Harper’s Gone! Congrats to Canadians!

9 Comments

1. 

   Oui on October 20, 2015 at 4:01 am

   Canadian Students Reject Liberal Party Leader Justin Trudeau’s Attack on Palestine Activism, Free Speech | Electronic Intifada |

   March 15, 2015 – A vote on divestment taking place today at Montreal’s McGill University has attracted national attention in Canada after Liberal Party leader and would-be prime minister Justin Trudeau attacked student organizers and questioned their right to free speech.

   “The BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] movement, like Israeli Apartheid Week, has no place on Canadian campuses,” Trudeau tweeted. “As a @McGillU alum, I’m disappointed.”

   Backing BDS crackdown

   With his intervention, Trudeau has effectively lent his support to the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper which recently signed agreements with Israel to repress the BDS movement.

   In fairness, Trudeau is not the first Liberal Party leader to attack Palestine solidarity activism on campus for political opportunism and expediency.

   In 2010, then Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff issued a statement calling on Canadians “to join with us in condemning Israeli Apartheid Week.”

   But as critics noted, Ignatieff was engaging in the ultimate hypocrisy.

   A few years earlier Ignatieff had written in The Guardian about a helicopter tour he had taken over Palestine.

   “When I looked down at the West Bank, at the settlements like Crusader forts occupying the high ground, at the Israeli security cordon along the Jordan river closing off the Palestinian lands from Jordan,” Ignatieff wrote, “I knew I was not looking down at a state or the beginnings of one, but at a Bantustan, one of those pseudo-states created in the dying years of apartheid to keep the African population under control.”

   ○ Apartheid Divides Winnipeg College and Jewish Community; Israeli Politics | Oui @BooMan |
   ○ J.J. Goldberg on Jewish Defense League Canada – a Kahane Hate Group | The Forward |
   ○ Jewish Defense League (JDL) is a radical organization that preaches violence, founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane | SPLC |
   ○ Israel and a Tale of Two Campuses | Tikun Olam |
2. 

   Oui on October 20, 2015 at 8:41 am

   No, Israel doesn’t share my moral values nor of Europe.

   Israeli Jewish Mob Lynches Eritrean, Mistaking Him for Terrorist | Tikun Olam |

   Ynet reports that in today’s shooting at the Beersheba bus station, in which a Palestinian man killed an IDF soldier and wounded ten others, an Israeli Jewish lynch mob murdered an innocent Eritrean man who was not involved in the attack.  They did so after security guards shot and wounded him in error believing him to be a second attacker.

   Electronic Intifada reports that the attacker was Isam al-Araj, of the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem.  It also reports that the African man lynched was Hafton Zarhoum.  EI says that the security guard who wounded Zarhoum claimed he suspected the man of involvement in the terror attack because he ran toward him instead of away, as all the other survivors did.  But video of the shooting shows that the Israeli was lying.  

   ○ Father of Be’er Sheva terrorist says son was ‘executed’
   ○ ‘Caught on Camera’: Extrajudicial killings of Palestinians | Mondoweiss |

3. 

   Oui on October 20, 2015 at 10:46 am

   Beating the odds and the official polls!

   Justin Trudeau plays down polls and the ‘politics of fear’| CBC News – June 20, 2015 |

   Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau says he is not rattled by recent polls showing a Liberal slide in support amongst Canadians.

   “We’re only in the early days of the federal election, the writ hasn’t even dropped yet,” he said on CBC Radio’s The House. “People are focused on their summers. They’re really going to start engaging and paying attention once Labour Day comes around, so what we’re focused on very much is getting our message out.”

   ○ Analysis: Liberals losing steam as election approaches, polls suggest
   ○ Analysis: Mulcair’s ‘government in waiting’ rattles Liberals and Tories

   A new poll by the Angus Reid Institute [cached] shows the Liberals trailing in third place with 23 per cent of decided support among likely voters, while the Conservatives are at 33 per cent and the New Democrats lead with 36 per cent. An EKOS Politics poll, also out this week, showed the Liberals have the lowest level of support they have had since Trudeau became leader in 2013.

   The prepared text of Justin Trudeau’s speech upon being elected leader of the Liberal party | April 14, 2013 |

4. 

   Oui on October 20, 2015 at 11:02 am

   Trudeau won’t be part of the bombing raids in Syria against ISIS – breaking with US hawkish, militaristic foreign policy. Most important, Canada has a leading role in the Five Eyes Network, espionage network with NSA spanning the globe with intrusion of individual rights.

   Canada and Israel — best friends forever? | Times of Israel |

   On November 28, 2012, one day before the United Nations General Assembly voted to upgrade Palestine to a nonmember state, a few Palestinian protesters gathered in front of the Canadian representative offices in Ramallah. They were holding posters saying “Shame on You, Canada,” and other slogans accusing the country of being a “subcontractor of apartheid.” Many demonstrators also held up banners showing a photo of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, superimposed with a face of a dog, next to the slogan “This dog doesn’t hunt.”

