Culture Wars are over but maybe the base can make some noise.

Chris Selley writes that the Liberals still don’t get why people are so upset by the abortion clause in Summer Jobs program.

Culture War not necessary

She would call it chutzpah that the Liberals have criticized the Conservative suggestion that funding to Dogwood, a B.C. environmental group was a Liberal defense of free speech. Her quote from the debate is “unlike apparently the leader of the official opposition, we believe in free speech.”

She is not convinced the Liberals and their most ardent supporters actually understand why people object so strenuously to the way they have handled the anti-abortion carve-out to the Summer Jobs Program.


The most logical way to ensure that government money isn’t spent advocating for or against a government policy is to stipulate that it not be so spent. “Tick this box to affirm that your summer employee will not participate in any anti-abortion/anti-pipeline/anti-whatever activities.” Easy peasy. Instead bureaucrats somehow came up with this: an applicant organization has to attest that “both the job and my organization’s core mandate respect individual human rights in Canada, including the values underlying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as other rights. These include reproductive rights.”

In 2015 Bill Blaikie, a veteran of Parliamentary battles on abortion, wrote that In spite of the fact that the new Conservative Party continued to seek votes in 2004 and 2006 on the basis of opposition to same sex marriage and abortion, it’s time in government from 2006 to 2015 would prove disappointing to those who cast their ballots on that basis.

The political right may have benefited from the culture wars for a time in gathering votes from Canadians who might not have supported their economic policies. In the end they have nothing to show for it, either to their temporary supporters or to their base. This reality, in combination with other factors such as the expanding political consciousness of many young evangelicals to include issues like climate change and poverty reduction, and Pope Francis encouraging Catholics to do likewise, constitutes the beginning of a new era in Canadian politics that has yet to fully reveal itself.

The strenuous effort the Liberals put forth is confusing because reproductive rights legislation in Canada is not likely to change anytime soon. A possible strategy to stir up the base over a false threat to these rights seems to have produced more pain than gain for the party even as the misunderstanding of the issue spread from the Prime Minister to some public commentators who expressed determination to go to the wall to protect rights that were never in danger.

The political downside

The downside for the Liberals seems to be recognition, in the light of the Dogwood, a B.C. environmental group, that “free speech” is a value that depends on what you have to say. Some commentators have compared the attestation requirement in the summer jobs to a values test that reminded some of the Harper era. Chris Selley adds..

If Team Trudeau really can’t wrap its mind around the nature of devout religious faith, despite an obvious imperative to do so, then perhaps this Dogwood episode can ram it through their skulls. You don’t need to be religious to understand. Just flip it around. Imagine the Conservative government had decided to nix summer jobs funding for anti-pipeline advocacy (not much of a stretch), or to throw a rare bone to its social-conservative wing and refuse to fund pro-choice advocacy. It would have been well within their rights, but people would have howled.

Was the summer job application a strategic error? Was it a distraction and diversion? Was it a values test? It was a disappointment to some Canadian youth and recipients of the work they may have done this summer.

References

(2015, December 18). Are the culture wars over in Canada? - Broadbent Institute. Retrieved April 27, 2018, from http://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/billblaikie/culture_wars_canada

(2018, April 26). Chris Selley: Liberals still don't get why people are so upset by .... Retrieved April 27, 2018, from http://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-with-summer-jobs-grants-liberals-determined-to-police-belief-rather-than-behaviour

Local school boards will be an issue in the next election

Business Models 

Alain Fortier, president, Federation of Quebec school boards explores what may be some hidden motives behind axing N.S. school boards.

Is there any subject more important than education, the vessel cultivating our future generation? I certainly don’t think so. This is why the government of Nova Scotia should rethink and make education the priority of everyone, not just a few.
Or maybe this government has a different agenda. And that is what worries me the most.

The table below highlights the benefits that local input through school boards provides. It also offers some suggestions where greater control may be a political action advantage for government.

Benefits of Local School Boards	Political plusses of no local boards
Collaboration over local concerns	Control over collaboration
Decisions in public education are public matters	The government will make all the decisions.
Locally elected address needs of everyone	Uniformity? Abolish local political representation.
political leadership should mobilize people	discourage people from involvement

Paul W. Bennett, Ed.D.,director of Schoolhouse Institute, and author of the February 2018 AIMS policy paper, Re-Engineering Education: Curing the Accountability and Democratic Deficit in Nova Scotia, offers a six-point plan of structural reforms that begins with two essential building blocks.

