- You wouldn't know it from the focus on the Libs' tour launch over the course of the week. But yes, there is another Canadian leader currently making the rounds - and unlike Michael Ignatieff, he'll actually have something new to say:
NDP Leader Jack Layton is embarking on a pre-election tour taking direct aim at the Prime Minister in primarily Tory ridings across the country.- Erin points out a particularly sketchy tactic use by the CME in unveiling its latest request for massive corporate tax slashing, as the study was apparently withheld from anybody who might disagree to make criticism more difficult.
He kicked off the tour Tuesday in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., where he called on Mr. Harper to “stop gouging” consumers and remove the harmonized sales tax on home heating fuel.
He'll hit another 17 communities from British Columbia to Newfoundland and Labrador by Jan. 26, when the NDP caucus is slated to meet to plot strategy for the Jan. 31 resumption of Parliament.
Along the way, Mr. Layton intends to introduce a handful of new candidates and unveil a couple of platform planks – on Senate reform and Canada's future role in Afghanistan.
- Meanwhile, Corporate Knights points to the fair tax idea as a means of reducing the use of loopholes. But in drawing the comparison to the fair trade movement, I'd think it's well worth noting the minimal effect that voluntary measures have had compared to what would be possible if all businesses were made subject to an equal set of rules.
- Finally, Jim Creskey slams Jason Kenney for attacking the people who deal with refugee issues every day in response to their attempt to improve his legislative choices:
Rightfully, and perhaps in part because Christianity is a religion founded on a refugee family—Jesus, Mary and Joseph—the bishops publicly objected to the government bill. The bishops sent an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who also happens to be a Catholic.
""References by representatives of your government to 'bogus' refugee claimants undermine Canada's obligations to refugee protection and question the credibility of refugees fleeing persecution and seeking to have their rights recognized," the letter read. "They also foster hostility towards refugees and fuel xenophobia in general."
...
Kenney might have responded to the bishops' criticism the way Catholics the world over have done on matters of conscience for centuries: argued heatedly and in passionate detail.
But Kenney would have none of it. Instead, he just shot down the bishops for being too dumb to know what they were talking about, and that they were being manipulated by their non-clerical staff.
The letter reflects a "long tradition of ideological bureaucrats who work for the bishops' conference producing political letters signed by pastors who may not have specialized knowledge in certain areas of policy," Mr. Kenney told Deborah Gyapong of the Canadian Catholic News service.
Instead of taking a hard public look at a bill widely seen as flawed, Kenny leapt into argumentum ad (hominem)—arguments about the person instead of the idea. Something my old Jesuit logic teacher taught me never to do.
Kenney must have missed that class.
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