   Of course that didn’t change Ottawa’s determination: Canada voted against the Palestinian statehood bid, one of only nine countries to do so (138 nations voted in favor and 41 abstained).

   Canada has always been a friend of the Jewish state, but in recent years — especially since the Harper government came to power in 2006 — Ottawa has redefined what it means to be staunchly pro-Israel. Indeed, in the Middle East conflict, no other nation, not even the United States, has been so unstintingly supportive of the policies of Israel’s government as the Great White North.

   The UN vote was just one of many examples when Canada stood up for Israel, and against much of the world consensus. Just this Thursday, Harper rebuked the world for its stance on what he called the “one stable, democratic” country in the Middle East.  

   ○ Anglo-American Relationship, Atlanticists and Israel
   ○ NSA-GCHQ Espionage – Deceiving the Nation and the World

5. 

   Marie3 on October 20, 2015 at 11:33 am

   Reading some comments about how conservative Trudeau is, it seemed curious to me that the LIBs could gain a whopping 150 seats – 67 from the CONs and 59 from NDP. I suppose the 2011 Canadian election was somewhat like the 2015 UK election when the LIB-DEMs collapsed; although LIB-DEMs are CONs and NDP is to the left of the LIBS.  Or did the late stage break away from NDP to LIBs suggest something different.    

   Overall, if the POTUS were chosen by the Canadian method of seat allocations, we would have President Romney,  Clinton would have lost his second term, and we wouldn’t have had a President Nixon.  

   Pulling up the results on a few of the individual seats highlighted something more interesting to me.  In Calgary (CON central), many CON incumbents won re-election with 60+% of the vote.  But some won with less than 50% with the LIBs coming in second.  Now I’m curious as to the breakdown for those seats in 2011.

   Out west — Vancouver – in two seats that the NDP retained, the results for one of them was:
   NDP – 51%
   LIB – 19%
   GRN – 4%

   The other:
   NDP – 40%
   LIB – 25%
   GRN – 8%

   IOW — in those districts the CONs received less than 30%

   Two seats the LIBs took from NDP:
   LIB – 37%
   NDP – 20%

   LIB – 34%
   NDP – 30%

   So, now I’m beginning to wonder if perhaps it was less a victory for LIBs than “blackmailing” those more inclined to vote NDP with the choice being “vote LIB” or Harper wins again because “base” LIBs will never vote NDP.  Not so different from the “choice” given to US left-leaning Democrats: accept a DINO or lose to the GOP.  Of course, unlike the US the “base” LIBs don’t have to vote CON or stay home.  Guess, I should look at the 2011 results because I’m undoubtedly being influenced by the DNC always blaming losses on Democrats not showing up to vote for the “lesser evil,” but on the rare occasions that a left-of-center Democrat wins a nomination, they either don’t show up or vote GOP.  

   As Harper was in power for ten years, it appears that Canada is as conservative as the US.  Or was that an artifact of Canada’s current three party split?  Ack, now I have even more questions than answers.  

   • 

     seabe on October 20, 2015 at 11:50 am

     I’d say that’s an artifact of the current three party split as to how Harper hung on so long. Strategic voting definitely hurt NDP, but so did momentum. “Anyone but Harper” was NDP back in August. Liberals gained ground — on what specifically is still up for debate in my mind, but socialist websites argue it’s because NDP argued for balanced budgets during the debate, whereas Liberals argued for deficit spending to improve the economy — so would-be NDP voters switched to Liberal rather than allow Harper another win.

     I’m curious to see how the Liberals deal with marijuana. With an absolute majority, they have no excuse to not do what they campaigned on: legalization.

     • 

       Marie3 on October 20, 2015 at 2:05 pm

       Complicated.  Does seem that “anybody but Harper” was the primary driver.  But if the NDP was arguing for a “balanced budget,” that’s not a lefty position.  So, the NDP may have shot itself in the foot right when they should have been favored and the default position became the LIBs.  

       Quite fascinating, but not getting a sense as to the comparative breakdown of the Canadian electorate into right, center, and left.  And there are historical regional variations that I have only a rudimentary glimmer of.

     • 

       Marie3 on October 20, 2015 at 2:07 pm

       Should add that this seems to be a far better waste of time than considering the plight of US churches even if religious affiliation factors into political affiliation and voting behavior.

6. 

   Oui on October 20, 2015 at 2:18 pm

   Highlights of Big Oil, Keystone pipeline, suppression of free press, corruption and Canada dead last on the environment …

   ○  The Last 10 Years of Stephen Harper

   ○ G8 Summit 2011 on Arab Spring and Israel peace talks: 1967 border lines reference pulled from final statement at Canada’s request | Globe & Mail | [cached]

   • G8 pledges $20-billion for Arab Spring countries
   • On Israel, Harper stands alone at G8 summit
   • Obama urges Israeli adherence to 1967 borders as basis for Palestinian state
   • PM Harper resists G8 calls for more aid to Egypt, Tunisia
   • G8 summit will see Harper define his position on Arab Spring

   ○ President Bush and Prime Minister Harper held a joint news conference at White House | C-Span – June 2006 |