Why Is Tom MulCair Protecting Dean Del Mastro?

I get LPoC talking points delivered into my mail-box every day.  I usually ignore them, but sometimes they raise legitimate questions:

NDP Must Stop Protecting Dean Del MastroOTTAWA— Liberal Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics critic Scott Andrews made the following statement today on the Liberal motion to call Dean Del Mastro to appear before the Ethics committee:“The Prime Minister’s Parliamentary Secretary and chief apologist for Conservative election fraud, Dean Del Mastro, is under investigation by Elections Canada for allegedly violating campaign spending limits and serious questions have been raised about the conduct of his campaign.Liberals have tabled a motion to call Mr. Del Mastro before the Ethics committee to shed light on these claims in an open and transparent manner, a motion the NDP, inexplicably, seems reluctant to support. Canadians deserve answers. It is difficult to comprehend why the NDP would be helping the Harper Conservatives protect Dean Del Mastro. If they take their job as the Official Opposition seriously, they will support our motion and hold this government to account.”


So, I have a lot of NDP-inclined readers: why are you guys supporting this scum-sucker?  

NDP Double Game?

Rob Silver ponders the significance of this bit of muttering from Brad Lavigne:

"Far too often, Eastern-based reporters say it¹s the Liberals and the Tories who are neck-and-neck and fighting it out for government," Lavigne said from Regina Sunday. "In fact, in Western Canada and now we believe with the gun registry, it¹s the NDP not the Liberals who are the competition in out here.

His conclusion, which sounds plausible to me, is that while Jack Layton is telling the East he's doing all he can to save the registry, he's telling the West that he's willing to see the thing dead. The problem is, the gun-registry votes are fast approaching: at some point Jack has to open the box, and Schrödinger's cat will decohere.

PS. At this point the numbers on C-391 are very close, perhaps tied. If one or two more NDP MPS switch, then the ball will be back in the LPoC court, and the test will be how effectively Iggy can whip his own people. Should he fail, all the good work of this past summer will have been for nothing.

On Being Whipped

MP Glen Pearson on the gun registry vote:

In the rush to get to our caucus meeting on Wednesday, I rode in an elevator with two Conservative MPs from urban ridings, both complaining of being whipped to vote against the gun registry. It was hardly a moment of revelation, as we’ve known for months that Conservatives are divided on the issue. A few hours later, when in a particularly brutal QP John Baird upbraided the Liberal leader for whipping his team to vote for the registry, I watched a number of government members on the other side stare blankly, knowing that Baird and others had done exactly the same thing with them.

So we know where the two major parties are on the issue: they will in effect be treating C-391 as a government bill and instructing their MPs accordingly. What about the NDP? Whether the registry lives or dies now rests with them. Will they bring their folks into line to save it? After a few encouraging words back in April, Mr. Layton has gone silent. Let's see what's going on at the NDP website.

Ah yes! They're calling for Peace in The Mid-East. When it comes to advocating causes affecting the other side of the planet, these guys are always out in front.

NDP On The Gun Registry

Now that the Liberal caucus seems unified around Iggy's proposed reforms of the long-gun registry, that still leaves the opposition parties a few votes shy of what they need to keep the thing alive. Will these come from the NDP, who lost a full dozen MPs to the government position last time around?

From Taber in The Globe:

NDP Leader Jack Layton had allowed his MPs to vote their conscience on this issue – 12 of them did just that last November. Yesterday, however, he would not commit to allowing a free vote again when the Hoeppner bill comes back to the House.

“Well that’s a big if. I’ll address it then,” he told reporters when asked if the NDP MPs who voted against it were not satisfied with the changes to the registry that he wants to bring in.

More slippery stuff in the NP:

NDP leader Jack Layton said his party will propose amendments to Ms. Hoeppner's bill, but he would not comment on whether he will whip his MPs to vote against the bill.

Meanwhile, NDP MP Peter Stoffer, who voted with the government last time out, tells his leader to get boned.

Not much hope from that direction, I'm afraid.

Polaris Institute As NDP Shills

The game , sponsored by The Polaris Institute, is a good bit of fun: hose down Iggy and Harper with gouts of gooey black oil. But tell me why Jack Layton isn't in there someplace? Can anybody name one thing Jack has actually done to help the green cause? In fact, the NDP is renowned for selling out its enviro wing at the drop of an auto-worker's beer mug: examples are trivially easy to uncover.

NDP Perfidy On 10%ers?

While it appears as though the PC may be ready to throw in the towel on this one, Jack's Dipper's are looking a bit snaky:

In fact, the NDP, which voted for the Liberal motion, may be the party that gets the Conservatives off the hook on the bulk-mailing issue.

