McGuinty's Liberal propaganda tour fleeces Niagara

Reporter Don Fraser  (St.Catharines Standard, Jun.22, 2011) manages somehow to hit all of Jim Bradley's Liberal election talking points...

"If Ontario's premier has his way, Niagara will see public transit expansion before any new mid-peninsula highway.

In an exclusive interview with The Standard, Premier Dalton McGuinty said expansion of GO Transit train services through St. Catharines and Niagara is "simply a matter of time."
"The question is not whether, but when," McGuinty said, adding ridership numbers are an important consideration.
"We rely on the people at GO Transit to give us the best advice on these matters."
And while Conservative Opposition Leader Tim Hudak has pledged to build the $1 billion-plus mid-peninsula corridor, McGuinty threw cold water on it as a priority.
"We don't think it's warranted at this time," McGuinty said.
"We think we have an obligation to protect the environment," he said, adding he believed these concerns are important to Niagara.
"(And) based on the studies that we've seen, it's just not warranted."
McGuinty made his comments after touring General Motors' Glendale Ave. engine plant Tuesday morning, where he met with workers and officials.
His stop in St. Catharines also included a speech delivered to the St. Catharines-Thorold Chamber of Commerce at the Quality Hotel Parkway Convention Centre.
Following the brief tour at GM, McGuinty praised the plant's employees for the automaker's dramatic turnaround— one made possible by massive government loans, including from Ontario.
"We decided it was important to use some taxpayer money and invest in the future of this factory," McGuinty said at a media gathering inside the plant.
I'm absolutely delighted that we did."
McGuinty added that GM has paid off that loan and invested millions into the future of the St. Catharines operation.
"The fact of the matter is, because we all put something on the table, we are stronger here together," he said.
Later at the Parkway event, McGuinty discussed his plan to focus on five main areas in the run-up to the October provincial election: education, health care, infrastructure, electricity and taxes.
"Ontario was not an overnight success," he said, adding the same hard work that unites families and workers will help the province overcome challenges.
As for education: "I believe the single most important thing we can do to ensure we have a highly competitive workforce ...and ensure our children enjoy rich, full, happy lives is to invest in their skills and education."
Here, McGuinty pointed to things like lower class sizes, higher graduation rates, improved access to post-secondary education and full-day kindergarten as successes.
And health care improvements aren't just about new hospitals, shorter wait times and new doctors and nurses, he said.
"Too many Ontarians are getting sick from preventable illnesses, in fact a full 25% of the health care budget ... goes to treating preventable disease," McGuinty said.
"I'm talking about things like smoking, diet and inactivity."
McGuinty said major infrastructure building, including roads, schools and hospitals, will help families and the economy.
But he also painted a stark picture of the province's aging electricity infrastructure, which must be refurbished and ramped up to meet demand.
A long-term energy plan will rebuild 80% of the system over the next 20 years, he told the group of 220.
"This is a massive undertaking," he said. "It is a very expensive proposition, and there's no getting around it."
Clean energy and being a big player in harnessing wind and solar power will help Ontario achieve energy goals and create new jobs, he said.
Tax reform is also key to Ontario's success, he said, adding a value-added tax like Ontario's HST (harmonized sales tax) is now a world standard for successful economies.
"We need to keep up with the competition, and this is why tax reforms are so very important," McGuinty added.
In a dig at the "opposition," he said it promises to "give us more, charge us less and pay down the debt."
"Our plan for eliminating the deficit will be responsible and proven," he said.
"It will be based on our record. We eliminated the previous government's deficit." "

