A Blow Against Democracy in Canada

here are once again efforts to exclude the Green Party from the televised leaders' debates.

Here’s what you can do:

1. Visit http://demanddemocraticdebates.ca to sign our petition, donate, and more!

2. Vote in CBC’s poll on whether Elizabeth should be invited to the leaders’ debates

3. Email the consortium members CBC, CTV, Global, TVA and Radio Canada.

• CTV:  programming@ctv.ca
• CBC:  ombudsman@cbc.ca
• Global TV:   viewercontact.globalnational@globaltv.com
• TVA:  info@tva.ca
• Radio Canada: ombudsman@radio-canada.ca

4. Email the party leaders: Stephen Harper, Jack Layton, Michael Ignatieff and Gilles Duceppe. Tell them to press the networks to include Elizabeth May.

5. Visit the Facebook pages of the party leaders, and write on their walls that you want them to demand Elizabeth May be in the debates.

6. Tweet your outrage! Use the hashtag #EMayIn.

7. Post about this on Facebook.

8. Tell your friends and family!

What other people are saying:

"It's bad enough that the Greens got nearly a million votes last election yet got no seats. It's insane that they can't even get on TV. This is UTTERLY outrageous." 

-Andrew Coyne, national editor of Maclean’s magazine, via twitter.

"It is a common sense proposition that anyone who received a million votes has a right to be heard… To exclude [May] is to invite yet another examination of why we as a society delegate to television networks the right to decide issues like this.” 

-Elly Alboim, Associate Professor of Journalism and former Parliamentary Bureau Chief for CBC TV News 

“It is time for the people of this country to stand up and let the media and the politicians know that an election is a time for people’s voices to be heard and Elizabeth May speaks for a lot of people in this country."

-Judy Rebick, Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson University

“The decision by the broadcast consortium to exclude Green Party Leader Elizabeth May from the 2011 leaders' debate is mystifying. .. The broadcast consortium should first apologize to May and reverse its decision."

-Vancouver Sun Editorial, 30 Mar 2011

"Democracy demands that the media simply relay Parties positions without attempting to control the message. Excluding the leader of a party that garnered 1 out of every 15 votes in the 2008 federal election is just plain wrong”

-Cal Millar, President of Channel Zero.

New fighter jets Canada plans to buy will be more than $100 million each — at least $25 million more per plane than government estimates — according to a top U.S. budget watchdog : GAO

New fighter jets Canada plans to buy will be more than $100 million each — at least $25 million more per plane than government estimates — according to a top U.S. budget watchdog.




Conservative government officials have said 65 new joint strike fighters being built to replace Canada's F-18 jets will cost about $75 million each, about $9 billion with training and an additional $200-$300 million a year in maintenance.



But Mike Sullivan, director of acquisition management at the US General Accountability Office, said he doesn't know where that estimate comes from.



"That's not a number that I am familiar with at all," he said in an interview Tuesday with CBC's Power & Politics with Evan Solomon, cautioning he hasn't seen the methodology behind the numbers.



Sullivan said the estimated cost of the F-35A model that Canada is buying is "in the low 100 millions."



"Probably somewhere between $110-115 million," he said.



Canada buying jets at bottom of cost curve: Tories' Hawn

A prominent Conservative admitted to CBC that the cost of the F-35 fight jets might not be as the government has promised.



Earlier on Power & Politics, Conservative MP Laurie Hawn said Canada is buying the planes at the peak of their production, making them cheaper than the $133 million the U.S. estimates their jets will cost. Hawn also said the $133 million estimate is an average of three models being built, of which the Canadian jet is the cheapest.



"We're buying our planes at the bottom of that [cost] curve," said Hawn, who was parliamentary secretary to Defence Minister Peter MacKay before the election was called.



But when asked whether the cost could change, Hawn replied: "Anything can happen."



Sullivan said that while the last planes off the production line cost less than the first ones, Canada's jets are set to be delivered in 2016, which he viewed as early in the production run.



"That tells me I don't think that's going to be the least expensive buy," he said.

An odd way to woo retirees.... Shelly Glover your time as secretary to the Finance has an expiry date.”

1. An odd way to woo retirees. The Conservatives have run afoul of Canada’s national seniors organization after a rising star of the Tory caucus described Winnipeg Liberal MP Anita Neville, 68, as having “passed her expiry date.”




Shelly Glover – the Tory incumbent in the Manitoba riding of St. Boniface who is a bilingual police officer and was recently named parliamentary secretary to the Finance Minister – made the controversial remarks in an interview with Global News.


News reports say Ms. Glover was asked about the fact a Conservative candidate had yet to be named to run against Ms. Neville, who has held the riding of Winnipeg South Centre since 2000. “We need some fresh blood, we need some new people who have some new ideas and who are willing to stand up for their constituents. And I’m afraid Ms. Neville has passed her expiry date,” she said.




