61 Replies to “Quote Of The Week”

  1. Great post.
    Mr Dion must feel like a complete idiot seeing how he is going to sit on his hands for another confidence vote.
    This guy is a bigger joke than Raphael.

  2. Is it just me or does it seem like THE VERDICT WITH PAULA TODD is no more?
    Erase this post if it is still on but maybe you should look into it.
    I can’t find any trace of it on the CTV.CA website.
    I think they canned here.

  3. From the CTV website, “Paula Todd is an acclaimed journalist, broadcaster, author and lawyer and is currently reporting for CTV’s W-FIVE, Canada’s #1 investigative news program and North America’s longest-running news magazine.”
    Here garbage liberal show is gone I guess.
    Kate, you must be overjoyed we don’t have to listen to her anymore preaching about why Omar Khadr should be brought back to Canada.
    What a relief.

  4. And why not? They’ll still collect their pay, it won’t be their problem. (they remind me of my dear friend who works for the provincial gov’t; she sends the majority of silly joke email that I receive. I kinda wish she’d spend my tax dollars more productively. Sweetie, could you get to work now?)
    In fact, if we do actually go into a recession, I could see the libs throwing the 09 election just to avoid the pain of governing! They have the handy excuse that “Canadians don’t want an election right now.”
    Except that they really want to lose Dion. What a quandary.

  5. Paula Todd was grossly outmatched as Steve Paikin’s sidekick on TVO. I’m surprised she ever got a gig at CTV.

  7. Well if the Libranos wait long enought it might give the RCMP forensic auditors enough time to find the missing $40 Million stolen taxpayers dollars from Adscam (under Dion`s nose)and start laying charges.
    When this happens…it is only a matter of time…we will have to put up with the NDP as the official opposition!
    As for Fife he is just a Liberal mouthpiece that should be ignored.

  8. When I heard that comment, I can only think that if Fife is a fan of the Liberals, it’s one of the ones with a knife in hand.

  9. Paula Todd and Steve Paikin were/are just smiling lefties, but they’re lefties all the same.
    I’ve not tested Paula Todd, but, challenge him, and Steve Paikin’s just as much a moral pygmy, prima donna–don?–as any Avi Lewis at CBC. In Ontario, Canada. I’m not making this up.

  10. “When I heard that comment, I can only think that if Fife is a fan of the Liberals, it’s one of the ones with a knife in hand.”
    Uh, helooooo… What part of Journalist didn’t you understand? 😉

  11. There was an earlier (two days ago) quote from Jean Lapierre on Duffy where he suggested that there was a muntiny in the Liberal camp to the extent that Dion told everyone to get ready for an election and nonone budged. The suggestion (on some blogs) is that Rae is taking the reigns of the party, which makes sense given that he is the most direct link to the money (via John Rae and Power Corp — I think Power pretty much underwrites the Liberal “loans”.) I am wondering about the possibility of the Libs tossing Dion out if he gets a poor showing in the bi-elections. Then, Rae becomes acting. It would be a tidy solution for them. In fact, I could see that it might even be beneficial for them to “throw” one or more of the ridings in order to do poorly.

  13. I agree, in part, with Linda. Rae and PowerCorp are close. I’m still not sure where Ignatieff stands in this; is he part of the PowerCorp gang as well? After all, PowerCorp, Desmarais, Magna..they are the raw structure of the Liberal Party; they kept Chretien and Martin in power.
    To my understanding, Ignatieff DID want an election now. So did Dion. But I suspect for different reasons. Ignatieff might want an election now, because Rae might, just might, lose if he were campaigning in a general election. I think Ignatieff doesn’t want Rae in the caucus.
    Rae is campaigning, now, in a March 17 by-election, and by-elections are easy to win, in a Liberal-held riding (Bill Graham’s old Rosedale riding).
    Rae is ‘in’ that whole crowd, so, he’ll win.
    Then – he comes into the House, and starts to edge Ignatieff out.
    As for the economic slow down, since Canada’s economy is embedded within that of the US, it’s inevitable. It’s utterly naive to put any blame on the Conservatives (or other parties) for this. But it has to be dealt with, as Flaherty is trying to do.
    However, the political partisans will try to score political points with the slowdown. Dion is already trying to do that; and Flaherty is setting the stage to prevent his attempt.
    Flaherty is also dealing with McGuinty in Ontario. McGuinty has effectively trapped himself. He has based his electoral base on increasing employment in the public sector (over 52% of Ontario’s work force are public employees)- and on divide-and-vote multiculturalism, who also rely on large handouts from the govt.
    Now the public employees increase in number, decrease in effectiveness – and are protected in both by UNIONS.
    So, McGuinty is trapped. How can he support this massive electoral base, unionized and dependent on handouts? He’s tried to do so by increasing corporate taxes. Result? Small and medium businesses are fleeing Ontario because they can’t afford it.
    So, he’s trying to get more money from the federal govt – to keep his electoral base fed and happy. But, the federal govt isn’t going to keep him afloat – especially when McGuinty is essentially destroying the manufacturing and industrial base of Ontario.
    Dion and the Liberals are going to try to make ‘political hay’ by rhetorically going to the aid of poor beleagured Ontario. Easy, since they aren’t in power and can only talk.
    Flaherty is already preparing for McGuinty’s screams of fury, by warning Ontarians that McGuinty is destroying Ontario’s industrial capacity with his high corporate taxes and high ratio of public to private work force.
    We’ll see what happens.

