Daily Archives: July 14, 2021

Former Liberal Party member John Ruddick says the Liberal Party has lost what it was standing for and is ill-equipped to handle the three emergencies facing the Commonwealth.

What the Liberal party was really standing for up until the last few years, which you know, in the Westminster world, our ideal is Margaret Thatcher, Mr Ruddick told Sky News host Chris Kenny.

We havent been getting that from our state or liberal governments for some time now.

Right now, weve got three emergencies facing the Commonwealth.

Weve got: a COVID elimination strategy, which is just going to send us back to the stone age if we persist with it; weve got a net zero carbon by 2050 and we have built a debt to Jupiter.

We dont have time to turn this around.

Read the rest here:

Liberal Party has lost the ideal it was 'standing for' - Sky News Australia

About 75% of Hindus residing in southern India said they would accept a Muslim as a neighbour a stark contrast to all other parts of India

People in the South of India tend to be more religiously integrated and less opposed to interreligious marriages, data from a nationwide survey conducted by the Pew Research Centre show. Though people from the southern States are equally, if not more, religious than citizens in other parts, relatively fewer of them consider theirs to be the "one true religion". For instance, 62% of people from the South go to places of worship at least once a week, which is more than the share in Central, Eastern, Western and Northeastern parts. About 57% wore religious pendants, higher than all regions except Central India (58%). However, only 37% of them, the least among regions, thought it was important to stop women in their community from marrying into another religion.

The southerners were more liberal when it came to dietary restrictions. Relatively fewer of them considered a person to be not Hindu if they eat beef, or a person to be not Muslim if they consume pork. People from the South also had more "close friends" from outside their religion and caste circles compared to persons from other parts of India. About 75% of Hindus residing in southern India said they would accept a Muslim as a neighbour a stark contrast to all other parts of India. Importantly, education played a role in people's religious beliefs. Religious opinions of the college-educated varied sharply from those who did not attend college.

Chart appears incomplete? Click to remove AMP mode

Methodology | Pew interviewed 29,999 individuals across 29 States and UTs. Persons from all major religions, speaking at least 17 different languages across all age groups (excluding children), were included in the sample. The survey was conducted between November 17, 2019, and March 23, 2020.

Also read: Indians value religious freedom, not integration

View original post here:

Data | People in South India are far more liberal in matters of religion and nationalism: survey - The Hindu

Calgary city councillor George Chahalsays he will run for the Liberal Party in the northeast riding of Calgary Skyviewin the upcoming federal election.

Chahal told CBC News thathe thinks it's important for Calgary to have a voice in the federal government.

"I want to continue on the work we're doing in northeast Calgary, in the city of Calgary, and make sure we are represented in the city of Canada," he said.

Chahal was first elected to city council in 2017. He said he intends to complete his current term on city council, but will withdraw his nomination papers for this fall's municipal election.

His announcement means that there will be nine new council members this fall.

It will represent the biggest turnover on Calgary city council in modern history. Council went to 15 seats for the 1977 election, and the previous record was set after the 1983 election, when eight seats had new faces.

As of Thursday, Ward 5 had four contenders listed, aside from Chahal:Raj Dhaliwal,Anand James Chetty,Tariq Khan andAryan Sadat.

Chahal's announcement comes one day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau toured through Calgary.

Speaking on Red FM on Wednesday, the prime minister said that in his view,it was important for Albertans to choose Liberal MPs in the upcoming federal election.

Trudeau also addressed speculation that two members of Calgary city council may end up running for the federal Liberals Chahal and Calgary Mayor NaheedNenshi.

"Ihave a tremendous amount of respect for both Naheed and GeorgeChahal, who are amazing community representatives and have worked incredibly hard to get Calgary and indeed people through a very difficult time," Trudeau said.

"Ilook forward to continuing to work with them, however things end up happening."

The Liberals currently have no MPs from Alberta. Calgary Skyview is currently represented by Conservative MP Jag Sahota.

See more here:

Calgary city councillor will run federally for the Liberal Party - CBC.ca

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks as he meets with Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, not shown, in Calgary on July 7, 2021.

Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press

There is much speculation afoot about the prospect of the minority Liberal government calling an election at the end of the summer holidays, and sending Canadians to the polls in late September or October.

Honestly, where do people come up with these ideas?

