When I speak of representation by population, the house will of course understand that universal suffrage is not in any way sanctioned, or admitted by these resolutions, as the basis on which the constitution of the popular branch should rest... John A. Macdonald, Legislative Assembly, February 6, 1865
The per-vote subsidy was the legacy of Prime Minister Jean Chretien. Of all the Prime Ministers of my lifetime Jean Chretien will always be my favorite. If memory serves, the per-vote subsidy was one of his last pieces that he got through just before his return to public life. It was widely hailed in Canada and around the world as a ground breaking and stellar example of what a country could be. Never in my wildest dreams, did I ever think I would see it struck down.
It was a great piece of Legacy Legislation, like the Canada Pension Plan, Medicare, and the Canadian Flag,
but at a very small fraction of the cost of the Pearson gifts. It acted as a safeguard to the people of Canada by ensuring that government stayed in the hands of the people, not the blue bloated whores of Mammon.
Can you name one piece of Conservative Legacy Legislation? Your right... The Canada-US Free Trade Agreement and of course the Meech Lake Accord... Oh! Right! Scratch that last one...The Conservative Legacy is a lot like that of the American C.I.A. A legacy of ashes...
Where it's all going...and damn fast!
There is a lot about the elimination (Can't you just hear Preston Manning... e-l-i-m-i-n-a-t-e...) of the per-vote subsidy that has not been mentioned. Are we going back to the good old days? Is it all going to revert to the American system? Where the government of the people is regularly auctioned off to the highest bidder? Are the un restrictions going to apply to big labour? Or just to the bloated whores of Mammon? I have not heard anything, have you?
When that budget goes down on June 6, there will be questions raised in the House and in the media scrums just outside the House. And no doubt on the National media outlets. I just want to hear one question asked until it is answered.
How does the elimination of the per-vote subsidy make Canada better?
A country, after all, is not something you build as the pharaohs built the pyramids, and then leave standing there to defy eternity. A country is something that is built every day out of certain basic shared values. Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Memoirs, p. 366
It was with the greatest relief that I heard of the most excellent news that it will be you that will be the Liberal Party interim leader. In my humble opinion there was just no one else to call on at this critical time. The Oracle of Ottawa has been a fan forever. One of my fondest memories is you flaming the pompous William F. Buckley Jr. on his own TV show. That was a long time ago. You haven't changed a bit! Well, okay, your even better looking today. You seem to have very close connections to the Liberal Party hierarchy, and I hope you pull all the strings and anything else you can get a grip on, and flush the last remanens of the Paul Martin Seignorial elements out and down the drain of history. Give the Liberal Party back to its members!!
Bob Rae - Always Fab...
And Bob, I truly hope that you aren't going to try to pull a Machiavelli! Canada and the world, hopes to high hope, that you pull a Cardinal Richelieu ! Geez Bob you have already tasted power, and if I remember, in your biography, it damn near killed you. We don't need you as Prime Minister, Canada and the world needs you as Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs! Forever! Well okay, three terms minimum...(Then straight to the Senate with ya!) Leave the back slapping, baby kissing, and panty puckering to the youngsters! You and only you can be the power behind the throne. Take the Nobel Peace Prize Bob, not the pain in the ass keys to 24 Sussex Drive! Trust me on this one...
The years of rebuilding ahead do not have to be without mirth and joy. May I suggest a Truth Squad as per the days of Judy LaMarsh? It will be great press and it will keep the hands busy and the party faithful rolling in front of their TV sets in shock and laughter. Remember Bob, an eleven seat majority is not a majority, it is just the result of one very weird lucky day...
Well old friend it is getting late. And with John "Rusty" Baird as Foreign Affairs Minister the Oracle of Ottawa has been losing a lot of sleep as of late. Although I do predict that he will hit it off perfectly well with his oppo in Germany...(Nod, nod, Wink,wink...) By maintaining strong House discipline and a good working and cordial relationship with Vladamir Jack Layton I strongly feel that you can keep the damage level down to a minimum. Until the Leadership Convention I remain...
The Oracle of Ottawa
Every project needs a theme song....
After being a Canadian for over half a century, it is not until now that I am truly worried about the future of Canada. Even during the darkest days of the October Crisis, when I could look out of the window of my grade seven class room in Arnprior and see a fully armed soldier in full battle dress standing guard at the front of Senator Greenes house, I knew this would only be a minor bump in the road of my countries history. Every one had every confidence in the government of the day.
