This Liberal propaganda (click picture to enlarge) was mailed to me at the end of Oct. 2007.[Why is this "a message from" 'there are crosses burning in Prince George' Hedy Fry? What's she got to do with Niagara? ]
So Stephane Bumbledore Dion’s priority is now the 'manufacturing crisis'. That's what... just after his priority of the 'environment crisis'... but before his priority of the 'poverty crisis'?
And Buzz Hargrove, as usual, decants his usual doom and gloom about job losses, as he’s always done, even when other federal and provincial governments were in power.
But now Buzz has become a Dion Liberal spokesman, and this crap is being mailed to Canadians in a House of Commons envelope marked with Canada’s coat of arms. How vile. What a waste of money.
Dion’s promised “concrete steps” will lead nowhere, just like his "real leadership"! His hollow promise of "Taking real action", is more like "Talking real action".
Dion's Liberal promises promise only to crumble, flake and spall, especially when he’s allied to unionists like Hargrove.
Hargrove’s figures of job losses are always in flux, and only more government intervention is seemingly the solution to his problems.
Here’s what the St. Catharines Standard reported, Nov.28, 2007: “The federal government has shot back at the Ontario and Quebec premiers for suggesting Ottawa has not done "its part" in coming to the aid of beleaguered manufacturers, suggesting their high provincial corporate taxes are partly to blame.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Tuesday that remarks from Ontario and Quebec premiers Dalton McGuinty and Jean Charest suggest the two provincial leaders had not been briefed on what Ottawa has already done to help business, especially the troubled manufacturing sector. And both Flaherty and Industry Minister Jim Prentice accused the two largest provinces of maintaining a tax regime that discourages investment in their provinces and penalizes the industries they say they want to help.
"Both Ontario and Quebec are two of the jurisdictions that still have capital taxes that are punitive, and they are punitive toward investment decisions that we need corporations to make to create jobs," said Prentice.
Flaherty said another punitive tax is Ontario's retail sales tax, which adds to manufacturers' production costs and makes them less competitive, saying the federal government has been trying to convince the province of the benefits of harmonization with the GST. Appearing somewhat perturbed by the provincial accusations, Flaherty recited a list of tax measures and incentives he has already enacted or announced, including elimination of the capital tax, the two year writeoff on new equipment for manufacturers, and scheduling corporate tax reductions that will cut the rate to 15 per cent by 2012.”
Here’s Hargrove and Chris Buckle writing in “Cause of crisis in auto sector runs deep”, (Toronto Star, Sept.3, 2007):
“In total, the Canadian auto assembly and parts sectors have lost a combined 23,000 jobs in the last few years - most of them long before anyone heard of the U.S. housing crisis. And remember Every direct job in a major auto plant like Oshawa supports 7.5 jobs in total in the national economy - everything from parts makers to doughnut shops.
The root cause of Canada's auto woes runs much deeper than shorter-run economic swings south of the border. Rather, the industry faces deeper, structural challenges, largely due to irresponsible government neglect of a sector that is so important to our economic and social well-being.
For years we have called on Ottawa to address the crucial problems facing the industry a one-way flood of offshore imports, with no chance to export back to those markets; a destructively high dollar; a need to attract new investment, including in environmentally advanced vehicles.
But these days we are being met with blank faces.”
“For years” they’ve been calling? For a dozen years it was Liberals running the show…suddenly in a year and a half, Dion’s Liberals, who Hargrove campaigns for , are suddenly absolved from his allegations? Like, Dion wasn't there along with the Chretien and Martin Grits?
And talk about "blank faces"…here’s a Feb. 17, 2007 post from : “A dog named Kyoto”:
“CAW chief Buzz Hargrove was a guest on Adler On Line on February 14th:
Adler: Buzz, I've only got about 20 seconds here. Give me your best 20 seconds on the Clean Air Act and how that affects jobs.
Hargrove: Well we're really worried. I appeared before a Parliamentary Committe and told them if we introduce the standards that California says they're introducing in 2009, because of the production system that we have with large vehicles and large engines in Canada, that could be the death knell to our industry.
Adler: Anyone paying attention to you, or are you whistling past the graveyard?
Hargrove: I got a pretty good hearing from John Baird. I think he understands it, uh, I got a lesser ear from Stephane Dion, he was pretty tough on the environmental...
Adler: So the guys you voted for last year, last time are kind of letting you down now? 2 seconds. Hargrove: 2 seconds? That would be accurate, that would be quite accurate at this point.
Adler: Buzz Hargrove, thanks.”
We have to wonder why Hargrove is now being used as a Liberal advertising tool, when his buddy Kyodiot Dion shot down Hargrove’s pleas to go easy on the auto sector with emission controls.
Here’s an earlier post from “Right In Niagara”, “Liberal Jim Bradley and The Mystery Of The Secret Kyoto Files”:
“In 2002, the Canadian Auto Workers unanimously called for Chretien to ratify Kyoto, while their leader, Buzz (Basil) Hargrove said: "Kyoto will clearly be good for the economy, not bad", and: "the C.A.W. rejects the false choice that has been set up by the corporate lobbyists, between protecting our jobs and protecting the environment." (Canadian Newswire, Dec.9, 2002)
Fast forward to 2007: suddenly Buzz, who once said "We are supportive of Kyoto. It's good for the country" (National Post, Feb.26, 2005) is all-abuzz with the realization that the "insanity" of the environmental movement is now the biggest threat to Canadian automotive jobs. (National Post, Apr.14, 2007)
D'oh, Homer! What was Hargrove thinking in 2002, when he bought that old 1997 Kyoto Protocol clunker from snake-oil salesman Chretien at the Liberal dealership?