  14. The Liberals are hoping for a recession? Its a Liberal straight line down from saving the planet to hoping the Canadian economy hits an economic iceberg. Hasn’t AGW melted all the icebergs?
    If Steffi falls on his sword, Canadians writ large would probably elect Ray. Aaarrrgh. There’s your iceberg.

  15. “I think they canned her.”
    Wow . . . I would have thought pickling or freeze drying would have been more appropriate.

  16. the forming scenario is reminiscent of the nineties with the PC-Reform split on the right giving Da Liddle Guy three majorities.
    We can hope Dion keeps sitting on his hands till 10/2009. By then the Libs will be totally meffed-up.
    The Libs/NDP/Greens/Bloc can keep on splitting the left.

  17. Bob Rae was a disaster as Premiere of Ontario. He tried to spend his way out of a recession and tripled the provinces debt, not the deficit mind you the debt. God help us all if he ever becomes PM.
    If he does take the reins of the Liberal party I pray that Ontarians remember the mess he caused and not vote for him. I would rather see Ontario elect more NDP and Green candidates than have that moron in charge of Canada’s purse strings.

  18. Norman Spector on what’s good for the liberals – start at 7:30 (From CKNW, Feb 18 at 10 am).
    tinyurl.com/ysp6fs

  19. “As for the economic slow down, since Canada’s economy is embedded within that of the US, it’s inevitable”
    Are you assuming the US is in recession? If it is, it is the most advertised non-recession in history. Housing stocks are rising while reports (every report is history) keep coming in on weaker house prices in the formerly overheated regional markets.
    Recession talk is front page news virtually every day. Markets top long before the economic numbers to confirm a recession. Economies bottom long before the numbers stop going down. Economies and markets bottom when things are black. Certainly, journalists are the last to catch on an economic top or bottom. As long as the papers keep yakking about recession, the odds are there will not be a US recession.
    Doesn’t mean there won’t be an economic problem. More likely inflation (says the weak US dollar strong gold) from massive government stimulus to blunt the sub-prime collapse, bailouts, recovery of 500 billion in corporate taxes paid going back 5 years inflation…… general monetary manic panic to avoid…..drumroll…. a recession.
    Looks like intend to succeed if they haven’t already. Here is a quote yesterday from the guy’s that create money out of thin air, Dr. Donald Kohn, the Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank
    “Our job at the Federal Reserve
    is to put in place those policies that will promote
    both price stability and growth over time. We
    have the tools. As Chairman Bernanke emphasizes: We will do what is needed”

  20. “over 52% of Ontario’s work force are public employees”
    Wow. Uh Oh.
    “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.
    Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.”

  21. the forming scenario is reminiscent of the nineties with the PC-Reform split on the right giving Da Liddle Guy three majorities.
    If this is true, one of the benefits for the right is that the left has a lust for power. The rise of the Reform was based upon principle; it was not for power only. It was started during Mulroneys’s first term – that massive PC majority government.
    The left is different. It is true that they may one day consolidate – but only when they are forced to by the electorate. The Liberals will be prepared to give Harper, et.al. at least one majority government before they will attempt a union with the NDP or Greens. Liberals are about power. Why would they attempt to share it with the NDP or Greens as long as they think Harper will be only one or two terms in power?

  22. ET:
    Can you point me to where you found this information – “over 52% of Ontario’s workforce are public employees”?
    Thank you.

