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Hotline Howe Callers Paranoid and Sparks Out of Line |
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Written by Alex J Walling
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Wednesday, 18 January 2006 |
 Notice to the Howe Hotline callers…Stephen Harper will not cause this country to crumble.
Maybe it’s because most of the past 50 years the Liberals have been in power and so they have more diehard fanatics. Maybe they’ve held power for so long over the last 50 years that they really believe it is theirs and have brainwashed the over 50 crowd.
Yes, these anti-Harper callers to the Rick Howe open-line show are the kind whose grand-parents voted for the Liberals, then the parents did and now they are. And they believe we all have to do the same and perish the thought if we don’t.
Thank god, that kind of logic with today’s kid is no where as prevalent as it was ‘back then’.
My late (bless his soul) father in law was like that. He was Liberal and wouldn’t hear of anything or anyone else that didn’t bleed Liberal red.
I remember debating with him, or make that trying to debate, and said, “So this current Liberal guy who is representing the county is good? But what if he switched (and he did a few years later) to the Tories don’t all his good qualities stay with him?”
He never came up with an answer for that one.
I have no political leanings, no affiliation whatsoever, never carried a card or been a member of any political party nor ever plan to do so. I find it much easier to ask any politician questions as opposed to having to defend a party or position.
But I’ve followed politics since 1957 when I remember as a grade six kid, hearing that John Diefenbaker beat Louis St. Laurent to get a small minority and then got the biggest majority ever the next year with 208 seats.
That seat figure was bettered by the Mulroney wave in 1984 but then there were more seats in parliament as a result of population growth and re-distribution.
From those days on I have followed the ‘political game’ in this country and for so many elections, working in radio/TV; I covered tons of election night affairs.
I was in Quebec City in 1963 when that province elected some 20 federal members of the Social Credit party under some person called Real Caouette who was a dynamite speaker.
I have voted for every party going and one of these days I will probably vote for the Rhinoceros or the Natural Law party. I think they are the ones who believe they can fly on clouds. I thought that was the aim of the marijuana party?
When I head to the polls this coming Monday I am not sure who I will be voting for but part of me is excepting the fact that the Tories will form the government regardless of my vote. And I can live with them because I really don’t believe the Liberals deserve another run at it. Over a decade is enough and I don’t believe that the Canada and Maritime Canada as I know it will change that radically.
Will I vote Tory? I don’t know as I have no problem for the current MP of my area who is Peter Stoffer. He is very, very accommodating to the public and media and who I really believe is going to wipe out whatever candidates are up against him in the election.
Peter must lead the country in ‘private member’s bills’. The trouble is very few such bills ever make it to or in the House of Commons.
Like many, I have a problem with some of the candidates such as Rakesh Khosla who seems to have a problem dealing with same-sex marriage. I may share some concerns in that area (yes, I am one of those who believes that marriage is a term for man and wife, and not man and man, or woman and woman.) They can have some other term like ‘domestic union’ or something. Anything but marriage and for those who think they should have the term of marriage for man/man, women/women unions, here is a fact. In our world, marriage since the dawn of time was associated with man and women. Not any other combination.
However Khosla should be able to listen to people on this topic, pro and con, and not avoid the subject on same sex unions. That will cost him votes.
I have a problem with the Liberals as a result of a promise made by the Prime Minister last election that no one, or very few have mentioned. Remember during that election campaign, Paul Martin promised to review that file of Sonja Petzel who was a refugee in a church for over a year. He never did. It was simply a way to silence people. I expected a comment from Martin or Ottawa on that matter and that never took place. So much for political promises.
But I am bewildered by the ‘coterie of callers’ on the Rick Howe hotline show who seem to believe that the earth will stop rotating and our Canada will end, as we know it, if Harper gets in.
I have done, and listened to such shows for years and never have I heard such malarkey as I got in the last few days on this topic.
Barry, Emma, Alice, Amber, Pat, Patricia and the rest of the calling clan seem to really believe that if Stephen Harper is elected our country and way of life, as we know it, will be over.
What are you people drinking or is it smoking?
