FROM THE HARPER INDEX:

TOM FLANAGAN- ONE OF STEPHEN HARPER'S CLOSEST ADVISERS EXPLAINS AND PREDICTS HIM:

The Harper Index has recently published a story on Tom Flanigan's new book 'Harper's Team'. Flanagan has been an important mentor to Stephen Harper, having been Harper's national campaign director in the 2004 federal election and a senior advisor in the 2006 election. He is also a senior fellow at the notorious Fraser Institute and a member of the right wing political science clique at the University of Calgary known as the 'Calgary School'. The book traces the steps that led to the Canadian Alliance Party and its merger with the Progressive Conservative Party. As the article in the Index points out it ends with the 'Ten Commandments of Conservative Campaigning''. These "commandments are essential in understanding what Harper is all about and predicting what he will do next. As an aside they are also good political advise in a Machiavellian sense for others opposed to neo-conservatism, but who too often flounder in confusion about what to do.

Go to the article at the Harper Index to read about this book, what Harper is all about and what one of his best advisers says is the way to go.

MORE FROM THE HARPER INDEX:

There's a couple of new and interesting articles over at the Harper Index, a site devoted to keeping a close eye on the ever devious actions of the federal Harper government. Coming up first on bat is...

CUTS "DISHEARTENING" AS PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH SHIFTS QUIETLY INTO PRIVATE HANDS:

SCIENCE ROLE OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DIMINISHING-SOMETHING BREWING AT ENVIRONMENT CANADA:

As part of its long standing initiative to "save money" by government cuts and spend more money by handing out freebies to the private sector that the Conservatives hope to bribe into supporting them the Harper government has quietly been cutting back and planning to transfer science based government initiatives into private hands. From layoffs at the National Research Council, through cuts to 17 federal departments and agencies to possible closure of five federal labs the writing is on the wall as the Harpercrats bundle up their gifts for their friends in the corporate world. Some excerpts from the article...

"The federal government may be quietly privatizing and out-sourcing basic research needed for public policy and safety. Federal science staff have been laid off as a result of last March's federal budget, and 17 federal departments and agencies have been told to slice five percent of expenditures, according to the association that represents federal professionals....

"Along with the research council layoff, she(the association spokeswoman-MM) said she is hearing rumours that something is brewing at Environment Canada. With the bad press the government is having on environmental issue, you'd think that would be the last place for a bunch of cuts. She says public servants are being asked to do more with less and be more efficient, but we have no more room to maneuver other than cutting programs or doing half-assed jobs....

"Five federal labs have been identified by the panel for possible closure, says Demers. Is this just the tip of the iceberg? She asks. There is a lot of concern and worry about where this government is going in terms of increasing cash flow for other priorities. You do not need to be a rocket scientists to figure out where their other priorities are, she said, indicating she meant the military."

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AT THE HARPER INDEX

KYOTO UNDERMINED BY RHETORIC AT APEC-GREENPEACE:

Meanwhile Harper got his chance to "shine" at the recent APEC summit in Sydney Australia. Too bad it was such a dim light, much outshone by the television comedy team that snuck a member disguised as Uncle Osama Bin Ladin past most of the summit's security in a motorcade disguised by Canadian flags. Harper's main contributions to the summit were his fawning echoes of Bush's calls to abandon the Kyoto Protocol in favour of the American President's "aspirational goals" (yes, Molly "aspires" to win the lottery as well), and his similar support for Bush's proposal to "repatriate" nuclear waste to the countries where it was mined. Not where it was used. This sets Canada up to be the nuclear dumping ground for the American nuclear industry.

Some excerpts from the article...

"Rather than cleaning up Canada's and the world's environment, this week's APEC summit may have been carefully crafted to move Canada away from Kyoto commitments and closer to importing massive amounts of radioactive waste from abroad....

"Martin says Bush, Howard and Harper have agreed on an approach intended to undermine the Kyoto protocol by moving away from hard targets to what they call 'aspirational goals', which typically mean intensity based target. Looking at the example of Alberta, which adopted intensity based target in 2002, he says,"It's very clear that you can have a reduction in intensity while still having dramatic absolute increases in emissions". The efforts to undermine Kyoto coincide with pushes for so-called 'clean coal' technology and nuclear energy by the leading producers and users of these technologies, including Australia, Canada and the US."