... and yet, there wasn't even one word in this "exclusive interview" (!!!) from McGuinty or Bradley about the C. difficile outbreak in St. Catharines!!!
[Can't stray from the Jimmy-Feel-Good script with embarrassing questions and risk spoiling the Standard's not-too-subtle Liberal electioneering campaign!]
Did anybody actually ask these Liberal liars any questions?!
This story is half a story, with no critical analysis of any of the Liberal's claims; it amounts to nothing but regurgitated Liberal Party election talking-points, taken at face value by the reporter.
When did the St.Catharines Standard's "reporters" become Liberal stenographers? Was anything which these Liberals said challenged?
These Liberals came to the Standard; so, what did the Standard actually ask them?!?
A slimy McGuinty disingenuously claims GM "has paid off that loan" - but, did any St.Catharines Standard reporter ask about the rest of the loaned bailout billions which GM received from taxpayers, and which just happened to be converted from debt into shares? What an interventionist-government shell-game!
Then, when McGuinty - Ontario's Premier Liberal liar - let out that whopper about his Liberals eliminating the "previous government's debt", and talking about his "record", why didn't Fraser use that wide-open-opportunity to CHALLENGE McGuinty on his record: a record of lies, of tax-increases and of increased debt!!
Really - why couldn't Don Fraser bother to ask about any of this?!? McGuinty doubled Ontario's debt, while outright lying (during two elections!) that he wouldn't raise taxes - all the while increasing government spending by 77%! Fraser just let McGuinty's Liberal propaganda pass unchallenged!
What's with this paper's pathetic and deliberate lack of policy analysis; will that be forthcoming - ever?!
*
In the Standard's printed edition (which came out later on Jun.22, 2011) reporter Fraser actually asked one question of Dalton McGuinty regarding the C. difficile outbreak in St.Catharines:

Q. St. Catharines General Hospital has dealt with a string of C. difficile patient deaths recently. Ten with the infection have died.

Is the province aware of this and is there any way it might intervene?
A. We've learned through these outbreaks in the past, and have made C. difficile a reportable outbreak that must be conveyed to the public health unit.
We have also adopted protocols which are recommended to all of our hospitals.
We also have the equivalent to a SWAT team (Infection Control Resource Teams to provide rapid, on-site assistance with outbreak investigation and management in hospitals), which I believe the hospital or public health unit has asked for.
We will make it available to them and ... they are to play a supportive role.
I know the public health unit and hospital officials are working together as aggressively as they can to help manage this and turn it around."
*
That's it - that was the St.Catharines Standard's only C. diff question: 10 C. difficile patients (as of Jun.22, 2011) are dead in St.Catharines, in McGuinty's Liberal-run health-monopoly, and yet, there was only one question and one answer on the C. diff issue!!
Why should anyone trust the claims of these Liberal liars on this C. diff outbreak, when back in 2008 the same Liberals hid from a public inquiry when 500 Ontario C. diff patients were killed in the Liberal-run health monopoly?
Apparently, the Standard is more than satisfied with its enormous one-question-investigative effort - "Lookit - we actually asked McGuinty about C. diff. What more do ya want?! vote for Jim Bradley!"
And, by the way: where was Jim Bradley in all this?!
That little shit's weasely head is seen popping up in the GM photo, but there was nothing at all in this story from Jim Bradley himself !! Nothing whatsoever!! Somehow, throughout this grand GM tour and this "exclusive interview", Jim Bradley was - amazingly - completely overlooked protected from the spotlight!
This kind of politically-friendly media manipulation takes serious planning.
*

McGuinty's ideologically blind Liberal spendaholics

Iggy liked to call Dalton McGuinty's Hated Sales Tax the Harper Sales Tax; now Iggy's done been gone all quiet about that.

First Ignatieff derided the HST; now Iggy supports the HST.

Looks like Iggy's makin' waffles again!! (see here; here; here)

Let's keep an eye out in the future when Iggy's quote from above - "We don't rip up agreements duly negotiated by previous administrations..." - comes home to roost.

Say what? Iggy's already provided himself with a clever out: "duly"!! Har!!

'Duly when necessary, not necessarily duly' - eh, Iggy? That's Iggy's version of Obama's ridiculously nebulous "let me be clear" catch-phrase. Hardeharhar.

Good Ole Dwight Duncan, the deficit-ridden spendaholic finance minister in McGuinty's Incompetent Liberal Government (the worst Ontario government since Confederation) is baffled why his statist-pushing, anti-business, interventionist Liberals are in such a deep 25 BILLION dollar deficit; odd how Iggy is silent! (see here)

Yet, back in October 2008, Good ole Dunco was pushing the federal government to rescue the best-left-to-die GM.