Amend the Education Reform Act to transform the school advisory councils into school governing councils (SGCs), composed of a majority of elected parents and appointed municipal, business and post-secondary education representation.Empower school governing councils with block funding and expanded authority in 10 specific areas, including including setting school priorities, developing and overseeing a school budget and improvement plans, a defined role in the hiring and reassignment of principals, ordering of textbooks and resources, holding regular school policy forums, and producing annual community accountability reports.

The table below shows a comparison of the building blocks of the Bennett policy paper and a long standing direction of AIMS in support of independent schools organized in a business model.

Paul W. Bennett AIMS Policy paper	AIMS Policy: Independent Schools
school governing councils (SGCs)	establish private and independent (charter schools)
Empower SGCs with block funding	a business model of competition and product management
developing and overseeing a school budget and improvement plans	staffed by non-unionized teachers

This tendency toward “Charter Schools” has concerned Grant Frost, educational commentator and a teacher of 20 years, for a long time.

The touting of independent schools is certainly nothing new for AIMS. They have been preaching from that pulpit for as long as I can remember. Nor is it uncommon for the various and sundry national “think tanks” to take a stand in local media trumpeting the value of school choice.
From the Frontier Center for Public Policy to the Fraser Institute, everyone who values an education system that follows a business model of competition and product management loves the idea.

The rapid move of the McNeil Government to remove the local school boards will likely not be the last position of the government. It is not acceptable by those parents and teachers who value the diversity of opinion, democratic process, and ability to address local needs of the school board system. The “neoliberal” philosophy of market forces, business models, and absence of government and unions in education expressed in AIMS policy does not wish to have education in Nova Scotia controlled by the government bureaucracy.  The Government will need to return decision making to the people in education. The people need to decide in the next election whether the market should be a factor in how education is provided, as in the AIMS model, or that the McNeil government has made a serious error in the management of this file and a new government needs to establish healthy, democratic, local school boards to achieve the best educational outcomes for all Nova Scotians.

References

2018, March 16). VIEW FROM QUEBEC: Beware hidden motives behind axing N.S. .... Retrieved April 5, 2018, from http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/1553745-view-from-quebec-beware-hidden-motives-behind-axing-n.s.-school-boards

(2018, March 16). BENNETT: A real cure for the democratic deficit in education | The .... Retrieved April 5, 2018, from http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/1553742-bennett-a-real-cure-for-the-democratic-deficit-in-education

(2014, August 12). Charter-school push aims to undercut public sector | The Chronicle .... Retrieved April 5, 2018, from http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/1228988-charter-school-push-aims-to-undercut-public-sector

In Canada, can a Liberal prime minister be considered an ideological dictator?

Fr. Raymond J. de Souza claims some justification for this assertion.

Source:https://www.americamagazine.org/sites/default/files/styles/article_image_750_x_503_/public/main_image/Every_Canadian_Needs_A_Copy.jpg.png?itok=AS05OYOK

Strong words, condemning a Liberal prime minister for being an ideological dictator. And to do so in America, an internationally read Catholic periodical of the theological and political left, adds to the sting.

Fr. Raymond J. de Souza wrote his article,” Sorry, Mr. Trudeau. We won’t ‘just check the box.’ “ in America Magazine (2018, March 20). Fr. Raymond J. de Souza also seems to be perplexed by the overly complicated method used by Trudeau to achieve the Government goal of separating summer students from work that might be in opposition to the Liberal reproductive rights policy.

Instead of focusing on what summer jobs money would pay young people to do, Mr. Trudeau’s government has made an issue of what the organizations that apply for the funds believe. Wouldn’t it have made more sense for the government to meet with faith groups and inform them that some past recipients of the grants have been problematic?

The “values test” contained in the ‘just check the box’ attestation connected with the summer jobs program

Choosing a troublesome path?

is a reminder to Canadians of the ideological policy directives of the Harper government.

