Partisan Hobo

Why don’t Canadian MPs have surgeries?
Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 7:49 pm

Inspired by the onslaught of great British political fictions, including In the Loop, I’m coming out of hibernation to ask an important question:

Why don’t Canadian MPs hold surgeries?

It seems like a great tradition. I would LOVE to see our MPs interacting more with their home ridings. I wonder why this didn’t make it across the pond …

Oh those lazy NGO activists
Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 11:10 am

For what it’s worth, I have never in my life met or heard of a legitimate NGO peace activist who wants some nations to keep their nuclear weapons. Methinks it is Ramesh Thakur who is being unfair …

http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/727740

The NGO activists are so convinced of their moral rectitude that they fail to spot their intellectual laziness in painting India as the nuclear villain. Logical clarity and moral courage might point them toward supporting India’s call for serious nuclear abolition talks to begin now, for all. And governments should recalibrate relations with India based on enduring interests, not self-serving and selective morality.

Meanwhile, since when is opposing nuclear war and global pollution NOT an “enduring interest”?

Is 2009 really safer than the 1970s? And can’t democracies do bad things, too?
Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 11:05 am

PM Harper and his cabinet seem to be defending Canada’s nuke-pushing efforts on two grounds. First, that 2009 is not so scary a time as the 1970s. Second, that India is a democracy and therefore would not hurt so much as a fly.

This is bogus. In the very same interview in which the PM said we should be selling nukes to India, he also made a (baffling) assertion that both Canada and India are threatened by the same terrorist forces:

… the flip side of that in our world of today is that we also share threats. The same people who threaten the security and threaten terrorism to India inevitably have exactly the same intentions toward our own country. So we are certainly of one mind and of one purpose in resisting these forces all over the world.

Bogus. First, India’s enemies are not necessarily Canada’s enemies. Geopolitics, darling PM, geopolitics. Many of India’s enemies could care less about our country … We are, in case you haven’t noticed, very very far away and really not all that significant on the world stage. Second, if we must resist terrorists “all over the world’, how exactly does this make 2009 safer than the 1970s?

All I can think is that the PM and his ilk believe, now that India is “on our side”, somehow providing them with nuke technology is okay. See, for example, Minister Baird’s defence from the House of Commons:

Hansard, November 19, 2009:

Hon. Jack Layton (Toronto—Danforth, NDP):
Mr. Speaker, India’s nuclear facilities are on high alert and the region is quite volatile, as we all know.
Yet, the Conservative government is about to sell India nuclear materials and technology. The last time that Canada did this, India took the opportunity to build the bomb. India is still refusing to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. For that reason, Australia is refusing to sell nuclear technology to India. The party of Lester B. Pearson should note this before supporting the initiative.
What guarantees does the government have that Australia does not seem to have?
(1430)

[Table of Contents]
Hon. John Baird (Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, those of us in the government believe that India is a responsible democracy and shares with Canada the fundamental values of freedom, democracy, human rights, and respect for law.
India has made substantial non-proliferation and disarmament commitments to achieve the trust of the nuclear suppliers group. As the Prime Minister said earlier this week:
We have great faith in our Indian friends and partners. We are not living in the 1970s. We are living in 2009.
[Table of Contents]
Hon. Jack Layton (Toronto—Danforth, NDP):
Mr. Speaker, 2009 remains a very dangerous period of time.
[Translation]

Choosing nuclear energy sources poses many problems and exporting nuclear technology is not a good idea. The potential for environmental damage is huge. The issue of nuclear waste disposal has not been resolved, for example, and then there are the very great risks to people’s safety.
Has the Canadian government abandoned such Canadian principles as sustainable development and nuclear non-proliferation just to make a buck? Is that the low point we have reached?
[English]

[Table of Contents]
Hon. John Baird (Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, we know that India has a like-minded liberal democracy. It is a like-minded country that respects democracy and human rights, shares our values and our commitments with respect to the environment.
One of the very important benefits of nuclear energy is that it produces electricity in a non-emitting form, something that is much better than dirty coal which is proliferating greatly in that part of the world.
We are committed to working with our friends in India. We are committed to working with the responsible, respected international government in India. We are committed to getting the job done for the environment.

Not to nit-pick, but I’m not so sure that being a “like-minded liberal democracy” guarantees peace and environmental protection. I can think of quite a few liberal democracies that have, over the years, developed weaponry and destroyed air and water quality with great skill and efficiency. Democracy is a form of government. It refers to a process, not to outcomes. A democratic government can still do bad things, still make wrong choices, and still cause harm. If that wasn’t the case, we wouldn’t need responsible government or elections anymore. Oh wait, right …

Tags: india, john baird, stephen har

Harper appearing on reality TV in India IS NOT NEWS
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 10:00 pm

We interrupt my blogging hiatus for this rant …

Stephen Harper is in India right now. Our Prime Minister. Shilling on behalf of massively-subsidized-totally-not-free-market-private-sector-embarrassments like our uranium and nuke reactor companies. Never mind the fact that the media generally seems to think Harper’s trip is some kind of tourism junket. Never mind the fact that no one seems to care about the potential war and environmental repercussions of our leader’s flirtation with door-to-door sales.

If you accept for a moment – which I do not – that it is somehow newsworthy that the Prime Minister appeared on an Indian reality TV show, could we ATLEAST benefit from unbiased coverage of trivial fluff?

“Harper may have topped his recent appearance singing a Beatles’ song at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa …” ?!!? Bwah? “topped”? For serious? That’s a legitimate phrase in journalism these days? Oh, our dear Prime Minister. He’s TOPPED himself with his entertaining escapades, now! Whatever will he do next?

Gee, I dunno. How about sell nuclear technology to ONE OF THE ONLY THREE COUNTRIES ON THE PLANET THAT REFUSES TO SIGN THE NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY?

Of course, news wouldn’t be entertaining like this, would it?

Tags: bad dancing, bollywood, india, shame, stephen harper, toronto star