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AT THE HARPER INDEX

FROM "THE HARPER INDEX":

"OPENNESS" CONSERVATIVE STYLE:

The folks over at the Harper Index are devoted to keeping a spotlight on the ever devious actions of Steven Harper's Conservative government. Like most other night creatures the federal government thrives best in darkness, but the searchlight of the Harper Index often catches them in the act.

Two recent items in this site are quite interesting, pointing to how the proclaimed "openness" of the reinvented Conservatives is anything but.

One article by Geoffrey Stevens 'Blocking Public Documents Has Become a Pattern' runs down a list of recent cases where the Harper government has tried, and often succeeded, in blocking the public's right to know. The first item mentioned is how the feds tried to censor about 1,500 words from Justice O'Conner's inquiry into the Meher Arar case where an innocent Canadian citizen was handed over to the USA so he could be shipped off to Syria to be tortured. The Commission of Inquiry had to take the government to court to have the censored portions that were supposed to "compromise national security" released. The missing pieces were merely evidence that the RCMP and CSIS had more or less "taken orders" from the CIA. Hardly startling news and certainly no threat to "national security". "Embarrassing" maybe. Threat no. One of the bureaucrats who blacked out the portions released is William Elliot, the new RCMP Commissioner.

In other cases the Tories have been much more successful in hiding facts from the public. Last December they appointed a commission to look into the case of three other men whose circumstances were very much the same as Arar's. This is a case where the RCMP allegedly used information obtained by torture in Syria in applying for search warrants here in Canada. This Commission headed by Justice Frank Iacobucci is being held almost totally in camera. Even lawyers for the men are not allowed to attend.

Then there is the case of the seemingly never ending Air India Inquiry. In May of 2006 Harper appointed Justice John Major to conduct a full public inquiry into the botched police investigation of the 1985 crash that killed 329 people. At last count the federal government was blocking access on the part of the inquiry to no less than 800 documents. The scene had become so surreal that last February Justice Major threatened to shut down the Inquiry unless the government became more cooperative.

As if manipulating and thwarting supposedly official investigations was not enough the Harpercrats have begun to make a move on one of their old bete noires, the CBC. According to another article in the Harper Index the Conservatives have chosen the 'Architect of the "Common Sense Revolution" to Pick CBC News Heads'. Tom Long, the old advisor to the much despised Ontario government of Conservative Mike Harris, has been appointed to chose two new top managers for CBC News. Long has been a long time backroom boy and political manipulator in the Tory party, and cut his conspiratorial teeth in opposition to the more moderate conservative policies of Ontario Premier Bill Davis. The level of Long's playing field can be gauged by his run for the leadership of the Canadian Alliance in 2000. His attempt collapsed when his campaign was caught in the fraudulent signing up of bogus party members in the Gaspe region of Quebec. Right down to the registration of those whose place of residence was a graveyard. Nice guy ! I guess that "human rights" extend to the dead as well. Ultra-democracy ?

While the opportunity to manipulate news is, of course, present in such an appointment -by creating a climate of self censorship due to fear- the real intent is probably a long term Conservative commitment to abolish the CBC. Ideological right wingers have as long a hate on for the CBC as they do for the Canadian Wheat Board, and the Long's mandate in choosing the new managers includes to "identify opportunities for cost savings and operational efficiencies, ensure that new technology is acquired and implemented to support the efficiency drive". In such a climate you don't have to give outright orders about the "tone of the news". It becomes an unsaid but strict rule that you don't upset the political masters by being too visibly opposed to their agenda. Do too much of this and you become an "operational inefficiency".

HARPER AND THE POLLS:

Even since the days of John Diefenbaker no Canadian politician has understood that dogs know best what to do with polls. Modern parties live, breathe and eat pollls, everything but the sensible thing that a dog would do. In the absense of actually having different policies , let alone differing general philosophies, let alone different ideologies (perish the though of such horrible things) modern political parties examine the entrails of opinion polls with all the devotion of those who once believed that the liver of a slaughtered sheep (there's a metaphor here with modern voters having wool) could tell them exactly what symbolic offereing to make to the gods. In this light a recent article in the Harper Index is quite interesting. Author Marc Zwelling, of Vector Research, analyses some recent finds about voters' likes and dislike in terms of both the Harper Conservatives and other parties. Interesting, but don't let any poll results override common sense. To read this article go to http://www.harperindex.ca/View/Article.cfm?Ref=0061

NEW AT THE HARPER INDEX:

