Happy Channukah!

December 15, 2006
On behalf of the Liberal Party of Canada, I am delighted to extend my warmest wishes to all those celebrating Chanukah, the Jewish festival of lights.

Chanukah is a time for people of the Jewish faith around the world to celebrate the power of faith to accomplish miracles and bring light from the darkness. As families and friends gather each night to light the menorah and share in the festive traditions of Chanukah, we remember the message of hope and of peace during this holiday season.

May the joy of Chanukah and the peace and goodwill of the season fill our hearts and inspire us to lead lives of compassion and goodwill towards our fellow citizens.

Have a blessed and Happy Chanukah.

Chag Samech.

[courtesy Liberal.ca]

That was M. Dion's wording. I'd just like to wish everyone a Happy Channukah, Chag Sameach, Merry Christmas, Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays, or whatever else you little hearts desire.

As for me, I will be spending Channukah in Israel. Consider this my official notice of hiatus. I will see everyone in 2007.

Harper on the Environment

In his final press conference of the year, the Prime Minister made reference to the "so called greenhouse gasses." Quite frankly, this is a big screw up. We all know Harper is smarter than this. Whether he agrees with the idea of greenhouse gas or not -- by the way, how can you not? -- he is smart enough to know not to mention it. This is something all parties should use. The fact is, this is just further evidence that the Harper Government can't hold its weight on environmental issues. If people out there care about the environment, they will vote Dion -- a man who has pledged his political career to the environment and the only man you can replace Steven Harper as Prime Minister.

St. Francis Xavier Prof. Returns

I wanted to avoid posting anything about what is currently occuring in Tehran in an effort to avoid giving it power. However, this is something that made me smile.

"It is a brutal shock to be associated in any way to that conference or to be lending it credibility."

That was a statement made by St. FX President Sean Riley upon the realization of St. FX political science Prof. Shiraz Dossa's attendance in Tehran. (The only Canadian delegate in attendance by the way.)

Yvon Grenier, chair of the political science department has gone on to condemn Dossa's actions, refering to him as and a "hack and lunatic."

Frankly -- a personal opinion -- this kind of person does not belong in Canada. He wasn't born here. Use this as precedent to have him deported. Call that "unliberal" is you like. But I simply will not stand for hate in my country -- our country.

Mulroney urges PM to focus on environment

I never thought I would agree with Brian Mulroney, but here we are. In a interview with CBC Radio in Montreal, Mulroney encouraged Harper to move on environmental issues. Of course, he did this while taken a jab at the Liberal record on the environment -- which admittedly is not as great as we make it out to be, however, we did ratify Kyoto.

Mulroney stated that in addition to tax cuts, "This [the environment] resonates, particularly well with the highly independent voting block in Canada. If you want their support -- and believe me, you can't get elected very often without it -- then you've got to be sensitive to questions about the environment."

What can I say, I agree. Its been said that Mulroney was Canada's "greenist" Prime Minister. Perhaps those who said this, weren't mistaken?

Same-Sex Vote

After thinking it over for a couple days I decided to make a post on the subject. You see, in the past I have made somewhat extreme statements on the subject -- in favour of. So I will leave it at a thank you to the 175 MPs who listened to Canada and voted to close this issue. As for the 123 who voted in favour of re-opening the issue of marriage, I say shame, shame on them for letting their personal feelings get in the way of what is best for Canadians and what Canadians want.

That is all I will say. Hopefully I will not have to address equal marriage in the Canadian context again.

Statement from Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion Regarding the Anti-Semitic Comments Made Against Bob Rae and Arlene Perly Rae

December 8, 2006
The hateful comments made against Liberal leadership candidate Bob Rae and his wife Arlene Perly Rae at the Liberal leadership convention in Montreal are reprehensible and will not be tolerated within the Liberal Party of Canada.

Canada is a nation founded on diversity and tolerance for people of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds. The Liberal Party of Canada celebrates and promotes this diversity and tolerance.