It wasn't until now, that I realized, that you will not always have a ruling government in Canada that will not consist of the " best and the brightest" ! The ruling government of the Harper majority is proof of that... There is no one with multiple doctorates, damn lucky if some of the "ministers" finished high school! The one posting that has me very nervous, is John Baird as Minister of Foreign Affairs! This is not the Trudeau years!
To understand the point I am trying nicely to make, ponder the competition that Minister Baird will have to deal with! Check out the bio's of the other foreign ministers of say, China, France, Russia, England, United States...These countries know the world is a dangerous place, and must be handled with the greatest prudence, and therefore have sent up there best and brightest...John Baird is going to look like a teaspoon following a pack of steam shovels! Talk about in over your head! What is it that makes second rate men act like this?
I am glad I am retired. I am grateful that I am not at Foreign Affairs... And I fondly hope that the spinning in the graves of all those Great Canadians of the august past does not keep you up too late into the night! God Help Us All!!
Minister Baird demonstrates early and often, that he is totally on top of the situation. Can you imagine the long term effects on Canada's reputation in the world ? Come on world! Bend him in half like a paper clip, and do him till he pops like a potato chip! The dimmest bulb in the Walmart Cabinet...
Canada must organize itself so that we stop assassinating our Mozarts - that all Canadians should have the opportunity to fulfil themselves to the best of their ability. Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Memoirs, p. 84
The fine people of Port Moody - Westwood - Port Coquitlam should be very content with their federal member. Perhaps the local Conservative Party Candidate Selection Committee should read some books on Political Science 101. They did a fine job of sending a fine young Liberal to represent them in Ottawa!!Mr. James Moore is the brightest bulb in Steve Harpers new Walmart cabinet... Spend less... Live Better!!
This young promising gentleman came upon the Oracle of Ottawas radar screen last Friday, when he accepted the call of Sun News TV for an interview with the small but vital Krista Erickson. The young Minister of the Crown immediately proved his worth when he outed Ms. Erickson as a recent and former employee of the great C.B.C.! The Oracle of Ottawas ears immediately perked up! How much of a screw-up do you have to be, to be young, attractive, talking and breathing and yet still somehow be no longer an employee of the C.B.C.?? Or rather sadly, one has to ask, how crazy?
Holy Fuck - wows them in Toronto...
Prior to the interview, Ms Erickson continued her vile low attack on Margie Gillis - A Great Canadian - with all the bona fides.... much to the Oracle of Ottawas chagrin...She also added a new element to the mix, by attacking a fine group out of Toronto, called Holly Fuck. They are in reality quite awesome! And I am over fifty years of age! You could quite easily compare them to Kraftwerk from Germany..and those guys were and still are huge! Well apparently, Ms Erickson, started going on and on about the cover of one of Holy Fuck's album covers as being the same shade of brown as human excrement!? And that somewhere along the line some of my Tax Dollars were used to get this groups music to market! (Thank God from this tax-payer!!)
Kraftwerk, circa 1976...
Well after the rant, it seemed that Ms. Erickson fully expected the young Conservative Minister of the Crown to fully support her argument. Well! Much to my utter amazement and joy, Mr. Moore proceeded to "Art Slap" Ms. Erickson up, down, and sideways! I was truly hoping to see the interview posted on You-Tube but alas dear reader I don't think it will ever see the light... He was all over her like shit in long grass! At the end of the thrashing, Ms. Erickson was physically reeling! Face flushed and having trouble to maintain her upright standing position! It made my day and week so far. (I swear to God I thought I saw the ghost of Judy LaMarsh, but alas, it was probably an acid flashback from the 1970's...sigh...) The strongest point that "resonated" with the Oracle of Ottawa was the stated fact that a tax dollar spent on the Arts in Canada will always bring back more dollars in tax revenue! Sadly, most Conservatives lack the mental faculty to comprehend this known fact! Of course there will be some acts you won't be able to get your head around, i.e. Ukranine Round Dancing, but no one is forcing you to watch it or buy it! Discover something you like and enjoy!
