Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Clement tackles Mulcair over 'reckless' views on oilsands

Federal Treasury Board President Tony Clement used a speech in the heart of Canada's oil and gas sector to launch an attack on NDP Leader Tom Mulcair for his views on Canada's resource industry.

Mulcair charges that booming energy exports, particularly from the oilsands, have created an artificially high dollar that has, in turn, hollowed out Canada's manufacturing sector — a phenomenon dubbed the "Dutch disease."

"This is a reckless and irresponsible ideology that is bad for Alberta, it's bad for my home province of Ontario and quite frankly, it's bad for Canada," Clement said Wednesday in a morning speech to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

"He has proposed to cure the disease with much higher taxes, more burdensome regulations and endless red tape," he added.

"I can name many communities in Ontario and Quebec whose manufacturing has been saved by customers in the oil and gas and mining sectors."

Mulcair has insisted that statistics on manufacturing job losses are "irrefutable"' and that "everyone" agrees more than half of those losses are the direct result of the artificially high Canadian dollar created by booming energy exports, particularly from Alberta's oilsands.

Clement said the only logical conclusion from Mulcair's musings would be that the NDP would "undoubtedly cripple an important and growing sector in Canada's economy."
Mulcair to visit Alberta

Mulcair's views have angered Alberta Premier Alison Redford and Saskatchewan's Brad Wall.

Redford has said she won't meet with Mulcair until he visits the Fort McMurray region to educate himself about the oilsands. Mulcair is to fly into Edmonton for meetings at the end of the month.

"I toured the oilsands myself about four years ago and it's very helpful," Clement told reporters. "I hope he does see things with a critical but open eye and I think he will be impressed."

"Hope springs eternal but I can tell you if he comes back with the same rhetoric I don't think he will have given the oilsands a fair shake."

Clement said the Conservative government doesn't want the kind of rhetoric being spouted by the NDP to take hold and couldn't let it go unchallenged.

"We cannot let that debate go unmatched with our countervision. Especially damaging we feel is the idea that the way to get ahead in politics is to pitch region against region or class against class or economic sector against economic sector," said Clement.

"This may be a debate that goes on for another 3 1/2 years until the next election," he added.

"It's important that we engage in it and not just automatically say that is so patently ridiculous we don't need to respond."

A recent study by the Institute for Research on Public Policy and the latest Statistics Canada report on manufacturing output cast doubt on just how seriously Canada is afflicted by the so-called Dutch disease.

The IRPP study concludes that about one-quarter of Canadian manufacturing output is suffering due to the high dollar.

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