''
Thomas Mulcair
Mon, 2013-02-18 21:53
#1
Thomas Mulcair
Mon, 2013-02-18 21:56
#2
Thomas Mulcair joins Weibo, world’s largest Chinese social network
“Weibo reaches out to the vast and growing number of Chinese-Canadians on the Internet,” Mr. Mulcair said in a statement. “It’s a way to connect with them directly and hear the issues they face. I’m excited to join this large online community and I look forward to engaging with them.”
Mr. Mulcair is the first prominent federal politician to join the Twitter-like site,
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/thomas-mulc...
Mon, 2013-02-18 22:04
#3
Wow, what an incredible source for political punditry in Canada. Truly amazin'
Why did Crossroads pull the webpage, eh!
Chris Selley: Tom Mulcair’s foreign aid hypocrisy
Opposition leader Tom Mulcair could not be clearer in his view that the Conservative government should not enlist the evangelical Christian aid organization Crossroads to do good works in Uganda. His reasons, however, poke another hole in a big Canadian can of worms.
“It’s shocking to hear [International Co-operation Minister Julian] Fantino … standing up today and defending a group that on its website is attacking something that’s recognized and protected by Canadian law,” he told reporters on Monday. He was referring to a Crossroads web page (since disappeared) listing homosexuality, which Uganda has considered making a capital offence, as a “sexual sin” and a “perversion.”
“It goes against Canadian values. It goes against Canadian law,” Mr. Mulcair continued. He accused the Conservatives of undermining their opposition to Uganda’s persecution of homosexuals by “subsidiz[ing] a group … whose views are identical to those of the Ugandan government” — an extraordinary smear that Crossroads quickly and credibly denied.
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/02/13/chris-selley-tom-mulcairs...
Mon, 2013-02-18 22:11
#4
Hi，我是TomMulcair_唐民凱！ 赶快注册微博粉我吧，随时分享我的最新动态！
Tue, 2013-02-19 16:19
#5
Finally the NDP wades into the HD Mining issue - good on Mulcair
Mandarin not an official language: Mulcair
Federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair pointed out Sunday that Mandarin is not an official language of Canada, while taking aim at the federal government for its handling of the HD Mining controversy.
Clad in traditional Chinese garb for Vancouver's Chinese New Year parade, Mulcair said the government has not been clear on its position regarding the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
"I don't think that the government's got a handle on it," he said. "Minister (Diane) Finley flips back and forth on any given day on this subject."
HD Mining plans to import 201 miners from China to work at its Murray River coal operation, claiming it could not find Canadians with the expertise to fill the positions.
Public attention increased after the United Steelworkers Union found advertisements for the job listing Mandarin as an important asset for the positions, an approach Mulcair admonished.
"Canada has two official languages and Mandarin isn't one of them," Mulcair said.
The NDP leader later focused his answer in a phone interview.
"If you need another language at a desk in a hotel because your clientele speaks that language, that's one thing," he said. "But if you're having a blanket requirement to bring in temporary foreign workers and you're requiring a language other than French or English, that's another thing."
The federal government has argued on the side of the company in court after two BC unions filed for a review of the company's permits for the miners.
The company recently sent 16 miners back to China, citing it needs more certainty about the project's viability before continuing.
http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/politics/archives/2013/02/20130218-...
Tue, 2013-02-19 16:20
#6
Mulcair says foreign investment can benefit economy if done right
http://www.globalnews.ca/canada/mulcair+says+foreign+investment+can+bene...
Tue, 2013-02-19 16:42
#7
I suspect that Mulcair is right and he has a lot in common with the business crowd.
Mulcair, the leader of the official Opposition, made his remarks to a business luncheon in Calgary.
He acknowledged that the crowd wasn't exactly a bastion of New Democrat support but said there may be more in common than one might expect.
Tue, 2013-02-19 16:44
#8
I wonder if Mulcair realizes that having meetings to prove how business friendly the NDP is was the strategy that Carole James used in her career as leader?
Tue, 2013-02-19 19:41
#9
Canada is a trading nation. Always has been, always will be.
http://rabble.ca/news/2013/02/note-thomas-mulcair-friends-dont-let-frien...
Tue, 2013-02-19 21:12
#10
You're not suggesting we should trade Mulcair, are you?