Ms. Glover’s spokesperson later told Global News that the comment was a reference to how long Ms. Neville has held the seat and not a comment about her age.



CARP, a national group that advocates on behalf of seniors and retired Canadians, is not convinced. The organization issued a news release late Monday urging Ms. Glover to retract her comments and apologize.



“Ageism seems to be the final frontier of acceptable discrimination,” CARP vice-president Susan Eng said in a statement. “Even when all the parties are actively wooing older voters, a sitting MP thinks this is appropriate…. Ms. Glover should retract her comments about Ms. Neville and apologize to the voters of her riding and Ms. Neville’s riding for offending and marginalizing a significant portion of their voter base.”



All parties make no secret of the fact that they are trying very hard to target seniors’ votes this campaign. Sensing opportunity, the Liberals chimed in themselves Tuesday morning.



“I am not so much offended for myself as I am outraged on behalf of all seniors – especially senior women – whom the Conservatives seem to think are past their ‘expiry’ dates,” Ms. Neville said in a statement. “There are millions of seniors out there who live active and productive lives, who continue to contribute to the Canadian economy by staying in the workforce, whether by choice or because they have to in order to make ends meet and pay the bills.



“For Ms. Glover to refer to me in this insulting way is a slur against all seniors. On their behalf I demand an apology.”



---



UPDATE Ms. Glover issued a statement on the issue Tuesday morning, just after 10 a.m.



“First of all, I would like to remind seniors in the Winnipeg area that Ms. Neville just voted to oppose the Conservative Government’s plan to increase [Guaranteed Income Supplement] payments to the most vulnerable, lowest income seniors in Canada -- a measure that would benefit single seniors by up to $600 and senior couples by up to $840.



“My remarks were clear: I was referring to Ms. Neville's performance as an MP, and only that. In my opinion, Ms. Neville has ceased to be an effective representative of her constituents. I believe someone new, of any age, with new ideas would be a more effective representative for the people of Winnipeg South Centre."



---



2. On tap today. The Globe’s Jane Taber reports that Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff will unveil his first platform plank Tuesday – a pledge to help low-income Canadians pay for post-secondary education.



Meanwhile, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is in Regina and Winnipeg Tuesday focussing on small business issues. A Tory official says Mr. Harper will “announce an incentive for small businesses to expand and hire new employees.”



The official says the party will also “continue to demonstrate the difference between our low tax plan to complete the economic recovery and the Coalition’s high tax agenda that would stall our recovery, kill jobs and set hardworking families back.”



It is not clear whether Tuesday’s announcement is connected to a similar item that appeared in the 2011 budget. It included a Hiring Credit for Small Business, which was described as a temporary measure that would allow a credit of up to $1,000 against a small employer’s increase in its 2011 EI premiums over those paid in 2010.



NDP leader Jack Layton is in Brantford to announce measures expected to focus on credit card fees. The NDP will also be highlighting the fact that its tour so far has focused on Conservative ridings.



3. Revisionist coalition history. Conservative campaign manager Jenni Byrne used her Twitter account Monday night to challenge reported comments from Tom Flanagan, a former Harper campaign manager. Mr. Flanagan said this week that Mr. Harper, when he was leader of the Official Opposition, must have wanted to become prime minister in 2004 without an election.



Mr. Flanagan’s comments to PostMedia contradict what Mr. Harper said Monday, when he categorically denied that his 2004 news conference announcing he, NDP leader Jack Layton and Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe had written to the Governor General regarding the potential defeat of the Paul Martin minority Liberal government was part of a plan for him to assume power without an election – the very thing he is currently accusing Mr. Ignatieff of plotting.



“I can’t see what other point there would have been in writing the letter except to remind everybody that it was possible to change the government in that set of circumstances without an election,” said Mr. Flanagan.



The Conservative response?



“Flanagan agrees he wasn't in Ottawa or involved - only coalition remains the deal with the Iggy [Liberal Party], NDP, Bloc Québecois,” Ms. Byrne said on Twitter.



Asked for comment, Mr. Harper’s spokesman Dimitri Soudas offered a similar response. “Flanagan didn’t know,” said Mr. Soudas. “He even said so. And he wasn’t in Ottawa.”

The next prime minister of Canada could be in a position to appoint four Supreme Court of Canada justices.

The next prime minister of Canada could be in a position to appoint four Supreme Court of Canada justices.



The nine-member court's mandatory retirement age is 75, and four will reach this milestone by the end of 2015. Morris J. Fish will be the first to turn 75 on November 16, 2013.