The Oct.30, 2008, St. Catharines Standard... (click photo to enlarge)

...reported in "Feds must follow U.S. lead in aiding struggling auto sector, Duncan says":

"If the US government is willing to bail out our struggling automakers and other sectors central to the economy, then the Harper Conservatives should consider doing the same, Ontario Finance minister Dwight Duncan said Wednesday.
Duncan said he will ask his counterpart his federal counterpart Jim Flaherty... to take a "more activist view" as the US downturn creates even more headaches for the auto sector."

So now -a year later - we all have to have "headaches", because activist Dunco wanted to "save" the piece of crap GM with tax dollars?

"We" DIDN'T "have" to bail-out GM. But that's what Dunco and St. Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley (see: here) were badgering for.

What's laughable (sadly) is Duncan's blather about "ideological blinders" - oh, what a flickin' stretch of irony that little quote was.

If Dwight Duncan or Dalton The Incompetent McGuinty actually believed in "taking off their ideological blinders" - then Ontarians wouldn't be held prisoners in the Liberal's state-run health monopoly.

Duncan spouts off about "ideological blinders" - yet he himself is blind to the fact that his statement, while smugly directed at others, is most applicable TO HIM and his Liberals! Duncan's intervention-loving Liberals believe it is others - not them - who are ideologically blind!

Oh, and let's not forget this treasure from Duncan Donuts:

"Duncan said he is hopeful Ottawa will listen,"... [sadly: Ottawa did listen] ..."even though analysts predict the country could be facing a deficit."

YET - ASTOUNDINGLY - IT DIDN'T OCCUR TO DUNCO that Ontario would also be facing a deficit!!?? (which, including the Liberal's eHealth fiasco, is now - let's repeat it - at 25 Billion dollars) But neither Dunco, nor Daltoon, nor Jimbo Bradley could have cared about that - they were, after all, State Activists on an Interventionist Mission. (see here)

Iggy loves to deride Harper's supposed lack of foresight regarding deficit spending - yet Ignatieff supported this; and Iggy conveniently ignores that enabler Dwight Duncan's Liberal ideologies, as well as Iggy's, helped balloon the deficit.

Now, the Liberals, feds and McGuintyites, are grasping for a new source of taxation - the HST.

George Smitherman's crappy Liberal ideas: disappointing and wrong on all levels

The National post wrote in "Make ours a Mercedes", Mar.12, 2009:

"The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation's (OLG) decision to give away 22 foreign-built Mercedes-Benz cars as contest prizes has raised an outcry in the province, with apparently no one more scandalized than provincial Infrastructure Minister George Smitherman.

"It's disappointing, it's disillusioning, it's wrong on all levels," he said. "It was a crappy decision." A chastened OLG has since released a self-flagellating statement that declared that the contest "should not have included foreign-made vehicles."

Given that Canada is a free-trading nation, we find the passionate protest confusing at best and disingenuous at worst. What happened to allowing trading partners to reap mutual gains by allowing each to produce the goods in which it has a comparative advantage?

In the case of Mercedes-Benzes, each one sold helps support not only those much vilified foreign workers, but also thousands of Canadians who work at Mercedes dealerships and offices here in Canada. Consider also that Mercedes' vehicles are manufactured with steel supplied by none other than ArcelorMittal Dofasco, a Hamilton, Ont.-based Canadian company, whose workers are surely at least as deserving of their paycheques as those toiling at Ontario's auto plants.

Perhaps the truly "crappy decision" here was to choose political posturing over economic common sense."

*

Crappy, disappointing, disillusioning policies, which are wrong on all levels: hot-air-bag Smitherman isn't talking about his own recent bolshevized Green Energy Act, is he?? (where his government-agent Greenshirts can now search your home for energy offences...)

Or was George Diaper-Man referring to his failing 2004 Commitment to the Future of Medicare act, his other cock-up of disastrous medicare monopolism, when he was the Liberal's mad-dog health-minister?

