Liberal MP Khan praises Harper after defecting to Tories
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True enough, but the Dippers are going down next election. They have alienated much of the country outside of Quebec with their silly "get out of Afghanistan now" rhetoric, and never had a prayer in Quebec. The environmental issue has been stolen from them by everybody, and Layton is increasingly looking the the hysterical ivory-tower intellectual he is.
As for Harper, I thought it was insightful and the act of a true statesman to include Mr. Khan as an advisor on ME politics.........and Dion blew it by insisting on a decision. It showed him as a true Liberal......if the choice to a Liberal is the good of the country or the good of the Liberal Party of Canada, the Party wins every time.
How's that for an unbiased view of the day's events?
The Cons are going down. With their weak environmental plan, and people golfing in Ottawa in January, Canadians are going to want a real party that will honor its Kyoto agreements. Not this weak, Bush sucking up party, taking it up the rear from the Americans on soft wood lumber. This party promised a transparent government, and then becomes the most secretive one we've seen in years. Then they give in to Quebec for votes and let them be a nation. What a weak party. What a weak, obese Prime Minister and his loud mouth lap dog John Baird.
The NDP sponsored a bill a year or so ago,I think it was C-254 that would make anyone who wanted to cross the floor have to run in a by-election. It didn't pass though because all the liberals but one voted against it. Cheers.
...The environmental issue has been stolen from them by everybody, and Layton is increasingly looking the the hysterical ivory-tower intellectual he is.
Jack Layton, an ivory tower intellectual? That’s a good one. By what measure would Jack be considered an intellectual, or is that just a general purpose epithet for somebody who a person disagrees with?
Regarding the new Tory; Mr. Khan may be better qualified to provide advice on small business affairs than on the Middle East. Mr. Khan, a successful businessman and former fighter pilot doesn’t seem have the usual experience that might be expected of a person who has foreign affairs expertise, but who knows. Perhaps! Perhaps Lahore (where Mr. Khan is from) is even in the Middle East but many ivory tower types wouldn’t place Lahore there. It is in Southwest Asia though.
A more likely testament is that Mr. Harper isn’t sure where the Middle East is, or what an advisor should do other than be micro-managed by the PM. Such a testament seems fitting for the quality of his foreign policy to date. I wonder how he’s going to do with micro-managing an environment advisor, and Lord knows Mr. Harper could use some help with small business policy. Mr. Khan does know the small business of how to sell cars—even if such expertise might not exactly be a positive in terms of environmental policy so perhaps Mr. Khan will prove useful to the Tories. Perhaps
Perhaps Mr. Harper will come to revise his beliefs that the free market, competition and puny-government fixes everything in the known world and beyond. Not even many ivory tower economists believe such things these days. But Mr. Harper is called an economist, and in that he seems closer to the ivory tower than does Jack--which in my mind is to Jack’s credit.
Why am I being hard on Mr. Khan? It’s because when he left one party to join another, he said something like ‘when it comes to a choice between party and country, I choose Canada.’ He certainly seems to hold his knowledge of the Middle East and the Tories in high esteem. But perhaps Mr. Khan lives in an ivory tower as well.
Two words: university professor. Ever met one?
Fair enough.
Mr. Harper may not be a foreign affairs genius, but he has a hell of a lot more on the ball than Mr. Dithers. As for Mr. Dion.......were we just talking about ivory tower intellectuals? Dion is out of his depth.......despite his fantastic work on the inter-governmental affairs portfolio under Jean the Don. As for Mr. Khan, he is a Muslim from a country of much concern to Canadians.......Pakistan is the birth place of the Taliban, its staging area, a backer of the old Taliban regime, and perhaps still a secretive supporter of that bunch of murderers. A little insight into the convoluted politics of the place can not be a bad thing.
Ah - excuse me? Have you ever listened to Jack? My God......"let's talk to the Taliban" Heh Heh " Get out of Afghanistan now" HA! "Let's fulfill our Kyoto commitments" WHAT! The guy is not dealing with reality.
I thought is was open-minded, to say the least, of Harper to use a Liberal MP in this way. My understanding is that Mr. Khan had spoken with his Liberal colleagues about serving as advisor to Harper, and that there were certain parameters set on his relationship with the Tories. Mr. Dion, however, did not like the arrangement, and pushed Khan to leave it, as it was detrimental to the Liberal Party for a Liberal to be seen in close contact with a Conservative PM. In the light of that, Mr. Khan WAS given the choice of serving the country or serving the Liberal Party...........and his decision was the correct one.