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself, coyly shorn of his pandemic beard and sporting a new haircut, downplayed the likelihood of a fall election just last week.

Story continues below advertisement

Parties will adjust election tactics to fit varied effects of COVID-19 pandemic, public health, political leaders say

He plans, he said, to use the summer break to consult Canadians and what better way to do that than by flying to Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., to make a $420-million climate change investment in a steel mill, and profit from the occasion to take jabs at the Conservative Opposition?

It looks like many more Canadians can expect to be consulted this summer by Mr. Trudeau and his cabinet ministers, with consultation defined as a swing through your hometown, taxpayer-financed chequebook in hand.

Okay, but what other evidence of a fall election is there?

Some point to the fact that 19 MPs of all parties, including Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna, have discovered the urgent need to announce they will not be running in the next election which is not scheduled until October, 2023.

And, yes, theres the fact that the Liberals lead in the polls and, if the election were held now, the current minority government would stand a fair chance of winning a majority.

And, sure, the vaccination rollout that started out so badly has turned out to be a major win for the Liberals, with Canada now among the most vaccinated countries in the world.

We suppose theres no need to even mention that the Conservatives under Leader Erin OToole dont seem able to gain traction, that the NDP are polling too low to be a threat, and that other progressive party, the Greens, are imploding.

Story continues below advertisement

And it would just be stating the obvious to recall that the Liberal Party convention in April was almost entirely focused on election planning.

But other than campaign-style spending announcements, those 19 MPs thoughtfully giving their riding associations 2 years notice, the polls consistently favouring the Liberals, the success of the vaccination campaign, the weakness of the opposition, the naked election planning by the Liberals (and, at this point, by the other parties, too), and Mr. Trudeaus obvious desire to regain his majority in Parliament, what other evidence is there of an election?

Three words: high-frequency rail.

Transportation Minister Omar Alghabra consulted Canadians this week when he travelled to Quebec City to re-announce his partys previously stated commitment to build what it calls high-frequency rail service (not, note well, high-speed rail) between Toronto and the Quebec capital.

After teasing its support for the project in the 2019 election campaign, the Liberals have trotted it out again, this time with a promise to [take] the first steps in preparing for the procurement process.

That includes consulting with Indigenous groups and communities, and engaging with the private sector to determine capacity, and seek perspectives on the best possible delivery model.

Story continues below advertisement

Thats hardly a ripping endorsement of an ambitious project that would reroute most of Via Rails Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal-Quebec City traffic away from tracks it doesnt own, and which it has long shared with freight trains, and put it on dedicated tracks that would allow passenger trains to operate more frequently and at higher speeds.

Its a project whose cost will run into the heady billions of dollars without a private-sector partner, which is why Ottawa is still looking for one, and still trying to determine how much risk that partner would be willing to take on (the best possible delivery model).

And there is a veritable chasm between the assertion that the request for proposal for the procurement process is expected to launch in fall 2021, as the government puts it, and actually, you know, building something.

Yet Mr. Alghabra this week earned his party headlines about a tantalizing rail megaproject the kind of announcement you dont waste halfway through a term lest people forget it, or, perhaps worse, remember it and hold you to it. And he made his pitch in Quebec, where the Liberals need to pick up seats if they are to win a majority.

Brace yourselves. Theres an election coming down the track. Its picking up speed. Scheduled arrival: Fall.

Keep your Opinions sharp and informed. Get the Opinion newsletter. Sign up today.

Read more:

Hear that? The Liberal election train is getting closer, and picking up speed - The Globe and Mail

When the Supreme Court handed down its two recent final decisions, one in a major voting laws dispute and the other addressing a donor disclosure requirement, both were considered victories for conservatives and both were reversals of the country's most controversial appellate court.

That court, the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, saw some of the most high-profile reversals of judgments in the tumultuous year for Supreme Court cases. The 9th Circuit went 1-15, adding to a string of losing records to the high court, according to SCOTUSblog.

Its only decision left standing was a unanimous Supreme Court affirmation that some of the NCAA's player compensation regulations violated anti-trust laws.

SUPREME COURT TEES UP NEWSY FALL TERM: ABORTION, GUNS, AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

But, as many Democrats in Congress consistently note, the 9th Circuit did not see the highest reversal rate this year. Given the volume of cases it sends to the Supreme Court each year, it rarely does. The most-reversed circuits are often much smaller courts, usually sending one or two cases to the high court.

