Stand Up and Be Counted for the South March Highlands

Do you support saving the South March Highlands from destruction.

If so, you are probably aware of the fact that Internet trolls, the media and even Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson seem to be doing all they can to foster a myth that this is a NIMBY issue, supported only be people who live near the Beaver Pond Forest.

However the truth is that much more than just the Beaver Pond Forest is at stake. Indeed a whole ecosystem, that has been identified as an Area of Natural & Scientific Interest (ANSI), that includes provincially significant wetlands, many endangered or threatened species and the greatest amount of biodiversity in the Ottawa region - the South March Highlands, is threatened.

And the truth is that support for saving this ecosystem, comes from thousands of people in all parts of Ottawa, and throughout Canada and even internationally.

If you want to show your support for saving the South March Highlands to the world, and the media, please send your photos to savesmhphotos@gmail.com along with your name and where you live. Photos should preferably be a height of 800 pixels, but I can easily resize them (better larger than smaller).

We would like to show the broad range of support across Ottawa and nationally and internationally so please indicate your neighbourhood if within Ottawa, eg. Bridlewood, Katimavik, The Glebe, Centretown, etc. (unless you feel uncomfortable doing so). If you live outside Ottawa please indicate your city or town and province or country. And if you do live near the South March Highlands, please send your photo in. We want to reflect reality, not distort it.

You can view the photos of people who support saving the South March Highlands at South March Highlands Supporters Photos (Coalition to Protect the South March Highlands).

You can stand up and be counted along with them.

click on map to see larger image
Other Coalition to Protect The South March Highlands Sites

Save Ottawa's South March Highlands

Ottawa's Great Forest

I want to save the land North of Beaver Pond Park in Kanata Ontario Facebook Page

SMH (SouthMarch) on Twitter

Only One Choice or One Choice For Change

With Alex Cullen officially out of the race for Ottawa Mayor the race becomes a three way race between Mayor Larry O'Brien, former Mayor Jim Watson and the man with a vision, Clive Doucet.

Unfortunately with the flawd municipal election process that we have many may feel that their only choice is to vote for Jim Watson. Watson is attractive to the left and right for different reasons.

To right wingers who simply cannot bring themselves to vote for their philosophic choice of Larry O'Brien, due to his demonstrated incompetence, Watson is a safe choice - not too radical and someone who will not change the way things are done at City Hall.

To left wingers who fear another O'Brien victory, Watson is portrayed by the media as the only candidate who can stop O'Brien and and as a moderate and a safe choice.

The question for voters is whether safe mediocrity is really what they want or do they want real change to the developer driven administration at Ottawa City Hall. In that case there is only one choice and that choice is Clive Doucet.

Who Is To Blame For The Olympics

So is it all just fun and games and are we all just blind to what is wrong with the Olympics.

I don't think so. I think many people have problems with what the Olympics have become with more emphasis on profit than sport and more emphasis on sponsors than athletes, not to mention the impact on the communities the Olympics are held in, which is more often positive for the wealthy and negative for the poor. On the other hand, many have been sucked into the spectacle that the Olympics have become, a spectacle that is dependent on, and supportive of, corporate money and sponsors. Sponsors money feeds the spectacle and the spectacle feeds corporate profits and somewhere in there is IOC empire building.

But we support the Olympics anyway because we still believe in the ideal, and more importantly because it is the only Olympics that the athletes have.

As for the Olympic sponsors, some seem to be really bizarre.

I do find it ironic that the company that has been exploiting Canadians longer than any other company is an official sponsor, especially since their Canadian Olympic clothing is "Made in China", but they do have the protection of the Fashion Police.

I also find it really strange to watch world class athletes promoting McJunk food and I have to wonder how many IOC or VANOC dinner meetings have been held at the Official Restaurant of the Olympics. And then there are the official Olympic drugs, not to mention official beer and wine suppliers. And what is a sporting event without an official gambling provider.

