24 HOURS: HOW MUCH COULD REALLY HAPPEN?
How much can really happen in the period of 24 hours? I mean, seriously, since I ranted on yesterday about the "boneheadedness" of the Pope so much has happened that I've barely been able to keep up with it all. Right now I will attempt to portray all of this information to you as best I can with my own remarks of course. And after this rant is all done with a will share with you my new theory on political parties that i have temporarily entitled, "Shopping for a Political Party Like Shopping for a New Car?" I honestly don't know where to start, maybe the best way to go about it would be to work from the beginning in my attempt at some kind of chronological order.
Yesterday was the first day of the Fall Session of Parliament in Ottawa. It started out with a moment of silence for the victims of the school shooting in Montreal and was followed by two main issues: gun registry and Afghanistan. Anyone who did not see that coming is currently hiding from other things they won't see coming. The Liberals were on the attack about the gun registry and the fact that it needs to be reinstated to save lives and the NDP were attacking the Conservative government about our troops in Afghanistan. Harper first day back in Parliament was far from an easy one as he responded to Liberal attacks regarding the gun registry by saying, "This government is determined to have more effective laws that would prevent such a tragedy in the future." And he responded to an NDP call to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan by saying, "soldiers need a Parliament of all parties that believes in what they're doing and sticks behind them in their actions."
I can't begin to imagine how the Liberals actually think that gun registry is the solution to this problem. It has become a $1 billion waste of money that was originally supposed to be a lot cheaper and actually effective. Harper, since becoming prime minister in February, has already began to lay down the tracks to be tougher on crime by increasing the age of consent, and is in the works of creating mandatory sentences for crimes. I think that is a much more effective approach to the problem that he have on hand. Actually targetting the problem instead of handcuffing recreational hunters. I also do not understand the NDP's position of withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan. There are already some dissenters within the party that do not believe in the party's decision regarding that issue and there are many more within the Liberal party including some who are in the leadership race such as Michael Ignatieff. They need to understand that there is actually a UN sanctioned mission over there that we must be involved in and it has finally given the Canadian military the credit that it deserves after years of diminished funding under the Liberals.
Harper and Afghan PM Hamid Karzai will be meeting again for the second time as Karzai will be in the country for the first meeting of the Canada-Afghanistan Business Council in Montreal. The first meeting was back in March when Harper paid a surprise visit to the troops in Kabul.
The provincial election in New Brunswick was yesterday as they elected a Liberal majority government after 7 years under the Progressive Conservatives and Bernard Lord. Shawn Graham will be the new premier of New Brunswick. The only thing that many people find even remotely interesting about NB provincial elections is that the NDP are near non-existent in that province. I would compare them to the Green Party in federal elections. Actually the Green Party has a higher standard because in federal elections they at least run candidates in every riding. Let me just put this into perspective for you. The NDP don't have candidates in every riding, they did not elect any of their candidates which in essence automatically makes whichever party is elected a majority government because there are only two parties. Not only did the leader of the NDP not win her own riding but she didn't even come second, she placed dead last. I wonder why that is?
My only remaining thing that I want to say may not seem that important to you because it is about Thailand and what does anyone know about Thailand. It is just that fact that is the reason why I am telling you this. Thailand is a country that has actual elections and democratic governments just like Canada and any other democratic nation. It's not one of those countries who have "fake" governments or unstable ones or anything like that. However, while the prime minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, was at the UN today there was a military coup on the government and Thailand is now in a state of martial law. The PM has declared a state of emergency from the UN General Assembly as the leader of the opposition party in Thailand claims responsibility for the coup. Democracy in Thailand has been around for awhile so many are saying that the coup will fail because the people won't accept it. It would be like Jack Layton leading a military coup on Parliament while Stephen Harper was out of the country. No one would accept that and it would be hard to believe seeing as Layton and our troops are certainly not on the same page with each other.
I guess that's all I have to say today besides, of course, my new theory which will be posted shortly. The only thing left to be said is that foreign affairs and policy is actually an issue that we as Canadians actually care about now. It has not really been apart of our thinking since WWII but it certainly is showing its head now which puts Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay in a much more high profile position. This may actually be an election issue if and when an election is called. However, back when Harper was elected PM there were many people who said that he wouldn't last a year in office. And while it hasn't been a year yet he is into his eighth month as our leader and doing a good job.