What a flicking drama-queen this posturing populism-pusher is, with his BS feigned indignancy!!

Recently, St. Catharines Liberal MPP (and Transportation Minister) Jim Bradley just basked through several days of easy press, posing in photo-ops with his hybrid buses, bought by the St. Catharines transit system with provincial gas-tax money. Did anyone bother to ask Jim Bradley where his hybrid buses were made?

They are not fully "made" in Canada, either; yet in the St. Catharines Standard story, "Gas tax to pay for new 'green machines' ( Mar.7, 2009), reporter Matthew Van Dongen, the Standard's resident greenie writer, didn't bother to report where Bradley's buses were made. No need to embarrass Ontario's smarmy Liberals about their hypocritical protectionist stances, right?!

Despite Smitherman's blustery ministerial intereference, he notably doesn't specify which cars he DOES want as prizes, because (we can only hope) that would probably lead to lawsuits being launched against his Liberal government!

So: which cars will Smitherman now publicly endorse, and provide free advertising for, to the detriment of others??!

What a half-baked Liberal clown.

Voting Liberal - now that's a crappy decision.

Buy a Canadian-built Toyota Corolla

Ian Dromey wrote in “Many 'foreign' cars are built here in Canada”, (St. Catharines Standard website, letter to the editor, Dec.31, 2008):

"Re: All MPs should drive fuel-efficient domestic cars, The Standard, Dec. 19.

I read with great amusement this letter to the editor recommending that we encourage our MPs to buy fuel efficient Chevrolet Aveo cars in order to help fellow Canadian workers. I was wondering exactly how helpful it will be to our fellow Canadian workers to buy the Aveo, which was designed in Italy and is built by Daewoo in Bupyung, Korea.
May I humbly suggest it would be more helpful for Canadian workers not to buy a foreign car like the Chevy Aveo, but to buy a real Canadian-built, fuel-efficient car like the Toyota Corolla, built locally in Cambridge, or a Honda Civic, built locally in Alliston.”

*
True enough and good points; unionistas do like to spin that only union-made is Canadian-made; and that supposed 'foreign-makes' have supposedly unfair advantages regarding the import of their product to North America, and the export of supposedly North American product overseas. (Hard to think of Koreans or Japanese actually wanting to buy it, though...)

But there is a drawback to focusing on 'Canadian-made' ONLY BECAUSE it's Canadian-made (union or not), rather than on product quality and value. If we are to favour protectionist tendencies, then quality can be overlooked as a secondary matter. If we are to follow a competitive model, then the marketplace can (and should) decide what it is willing to pay for.

Foreign-built Aveos masquerading as 'help-save-GM' products should be allowed to compete with Canadian-built Toyota Corollas or Honda Civics; and some consumers might even decide to buy an Aveo over a Toyota or a Honda. But the question is, why should the federal and provincial government give GM billions to enable this kind of obvious, typical Big Three bait-and-switch tactic, anyway?

If anything, the multi-billion-dollar-Big 3-bailout should mean the permanent restriction of all fully foreign-made imports; otherwise, what's really the point of this bailout - coddling the comfortable status-quo and postponing the inevitable???

Why should General Motors get billions of tax-dollars to sell freakin' Aveos to Canadians?!

Can Liberal Jim Bradley, Ontario's Transportation Minister, explain that?

(see also: Doing nothing on health care is the option preferred by Jim Bradley)

Iggy gettin' jiggy in Niagara; another Liberal snow-job of platitudes and pledges

Back on Nov 14, 2007 I wrote an article (see: Asking Liberal Transportation Minister Jim Bradley: Where is Niagara's GO Train?) outlining years of hot-air spewed by St. Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley. Even during the 2007 election campaign, Bradley intimated that the GO train was coming to Niagara. Gullible locals lapped up Bradley’s B.S.

