Politics Canada: Pre-election polls: Conservs take clear lead against the IgLibs

According to Angus Reid, the Canadian pollsters, the Conservative Party has retaken the lead and boosted its poll totals to 36%, while the Libs have slipped from 31% to 30%. New Democrats, Greens, and the separatist Bloc Québecois together make up the remaining percentages except for a 1% assigned to "Others."

The AngusReid Global Monitor supplies a background-cum-analysis text to accompany its graphic (above). Recommended: read ARGM's release by clicking the live-linked title to this blog-entry.

Perhaps telltale to the trend in the direction of Stephen Harper, Prime Minister and Leader of the governing party, the Conservs. Mr. Harper's Conservatives are a minority in the Parliament, but the embattled opposition parties had preferred not to bring down the government by uniting for that purpose, a move which woud incidentally test themselves again, so soon, as to their individual standings with the electorate. The Liberal Party of Canada is led by Prof Dr Michael Ignatieff -- thus the appellation of his style of Canadian Liberalism as prioritizing and constituting the "IgLibs."

More revealing yet perhaps is this release by Angus Reid Strategies at the same website different page "Canadians see economic improvement:

Adults in Canada are becoming more optimistic about their country’s financial standing, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 43 per cent of respondents describe the economic conditions in Canada as very good or good, up five points since early July.

Canadians renewed the House of Commons in October 2008. The Conservative party—led by Stephen Harper—received 37.6 per cent of the vote, and secured 143 seats in the 308-member lower house. Harper assembled a minority administration. The Tories also earned a minority mandate after the 2006 election, ending more than 12 years of government by the Liberal party.

Since 2007, defaults on so-called subprime mortgages—credit given to high-risk borrowers—in the United States caused volatility in domestic and global financial markets and ultimately pushed the U.S. economy into a recession. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth. The crisis has affected the global financial and credit systems.

In late January, Canadian finance minister Jim Flaherty presented the federal budget, which predicts a $70 billion U.S. budget deficit over the next five years, and includes a $33 billion U.S. economic stimulus package, as well as tax relief aimed at the lower and middle class.

Canada’s unemployment rate stood at 8.6 per cent in June 2009, up from 8.4 per cent in May and the highest level in seven years.

On Jul. 23, Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney indicated that Canada’s economic recession has ended, adding, "We believe the economy will grow this quarter. The rate of growth will pick up to the end of the year and into 2010. (...) It is early days, and it is a long road. But things are unfolding as we broadly expected them to—a little faster in terms of some of the recovery of confidence in financial conditions."

If the recession in Canada is indeed ended, then the simple observation that the Conservs saw the country-thru the USA-originated economic crisis until the Canadian govt constituted by the Conservs, re-stabilized matters on the northern side of the common border. In the face of disaster trends, the Conservs are claiming to have produced a largely recovered Canadian economy.

-- Politicarp

Politics USA: Evangelicals: Gideon Strauss to become Prez of Citizens for Public Justice, seeks "evangelical center"

As we noted a couple of months back in Flash!points a Sidebar feature on rW's frontpage, Dr Gideon Strauss who worked most recently in Canada but who grew up and was educated in South Africa, will soon take on the USA. In South Africa, he wrote his doctoral dissertation, entitled The Ethics of Public Welfare (1995). After which he served as a translator for the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, directed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, then went on to advise the country's 1996 post-apartheid deliberations, "on the language clauses in the founding provisions and bill of r+ts" for the new constitution of that year.

His extensive further exploits of Christian service in Canada and now the USA may be found by clicking our title-link. He is already writing regularly for CPJ to advance his goal of reaching "the evangelical center" in America. Dr Strauss briefly outlines his plans following after his new job's October 2k9 startup date:

Come October I will be on the road much of the time, meeting face-to-face with the constituency of the Center. One of the challenges of the non-profit road warrior is the lunch meeting: how to ensure that it is (1) pleasant, (2) healthy, (3) cheap, and (4) conducive to good conversations.

