Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal negotiated in secrecy

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(Phil here, with some additional information as I’m about to post this October 10, 2015 “Counterpoint” column to this blog: I was obviously worried about the outcome of the election and the effect the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal might have on it. Election day was just nine days away, after the longest campaign in Canadian history. Now-former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper likely hoped the long campaign would work to his advantage. Quite the opposite though; as we now know it worked to the advantage of Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party: they went from third-party status, to the formation of a majority government, with Prime Minister Trudeau and his promise of “real change” in charge.)

I was listening to Canada’s International Trade Minister, Ed Fast being interviewed on the radio about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) proposed deal as I drove into Lion’s Head from the farm a few days ago. He was asked by CBC interviewer when details of the secretly-negotiated deal would be made

Fast hummed and hawed a bit, explaining the final draft of the deal with the results of the last-minute negotiations included still had to be written, then it would have to be vetted by the negotiators to ensure it was exactly what had been agreed. “Hopefully,” the minister said, it will be made public “before the election.”

Surely, he knows better. Every on-line news and comment source I’ve read since said it will be at least a month before the details are made public.

Besides, so what if the massive, complex, 30-chapter document is made public a day or two before the election. That leaves no time for the vast majority of Canadians to mentally digest the contents, reflect on them, and come to some sort of opinion.

So, with all due respect, Fast was talking nonsense. Continue reading →

Candidate Meet for Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound Riding

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Well, nothing like a dose of cold reality to bring one’s feet down to earth.

Just a few days ago it was easy enough to be fooled into thinking it was still summer, that the possibility of frost and even snow was still somewhere in the future. But a couple of mornings ago I looked out the upstairs window of this old farmhouse and saw the cold, brisk east wind blowing the clouds in the wrong direction – always a bad sign; and the need to take certain steps to batten down the hatches for the winter, and so on, suddenly seemed urgent. Continue reading →

Vote Strategically

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So, the federal election campaign has suddenly got interesting.

To some extent it’s about competing polls. One surveying the national and province-by-province mood of voters was done by the polling firm Ekos for LaPresse newspaper in Montreal. The results were released just in time for the French language leaders’ debate this week. It polled 2,343 people for their voting intentions. The results are considered accurate 19 times out of 20, to within two percentage points, according to news reports. Continue reading →

Harper government played a cynical game with niqab ban

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The devout Muslim woman at the center of the controversy about the wearing, or not, of the face-covering niqab during public, Canadian citizenship oath-taking ceremonies said it best:

“I can’t even make sense of the statement, what the lawyer said about it, that it’s not mandatory,” a somewhat astonished – and for a few moments, speechless – Zunera Ishaq said earlier this week after a Federal Court of Appeal panel of three judges ruled against the Harper government’s ban on the wearing of the niqab.

If it’s not mandatory, Ishaq wondered, what’s “all this fuss” about?

What indeed? Continue reading →

Avoiding the Duffy factor

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Two more months, you say, before Canadians can finally put an end to this longest federal election campaign in more than a century. Well, a few days shy of two months. But who’s counting? Who, for that matter, is paying attention?

A recent poll found most people haven’t made up their mind how they will vote, and fully a third said they likely won’t decide until election day, October 19.

October 19, it still seems unreal, incredible. Perhaps only Stephen Harper knows why he chose to go to Governor-General David Johnston Sunday, August 2, to formally ask him to dissolve Parliament and call an election.

That was a formality. In the Prime Minister’s Office they call him “the boss” for a reason. He has the power, and he likes it that way, the more the better, to remake this country as he sees fit.

How’s that working so far? Continue reading →

You can’t say I didn’t warn you Stephen

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(Note from Phil: as I take another look at this column before publishing it on my blog I feel compelled to offer this update: now-former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper did indeed fall victim to election winds he likely didn’t imagine possible when he called the longest election campaign in Canadian history in midsummer, 2015. His right-wing Conservative government was defeated, and he is no longer leader of the Conservative Party. Canada now has a Liberal government. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised a much more open and accessible approach to governing, while celebrating Canada’s cultural diversity.)

 My corn is not happy.

Neither are the tomatoes.

And not just because of the confusion about why one is singular and the other is plural. Fortunately I keep them far apart in order to avoid argument and bad feelings in my rather large garden. Never underestimate the ability of plants to pick up on bad vibes. Go out in the morning among your fruits and veggies with love in your heart and they will thrive. Continue reading →

Final approval, or not, of OPG’s nuclear waste DGR coming soon

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(Phil here, with a note as I prepare to post this 2015 “Counterpoint” column on the Finding Hope Ness blog: I’ve been following Ontario Power Generation’s Deep Geological Repository (DGR) proposal for the storage of low to intermediate radioactive-level nuclear waste for a long time. It should not be confused by the way with the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) proposal for a DGR to store highly-radioactive used nuclear fuel. They are two separate things. But there has been a lot of confusion about that because OPG and the NWMO are co-operating on both. The change in government after the Oct. 19, 2015 election has delayed a final federal government licence-approval decision. It’s now expected by March 1, this year. It could go either way, but I’m inclined to think, conditional approval is likely. The project has a number of unresolved issues related to it. They include the fact OPG gave a written guarantee to the Saugeen Ojibway First Nations in this area that it would not go ahead without their approval. That guarantee was given just before a panel of federal regulators began public hearings in 2014. There is strong opposition on the U.S. side of Lake Huron in Michigan to the idea of burying nuclear waste so close to the shore of a Great Lake. But it’s a multi-billion project Canada’s new Liberal government may see as fitting well into its massive infrastructure plans, but one that won’t cost the feds much, if anything, financially.)

The possibility  Ontario Power Generation’s proposed Deep Geological Repository (DGR) for the long-term storage of low and intermediate-level nuclear waste will get final federal government approval and a license to be built before the end of 2015 is looking less likely all the time.

And with the regulatory approval process already behind schedule, from OPG’s point of view, that could put its annual payments to five local, Bruce County municipalities under a 2004 DGR hosting agreement in serious doubt.

OPG warned the municipalities in October of 2014 not to count on the annual payments for budgeting purposes this year (2015). They were also warned that if a license to construct the facility was not issued this year the payments could again be “deferred.” Continue reading →