He's my MP. Who are you offering?
Tue, 2013-02-19 21:54
#11
No we shouldn't trade him, unless that is, we can get a really good left winger, eh! 
Wed, 2013-02-20 01:28
#12
NDP leader promises to partner with oilpatch on energy development
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
The federal NDP leader said pipelines to carry oil from the West to the East should be a priority because they would build energy security, get higher prices for Canadian oil, and create jobs.
http://business.financialpost.com/2013/02/19/ndp-leader-promises-partner...
Wed, 2013-02-20 08:39
#13
Maysie
Getting back to the thread topic, Mulcair meets my expectations once again.
When the Financial Post sings your praises, you know something's wrong.
(from the link at post 11)
But in Calgary on Tuesday, Mr. Mulcair hit the right notes when he spoke about the need to clarify the rules on foreign investment, particularly by state-owned enterprises like those from China.The federal NDP leader also said pipelines to carry oil from the West to the East should be a priority because they would build energy security, get higher prices for Canadian oil, and create jobs.
Both positions show greater political maturity for the aspiring prime minister.
Wed, 2013-02-20 08:40
#14
Maysie
Clad in traditional Chinese garb
Fucking hell fuck.
Wed, 2013-02-20 09:17
#15
Arthur Cramer
I guess I got duped about moving the center to the NDP. I thought that meant convincing people we were the right choice. I didn't realize it meant becoming the Liberals.
Wed, 2013-02-20 09:31
#16
Unionist, no you can't have my MP! Or my MNA!
Wed, 2013-02-20 09:47
#17
Yes I can, lagatta... I can move!
Oh, and you're just envious because we had an anglojewmayor in CDN-NDG before Montréal did! Yeah!!
Wed, 2013-02-20 10:08
#18
Well, at one point I did live in what was the district represented by Fred Rose, but that was before my time.
Not fair! If I called someone a "Jew Mayor", I'd be quite rightly accused of bigotry!
Teaching ESL to adults in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, the question came up. Someone spoke about a "Jew Lawyer" - she did not mean that in any discriminatory or bigoted way, it is just because Juif/Juive means both Jew and Jewish in French. So I had to explain that... I don't remember why the religious/cultural heritage of the individual came up, but it wasn't in a stereotyped manner, it had something to do with an actual case.
The Wiki article on Fred Rose states:
"As a Member of Parliament, Rose proposed the first medicare legislation and the first anti-hate legislation".
But he was tarred with accusations of espionnage during the postwar Red Scare, and wound up stripped of his citizenship, back in his native Poland, after a jail term on trumped-up charges: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rose_%28politician%29
His family arrived from Lublin, then part of the Russian Empire, when he was 9. Fortunate that he did evidently speak Polish, to live and work there... almost all Yiddish-speakers there had been murdered by the Nazis in the interval.
Wed, 2013-02-20 10:42
#19
Well, at one point I did live in what was the district represented by Fred Rose, but that was before my time.
I lived there too - long ago (but not in Fred's time!).
Merrily Weisbord (do you know her?) is the only journalist/writer that Fred Rose ever agreed to give an interview to after his McCarthyite trial, loss of citizenship, and deportation to Poland. After his death in Warsaw, she ended up having to look after his remains. She wrote about him and much else - such as growing up as a "red diaper baby" - in [url=http://www.vehiculepress.com/cgi-bin/dbman2/db.cgi?db=default&uid=&view_... Strangest Dream[/url]. Here's an [url=http://www.vehiculepress.com/excerpts/69.html]excerpt[/url].
I guess we're straying from the thread topic?
Wed, 2013-02-20 11:56
#20
..this is not the road to good goverenance. this is the road to..you know. greece. spain and portugal.
Wed, 2013-02-20 12:28
#21
Note to federal NDP. Bitumen is not oil no matter what Calgary's 0.1% tell you.
Wed, 2013-02-20 13:12
#22
It was exceedingly culturally sensitive for Mulcair to a don a traditional Chinese costume. I can hardly wait to see him at a powwow. His message though was the kicker. When he waded into the temporary workers scandal it wasn't with an incisive analysis of the problems with the program. No way, in keeping with cultural sensitivity he highlighted the fact that the program had called for Mandarin in the Other Skills part of the HD Mining form. Of course he rightly pointed out that if the form had asked for either of Canada's official languages as a requirement then it would have been proper.