As much as I enjoyed James Moore thrashing of Ms. Erickson, I soon realized that this young man had committed several high crimes in the eyes of all Conservatives. (1) He demonstrated that he had his own world view. (2) That he was truly soft on the Arts. (3) He truly came across as personable! (4)He is way better looking then Steve Harper. (5) He is much better spoken then Steve Harper!
Holy shit! This guy is doomed! I can only hope that the NDP and / or the Liberals are tracking those Conservative members most likely to be consumed and spit out by their own party. We all know how the Conservative Party of Canada consumes and rejects its best and brightest! Soon Mr. Moore will be summoned into the Prime Ministers Office and asked to prove his blue purity by attending the New York Auction of the Canada Council Musical Instrument Bank and all those Old Master paintings at the Canadian National Gallery that no one sees anyway...by being part of the auction staff that holds up each item as it is hammered down to the highest Chinese and / or Arab bidder, to pay off our miniscule "deficit"....
HOLY FUCK! Plays Red Lights! At over 1.3 million views, Holy Fuck seems to be more "Economically Viable" then Sun News TV !!
The power of Good and Evil in whatever pertains to human relations cannot be too clearly recognized; neither can the truth that such control as may be exercised concerning them dwells, not in things, but in human beings. W.L. Mackenzie King, Industry And Humanity, p. 9
Well dear readers, the Oracle of Ottawa is determined to get to the bottom of the recent attack upon the Canadian Arts by the right wing fringe media at Sun News TV. I have even done some research (!) and I believe I have got to the bottom (?) of the situation. The non entity, in the person of, one Krista Erickson and one Theo Caldwell were sent by Sun News to cover the 2011 Governer Generals Arts Awards at the National Gallery in Ottawa, sometime last weekend.
Margie Gillis- A Great Canadian...
At this award gala, one Margie Gillis, received the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award for her life's work and contribution to Canadian creative dance. Ms. Gillis is a member of the Order of Canada and the National Order of Quebec! While Krista Erickson is a soul less heathen skank! It seems that Ms. Erickson suffered massive cultural shock at the said event. She was also stunned that there are very many women in Ottawa and its immediate environs that are much hotter then Ms. Erickson will ever be! It was all too much! And especially galling to Ms. Erickson is that even a woman of Margie Gillis's advancing years radiated still so much more womanly heat than the present young prime of Ms. Erickson.... Well...shit happens. (Or not!)
Chalice - Margie Gillis
It seems every thing got all out of hand when Ms. Erickson witnessed the great artist perform. It totally blew the head off of Ms. Erickson. Just couldn't handle the massive amount of information and its portends... the Oracle of Ottawa has included a clip of the offending work d'art....It seems that Ms. Erickson has found that Ms. Gillis has received Canadian Council Grant money at some point in her career. It has proved beyond the limited sensibilities of the said "media personality" why the people of Canada would approve of such a thing!
The Canada Council owns many Strad violins...
The base and heathen attacks upon the funding of Canadian Arts has continued on air again today. Note the picture that I have included of a very rare and valuable Strad violin. I wonder if Ms. Erickson knows that one of the greatest collections of said instruments in the world today are owned by the Canadian People? Yes indeed Dear reader, the Canada Council Instrument Bank has one of the finest and most valuable collections of rare musical instruments that exists today! And it was all paid for by you and I! And guess what? These instruments are loaned out to un economically viable students! Oh my God! And for FREE!!! I fear that when Ms. Erickson learns of this she will physically explode in right wing belligerent rage! (Some one please post the clip of this event to You-Tube. PLEASE!)
Art is a Right among civilized people...
What can we do to make Ms. Erickson understand the crucial function of government sponsorship of the Arts? The Oracle of Ottawa has devised a solution... James Ehnes is the greatest violinist alive today. Ask anybody that knows about such things. Mr. Ehnes is a Canadian. Mr. Ehnes comes from Brandon, Manitoba!
It is not only Ontario and Quebec that have great artists! Perhaps Ms. Erickson could invite Mr. Ehnes to appear on Sun News TV to explain government funding of the arts! Perhaps if Ms. Erickson is polite, Mr. Ehnes could bring his Marsick Stradivarius and his Order of Canada and play for Ms. Erickson! I would enjoy that indeed! Why Mr. Ehnes could regal the philistine Krista the tale of how he won the use of a fine Stradivarius, free, for a whole year, when he was not yet an economically viable performer! That violin was the property of the people of Canada!
