Not So Small After All

Ontario will finally get rep by pop in the House. This should mean an additional 21 seats for Ontario, to go along with more seats for British Columbia and Alberta. Kudos to Dalton McGuinty and all the federal MPs who stood against Harper’s previous version of this legislation that would have given rep by pop to BC and Alberta but NOT Ontario. It would be nice to see Peter Van Loan and Pierre Poilievre carted out now to apologize for their small-minded comments directed towards McGuinty, but we know this government never takes responsibility or apologizes for anything so I know that won’t happen.

I don’t think it’s too cynical to believe that the only reason Harper gave in now is because he now believes he could win the bulk of new seats in Ontario (after doing much better there in the last election) and didn’t believe that before. Thankfully here in Canada we don’t have politicians setting electoral boundaries and instead the job is left to Elections Canada. I imagine the boundaries will be similar to what they were for provincial ridings before Mike Harris’ "Fewer Politicians Act" cut out about 20 ridings at the provincial level in the 90s, but I recognize the demographics of the province have changed a lot since that time. Though according to the same act does that now mean Ontario will get another 21 ridings provincially as well?

Either way, regardless of the motivations of Harper’s late conversion to electoral fairness and who it benefits, I’m glad to see the right approach won out in the end.

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Not Content to be Slammed for Our Own Human Rights Record, Harper Decides He Wants to Cover Up Abuses for Others

We’ve already been slammed over and over again for going from a leader to a pariah on human rights - by supporting the death penalty, dropping support for the international treaty on indigenous rights, turning a blind eye to torture in Afghan prisons, and voicing strong support for Guantanamo Bay. In every case we’ve stood virtually alone in the Western world, with our only ally usually being the Bush Administration. Now Harper’s government is trying to cover up the records of other countries? NO other western country does this! It wasn’t good enough to be on level with the Bush Administration, I guess we just had to do worse.

And Peter Van Loan wants to claim the Conservative government has been “second to none” on human rights?

Why don’t the media just call these guys for what they are – liars. Not only do the Conservatives have an extreme problem with telling the truth, in just 2 and half years, they have set back Canada’s international reputation on every major issue – a reputation that has taken decades to build up. For those voters in Guelph, St.-Lambert and Westmount Ville-Marie who want that proud Canadian reputation back, there’s a clear chance to send a message that you’ve had it with Canada’s backsliding – Vote Liberal on September 8th and put Harper on notice.

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