Though he claims he's against offshore imports, Buzz eagerly bought this Liberal lemon. Now that the test-drive has become bumpy, and that heady new-policy-smell is gone (along with the jobs Ernie Eves warned about), what does Hargrove want, a recall?
When Hargrove says "I've got a message for the politicians: stop playing politics with the environment," (National Post, April 14, 2007) he should ask himself why he campaigns for the Liberal politicians who did nothing but play games with the the environment. By Jun.7, 2007 Hargrove was openly campaigning for his clean air hypocrite buddy McGuinty.
Hargrove strangely claimed he still supports Kyoto only if industries are allowed flexible timetables for compliance, but then, that's not really 'Kyoto' at all, is it? It becomes more of a, well, made-in-Canada solution; not at all like the hard-core-Kyoto dogma now peddled byLiberals, Greens, and the NDP, but more like what Conservatives have been emphasizing all along.
Recently, even Liberal leader Dion dismissed Hargrove's plea to extend the period for tightening auto-emission regulations as "not acceptable." (Toronto Star, Feb.17, 2007)
Yet bizarrely, Hargrove targets Prime Minister Stephen Harper for Kyoto, while wooing and waving hands with enviro-poseur-extraordinaire, "clean-air" McGuinty.
Hargrove, who also played huggy-bear with former Liberal leader Paul Martin, has now had some kind of epiphany: he says that honouring our Kyoto commitments would be "suicidal for our economy...you'd almost have to shut down every major industry in the country." (Windsor Star, Feb. 24, 2007)
WHAT?
Hargrove says: "We stand to lose 150,000 jobs in our autoindustry if the insanity of this environmental movement is allowed to continue." (St. Catharines Standard, Apr.14, 2007)
WHAT? 150,000 jobs lost to Kyoto?
Tell that to St. Catharines Liberal Jim Bradley.
Where on earth was Hargrove when Conservatives were correctly warning of the same consequences years earlier? Under his leadership, the C.A.W. lobbied for Kyoto, instead of asking 'no-plan' Chretien for answers.
Who's really the one "playing politics" and making "false choices"? Hargrove, once green himself, now views better emission-standards as a threat, as does "clean-air" McGuinty. Kyoto was "good for the country" then - now Hargrove is suddenly worried about a link between Kyoto and job losses!
Maybe Hargrove should heed the words of his buddy Paul Martin, who said "there...is such a thing as a global conscience and now is the time to listen to it." (Montreal Gazette, Dec.10, 2005). Hargrove made his bed...and was hoisted on his own petard. He abandoned/was kicked out of the NDP, scorned the Conservatives, and was conned by the Liberal's Kyoto charade...maybe his membership will finally wise up and trade him in."
To that effect, here’s a letter by Thomas MacKay “Labour should support NDP, not federal Liberals”, (Windsor Star, Dec.15, 2005):
“This letter is in response to the Dec. 10 guest column by Ken Lewenza, in which he tries to explain the CAW's endorsement of the federal Liberals. He tells New Democrats like myself, who are disappointed that the CAW is supporting the federal Liberals, that we need to "get real."
Labour should support NDP candidates because NDP MPs stand up for all working people and Canadian jobs. Buzz Hargrove stated that he has had more consultations with the Paul Martin government than either the previous Liberal or Conservative administrations. Meanwhile, under this same Martin government, we have lost 129,000 manufacturing jobs in the last year. Martin has failed to protect our auto sector jobs and has no plan to try to reverse the failed Liberal trade policies that resulted in the loss of thousands of CAW jobs in the last year in this province alone.
If Hargrove extensively consulted the prime minister, what effect has it had? What results have come with these meetings?
Our city, our province and our country need an auto strategy now.
Only Jack Layton and the NDP have a plan to protect auto sector jobs and open markets for Canadian products. Only Layton and the NDP are calling for investment in job-rich industries like the auto sector to help manufacturers adapt to rising costs.
Mr. Lewenza, if you think the CAW's Liberal endorsement is going to do anything to create one single auto sector job, you need to get real.”
Hargrove, after supporting Liberal Martin federally in the 2006 election, went on to support Liberal McGuinty in the 2007 Ontario provincial election.
Here’s a letter from Jeff Gardiner, “Hargrove’s politics will hurt manufacturing” (Windsor Star, Sept.4, 2007):
“Last week, I saw Buzz Hargrove on television bemoaning the loss of manufacturing jobs. The main reason he highlighted was the unfair advantage that countries like China had. I wonder what he thinks is going to happen if the federal Liberals get back into power?
They insist on following Kyoto to the exact letter of the agreement, despite the fact that it will severely impact our economy. The worst to be hit will be the manufacturing sector. As companies are faced with multimillion-dollar expenses, taxes and rising energy costs, non-Kyoto countries like China, India and the U.S.A. will seem like more appealing places to do business.
That being the case, maybe Mr. Hargrove could enlighten us as to why he is advising his autoworkers to back the federal Liberal.”
So: "Hargrove's politics will hurt manufacturing"... as will Dion's.
For some odd reason, that ringing endorsement of senator Hargrove didn't appear on the above brochure sent out by Dion.
These two clowns deserve each other. Which one's Frick, and which is Frack?
*
In Nov. 2009, Buzz Hargrove got an Order of Canada. What a flicking joke.
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