- DM
How much can really happen in the period of 24 hours? I mean, seriously, since I ranted on yesterday about the "boneheadedness" of the Pope so much has happened that I've barely been able to keep up with it all. Right now I will attempt to portray all of this information to you as best I can with my own remarks of course. And after this rant is all done with a will share with you my new theory on political parties that i have temporarily entitled, "Shopping for a Political Party Like Shopping for a New Car?" I honestly don't know where to start, maybe the best way to go about it would be to work from the beginning in my attempt at some kind of chronological order.
Yesterday was the first day of the Fall Session of Parliament in Ottawa. It started out with a moment of silence for the victims of the school shooting in Montreal and was followed by two main issues: gun registry and Afghanistan. Anyone who did not see that coming is currently hiding from other things they won't see coming. The Liberals were on the attack about the gun registry and the fact that it needs to be reinstated to save lives and the NDP were attacking the Conservative government about our troops in Afghanistan. Harper first day back in Parliament was far from an easy one as he responded to Liberal attacks regarding the gun registry by saying, "This government is determined to have more effective laws that would prevent such a tragedy in the future." And he responded to an NDP call to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan by saying, "soldiers need a Parliament of all parties that believes in what they're doing and sticks behind them in their actions."
I can't begin to imagine how the Liberals actually think that gun registry is the solution to this problem. It has become a $1 billion waste of money that was originally supposed to be a lot cheaper and actually effective. Harper, since becoming prime minister in February, has already began to lay down the tracks to be tougher on crime by increasing the age of consent, and is in the works of creating mandatory sentences for crimes. I think that is a much more effective approach to the problem that he have on hand. Actually targetting the problem instead of handcuffing recreational hunters. I also do not understand the NDP's position of withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan. There are already some dissenters within the party that do not believe in the party's decision regarding that issue and there are many more within the Liberal party including some who are in the leadership race such as Michael Ignatieff. They need to understand that there is actually a UN sanctioned mission over there that we must be involved in and it has finally given the Canadian military the credit that it deserves after years of diminished funding under the Liberals.
Harper and Afghan PM Hamid Karzai will be meeting again for the second time as Karzai will be in the country for the first meeting of the Canada-Afghanistan Business Council in Montreal. The first meeting was back in March when Harper paid a surprise visit to the troops in Kabul.
The provincial election in New Brunswick was yesterday as they elected a Liberal majority government after 7 years under the Progressive Conservatives and Bernard Lord. Shawn Graham will be the new premier of New Brunswick. The only thing that many people find even remotely interesting about NB provincial elections is that the NDP are near non-existent in that province. I would compare them to the Green Party in federal elections. Actually the Green Party has a higher standard because in federal elections they at least run candidates in every riding. Let me just put this into perspective for you. The NDP don't have candidates in every riding, they did not elect any of their candidates which in essence automatically makes whichever party is elected a majority government because there are only two parties. Not only did the leader of the NDP not win her own riding but she didn't even come second, she placed dead last. I wonder why that is?
My only remaining thing that I want to say may not seem that important to you because it is about Thailand and what does anyone know about Thailand. It is just that fact that is the reason why I am telling you this. Thailand is a country that has actual elections and democratic governments just like Canada and any other democratic nation. It's not one of those countries who have "fake" governments or unstable ones or anything like that. However, while the prime minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, was at the UN today there was a military coup on the government and Thailand is now in a state of martial law. The PM has declared a state of emergency from the UN General Assembly as the leader of the opposition party in Thailand claims responsibility for the coup. Democracy in Thailand has been around for awhile so many are saying that the coup will fail because the people won't accept it. It would be like Jack Layton leading a military coup on Parliament while Stephen Harper was out of the country. No one would accept that and it would be hard to believe seeing as Layton and our troops are certainly not on the same page with each other.
I guess that's all I have to say today besides, of course, my new theory which will be posted shortly. The only thing left to be said is that foreign affairs and policy is actually an issue that we as Canadians actually care about now. It has not really been apart of our thinking since WWII but it certainly is showing its head now which puts Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay in a much more high profile position. This may actually be an election issue if and when an election is called. However, back when Harper was elected PM there were many people who said that he wouldn't last a year in office. And while it hasn't been a year yet he is into his eighth month as our leader and doing a good job.
- DM
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