References


(2018, April 3). Fr. Raymond J. De Souza: Rosica pulls back curtain on 'a new .... Retrieved April 4, 2018, from https://www.catholicregister.org/opinion/columnists/item/27119-fr-raymond-j-de-souza-rosica-pulls-back-curtain-on-a-new-dictatorship

(2018, March 20). Sorry, Mr. Trudeau. We won't 'just check the box.' | America Magazine. Retrieved April 4, 2018, from https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2018/03/20/sorry-mr-trudeau-we-wont-just-check-box

Strange political strategy from Liberal leader raises concern about his gravitas.

The Liberal government is having trouble with mistakes, dumb choices, and overbearing attitudes.

Choosing a smart political path

The Conservative opposition seems to be prepared to take advantage of this situation. A letter from Liberal MP John McKay has surfaced in which he called the attestation requirement in applications for Federal funds for student summer  a “regrettable error.”

McKay, a lawyer and evangelical Christian, went on to say many have not been able to sign the attestation for reasons of conscience and that groups and charities in his own riding have been affected.
“The attestation clause is a regrettable example of that error,” he said. “It is my view that applications for government grants that engage in non-political non-activist work should be free of ideological bias and political preference.”

This seems to be action that thankfully sets aside the political strategy of whipping the members of the Liberal party to vote for the decisions of the leader even if those decisions seem to show a lack of gravitas and even sensible political strategy.

Dan Leger prays that the Easter break brings humility to Trudeau’s team.

The problems go beyond ineffective public relations to how the Liberals carry themselves in government: making mistakes and dumb choices, acting boastful and overbearing one day and faux-humble the next. Increasingly, people don’t buy it.
They do expect the Liberals to come up with a plan to manage the deficit. They expect to see public projects built. They want a government that can control the economic damage being caused by the madcap Republican regime in Washington.
The Liberals really need to remember that people voted for them in reaction against years of arrogant and furtive government by the Conservatives.

In an interview, Preston Manning said the Liberals need to be challenged on their inconsistencies.

Scheer noted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says “diversity is our strength,” but “he is forcing Canadians to sign an attestation of belief to receive funding for summer jobs for something that may have nothing to do with public policy or advocacy work.”
Preston Manning, founder of the Manning Centre and former leader of the Reform Party, urged Conservatives to take the opportunity to champion the first five freedoms enumerated in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including freedom of conscience and religion, freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression.
“The Liberals in the name of other freedoms are violating these rights,” Manning said while moderating a panel on Identity Politics and State-Supported Social Censorship.

References



(n.d.). Catholic Register Canada News - The Catholic Register. Retrieved April 3, 2018, from https://www.catholicregister.org/home/canada?start=44

(2018, April 2). LEGER: Pray that Easter break brings humility to Trudeau's team | The .... Retrieved April 3, 2018, from http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/1557921-leger-pray-that-easter-break-brings-humility-to-trudeau%E2%80%99s-team

(2018, February 13). Conservatives seek to brand themselves as the party of freedom. Retrieved April 3, 2018, from https://www.catholicregister.org/item/26819-conservatives-seek-to-brand-themselves-as-the-party-of-freedom

Patterns showing danger to the moral health of the Canadian body politic

Recent events in Parliament have caused me wonder if how my father taught me to vote no longer stands as good advice for Canadian democracy.

Democratic Opinion Sharing

My dad believed that voting for the best person was more important than voting for a particular party. The conscience and good sense of the person who was elected was a crucial element that would come into play when inevitably important decisions had to be made that had not been foreseen in the platform of the political party.

The memoir written by Bill Blaikie, “The Blaikie Report: An Insider’s Look at Faith and Politics” recalls a time when whipping MPs was much more restricted in Parliament and the candidate was not obliged to obtain the party leader’s endorsement and proclaim endorsement of the cultural policy of the party. An article by Paul W. Bennett in the The Chronicle Herald comments that Bill Blaikie is raising larger questions about the moral health of the Canadian body politic.

Bill Blaikie, the long-serving New Democratic Party MP and later Manitoba cabinet minister, is not afraid to confront the issue. His memoir, The Blaikie Report: An Insider’s Look at Faith and Politics, bravely goes where few dare roam, raising larger questions about the moral health of the Canadian body politic.