I am not sure what audience he was playing to. I am heartened to know that if this company had used the scam of advertising for French as a requirement instead of Mandarin then it would have been okay. After all in BC less than 1% of the population speak French at home. I am sure that there are enterprising lawyers on Howe Street going, "that's the ticket." In the future watch for foreign firms wanting to bring in temporary workers to be asking for French as a skill. It is an even better way of showing that there are no qualified applicants in our regional market and workers have to be imported.
Like I said nice cultural sensitivity, especially while in full costume.
To bad we still don't know how the NDP would fix the temporary workers program that has our Tim's being staffed by an underclass of non voting non identities.
In 2011, 51.8% of the population spoke only English most often at home, 0.7% spoke only French and 41.7% spoke only a non-official language. In comparison, the provincial / territorial percentages were 80.5% for only English, 0.4% for only French and 15.4% for only a non-official language.
http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/as-sa/fogs-spg/Facts-...
Of the 712,000 people who reported speaking an immigrant language most often at home, nearly 18 per cent reported speaking Punjabi.
But the combined number of people who spoke either Cantonese, Mandarin or an unspecified Chinese language accounted for 40 per cent of the population who spoke an immigrant language as their main language at home.
In Greater Vancouver, the number of people whose mother tongue is something other than French or English is now nearly one million people.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/10/24/bc-censu...
Wed, 2013-02-20 13:34
#23
Boom Boom
And we (well, some of us) had such high hopes when he won the leadership. 
Wed, 2013-02-20 13:50
#24
I had high hopes when I saw all those young activists elected from Quebec that with people like Libby and Peter helping mentor them the party would move left. Sadly none of the above seem to have a real voice in the big issues. A tightly controlled PMO will be Mulcair's style as well if his time as Leader of the OO is any indication.
Wed, 2013-02-20 14:22
#25
Boom Boom
Wed, 2013-02-20 22:13
#26
Tom is doing what he has to do to make himself heard in the media. His instincts are those of a former Quebec minister. New Democrats are more used to hearing from the leader of a third (or fourth) party His upcoming trip to Washington should prove interesting.
On the Euro trade deal, he says he is not opposed in principle, but wants to see it done right. O.K. by me. Easier to say I would support it if it were a good deal, but this is poor because ... rather than ursup the Council of Canadians role, so long as he does oppose it in the end, and it will be poor.
If he blows the trade call, he drives supporter away, and he helps Justin. That's my feeling. Others will stay with the party whatever it does.
Thu, 2013-02-21 12:34
#27
I don't believe that a university degree is "worthless". I don't believe one has to devalue one kind of education over another. I think that entering a trade is excellent opportunity, as well as community college, a technical school, or going directly into work.
Thu, 2013-02-21 13:57
#28
Arthur Cramer
I don't know Jan, I have a BA, and aside from the Service, my BA hasn't given me an edge anywhere. I graduated in 79 double honours, History and Economics. I am not sure that in this short attention span culture in which we live today education matters much. Call me a cynic.
Thu, 2013-02-21 14:18
#29
Education is always good in and unto itself. it's not a commodity.
Thu, 2013-02-21 14:23
#30
Maybe to start with, Canada could implement an excellent apprenticeship program such as they have in Germany, and properly train our own young people. And who says the Mulcair-led NDP does not support that - but education just happens to be provincial jurisdiction.
And maybe Canadians need to take a serious look in the mirror and begin to uderstand there are great futures for many of our young people by getting themselves a trade. White collar workers and parents sometimes need to climb down from their high horses, and help their kids obtain a decent paying future, rather than some worthless university degree.
Thu, 2013-02-21 14:27
#31
Boom Boom
Caissa is right on the money. I went to two different colleges, and two different universities, just to soak up as much as I could. I'd do it again if I had the money. Learning was an amazing experience, but so is direct work experience of whatever kind. In our short 70 - 90 years on this earth, every moment counts.
That said, there is associated socialization during the experiences of life in learning and work. I remember one university that shall be unamed (Trent 
) that was really "party central" most of the time.
Thu, 2013-02-21 14:29
#32
University is probably one of the biggest con jobs ever perpetuated on society. It often is a major rip-off, leaving students with unbelievable debt. People need to smarten up and get a trade first, then persue university after, once you are able to earn and provide a decent living for yourself and your family.
