More Campaign Videos From The Liberal Team

Here are two more videos from the campaign trail of Stephane Dion, the first one talks about the retro fitting of homes to make them more energy efficient: http://www.liberal.ca/video_e.aspx?channel=5 These policies of the Stephane Dion's Liberals translates to job security for me and thousands and thousands of people here in Kelowna who rely on a strong housing market. I for one will definitely take advantage of the incentives to enhance my house with new technological advancements, for example the solar powered hot water heater. I also think the fact they have a plan to help all Canadians with the burden of high energy cost, so that no Canadian gets left behind (a REAL Canadian value). Kudos to you Stephane Dion, today's announcements have solidified my vote and will help me convince everyone else I talk to, to give their vote some real thought. http://www.liberal.ca/video_e.aspx?channel=5 I believe that Canadians will begin to see Dion and the Liberal team as a smart innovative team with much higher moral standards than that of either the Cons. or the NDP. As the election progresses Canadians will no doubt tire of the same old childish back lashing and fear mongering taking place now, and when they realize that Stephane Dion has not change his strategies at all or hasn't had to fire any war room executives or taken any web-site advertising down, none of that. The Liberals have been doing the same thing since early summer, getting out and meeting Canadians, one on one if they have to, all in order to educate Canadians and lower scepticism regarding the Liberal platform of a fairer, richer, greener Canada, and when they the people have spoke the party that truly wants their vote listens and adjust to better enhance the policies. I have noticed in all the elections I've seen, that when Canada is fed up or mad at a party, they throw them out fast and furious. When this happens to the Cons and we realize the reason will be for the same as when we threw out Brian Mulroney ( I would imagine Harper will try the same old sue Canadians for 50 million/ settle for 2 million game on exit), I don't think we will see the likes of another Conservative government for an extremely long time. Unfortunately most of the economist and environmentalist agree that any delay to stay with world trends will indeed have grave consequences for the future of our nation (maybe we could join Quebec as a nation), as we will be perceived as another American proxy vote on the world stage. Anyways going back to my original statement, I do not believe Canadians will continue to let this assault on our Canadian political process take place at the hands of the media and a mean and fraudulent Conservative government. As for how Dion communicates, I want our P.M. to be intelligent and thought provoking not a fined tuned used car salesman. Since when did being a polished personality become so important to Canadians, from Chrétien to Laurier, their have been many rough around the edges Prime Ministers with various flaws. As Stephane Dion said yesterday " Steven Harper may speak better english than me but I speak better about the truth in both english and french.

I Like the Liberal Team

With the election in week two, I am not surprised to find the mainstream media to be pro conservative and very negative to Stephane Dion and the Liberals, so I have decided to post various Liberal news clips, short videos, and advertising excerpts where family and friends, and now others can see them. I think it may be time to link my blog with others so people can see some of the positive things the Liberals stand for. Thank you for taking the time to have a look at what I feel strongly about our planet, our democracy, and our freedoms to live our lives the way we should be living - protective of our planet and mindful of all its inhabitants. Today's first video is of Stephane Dion talking on his plane after the first week of the election. http://www.liberal.ca/video_e.aspx?guid=34A0B038-C3AD-4491-B268-8EDC2167F1A0

