“Let's not talk about statistics. Let's talk about danger” -- public safety minister Vic Toews

Once again, Canadians are up in arms about the latest scandal exposed about our government in Ottawa. This time, there is glaring evidence to suggest election fraud targeting dozens -- maybe more -- of the swing ridings across the country in last year's election. It could become, as the NDP's Pat Martin suggested, “the largest electoral fraud in Canadian history.”

On Dec. 7, 2011, Justice Campbell of the Federal Court issued a declaration that the Minister of Agriculture, Gerry Ritz, acted in breach of his statutory obligation to hold a plebiscite of farmers before abolishing the Canadian Wheat Board's "single desk" mandate for marketing wheat and barley.

Justice Campbell expressed no hesitation in granting a request by the Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board and the Canadian Wheat Board that "the Minister's conduct is an affront to the rule of law."

On Sunday, CTV leaked Canada's intentions to pull out of the Kyoto treaty process on climate change. What is significant about Kyoto is that it is a legally binding international treaty, and one that puts the onus of emission reductions on the countries that have done the most to cause the problem (and who have most benefited in their industrialization through the use of fossil fuels). That said, a lot of environmentalists greeted the news of Canada's impending treatus interruptus with a yawn: it is not news that Canada has long been in violation of Kyoto.

A short addendum to my previous post:

I checked the most recent IMF projections in the June 2011 Update to the Fiscal Monitor.

Table 1 provides estimates of changes in the general government cyclically adjusted balance in per cent of potential GDP. Basically, changes are the result of discretionary changes in fiscal policy rather than due to improvement or deterioration of the economy.

The major economic problem faced by Canadians is a very slow recovery and weak job market, not government deficits or rising debt. But public spending cuts at the federal and provincial level will make the real problem even worse.

And, government spending cuts in Canada seem set to be even greater than in other advanced industrial countries, even though our overall deficit and debt situation is much better. (The data for this post are taken from the tables attached to the May 2011 OECD Economic Outlook.)

The New Democratic Party first ran for office (as the CCF) in 1935 and has contested every federal election since -- three-quarters of a century of electoral history.

It is therefore not a small thing that Brad Lavigne holds the gold medal as my tribe's most electorally successful NDP national campaign director. Or that Anne McGrath co-holds that award as the most electorally successful NDP chief of staff (the Hon. Bill Knight holds the silver medal as national campaign director for 1988. Your humble blogger is the bronze winner in that role in 2008... for the time being).

Jack Layton is a man of many abilities, including his ability to attract some of the best political talent currently working in Ottawa.