Thu, 2013-02-21 16:04
#33
University is probably one of the biggest con jobs ever perpetuated on society. It often is a major rip-off, leaving students with unbelievable debt. People need to smarten up and get a trade first, then persue university after, once you are able to earn and provide a decent living for yourself and your family.
The trades do not make up anywhere near a large enough part of our economy to provide employment for everyone. Like it or not, low paying service jobs make up a huge part of our capitalist economy. Our modern economy requires more waiters, cooks, janitors, drivers, retail staff, etc... than trades people. Low paying service jobs are integral to our modern economy so the question arises, how can people in these jobs be insured a living wage?
We've been sold this idea that everyone can get a good paying job if they just pull themselves up by their boot straps and take advantage of the opportunities provided by our capitalist economy eventhouh our capitalist economy is based on having a huge sector of low paying service jobs.
One solution to this problem inherent to capitalism is to raise taxes especially on the rich, but here in Canada that's a solution that's become out of bounds for all the major political parties.
Thu, 2013-02-21 16:47
#34
Thomas Mulcair and pipeline politics
When asked to clarify his position regarding the Northern Gateway pipeline project, Mulcair launched. “I am adamantly opposed to Northern Gateway. Is there anything unclear in what I just said?” he asked. And he went on. “It is madness to think of bringing those supertankers into that pristine coast. It is a non-starter. It is the most abject misunderstanding of the importance of protecting the environment I have ever seen in Canada. The company that continues to propose that is the same company that was described by the highest level of the U.S. administration as the, quote, Keystone Kops.”
… The irony in all this is that Enbridge was one of the luncheon sponsors – and Mulcair was seated to the right of one of its government relations execs.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/02/21/thomas-mulcair-and-pipeline-politics/
Thu, 2013-02-21 16:50
#35
Thu, 2013-02-21 18:37
#36
Boom Boom
That link is protected by paywall.
Proposal: ban paywall links here on babble.
Thu, 2013-02-21 18:42
#37
No we shouldn't trade him, unless that is, we can get a really good left winger, eh!
That would be a lovely, and most welcome change.
Thu, 2013-02-21 18:45
#38
Resolutionary Socialism: Why a leftist agenda within the NDP is futile
There can be little doubt anymore, other than to the willfully blind, that neither the federal NDP nor any of its provincial wings are socialist parties.
The shift towards centrism and the embrace of neo-liberal hegemonic economic ideas, such as Tom Mulcair's recent backing of corporate free trade deals, has become obviously irreversible. Even worse, Mulcair has now backed away from his previously critical comments about the oil sands, and has won praise from the business press for his "political maturity," which is little more than a code phrase for having abandoned important principles around the environment and climate change....
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/michael-laxer/2013/02/resolutionary-soci...
Thu, 2013-02-21 18:49
#39
Boom Boom
well, according to NR, Mulcair said this:
When asked to clarify his position regarding the Northern Gateway pipeline project, Mulcair launched. “I am adamantly opposed to Northern Gateway. Is there anything unclear in what I just said?” he asked. And he went on. “It is madness to think of bringing those supertankers into that pristine coast. It is a non-starter. It is the most abject misunderstanding of the importance of protecting the environment I have ever seen in Canada. The company that continues to propose that is the same company that was described by the highest level of the U.S. administration as the, quote, Keystone Kops.”
The only other federal leader on that same page as Mulcair is Elizabeth May.
Thu, 2013-02-21 20:00
#40
..northern gateway is not going to happen in the near future if at all. kinder morgan is the one to stop. that and another 9 pipelines being proposed. it is manipulative of mulcair to toss that out and at the same time say yes to the west east.
Thu, 2013-02-21 20:28
#41
Canada is a trading nation. Always has been, always will be.
http://rabble.ca/news/2013/02/note-thomas-mulcair-friends-dont-let-frien...
Which is not to say that we shouldn't have some democratic control over who we trade with and for what (including how goods and services are produced) i.e. fair trade, or that the greater the amount of international trade the better. Of course Canada has not always existed and will not exist into the infinite future, even if humans do manage to survice our present existential crises.