Media Influence

I have noticed that more and more bloggers are talking about how the media is being completely bias and what we can do to correct this behaviour. It has been suggested that their be a watch dog office to investigate which papers or news companies are proclaiming to be non partisan while leaning heavily one way or another, however I believe it would be easier to make it mandatory for each author or journalist that puts there name to an article to also include who they support politically. I remember in the last federal election of 2006 the C.B.C. did a meet the candidates segment, where the idea was a great tool to introduce each party leader to Canadians via our biggest and most viewed evening news broadcast, the actual interviews were appalling due to the blatant partisanship. Steven Harpers interviews were always pleasant and jovial, the N.D.P. also seemed to have non confrontational interviews as well, on the other hand the interviews with Paul Martin were a constant attack about the sponsorship scandal and no talk of policy or anything else. This could have had a much fairer outcome had the journalist/ interviewers had stated their political preference right from the start, most Canadians do not follow every detail of politics and tend do be easily guided in their discussions by someone they trust nightly with their news. I have also heard Rex Murphy talk on his show about his long and fond friendship with Peter McKay father and his family, I would love to hear at the end of each thursday night show a quick blurb like "this is Rex Murphy and I support the cons". In order for the media company to be held accountable for being non partisan they could easily count how many reports have Cons/N.D.P./Liberal Party affiliated with them, and as for if a reporter/journalist seemed to be dishonest, they could have a complaint mechanism in place. Anyways this is a great topic as these are the items we need to talk about in order to correct the issue of our media being infiltrated by big business and their political puppets. By the way 11.6 billion dollars per quarter (Shell Oil's 2008) buys a lot of publicity in all shapes and sizes and it also buys politicians, something to be concerned about just look south and ask weather or not the Iraq war was started for oil or not?

One of the comments I made on Liberal Arts and Minds blog this week was in regards to media coverage and the stupid stories the Conservative get coverage for and how important issues such as a "Green Shift Plan" gets very little and how that influences voters. The Comment I made went as follows: Unfortunately these are the stories the media give the air time to and the numerous announcements made recently to the various provinces not held by the cons. This is exactly how a band of clowns like this get elected, they manipulate and lie to fool the average Canadian who only watches the local nightly news and maybe reads the weekend newspaper. The one thing I truly hope the Liberals understand is that our elections are fought and won through the media. When a media mogul like say a Oprah Winfrey get behind and more than supports a candidate like Barrack Obama, this begins to shift momentum and when more and more popular people begin to jump on board, well then... What Stephane Dion needs are some high profile celebrities to discredit what the Steven Harper messages/lies are. We saw a little of this when we had the likes of Lynn McDonald and Judge Reid Scott and David Suzuki promoting Stephane Dion and his visionary thinking with regards to the "Green Shift Plan", However the Liberal Party needs to get more high profile people and get that into the evening news and weekend newspapers. There should be enough celebrates that this government has jerked around in the last two and a half years, getting some of them to come out and support Stephane Dion should be easy. The biggest problem still exists that media coverage in this country is persuaded by true blue conservatives such as Peter Mansbridge, Rex Murphy, and Lloyd Robertson. The average Canadian doesn't keep up with all the bills introduced by this government that change our way of life, they don't know the outrageous lies that they tell daily they don't follow the blogosphere to get the truth and facts, they will need to see these on T.V.
Another Comment I made on Garth Turner's blog was with regards to weather or not re are ready for an election right now, it goes as follows: The longer the current cons stay in power the worst off Canada is on the world stage, on global warming, on our own dependency for fossil fuels to drive our economy, for our own federal economy(not just certain regional economies) on our federal unity, on our civil liberties, on what it has always meant to be a Canadian (for the last 141 years). The answer to the question is YES WE NEED AN ELECTION A.S.A.P., that being said The Honourable Stephane Dion has shown some real wisdom, leadership, and patience to refrain from triggering an election to date, the cons have an abundance of money and all the facilities at their disposal to fire up the slogans and propaganda machine. With absolutely no help from the N.D.P. to get rid of this clown and his band of merry men, in fact Jack Layton seems to play directly into Harpers hand on almost every issue, Mr. Dion should continue to use his wisdom and the strength of his team to go when the time is right. Mr. Dion has been put in a very difficult place however, if we do not go to an election right away, the environment suffers, if we go now and the cons bags of tricks and bribes proves to be too much to win the election for the Liberals, then the environment loses for ever. I believe the world needs the old Canada back and Canadians need to get back to what being Canadian has always meant!

The Conservatives to disappoint on the world stage AGAIN!