  23. *
    “matt says… grossly outmatched as Steve Paikin’s sidekick on TVO”
    i think paula was some tvo media guy’s idea of eye candy. she is
    to paikin what ‘a game of marbles, is to particle physics’.
    *

  24. I also caught that comment on CTV last night. In fairness to the Libs, the commentator couldn’t know exactly what the Libs were thinking or praying for and I would hope that none of them was actually praying for a recession, which would bring hardship to many of their fellow countrymen (am I naive?); however it points up the pathetic corner into which the Libs have painted themselves. They’re confronted by a competent government after years of their own misrule supported only by their own, albeit numerically substantial, blind religious adherents plus whatever minority special interests they can con into supporting them in exchange for promises on which they (the Libs) have increasingly dubious prospects of actually delivering. Do they grow up, and get real policy-wise thereby alienating their looney base? Or do they continue to prop up Mr. Harper in hopes of forestalling the battle they don’t want, and let their adult adherents drift over to the conservatives who become tougher and tougher to label as bogey men with each passing vote? Perhaps we’re witnessing the beginning of the process which occured in early 20th century Britain wherein the Liberal party became increasingly irrelevant and simply faded into rump party obscurity. Let’s hope!

  25. With regard to the 52% – I was told this by someone who works with the political parties. I’ve written him and asked for his data base. I’ll let you know – and of course, it could well be wrong. But, the ratio of public to private employment in Ontario is high.
    I’ll let you know.

  26. Seriously….. 52%? That does not seem credible. Or requires some insane stretch of the definition of ‘public employee”.
    Another issue…. Rae will win his riding, but it has little to do with the fact that Rosedale is in the riding. Rosedale contributes a relatively small number of voters in that riding. That riding is dominated demographically by the population south of Bloor street: very ethnic, low income, and a large gay community too.
    Check the demographics according to the 2001 census:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Centre
    Ethnic groups: 57.9% White, 9.1% Black, 8.6% South Asian, 8.3% Chinese, 5.2% Filipino, 1.9% Korean, 1.9% Southeast Asian, Latin American 1.8%, Arab 1.1%.
    Languages: 58.5% English, 3.1% French, 36.6% Other, 1.8% Multiple languages
    Religions: 25.8% Catholic, 22.0% Protestant, 7.6% Muslim, 4.7% Other Christian , 3.9% Hindu, 3.1% Jewish, 3.0% Christian Orthodox, 2.3% Buddhist, 26.8% No religious affiliation
    That was in in 2001. I can assure you that it is more diverse in 2008.
    I’d venture that the Conservative candidate, Meredith, will do better in Rosedale than he will do south of it.

  27. lore- yes, I think you are probably right about the 52%; it’s way too high. I was told this by someone who works with the political parties; I didn’t even think about what he’d said; I’m waiting for him to get back to me with his data base. But I think you’re right. It’s too high. However, the proportion in Ontario of public to private IS high. And they are all unionized.
    As for Meredith – I hope you’re right. I’m aware of the Below Bloor areas (I live there) and Meredith is relying on the below-Bloor areas. But, remember, this same area elected Bill Graham for years. And it isn’t all ‘low-income’ or ethnic. There’s Cabbagetown – very expensive; there’s the quite expensive condo areas.

  28. Thanks ET.
    It does seem rather high, but sadly not unbelievable in the demented Dominion.
    Let’s face it, the real numbers don’t matter any more.
    Add a couple of zeros to the conversation and the populace’s face quickly looks like your teenagers’ face when you talk about the good old days.
    The fog roles in. And in more ways than one. Politicians line up to lie like it is payday.
    They claim there are 250,000 federal civil servants, 1 in every 132 Canadians, if you care to believe anything your government tells you.
    Still a couple of lakhs too many in my estimation.

  29. Fair enough ET, but 37% non-english speaking….
    Yikes! Where are all these people hiding. Actually I think I know… it’s the densely packed apt. buildings.
    One apartment building Sherbourne anywhere between Bloor and Dundas probably has more voters in it than half of Rosedale. I’d bet, however, that their voting turnout is very poor.
    Anyway, regardless of the details, it’s hard for me to see a safer liberal riding in Canada today than this one. Hard to believe that only 20 years ago it was regularly electing PC candidates…. sad.
    The only way the CPCs wins here, ever, is if the NDP and Liberal split the vote. Eventually this will become an NDP riding I predict

  30. Fife and Ollie have been telling us what PMSH ‘thinks and feels’ without of course asking PMSH what he thinks and feels.
    Ha…good to see the Libs getting a taste of Fifer’s lousy journalism.
    No secret that it’s Fifer who want the CPC to be blamed.