NDP Leader Jack Layton launched a blistering tirade against "King Stephen Harper" only to waffle when it came down to whether his party would actually support the ten-percenter ban behind the closed doors of the Board of Internal Economy meetings.

Is a behind-the-scenes deal in the works? A coalition, as it were?

Anyway, here's the Membership List for the BIC.

Libby Davies seems to be the one to watch. Does the Chair get to vote, I wonder?

PS. I note that the PMO has issued Tory MP Bruce Stanton an official "mind change" since he voted no in the HOC. Some interesting maneuvers going on.

The List: Only 2 To Go To Repeal Gun Registry

Among those supporting Hoeppner's bill are New Democrats Nathan Cullen, Dennis Bevington, Charlie Angus, Niki Ashton, and Carol Hughes, and Liberals Larry Bagnell, Wayne Easter and Anthony Rota.

Everyone knows that the idea of a "private vote" going unwhipped is a lotta hoo-hah. Witness the fact that the Bloc will be opposing Bill C-391 en masse even though many of their MPs are from rural areas. One simply applies the whip in a discreet fashion, under such circumstances, if your party leader is so inclined.

However, I fear The NDP and esp. The Liberals (because a few have suggested this to me privately) see Bill C-391 as a means of getting the Gun Registry issue off the table. So when it finally receives royal assent the Libs. blame NDP dissidents, the NDP blame Liberal Senators, and several billions of $s go down the tubes. But, on the other hand, the rurals out in boonyville put away their pitchforks for the time-being.

PS. Meanwhile some NDPers are apparently angry that the Tories are still mistreating them even after they have caved on the issue. For example , NDP groveller Charlie Angus whines graphically he describes his mistreatment at Tory hands even though he has totally fucking debased himself for them.

Will Jack Layton Help Tories Kill Long Gun Registry?

From Tory MP and minister of veterans affairs Greg Thompson:

Perhaps nothing illustrates the differences in approach and motivation of the political parties better than the debate on the gun registry. Parliament now has before it Private Members' Bill C-391, which would do away with the long-gun registry but leave in place other parts of licensing requirements and safety regulations with respect to all guns.

...and yada yada yada. We've seen this kind of thing before , with C-301 for example, or the Tories wacky anti-abortion private member's bills. They never go anywhere. Except that this one is coming up for a vote in early November, and it just might. Our dear Brad Trost, Tory MP for Saskatoon-Humboldt, writes

...if most opposition MPs who have pledged to support the legislation keep their word, (and that’s a big if) then the House of Commons should vote to repeal the long-gun registry sometime around November.

The problem, to put it bluntly, lies with the NDP, who intend to let their backbench nobodies "vote their conscience" on the issue. MP Nathan Cullen thinks, given this fact, Bill C-391 will pass and go to committee. Of course, what comes out of committee cannot be known in advance, but it is nevertheless certain that the NDP is giving opponents their best chance in years to kill the registry.

Shame on them.

PS. This alert from the Coalition for Gun Control suggests there is a Liberal recidivist in the mix. I have been assuming that the Libs will whip this vote.

A Coalition, If You Will: Part Duh

From Janke:

What Jack Layton has done is to give the Conservatives their way out. The NDP tables the bill. The Conservatives offer an amendment or two (no doubt already agreed to, in advance, between the Conservatives and the NDP). The Liberals offer their own amendments. Votes are taken. With NDP support, Conservative amendments pass. Liberal amendments are rejected. No election.

Go for it Jack. But bend over, its spanky time!

(PS. the rest of the Janke post is bullshit.)

NDP Perfidy Fails To Pay!

The governing B.C. Liberal Party lead the opposition B.C. New Democratic Party, according to a survey by Environics Research Group.

Among decided voters in B.C., 47 per cent say they would vote for the B.C. Liberals. That's about the same vote share they pulled in 2005.

The New Democratic Party trails at 36 per cent. That represents a drop of six points from their popular vote in 2005.

Another 12 per cent would support the B.C. Green Party compared to the nine percent they won in 2005. Five per cent support the B.C. Conservatives and others. Sixteen percent of eligible voters are undecided or say they would not vote.

Message to Federal and Provincial NDP supporters: to thine own self be true, people, to thine own self be true!

Black Liquor Tax Credit To Stay For Now

The American paper lobby gets to keep its alternative tax credit loophole for the time being. At least the federal government is trying to have to loophole closed South of the border, unlike the position of the federal NDP, which seems to want a matching rebate on this side.

As I've written previously, the loophole gives pulp and paper companies a subsidy for adding diesal to a clean/green fuel alternative fuel mixture, thereby actually increasing CO2 emissions. They're being paid to pollute.

And our once green NDP. Well, those were the old days, man.