Despite his lying, posturing, and obfuscation, Bradley - now Ontario’s Transportation Minister - still has not brought GO Transit to Niagara. Here’s a clip of a National Post story (Dec.13, 2008) about GO Transit expansion plans – there is NO MENTION whatsoever about bringing GO Transit to Niagara:

(click photos to enlarge!)
Keeping in mind the above, compare this next story from Niagara This Week (Nov.21, 2008), about Liberal MP Michael Ignatieff’s (when Iggy was still in Bumbledore Dion’s shadow) visit to Niagara – blathering the same bullshit which Good Ole Jimbo Bradley and Dalton McGuinty have been trotting out for years:
Liberal loser from the 2006 and the 2008 elections Walter Lastewka was there as well; for some thirteen years during Lastewka’s reign as MP, MPP Bradley along with Lastewka accomplished nothing…and now we see ambitious Iggy recycling the same tired old promises of yesterday: “if I’m elected, I would pump money here to help travelers…” bla, blah, blaahh
All Iggy is pumping are platitudes and worthless pledges.
Iggy went on to be crowned Liberal leader - conveniently without any party election! So what is the official Liberal platform regarding transit in Niagara? More vague “infrastructure” lip-service? Oh, how specifically clear; how clearly unspecific!! (as tactfully non-committal as Iggy's Dec. pronouncement that his Liberal's cuckoo-coaltion with the separatists - now under Ignatieff's own command - was a “coalition if necessary, but not necessarily coalition.” Yeah...)

Christina Blizzard noted in “Where is a real ‘Buy Canadian’ policy?” (St. Catharines Standard, Dec.20, 2008), that Transportation Minister Jim Bradley can’t even bring himself to fund streetcars being made in Canada:

“It has become a trademark of the Dalton McGuinty government.

Any time you want to make a bold, controversial move, come up with a report to justify your actions.

And so it came to pass Tuesday that Economic Development Minister Michael Bryant held a joint news conference with Rob Wildeboer of the automotive parts giant Martinrea and the Ontario Manufacturing Council to make dire predictions about what would happen if the Detroit Three automakers shut down.

Word of the day was "doomsday," with "devastation," coming in a close second.

Then again, it would have been news if they hadn't been pitching for a bailout.

According to this end-of-the-world-as- we-know-it report, a 100 per cent shutdown of the industry would result in the loss of 517,000 jobs in Ontario. Except, didn't the government agree already it would provide $3.3 billion in aid, contingent on what Washington tosses in the pot?

Meanwhile, the McGuinty government has steadfastly ignored other sectors of the economy. Northern Ontario has been devastated by the downturn in the forestry and pulp and paper industries. Yet there were no bailouts there. Whole towns were allowed to die.

Why are we talking about bailing out the car industry to the tune of $3.3 billion when the TTC is in negotiations that could award the most lucrative public transit infrastructure contract in the world to offshore bidders? We're talking real jobs and real vehicles.

Shockingly, the province's weak 25 per cent Canadian content rule doesn't even apply to the $1.25-billion deal to buy 204 new streetcars because the province isn't paying for it, says a spokesman for Transportation Minister Jim Bradley.

"We can't impose our policy on a project that we are not a part of," said Nicole Lippa-Gasparro. She points out that the TTC has its own 25 per cent content guideline.

This is all news to the TTC, who are expecting the usual one-third of the transit capital money to come from the province, with the feds and the city pitching in the other two thirds, as they are doing with the subway expansion to Vaughan.

"There is no commitment to funding at this point, but that is what we are looking at," said TTC spokesman Brad Ross. Besides, two cents a litre of the gas tax goes to the TTC.

All this fancy footwork could mean this massive project will sneak through with even less than that meagre 25 per cent requirement.

The TTC set the 25 per cent Canadian content requirement a year ago. Meanwhile, in March the province brought in a similar 25 per cent requirement. (By the way, this pales to insignificance compared to the 60 per cent domestic content rule required in the U. S. under its "Buy America" policy.)

The province's policy didn't come into effect until Sept. 1. In the meantime, the TTC aborted its Request for Proposals process, and commenced a "negotiated procurement," deal with two foreign companies, French giant Alstom and German manufacturer Siemens, as well as Montreal-based Bombardier, on Aug. 27.

So even if the province were to claim one-third ownership of this massive public sector contract, the negotiations started prior to its policy coming in to effect.

