British Columbian HST Tax Grab
I just stumbled across some disturbing news via New Democrats Online. I’m hoping public outrage will change the government’s minds, but who knows. It’s pretty clear that Gordon Campbell doesn’t give a shit about anyone but himself and his buddies.
I encourage all of my readers to head over to http://nationalpolitick.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/stop-the-hst, read the post, and sign the petition. And then contact Gordon Campbell and Colin Hansen, and your own MLA about this issue.
Tags: British Columbia, Colin Hansen, Gordon Campbell, GST, HST, PST, taxes
Harper and Mulroney worst Prime Ministers
I found this in the news section of the Angus Reid Forum website. Can’t say I’m surprised really.
Trudeau Still Seen as Best Canadian PM; Harper and Mulroney as Worst
Pierre Trudeau is still regarded as the best head of government Canada has had since 1968, while roughly one-in-five Canadians think either Stephen Harper or Brian Mulronehave been the worst prime ministers in that span, a new Angus Reid Strategies / Toronto Star poll has found. In the online survey of a representative national sample of 1,004 Canadian adults, 39 per cent of respondents believe Trudeau has been the best prime minister of the past four decades, followed by Harper with 11 per cent, Jean Chrétien with nine per cent, and Brian Mulroney with eight per cent. More than two-in-five respondents in British Columbia, Ontario and Atlantic Canada choose Trudeau as the best prime minister, while one-in-five Albertans (21%) pick Harper. Mulroney was selected by 15 per cent of Quebecers. Women (42%), respondents over the age of 55 (45%) and university graduates (46%) all express a preference for Trudeau. Large majorities of Liberal Party (62%) and New Democratic Party (NDP) supporters (56%) also think Trudeau has been the best head of government of the past four decades. A third of Conservative Party voters (34%) choose Harper, and a quarter of Bloc Québécois sympathizers (25%) pick Mulroney. While Trudeau has maintained the upper hand in this question since June 2007, support for Mulroney has fallen by four percentage points over the past two years. (1000 of you completed this survey for us. Unfortunately we can’t invite every member to every study – this is to ensure that the responses received are balanced according to the profile of the Canadian population.)
Further proof that Harper and Mulroney are two of the same kind I suppose.
N.S. Greens following Alberta Greens?
It looks like the Nova Scotia Greens could soon be going down the same path as the Alberta Greens. Kinda makes me wonder why Greens have so much trouble following election laws.
The fate of the Nova Scotia Greens will be determined at a meeting with the province’s chief electoral officer.
Dana Philip Doiron, spokesman for Elections Nova Scotia, said chief electoral officer Christine McCulloch plans to sit down with the party’s official agent and leaders. A date for that meeting has not yet been set.
“This meeting is very important for the final resolution of their status,” he said Tuesday. “Whenever that meeting will take place, that will be the end of this process, one way or the other.”
Elections Nova Scotia has warned the Greens could lose party status because they missed a deadline to file financial paperwork. Ms. McCulloch gave the party notice on June 26 that it had 30 days to formally assure her that it would fix the problem.
Green Leader Ryan Watson, who plans to resign in the fall, has since said the party provided the information on July 7. On Tuesday, he said the Greens certainly hope to keep party status.
“Of course, it’s up to Elections Nova Scotia,” he said.
The Green Party of Alberta deregistered last week as a political entity in that province because it could not supply financial records needed to comply with provincial election law. It is now registered as a non-profit corporate entity.
“We certainly hope to avoid that,” Mr. Watson said.
Mr. Doiron said another issue Elections Nova Scotia is looking into — the donations nine unions gave to the NDP — may not be resolved until early August. He said they are waiting for the NDP’s official agent, Ed Wark, to get back from vacation.
“Mr. Wark has to be back for us to be able to examine some of the material we have to look at,” Mr. Doiron said.
Early in the campaign, nine unions gave the NDP $5,000 each — the maximum allowed under election law — and an umbrella group, the Mainland Nova Scotia Building and Construction Trades Council, planned to reimburse the member unions.
The NDP said it returned the money as soon as it realized the situation. At the time, Mr. Doiron said the NDP acted appropriately. Ms. McCulloch said the transactions seemed to violate the principle that “you can only give your own money” and not on behalf of others.
Found via Brian on Facebook.
Tags: Alberta Green Party, Alberta Greens, Green Party, Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Green Party, Nova Scotia Greens
“Facebook has ‘serious’ privacy gaps”
To follow up on my blog post from last month, Canada’s privacy comissioner has now ruled that Facebook is in violation of this country’s privacy laws. I only have two questions.
- Why can’t people take responsibility of their own privacy by not posting information they don’t want shared with the world on the internet?
- How much are Canadian taxpayers paying for this ridiculous excersise?
http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/Facebook+serious+privacy+gaps/1797050/story.html
Tags: Facebook, privacy, privacy commissioner
Alberta Greens de-registered, can’t run for election
It will be interesting to see how Green supporters vote in the next election. I just hope they don’t join the 59% of eligible voters who don’t bother to cast a ballot.
EDMONTON — The Alberta Green Party has been de-registered as an Alberta political party and cannot run candidates in the next provincial election.
Leader Joe Anglin said the party was unable to file financial returns as required to Elections Alberta because of an internal conflict between the outgoing executive and the new executive that was elected last fall.
Elections Alberta confirmed in a news release Wednesday that the acting chief electoral officer has cancelled the party’s registration, effective July 16. The party has 30 days to request a removal of the cancellation.
Anglin said Elections Alberta gave the party an extension to July 1 to file the proper audited financial statements, but the executive could not meet the deadline.
“We cannot comply with the Elections Act,” he said. “You have to provide a financial return on everybody who donated and you have to have an audited financial report.”
He said the new executive was unable to do that despite several agreements it had with the previous executive to turn over all the financial material.
“What we’re doing is a responsible thing,” Anglin said. “We have to wipe the slate clean.”
He said the executive has established a non-profit society to re-establish the Green party after the next election, but its members intend to be active in the next election — maybe even running as candidates for other parties.
“We will work with whoever we can to make a government,” he said.
The party imploded last September when an annual general meeting in Morningside broke down in a community centre parking lot. Leaders refused to enter the community centre where the meeting was to be held, and Anglin was selected as new party boss by party members inside the building.
Court documents obtained by The Journal highlight a series of events, like a sudden surge in new memberships, that old-school Greens characterized in e-mails as sneaky and a “hostile and undemocratic takeover.”
Then, not even six months after the party reorganized its executive leadership, deputy leader Edwin Erickson jumped ship to create the Alberta Progress Party.
Grant MacEwan College political scientist Chaldeans Mensah says the Greens are in danger of being permanently defined by their internal conflicts.
“(Bill 19) really did give them a basis to spread the word in the rural areas,” Mensah says. But, “It’s going to take a lot more from the party to translate the general concerns people have about the environment to concrete political support.”
Last year, Anglin and the party’s new president filed a court injunction against former leader George Read and the old guard to keep them from touching the party’s website, membership list, money or meetings.
Read does not talk about what happened in September. He says he is taking time off to write a book, which he hopes to have published next year.
“I agreed to put that in the past,” he says. “I hope they’re doing well … there will always be Greens in Alberta. Alberta is a Green stronghold.”
Elections Alberta says it is not investigation allegations of criminality concerning the filings because there have been no filings.