Still, many of the Supreme Court's reversals, including the donor disclosure and voting law cases, often have lasting consequences. Notably, this year the high court reversed the 9th Circuit's decision favoring a California law allowing labor union activists to organize on company land.

It also reversed the circuit on a series of immigration cases, a subject appeals judges have frequently been out of step with the Supreme Court.

Both conservatives and liberals agreed the 9th Circuit was playing by a different set of rules.

In one case, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the court's interpretation of one immigration statute was "incompatible" with what it actually said. In another, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote its judgment "cannot be reconciled" with actual immigration rules.

But, Gorsuch wrote, "The Ninth Circuit has long applied a special rule in immigration disputes."

Story continues

The circuits that saw a 100% reversal rate the 1st, 4th, 6th, 7th, 10th, D.C., Federal, and Armed Forces circuits did not send more than five cases to the high court. The 9th sent 16, in addition to a series of so-called shadow docket cases in which the court ruled against it.

The Supreme Court's shutdown of the 9th Circuit comes in the wake of dashed Republican hopes that former President Donald Trump would swing it in a more conservative direction. Trump appointed 10 judges to the court during his term, dramatically reducing the conservative-to-liberal ratio, an 11-seat lead on the 29-judge court, to a margin of three.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE IN THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

At the time, the raft of appointments led many to declare that the circuit, which governs nine states, had become conservative. But those judgments were premature, said Arthur Hellman, an emeritus law professor at the University of Pittsburgh who has written extensively on the 9th Circuit.

It is a more centrist court, Hellman told the Washington Examiner of the 9th Circuit's changes in recent years.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, California, Supreme Court, NCAA, Judge, Appeals Courts, Neil Gorsuch, Sonia Sotomayor, Immigration

Original Author: Nicholas Rowan

Original Location: Liberal California appeals court sees year of high-profile reversals at the Supreme Court

See the original post here:

Liberal California appeals court sees year of high-profile reversals at the Supreme Court - Yahoo News

In response to a letter by Marty Ansley:

With as much respect as I can muster, I'd like to respond again and say that I didn't mention a meritocracy nor facts not existing in my letter.

I stand by all said before.

I believe critical race theory is a liberal, Marxist theology and a party line of only one side of this country and as such, of course, it shouldn't be pushed in our schools no matter the grade level.

The court case in Illinois in which a teacher is suing her school district for forcing the teaching of critical race theory is an example of this being taught in elementary schools. See Deemar V. District 65 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

There are publicly available leaked documents from the Iowa critical race theory curriculum. Why aren't they public in the first place? These show that those teachers are made to tell their children in class that MAGA slogans and trying to rebut critical race theory through commonly used wording like "we're all one human family" are "covert white supremacy" just a bit lower on the pyramid than being a member of the KKK.

Words have meaning but we used to be a country that judged people for actions! Believing and saying that all lives should matter equally can't be made equivalent to actual intimidation or even lynching due to differing skin color. Saying so is ridiculous propaganda and I do think these things are proof of a wide conspiracy to push only one party line in our schools.

The vehement religious fervor you and other defenders of critical race theory show is also proof that this is a belief system and not a factual curriculum. That, to my mind, is tantamount to a problem that should be fought under separations of church and state.

Because of your ad hominem attacks, stereotyping and assumptions used to spout more party lines, I see nothing else I can respond to. Your religion (liberal Marxist theory) clashes with mine (Christianity).

And the argument must always end there.

But, I believe in your right to believe what you wish. I just will never cease to fight seeing any single party line or religious dogma pushed onto our children in schools claiming to be public government schools for all.

I thank you for the debate and I hope you enjoyed your freedom this Independence Day.

Josie N. Johston

Chehalis

Here is the original post:

Letter to the Editor: Critical Race Theory Is a Liberal, Marxist Theology - Centralia Chronicle

Chip sealing a city street. This image shows the entire chipseal process. The left side has already been reconditioned. On the right a black asphalt seal coat is being applied, behind small chipped rock is falling from an application machine. The rock will be pressed into the asphalt and excess swept up. Chipsealing is a less costly alternative to resurfacing an asphalt road.

