Are You Goading us George?

Like others, I noticed George Young's query as to why no one on Liblogs seems to be posting on the Dhalla allegations.

To be honest, I've watched it unfold a bit today to try to understand it more clearly.

Let me say at the outset, that if indeed any of this proves to be true and is about her, not her brother or mother, then indeed whatever legal action is appropriate should take place. That said, since this broke, I've had an uneasy feeling about it.

This is not the first time that Dhalla has been attacked. There is a pretty powerful group opposing her, not the least of which is the Conservative candidate Parm Gill who has the support of Jason Kenney. That makes me uneasy.

Yesterday in QP, there was a tag team of sorts that began with Olivia Chow lobbing the most obvious accusations to Kenney for reply, which was followed by a similar attack line of questioning by Conservative Calandra, again lobbed to Kenney who could barely contain his glee at having yet another opportunity to push the point. That made me uneasy.

Today, well the Conservatives were practically salivating at the chance to raise the issue. Kelly Block (Con) got the ball rolling,

Mr. Speaker, two weeks ago, the ontario minister of labor heard about the member springdale household paying living caregivers less than the minimum wage. Confiscating their passports, and forcing them to perform humiliating tasks not in their employment contract. These are serious accusationS. The ontario minister of labor has admitted that he's been sitting on the aless for two weeks, essentially protecting his federal liberal cousins. Will the minister of state tell the house what options are available to these female caregivers and others facing abuse?

Kenney: Mr. Speaker, the same labor standards protect all workers in canada, whether they are foreign-born caregivers or not. If the caregivers were paid less than the ontario minimum wage and provincial labor laws were violated, I do hope that the ontario labor minister applies provincial labor laws consistently and doesn't give the federal liberals any special treatment. For far too long, mr. Speaker, women in particular, our immigrant women, have been victims. They have been afraid to fight back, and our message to them is simple: They do have rights. It does not matter who they are up against, even if it's a member of parliament, the government will protect them.
(per closed captioning)

Lois Brown (Con.) , then got into the act using the opportunity to paint the entire Liberal party with a rather bizarre, but predictable broad brush. Kenney responded as expected.

While none of that surprises me, it has quickly become partisan and nasty before any of the allegations have been substantiated. Note the highlighting of women and immigrant women by Kenney. Didn't a recent poll mention that those were two areas that the Libs were faring well? Thus my lack of surprise at the tack being taken.

The last aspect that makes me uncomfortable about all of this is my memory of how the PM, no less, went after Navdeep Bains based on allegations about his family.

The question I suppose is would I have jumped on this had it been a Conservative MP? Maybe, but generally I like to know more about an issue before blindly wandering in. In fact, it seems to me that there was an issue concerning a Conservative MP recently that I stayed away from for precisely that reason.

I guess George is also asking whether or not we treat one of our own with more deference? Probably, but I'm not sure that is unnatural. However, that doesn't automatically translate to not taking the allegations seriously and expecting that it will be dealt with in a full and transparent manner. Nor does it mean that I would jump to her defense at all costs.

I guess it's wait and see at this point.

More at Impolitical and Far and Wide.

Bits and Pieces

While I intend to go into a little more detail on some issues this week, I thought I'd jot down a few observations from the past few days in Vancouver.

First of all, it was terrific to meet so many people. Bloggers, people who comment on blogs, MP's, media types and delegates all with their own perspective and reason for being there.

In the case of the bloggers, it was great to finally put a face or personality to the name. Every one of them serious about where the party is going and interested in playing a part in that. Each with an impressive knowledge of the issues, where the party stands and where they believe the party should be heading. I have to admit, it's great fun to have a conversation about an issue without having to start from square one to explain it. More on these people and my favourite commenter from BC later.

To a person, every MP I met was terrific. Those that I hadn't met previously were who I expected them to be and more. By more I mean that the level of dedication they have for the work they do was beyond impressive. I suppose that is how it should be, but with all the cynical stories that you read, you do wonder at times.

I personally do not think that our MPs get the level of respect that they deserve. I know that they aren't perfect, but I suggest that there are very few of us who would put our lives on hold the way they do, work the hours that they do for very little in return. Making a difference is really what many of them are all about. Sound hokey? Maybe, but from what I saw it's true. Oh and that elitist label that the Conservatives love to throw around about Liberals, politicians or otherwise? What a crock! I witnessed a diverse, engaged group that came from all walks of life and every part of the country.

Now, if you want to talk about a group that exhibited elitism, we need look no further than the media. Not all of them to be sure and the exceptions were notable. I'm not going to name people specifically, but you may pick up on what I'm referring to in future posts.

That said, I do give them marks for working hard, physically. Intellectually? Not so much for some of them. The bubble they often describe politicians of living in seems to surround them in fact and the lack of intellectual curiosity was in some cases, positively stunning. In other cases, I was really impressed. Again, more later.

In general, I came away feeling good about the party. It was really interesting attending pressers and events rather than reading about them after the fact. Indeed, I found reading some of the coverage later totally perplexing. I wondered more than once what event the writer had attended because it bore no resemblance whatsoever to what I had witnessed and I'm not talking about seeing through a partisan lens here. I'm referring to facts.

So, there are some broad observations. As I said, I'll go into some more detail later in the week. Right now I have to go sort clothes to go to the dry cleaners tomorrow and try to figure out if beer will come out of Italian wool, ;).

Thank you Vancouver

Back in TO now and as much as I adore Vancouver, it's always nice to be home.

That said, I still have much to post. I had some tech difficulties there. My camera decided that it didn't want to work and jammed on me and, I lost 3 posts. Such is life in this century. In spite of all that, I did take notes and spent a lot of time talking to people and observing, so I'll have some thoughts this coming week.

Until then, don't believe everything you read in the press!

Spin Cycle

What is Dimitri Soudas doing at the Liberal Convention? Based on this story, he's desperately looking for something to spin.

While there is no certainty to where things are going in this country politically, I think it's fair to say that things are not exactly going in the Conservatives favour at the moment. So what do you do when your opponent is gaining on you? I mean, what do you do when you are Conservative? Find something to distort of course.

This story is just one of many that the Conservatives will be spinning. Oh and the NDP too of course. If you've been following, they are here too and believe me, the Conservatives have no monopoly on pretzel making, if you get my drift.

As I wrote this post Nick Nanos was speaking on CPAC and it's not an exaggeration to say that he thinks these are troubled times for the poor Conservatives.

Awww.

Adult Conversation

Most Canadians don't follow politics day to day. Those who are interested, generally are restricted to seeing MPs in House during Question Period, or on television panels.

In both cases, you really don't have a opportunity to hear about issues in any meaningful way. Panel discussions such as today's Canada in the World, was a good example of talking about serious issues in a way that is all too rare in this country.

Bob Rae spoke about Canada's place in the world and how he has seen that diminished under the Conservatives. He and others spoke of major conflicts, nuclear disarmament and our traditional role of diplomacy.

Of course the discussion was well received and there was tremendous support for what was put forward, but that's not what struck me the most.

What really struck me is how the Conservative government never really seems to be able to discuss these matters without some partisan take or political gamesmanship. It's all so childish while being detrimental in some cases to the country.

What I heard today made me realise that the adults were speaking again and boy have I missed that.