Senator Oprah

Apparently Blago contemplated appointing Oprah to fill Obama's vacated Senate seat after he won the election. lol, I wonder what was his "ah-ha" moment that made him change his mind and instead tyr to sell the seat to the highest bidder? Oh, Chicago politics, ain't it grand? But it would have been worth it to hear a United States Senator shout, "You get a car, you get car. You get a car! YOU get a car!"

G8/G20 A Success For Canada

With the G8 and G20 summits now over, it is hard not to conclude that the meetings were a huge success for Canada and for Stephen Harper's government. Going in to these summits, Harper had three objectives: kill the proposed bank tax, get agreement to cut deficits by half by 2013, and secure funding for maternal health initiatives in the developing world without promoting abortion. With the debates over and the leaders departed, it is clear Harper went three-for-three. A uniform bank tax across the G20, as was proposed by the UK and US, was quickly abandoned and instead it will be up to individual countries to impose whatever taxes they wish, and Canada will, of course, levy no such tax. Coming into the summits, countries such as Germany were pushing for strict austerity measures while others, notably the United States, insisted that it was too soon to stop stimulus spending. Harper's proposal was to slash budget deficits in half by 2013, a "Canadian compromise" eventually agreed to by the other nations involved. And finally, the most lasting and positive outcome from these meetings will be the new funding secured for maternal and child health. This was, as Harper described, the flagship initiative of this G8 meeting, and it will see $7.3 billion spent over the next five years to help fight the eight million child deaths and 350,000 maternal deaths that occur every year, largely in the developing world. Of the $7.3 billion, Canada will provide a disproportionately large contribution of $1.1 billion, of which zero will go to fund abortions and will instead be spent on vaccinations, safe and sanitary deliveries, and life-saving medications and treatments for mothers and infants, precisely what Harper had been after. Even the protests ended up helping Harper by silencing the uproar over the security costs. Why do we have to spend a billion dollars on security? Because cowardly thugs hiding behind black masks insist on torching cars, smashing windows and breaking into banks. But in the end, these summits should not be remembered for the "protests" but rather for Canada's clear policy victories and leadership on the world stage.

G8/G20 Price Tag Not Out Of Line

The Parliamentary Budget Officer, Kevin Page, has reported that while the billion dollar plus pricetag for the G8 and G20 summits this week is staggering, it is NOT as out of line as the opposition claims. The non-partisan PBO (although Page is seeming to be becoming more and more politcal) says that the much-touted bills for other G8 and G20 summits are, as the government has insisted, are wildly unreliable. For example, the pricetag of $18 million for the Pittsburg summit does not include federal costs, national guard costs, or military costs, rather only taking into account the city of Pittsburg's costs. The fact is that we don't really know how much most other summits have cost as other governments have not been nearly as forthcoming as the Conservative government here has been. And yes, there may be unprecedented security but just watch the news coverage and you'll see the leagues of activists, provacateurs, protestors and anarchists who's insistance on demonstrating against everything necessitates this very security. Do you think if we did not see thousands of whiners fly into Toronto from around the world, perhaps we wouldn't need to spend a billion on security?

NDP Straddles Fence on Crown Surpluses

The NDP was railing yesterday about the transfer of $778 billion from ICBC's surplus to general provincial coffers. Mike Farnworth claimed the government had a "guilty conscience" after pillaging the crown corporation to fund other government priorities. So, if I am correct, the NDP now believes crown corporation surpluses should be distributed to back to their customers. How odd, considering that a few short months ago it was the NDP who was outraged over BC Hydro, BC Lottery Corporation, and ICBC spending money on 2010 Olympic marketing and promotions. The NDP of months ago demanded that this crown corporation money should instead be funneled to other government services such as education and health care. Hmm, that sounds an awful lot like what the government is doing with the ICBC surplus. In fact, ICBC will be dropping insurance premiums by almost 2%, beefing up its rainy-day fund, AND helping to fund other government services. Yet again, the NDP show that nobody talks out both sides of their mouths better.