Stephane Dion and the Liberals are looking more and more like the classic Liberal Party of years past, playing region against region based on vote potential.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 03:18 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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In a remarkable story from the Canadian Press, we learn that Stephane Dion and the Liberals have been inspired by Kevin Rudd's success in winning the November 2007 general election in Australia based in part on a platform that included a carbon tax.

Really, that can't possible be true, can it?  I mean, has anyone noticed how much has changed since last November, and what next November is shaping up to be like?

Posted by: Steve Janke at 06:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I don't have a simplistic computer model to use to predict the future.  I leave that sort of "science" to the global warming nutters.

But there are hints of what is coming.  I'm afraid it'll be loud and incessant.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 05:03 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Digg led the way with user-submitted stories and user voting.  But I have never been satisfied with Digg.  It had no focus, with people submitting stories from every possible area of interest.  That has led to issues with political stories.  People would vote stories up and down not based on the intrinsic value of the story, but rather with a goal of eliminating stories of either the left or right.

There is a new player in the user submission field.  It is called Skewz, and it focuses entirely on political stories.  Better yet, you're supposed to vote on whether a story skews to the left or to the right, not on whether you should read it.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 11:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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One thing that has been puzzling more and more is the way Stephane Dion speaks of his carbon tax changing people's behavior with regards to using energy, while his actual plan seems to be predicated on no change in behavior at all.

Then, after chatting with a newspaper columnist acquaintance of mine, it hit me.  Stephane Dion is boiling the frog.

Why didn't I see it before?

Posted by: Steve Janke at 05:47 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I wrote a post recently in which I tried to understand just how much the carbon tax being proposed by Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion would reduce emissions.  In his plan, he predicts $15 billion in revenue from a tax of $40 per tonne of carbon dioxide emissions paid on fuels.

After struggling with the numbers, and a couple of false starts, I came to the conclusion that the emissions predicted in Year 4 of Stephane Dion's new tax regime are not any different from the emissions today.

I thought that odd, but then maybe it was reasonable.  Perhaps Stephane Dion figures that four years is not enough time to see the effect of a new universal tax on energy.  It takes time for factories to shut down and move to Mexico.

But in an interview with the editorial board of Sun Media, Stephane Dion says there will be large reductions by 2012 (the impilicit assumption being that he can implement a tax in 2009).

That doesn't make sense. 

Posted by: Steve Janke at 08:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I swing between amusement and frustration when I read comments from well-meaning environmentalist types who think that if all bought electric cars, we wouldn't need oil.

It belies a fundamental ignorance of how the world works, and makes me nervous about these people ever being in charge.

In particular, I'm looking at a comment on the Liberal Party discussion board, in which the person posting says the world will be so different in 10 years when we stop using petroleum to power transportation having switched to electricity.

I shake my head.  What did they teach these people in science class in high school?

Posted by: Steve Janke at 09:34 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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This situation that has developed over the name "Green Shift" is not as amusing as it seemed to be at first.  The name "Green Shift" is a trademark, and the Liberal Party lifted it in an attempt to make Stephane Dion's carbon tax seem more palatable.

But the company that owns the trademark is mad, and is planning to sue.

They should sue.  In fact, they have to.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 12:59 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Stephane Dion's carbon tax plan promises to apply a tariff against the carbon content of imported goods.

As with everything else in the carbon tax plan, there are no details, just promises that Canada would benefit.  Ignore that.  like everything else in the carbon tax plan, it's nonsense.  When you actually think about what the tariff could mean, it's clear that Canadians would suffer.

And like everything else in the carbon tax plan, it will do nothing to limit emissions.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 08:29 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Peter Duffy, writing in The Chronicle Herald, suggests that keeping the runways at Halifax's international airport in good condition is a waste of time.  Fuel prices means fewer flights.

What's the point of having an airport?

If Stephane Dion gets to implement his carbon tax, I wonder just what else we can just throw away as being unnecessary.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 08:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Now that Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion has unveiled his carbon tax, it might be interesting to gauge reaction from his own people.

If Guelph Liberal Party candidate Frank Valeriote remains consistent with his previously stated positions, he won't like it.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 07:44 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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This is just a quickie post about how Stephane Dion's signature on the Liberal Party carbon tax handbook is a lifted image from another copy of his signature, but altered.

Before anyone says it, this post is about nothing at all significant, or perhaps even that interesting.  Just something I noticed.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 12:24 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Welcome to the newest Blogging Tory, The Grumpy Voter.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 07:05 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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OK, I've got a question.  Where the heck did Stephane Dion get his numbers for Canadian fuel consumption?

I'm trying to see where his numbers come from, and they seem way too high.

Update: No wait, I forgot to factor for the increase in weight for carbon dioxide.  That makes the numbers work.

Update: No wait, the numbers have a problem after all.  I successfully showed that the 2007 fuel consumption rates match up with the carbon tax revenues predicted by the Liberals in Year 4 of the plan.  But that's not right either.  The whole point is that fuel usage would drop.  Why aren't they dropping?  What's the point of this tax?  Just to raise money?

[This is a reposted version of the first post, now deleted.]

Posted by: Steve Janke at 02:54 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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OK, I've got a question.  Where the heck did Stephane Dion get his numbers for Canadian fuel consumption?

Posted by: Steve Janke at 01:51 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Remember when Prime Minister Stephen Harper cut the GST by a whopping 28%?

Good times.  Good times.

Of course, it was reported as a 2% tax cut, from 7% to 5% in two separate steps, not as a 28% cut, which is the percentage difference between 7% and 5%.

Now that might seem more honest, but then why is a 1.5% income tax cut proposed by Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion as part of his carbon tax package being reported as a 10% cut?

Posted by: Steve Janke at 08:43 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A trusted source in Ottawa has flipped me some details about the planned launch of Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion's carbon tax.

Apparently it will be a "man of the people" video.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 06:49 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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In Barrie, Colleen Leduc was put through a nightmare.  Allegations were made that her daughter, Victoria, was being abused by a man aged 23 to 26.  The Children's Aid Society is investigating.

Who was this man?  The psychic who told the teacher to be only the lookout for an abused child whose name started with "V" was not that specific.

What the...?!  A psychic?

Posted by: Steve Janke at 11:47 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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The carbon tax announcement is coming.  All questions will be answered.  Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion will make it all clear.

Well, I have a question.  Am I going to be taxed on the tax?

Posted by: Steve Janke at 09:07 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The Globe and Mail is running a story on how Elections Canada tried to manage the story of the "raid" on Conservative Party headquarters.  But as an interesting side note, there is correspondence concerning the nature of legal privilege.

It seems to be far less strict than I thought, at least according to the General Counsel at Elections Canada.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 11:55 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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