Ian Binnie and Louis LeBel will be 75 in 2014, and Marshall Rothstein reaches that age on December 25, 2015.



For years, conservatives have wanted to rein in the Supreme Court of Canada, which has issued numerous decisions over the years that have enraged right wingers.



Those rulings include striking down Canada's abortion law, "reading in" sexual orientation to the list of equality rights guaranteed under Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and requiring that the Crown provide full disclosure to the defence in criminal cases.



In 2000, University of Calgary professors Ted Morton (later Alberta's finance minister) and Rainer Knopff wrote a book called The Charter Revolution & The Court Party, which alleged that "university-based intellectuals" had embarked on an "astoundingly successful strategy" to promote an activist, rights-based agenda through the courts.



In their book, they took special aim at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, and the LGBT advocacy group Egale Canada for the role they played in advancing legal rights for minorities and women.



"Gay advocates (and postmodernists generally) view law as an important formative pedagogical force," Morton and Knopff wrote. "Just as the traditional family has been constructed by the law, so changing the law can deconstruct it."



Morton and Knopff, along with future prime minister Stephen Harper, were among six Albertans who signed a famous "firewall letter" in 2001 to then-premier Ralph Klein. The letter called on Alberta to withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan, create a provincial police force, and assert full provincial control over health care.



Meanwhile in late 2006, the national vice president of REAL Women of Canada, a right-wing women's group, told the Georgia Straight that her organization was considering joining other groups in a constitutional challenge to curtail the powers of the federal government.



At the time, Gwendolyn Landolt declined to identify which organizations were working together on this issue.



She specifically objected to the federal government funding women's shelters, daycare, and cultural activities, which she claimed were exclusively provincial domains under the British North America Act.



If such a challenge is ever filed, it will take years to wind its way through the courts.



It's likely that whoever is appointed to serve on the Supreme Court of Canada in the next four years would render a verdict in a case like that.



If Harper were to win a majority government on May 2 and later stack the court with judges who share the views of right wingers such as Morton, Knopff, and Landolt, this could have profound ramifications on the future of Canada.

Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan now 155 Sunday.

The death toll among Canadian soldiers serving in Afghanistan rose to 155 Sunday when 24-year-old Corporal Yannick Scherrer of Montreal was killed by a roadside bomb.




Cpl. Scherrer was on foot patrol near Nakhonay, southwest of Kandahar City, when he died.



He was a member of the 1st Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment, based in CFB Valcartier in Quebec.



It was his first tour of duty in Afghanistan, an uncle of the slain soldier confirmed in a brief telephone Interview. The uncle declined to elaborate, saying any further information should come from Cpl. Scherrer's father, who was not immediately available.




Cpl. Scherrer was the first Canadian to die in Afghanistan since Dec. 18, when Cpl. Steve Martin was killed, also felled by an IED.



Cpl. Sherrer was on a security patrol with the Afghan National Army when he was killed Sunday.



In a statement issued in Kandahar Monday, Brigadier-General Dean Milner, Canada's top soldier in Afghanistan, expressed condolences on behalf of the military, adding that “Canadians can be proud of the progress our soldiers have accomplished for the people of Kandahar province.”



Prime Minister Stephen Harper also voiced sympathy for the corporal's relatives and friends.



Nakhonay, a war-battered village of about 1,000 people, has been a hot spot in counterinsurgency efforts. At least five of the 17 Canadians killed in the past year in Afghanistan died in Nakhonay, and many others have been injured there.



Canada's 2,800 troops stationed in Kandahar will end combat operations by the end of July, but up to 950 troops and support staff will remain in Afghanistan on the training mission until 2014.



Since the Canadian mission in Afghanistan began in 2002, the great majority of deaths have resulted from what are termed improvised explosive devices, which commonly take the form of bombs concealed beneath the surface of roads or hidden by other means.



Four Canadian civilians have also been killed: a diplomat, a reporter and two aid workers.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May kicks off her national election campaign

Elizabeth May will seek seat in B.C. riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands

Green Party leader Elizabeth May kicks off her national election campaign bright and early as the sun rose at Sea Cider Farm and Ciderhouse in near Victoria, British Columbia.







SAANICH, BRITISH COLUMBIA—The Green Party’s Elizabeth May, the only party leader without a seat in the House of Commons, said she would focus her campaign on once again trying to become the country’s first elected Green Member of Parliament.



In the Greens campaign launch in the pastoral setting of a cider house winery at sunrise, May set out a two-pronged message that her party could change the negativity coming out of Ottawa and that voters on B.C.’s west coast could make history by voting her into a federal seat.



“Across Canada, Canadians look at Parliament and think we’ve had enough, we have enough of attack ads,” said May to a crowd of about 250 supporters who arrived before dawn. “We cannot stand by and allow our democracy to be abused.”



