This is a picture that got taken by chance when I happenned to look out the window at our niger seed feeder. The bird on the right is a white-crowned sparrow. He travels to the south for the winter and then returns to the Arctic and the Canadian Shield area where the birds normally breed during the summer.  They make stops on the way back, and our area has had them for a good 2 - 3 weeks.  The bird on the left is the reason however, that I took this photo. That is an indigo bunting. It is common to SW Ontario during the spring and summer, but it is a very secretive bird. My parents remember occasionally seeing this bird several years ago, and I’d never seen one “live” until the past couple of days, and this one cooperated long enough for me to get a shot of it.

Quite frankly, until we see the full meat and bones of the plan, I think the angst is a tad early, but to be honest, if we’re going to lose, I’d rather Dion and the Liberals and us who support them go down fighting with a bang with a policy that is believed by the leader to be whats best for Canada then to go down with a whimper (ie.  during the period of abstaining that was engaged in).

A majority of Canadians (61%) said they support a carbon tax of some shape and form in the most recent Decima poll on it a week and a bit ago. That number of support increases to the 70’s when asked what they thought of a carbon tax shift which included an incentive/reward program for those who do very well under this plan.

Dion and the Liberals have the opportunity to gave Canadians the chance to back up their green commitment in words with actions. It will not be hard to say  “If you the electors want Canada to continue this path of inaction on the environment and continue the status quo - then vote Conservative.  If you want real substantial plans to help start the process of controlling GHG’s, then vote Liberal”.

I say we go for it, and we’ll see if Canada wants to be a nation of environmental footdraggers and support the idea that whatever corporate Big Oil polluters want, Big Oil will get,  as the Conservatives want, or if we really will support the idea of going green and cutting down on our GHG emissions with substantial action, as Dion and the Liberals propose.

The Harper government is having a hard time convincing Canadians that it is different from Liberal predecessors when it comes to managing the public purse, market research conducted for Ottawa shows…A consulting firm hired by the Treasury Board conducted 14 focus groups in nine Canadian cities last fall to test marketing messages for the Harper government’s “new approach” to managing federal spending. The reaction was poor…The firm told Ottawa that receptiveness to messages about how the federal government is managing money hadn’t improved over last year, despite the fact the pitch included phrases that were especially designed to resonate, including “obtaining measurable results, taxpayers’ money, value for money and reflecting Canadians’ priorities.”

Not only was the reaction poor, but Canadian’s aren’t buying the most common excuse this Cons government has used since it came to power, which is to blame the Liberals or anyone else other then themselves:

The Conservatives frequently blame the former Liberal governments’ 13-year tenure when they face criticism. But the research report warned this doesn’t work. “When an acknowledgement of problems is accompanied by any detectable attempt to lay blame or pass the buck, the behaviour is seen as consistent with that of previous governments,” the report said.

As my one guest-blogger Joseph said to me, the character of this government is enough to defeat this government - the sooner the better.

You have to admit, there are some pretty snappily-named blogs here at Blog Central…And then there’s the blog hosted by our very own National Editor Andrew Coyne, and his cleverly titled blog, Andrew Coyne’s Blog…since Andrew himself doesn’t seem to have any good ideas, it’s time for the people to choose. So here we go PG readers, fire up the brain cells. Put your suggestions in the comments here or email them to me. We’ll run this till Friday midnight, or till we get a winner, or till something else happens.

I’m sure there are lots of creative folks out here in blogworld that can come up with a better name for Andrew Coyne’s blog then…Andrew Coyne’s Blog. SO go on over to the link and submit your best one! (I’ve submitted a couple).

UPDATE@1:47pm: Due to overwhelming submissions, with most being of the pun variety, Andrew (Potter) has shut down the comments sections of this site in order to preserve peace at Macleans and keep Andrew (Coyne) from quitting blogging forever.

Dallaire responded in an appropriate manner as shown by Kady here. (Note: this was a response to Jason Kenney’s twisted logic from yesterday’s hearing, but the reply can apply to Pierre’s blurtings today as well)

All I will say further to this is that Pierre Poiliviere couldn’t lick Senator Dallaire’s army boots. Also, while Dallaire may have been very strong and harsh in his criticism of Canada and the US, and while some may disagree with his wording, I don’t feel he should be disciplined for it. Rather, we (as in we, the Liberal Party) should be taking Jason Kenney and Pierre Poiliviere to task for their twisting and distortions of the good Senator’s remarks.

The result? Not good - for the Republicans that is. They lost by an 8 point margin:

For Republicans, Davis’ defeat is viewed as a possible preview for a widespread GOP thrashing in November, and it shows that trying to link local Democrats in conservative districts to Sen. Barack Obama and his former pastor was not a winning strategy.

