Bud Talkinghorn

The new political reality

All the political parties face a serious realignment. Harper needs the House votes of others to pass legislation. The others are all different versions of the same leftist ideology. How do you finesse this situation? I can conceive of a loose coalition of right-wing and left-wing, who will rise above partisanship concerns. There are members of all parties that want to make Canada work, or at least be seen as not obstructionists.

Between the opposition parties there are going to be plenty of hard feelings. The Liberals will hold their erstwhile friends, the NDP, responsible for their misfortune. "Didn't we give billions to their social positions?", they ask. "Meanwhile, we have shrunk 33 seats while they have gained." The NDP will not forget how the Liberals sucked up to Buzz Hargrove to wean away NDP votes. The Liberals' hatred for the Bloc will become visceral.

No party will dare defeat the Conservatives for the foreseeable future, so to vote along with them will alienate members of their party who consider it traitorous. Then, speaking of internecine warfare, there will be the continuing animosity between the Martinite and Chretien branches. Who destroyed the Liberal brand will be the central question. Think of all that prestige, and yes, moolah that has been lost. It was Chretien who decided to cut out the average citizen from donating, so political party income is now based on a amount of $1.75 per voter support. Oh, the recriminations will be endless. Martin, sensing a lynching, has wisely given up the leadership. The next candidate for leader of the opposition will ignite another round of Liberal bloodletting. Hovering over these problems, should there be another referendum in Quebec, fingers will be pointed directly at the Liberals. Then, how do you placate Quebec with so few members from there? After the HRDC boongoggle and the sponsorship scandal, the good ship Pork won't be seen docking there too often now. The electoral loss of Lisa Frulla, the Heritage Minister, will complicate the distribution of grants to the Lefties in the culture business. Suddenly there is nothing in the budget for another expensive lesbian porno flic, or for the artist that flings paint against the wall. Alas, alack! I invite you to play with the limitless ramifications of this Conservative victory.

© Bud Talkinghorn -- The plight of the Friends of the CBC is heart-rending to behold.


My short list of what Harper must tackle

1. The immigration/refugee question must be addressed. He has to understand that the legitmate immigrants are as furious as the native Canadians at the criminal laxity of our present system. The entire IRB must be scrutinized for idiotic admittance resolutions. Canadians still have some sense of fair play. This has to be recognized in our dealings with the population decline. Better no new citizens than bad ones.

2. The aboriginal plight is not going to be solved with another Kelowna-style $5.1 billion payout. This is why the Conservatives refused to sign on to this agreement. I only hope that Harper sees the folly of endless wampum to assuge Phil Fontaine and the other Indian pooh-bahs. The natives have to follow the examples of others who have been displaced by historic events. Their squalid, isolated communities cannot be turned into cultural petting zoos for the leftist "elites". Considering the dynamic birthrate of the aboriginals, they must be brought into the productive realm of society. Everyday of their lives can't be Sunday.

3. A hopeful Conservative election vs a terrifying Hamas one

The Conservatives coming to power foretells a cleansing of the Augian Stables of the Liberals. In place of the leftist hugfest, the Conservatives are planning minimum sentences for violent gun crime. Instead of the tax-wasting approach of the Liberals--throw money at the problem--you will have a more rationale solution to the plight of the natives. The rampant immigration/refugee stupidity and outright vote-getting fraud of the Liberals must be examined by the Tories, and hopefully, rectified. My list of betterments could be easily expanded, however this is a comparison blog.

The comparison is with the disastrous election of Hamas in the Palestinian election. This majority (maybe 75 of 130 seats) will sour any hope for a peace settlement. Iran might as well have won. Fatah, with its own armed extremist wing, could not overcome the sense that they are irredeemably corrupt and ineffective. In addition members from parties, which included a number of titles that began with "The Martyr Abu..." list, are no match for Hamas.

What a terrorist organization, committed to the destruction of Israel and the implimentation of sharia law, will do with their win is anybody's guess. Certainly, their main allies will be the crazy Iranian regime and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Plus I am sure that Syria is happy also. The Saudis can ramp up their economic and military support to the Palestinians, using the electoral success of Hamas. Without doubt the official Hamas immigration policy will be, "Welcome all jihadis!" And just how Hamas will deal with the secular segment of thir country will be instructive. If they follow past Arab models, vast slaughters are just around the corner. People who espouse sharia law have a short fuse for dissenting "infidels". Besides the possibility of civil war between the numerous armed factions, there is the long-range migration of the secular intelligencia. Once Khomeni assumed power the witch hunts for anyone who supported the old regime began. Tens of thousands were executed and the religious minorities were suppressed. The exodus began thereafter.

