After watching as much of this weekend's Liberal Thinkstock as I could stomach, I am now trying to look forward to Liberal Red Book 2.0, the inevitable policy platform that will emerge from this weekend's gathering. It could be the need for two tier healthcare, it could be colonizing Afghanistan, abandoning Israel, or not pursuing a seat on the UN Security Council because allegedly everybody hates us. There are so many goodies to choose from. I know many of you out there at least watched bits and pieces, and I would like to assemble a list of the most ridiculous proposals to be the subject of a poll question.
I confess that I was amused watching Ignatieff deliver a bland, over-dramatasized closing speech to a room full of 30 people that were either hung-over, half asleep, or both. If you watch the faces in the crowd when they cut to the audience, half the people look like they are about to vomit. Don Newman seems to have come out of retirement, and he certainly seemed like a pig in slop at Thinkapalooza. During Iggy's last words, he made reference to how he would dramatically reduce the deficit and yet provided absolutely no indication of how this might be accomplished. He doubled down on nationalized daycare, making several promises to dramatically increase spending while offering no "big ideas" on where to find the money (other than freezing a tax cut that hasn't even happened yet).
Then he encouraged our skilled workers to leave the country to live abroad ahead of our demographic time bomb. That's what we need, when the baby boomers retire all their replacement workers are on assignment in the Sudan.
What I really want to know is what takes the cake as the dumbest big idea this weekend passed? Though I will say, I support two tier health care. I am only making the statement that it is ridiculous from a Liberal perspective if you remember the 2000, 2004, and 2006 election campaigns.
Liberals and media are saying thousands took part in the wkend sleep fest. Any way to prove that or disprove it. Perhaps the biggest lie is they tried to tell us it was non partisan.
ReplyDeleteVery few were actually at the conference. If they claim that thousands took part that is because they webcast back to riding associations. How many participated? Those numbers are easily inflatible and not provable.
ReplyDeleteThe media tends to exagerate participation rates because it sells increased significance which sells the story. Gather 250 radicals in a park in Vancouver, and the radio and newspapers will report "several thousand". It's how they play the game.
I watched THE CONFERENCE on television, and I never saw more than 30 people on camera at one time. Do you not think for the keynote closing speech, they would have booked the big conference room and pulled a few more guests?
Where are the old boys that stole $40 million dollars from us and got away with it? Surely it couldn't be this same bunch of losers at the snoozefest?
ReplyDeleteHere's the thing: by keeping THE CONFERENCE small, they limit the opportunity for the Media to get post-conference comments that the organizers can't control or spin.
ReplyDeleteParticipation: the workshop I went to in the afternoon had maybe 30 participants per topic; allowing for changeover based on interest, I'd estimate the Ottawa participation as 65 per day for a total count of 120 over the weekend. Of that amount, perhaps 15 would be non-members of the Liberals.
Proposals: well, there's new regulations for corporate pension plans, launching an additional pension plan to supplement the CPP, revisiting regulations for end-of-life care and euthanasia, subsidies for encouraging public transit in small and medium-sized communities, subsidies for developing shale-gas technology and wind energy generation, regulations for eliminating salt from the diet.
The dumbest idea was Iffy's biggest idea,
ReplyDelete'networking' as the answer to the Liberal 'big government' think.
He wants field experts (NGO) and provincial/federal levels to work as a network.
Back to special interest groups setting policy....
All the 'experts' said the Green Shift was the answer.
Iffy wants Canada to be one big university, where the decisions are made by 'expert' group think.
Then Iffy doesn't have to make decisions, he just follows the pack.
Great new look Iceman. I had been planning to do something with mine too but you got there first ... as usual.
ReplyDelete