My provisional plan is to turn my lunches on the road into a quest: the quest for the perfect urban picnic. I am looking for locations where I can meet with people for free, but locations that offer both comfort and a little urban magic. Some of these can be out of doors (for meetings in three of the seasons), some will have to be indoors. And I am looking for the kind of picnic lunch that I can put together from just a handful of simple but tasty foods, bought locally. ...

My travel schedule will take me, first, to a band of communities that stretch from Sioux Center and Pella, Iowa, through the Twin Cities and Chicago, to Grand Rapids and surroundings, Michigan. Then I will do some bicoastal travel: Los Angeles and San Francisco, Boston, New York City and Washington, DC. And then we’ll see …

Strauss is a member of the Presbyterian Church in America, and has many friends and contacts in that community already.

-- Politicarp

Honduras: Sly Revolution: Thwarted for now! -- UPDATES and BACKLOGS

U.S. Misread Scale of Honduran Rift
Zelaya's Closeness to Venezuela's Chávez Was Source of Concern for Opponents
by William Booth and Juan Forero (WaPo Foreign Service; Jul 5,2k9

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, July 4 -- Although the U.S. government knew for months that Honduras was on the brink of political chaos, officials say they underestimated how fearful the Honduran elite and the military were of ousted President Manuel Zelaya and his ally President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.

Honduras Denies Late Appeal by OAS
Officials Refuse to Restore Ousted Leader
by William Booth (WaPo Foreign Service; Jul 4,2k9)

Members of the OAS [Organization of American States], the hemisphere's main diplomatic body, have given the new Honduran government until Saturday morning to permit Zelaya to return to office from exile. But appeals by OAS leader José Miguel Insulza, who flew to the Honduran capital Friday, appear to have failed.

Insulza met with Jorge Rivera, the head judge at the Honduran Supreme Court. Rivera told the diplomat the judiciary had already issued a warrant for Zelaya's arrest and promised that the ousted president would be immediately detained if he came back to Honduras.

Coup drives deep divide in Honduras
Supporters of ousted President Zelaya blocked streets Wednesday, vowing to protest until he is reinstated.
by Sara Miller Llana (Christian Science Monitor; Jul 1,2k9)

Honduras, one of the poorest nations in the region, has long been divided along the same class lines that characterize most of Latin America. The elite have historically had a tight grip on the political scene, but Zelaya vowed to empower the poor, raising salaries and supporting single mothers. "He is the only person generating change in this country," says ... a hospital administrator in Tegucigalpa.

But many say he become too closely aligned with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and other leftist leaders, particularly in his bid to change the Constitution to allow presidents to run for more than one term, and it ultimately cost him control – at least for now – of his country.

Honduras coup was 'answer to prayer' for many evangelicals there
by Jeremy Weber (Christianity Today; Jul 3,2k9).

Last Sunday's removal of president Manuel Zelaya by the Honduran military has drawn strong criticism from the international community, uniting such disparate voices as Barack Obama and the United Nations with Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro. Yet evangelicals in Honduras tell CT that the majority of the Central American nation -- including its Protestants and Catholics -- are in favor of the removal of Zelaya, though not necessarily of the military method.

“It’s sad to see the OAS and the UN forcing Honduras to take back this president,” said Maria Elena Umana-Alvarez, a well-connected Honduran evangelical. “We feel that what has happened is a reply to the fervent prayers of so many Christians. For many of us, it’s not a coup, but the rescue of our country and our democracy.”

Below is an analysis of the situation offered by ASJ, a Christian social justice organization in Honduras.

Dr. Kurt Ver Beek, Calvin College professor, and Andrew Clouse, communications specialist with the Asociación para una Sociedad más Justa, an evangelical-based group, the Association for a More Just Society:

...Zelaya’s record is dismal. And that fact has led many Hondurans, including most evangelicals, to be relieved to see his ineffective and corrupt administration come to an unexpected end. Pastor Evelio Reyes, in a speech to support the new government said, “We cannot tolérate these kinds of actions. No country in the world puts up with these types of barbarities, and Honduras won’t either because we have dignity.”