"The McGuinty government says there has to be 25 per cent content -- but in fact that is not the requirement," said NDP Leader Howard Hampton. "This whole project got underway before the government put in its minimal 25 per cent, so you could end up with a multi-billion transit contract where most of the work happens outside Ontario, outside Canada. You get less benefit in terms of jobs, less benefit in terms of economic stimulus, less benefit in terms of Ontario's future."

This contract could save jobs in Thunder Bay, one of the places hardest hit by the tanking forestry industry.

We're expected to put more than $3 billion into the auto sector -- with vague promises of an untried new product.

Meanwhile, the Bombardier plant in Thunder Bay produces quality domestic vehicles -- and jobs to a hard hit part of the province in these tough economic times.

Everyone agrees we need the streetcars. What better way to boost the economy than to build them here in this province? Now.”*

So who knows what Iggy’s position is on Liberal "made-in-Canada" ‘transportation and infrastructure investments’ ?! Would it be much different from the same greasy, pandering, duplicitous level that been practised by Liberals like Jim Bradley? Will Liberal Iggy boldly tell Liberal Bradley that, if it were up to Iggy, Ontario, due to the current practices of Bradley's Liberals, would forfeit its federal transit funding?! (It is also interesting to consider the irony of "made-in-Canada" funding-requirements being imposed by a Liberal whose own career was made-not-in-Canada!)

Comparing Iggy’s recycling of Jim Bradley’s previous lies leads to this article by Doug Herod, “Don’t count on old election promises to save ER”, (St. Catharines Standard, Dec.20, 2008):

“Hospital restructuring in Niagara has been approved by the powers that be.

Finally. It's over. Don't be ridiculous.

Huffing and puffing won't end until certain politicians in south Niagara figure the last blood droplets have been wrung from various stones.

After the Local Health Integration Network, as expected, approved the Niagara Health System's restructuring plan earlier this week, the mayors of Fort Erie and Port Colborne wasted no time in conjuring up other options.

The possibility of taking unspecified legal action was raised, as was making overtures to Queen's Park bigwigs like Health Minister David Caplan and Premier Dalton McGuinty.

Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey, in particular, holds out hope that McGuinty will lend a sympathetic ear to his city's cause.

He expects the premier to "listen" and "truly respect" what Port Colborne is trying to achieve. And why is that?

Close to seven years ago, McGuinty, then the province's Opposition leader, pledged to Mayor Badawey that his Liberal party would fight to ensure the city has a hospital and emergency room that's open 24/7.

This had become an issue because then, as now, physicians staffing Port Colborne's ER overnight were lonelier than the Maytag repairman.

In light of the dearth of activity in the wee hours of the morning, consultants had recommended the NHS keep ERs open only 16 hours a day in Fort Erie and Port Colborne.

Then, as now, the plan created an uproar in certain circles

Against this backdrop, Liberal Leader McGuinty sashayed into Port Colborne in February 2002.
"I met a woman in emergency here today who was admitted Monday suffering from a heart attack," the Welland Tribune reported McGuinty as saying.

"Her husband drove her to the hospital. She asked me to fight to keep the emergency department open because she didn't think she would have made it to Welland."

McGuinty added that having a 24/7 emergency room and hospital is essential to a city, especially one like Port Colborne, which is trying to grow.

"It's not just important, it's very important for a community to be competitive in attracting families and industry."

So, there you go. McGuinty made a promise.

I hate to break the news to Badawey, but, sadly, during the 2003 provincial election campaign, McGuinty also said he wouldn't raise taxes.

Then again, Badawey probably remembers that broken vow. After all, he was a Liberal candidate in the 2003 campaign.

That's the thing about having opposition politicians roll into town to comment on the local injustices of the day. They'll say anything to curry favour with the disillusioned and the disaffected. What the heck, it's not as if they're in a position to implement their commitments.

Alas, if and when they form a government, all bets are off.

Now, I'm not saying these back-tracking politicians don't deserve to have ridicule and scorn heaped upon them. On the contrary, I encourage such heaping.