Politically, this victory heralds an end to the international aid from the West. This aid represents a goodly portion of the area's GDP. In terms of international relations there will be many roadblocks. President Bush has stated that his country does not truck with a terrorist-run state. Israeli president Olmert has adopted the same stance. The so-called "Road Map to Peace" will have taken one detour too many and plunged off the cliff. One has only to take a look at the Muslim countries that have adopted sharia law to see this new threat to the West. You have Saudi Arabia, which still keeps contributing hundreds of millions to various Islamo-fascist organizations. You have Iran, who secretly has been funnelling arms to Palestinian terrorists and sheltering Taliban and al-Qaeda big wigs. And then you have the world-wide fundamentalists ecstatic response to this victory. For the West this transition is literally from the frying pan to the fire. The PLO was corrupt and impotent. However, there was at least a pretense of accommodation with their Israeli neighbours. Now you have an implacable foe. While Abu Masan could mumble apologies for the suicide bombings, the leader of Hamas can only give two thumbs up.

The West's only response can be to utterly reject Hamas and back it up with sanctions. To collude in any manner with this extremist group is to admit the defeat of moderation. Surely the West can understand the message of supporting these thuggish fundamentalists. We have the Taliban and al-Qaeda to remind us of that.

© Bud Talkinghorn


Democracy depends upon knowledge and fair journalism in order to inform the populace. My short list wavers over ignoring the CBC, decimating it, and selling it off. Take action to ensure that all Canadians' views receive media exposure; that includes the idea of freedom from government. That would be too difficult for our taxpayer-funded, state-controlled media types. Giving voice to Canadians was supposed to have been CBC's mandate, but it is as corrupt as the last Liberal government(s) and simply promotes the left. Too bad. Even in their comments and questions since the election, CBC types have revealed extraordinary bias. If there is any negative they can bring up, allude to, tie in howevever ephemerally, they will. They have lost all credibility for many Canadians. I have noted the same on CTV, though perhaps a tad less biased. Only when Canadians have free media will we get free discussion of what Canadians think. Being held captive to the media who play along with the leftists, Liberals, the CRTC, the voting blocs, is not freedom of information. The Liberal party that wants control has little concept of freedom of choice, of course, so that would be one of my first chores as PM. Give Canadians choice. Separate government and media; get the mainstream media out of the old government's bed. As Brian Mulroney so elegantly put it, "There's no ***** like an old ***** ". Maybe it is not possible. NJC

(If you don't remember that one, don't worry about it. )



Note: Bud had sent this to me Jan. 17, 06 but I forgot to post it--election and all that. I am including it as background to Bud's article above.

Gaza's meltdown, a review

In the National Post (Mon. Jan. 16, 06, A-11) Martin Peritz, editor -in-chief of The New Republic, dissects the political and social cauldron that is Gaza today. He presents the major power players, which unfortunately favours the various terrorist groups. Hamas is by far the biggest of these. However, there are lots of violent bit players, from flat-out criminal gangs to tribal hegemonies. Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority is virtually powerless against these forces. If they act at all to stem the growing anarchy that kidnapping, assassinations, and garden variety thuggery have brought, then they become targets themselves. Peritz speculates that this chaos helps Abbas avoid even the minimal promises he made to the Israelis and Americans. Even his own Fatah organization is split between "moderates" and extremists.

For the entire "Road Map to Peace" endeavour to succeed there have to be some concrete actions taken and some degree of trust. Should Hamas win the elections, which the Palestinian university Bir Zeit's polls show are only 5% away from achieving, the Israelis would have deadly neighbours indeed. Think of a crazier Syria. [ Update Jan. 26, 06 -- deadly neighbours indeed! ]

As for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, Peritz points out the dismal result of that. "The unilateral withdrawal from Gaza was a wager on the sanity of the Palestinian polity. The bettors lost." Besides the suicide attacks and the Qassem rockets, the Gaza-Egyptian border is a sieve for terrorist movement and weapon smuggling. There have been a number of border crashings, with the last one killing two Egyptian soldiers, this, despite the guarantees from Abbas and the so-called European monitors there. As for the leftist Pollyannas, who make up the Western NGOs in Gaza, they have been victims of the rampant kidnapping acts too. Peritz quotes the British girl, who was an aid worker kidnapped in broad daylight, "I came to work with these people and I feel like I've been stabbed in the back." Many of her fellow Pro-Palestinian Europeans must feel the same. I have lost good friends ver my support for the Israelis. Their faith in the PA to actually run a state--other than into bankruptcy--was boundless. Maybe when Palestine finally becomes another Somalia, we can reconcile.

© Bud Talkinghorn