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Sunday, October 21, 2007

George Brown Day

Liberal MP Mario Silva has proposed a private member's bill making October 18th Pierre Trudeau Day.  Rather than providing a rant on why it's a horrible idea to honour one of Canadian history's leading statists, let me provide a counter proposal, a day, November 29th, to honour George Brown.  Along with John A Macdonald and Georges Etienne Carter he formed the triumvirate that made Confederation a reality.  A defender of free trade and free markets he opposed Macdonald's high tariffs and railway subsidies, policies lauded by Central Canadian myth makers but which in reality retarded the growth of Western and Eastern Canada.  Brown, unlike Trudeau, was a self-made man, immigrating to Toronto in his twenties he founded what became the Globe and Mail and amassed a great fortune.  In his thirties he founded what became the Liberal Party of Canada.  During his lifetime both institutions stood for freedom and individual rights.  Brown was also a staunch defender of the separation of church and state, yet was himself quite devout.  Mario Silva describes Trudeau as having had “vigour, innovation and daring” and symbolizing Canada at its best.  I think not.

Cross Posted at The Gods of the Copybook Headings

Posted by Richard Anderson on October 21, 2007 | Permalink

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Comments

I'd go along with having a holiday but only if in Alberta is was renamed "National Energy Program Memorial Day".

Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2007-10-21 4:00:06 PM


If there ever was a name that must be blotted out it is Trudeau who did more to destroy this country than any other. I suggest we let our government know we shall not stand for this mockery and insult to Canada.

Posted by: Alain | 2007-10-21 4:17:06 PM


One would think these back bench Liberals like Silva would have more important things to concern themselves with given the mess that party is in. Looks an awful lot like diversion tactics.

That he would think we'd stand and support a day to honor the worst PM we've had, we're still dealing with his handiwork today, is preposterous.


Posted by: LizJ | 2007-10-21 4:49:33 PM


oh... my... dog...

a day to commemorate the man who perniciously duped us into accepting the fascist, Statist Charter of rights and Freedoms? a document which essentially made us all wards of the State? a document which effectively killed, with a stroke of the pen, private property rights and free speech, and opened the door to a possible future of banned guns? a document which allows the unelected, unaccountable Supreme Court to wreak ideological havoc?

a day to commemorate a man who imposed the National Energy Program on the West, with all the economic chaos which ensued? i was around 15 at the time, and i remember the people who lost their homes because of it. Marc Lalonde, the architect of the scheme, recently admitted the NEP was a ruse designed to prevent the West from becoming an economic giant and shifting power from the East.

i think i'll go chew some tinfoil now to relax and take my mind off things.

Posted by: shel | 2007-10-21 4:53:58 PM


I'd rather have an Adam Smith day but then we wouldn't be paid to slack off for a day.

How about a Karl Marx day where I am allowed to pillage my neighbour and keep the booty? Trudeau would be honoured.

Posted by: h2o273kk9 | 2007-10-21 4:55:38 PM


Like all liberals they are living in the past. Their haydays were in the 60s and 70s when Canadians were stupider than they are now. We know what the results of Trudeau are now and we don't like it.

If they manage to get a day for this monster, it will a day of full body vomiting for me and many other who are still working to pay off and undo his damage.

Posted by: John | 2007-10-21 5:18:25 PM


A day honouring George Brown? Because he founded the Liberal Party and the Globe and Mail? Maybe we should burn him (and PET) in effigy instead.

Posted by: JP | 2007-10-21 5:30:27 PM


Fortunately, this Private Member's Bill will be relegated to the back burner - like the vast majority of them are.

Posted by: obc | 2007-10-21 5:40:10 PM


Hey, progress is being made, now that we have a Conservative government. This would NEVER be happening under Lieberals & Dippers:

"Panel to recommend scrapping mandatory release"

OTTAWA -- A prison review panel will recommend scrapping the virtually automatic release of federal inmates who've served two-thirds of their time, The Canadian Press has learned.