-BRINGING CANADA'S ENERGY UNDER US CONTROL

-TORY LAND CLAIMS TRIBUNAL A DUD

-20 YEARS OF TARGETING THE CANADIAN WHEAT BOARD:

The 'Harper Index', the website devoted to keeping its steely gaze on the history, antics and plots of the federal Conservatives, keeps on examining little Stevie and his friends. One recent article is about "deep integration", the business plan to "harmonize" regulations across the Canada, the US and Mexico. As if they weren't "harmonized" enough the Conservatives are promoting two new trade deals that would reduce the ability of the public to control the actions of the corporations. One is the 'Interprovincial Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement' (TILMA) . This has already been signed by the usual suspects, the governments of BC and Alberta. If agreed to this would allow out of province businesses to sue provincial and municipal governments that they feel "restrict or impair their investments" ie health, safety and environmental regulations are in the gunsights. The other agreement being constructed is the 'Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America' (SPP) which is basically an "energy grab" that would commit Canada to securing the energy supply of the USA even though it has no plans to secure its own energy supplies. Read much more in the article at http://www.harperindex.ca/ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=0056 .

Being as yesterday was National Aboriginal Day it might also be a good time to look into the details of Harper's much ballyhooed new aboriginal land claims tribunal. The Harper Index has an article citing law professor Bradford Morse of Ottawa University and a native affairs analyst who requested anonymity because of the well known vindictiveness of the Harper government. The article goes into the real limitations of the proposal that don't get much media play Well worth a look. Also the dirt of Tom Flanagan, Harper's long term mentor on land claims matters. See http://www.harperindex.ca/ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=0054

Finally, there's an article on the twenty year long history of Conservative attacks on the Canadian Wheat Board. The recent attempts to abolish the CWB hardly came out of nowhere. See http://www.harperindex.ca/ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=0053

NEW FROM THE HARPER INDEX:

CASEY AT THE BAT:

Despite statements by Peter McKay that the vote of former Conservative MP Bill Casey against the federal budget was a "surprise" the Harper government's policies have been challenged by this independent minded MP before. Casey even gave statements that implied that other Conservative MPs tried to stall him in a committee room so that he would have no chance to register his disapproval of what most Maritimers see as a renunciation of the Atlantic Accord. In power the record of Steven Harper has shown him to be the precise opposite of what he advocated as a reformer. The party now controls the MP, and the leader controls the party.

Twice before Casey has criticized Harper's policies. The first time was when Liberal turncoat David Emerson was welcomed into Stevie's Cabinet, showing the sort of opportunism and graft that the Conservatives had criticized in the Liberals mere weeks before. Last February Casey also got on Stevie's bad side for awarding aerospace contracts to Quebec instead of to Casey's riding. It used to be standard Reform rhetoric that the MP should actually represent their constituents and not bow to party demands. I guess that that is just another thing that is only said in opposition.

Drop on over to the Harper Index at http://www.harperindex.ca/ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=0052

to read more about Stevie's latest failure to make his MPs into a flock of sheep.

MORE FROM THE HARPER INDEX:

The Harper Index, the website devoted to following the machinations of our Conservative government and its leader is chock full of new articles about little Stevie's antics amongst the big boys at the G8. The first article of note is titled 'Africa- Does "shifting priorities mean moving aid money from Africa to Afghanistan'. this article reports on Harper's announcement about how Canada is planning to shift its aid priorities away from "the poorest of the poor", thereby reneging on previous Canadian promises. This is also a violation of previous Conservative pledges about the total amount of aid as per our GDP. to read more about this issue go to http://harperindex.ca/ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=0051 .

Another article is entitled 'Defence- questioning Harper's role as a go-between'. This article argues that the Harper government has done little about the "missile defence" issue other than echo US positions. To see more about this issue go to http://www.harperindex.ca/ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=0050 .

There's yet another article about how, after years of complaining about the "ideological bias" of Canadian courts, that Harper has not reformed the judiciary to a merit based system but has rather begun to stack it with his own political appointees, including some rather controversial appointments. See http://www.harperindex.ca/ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=0049

Finally there's an article titled 'Targets promote oil industry frame' that explains the difference between the usual idea of "carbon emission caps", and the idea promoted by the Harper government in its slavish adherence to the US line of "intensity based greenhouse gas targets" that aims to fix carbon emissions at a unit per production base rather than one of total emissions. See http://www.harperindex.ca/ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=0048 for more. An interesting article on what is rather an arcane subject.