[T]he president does have his supporters. Despite his decidedly non-leftist background, Zelaya has managed to gain the support of some of the most radical social groups in Honduras by funding their organizations and protests and promising them seats at the constitutional assembly that would have rewritten the constitution. These groups are expert mobilizers and are now returning the favor by leading the increasingly violent protests seeking Zelaya’s return to office.

Honduras -- behind the crisis Ismael Moreno (OpenDemocracy; Jul 3,2k9).

The Honduran constitution - the work of a constituent assembly that convened in 1980 - specifies that parliamentary representatives and mayors can run for re-election, but not presidents. In fact, even the argument in favour of presidential re-election has in the past been viewed as treason. The articles in the constitution the provide for a single term have been considered "carved in stone" and not to be reformed for any reason. Indeed, legal specialists argue that these articles were formulated precisely because of fear that the military would infringe on Honduras's then tender democracy by using rigged elections as a way of holding on to state power.

Calendar: USA Birthday: July 4th 2009

Happy Fourth of July


Duluth, Minnestota's News Tribune carries an editorial on the Declaration of Independence, associated with the Fourth, suggesting that the document is very much reading worth reading in this day and age, and meditating upon it. Give the piece a try, a day or so later, it still will inform and edify.

Latin America: Honduras, Colombia: Military coup stands pat in H; C's prez Uribe alienates voters on 3rd term proposal

Coup drives deep divide in Honduras
Supporters of ousted President Zelaya blocked streets Wednesday,
vowing to protest until he is reinstated.

by Sara Miller Llana, Staff writer (Christian Science Monitor, Jul 1,1k9)

Tegucigalpa, Honduras - The leftist president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, has managed to bring together world leaders of all stripes in a rare show of unity against his ouster Sunday. [Apparently, he was removed to Costa Rica.]

But he has also left this Central American nation as polarized as ever – and the signs of division abound all over the capital city, in graffiti splashed across walls and streets snarled by ad hoc protests.

...Mari Cruz Amador, a school teacher, says her wish is simple: "We want our elected president, not the president who put himself as president."

As they marched by, Rolando Salgado, a vendor of construction products, shook his head. "Manuel Zelaya cannot come back as president because he broke the law," he says. "The person responsible for all of this tragedy is Manuel Zelaya."

President Zelaya was pushed out in the name of democracy after forging forward with his bid to let presidents seek re-election beyond a single four-year term, despite widespread rejection of the move that even the Supreme Court deemed illegal.

A longstanding class divide

Honduras, one of the poorest nations in the region, has long been divided along the same class lines that characterize most of Latin America. The elite have historically had a tight grip on the political scene, but Zelaya vowed to empower the poor, raising salaries and supporting single mothers. "He is the only person generating change in this country," says Angel Castro, a hospital administrator in Tegucigalpa.

But many say he become too closely aligned with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and other leftist leaders, particularly in his bid to change the Constitution to allow presidents to run for more than one term, and it ultimately cost him control – at least for now – of his country. ...

It has been four days since Hondurans awoke Sunday morning to find that instead of voting in a nonbinding referendum to consider drawing up a constituent assembly, their president no longer was in power.

Then there's Colombia:

A year ago this week, Colombia's President Álvaro Uribe was on top of the world. Employing a clever ruse, one of the country's elite army units miraculously (and bloodlessly) rescued 15 hostages who had been held in the jungle for years. The world applauded the operation's stealth and savvy - and the release of the rebels' top political hostage, French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, as well as three U.S. defense contractors and 11 soldiers and police.

Colombia, it seemed, was coming back from the edge, and the country was ecstatic. Two days after the July 2, 2008, hostage rescue, a Gallup poll of Colombians (those with telephones in the four largest cities, at least) put Uribe's approval rating at a remarkable 86 percent. Already, the cattle rancher and conservative president had been well regarded among Colombians for battlefield gains against the 45-year-old Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) insurgency, a drug-money-fueled leftist force that systematically targets civilians for murder and kidnapping. Uribe oversaw a military buildup that reduced the guerrillas' size by half and limited its range of operations. He negotiated the demobilization of tens of thousands of pro-government paramilitary militias, reducing -- though not eliminating -- those groups' murderous activity.