The panel headed by Rob Sampson, the ex-Tory provincial cabinet minister who led Ontario's move toward private jails, is also expected to call for a multimillion-dollar cash injection into the prison system.

Curbing statutory release may well ensure extra money is needed. Observers say the inmate population would swell -- and fast -- although there's a lack of reliable estimates.

"There's some onus back on the offender to want to get out, and to work towards getting out,'' said a source familiar with the panel's report to be made public by Oct. 31.

Release for most inmates would no longer be assumed after two-thirds of a sentence, said the source and others closely following the review.

"You don't just get out because the law says they have to let you out. At two-thirds, you'd have to show why you deserve to be released. It'll put more people in, so they're going to need more resources."

AWWW! PROTECTING CANADIANS FROM marauding criminals will cost more money. Maybe if we scrap teaching French to Albertans and paying welfare to the able-bodied, we wouldn't have any problems finding the funds.

Posted by: obc | 2007-10-21 6:09:56 PM


Let's take it a bit further.

They can spend as much as they want on more prisons. Rehabilitation has proved not to work, so let's just keep them off the streets as the next best choice.

It's the government's first and foremost duty to protect it's citizens from enemies outside our borders as well as from each other. That's why the police are called peace officers. They are supposed to keep the peace not simply write speeding tickets and crime reports after the fact.

I don't blame the cops for this it's the Liberalism we have been yoked with.

Jail the bad guys and I can think of many ways to cut prison costs. Firstly, let the inmates do all the work in keeping the place running.

Make the place as spartan as possible. Books, no TV. Calesthetics not weight lifting. No smoking at all. Mandatory skills training or hard labor.

Keep armed guards safe distances from the scummers. And yes it is possible to keep drugs out of jail, but you wouldn't want to hear how I would do that.

No more molly cottling of inmates. Make their time hard time instead of a meeting place for gangs to bond.

Make it so they don't want to come back.

Protect society from this vermin. That is government's job.

Regarding child molesters. We know they can't be cured and neither can a badly molested child. If we are going to try to save either, make it the kids. We can do that before they get damaged, by not giving child sex offenders the opportunity. Once caught ... jail for life. That way they will not ever get offend again.

In simpler times we had fewer problems because we used simpler solutions that worked.

Posted by: John | 2007-10-21 6:38:33 PM


Yes - no more reading about the child molester being sentenced for his 62nd conviction. And you know he's molested hundreds of others without being caught.

Posted by: obc | 2007-10-21 7:19:36 PM


This really isn't surprising. This MP is a Liberal from Toronto. Toronto, as we all know, is where the laws of reality have never existed. It is a place living inside a bubble. Trudeau's crimes don't matter there.

Why is it that Toronto's Italian community worships Trudeau? Did they make him an offer he couldn't refuse? Somehow I think it was the other way round!

Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2007-10-21 7:27:07 PM


I suggest a salute is all that is needed for
the late Pierre Eliot Trudeau.
Whilst passing his grave in St Remi de
Napierville cemetary pump 21 bullets into it.

Posted by: MILO | 2007-10-21 8:49:55 PM


I suggest a salute is all that is needed for
the late Pierre Eliot Trudeau.
Whilst passing his grave in St Remi de
Napierville cemetary pump 21 bullets into it.

Posted by: MILO | 2007-10-21 8:50:08 PM


My goof - Silva isn't Italian. He's Portuguese. Not that it could make the slightest difference - Trudeau was a heartless tyrant.

October 16, 1970 - signs the War Measures Act to punish innocent Quebecers for the FLQ's actions.

October 28, 1980 - enacts the National Energy Program, which over the next decade violates Albertans' basic human rights to satisfy Eastern greed.

Neither that Multicultural nonsense or repatriating the Constitution can compensate for his crimes. He should have been prosecuted for conspiracy to violate human rights (2 counts), grand larceny for robbing Albertans to the tune of $100 billion (which would make it one of the largest robberies in world history), and above all abuse of power for ordering the military to round up innocent people in Quebec. Sadly, his death will prevent this. However, he is right now burning in hell fueled by Alberta oil, so there is some justice.

Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2007-10-21 8:59:00 PM


I propose Steffi Dayawn makes February 30th officially Trudeau day for the Gliberal Party.

*snicker*

Posted by: Lady | 2007-10-21 9:59:11 PM


shel,
In what way is the charter "fascist"?

Posted by: Johan i Kanada | 2007-10-22 5:00:23 AM


All of you have got it wrong. The one and only politican we should be honouring is.....
Preston Manning!

Posted by: atric | 2007-10-22 5:48:13 AM


Mike Adams has provided the true definition of "hate speech":

Hate speech is verbal communication that induces anger due to the listener’s inability to offer an intelligent response.

Posted by: obc | 2007-10-22 7:58:19 AM


Why not have Ernst Zundel Day? It's just as offensive and inappropriate.

Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2007-10-22 9:02:00 AM


How's this for a memorial to PET?
The memorial can be built in Calgary's Olympic Plaza and consist of the world's largest spittoon.
Make it out of brass and have an embossed caricature of Pierre on the side , flipping the bird, with a glassed portrait in the bottom and the engraved inscription, "Fuddle duddle, add to the puddle".

Posted by: Speller | 2007-10-22 9:21:34 AM


Speller: thou art a genius.

Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2007-10-22 10:55:16 AM


Spittoon? How about a urinal with his mug painted on the porcelain? Maybe with a bullseye om his forehead!

Posted by: obc | 2007-10-22 11:09:43 AM


In my opinion we should have a 'Day' for someone who really did something FOR Canadians.

I think a Eric Nielson day would honorable and deserved. Eric Nielson is the Man who stood up for Canadians when Turdo would have confiscated ALL our property and individual rights. Eric had an amendment passed in the HOC on a day after a budget leak when all the Liberals were out covering up their mess (they have been Puffin like for a very long time!)to the media. Turdo was purple with rage when he found himself short some MPs to defeat Eric's amendment. I watched the whole thing on CPAC at the time - I was cheering and crying at the same time.

Eric Nielson is a real Canadian hero, he was an Airman fighting the Nazis during WWII while Turdo was racing around in a brown shirt(the dress code of the first outfit who supported Hitler) and flirting with his philosophical fellows like Stalin, Mao, and Castro.

We owe Eric Nielson a debt we cannot ever repay but a day dedicated to his honor would be a step in the right direction.

Posted by: jema54j | 2007-10-22 12:06:55 PM


When PET went to Hell in 2000, some things were suggested to be named in his honor. Remember Pierre Trudeau Mountain?

Someone in Alberta suggested naming things after him, such as the food bank, the homeless shelter, the suicide prevention center. All brilliant ideas!

Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2007-10-22 2:04:02 PM


Johan i Kanada~

hi Johan. please excuse my rhetoric.

the Charter is a Statist, "soft" fascist (to tone it down -heh heh) document.

simply put, it infringes on the liberty of the individual. it's pernicious because there's nothing really cemented into it. in it, there are no liberties to be protected from democracy, populism, the State, etc. which would normally be in a democratic republican constitution.

because it is so open to interpretation, the State has essentially taken everyone's rights and liberties away, wiped the slate clean, and started fresh, letting the courts interpret cases arbitrarily, based on what they see fit. because nothing is cemented into the Charter, and everything can be moved around, this is a very emotional, subjective, and arbitrary process.

problem is, private property rights, free speech (freedom of expression is not free speech), and the right to bear arms are, more and more, being filtered out of each new case in the Supreme Court. these rights are more aptly called "liberties". these three liberties are the foundation of a free society, and nowhere in the Charter are they protected, or even recognised. the only "rights" to be protected are those protected BY the State, rather than FROM the State. this, in the end, undermines and erodes both liberty and democracy.

Trudeau was either a very clever statist, or very destructively and idealistically naive.

Posted by: shel | 2007-10-22 7:42:58 PM



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