A Report Card for Liberals Paul Martin & Team

Security

Our border guards and prison escort employees can't even be armed. The Auditor-General states the RCMP has been underfunded for years. Its Superintendent is not independent from government and the recruiting has been more concerned with some politically correct criteria, rather than hiring the most suitable candidates. The IRB--loaded with Liberal cronies--has allowed 36,000 deportees to escape into the ghettoes of our cities. Almost no effort is made to find them. (too costly? not enough manpower? lack of political will?) Any suggestion that this criminal stupidity must cease is met with "You're a racist". The Liberals have been forced to turn up to Tamil terrorist fundraisers to secure a Toronto Liberal riding. But then Jean Chretien helped get Khadr out of a Pakistani prison, where he was charged with financing a bombing in Islamabad. We all know the subsequent gratitude Khadi and family showed upon his release.

Aboriginal Affairs

Paul Martin had the nerve to pretend that tossing an extra $8-billion (yes, I have heard of announcements of at least two lots of $4-billion and then some) to the natives will save them from living wretched lives in remote reserves. This is a government that ladles out $19,000 per native, so that a family of four gets $72,000 spent on them. Yet we still have hundreds of Kashechewans. Even on reserves with oil revenues, there are terrible pathologies evident. To give Chretien some credit, he originally understood that only assimilation led to a hard-working, productive society. However, he too caved into the native lobby and started printing up bigger cheques. Worse, he started the idea of First Nations sovereignty. The absurdity of 640 statelets depending on endless billions from Canadians has been lost on the Minister, Andy Scott and his party. It would be interesting to see a poll of how many Canadians of non-aboriginal descent want more more billions diverted to dysfunctional reserves. The government spends heavily on public opinion polls, but it will never release one they have had commissioned on that subject.

The economy

Ah, the linchpin of Liberal bragging rights. "Look at the deficit shrink and the surpluses grow", is their mantra. The truth is that the First World's economy has been expanding, our weak dollar has given us great trade surpluses with America, and China and India desperately want our resources. All these factors would benefit any party that governed during this period. Ironically, Paul Martin, who made his name on fiscal responsibility, has now carpeted Canada with most of that surplus. God forbid that the Conservatives should get elected and use it for their programs. If the Liberals are lucky and that happens, the Conservative cupboard will be bare when the next recession hits them.

Immigration

Here is where the Liberals have lit the fuse for a demographic time bomb. Certainly we need immigrants, as our own birth rate has dropped below replacement level. Immigrants have immeasurably added to Canada's prosperity. However, Minister Joe Volpe's idea of adding 40,000 to our annual immigration in-take is hardly intelligent. Most of those extras will be family re-unification individuals. Bringing in parents, grandparents and kissing cousins (and fake relatives, second wives as cousins and the like) will decrease, not increase, our economic outlook. The Liberals have also failed to hold the guarantors of these unproductive people financially accountable. An estimated $800 million is spent by Canadian taxpayers for their welfare costs. Despite the mistakes of 9/11, the IRB still admits thousands of refugees with improper, or no, documentation. Many are from terrorist-supporting countries. Canada's immigration / refugee policy is seen abroad as making Canada a sieve. The group we want here are those who already speak one of the two official languages and who bear skills that will be needed later. Experts in the field say that only about 24% of those admitted have these attributes. That is pure folly down the line. Did the government learn nothing from the immigrant riots in France?

Health

$41 billion was dispensed to the provinces to end long waiting periods for surgeries. This will fix the problem the Liberals maintain. Total fiction of course. Years ago, the Liberals knew that they had an aging population explosion. Did they open new medical universities to train more doctors and nurses? No, in fact they capped the entrance numbers in the ones that already existed. Because of the mediocre salary scales offered doctors and nurses, we have a brain drain to the United States. Maybe the Liberals--who love all things aboriginal--will propose the old Inuit method of treating their diseased elderly. We might not have enough doctors, but we have endless ice flows upon which to float them away to their demise. And to flip back to the immigration issue, just wait until all those elderly family reunification folk show up demanding medical care. Another reason not to move to Toronto. [Actually, check those waiting room chairs in the doctors' offices and hospital waiting rooms now, Bud. NJC]

Gun control

In their attempts to make Canada a peacable kingdom Canadians have the gun registry. Two billion and counting; still, we have tens of thousands of Canadians who have not yet been registered, along with untold thousands who have no intention of registering. Carried to its idiotic conclusion we can't even have armed custom officers or prison escort guards. Meanwhile, the mean streets of our cities have been flooded with automatic weapons. Julian Fantino, the ex-Police Chief of Toronto, stated that the gun registry did not solve one gun crime in his city.

Quebec independence

The Liberals continue to advise Canadians to stay away from the Conservative Party lest Quebec go sovereign. Yet, because of the Liberal sponsorship scandal, the sovereignists are stronger than ever. Even Chretien's Clarity Act which would at least demand a clear referendum question has been rubbished by Martin's Quebec lieutenant, Jean Lapierre. Yes, the same Lapierre who helped form the Bloc Quebecois. Radio Canada, the Quebec wing of the CBC is a veritable fortress of separatists; yet the Liberals keep up their funding. Could the Conservatives muck up the situation any more than it is now?

The democratic deficit

Martin promised to end the sleaze and rampant cronyism that marked his predecessor's reign. One hardly knows where to begin in refuting his promise. He has stuffed old personal aids, friends, and Liberal bagmen into the Senate. His new "improved" Ethics Commissioner is so ineffective that his resignation has been called for. Shapiro has turned out to be as cozy a lap dog as Wilson was. As for "more openness" in the selection of Supreme Court judges, that has been a joke. Irwin Cotler, a big time lefty, will send up another of his ilk. Even if the Conservatives win a majority, they will be stuck with a Supreme Court that defines the term "social engineering". Plus, because of Trudeau's Charter of Rights. they will be allowed to trump almost any government decision. You can fill in the rest of the deficits as there are multitudes to pick from.

The military

We can't even airlift our troops to trouble spots without the help of the Americans. When General Hillier was to fly abroad, it took a third Hercules to get him there. The other two he tried to use broke down. As for our Sea King helicopters, some wit had a suggestion. Why not truck them down to New Orleans to help breach the dikes. Only when the polls showed that Canadians were disgusted with the Liberal military policy did they offer more money. Most of that money won't be available until years from now.

This list is getting rather lengthy, so I will only touch on how the Liberals have managed to sour our relations with Washington. Perhaps they have forgotten how we managed to get that trade surplus with them--and how it can easily disappear, along with our prosperity. When President Bush asked us to join the missile shield, (at little cost to us) Martin turned him down. Mustn't rile up the pacific Quebecois, especially after Gomery. [Remember, too, our PM has been cultivating new 'friends' farther away. NJC]

Kyoto Accord

The Liberals promised a 6% reduction in pollution emissions; however, the reality has been a 24% increase. Per capita we are near the top of polluters, far ahead of the Americans, who refused to sign the accord. That says it all.

Now what the Conservatives must do is to check-off all these deficits and propose concrete solutions to them. God help them if they don't seize on everyone of these deficit. This is no time to start waffling on "sensitive" issues.

© Bud Talkinghorn

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