  31. Very good analysis, re Ontario, ET. What an enjoyable read!
    BTW, in the Yukon well over 57% of the workforce is a Federal, Territorial or Municipal employee – with unions – a dishwasher makes $21.00 an hour plus perks – $5000.00 isolation pay, health packages, two flights out of the Yukon per year (flights for the whole family if you are a Fed), paid vacations and paid sick days…..it is very difficult to compete with that ‘package’ if you are a private employer.
    When the Dippers ruled they paid the moving costs of their friends to ‘relocate’ and put them up in hotels until they found a place to live! Ontario was footing the bills in those days – I doubt that the Yukon will worry about the fate of Ontario public servant’s perks.
    The Yukon supplied the temp plate for the ‘entitled’ workforce, Ontario is just following along the dotted lines.

  32. The LIEberals get the jellyfish award!!
    So spineless they can only gelatinously sit in their seats mounting another version of SITZKRIEG!!
    Fife is hilarious; as if the the Federal government can control the economic health of the UNITED STATES where Canada ships 85% of goods.
    One can have good relations with the US but ultimately the economic health of the US is dependent on the AMERICAN government and its response to the latest financial debacle known as Asset Backed Commercial Paper (ABCP). While the US is coming to grips with this phenomena, a US economic hiccup is hardly to be blamed on the CANADIAN government.
    If Fife even had a clue on how economics and investments worked at all, he might garner a shred of credibility instead of being a LIEberal cheerleader.
    Cheers
    Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht BGS, PDP, CFP
    Commander in Chief
    Frankenstein Battalion
    2nd Squadron: Ulanen-(Lancers) Regiment Großherzog Friedrich von Baden(Rheinisches) Nr.7(Saarbrucken)
    Knecht Rupprecht Division
    Hans Corps
    1st Saint Nicolaas Army
    Army Group “True North”

  34. lori and bud; this person has now gotten back to me, and doesn’t know where his ‘data’ came from. So, it can’t be accepted and as you note, it’s far too high. The only thing that can be taken from the opinion of ‘a high ratio of public to private employment’ in Ontario – is that it’s high. I think it’s an important ratio and so am going to keep looking on my own.
    The public would include: civil service, health care, security services, transportation, education, all city services (garbage, roads,water, building etc). And these are all unionized.
    Now, add in the other employment sectors in Ontario (car manufacturing and mining), with unions.
    I think Ontario is over-unionized, and with the high corporate tax rate, it makes it difficult for small to medium businesses to operate.
    Lori- right. I strongly suspect that most of the high occupancy rental buildings in the Sherbourne area etc dont’ vote. But if they do, it will be Liberal because of the imagery of the Liberals that they ‘protect’ ethnics. It’s an extremely safe Liberal riding. And, there’s a lot of public service employees, a lot of health care, a lot of academics in the area.

  35. While 52% seems too high (and I think that it is) remember that in addition to municipal and provincial, Ontario (like Quebec) has a disproportionate number of Federal Swivel Servants. Also, pretty much the entire healthcare industry works for the government, plus there are all the liquor and beer stores, military bases etc.

  36. Ontario will have to face the fact that, thanks to the tanking of the US dollar, they now have a high-cost labour market.
    The only way it’s going to get sorted out will be through massive layoffs (the 200,000 we’ve seen so far is nothing) and closing of plants.
    Unions will have to decide whether it’s better to have jobs at a competitive rate to the US or go on pogey.
    Speaking of which, dunno where I saw it, but the combined Alberta-B.C. UI recipients number is around 52,000. Quebec, with roughly the same population is at 160,000. Ontario is at about 105,000 with a much larger population than any of the precedint two regions..

  37. Just checked Stats Can EI recipient numbers for November.
    Quebec – 156,000
    Ontario – 126,000
    Alberta/BC – 51,000
    Wonder where the jobs are?

  38. Overheard outside Stephane Dion’s office:
    “Thank you sir, could I please have another?……..Thank you sir, could I please have another?…..”

  39. Jason Kenny is slapping Dominic LeBlanc senseless on Duffy. LeBlanc looks like he requires a big dose of Preparation H and some sunburn lotion. I never thought Liberals blushed. I does loooove it.

  40. What are the chances of the upcoming CWB bill from the Conservatives triggering the election?
    I know Dion has initially said the the government would fall over each of the three (loaded) bills, but as almost everyone has predicted he has put his tail between his legs( just like Obama in the debate yesterday, he is a policy chameleon).
    Is it possible that the people in Ontario are so malicious that they would elect the Liberals to keep a CWB that has nothing to do with them?
    I don’t think so. I think the lib’s will sit out on this vote also.
    I believe now is the time, we have a virtual majority and the Conservative should start moving on the “hidden agenda”, you know the one about an Elected and Equal Senate. This concept is WAY over the heads of Torontards and the constitution could probably be looked at since “Canadians do not want an election.”
    The Liberals would HAVE to defeat the government on this issue because it is what keeps their party alive; but, it will be difficult to argue against an ELECTED senate.