Umm, seems I heard that around 1976 when the Parti Quebecois won the election in La Belle Province with Rene Levesque. Canada would be gone for ever. Nearly 30 years later Canada and Quebec are still standing.
‘Harper is to American’ is a common line heard. When, oh when, are we going to face the facts that this small country of barely 32 million people is not only dwarfed by the USA and their nearly 330 million more people and for most us Cannucks we live but hours away from a US border.
From Quebec City through Windsor, Ontario the furthest USA border crossing is 125 miles. No wonder we are influenced so much by what ‘they do’. I believe nearly 70% of Canada’s population is between Quebec City and Windsor.
From Manitoba through Vancouver it’s under a two hour drive to a US check point.
Those damn Yanks, we can’t get away from them and I’m not a lover of George Dubya.
On top of that we are, like it or not, inundated by US products and for the most part we love it.
We love their TV shows from Survivor, to Desperate Housewives, to American Idol and would complain if they are taken off the air. In fact we clone the really good ones. Canadian Idol and those entertainment shows (ET Canada and E-talk daily) are US shows with 90% of the info coming from Hollywood.
In a few weeks time we will hear the annual gnashing and wailing and whining when Global TV does NOT show us the US commercials in the Superbowl. We talk a good Canadian game but will clamour for those ‘made in the U.S. of A Superbowl ads’.
By the way, forget the ads we get stuck with Permacrete and Carroll Motors (no one beats a Carroll deal) commercials once again. And it’s not Global’s fault they are following a CRTC ruling on simulcasting.
So, if one or more of our politicians ‘looks American’ we are surprised?
As I said at the beginning of the column I don’t know who I am voting for other than the fact it won’t be Liberal.
I’ve voted for the Libs often in the past and in fact I loved Jean Chrétien, at the beginning. I can still recall watching the Liberal nomination meeting in 1984 when Chrétien looked at the TV cameras and said: “Brian Mulroney, do not adjust your set”. The way the ‘petit gas from Shawinigan’ delivered the line is etched in my memory.
But I really believe and have seen it over the years that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
We’ve seen it with Trudeau, Mulroney and Chrétien. Yes, I’m one of the many who believe that parties don’t win elections they lose them and it’s time for a change. The Tories will not win but rather the Liberals will lose.
12-13 years, term after term is enough for any party.
I heard one guy on Howe’s show say ‘the devil you know (Liberals) is better than the devil you don’t’.
I don’t buy that. Gomery, patronage, scandals, more scandals, the Quebec mess, and tons more is enough for me. Give me a change and give me a break.
I know, I know, Mulroney wasn’t much better but that was 13 years ago. And just like the Tories will be given a chance so will the Liberals resurrect again, probably with Frank McKenna in charge but I really think it’s time for a cooling off period. And that starts Monday.
In a way I feel bad for Martin because a lot of his mess was caused by Chrétien but if we don’t change the government after all the Liberal problems then why bother having an election?
And these comments about Harper’s eyes! Are we voting for a prime minister or a Hollywood star and how shallow can we be? Whatever happened to ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’?
But the biggest reason I won’t be voting liberal are those attack ads. Guess where that idea started? Yep, credit the Americans for that one and maybe they work better in that country. I’m still shake my head when I recall one of the greatest attack ads ever and that was when Michael Dukakis ran for the presidency and his opponents had an ad showing under Dukakis as a state governor, criminals, were sent in jail, only to be almost released immediately.
Now, of course that wasn’t the case but it was the perception and the ad which feature criminals going in a revolving door and coming out in seconds did the trick.
What ever happened to the motto: “If you can’t say anything nice about someone, don’t say anything at all?”
Do we lose those phrases that we learn as kids once we hit the adult world where it’s ‘screw him/her in any way possible?”
It seems over the past week all the Liberal ads are not telling me about my local candidate or the Liberal party. Not telling me why I should vote for them. Not telling me what programs they have in mind. Nothing positive. Simply, it’s ‘Don’t vote for Harper’.
Sorry, as Canadians I don’t think this kind of advertising works and it works less in maritime Canada then anywhere else.
And who in the world is the Liberal Party (or anyone else) to tell us who NOT to vote for?
