Aglukkaq Is Now Blaming "Us", The Public, For The Vaccine Shortage!

Well, well, well. It seems it's now "our" fault that there's an H1N1 vaccine shortage.

From this article in the Ottawa Sun:

"Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq says production "over-estimating" by the company producing the H1N1 vaccine and a panicked public are to blame for the shortages now gripping the country."

WHAT???? We know the Cons blame everyone but themselves when things go wrong but this is outrageous. Oh are they going to pay for this debacle!! The media is jumping on this vaccine nightmare for all it's worth & I'm glad. They could, & should, have been ready a few months ago - there are NO excuses.

Will be doing a post soon on my experience of getting the vaccine.

More Outrageous Spending

From an article by Kathryn May in the Ottawa Citizen:

"The size of the executive cadre in the government has grown steadily over the past decade and so have the number of assistant deputy ministers whose salaries have cracked $200,000. Treasury Board reported that among the government's 5,400 executives about 69 EX-5s made an average of $214,000 last year -- compared to 14 three years earlier. Salaries are in the $186,000 range, plus up to 25 per cent in bonuses."

Note that there were 69 executive employees making over $200,000 a year last year compared to 14 only 3 years earlier. This large an increase has happened since Harper came to power & he began increasing the size of Govt. assistant deputy ministers as well as others. This from the man who speaks of reducing the size of Govt. Of course when he says "decreasing" he means our social programs like healthcare - his favourite program he dreams of privatizing.

Read the entire article here. It's interesting. And outrageous.

$46,000 of Taxpayer's Money Spent On GO Trains Ads.

From The Star:

"The Conservative government has spent more than $46,000 to turn two GO train cars into rolling advertisements along the Lakeshore line for its stimulus spending program, which has been widely criticized for putting image ahead of substance."

This is revolting & it's only just beginning as The Cons are in the process of running this "campaign" on billboards all across Canada. Wonder how much that will cost the taxpayer. The money could be better spent on helping the unemployed feed their families & keep roofs over their heads. Thanks Harper - for nothing.

Big Changes at CBC

On Monday, Oct. 26th, CBC will begin their restructured platforms. Newsworld is even getting a name change - CBC News Network (CBC NN).
Lots of new programming & even changes with their flagship newscast The National. Kady O'Malley, formerly of MacLeans will be blogging for them online & Don Newman will also be making online contributions. Will be interesting to see the new format as well as a new political show from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. (weekdays) with Evan Soloman.

For more info on the changes & programming read here.

Tory Ridings Get Bulk Of Stimulus Money

This just out from the Ottawa Citizen:

"A joint investigation by the Ottawa Citizen and Halifax Chronicle-Herald shows that 57 per cent of the projects with more than $1 million in federal funding nationwide went to Conservative ridings. The party holds only 46 per cent of the seats in the House of Commons. Blue ridings therefore received 23 per cent more $1-million-plus projects than if the projects were divided evenly among all ridings.

The difference between government and opposition ridings is particularly pronounced in Quebec, where Tory ridings received 22 per cent of large projects, although the party holds only 13 per cent of the ridings, which means they received 62 per cent more per riding than if the money was divided evenly."

And it just gets better & better! Read it here.

RALPH GOODALE’S REPORT

This is an excellent commentary by MP Ralph Goodale:

STEPHEN HARPER’S LEGACY OF DEBT

The Harper government passed an embarrassing milestone last week.

After months of denial, the Conservatives finally had to release the audited financial statements of the Government of Canada for last fiscal year (2008/09). They revealed that for the first time in more than a decade, this country fell back into the red by about $6 billion.

Here’s a key point to note: This deficit began BEFORE, not because of, the recession!

These financial statements reflect primarily what was happening BEFORE the recession hit last fall.

They show how the Conservatives wildly increased spending by a whopping 18% between 2006 and 2008. That’s three-times the rate of inflation.

They show how the Conservatives eroded Canada’s tax base, and recklessly eliminated all the “reserves” which had been built into the federal books to protect against sudden nasty downturns

All that happened BEFORE there was any recession.

So when the housing market collapsed in the United States and American banks began to fail last fall – spreading economic contagion around the world – Canada had nothing left to protect itself.

We were forced back into deficit because our financial strength had been squandered through Conservative fiscal tomfoolery when times were still good.

Two key points are clear:

1. If the prudent fiscal policies of previous Liberal governments had stayed in effect in this country after the government changed in 2006, Canada’s deficit today (even with the recession) would be only a fraction of what it is; and

2. With Mr. Harper’s reckless fiscal policies, Canada would have a deficit today no matter what – even if there had been no recession at all.

For the future, his numbers will get worse. Mr. Harper is another $56 billion in the hole this year (2009/10), and his total legacy of debt will balloon to more than $170 billion.

Raitt Being Investigated - 2 Different Probes

Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt is being investigated by the conflict-of-interest and ethics commissioner AND the privacy commissioner. Both probes concerning her use of the Toronto Port Authority in a recent political fundraiser held for her.

From The Star:

"[Paul] Szabo, the chair of the parliamentary ethics committee, filed a 42-page document questioning whether it was ethically correct for Raitt to allow employees of a federal agency she once ran – the port authority – to provide services for the partisan event, which was held at a trendy downtown Toronto restaurant in September."

=snip=

"Szabo's confirmation of the investigation by the conflict-of-interest and ethics commissioner comes a week after junior transport minister Rob Merrifield told Parliament that Raitt "has told me that she has received correspondence from the ethics commissioner and that correspondence has cleared her of all allegations."

Raitt could not be reached for comment."

Isn't that cute? Lying to her junior minister. Not only do the Cons lie to us, the people who pay their salaries, but they even try to pull the wool over their own colleagues eyes. Tut, tut.

It seems that Stephen Harper & his fellow Cons are finally being revealed for who they really are - miscreants of the highest order! Let's keep the pressure on these hoodlums.

MP Olivia Chow, NDP, also filed official complaints along with Szabo.