I agree with this bill, pity it failed. It is an insult to the electorate when an MP does this. Let's not forget that theoretically we vote by party, not the person, in this country. Seems to me if this MP's riding voted Liberal, his crossing to the other side should effectively remove him from office and a Liberal from that riding put in his place. At the very least, a new by-election should be held.I know if I voted for a party and it won in my riding, I'd be more then annoyed if my MP switched party sides after the election.
Couldn't agree with you more. His actions up to and including his crossing the floor, are examples of quality in governement officals. A rarely seen quality. Those that fai to see it, are too mired in there own partisan BS, to see anything beyond the colour of their teams jerseys. No wonder our country is crumbling. All people want to do is beat their chests and point fingures at the opposing team, instead of doing something constructive. If that means leaving the party colours at the door, so be it.
This also proves, that Mr. Dion is more of the same old same old, liberal BS.
Sanctus, I would correct one misconception in your post.......in the first-past-the-post system, one votes for the person who would best represent them, not the party, at least theoretically. Political parties have absolutely no constitutional legal basis in our electoral system.........they are theoretically irrelevant. Therefore your position is untenable, to say the least.
Good grief the things you learn around here. I always thought Jack was an auctioneer.
I haven’t listened to Jack since his Toronto politics days. I had a sound and lighting company and did sound for events he used to appear at. I adjusted his mic and then listened. I also was a member of the Provincial Party at that time. I never met anybody who spent time around Jack who I believed thought of him as an intellectual—again to his credit.
I had my sideline company after I held a university research associate position. Not a faculty position, but I did learn that asserting that somebody does not live in reality is not the same as demonstrating that somebody else does live in reality.
I don’t know why meeting a university professor is apropos, or why I should answer. But I will answer if you will. How about it, ever met any--or perhaps you are one? It could be sort of like the tower calling the split-level ivory
Actually, some of my best friends are university professors.....
Really, a good friend of mine teaches history at UNB-SJ. Ask him, he'll tell you he decided on that track to avoid having to work at a real job.............
Really, a good friend of mine teaches history at UNB-SJ. Ask him, he'll tell you he decided on that track to avoid having to work at a real job.............
That may be one professors attitude but I can assure you it doesn't represent the sentiments of the professors I've met. Also, when a profsessor is hired there are criteria involved, like say what can they teach, and what research can they bring to the university. Some professors concentrate more on research and tech few classes, others teach many classes and do little research. Any professor who says they don't have to work like a real job is probably some stodgy old prof who has his or her tenure allready.
Generalizations. At Saint Thomas I had a few religious studies profs who certainly weren't "lefty". For the most part, a professors political leanings aren't that evident in their lectures, at least now that I'm in a science program.
Would professors at any of the religious universities identify with a leftist political leaning? Do they still count as Ivory tower intellectuals?
Would professors at any of the religious universities identify with a leftist political leaning? Do they still count as Ivory tower intellectuals?
Hmmm, I can't say, but it is my experience that many of my mothers friends, a great number being "Ivory Tower" intellectuals, are now or were at on time professors. I can tell you this in all honesty, I sat in horror and listened to these people bable on about issues, and I thought to myself, THIS COUNTRY IS DOOMED!!! If this is what is educating the next generation of power brokers and elitist class types.
I can't say any of them were science types. The few science type prof's I have met were for the most part just really smart, much like yourself, but that would be a generalization.
Haha, I think you'll find more of these "typical" ivory tower types in liberal arts programs compared to science programs(more generalizations and anecdotal evidence on my part), hell even the program is named liberal.
I'm still not 100% clear on what an ivory tower prof would be. It can't be political leanings which would make somebody one. Would the professor from ST. FX who spoke at the conference in Iran be one?
I'm still not 100% clear on what an ivory tower prof would be. It can't be political leanings which would make somebody one. Would the professor from ST. FX who spoke at the conference in Iran be one?
He was, of course, joking. After high school he worked for a moving company.....hard labour. That inspired him.
He is, BTW, the authority on Irish immigration to eastern Canada......oft published.
And you're right.......he is about to retire.