Another Shoe Drops In Northern Gateway Debate

Following Bob Rae's somewhat watered down but nevertheless not bad interjection yesterday, the NDP brings a bit more rhetorical muscle:

OTTAWA -- If the independent review panel studying Enbridge's Northern Gateway oilsands pipeline proposal gives its OK to the project, the interim leader of the federal NDP says that still wouldn't settle the matter for her.

If both Bob Rae speaking yesterday in Vancouver and Turmel speaking today are trashing the pipeline, then you know somebody has whispered into their ear that its good politics.

And by the way the secret weapons in the anti-NGP fight aren't the First Nations or hippy enviro types from California.  They are the weird, homegrown Left/Right amalgams that B.C. kicks up in times of trouble.  I'm thinking Rafe Mair, guys like Van Der Zalm in his latest anti-HST incarnation (remember: his policies may have been far right but his 60's side-burns were left of Neil Young) and, most significantly these days, Terry Glavin.  Thank Gawd the pointless Afghan Mission is winding down, because Terry can quit bashing all us folks who knew that both it and the Iraq War were going to be a gigantic bloody waste of time, and turn his considerable talents for invective and outrage in a more useful direction. When the tractors come, I expect he and Rafe will lie down in front of the first one, and rage agin' it together.

Ah! BC Politics

Which of the two major parties will self-immolate first: the Libs, or the NDP? But remember, it isn't getting even slightly weird out there until the Premier accepts a paper bag full of money from a tiny little Chinese Realtor. Man, I remember the old days--the "Zalmoids", and all that--wondering whether this shit was real or whether I was getting flashbacks from all the mushrooms I'd eaten. I imagine folks out there today are getting the same feeling.

PS. I wrote the header before I read through the 2nd link. That the phrasing there is identical to my own is a sign that all we left-coasters are attuned to the same cosmic vibe.

Running From The Harper Sales Tax

Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan:

Federal Conservative DNA is all over the HST and denials of any role in its parentage ring hollow, Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said yesterday.

"I'd refer to Mr. Flaherty's budget and I'd ask those Conservatives why they would vote for that and then speak against it," Duncan said, in the wake of several Conservative MPs and one of the prime minister's spokesman trying to distance the party from the plan to combine the provincial and federal retail sales taxes.

The Iggman himself:

He said the government has pushed the HST across the country during a recession and then has distanced itself when opposition to the tax heats up.

"And we think that's dishonest. They're fully implicated in this decision and they should take responsibility for it."

Ignatieff said Stephen Harper is pretending it's a provincial matter for both British Columbia and Ontario, yet the federal government will be the collector of the tax.

Mind you, as I've written previously, I think the NDP is best set to exploit this issue both provincially and federally, so this isn't a surprise:

Vancouver New Democrat MP Libby Davies scoffs at both the federal Liberals and Conservatives, pointing out that the parties voted for the HST cash enticements in the federal budget.

"It sounds like they're all running for cover and trying to blame each other."

Nor is this:

The New Democrats are framing the upcoming St. Paul's by-election as the chance to send Premier Dalton McGuinty's Liberals a message about the controversial harmonized sales tax.

As the NDP selected lawyer Julian Heller last night as their candidate for the Sept. 17 contest, party leader Andrea Horwath said voters in the midtown Toronto riding can let McGuinty know what they think about the 13 per cent tax.

Just as an aside, the HST issue as it has been playing out in B.C. has brought this guy outta the wood-work. I saw his face and flashed back to that day in the late 70s when I found those little mushrooms in that field behind Belmont Sr. High, near Langford B.C.

Too weird, man. I'm hearing Grateful Dead music playing in my mind.