  41. I have no link as I heard this on tv a couple years ago,
    but some journalist was complaining Quebec has too many civil servants,
    he was saying despite having a population about four times smaller than California, Quebec has four times the number of civil servants California has!

  43. Bob Rae has more nerve than a canal horse to put his face up for any political office. However, he’s OK among brain dead, brain free voters of Ontario.
    IF he ever gets past the Puffin Man and whoever the hell else shows up for the Leadership he’ll be pretty well battle scarred. With likes of Kinsella w working hard to get Dildo McGuinty/McLiar in the line up, we’re in for a real GONG SHOW.

  45. Re: 52% of Ontarians are “public workforce employees.” Is it possible that figure represents all Ontarians who work for some level of government, plus those in receipt of government transfers such as welfare, EI, disability and other pensions?
    I have no idea; just asking.

  46. Re: 52% — And don’t forget all of the teachers, social workers — and I guess you could also count Federal gov. workers who live in Ottawa.

  47. re: 52% … I remember reading something in the Globe a few years back about Canada’s work force being almost exclusively government workers.
    Apparently (and please correct me if I am wrong) only 50% of Canadian adults are members of the work force, with the other 50% unemployed, on social assistance, disability, or they’re retired, students etc…
    Of the 50% of adult Canadians who actually work, 60% of them work directly or indirectly for the government ie; bureaucrats, health care and emergency workers, teachers, the cultural industries, businesses contracted to any of the three levels of government etc… the other 40% of adult Canadians who work for a living are in the private sector…
    What this means is that only 20% of adult Canadians work in the private sector….
    We all know that Canada has more government on a per capita basis than any other country in the world but with a private sector which employs so few Canadians it’s no wonder we have the highest and most punitive tax rates in the world…
    This is why there is a massive exodus to the USA… this is why Canada cannot meet its immigration quotas…
    Socialism breeds poverty and despair… Canuckistan has become a member of the third world…

  48. ET: The only thing that can be taken from the opinion of ‘a high ratio of public to private employment’ in Ontario – is that it’s high.
    Wrong. Public sector workforce (incl. all levels of government, health and social service institutions, universities, colleges, trade schools, local school boards, and government business enterprises), as a percentage of total workforce (from CANSIM, May ’07 data):
    – Canada > 22.6
    – NL > 28.9
    – PEI > 26.8
    – NS > 29.9
    – QC > 23.3
    – ON > 20.9
    – MB > 29.2
    – SK > 34.1
    – AB > 19.1
    – BC > 20.9
    I think Ontario is over-unionized
    Wrong again. Workforce that’s unionized or covered by a collective/union agreement, as a percentage of total workforce:
    – Canada > 31.9
    – NL > 38.0
    – PEI > 30.2
    – NS > 29.5
    – QC > 40.1
    – ON > 28.4
    – MB > 37.0
    – SK > 34.8
    – AB > 23.9
    – BC > 33.3
    Strange that your perception of the size of Ontario’s public sector and union membership is so off, given that you are (were?) both a public sector employee and a union member for most (all?) of your career.

  49. Is it worth emphasizing that the underlying premises of ET’s “very good analysis re: Ontario” — i.e., that Ontario has (1) a relatively large public sector presence, and (2) a relatively large union presence — are utterly incorrect?
    Nah. Because once we start down that road, we’d have to concede that McGuinty’s electoral base includes far more than just the unions and ethnic minorities, and then her whole argument starts to fall apart.
    Instead, let’s just congratulate ET on another brilliant analysis. The only thing missing is a reference to “the tribal mode.”
    Hip hip! Hooray!
    Hip hip! Hooray!
    Hip hip! Hooray!

  50. I may be wrong Brad, but your numbers appear to have been pulled out of….thin air. Kind of like 75% of statistical facts are made up on the spot to fit the current situation.
    And as for people on EI, or disability, what makes you think that most of them shouldn’t be there? I’m really enjoying trying to pay my mortgage on 37% of my regular income. If I could work I’d be there, but the surgery I had rules that out. It’s sure as hell no gravy train. And that’s EI. Disability pays 1/2 as much as EI. And no, there is no insurance plan at work.

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