The funding of the arts in Canada has never resulted in any measurable benefit....
( Note: It was not the intention of the Oracle of Ottawa to create a very attractive multi-media work of art with no apparent effort. No Canada Council Funding was used to create this work of art. But if the Oracle of Ottawa was deemed worthy to recieve it, he would humbly accept...)
Instinct and study; love and hate;
Audacity — reverence. These must mate,
And fuse with Jacob's mystic heart,
To wrestle with the angel — Art. Herman Melville, Timoleon,
The Oracle of Ottawa would give anything to find out what really went down at the Governer Generals Awards last weekend! It seems that the august Sun News TV personalities sent to cover the said sacred event, were rudely and most handily "snubbed". The small but vital Krista Erickson has been acting like a drenched cat in heat after losing her prime dragging location on the "hood" fence! It started on Monday at the after noon slot.
Tom Thomson-Forest Undergrowth-I
I have seen it all happen so many times before. A said reporter comes to Ottawa from out West, where they were big high profile cheese! But soon to discover that they are now just a small "hick" fish in a very posh pond of beautiful and highly intelligent people. And to add insult to injury, they are quickly reminded that they really have no understanding of what Canada is. The horror of the experience deepens when the said "newbie" finds a culture and heritage that only months before they couldn't even possibly conceive, let alone ever hope to grasp! And being of high ego, the crash is damn near impossible to recover from.
A.Y. Jackson, House of Ypres - Krista says you shouldn't see this....
Note to all Western Hicks! A Governer Generals social function is not a high end version of a tail gate party outside of a Calgary football stadium! Please avail your limited psyches to this fact of Upper Canada life. Two thirds of all Westerners alive today cannot track their family tree before or even near the date of Canadian Confederation (i.e. 1867)...But there most certainly are people in Ottawa serving drinks and food at the National Art Gallery that have provable lineages that go all the way back to New France in the 1600's! Theses people are known as "Pure Wool". These people are descendant from the first white people to live in Continental North America. They have in inner peace and confident arrogance of those who made and will always run this country. They are part of the great wonder that is Canada, they are of the water, soil, rocks and trees. Krista, you ignorant hick, learn your place.
Emily Carr - Odds and Ends..
Being used to such undemanding audiences out west, Ottawa must indeed be a tough dollar. But if you keep that right wing rant up about the arts I can guaranty your near future doom. The Canadian people actually love their government sponsored art. The Canadian people expect the Canadian Government to buy the art for all to enjoy. If you research all the past government purchases you will soon discover that Canada bought works under the artsy Liberal administrations that have all gone through the roof in price! The works that the great Judy LaMarsh bought are no longer available on the market for love, power or any amount of money! Don't take my word for it, check it out yourself! But then, she was a truly great Canadian, with a long heritage to France. You didn't know that?
This is for Krista and Theo... Do you think you will ever reach this level???
Tony Clement the Minister of Industry has threatened to call in certain and unknown oil industry executives for a public(?) Parliamentary Committee hearing concerning the present market derived price of gasoline. I just don't get it at all. The people of Canada have just given the Tory government a majority in the last Federal Election. They have voted for small government, no interference in the market place, and that free and open markets will always come to the right solution.
You can buy all the gas you want...
The Conservatives cheered when the Canadian Government sold their shares in Petro Canada for a huge profit, stating that government has no business in business.When they achieved office, barely, it was slash and burn...The best government in the true Shit For Brains western manner is no government at all. Screw you and screw the future... But the thing is you can buy gasoline, if you pay the price, you can have all you want! We are all out of 90 cent a litre gas at present, but you can have all the $1.40 a litre gas you can pay for!
Chemo Drugs not available at any price..
If only all the items in our economy were like gasoline... you can buy all the gas you want! But, just hope you or the wife or the kids don't come a "downer" with cancer! It seems that a whole wack of the range of the Chemotherapy drugs that are very widely used and most of them generic are unavailable at any price! What is up with that Mr. Two Tier? Why don't you haul in some of the pigs from Big Pharma? Why won't you allow Health Canada to source these everyday drugs from the European Union? Now that would be television!!