Brian Platt reports on the conscientious decision of Liberal MP John McKay and his discussions with the office of the Whip.

“The attestation clause is a regrettable example of that error. It is my view that applications for government grants that engage in non-political non-activist work should be free of ideological bias and political preference.”… In his letter, McKay says he chose not to attend the vote after conferring with Liberal caucus whip Pablo Rodriguez, whose office is responsible for party discipline on votes.

The threat to our democracy from the Whip enforcing party discipline is the loss of conscientious, intelligent, and critical thinking analysis of legislation by those good people we have elected to serve as our decision makers.

Bill Blaikie recalls some of the members that he knew were able to bring wisdom to Parliament without being shut down by party Whip.

When I was first elected to the House of Commons, one of my colleagues in the NDP caucus was Father Bob Ogle, a Roman Catholic priest who represented Saskatoon East. When Father Bob and I were elected in 1979, he was the health critic and I was the social policy critic. When we did some touring together across the country, we were sometimes called "the God Squad" by the press. Indeed, I suppose that the first few NDP caucuses I sat in were certainly open to being caricatured as the God Squad. The Rev. Stanley Knowles, the Rev. Jim Manly, Father Bob Ogle, Father Andy Hogan, Anglican worker priest Dan Heap, and myself—a half-dozen clergy in caucuses that ranged from 26 to just over 30.

Some recent opinion pieces on the decision of NDP member David Christopherson to vote his conscience by Andrew Dreschel

Although firmly pro-choice, Christopherson believes the new rules for the Canada Summer Jobs program are an attack on people's freedom of conscience and right to dissent.
"If the law is an ass, you have right to say so," said Christopherson. "You have to obey the Charter; you have to obey the laws. But you don't have to bow and scrape and commit fealty. You don't have to say I love the law."
"In my view, ticking off that box was taking away a right that they have and that needs to be maintained."

and Peter Wall in the Hamilton Spectator

David is my MP, and I am proud of him. I do not always agree with him; I probably do not agree with his actions on this particular matter. I also have a deep respect for a parliamentary party system in which loyalty and discipline are significant characteristics.
However, I also elect representatives to think, discern, struggle, disagree, use their own intellect and, ultimately, cast votes based on all of the many and sometimes conflicting factors at work. I am weary of parliamentary systems in which a blind party 'follow the leader' system seems to have taken hold. I hope that I do not always agree with my MP; rather, I hope that he does follow his conscience, and that he both behaves and votes in ways which are consistent with his serious and important weighing of the merits of issues. David was doing his job — the job that I and others elected him to do. How sad that that should be seen as breaking ranks or being disloyal or worthy of punishment. Well done, David. Well written, Andrew.

show that MP’s who still take their responsibility to their constituents and conscience seriously receive support, even from constituents who do not agree with their decision.

A political system where the role of the elected member is always to vote in accord with the party leader will tend to reduce candidates to “yes” people and further alienate Canadians young and old from participation in a political system that is anti-intellectual and without moral reconsideration of issues.
References


(2012, March 4). Blaikie: Faith and politics do mix | The Chronicle Herald. Retrieved April 2, 2018, from http://thechronicleherald.ca/books/69837-blaikie-faith-and-politics-do-mix 

(2011, October 18). The God Squad has a Left Wing, Too | Convivium Magazine. Retrieved April 2, 2018, from https://www.convivium.ca/articles/the-god-squad-has-a-left-wing-too 

(2018, April 2). Second Liberal MP denounces Summer Jobs abortion-rights clause .... Retrieved April 2, 2018, from http://nationalpost.com/news/politics/second-liberal-mp-denounces-summer-jobs-attestation-says-it-misrepresents-the-charter

(2018, March 23). Opinion | NDP punish David Christopherson for breaking ranks .... Retrieved April 2, 2018, from https://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/8346020-ndp-punish-david-christopherson-for-breaking-ranks/

(n.d.). March 31: The truth about Hawking's beliefs, bravo to Christopherson .... Retrieved April 2, 2018, from https://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/8364178-march-31-the-truth-about-hawking-s-beliefs-bravo-to-christopherson-and-other-letters-to-the-editor/