This blog and my second to date, needs to be about the continuation of our current Conservative governments effort to sabotage world effort to deal with climate change and world poverty. Today the G-8 meetings in Toyako Japan got under way and like the last G-8 meeting our Mr. Steven Harper, prime minister of Canada, is again imposing his hidden agenda on the world. I get the feeling that big oil, George Bush, Dick Cheney, and the big puppet to the north our Mr. Harper have a view of the world that does not include a North Pole, rather their view probably includes vast commercial shipping lanes and large off shore oil drilling rigs, and a strong military to protect their interest from those peasant terrorist. I believe that the Nato military mission in Afghanistan is for the right reasons and I also believe they are doing tremendous good, however I can't help but feel that our soldiers are being taken advantage of, in the interest of protecting the assets of big oil. Iraq is a prime example of this, the debate for years was did the president knowingly commit the troops to war for the interest of securing a oil supply, the answer is still yet to be confirmed. Many smart people have stated that if all Bush wanted to do is take down Sudam Huissain, then why did he attack all those soldiers and loyalist and police, only to have to re-construct that infrastructure? These are questions that may never be answered due largely to the fact that their is some control of our media by big business here in North America, more and more people are starting to talk about how important issues of today are being swept aside for less incriminating and less important stories. A good blog that points to this, done by a reputable lawyer in Alberta,is here:http://darrylraymaker.blogspot.com/2008/07/calgary-heralds-disrespect-of.html. It is shocking how the media continues to print untruths that come out of politicians mouths without question or better yet research, a good blog that talks about this is here at: http://danielletakacs.blogspot.com/ he has has shown quite a number of truths regarding the lies of the Conservatives on his blog site. Reputable people have condemned the Steven Harper's "Environment Plan" such as David Suzuki, Al Gore, The Pembina Institution ect. but Harper continues to show up at these G-8 meetings with the same rhetoric, we in Canada don't want to do anything to solve the global warming issue until China and India does what we have to, how childish of Canadians to let this take place on the world stage, SHAME ON US !!! The Liberal news release today states just this point: http://www.liberal.ca/story_14147_e.aspx. As for my other comment about the North Pole, here is another interesting link: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hU5i54pX9VdxAcD6Mo3VfWZDWfyQD91IOSV00 regarding the depletion of our North Pole. As per the opinion of The David Suzuki Society, whom I find to be probably one of the best in the field of environmental sciences, this is what they had to say about Stephan Dion's and the Liberals new " The Green Shift Plan".
Let’s clear the air on carbon taxes
I admit: we aren’t 100 per cent sure that human activity is causing global warming. So let’s all go home in our SUVs and join an "axe the tax" campaign. Come to think of it, we aren’t sure that our houses will be robbed, flooded, or burned to the ground, so let’s cancel our home insurance while we’re at it.After all, the vast majority of the world’s climate scientists will only admit to being 90 per cent certain that our carbon emissions are causing global warming on such a scale that we face global catastrophe if we fail to change our ways. If nine out of 10 doctors said your child needed an immediate operation, would you wait until all 10 agreed? James Hansen, a leading climate expert who raised the alarm about global warming to the U.S. Congress 20 years ago, says he’s 99 per cent sure, but that’s still not 100 per cent, so why should we pay more by way of a carbon tax to address a problem that may not exist?True, a report prepared by M.K. Jaccard and Associates for the David Suzuki Foundation titled Pricing Carbon: Saving Green argued persuasively that a carbon tax is an effective tool for bringing emissions down, and governments, scientists, and economists around the world agree, but what if they’re wrong? Never mind that countries such as Sweden, which implemented a carbon tax in 1991, have proven such measures are effective and that they actually produce economic benefits; why should we change if we don’t have to? Rising gas prices due to global market forces are already hitting us hard enough; why should we add to the misery?Consider this: If the industry shills and their followers are right and global warming is not the threat we think it is, and we act anyway, the oil will still be there for future use and we’ll also have cleaner air and greater innovation in green technologies – along with stronger economies. If the majority of the world’s climate scientists are right and we fail to act, we face ecological, social, and economic catastrophe on a scale beyond anything we’ve experienced in modern times.Consider also that carbon taxes such as B.C.’s and the one the federal Liberals have proposed are actually tax shifts. The money collected from individuals, businesses, and industry will be returned in the form of cuts to personal and business taxes. The 2.4 cents a litre increase in gas prices that is one small part of the B.C. tax is minuscule compared to market increases, and the tax may help us move away from continued reliance on increasingly scarce and costly fossil fuels.Whether it’s called a tax shift, a revenue-neutral tax, or a new tax, it will get people worked up. No one likes taxes, but we like roads and schools and hospitals and police services, so we pay them. We also pay about $90 a tonne to put garbage into landfills, so why are we so concerned about having to pay to put garbage into the air?Politicians have two powerful instruments to influence behaviour: regulation and taxation. In the mindless mantra of anti-taxation groups, taxes are bad and we should always cut and never increase them. The ludicrous aspect is that these groups are silent about the enormous taxpayer subsidies to fossil-fuel and related industries that make windfall profits while resisting even a small tax hike. Together with measures such as a cap-and-trade program, a carbon tax can use money from industries that are not energy-efficient to create economic benefits and incentives for those that that are wiser in their energy use. The income generated by a carbon tax can be used to cut income taxes, build more public transit, upgrade trains, develop renewable-energy sources, and retrofit homes and buildings with energy-efficient technology. For 20 years, scientists have warned of the need for urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Leading economists have shown that the cost to bring emissions down will be about one per cent of GDP annually, while the costs incurred if we don’t reduce emissions could be economically catastrophic. When politicians, business people, and citizens show leadership by proposing or implementing solutions to the very real problems facing the planet (yes, more than 90 per cent certain is as real as it gets in science), they deserve our support, not mockery and politically motivated misinformation. Axe the tax, my ass!
Take David Suzuki's Nature Challenge and learn more at http://marquimail.marqui.com/marqui/Redirect.aspx?u=60337&q=79033097&lm=14214676&r=100773&qz=067c7a65dc8ca243e35c07e3196e8ec9.