And I am offended by the fact that the Olympic organizers are forcing Canadians, and visitors, who want to use a credit card at the Olympics (and do not have the right card) to get a new one.

And then there is this.

There have been protests raising serious concerns about the Olympics, although protesting at an international sports/cultural event obviously does not receive the same amount of public acceptance as protesting at international political/economic events. The protests have included some damage to the property of corporate sponsors by masked "protesters". They state their case here.

While I can certainly agree that the minimal physical damage done by these masked "protesters" is nowhere near the damage done to the poor and disadvantaged by the holding of the games I cannot condone it, primarily because it does more harm than good to the cause.

I am one who believes people should stand up for what they believe in and not hide behind masks. I am even uncomfortable with the concept of anonymous blogging, but I can understand the reason for it and it does no harm to anyone. If these "protesters" want to make a point about damage done to the poor by doing damage to the property of those they consider to be causing it, then do it out in the open, surrender to the police, and then argue your case in the courts of law and public opinion.

But what I would suggest, as an alternative to protests that alienate the public, is that in the future the emphasis be put on the People’s Summit aspect of the protests and that the protesters propose to the Olympic organizers that they will not take to the streets in exchange for the Olympic organizers sanctioning and publicizing a People’s Summit that examines all aspects of the Olympics. The media should pledge to give the People’s Summit reasonable coverage, especially the host broadcaster. The People’s Summit should be completely independent, possibly university based, and include full criticism of the Olympics. It should provide for some participation by Olympic organizers, which would allow them to state their case and, more importantly, allow them to be held accountable by the public for their actions.

This will be to both sides advantage - the serious protesters will be better able to make their case and reach the public without a public backlash and they will not be tainted by the actions of so-called anarchists, who will be marginalized and easier for the organizers to deal with.

This is not to say that the problems are not serious enough to justify taking to the streets but that the alternative can be more effective in reaching, rather than alienating, the public.

Of course if Olympic organizers are not prepared to be subjected to public scrutiny and public criticism they can always reject the idea and suffer the consequences of continuing, and probably escalating protests at future Olympics.

In closing, I want to say, as a Canadian, that I am proud of all our Bronze Medal Winners and others in the world can make as many jokes about that as they want. I do not believe that you're a loser if you don't win a gold medal. Indeed, if you've worked hard enough to actually be good enough to participate in the Olympics you're already a Winner and I am proud of all of our Olympic athletes.

Remember Earth Day

It may not have the high profile corporate sponsors and marketing hype that Earth Hour does but Earth Day, celebrated every April 22, is the largest, most celebrated environmental event worldwide. More than 6 million Canadians join 1 billion people in over 170 countries in staging events and projects to address local environmental issues. Nearly every school child in Canada takes part in an Earth Day activity.

Unfortunately this important event has been lost in the media hoopla surrounding Earth Hour, which I commented on in a blog post a year ago.

House of Commons Online Voting Records – The Back Story

I would like to thank The Enlightened Savage for drawing my attention to this article from Canwest News Service.

Unfortunately there is some missing and misleading information in the article which states:

OTTAWA - The House of Commons is developing a system to put every MP’s voting record on the web, shining light for the first time on information that has long been buried deep within House of Commons records.

While voting records of elected officials in other countries are often easily accessible, the House of Commons currently provides no comprehensive records of how MPs vote on bills and motions in Parliament.

The information can only be found by searching through thousands of pages of Hansard, the official record of the House of Commons debates, and extracting the listings for results of each individual vote, a process that would be extremely time-consuming.

What is true about the article is that there is not yet a user friendly online way to directly access House of Commons voting records. However, for at least ten years, an automated voting records system has been in place and MPs voting records have been provided on request. The system, which certainly has it's faults, has been developed and improved over the years but cannot be accessed directly by users. The main clients of the service have been Members of Parliament's offices and the media, so it is surprising that the Canwest article ignored this fact.