Residents who choose not to vote because of the negative ads are only rewarding the people whose cynical tactics have been devised to keep voters at home, said May, encouraging voters, especially young voters, to vote for the Green Party.



May, who lives in the riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands after moving to the west coast in 2009, had unsuccessfully run for a seat in the 2008 election when she faced off against Defence Minister Peter MacKay, in a Nova Scotia riding and in an earlier by-election in London, Ontario in 2006.



In this campaign, she is trying to unseat Conservative Gary Lunn, the current Minister of State for Sport who first won his seat in 1997.



Hampered by less funding than the Conservatives, the Bloc, the Liberals and the NDP, May said the Green Party will run a campaign using social media tools. She will do whistle-stops by rail for some cross-country campaigning but will spend most of her time in the riding, a vast area where some parts are reachable only by float plane or by ferry.



May will have a tough fight for a seat in the diverse Saanich-Gulf Islands riding which is located on Vancouver Island and on islands located between Vancouver and Victoria. Lunn won handily with 43 per cent of the vote in 2008.



“We are in one of the greenest ridings in the country,” said riding resident and Green Party supporter David Haughton who showed up at the campaign launch. “I think most Canadians would like to see a Green Party MP and we can do that here in this riding by sending Elizabeth to Parliament.”



In 2008, nearly 1 million Canadians voted for the Green Party, slightly less than 7 per cent of the popular support.



The Green candidate in 2008 won about 10 per cent of the vote in the riding with much of the environmentalist vote cast for a well-known Liberal candidate who took 39 per cent of the vote.



While the Gulf Islands may be territory where May could grab votes away from Lunn, the mainland seaside community of Sidney in the riding remains staunchly Conservative, according to a campaign worker for Lunn.



The volunteer, who asked not to be identified, showed polling numbers to the Toronto Star indicating that the riding’s heavily populated areas on the mainland of Vancouver Island will vote Conservative.



“This remains an area with many retirees who moved out here from Alberta. They are going to stick with the Conservatives,” said the Conservative volunteer.



May is counting on voter cynicism to make inroads into the riding and promises that the Green Party will not use negative ads to divide Canadians. The party is launching what May calls a space for other parties to agree on the things they have in common.



“Let’s replace fear and mistrust and cynicism with hope and compassion,” said May. “Let’s replace self-interest with the common interest of service for the common good.”



May said there are things in common that all the parties can agree to and she thanked Prime Minister Stephen Harper for calling an election on May 2, a strategic date for her which has already become part of her slogan.



“He has given me a gift,” said the Green Party leader. “In May, vote May.”

another minority: EKOS.

The Liberal Party that pushed the government to defeat Friday trails the Conservatives by seven points as it heads into an election, according to a new EKOS poll.



Prime Minister Stephen Harper said after the non-confidence vote he would meet with the Governor General on Saturday, setting in motion a campaign that would end at the polls in May.



The final survey by the polling company before the election call suggests the Conservatives have the support of 35.3 per cent of voters and the Liberals 28.1 per cent. The poll suggests the NDP have 14.2 per cent support, the Green Party 10.6 per cent and the Bloc Quebecois 9.7 per cent.



Voters were asked to indicate what party they would vote for if an election were held the day after they were surveyed.



The party standings in the survey are similar to what they were the last time Canadians went to the ballot box in 2008, according to a report accompanying the poll results.



"While the Liberals and Greens are poised to make some minor gains at the expense of the Conservatives and the NDP, there is little chance that we will see any major changes in the balance of power," the EKOS analysis said. "At these numbers, the Conservatives will retain their status as a minority government and it is doubtful that the Liberals will gain enough seats to form a legitimate coalition with the NDP, let alone the government."



The survey of 2,503 people was conducted between March 17 and March 24 and has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points, 19 times out of 20.



Compared to an EKOS survey done the week before, the new poll has the Conservatives up slightly from 34.1 per cent support.



Between March 10 and March 16, the Liberals captured 25.7 per cent support, and the NDP's support dipped from 16.4 per cent. The EKOS poll suggests the Liberals are stronger than the Conservatives among younger voters, while the Conservatives are ahead of the Liberals with seniors.



"These age differences do not bode well for the Liberal Party in terms of voter efficiency, as younger voters are consistently less likely to vote," according to the firm's analysis.



Close to 42 per cent of respondents said the Conservative government was going in the right direction, while almost 48 per cent said they were headed in the wrong direction.



The analysis said the Conservatives have their support base locked in and have little room to grow.



When asked which party they would choose as their second choice, 20.4 per cent of respondents said the NDP and 15 per cent said the Liberals. The Conservatives are the second choice of 9.4 per cent of those surveyed.