Weather permitting, the City of Liberal will start the annual Chip Seal Program on July 19, 2021. The areas to be chip sealed are:

Kansas Avenue to Western Avenue

The railroad tracks to 2nd Street

2nd Street from Western to general Welch

7th Street from Western to Terminal Road

8th Street from Western to Stadium Road

Stadium Road from 15th Street to 7th Street

During this time, the City requests no parking in the street. The City estimates the project to take three weeks.

The city apologizes for any inconvenience and thanks you for your patience. If you should have any questions or need further assistance, please call 626-0135.

See the article here:

Chip Seal in the City of Liberal to Begin - KSCB News.net

Prime Minister Scott Morrisons roadmap to normality was criticised as vague but it did contain one piece of substance - he made it harder for stranded Australians to return home. Our mindset at this point should be to tear down that Covid wall, Prime Minister, not heighten it.

The governments re-election strategy appears to be built around flogging the Covid horse till polling day. The clean-up however is too urgent for political timetables. Australia has been one of the least Covid impacted nations but on a per capita basis has racked up one of the worlds biggest Covid debts comparable to wartime. When those wastrels of the ALP lost office in 2013 they handed over $257 billion in federal government debt. Three Liberal Party PMs later and its on its way to $1.2 trillion.

Endless debt? Engineering the semi-Covid. state? All but promising carbon-neutrality by 2050? Sorry, but three strikes and you are out. This is not just a deviation from the Liberal Partys founding. Its betrayal.

At his campaign launch for the 1946 election, opposition leader Robert Menzies thundered, Or shall we build upon liberal democracy, which passionately believes that the war was fought to overthrow the authoritarian state; that there can be no national progress except through the efforts of the individual. Menzies was a classical liberal - small state, big citizens - hence his choice of party name.

A few years after his retirement, Menzies spent many hours being interviewed by the Australian correspondent for The Economist, Lady Frances McNicoll. Her audio recordings of many of the interviews are preserved. That goldmine was largely sealed until the Menzies Foundation gave Troy Bramston access while he was researching his 2019 definitive biography of Menzies. Menzies view of his successors reveals endless disappointment. In 1974, at a gala event for this eightieth birthday Menzies said, When we commenced the Liberal Party we had principles. Principles are apparently nowadays things that are not to be insisted upon because to insist upon them is to demonstrate you are reactionary or conservative. Bramston has ample evidence Menzies, at least once, voted for the right-wing Democratic Labor Party.

If the great man was distressed in the 1970s what would he think now? After the last 18 months, my hunch is hed want to see a 1944-style fresh start.

The Liberal Party could have championed a Swedish style citizen-trusting, light-touch Covid response. Sweden took an early hit but today has one of Europes lowest Covid fatality rates and along the way didnt set dangerous precedents. If outlier Sweden was a bridge too far, then for months weve had plenty of evidence from big and small American states that the impulse to wind back Covid restrictions early is sound.

Social media often compares this Covid episode with George Orwells 1984. Its inaccurate. We dont have monitoring cameras in our homes and while dissent is curbed its not a crime. On a scale of one to ten, however (with ten being 1984), pre-Covid we were a two and now were a four. The trend is not our friend but very correctable. Covid has however demonstrated that if the big state and big business seriously collude they have the means to engineer a twenty-first century high-tech version of Orwells dystopia (Chinas halfway there).

Lockdowns, travel prohibitions, tracking, snitching on neighbours, school closures, masks, free money and debt to Jupiter have all been a happy joint venture of the state and federal Lib-Lab Party. Keen observers are not surprised. In 2017 then Treasurer Scott Morrison had this to say about free speech, I know this issue doesnt create one job, doesnt open one business, doesnt give anyone one extra hour. Scott Morrison has been a workaholic his entire working life and I suspect hes been too busy to ever ponder his partys classical liberal founding.

It wasnt always this way. The New South Wales Division is to blame.

In its first half, the Liberal Party was dominated by the Victorian division. Every federal leader from 1945 to 1985 was a Victorian bar Billy McMahon. Other than the brief tenures of Andrew Peacock and Alexander Downer, every subsequent leader has come from NSW.

Besides a brief period from 2003 to 2009, the NSW Division has been controlled by the erroneously named moderate faction. Yes, theyre moderate about policy (they dont believe in much) but theyre immoderate about the pursuit, not so much of power, but of perks.