There is no room for abhorrent comments such as these within our Party. The individuals who made these despicable and prejudiced comments are condemned by myself and Liberals throughout Canada.


I would like to commend Stephane Dion for taken the initiative and condemning the awful anti-semitic, rascist comments made about Bob Rae. As a candidate in the coming election, M. Dion has a responsibility to defend those on his team. And it shows a lot about the man that he can come to Bob's aide despite being former opponents. Thank you M. Dion. Everyday you give me more reason to follow you into the next election and beyond.

A 'French' Prime Minister?

Too many things to talk about these days, but we can save the equal marriage talk for after the vote. The question at hand here is should Stephane Dion renounce his French citizenship. Quite frankly, I hate to be the only Liberal on this one but, yes. Now let me be clear, he shouldn't do this because Canada simply can't have a Prime Minister with dual citizenship. We have already in the past. He shouldn't do it out of some kind of show of Canadiana. Canada is better than that. He shouldn't do it because it divides his loyalties and questions his dedication to this country he wishes to lead. I have total faith that he is a dedicated this country and that he wants to make it the best nation on the face of this planet. He should do it because the Canadian electorate as a whole will simply not understand it. It looks bad optically. I don't care that its occurred in the past, even recently with John Turner. It looks bad. For the sake of his career -- for the sake of the Liberal party -- for the sake of bettering this country he will renounce his French citizenship for no other reason than it just looks better. This is not about xenophobia or anything else of that nature. It is simply about electability. And as our leader (and hopefully future Prime Minister) Stephane Dion must understand that.

CJC condemns vile flyer attacking Bob Rae during leadership race

Now that leadership has passed, I don't want to dwell on it all that much. So when I talk about Bob Rae here, consider him a Liberal candidate in the coming election and not the third place finisher in quite possibly the most entertaining leadership race since Trudeau took it.

This was a flyer released by the Canadian Arab Federation during this past week's leadership convention. Quite frankly, I don't even know where to begin. There is nothing rational about the statements made here. First attacking Bob Rae for undering the truth about the Israeli-Palestinian situation, than bringing his wife into the mix for being a sitting member of the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), and finally so callously tossing around the word 'aparteid.' What I have to say will not be nearly as level headed as the CJC, so I will let them talk it from here.




FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

December 6, 2006

For immediate release

CJC condemns vile flyer attacking Bob Rae during Liberal leadership convention.

TORONTO ? Canadian Jewish Congress strongly condemned a flyer (click here to view flyer) (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=ovkct9bab.0.5icct9bab.aiqaz8aab.5238&ts=S0218&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cjc.ca%2Fdocs%2FRD%2F191_rae%2520flyer.doc) distributed at the recent Federal Liberal Leadership Convention and which was widely emailed by the current president of the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) and others. The flyer was sent to Liberal parliamentarians, the large Equity and Accountability GTA Yahoo email list and, according to reports, Muslim delegates to the convention.

?The flyer attacks Bob Rae by repeatedly and derogatorily labeling him as an apartheid supporter,? said CJC National President Ed Morgan. ?It also tars him by association with Jewish community organizations disparaged with ill-willed and inflammatory accusations. The flyer sinks to an even greater low by drawing Mr. Rae?s wife, Arlene Perly-Rae, into this exercise in vilification, gratuitously identifying her as a Canadian Jewish Congress vice president. This is little more than a thinly disguised reference to her being Jewish, an irrelevant criterion unless one is attempting to awaken the basest of prejudices,? Morgan added.

Morgan noted that CJC and past presidents of CAF have shared with other ethnocultural and faith communities a commitment not to allow passionate differences over conflicts overseas to result in uncivil discourse and communal antagonisms.

?It is unfortunate and reprehensible that the message of this flyer cast aside Canadian values and engaged instead in fostering group divisions of the worst kind,? he said.