It's just that anyone who actually takes these gals and fellas seriously at the time of their grave pronouncements should give their heads a shake.

They're out-of-power politicians seeking votes, for crying out loud!

I mean, if McGuinty can blow off in mere weeks a major, high-profile commitment like not raising taxes, brushing away the ER vow of six years ago will be a piece of cake.

Indeed, unlike 2002, the plan is to have emergency service in Port Colborne available 24/7.

It'll be under the name of an urgent-care centre, which is only reflecting the reality that Port Colborne hasn't had a full-service emergency department in years.

No doubt, when asked, McGuinty will refer to this as progress.

So much for getting blood from that stone."
*
Opposition politicians rolling into town, saying anything to curry favour - that pretty much describes standard Liberal operating procedure employed by McGuinty, Bradley, and now Ignatieff.

But whether on health-care, transit, or global-warming, don’t count on too many Liberal-friendly media types to ridicule or scorn Liberal bluster, duplicity, backtracking, and lies; it’s much more politically-correct to spin the alleged "hidden agenda" of the Conservatives.
*
By the way, in honour of all the “global warming” that we have experienced here in Niagara recently …um, with all the snow… here’s a reminder of political entertainer Stephane Bumbledore Dion’s climate-crisis comedy act.
This hilarious postcard, sent to Niagara households in Apr. 2008, courtesy of Ken Dryden (what’s Kenny got to do with Niagara, anyway??) was part of the famed LIBERAL POOP-O-GRAM series of postcards mailed out by Dion, and was a precursor to the unveiling of his disastrous Green-Shift policy later in the summer of 2008:
(click on photos to enlarge!)
Despite the ridiculousness of it all, many people (like Kyoto-pusher Jim Bradley) still believed Dion's "green" crap. You see, if we had all just voted for Superhero Global Climate Changer and Kyodiot Clown Bumbledore Dion and his Liberals, then they would have stopped - if not miraculously REVERSED - global-warming, bringing us . . . even more snow !!?
Is this the Liberal snow-job Iggy intends to continue pursuing?
*

Doing nothing on health care is the option preferred by Jim Bradley

above: A shipment of newly built 2009 Toyota Corollas cruises over the Garden City Skyway in St. Catharines enroute to the border for export to the United States, taken Nov.13, 2008 by R. Bobak. The AJAC-award winning, affordable, fuel-efficient (rated 50 mpg highway) and reliable Corolla is built at Toyota's huge non-union plant in Cambridge Ontario, and is a real Ontario success story.

Ontario Transportation Minister Jim Bradley, the Liberal MPP from St. Catharines, says that the Big Three Detroit automakers are in crisis and need help now. "Doing nothing isn't an option," Bradley said. (St. Catharines Standard, Nov.13, 2008)

Sure it is - Jim's been doing nothing about health care in Ontario for years - and there's a real crisis there.

If Bradley and his statist Liberals want to dump more millions anywhere, why should it be to his corporate pals at GM, instead of into the health-monopoly which Bradley's Liberals have underfunded for years? Bradley can reduce his high Liberal provincial sales tax, instead of bailing out the 'big old three'.

Even Keynesian Nobel Prize in Economics recipient (2001) Thomas Stiglitz says: "These companies ought to go bankrupt...That doesn't mean the company ceases to exist. What it means is you restructure the finances." (William Watson, National Post, Nov.13, 2008) Watson writes that Thomas Friedman (Pulitzer recipient in 2002) "says essentially the same thing, blaming the U.S. car industry's troubles on: "a very un-innovative business culture,visionless management, and overly generous labour contracts." (Well, that does sound like something a Liberal would throw money at, and call it an 'investment'.) Yet as Watson notes, Friedman and Stiglitz are left-leaning, and they don't believe in bail-outs - so why is Bradley babbling about this again - his Liberals already dumped millions into the auto sector (postponing the inevitable), with little to show for it except calls for even more bailout money.

This Liberal minister who wants to hand these failing auto companies more cash, yet said nothing when his own Liberal government recently cut $50 million dollars from nurse funding, shouldn't be taken seriously.

Buzz off, Dion

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.