using War to Fundraise

conservative party, democracy and good government, foreign affairs

According to Jeff Jedras’s blog, the Conservative party has sent out a fundraising letter that attempts to monetize Harper’s description of Israel’s strikes on Lebanon (which have left over 400 innocent people dead and counting) as “measured,” and to capitalize on the war itself.

I could try and respond, but I seem to have gotten myself a little worked up, and I’m worried my response wouldn’t be measured.

Read Jeff’s blog and the comments. That pretty much sums it up.

**goes into other room, closes door, swears loudly**

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Canada in the Middle (East)

conservative party, foreign affairs

It’s hard to know where to begin. It’s hard to know where this began.

Last night, watching Canada’s bungled evacuation attempt on TV was frustrating. Despite what Peter MacKay says, we’ve done a much worse job of evacuating our citizens than other countries. To be fair, that doesn’t make anything about this easy, and I could almost give our government the benefit of the doubt if it weren’t for reports today that “Sandra Buckler, Director of Communications in the Prime Minister’s Office, is said to have issued an edict ordering that the Lebanon crisis be kept under wraps.”

Maybe these guys should have looked up transparency and accountability in a dictionary before building a whole campaign around those words.

Even more objectionable, for me, is Harper’s departure from traditional Canadian neutrality, towards something that resembles the American position. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a time to take sides. During elections, for example. But let’s keep our eyes on the prize; the objective here is peace. And the best way for Canada to help advance that goal is to act as a voice of mediation. Taking sides is a bad strategy because it removes that possibility, hurting our ability to reach the objective.

Unfortunately, the editorial in today’s Globe And Mail supported Harper, mostly because they were bored and wanted to hear something different (“Mr. Harper did something unusual and refreshing”) , and because Hezbollah started it (“Hezbollah was primarily responsible for starting the fighting and must be primarily responsible for ending it”). This amounts to schoolyard “he hit me first” politics. If only it were that simple. And if only anyone could decisively say who “started it.”

If only we knew where the violence began. If only we knew where peace will begin.

Where the editorial went next really surprised me. “There is a world of difference,” the Globe And Mail continued, “between those who deliberately kill to make mischief and those who kill in response.”

Really? Last I checked, you’re dead either way. And I don’t know of any Canadian law that makes a distinction between “mischief killing” and “response killing.” I wonder if the Globe would apply the same logic to the streets of Toronto. I wonder if they teach their children that “two wrongs make a right.”

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