But what goes up must come down, and Uribe's luck has certainly done so in recent months. By early May 2009, Gallup put Uribe's approval rating at 71 - still pretty good, but its lowest in two years. A plurality of Colombians told the pollster that the country was on the "wrong track." There are bigger problems at work here than a normal come-down: Uribe's spectacular progress in security and economic matters has slowed, and scandals have taken their place in the news.

Military: USA Iraq Commander: Gen. Ricardo Sanchez held responsible for Abu Ghraib, wants truth commission re Iraq War

Former U.S. commander in Iraq calls for truth commission
(CNN.com, Jun2,2k9)

(CNN) -- The former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq who retired over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal is calling for a truth commission to investigate Bush-era policies behind the abuse and controversial interrogations of detainees. Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez commanded U.S. forces in Iraq during the Abu Ghraib scandal.

"The mechanisms that are responsible for establishing accountability have lost their credibility within the country, and there's a lack of trust in them," retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said in an interview on CNN's "Newsroom" Tuesday. "A truth commission, I believe, is the only way for us to regain that."

The Iraq war, he said, was plagued by "institutional and individual failures" -- both in the execution of the conflict and the interrogation tactics, and in the policies from Washington that were implemented in the field.

Sanchez, in charge of combat operations from 2003 into 2004, has been a harsh critic of the war in Iraq, calling it in 2007 a "nightmare with no end in sight." His leadership has been criticized because the mistreatment of prisoners at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison happened during his command.

Pictures of detainees caused outrage around the world when they were leaked to the news media in May 2004 -- photos showing naked prisoners stacked on top of each other, or being threatened by dogs, or hooded and wired up as if for electrocution. Critics say such tactics amount to torture.

Two officers -- Army Col. Janis Karpinski, then a brigadier general and commander of Abu Ghraib, and Col. Thomas Pappas, the commander of the military intelligence unit assigned to Abu Ghraib -- were punished over the aggressive interrogations. Seven low-ranking guards and two military intelligence soldiers -- described by then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz as "bad apples" -- were disciplined.

Update:

Karpinski headed Abu Ghraib, finds vindication in some released memos
Bush-era interrogation may have worked, Obama official says

Karpinski in April told CNN she was ordered by Sanchez not to discuss the photographs or the subsequent investigation with anybody.

A federal investigation cleared four other senior officers in 2005, including Sanchez. But the scandal was hard to shake off, and he retired the following year after more than three decades of Army service.

"You know, I can't get away from this," Sanchez told CNN Tuesday. "The fact is that I am associated, and will always be associated, with Abu Ghraib. ... It doesn't bother me. I think it's something I've learned to live with. But I also live with the fact, as I've stated before, that I've never compromised my integrity or my honor in the course of this ordeal."

Recently released Bush administration Justice Department memos condone the use of such tactics as keeping a detainee naked and in some cases in a diaper, and putting detainees on a liquid diet. One memo said aggressive techniques such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation and slapping did not violate laws against torture absent the intent to cause severe pain.

A Senate Armed Forces Committee report released in April, when the memos surfaced, found that senior Bush administration officials authorized aggressive interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists, despite concerns expressed by military psychologists and attorneys.

The report points to then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's approval of such techniques -- including stress positions, removal of clothing, use of phobias (such as fear of dogs), and deprivation of light and auditory stimuli -- in December 2002 for detainees at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. His OK prompted interrogators in Afghanistan and Iraq to adopt the aggressive techniques.

"We had different departments that faltered in developing the guidance for executing those policies," Sanchez said. "And then I think we also had a dereliction of duty at those levels when we were faced with the reality and the facts that abuses were occurring on the ground as early as 2002 and we refused to do anything about it."