I really think every time one of those ads airs, the Liberals are losing votes. They’ve lost mine and will lose more. Surely they must have some brains and are able to construct some ads with a positive message about themselves and not deal with Harper.
Another one is that ‘under the Liberals we have had good budgets’. True enough, but it’s the dreaded GST (under the Tories) but promised to be revoked by the Liberals (Chrétien and Shelia Copps) who didn’t do it that has resulted in the billions and billions of bucks in the fed coffers. There is so much money in Ottawa that whatever party gets in, the budget should be balanced.
Bottom line is if Harper gets in I really don’t think, even with a majority government that he can ‘change our whole way of life’ in 48 months time. And if we really don’t like what he is doing we have the power to boot him out of office like we have done with Mulroney and others we have not been impressed with.
But the sun, 93 million miles away from us, will still be there and will shine come January 24th when Harper gets in.
THE DOUG SPARKS AFFAIR! WHAT A RIDICULOUS MESS.
I’ve seen and covered some weird things in my time but this ‘Sparks Spat’ as in Doug Sparks not wanting to change seats at a recent Halifax School Board meeting hits very high for weird things that have happened at a public session.
I blame Sparks, who is the African Nova Scotian representative on the board, who is acting like a juvenile delinquent by his actions. In fact I would like to see the Halifax school board get a bit of guts and tell him where to go and that is, if you don’t follow rules and regulations, then kick him out. If he won’t go, like he didn’t a few weeks ago, please call the cops and have him dragged out. Please call the media so it can be shown, seen and heard in all media.
I spoke to Sparks on Seaside FM radio (94.7) the morning after the incident and he had a few points worth mentioning but not worth what happened.
Sparks says he and the minority have rights. Yes, he is right, they have rights including the right to voice their opinion, to be heard but once that is done and a decision by the majority is done, then he is to follow orders, rules and regulations like everyone else.
Sparks has to understand that the majority rules if that is not the case then let the developers start building homes on Brightwood Golf land. After all why listen to the majority?
Doug Sparks speaks his mind and I can understand such a person but once you’ve spoken your mind and had your say, then you listen. Sparks seems to have an easy time speaking and a much harder time listening. Maybe he speaks so much he hasn’t the time to listen?
But what really irks me are Sparks’s charges of racism. Give me a break. It seems, as school board chairman Wade Marshall, told me, ‘this guy cries racism every time he doesn’t get his way.’
Did I hear that this guy wants to run for a federal seat? Is this the kind of person you want to represent your riding? If I want a spoiled little brat I’ll get the kid from the movie ‘Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory’.
Sparks says he may take this to the human rights commission? Excuse me? Take what? Your childish attitude, your petulant behavior, your bully type demeanour?
It’s a great ploy and the board at the moment is buying it. You threaten to do something, like go to a human rights commission and some will back off. Why?
Call this overbearing juvenile acting person’s bluff.
One, let him bluster his buffoonery.
Two, let him take his case to the Human Rights or the UN if he wants to, on his dime.
Three, the human rights commission has to agree that the case is worth while taking and that is not easy.
Four, the case has to be heard.
And five, he has to win.
I don’t think he would get pass number one. Anything more and he will look stupid in doing it.
If a high school kid did what Sparks did (not move to a new seat when assigned) he would be kicked out of class so why is the school board acquiescing to this guy?
Having a ‘first come, first serve system’ like they had Wednesday night is NOT the answer for it basically and in a taciturn way is saying the board is afraid of Doug Sparks. They shouldn’t be. What next, Sparks will decide when the meeting to be finished?
The most insulting aspect of this is Sparks has the audacity or is it the ignorance of comparing himself and his petty, picayune actions to that of civil rights person Rosa Parks. She is the black lady who would not give her seat on the bus to a white person back in the 50’s. She died last year in her 90’s. What she did was great, what Sparks did is grating on everyone’s nerve.
In the words of some American senator, ‘We know, through history, Rosa Parks and let’s make it perfectly clear (thank you Richard Nixon), Doug Sparks is no Rosa Parks.’ And shame on him for even attempting to compare himself with that lady.
Tell him where his seat is and if he doesn’t like it bring in the cops and run the school board like it should be run.
You can reach AJ via emai at
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