Thu, 2013-02-21 20:41
#42
Every country trades, in some form or another. Yes, we have been sold down the river by the Mulronyites, the Cons, and the Liberals, with their free trade scams, but it doesn't mean we should stop trading. Maybe by now we should just be a little smarter at it, and hopefully we have learned to not give away the entire store in the process.
The big problem is that the folks negotiating these trade deals for Canada basically represent the multinationals and not Joe and Jane Canadian citizen. How we are going to ever change that I'm not sure. I'm hopeful that the NDP will represent the average Canadian citizen's interests better than the 2 pro-business at any cost parties when they get elected to form the federal government but can we count on that. I think we need to hold their feet to the fire at all times.
Thu, 2013-02-21 20:42
#43
..northern gateway is not going to happen in the near future if at all. kinder morgan is the one to stop. that and another 9 pipelines being proposed. it is manipulative of mulcair to toss that out and at the same time say yes to the west east.
I'm still not clear that Mulcair is proposing using the west-east pipeline for diluted bitumen, but it's naive to think that a pipeline used for conventional crude oil or refined oil products can't be used for dilbit. As for Kinder-Morgan, the south BC coast doesn't need oil spills either. It will be interesting to see what transpires at the next federal NDP Convention, to say nothing of how the BC NDP handles Kinder-Morgan. I'm not sure whether it's good strategy or not to appear less scary to business interests while potentially alienating a significant portion of your base.
Thu, 2013-02-21 22:22
#44
I'm still not clear that Mulcair is proposing using the west-east pipeline for diluted bitumen, but it's naive to think that a pipeline used for conventional crude oil or refined oil products can't be used for dilbit.
Here is a silly goose. Who is being naive again? Kalamazoo is what happens when you run bitumen through pipelines designed for pumping crude.
Thu, 2013-02-21 22:23
#45
Boom Boom
..northern gateway is not going to happen in the near future if at all. kinder morgan is the one to stop. that and another 9 pipelines being proposed. it is manipulative of mulcair to toss that out and at the same time say yes to the west east.
He was asked about Northern Gateway and gave his reply about Northn Gateway.
Fri, 2013-02-22 02:27
#46
I'm still not clear that Mulcair is proposing using the west-east pipeline for diluted bitumen, but it's naive to think that a pipeline used for conventional crude oil or refined oil products can't be used for dilbit.
Here is a silly goose. Who is being naive again? Kalamazoo is what happens when you run bitumen through pipelines designed for pumping crude.
You will note I did not use the adverb "safely".
Fri, 2013-02-22 06:31
#47
knownothing
Mulcair was discussed on the At Issue panel tonight. There may be a lot of people complaining about him on rabble but he told everyone that his plan was to win and that is what he is doing.
He hasn't been any different than Jack was or would have been. Don't believe everything you read in the press.
Fri, 2013-02-22 07:17
#48
..northern gateway is not going to happen in the near future if at all. kinder morgan is the one to stop. that and another 9 pipelines being proposed. it is manipulative of mulcair to toss that out and at the same time say yes to the west east.
He was asked about Northern Gateway and gave his reply about Northn Gateway.
boom boom
..same ugly tar sands same ugly problems. because he can say one pipeline is bad and by the same standard the other is a priority..it must be good. this is manipulative. trying to look all leftish and with the people while squarely with the corporations.
Fri, 2013-02-22 08:13
#49
There is a rather large difference between opening up an entirely new pipeline and oil terminal on the West coast and reversing the flow of an existing pipeline. If pipeline oil displaces tanker traffic to the East coast, we're probably still looking at a net reduction of environmental risk. If this proves necessary as a sort of consolation prize to Alberta for not doing Northern Gateway, I can live with it.
Fri, 2013-02-22 09:25
#50
There is a rather large difference between opening up an entirely new pipeline and oil terminal on the West coast and reversing the flow of an existing pipeline. If pipeline oil displaces tanker traffic to the East coast, we're probably still looking at a net reduction of environmental risk. If this proves necessary as a sort of consolation prize to Alberta for not doing Northern Gateway, I can live with it.
You can live with a Kalamazoo incident? I suspect that your attitude reflects the NDP's Ottawa brain trusts thinking and it sucks.
Fri, 2013-02-22 09:28
#51
Memo to Mulcair. Its not crude you idiot.