Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
Nuclear Power and Partnership with India
His Excellency Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam visited Canada on a remarkable 4 day visit to Toronto and Vancouver to deliver a series of lectures on green energy and the green economy. I was invited as a guest to a small gathering at the Albany Club in Toronto.
For those of us avid observers of politics, we know greatness is born from folklore and the test of time. But you have to step a back a bit from that kind of cynicism and ponder the greatness of President Kalam. Born in abject poverty in India, as a boy he would run outside under a street lamp to read books because he lived in a small home that had no electricity. It was in this manner that he studied nuclear science and became one of the world’s foremost experts on the peaceful use of nuclear power. His vision for energy use and its application globally prompted innovative thinking that could, in effect, harness the sun’s power to create energy for the world based on solar panels on the moon. It is this kind of thinking, among his many other innovations, that have made him as powerful in the world of science as the Dalai Lama is to his faith.
Dr. Kalam is selling the concept of partnership in business with India, soon to be one of the world’s most dominant business partners. With a hunger and need for about 30,000 megawatts of power in the coming decade, partnership is the only option for this emerging market.
Canada is a natural partner with India. We have the Commonwealth to thank for that.
Dr. Kalam and I had a comprehensive discussion on nuclear energy. Having been an executive at AECL at the beginning of this millennium, I know that Canada’s innovation in heavy water reactors and their ability to burn Thorium is well known to the energy starving India. Exploiting CANDU technology in India is a role that the government of Canada can and should start to accelerate – the PM started this process at the G20 Summit. However, at a recent event at my home with a senior Cabinet Minister in Harper’s government, I was advised that AECL will definitely be put on the blocks despite our attempts to stop that kind of madness. Giving up on AECL, such as is being considered by the government and with no interest from an ineffective opposition on the matter in the House of Commons is one of the second greatest missed opportunities in Canada just behind the Avro Arrow.
The President was so keenly interested in the opportunity to discuss the use of Thorium and the possibility of recycling spent nuclear fuel in reactors that he has invited me to India in 2011. I am taking him up on his offer.
I will report back on my return.
Thank goodness nobody’s paying attention in the City of Toronto.
The race for Mayor in the City of Toronto, in my opinion, reached a new low last week.
The shenanigans going on between the two top runners and those vying for a shot are nothing noteworthy.
I guess in order to garner media attention for one’s campaign, the candidate and his or her team must resort to the basest of political smear. Take the incident with a young Rossi campaign worker and George Smitherman. Who knows what really happened – only Smitherman and this person. The media, however, reported it as though Smitherman is a bully looking for a fight and Rossi, a wonderful guy, sure to weigh in as though it was a fact. Well, this kind of politics in the City of Toronto is now the norm.
Anecdotally, people are fed up with this kind of politicking. It’s a horrible economy, people are angry that they are either unemployed, underemployed or soon to be both. They are hungry and searching for political leadership to raise their hopes.
The best line I ever heard about politics is that political leaders don’t have the luxury of despair. So why this vitriol?
I would surmise it’s because of the economy. It’s because we’re at a place right now where decisions in the past by those in charge of government, have impacted citizens – hard!!
Their vitriol is playing out in the actions of campaign teams and the manner in which these actions are being reported.
It’s the same thing across the province of Ontario in many municipal campaigns. This municipal election is a precursor for the vitriol and anger that many Canadians seem to sense (or at least the hundreds that I talk with about this issue) because of the state of the economy.
Buck up politicians!
Pay attention voters and don’t believe everything you read.
The Liberal NDP merger.
Ask any young person about politics and they’ll say don’t care! Better than that they might say, “don’t care, don’t give a shit”! This is a sad commentary on politics today.
The reason why fewer that 55% of Canadians bothered to vote in the last federal election and why more and more Canadians are voicing displeasure with the politicians is because they (the voters) feel helpless and unengaged.
I joined the Liberal Party when I was 14 years old. In the past 35 years, I have enjoyed the experience of fighting no fewer than 15 provincial and federal elections combined, 7 leadership conventions, two leadership reviews and myriad policy conferences. Suffice to say, I am a child of MY Party. The sad fact today is that it means a hill of beans.
My political mentor John Turner, for whom I worked, laments that the democratization of parliament is an issue second only to the bolstering of policies and ingratiation of Party faithful. These people own the Party, NOT the bunch of appointed flacks who serve the Leader of the Party. The recent private discussions that have been undertaken by old flacks in some secluded spots in Ottawa are a symptom of a larger problem for the Liberal Party how to re-engage Liberals or attract new ones.
Instead of a re-evaluation of this option, these wiley old timers seek to merge the oldest political brand in Canada with a left wing rump. Let’s face it the NDP will never assume power in Canada’s federal parliament, nor were they ever expected to – they were, however, a Party who’s philosophies and policies embraced that of a true perpetual opposition. Not so with the Liberals. This is a Party that bore most of the social policy reforms that have made Canada a tour de force internationally.
A discussion of a merger at this juncture should be taken for what it really is a cynical attempt to wrest power through mathematics. The Liberal Party on its own has neither the leadership nor the voter appeal at this point to become government. Perhaps a deal with the NDP to gain power now might be a possibility but ask Bob Rae if this benefitted him in Ontario in 1985.
The simple fact is this – the appointed flacks in the Leaders office, the unelected Senate members who claim to be the conscience of the Party, the advisors and consultants who skulk around Ottawa are NOT the Liberal Party. It is the hundreds of thousands of Party faithful across this great land who believe in the philosophies of Wilfrid Laurier, MacKenzie King, Louis St. Laurent, Mike Pearson, Pierre Trudeau, John Turner, Jean Chretien, Paul Martin and others. It is also the Party of great thinkers like Vincent Massey, Norman Lambert, Gordon Fogo, Gordon Dryden, Boyd Upper, Walter Gordon, James Scott, Keith Davey, Al Graham, Norm Macleod, Martin Connell, Maurice Sauvé, Paul Desrocher, Iona Campagnolo and many other great Liberal thinkers across Canada who have perfected the Liberal brand.
There is no cross road here, the silly talks about a merger should be outed for what they are a frustration at the current prospects of a Party in disarray, with little attraction from voters. If the attempt is to increase a paltry 25% voter approval for a leader no one wants – then following that logic, what does a Conservative PM do at 32% – who does he merge with???
Let¹s get smart all you Liberals say something!
