Live Election Results from Zimbabwe

From the Movement for Democratic Change website.

Note the optimism with which the MDC approaches this poll:

"Click here for all the voting incidents, drama, violence, fraud, cheating, SADC violations, intimidation and updates throughout Zimbabwe."

Vote MDC in Today's Zimbabwe Election!

In case there are Zimbabwean nationals who actually peruse this site, it's an appropriate time to announce, as PLVQ does with most foreign elections, our endorsement in that country's parliamentary elections.

As many of you who know me personally are aware, I have a soft spot for the oft-forgotten plight of the Zimbabwean people, since their tyrannical, illegitimate "President" Robert Mugabe began confiscating and redistributing fertile land some five years ago. What resulted was the gradual destruction of an economy which once earned the moniker of Africa's Breadbasket, and an accompanying indifference from the international community.

If Mugabe's comments this week are any indication, the his iron-fisted control of Parliament will remain:

"...Mugabe branded opposition supporters “traitors” and warned on Tuesday that an election victory by the top rival party would not be tolerated..."

So much for free and fair elections.

PLVQ has an undefeated record of predicting the victors of foreign elections (remember Howard, Bush, Yushchenko, SBY, et al?). However, we will proudly break this streak today, endorse the Movement for Democratic Change (which will still be in opposition tomorrow), and hope that Zimbabweans will have the courage to march in the streets peacefully to build the international pressure that helped topple illiberal regimes in Georgia and Ukraine over the past year.

PLVQ Denounces Bigot Liberal MP Mark Holland

This despicable release was recently sent out by rookie Ajax-Pickering MP Mark Holland, a (proud, seemingly) member of the Liberal Party of Canada (via Blogging Tories):

'Show your faces,' MP Holland tells bigot group

An anonymous group circulating flyers across Canada attacking MPs who support same-sex marriage should come out of hiding and show their faces, Ajax-Pickering MP Mark Holland demands.

The group, Concerned Canadian Parents, operates from a post office box in a 7-Eleven store on Weston Road in Toronto, and provides no information about who is behind its expensive campaign.

[...]

"I call upon the media, who have been accepting their advertising dollars, to tell Canadians who is behind Concerned Canadian Parents," said Holland.

[...]

"I strongly disagree with this group’s message of intolerance, but I respect their right to free speech," Holland says. "What I object to is that a cowardly, anonymous group can launch an expensive campaign to attack Parliamentarians without showing their faces."

[...]

While I can't begin to fathom why a Member of Parliament would draw attention to a campaign which exudes a negative view of the policy he supports, it nonetheless typifies the uncivil way in which many Liberals have approached the debate over gay marriage--that opponents of the legislation are nothing more than ignorant "bigots".

This deplorable attitude towards the legitimate moral and religious perspective of individuals only emboldens many irreligious persons like myself, who fear that Holland's attitude reflects a growing disdain for religious liberty among the chattering classes.

Holland's Liberal Youth Wing likes to say "It's the Charter, Stupid!". But a much more accurate slogan for this party would be "It's the Charter, Stupid, Except Section 2".

On Left Coast Party Websites

Tonight, I wanted to briefly peruse the BC Liberal website, to get the latest information on that province's forthcoming election campaign.

In a humourous turn, Googling "BC Liberal" yields the following statement below their link:

"Elected to government in 2001 under Gordon Campbell. Not affiliated with the Liberal Party of Canada."

Amen!

Also: If today's press release on the BC New Democrats' website is any indication, the Liberals should win in a cakewalk. It reads:

Kwan Slams Hagen for Dismissiong Call to Restore Children's Commissioner
NDP MLA says Children's Commissioner was no Paper-Pusher

Vancouver - NDP MLA Jenny Kwan today slammed Children and Family Development Minister Stan Hagen for saying that restoring an independent Children's Commissioner is a "bureaucrat's" response to child welfare.

She said that Hagen's remarks show that the Minister is not up to his job and that he shouldn't be responsible for children at risk.