The moderates are a throwback to the Tammany Hall-style political machines which ran many American cities in the nineteenthcentury. Political machines are built on patronage and their end-product is sub-optimal politicians more loyal to the machine than the national interest. The ethos of the moderates is, winning isnt the most important thing, its the only thing and that now dominates the federal parliamentary party.

There was meant to be a small government dry faction somewhere in the party room but theyve been awfully quiet during Covid. If they cant speak up now, what use are they? Had Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser overseen a similar response to the swine flu scare of 1976, there would have been cabinet resignations, an irate backbench and a backdown.

What about the Nationals? Barnaby said some good things as a backbencher but the quieter he stays as deputy PM, the more it suggests his grumblings were comeback tactics. More significantly, a party panel recently rejected John Andersons much-anticipated comeback and party grandees didnt seem to care.

Anyway, Im off to the Liberal Democratic Party. Surely classical liberalism is a growth stock in 2021. Can the LDP become a party of government that restores economic rationalism? Im told its a longshot but its a better bet than clinging to the false hope the Liberals rediscover their founding principles. If Menzies voted DLP in 1972, my hunch is he would vote LDP in 2022.

John Ruddick is the Liberal Democratic Party candidate for the seat of Warringah at the next federal election.

Read more from the original source:

Why I'm off to the Liberal Democrats - The Spectator Australia

Is the sun finally rising on the age of emission-free vehicles in Canada or are we merely staring at another false dawn?

Its difficult to know after the Trudeau Liberals recently declared that by 2035 every single new car, every new SUV and every new light-duty truck sold in the country would have to be electric.

That mandatory target shaved five, full years off the federal governments previous deadline that would have ended the sale of new gasoline- and diesel-powered passenger vehicles in 2040.

The fact that Transport Minister Omar Alghabra called the transition a must delighted environmentalists. It signalled the Liberals commitment to fighting climate change in a summer where the killer heat wave out West has convinced even many previous skeptics that strong, concerted action on this front is needed. And the transition to zero-emission vehicles is, indeed, a necessary change that if accomplished would go a long way to reducing the Canadian carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.

But considering this is also a summer when rumours of a fall federal election are also swirling in the overheated air, its worth asking whether were seeing a viable, thought-out action plan or just a convenient talking point in the next Liberal election manifesto.

We pose the question because the Liberals have set a supposedly firm deadline for when a major change in how Canadians get around must begin. But they have yet to announce what matters even more how theyll actually make this happen.

Consider just two of many unresolved issues: the electricity supply and the recharging infrastructure that will be needed to power the burgeoning future fleet of emission-free passenger vehicles.

Obviously, the source of the electricity that powers these vehicles should be clean or theres no point in mandating their use. But the government acknowledges that more than 19 per cent of the electricity produced in Canada currently comes from natural gas, oil and, yes, even coal. Phasing out the burning of fossil fuels by internal combustion engines will accomplish far less in cutting emissions if the same fossil fuels produce the electricity driving the supposedly zero-emission passenger vehicle fleet.

In addition, the Liberals need to give Canadians an idea of how much more electricity will be needed and where it will come from. Clearly, our electricity demands will also rise even more as hotter temperatures spur the use of more air conditioning. Just a few days ago, the Alberta government asked residents not to recharge their electric vehicles because air conditioners were using so much energy.

A 2019 Ernst &Young report estimated that if 30 per cent of Canadas vehicle stock in 2030 consisted of electric vehicles compared to just three per cent two years ago there could be an 11 per cent spike in electricity demand nationwide. So are there blueprints for new generating stations? Will any of them be nuclear?

And wheres the plan to bring online the recharging stations that will be needed in residences and workplaces, as well as service depots? While the federal government has so far invested $376 million into electric vehicle recharging infrastructure, the total investment needs to be about $10.5 billion as we move toward 100 per cent zero-emission passenger vehicle sales. Thats according to the Electric Autonomy Canada, an independent news platform reporting on Canadas transition to electric vehicles.

As we eagerly await more information from this government, were reminded of the old saying that people shouldnt put the cart before the horse, thereby doing things in the wrong order. In our brave new and rapidly warming 21st-century world, perhaps our government shouldnt put the electric car ahead of the electricity supply.

The rest is here:

Editorial | Where's the Liberal plan for emission-free vehicles? - TheSpec.com