Canadian's Unite

Today as I enjoy the celebrations of Canada's one hundred and forty first birthday, I feel compelled to start my own blog post with the goal of bringing as many Canadians as possible to the discussion of the environment. The majority of Canadians agree that the single most challenging crisis facing Canadians today is solving the climate change issues while maintaining our economic prosperity. While many Canadians believe that any plan that disrupts or hinders the energy sector is bad for Canada's economy, many more Canadians including myself feel that this strengthens the argument that we need to do something immediately to avoid this imminent future. Canadians needs more options to the economy than just oil and gas and mining, we need to begin with the mass manufacturing and sales of electric cars and trucks, home based small wind generators, we need to have most homes with giant solar panels on their roofs, and office buildings with green roofs, and more rain collection technology. What needs to happen most of all is that CANADIAN'S NEED TO UNITE regarding this cause, thus ensuring our children have a secure economic future. Here in British Columbia we were given a cheque of a hundred dollars per person, to help with the new provincial carbon tax, we were encourage to spend the money on energy efficient items i.e. energy saver bulbs or to put the money toward buying a smaller car ect., when I tell my neighbours and co-workers that I spent the money on a new electric lawnmower, everybody applauds the effort and it will save me from buying at least a hundred dollars in gas per year for my old mower, let alone the emissions. I have found people want to do the right things for the environment, they just need a little encouragement. I commend the Liberals both provincially and Federally for having the leadership to bring this truly important issue to the forefront of discussion with Canadians. As for the Honourable Stephane Dion's "Green Shift Plan" this is very well thought out, a new study released June, 2008 shows the relationship between the higher income earners and their carbon footprint and the carbon footprint of lower income earners. The following link shows this study: www.GrowingGap.ca
One amazing statistic is that canada's ecological footprint is the third largest in the world, and if the highest emitters are shown to be the highest income earners, than this new "Green Shift Plan" hits a home run by enabling and encouraging the lower income earners to make changes through tax shifting and incentives. I strongly believe that Canadians need to unite and discuss this
"Green Shift Plan" and the importance of dealing with these issues sooner rather than later. We as Canadians should not leave it to a small group of people or politicians to get the message out, we all need to play a part in making Canada and the world a better place to live in.
Frankly Canadian