First Day of the Rest of the 37th Parliament
So, after the ``excitement'' of the last federal election winds down (okay, okay, it was wound down about two hours after the polls closed) how are the new kids doing? Let's stop in at the fine resources of the Hansardfor a quick peek at Stockwell Day and gang.
Of course, one might remember Day's lawsuit (Day Defames Dude; Downplays Degrading Defence) brought by Lorne Goddard, after which Day apparently learned nothing and doesn't acknowledge he was in the wrong (despite his dodgy defence). Although constantly railing against Liberal arrogance during the election campaign, Day displays outright contempt in his opening address to the House:
Stockwell Day
Mr. Speaker, I will begin the first question period, and I know members opposite on the government side are just itching to join with me, by congratulating the Prime Minister on his successful re-election.
That's as nice as it got. Day then makes his response to the Throne Speech, (the full text of which is locally available). Let's take a look some select passages.
Stockwell Day
The throne speech attempted to paint a rosy picture of the Canadian economy. We heard again today that the picture may not be all that rosy. There are cracks beneath the facade of economic prosperity.
Mr. Day then goes on the elaborate that these alleged ``cracks'' are that the US may have zero growth next year, while ignoring the fact that the OECD has recently praised Canada's economic policies. Despite railing against the lack of policy to prevent this alleged lack of growth, Mr. Day doesn't point to what his party would propose.
Then:
Stockwell Day
Our standard of living, as measured by real disposable income per capita, has actually declined from 70% of the U.S. average in 1990 to just over 63% in the year 2000.
This is just plain incorrect; ``real disposable income'' as measured using purchasing power has remainted almost constant versus the US over the last five years [OECD]; Mr. Day appears to have just converted the currency rates into percentages and called it ``standard of living'', which is just plain preposterous. Moments later, more stupidity:
Stockwell Day
In a survey of the 25 wealthiest OECD countries, Canada's growth and standard of living ranked a terrible 24th over the decade from 1988 to 1998.
Day first of all gets the statistic quite wrong: growth OF standard of living has been extremely slow in Canada over the last 10 years. Why? Could it be because we've been first or close to the top for the last 10 years; it's hard to have a high growth rate when you're already at the top. The UN's HumanDevelopment Report, which looks at far more than the ludicrously simplistic ``average disposable income'', has rated Canada the best place to live for the last seven years. Mr. Day grossly misrepresents the achievements of Canada by using his favourite statistic out of context. Although Canada does have challenges in this area (especially in poverty), trying to paint the picture that our standard of living is 24th in OECD nations is absolute insanity.
Bear with me, because we are but a few minutes into Day's almost hour-long oratory libation. After waxing lyrical and giving us a school-boy's simplistic vision of the ``two'' different models of government (you know: evil communists or virtuous capitalists) and talking about individuals working toward their own goals (I agree), Day says:
We can empower the Canadian economy by giving [..] business more freedom.
This is absolutely absurd. No group of people should get special privileges, and ``corporations'' fall distinctly into this category: they are granted all the rights of people (and far fewer of the responsibilities) and given many special considerations, like much lower tax rates and exemption from criminal law.
It's entertaining to note the use of ``empower'' which Day utters over once a minute (57 times in a 50 minute oration).
Stockwell Day
[..] a more democratic Canada will be a stronger and more united Canada.
I agree. I disagree that Day has any good ideas in this direction. There is a good alternative mentioned at Dave Volek's Web site. Day then shows us the depth of his own ignorance about fiscal planning:
In plain terms, these are the same truths that most households are aware of from their own budgets. What they do not have they cannot spend.
Almost every single person in North America has debt, and per-capita personal debt has been growing, not shrinking; is Mr. Day advocating growing Canada's debt?
Stockwell Day
The Liberal mini cuts will still leave Canada with the highest income tax to GDP ratio in the G7, [..]
Mr. Day again misrepresents the available statistics. Above, he would have you believe that Canada has the highest taxes in the G7, as he lied in his policy pamphlet before the election. In fact, Canada doesn't have the highest tax burden in the G7 (we're 4th), but choose instead to rely more on income taxes than on regressive sales taxes which punish the poor.
Day then laments the sale of the Candiens:
Stockwell Day
We have seen today, announced only a couple of hours ago, the purchase of a dearly beloved team, Les Canadiens. The Montreal Canadians have been purchased by an American business. The key reasons the Americans were able to purchase the team were indicated: high taxes which inhibited Canadians from buying it, a low Canadian dollar and the U.S. salaries.
Why, then, does a Canadian own the Dallas Cowboys?
Stockwell Day
Investing in basic R and D and science is not a frill. It is essential and we recognize that. It is essential for building a better economy and a better society.
I agree. We must not, however, allow publically-funded research to be proprietary, and must immediately stop the absurd practice of allowing (nay, encouraging) private interests to reap the (immoral) patents and copyrights for University research. I, too, encourage industry to sponsor public research; they should not be allowed to keep public research from the public, however. This happens at your local University; write your MP today.
Stockwell Day
Technological infrastructure is necessary. The national fibre optic backbone network needs to be looked at.
It's already built, and is the highest-bandwidth national fibre network in the world. The Canadian Film Board uses it to provide digital movies on demand to Canadian universities. Thanks for coming out, though.
Stockwell Day
Canada continues to lose doctors and nurses to the United States. Eighteen doctors leave permanently for the United States for every one doctor who comes north. Canada rates 23 out of 29 in the OECD when it comes to doctors per capita.
Day is no doubt loath to point out that Cuba has an exceedinly high per-capita number of doctors, and spends over an order of magnitude less on health care (per capita) than Brittian, who regularly send doctors there to study the system.
Stockwell Day
Even in the past week the Supreme Court of Canada, while upholding the essence of Canada's law against the possession of child pornography, has read in certain exceptions to the law that three of the justices fear may cause harm to children and hamper the prosecution of these cases.
So all that talk of empowering people with liberty was just bullshit, I see.
Stockwell Day
There is no mention in the throne speech of the need to increase support for our armed forces nor to modernize their equipment.
That's because no such need exists.
Stockwell Day
Issues such as the terrorist threat from rogue nations are too important to be decided on the political whims of the Prime Minister's office. These are important issues for Canadians. They must be discussed here in the Chamber.
National Missle Defence (NMD) is absolutely the dumbest serious proposal of the last decade and will very likely undo dozens of years of advances in nuclear disarmament.