And even before this, the results of every vote were readily available in the Journals of the House of Commons, though not in a database format.

But what is most important is the question of the usefulness of such a system and the type of information it should provide.

We first of all have to acknowledge the very strong party system in Canadian federal politics and the House of Commons. Well over 90 per cent of the time MPs are going to vote with their parties. So if you want to get useful information from a voting records system you need to be able to track how the parties voted and identify the anomalies when MPs did not vote with their parties.

If I was designing the system, as well as having the ability to generate individual Members of Parliament's voting records, I would also design it to be able to automatically generate the following information. There are probably other standard things to track that could be added to this list.

- percentage of votes won by the government

- percentage of times each party voted with the government

- MPs that voted against their own party, and the votes where they did

- comparisons by party of MPs voting against their party by percentage

-ability to track votes by subject

-ability to track the rare occasions when a vote is declared a “free vote”

There is a whole other factor that comes into play as well – the fact that huge numbers of votes on amendments, particularly at report stage, can skew the statistical results. It would be useful to be able to exclude these votes from the results on certain occasions and just analyze the results for the main votes on each stage of bills and motions..

The system should also provide the ability for users to write their own queries.

We can only hope that this online voting records system will be comprehensive enough to be useful and provide more information than could simply be determined by knowing which party each Member of Parliament belongs to.

The most important factor in such a system, though, will be the users knowledge and understanding of the Parliamentary system and ability to actually understand what the results of a query on of the system actually means.

The Most Hated Politician in Ontario

Enter Bob Rae, the most hated politician in Ontario, at least according to the massive corporate media campaign launched against him. Gaining power just as Ontario was entering a recession, he still managed to lead the most progressive government in Ontario's history, overhauling the provinces environmental, municipal planning and development, and labour laws.

And he ran deficit in order to provide economic stimulus and provide assistance to those in need. But he also asked the higher paid workers in the broader public sector to share the load via the social contract, exempting lower paid workers from it's application. This was the most controversial act of his government.

Since his election, and particularly prior to the next election, the establishment and the corporate media ran the most extensive propaganda campaign ever seen in the province. Added to this was a backlash from organized labour over the social contract and a lack of support from traditional NDP supporters in the “movements”, who perhaps felt the Rae government wasn't radical enough for not bringing on the revolution in it's first term.

This led to the most regressive government in Ontario history, that wiped out all of the Rae government's reforms and turned Ontario into a harsher meaner society.

Eventually Bob Rae left the New Democrats and joined the Liberals, but only after they abandoned him.

As a New Democratic Party supporter I am supposed to hate Bob Rae for that, and I am supposed to cheer for the candidate least qualified to lead the Liberals. However, as an independent blogger, I have to say that I believe Bob Rae is the best Liberal Party leadership candidate, for the Liberals and for Canada. And to his credit, Rae does not run away from his record as Premier but embraces it as part of the experience gained that will help him deal with the current economic situation. No one can argue with Rae's intellectual abilities, political experience and leadership qualities.

But most of all I support Bob Rae for the Liberal leadership because I believe he will not be afraid to move the Liberal Party to the left. I believe that will be good for the country and even good for the New Democrats. Conventional wisdom has it that a left leaning Liberal Party is bad for the NDP because it can draw away soft support from the NDP. However what it really does is push the NDP to distinguish itself from the Liberals by moving further left and promoting more progressive policies.

The federal NDP has accomplished a lot in opposition, especially when holding the balance of power with a Liberal minority government. The time is ripe for that scenario after the next election.

Never Believe The Press - At Least Not The Toronto Star

Yesterday in the Fifth Column, in relation to the government’s alleged non-confidence motion aimed at pressuring the Senate to pass Bill C-22 quickly, I stated:

The question of whether declaring this meaningless motion a matter of confidence makes it a non-confidence motion is moot, however, as the Bloc Quebecois and New Democratic Party have indicated that they will support the motion.”