-30-

Contact:

Wendy Lampert

National Director of Communications

Canadian Jewish Congress

wlampert@on.cjc.ca (mailto:wlampert@on.cjc.ca)

Leadership Wrap-up

Alright folks, I messed up. My BlackBerry failed me. But I have my wrap-up right now. And I'll go through it candidate by candidate.

Martha Hall Finlay
Smart and energetic woman. She did better than anyone expected of her. And that was proven when she made her way to Dion; taking almost all her delegates (of the numbers there certainly could not be call negligable). I commend her. I hope they find a riding for her soon. Toronto Centre perhaps? Bill Graham's speech on the opening night did seem like he was announcing his retirement to me. Although, I have heard just the opposite reaction as well.

Joe Volpe
He made it to the floor. I congradulate him for that. We all gave him a difficult time this campaign, but I firmly believe this man loves this country and he cares about those that come here. I would love to see him continue on as a Minister of Immigration.

Scott Brison
Loved to see him come over to the Rae team after the first ballot. He was, after all, my actual second choice. (Of course, I knew that would never come to pass though.) Dion said it himself -- Scott Brison truly does have an innovative view of this economy. And we are very lucky to have him as a member of our party. I see him as a future Minister of Finance or Minister of the Environment.

Ken Dryden
That man had some dedicated delegate. You could tell that prior to the first ballot they felt he had a shot to still win thing. However, that was never meant to be. Using only a skeleton staff for the entire run of this campaign he proved himself to be the conscience of the Liberal Party. As Liberals we got cocky. Ken Dryden helped pull us all back from that.

Gerard Kennedy
Came out as kingmaker as I've always said. Granted that wasn't the most original of predictions. But it was one none the less, and that is how it happened. But with out a doubt this weekend was one thing for Gerard. It was that he might have had the most dedicated delegates there -- which is a great sign for the party. It wasn't the addition of the tamborine to the convention repatoire -- fantastic addition by the way. It was about Gerard Kennedy's ambition. He still wants to be Prime Minister. And I can guarantee he will run at the very next opportunity he gets. In fact, it was high ranking Dion youth organizer who said to me that has positioned himself as the next leader of this party and that she will be with him when that happens. Of course, I still hope Bob Rae can see it in himself to run again.

Bob Rae
My guy. I'm very disappointed. I truly do believe this man is the best person to be the Prime Minister of this great nation (I'm referring to Canada by the way). He presented a view of Canada that was incredibly optomistic and made many of us proud to be Canadian. He made me proud to be a Liberal, and he made me proud to follow his vision. The party as a whole may not agree with me, but I still believe he is the best man for the job. I hope he runs for leadership again. I hope to be there when he does. And for the record, I'm confident he is running in the next election. I'm thinking his old riding of Parkdale-High Park would be a nice fit. Rumour has it Gerard is going to Edmonton Centre.

Michael Ignatieff
Fine campaign. However, I have very little to say about him as a politician. I don't believe he is a good one. And personally, I just disagree with him on a number of policy points. But I will say this for him, despite the results, I still believe he has a better chance at beating Steven Harper than Stephane Dion does. I do hope I'm wrong though.

Stephane Dion
This man deserves to be leader. He earned the support of a majority of the party and earned his experience in the House of Commons. I congradulate him. I hope he can come out victorious against the current Prime Minister. He has a progressive concept of policy and he something of a quiet charisma. People said we couldn't win with Cretien either, and we managed three straight majorities. I will be there to support him.

So there it is. The leadership race breakdown. I may not be completely confortable with the outcome, but one thing is for sure -- this party is stronger than it has ever been. We are all on the same side again, and we -- the grassroots -- are reader to take on Steven Harper.

Bad BlackBerry

My BlackBerry seems to be having difficulty transmitting to my blog from inside the Palais de Congress. So let me apologize to any readers I have (assuming this makes it through). I'll be posting a full report when I get home.
/jordan