Now, some people seem to think that Obama will not be able to stand up to the Republican slime machine when it gets into gear, but recent polls show the Republicans face long odds at making that strategy work:

The party’s fundamental situation is terrible: Republicans are saddled with an enormously unpopular president, a war, a troubled economy and a Democratic opposition that’s being energized by important constituent groups.

An analysis of the recent ABC/Washington Post poll shows signs of the Republican’s being in deep trouble. Obama leads McCain in 3 of the 4 regions of the US and even is competitive with McCain in the South - a traditional Republican stronghold.  It also shows Dems are more trusted then Republicans to deal with the US’s problems - by wide margins. Another new poll out this morning shows Obama again beating McCain nationally.

Combine that with the fact that McCain will be under what I think will be a very effective attack - calling him “McSame” - as in the same as Bush and his failed policies and the Republicans in general, as well as exposing him to the public that he’s not as much of a “maverick” Republican as he’s tried to project, and I think you’re going to see a Republican bloodbath at the polls.

It is not a good year to be a Republican, and I can’t say I feel sorry for them. It can’t happen to a worse bunch (except perhaps Stephen Harper and his lot up here).

Do you want to help boost that even more, Liberal and wanna-be Liberal members? Do you want to show that members of the Liberal Party of Canada are able to donate just as well as their Cons. counterparts? Want to help bring in more grassroots/netroots money and wean the Liberal Party off its corporate donations, which no longer works as a fundraising tool in this new era of capping donations from companies, corporations, etc?

More importantly, do you want to help boost the coffers of our party to make it a fairer fight for next election, when we are running against the most neo-conservative, radical, reactionary, ultra-partisan Conservative government in Canadian history? Do you want to help make sure their reign of error is ended after the next election?

Donate to the Victory Fund then.

Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis is urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper to offer relief to earthquake-ravaged China. Surrounded by leaders of Chinese organizations from across Greater Toronto, the Scarborough-Agincourt MP said messages of sympathy alone won’t help relief efforts as China continues to dig out from the devastating quake.

(China, by the way, is also accepting aid, but like Burma is refusing to allow foreign aid workers to the scene of the devastated areas  -in their case claiming it’s a matter of logistics and not being able to accommodate additional personnel.)

As was mentioned, so far all Canada has done is send sympathy messages in the wake of the earthquake that has so far killed 12000 people, with the death poll expected to rise dramatically.  We’ve sent aid to Burma despite being in profound disagreement with their military dictatorship and their tactics so far in squelching aid, so that wouldn’t be a reason for not sending aid to China.  I’m waiting to see if Harper and his Cons. show any consistency in being "compassionate Conservatives" here.

That hasn’t stopped them from trying to show people how macho they are however - Stockwell Day announced last November that Canada would no longer seek clemency for Canadians convicted and given the death penalty in countries deemed to have “the rule of law” in place. Setting aside once again the problems that will occur on how Canada intends to define that, we now find out they’ve gone even further then that - it appears in the case of a Canadian convicted of the death penalty in Montana, they were offered a deal for clemency and a return of the Canadian to serve time in Canada - but it was turned down by the Canadian government:

“the Governor of Montana indicated to our Consul General that they were willing to consider commuting Mr. Smith’s sentence so he could be transferred back to Canada, but that they would want some type of guarantee that he would spend at least five years in prison in Canada should a transfer occur.” The revelation is contained in briefing notes prepared in November for Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and released on Friday after an Access to Information request by Canwest News Service. The Nicholson backgrounder is the strongest indication yet that Canada’s efforts to win clemency for Smith were long-standing, resolute and progressing well until the Conservative government abruptly called off the push by its U.S.-based diplomats to fight for Smith’s life.

As Quito says at his site, we basically have enforced the death penalty, not through inaction, but direct action in refusing very reasonable terms offered by Montana - they commute the death penalty, we guarantee he’ll stay in prison for a minimum amount, which could probably be set higher if the Canadian government felt it was warranted.

Smith may not be a role model, but he is an example of Canadians in other countries being abandoned by their government in order to show how “tough” they are, and to hint to their base how they’d love to have capital punishment here or deport people to get fried if they were allowed. Omar Khadr is another example of this, and Brenda Martin would have been another but for the resulting uproar that forced the Conservatives to act, and only after it took a couple of tries.

Note that it took an Access to Information Request to find this refusal of Montana’s offer out. The government was not forthcoming with the public or the opposition parties in QP over this.

I’m outraged that this has occurred, but not surprised with this Harpercons bunch.

Oh, and by the way, it’s the media’s fault for Canadians thinking we’re going into an economic decline:

“There is a steady drumbeat of negative media coverage on the state of the U.S. economy,” he told a business audience this morning. “Sometimes I think this spills over into Canadian readership and influence on Canadians. Often, when you pick up a newspaper, economic forecasts are being adjusted downwards.

Thanks Jim. I feel much better now.