This statement was based on an article in the Toronto Star dated “Feb 08, 2008 04:30 AM” that stated:

The first deadline, in the form of a motion introduced yesterday, will call on the Commons next week to demand that the Liberal- dominated Senate pass Bill C-2, the government's omnibus "Tackling Violent Crime" legislation.

Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe and NDP Leader Jack Layton indicated their parties would happily support the Conservatives in pressuring the Senate to pass the crime bill.

However that statement turned out to be false as the CBC reported:

Even without the Liberals, the motion easily passed 172-27, with the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois MPs voting in its favour and New Democrat MPs voting against it.

The Fifth Column apologies to the NDP. I should have known better than to believe they would support such a motion.

The Cult of Personality Without The Personality

A cult of personality or personality cult arises when a country's leader uses mass media to create a larger-than-life public image through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are often found in dictatorships but can be found in some democracies as well.

A cult of personality is similar to general hero worship except that it is specifically built around political leaders. However, the term may be applied by analogy to refer to adulation of non-political leaders.

I have been in the government and opposition lobbies of the House of Commons a few times, all prior to the Harper government, and while I do recall seeing portraits and photographs of politicians, including the party leaders of the time as well as former Prime Ministers, they were all of a more formal or historical nature and did not dominate the walls. It was certainly nothing like the description provided by Elizabeth May, which strike me as being campaign type photos.

What may have been the most fascinating part of the afternoon was my time in the Government Lobby. Behind the curtains that run along the last row of benches on both sides of the House, are doors to long skinny living room areas. One is called the Opposition Lobby; the other the Government Lobby. In my pre-Green Party leader life, I have spent a lot of time in both. The Government Lobby was a frequent work space when I was Senior Policy Advisor to the federal Minister of Environment back in the mid-1980s. And I frequented both lobbies when I was with Sierra Club of Canada from 1987-2006. It did not strike me until I walked into the Government Lobby to await my turn as Speaker that I had not been in there since Stephen Harper became Prime Minister.

It used to have some paintings on the wall. Past prime ministers, certainly a formal portrait of the Queen. Landscapes. I know there was the occasional photo of current Prime Ministers, but when I walked in this time, I felt chilled to the bone. Every available wall space had a large colour photo of Stephen Harper. Stephen Harper at Alert. Stephen Harper in fire fighter gear. Stephen Harper at his desk. Stephen Harper meeting the Dalai Lama. Even the photo of the Queen showed her in the company of Stephen Harper. None were great photos. None were more than enlarged snapshots in colour. They didn’t feel like art.

This is, of course, “Canada’s New Government” led by the new Conservative Party without a past.

This is the government that decided using Canada’s official colours of red and white on the government websites just had to go because red is also the colour of the Liberal Party. So now we have blue dominated government websites, because blue is the colour of the Conservative Party. If only it was just a symbolic change, but we see so many examples off the new Conservative government’s attempt to politicize the Public Service, as well as independent public agencies.

This is also the government that wants to control how the press does it’s job covering the government and its actions and in particular Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

This is a party without a past, or at least with a past that it does not want to remind people of. It certainly does not want people to be reminded of it’s extreme right wing roots in the Reform Party and Canadian Alliance, and at the same time it does not want to be associated with those “progressive” elements in the old Progressive Conservative Party. In fact better not to have people think about party at all, but rather about a strong charismatic leader.

Stephen Harper is no Pierre Trudeau, and neither is he a John Diefenbaker. So what to do when you do not have a strong charismatic leader. How do you build a cult of personality without a personality. Images. But why the government lobby of the House of Commons when only insiders will see the images. The press of, course, also gets to see them but they apparently did not notice until it was drawn to their attention by Elizabeth May. Is support for Stephen Harper so wishy washy within his own party that they need to inundate Conservative Members of Parliament with photos of “The Leader”.

Perhaps it is all innocent and they are simply using caucus members as a “focus group” for the next election’s campaign images.