The Invisible Hand

CBC did another series of interviews with leaders of the fringe parties last night. I also covered this bit in the last election. On the question of "what would be the first thing you'd do if you won the election", they said:

Christian Heritage Party: Recognize that personhood goes from conception to natural death
Libertarian Party: End the drug war
Marijuana Party: Legalize marijuna federally (municipalities could set their own laws)
Progressive Canadian Party: Free post-secondary education
Marxist-Leninist Party: Choose your candidates before the election (I think this was related to party nominations)
Communist Party: Pull out of NAFTA
Canadian Action Party: Launch an international investigation of what really happened on 9/11; remove the "competitiveness council" of sixteen corporate leaders who tell the Prime Minister what to do
Neorhino.ca: Abolish Canada; abolish the military budget; Quebec separates and joins Cuba to form "Cubec"; Cubec's national drink will be made from maple syrup and Cuban rum

I wonder if the leaders of the Work Less Party, First Peoples National Party, and Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party will threaten a lawsuit because they weren't included. :)

Oh, and it's a bit sad that the Rhinos' platform was only about the third-dumbest of the bunch...

Labels: anti-capitalist stupidity, drugs, free trade, general stupidity

Bob Tarantino pointed me to this CP item:

Alexander Panetta
CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA–The number of people arrested for smoking pot rose dramatically in several Canadian cities last year after the Conservatives took office and killed a bill to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.

First of all, the Conservatives did not kill the bill; it died automatically when the 38th Parliament fell in November 2005. Can Mr. Panetta really be this ignorant of the Canadian parliamentary system, given that it's his job to report on it?

Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Halifax reported increases of between 20 and 50 per cent in 2006, while Montreal and Calgary saw their number of arrests dip a few percentage points from the previous year.

So in other words, they're blaming the federal Conservatives for something that is entirely the result of decisions by local police forces.

As a result, thousands of people were charged with a criminal offence that recently was within a whisker of extinction.

Every party in the House of Commons except the Conservatives supported the decriminalization bill, but the Liberal government that sponsored it never brought it to a final vote.

Didn't bring it to a "final vote," you say? In fact, over the course of the entire term they didn't do anything more than refer it to a committee! (And the Liberals also failed to pass two earlier versions of the bill in the 37th Parliament, despite having a majority at the time.)

Also, for what it's worth this pro-marijuana site claims that the Liberal bills would have done little to reduce the penalty on small-time cannabis users, and possibly have made them harsher (such as fining users who previously would have just gotten a warning).

Labels: drugs, media

CBC's nightly news had a piece on Canada' minor political parties which I thought was interesting. This is how the party representatives responded when asked about the first thing they'd do if they formed the government.

Canadian Action Party: Get rid of NAFTA
Communist Party: Get rid of NAFTA
Progressive Canadian Party: Fix health care
Marxist-Leninist Party: Declare that Canadian government is anti-war
Marijuana Party: Stop using police resources against drug users
Libertarian Party: Severely restrict power and scope of government
Christian Heritage Party: Bring forward a socially conservative platform

I agree with the Libertarian's message, and to a lesser extent the Marijuana Party's.

Labels: anti-capitalist stupidity, drugs