Not only is the messaging really poor, but if the party lets such egregious spelling mistakes get onto their live website (in large font bold letters to boot), I can only imagine the non-attention to detail with which they would govern.

Another Reason to Abolish the Upper House...

...emanates from Thursday's Prime Ministerial Senate appointments. Irrespective of whether such eminent Canadians such as Retired General Romeo Dallaire are capable and qualified, it is simply incredulous that Canada still maintains such an undemocratic process for the selection of 25% of its Parliament.

Even worse is that, despite being removed from Cabinet in 2002 for a serious ethics violation (giving an untendered Defence Ministry contract to his girlfriend), Art Eggleton was rewarded with an appointment.

Oh, and those Senators-designate selected to represent Alberta--they didn't even run in the province's recent Senate elections.

Didn't Paul Martin's platform for the Liberal leadership advocate the elimination the democratic deficit?

Socialists Decrying Diversity at University

This piece of journalistic tripe was brought to my attention on a listserv yesterday: some self-proclaimed "student activist" has penned an article for the New Socialist decrying the proliferation of conservatives contesting (and winning) student government elections in Ontario over the last five years.

The story is rich with contradictions: the author abhors conservative coalition-building on campuses in order to win elections, but then calls "for activists and progressives to bring these [student] unions back to their roots in integrated, progressive activism..."

He is aghast at the "resources devoted specifically to providing finances and political consultation to conservative candidates running in elections on a number of key university campuses..., despite ignoring that the uber-socialist Canadian Federation of Students has actively allowed its massive organisational and financial infrastructure to fund the campaigns of student government candidates sympathetic to its calls for free tuition, student protests, and opposition to the "neo-conservative" agenda for years.

It's often that student socialists lecture the university community on the lack of diversity on university campuses. However, when diverse, non-traditional voices want to challenge the student union status quo, the left defenestrates its rhetoric of diversity, choosing instead to support the uniformity of perspective it haughtily decries everywhere else but in its own backyard.

Richly ironic, but so typical.

Patronus' Return from Parliament and an Appellate Court

...well maybe of the "model" and "moot" variety respectively, but hey, it's a start. The paucity of blog-related productivity this week resulted from my co-organisation of the wildly successful revival of Nova Scotia Model Parliament to my very first opportunity to represent an allegedly heartless financial institution on appeal at Dalhousie Moot Court.

Alas, in returning to my daily ritual of sifting through the multitudinous online news publications piquing my interest, I found a Toronto Star article reporting Ontario Finance Minister Greg Sorbara's dramatic production at a House of Commons subcommittee last week.

In case you haven't been following Ontario politics recently, both the minister and Premier Dalton McGuinty have, like the 13-year-old kid in the schoolyard picking on the 9-year-old kid on crutches, have been attacking Newfoundland vicariously through Ottawa on account of the recent deal inked to give that province as well as Nova Scotia full access to both provinces' offshore resource revenue (which present the single biggest opportunity in decades to wean both provinces off the teat of federal government largesse).

While I expect this from a provincial government dominated by such B-team players, I am disappointed that Ontario Conservative Leader John Tory is crying the same tune. What is even more distressing are his comments about federal Conservative Leader Stephen Harper:

Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory, who also testified before the committee, said it is obvious that none of the federal parties is standing up for the province. "There's nobody up there who seems to be trumpeting Ontario's case," said Tory, expressing "surprise to the degree to which I don't talk all that often" to federal Conservative Leader Stephen Harper.

Never mind that attacking his federal cousins offers no discernable political benefit to his provincial party. Never mind that the lacklustre governance of the Ontario Liberals offers a permanent target to attack for electoral gain. Never mind that Harper's support for an offshore deal for those Atlantic Provinces will eventually result in less dependance on the revenue redistribution on which they currently depend and which is primarily funded by Ontario.

Not only is it bad form to attack the federal leader of your party--it's even poorer form to do so when the reason for which you attack him is one which will free your province from the very fiscal shackles you so decry.