Re: Whew, tell it like it is!

[Cameron MacLean]

LOL! ----- Original Message ----- From: Scott MacLean To: MacLean List ; Georgetown Crew Mailing List Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 11:33 AM Subject: Re: Whew, tell it like it is! You're not really my brother, are you? At 11:28 AM 10/30/2003, Cameron MacLean wrote: Well, your "facts" are bent way out of proportion.  There is no new government coming in.  The liberal government will still be in power.  By being elected whilst leader of the liberal party, Chretien was given a mandate to be prime minister for the duration. It is his option to retire or resign, and up to the party to elect a new leader.  Same thing happened with Mulroney's resignation, and the subsequent appointment of Kim Campbell as PM.   But that new leader does not have the ability to form a new government.   The only way that can happen is if the prime minister asks the Governor General to dissolve the government, and call an election.  Paul Martin can institute a cabinet shuffle, but that's different from forming a new government.   As a result, promises made by a cabinet minister cannot be revoked as easily within a government (regardless of who the minister is) as easily as they can be when a new government comes in.   And this whole undeclared gift recipt (over $200) is simply a witch hunt.  Too bad the official opposition can't think up anything constructive to criticize the government over.  In my opinion, it's the opposition who is letting the country down by not doing their job.  The salmon trip answer?  Stupid questions deserver stupid answers.   ----- Original Message ----- From: Scott MacLean To: Georgetown Crew Mailing List ; MacLean List Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 10:59 AM Subject: Re: Whew, tell it like it is! The source of it is irrelevant. Facts are facts. At 10:07 AM 10/30/2003, Cameron MacLean wrote: Gee.  Look at the source of this.  Calgary.  Wait, isn't that the stronghold of the Reform party, er, I mean the Canadian Alliance party, er', I mean the Canadian Conservative party, er, I mean the Progressive Alliance, or whatever. Hey, I've got a great idea!  Let's replace the current government with a bunch of idiots who can't figure out how to run a political party, let alone a federal government.  Maybe we can get them to change the name of the country four times within their mandate. ----- Original Message ----- From: Scott MacLean To: Georgetown Crew Mailing List ; MacLean List Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 10:28 AM Subject: Whew, tell it like it is! Dump this rotten crew of ministers Barry Cooper and David Bercuson   Calgary Herald  Wednesday, October 29, 2003 The real measure of the new prime minister will be how quickly he rids the nation of the rotten crew who have misgoverned Canada this past decade. The country is currently suffering from the chokehold imposed on it by an ageing Prime Minister long faded from whatever glory he once could command. Today he seems capable only of swanning around the globe one last time at taxpayers' expense for no purpose but to delay the transfer of power. Canada long ago should have had a new prime minster and Chr�tien's staying until the very last grain of sand tumbles from the top of the hour glass is yet one more sign of the style with which he has governed the country for so many awful, shame-filled and shameful years. Virtually single-handedly, Chr�tien has created a crisis that has come perilously close to constitutional paralysis. He is blocking the new prime minister from assuming power while he and his heavyweight ministers exercise their fantasies as if they will control the public purse forever. If anything could embarrass a Liberal, surely it must be the manner of Chr�tien's taking his leave. But Chr�tien is not alone to blame for the outrageous situation the country is now in. The fish may rot from the head, but there are henchpersons enough to share the responsibility. Take, for instance, the comedy unveiled in the capital last week when the Transport Minister, David Collenette, long known for his great affection for playing with trains, promised $700-million of new funding for Via Rail Canada. Collenette can muse about public spending, but he knows as well as anyone that the next government will have no obligation to carry forward his intentions. Just as with the stroke of a pen Chr�tien once cancelled the maritime helicopter contracts entered into by his predecessor, which thereby cost the taxpayers hundreds of millions of wasted dollars and imposed an extra decade of that flying piece of junk known as the Sea King on the Canadian Forces, so is Paul Martin free to disavow the pseudo-commitments of his predecessors. Collenette's announcement was derided in the Martin camp because as a Chr�tien loyalist, he is more likely to be running a model railroad next spring than to be minister in charge of Canadian transportation. In response to the criticism from the Martinistas another star of the Chr�tien team, Martin Cauchon, "warned" them that they will have to answer to Canadians if they block badly needed investments, such as Collenette's trains. Cauchon is an expert on badly needed investments, having presided over the shredding of a billion bucks on the national gun registry. Unrepentant regarding his part in this national fraud, he then arranged to throw good money after bad, again in the direction of the registry. Repentance may be in short supply in the office of the Justice Minister, but there seemed to be plenty of it floating around in the circles frequented by other senior Liberals last week. For several weeks Allan Rock had been hounded by the press for refusing to admit that he had done anything wrong by sharing the hospitality of the Irving family on their private jet and at their private fishing lodge. Rock clung to a sliver of deniability until it disappeared when his Cabinet colleague, Labour Minister Claudette Bradshaw, unexpectedly apologized to the House of Commons for the same act. Clearly in possession of a different moral compass than the ever moralistic Allan Rock, she saw it was inappropriate to receive a gift from a corporation that owns much of Atlantic Canada. Only then did Rock utter a halfhearted apology. Last Monday yet another Liberal minister rose to confess his sins. Minister of the Environment, David Anderson, another poseur of rectitude, clearly believed his portfolio in no way overlaps with any of the corporate activities of the Irving family (despite the fact that an Irving barge sits leaking at the bottom of the St. Lawrence River). Anderson said he visited the fishing stream to study Atlantic salmon. In the meantime, the comic contender for the Liberal leadership was doing her own farewell global tour. Knowing full well that she will not survive the change of government, Sheila Copps is doing her best to spend her department allocation before the fiscal year and her own tenure run out. These old Liberals are so far from a sense of shame that they are immune from embarrassment. We will learn soon enough if Martin is man enough to clean the Augean stables of a decade of detritus. _______________________ Scott MacLean [EMAIL PROTECTED] ICQ: 9184011 http://www.nerosoft.com _______________________ Scott MacLean [EMAIL PROTECTED] ICQ: 9184011 http://www.nerosoft.com _______________________ Scott MacLean [EMAIL PROTECTED] ICQ: 9184011 http://www.nerosoft.com