He said the lack of oversight and guidance from Washington and top brass left his troops "abandoned on the battlefield."

Last year he published his memoirs titled, "Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story," and he has continued to be a vocal critic of the war.

"Until America can really understand what has happened and look at it objectively and truthfully, we will still continue to be mired in the past," Sanchez said. "We've got to learn the lessons and never go this way again."

The month-old report above is one important feature of the war in Iraq that has resulted from the surge, and the new withdrawal of USA troops from the cities to the smaller communities on the countryside.

Whatever the General thinbks, it can not be denied that George W. Bush succeeded in the anti-terrorist war in Iraq. But as one commentator says, The situation in Iraq remains 'fragile.' So, in the longer term, whether Bush still proves successful is an open question. But in that regard, it will be primarily Obama who will be held responsible to shore-up democratic developments and international cooperation of Iraq with the Free World.

-- Politicarp

Calendar: Canada Day

To give rW readers a taste of Canada and its way of celebrating on the Federal goverment level at least, for this day Ive decided to pass on to you a sample of Canadian thinking and planning and way of celebrating the birth of the country in the 1860s under the "Family Compact." Many consider it a sordid affair, but the true start of a national Federal government for the provinces until then individually colonial provinces of the British Empire, if Im not mistaken. Now Canada is classified as a Dominion. An independent Dominion of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth and, presumably, her heirs forever.

PARKS CANADA
Jul 01, 2009 14:00 ET

Government of Canada Celebrates Canada Day With Grand Reopening of the Grasslands National Park Visitor Centre

VAL MARIE, SASKATCHEWAN--(July 1, 2009) - Mr. David Anderson, Member of Parliament for Cypress Hills-Grasslands and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources and for the Canadian Wheat Board, on behalf of the Honourable Jim Prentice, Canada's Environment Minister and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, today celebrated Canada Day in Val Marie, Saskatchewan by announcing the reopening of the renewed Visitor Reception Centre for Grasslands National Park of Canada.

"The Government of Canada is strongly committed to investing in our native landscapes to ensure Canada's greatest places are also places where Canadians, from every walk of life, can have some of the world's most real and inspiring experiences, "said Mr. Anderson. "The renewed visitor centre is a launching pad for visitors to the park, enabling them to experience and connect with the prairies as they once were and enjoy their visit to its fullest."

The renovated Visitor Reception Centre has new exhibits that tell stories of the unique prairie ecosystem, rare and endangered species, 10,000 years of resilient prairie peoples, fascinating geological formations and dinosaur fossils in Grasslands.

In May 2006, seventy-one plains bison were released into the West Block of Grasslands National Park. Today's reopening of the Visitor Reception Centre is part of a larger commitment to restore ecological integrity and enhance the visitor experience of the native prairie ecosystem in the Park.

Grasslands National Park is part of Parks Canada's nation-wide network of national parks, national marine conservation areas and national historic sites, a network that is recognized as one of the finest and most extensive systems of protected areas in the world. In addition, visitors to Grasslands National Park take advantage of a two-year fee freeze currently in effect in all national parks and national historic sites managed by Parks Canada.

Also available on the Internet at www.pc.gc.ca under Media Room.

Here's another angle on the event:

Jul 01, 2009 04:30 AM
Master Warrant Officer Sean Gardner
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Master Warrant Officer Sean Gardner weighs in from [Canadian Forces] in Afghanistan with a light-hearted look at his holiday plans:

1. Have a beer!

2. Call home.

3. Play hockey in 52-degree heat.

4. Say "eh" more than usual.

5. Wear a toque and sweater all day and complain about the cold.

6. Crank up the Anne Murray!

7. Have a Timmy's Double Double.

8. Explain to an American what a Double Double is.

9. Make a snowball out of the frost in the freezer.

10. Wear red and white by having a sunburn. And . . .

11. Be proud to be serving such a great nation.

Two angles on our celebration of Canada's coming into being and its further becoming.