Update: NDP forestry critic John Rafferty will be introducing a private member's motion "to negotiate an end to the unfair ‘Black Liquor’ subsidy in the US before June, or otherwise implement a similar regime in Canada." Negotiating an end to the subsidy is fine. Giving pulp and paper companies money to make their own processes less environmentally efficient is crazy.

Is The NDP's Price For Propping Up Harper A Vote On Proportional Representation?

From yesterday's comments:

I told you the other day that the NDP were likely going to crush Iggy's pipe dream of an election this year in exchange for something from the Cons. I'm hearing that a referendum on PR may even be on the table.

When it comes to all things NDP, McClelland knows.

NDP Drinks The Black Liquor

A bizarre alternative fuel tax credit that actually subsidizes increased CO2 emissions at U.S. pulp mills could be "the final nail in the coffin for many struggling Canadian pulp mills."

This is a weird one, which I have written about here. Basically, pulp-and-paper mills can fuel many of their processes by making use of the by-products of these very processes, in particular a carbon rich sludge containing lignin (the structural glue that binds plant cells together) called black liquor. They've been doing things for years this way, and it keeps the production of pulp and paper relatively "green"(at least "greener" than it would otherwise be). However, in the 2005 U.S. highway bill law-makers introduced a provision that gave a 50 cent per gallon tax credit to industries using a taxable fuel/alternative fuel mix, and in 2007 this was extended to the pulp and paper industry. So clever heads thought "Hey, that money can be ours if we just add diesel to our black liquor!" even though this results in greater emissions and is entirely contrary to the purpose of the legislation.

Naturally, Canadian players in the industry are mad as hell, but the political response to has been most interesting, particularly from the NDP:

"The new U.S. administration is ensuring they are protecting American jobs," [NDP Trade critic Peter Julian] said. "Canada has to take similar tack and work with the U.S. administration to get a reciprocal arrangement that...[is] win-win for both countries."

...which sounds very much as though he is pushing for the tax credit to be extended to the Canadian side of the border, which means that, once again, the NDP is willing to sacrifice environmental interests for those of a dirty brown, heavily unionized industry. Ditching the green for the brown, as it were.

More sensibly, both the Liberals and the government are intent on having the credit killed in the U.S. rather than instituting something just as perverse up here.

The long, slow decline of the NDP as the party of the environment continues.

NDP And Reform: Together At Last

"Joining the B.C. New Democratic Party in vowing to axe the tax is the Reform Party of B.C., who have adopted the slogan, “We ♥ CO2.”"

Also lining up behind the NDP in railing against the carbon tax are the B.C. Conservatives, who have made the issue one of the six main planks of their platform.

And another 1st: NDP policy gets a prominent write-up on IceCap, the premier Climate Change Denialist site. They must be so proud.

Tom Flanagan In Less Than Five Minutes

This line of attack won't play:

There is, however, a big obstacle in the way: Mr. Ignatieff can't force an election by himself. He needs the votes of the New Democrats and the Bloc Québécois to defeat the Conservatives on a vote of no-confidence. In other words, he has to reactivate the coalition with the socialists and separatists against which Canadians reacted so strongly last fall.

It's of a piece with the Tories "roll to the right" strategy lately, and we see where that's getting them. I doubt it would work anyway, but if your political opponent wants to tar you as a rebel and traitor, it probably helps that your latest book is an old fashion call to Canadian Patriotism. Most excellent timing there.

Flanagan gets one point right, though. Iggy needs both the NDP and Bloc to bring Harper down, and:

...why would [the NDP] rush into an election if the polls suggest the Liberals are going to do well? The NDP had its best results in 1988, when the Liberals were at a low point. In the six elections starting in 1993, the result has always been the same: When the Liberals go up, the NDP goes down, and vice versa. Jack Layton has worked hard in three campaigns to build up his party's caucus from 13 members when he became leader to 37 after the 2008 election. Will he risk those gains trying to put in power a Liberal leader who mirrors the Conservative leader on so many major issues?

What enflamed environmentalists about the NDP in the last Federal election has been vented upon their provincial counterparts at the beginning of this B.C. election in a particularly nasty fashion. And if anyone was paying attention, they would see a party/movement tearing itself quite loudly into its ideological parts, its green and brown wings. Jack Layton is going to want to lay low for the time being, and figure out how to stitch back what he has torn asunder. I see ways by which he could be convinced to keep the Harper government alive, the result being that we have a Federal government too weak to do much harm because it is simply too weak to act in any significant fashion. The nation staggers on for another year or so.

On the up-side, the NDP will become the party of Abstention. I am preparing rhetorical stink-bombs to lob their way, satisfied that they will make big stinky splat marks on the party's reputation.