Is Libby Davies the Most Irresponsible MP in Canada?

Davies resurrects Dhalla's pension bill

When running in a riding like Vancouver East, one can always bank on the appeal of additional welfare benefits for somebody.

In this vein, Vancouver East MP Libby Davies' most recent proposal is not actually a new idea by any stretch of the imagination. Unlike the idea's progenitor, Davies will likely not have to pay a price for the sheer irresponsibility of it.

Davies has resurrected a proposal by former Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla to pay old age pension benefits to elderly immigrants immediately upon arriving in Canada. The proposal, adopted as a blatant means of pandering to the immigrant community in her riding of Brampton-Springdale, instead angered her constituents. She was beaten by 10,000 votes in the 2011 federal election by Conservative Parm Gill.

Running in Vancouver East, Davies has found that no bit of far-left boilerplate, no matter how ridiculous or irresponsible, can fail her.

Precisely how irresponsible is Davies' most recent proposal? It's irresponsible to the tune of anywhere from $300 million to $700 million per annum, paid out to people who have never contributed a red cent to the Canada Pension Plan. Every year.

The sheer irresponsibility of it becomes crystal clear when one considers that as of 2006, the CPP was considered to be facing an unfunded liability of $620 billion.

This isn't the first time Davies has done something irresponsible for purely ideological or demagogical purposes. In 2009, Davies voted against a bill to impose a 5-year mandatory minimum sentence for human traffickers who exploit children. Her reason was an ideological opposition to mandatory minimum sentencing.

Davies' Parliamentary motion calling on the government to open pension funds to recent immigrants -- currently there is a 10-year residency requirement, which is as it should remain, if not increase -- is merely the most recent in a long, sad history of demagogical irresponsibility from Libby Davies.

Ruby Dhalla Outhustled, Complains About It

Dhalla objects to Tory candidate helping immigrants

According to Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla, something rotten is afoot in Brampton-Springdale; it's Conservative candidate Parm Gill.

Dhalla is upset that Gill has been extending his help to local immigrant families, helping them fill out the applications necessary to help their family members move to Canada.

"In those cases the families have been called before even I was notified, that had they had been accepted and approved by the minister's office and they were called by Parm Gill," Dhalla complained.

She alleges that her constituents are unwilling to come forward because of some form of intimidation. (Which seems strangely at odds with what the facts seem to be. Helping people get their family into Canada is an odd form of intimidation.)

For Jason Kenney's part, he suggests Dhalla is largely fabricating her concerns.

"That's completely ridiculous, you know, she's a Liberal MP who's under a lot of pressure, and of course she's going to make unfounded and ridiculous accusations," Kenney declared. He also suggests Dhalla does a poor job of serving her constituents.

"It's because they can't get any service from their member of Parliament and that's one of the reasons why I think Parm Gill should be elected member of Parliament for Brampton-Springdale," Kenney declared.

"Mr Gill has every right as a private citizen to provide volunteer unpaid advice," Kenney continued. "I understand he has taken no payment for that. He has never claimed to represent the government or me, but he's just providing a volunteer service and that's totally legitimate."

It's not over in Brampton yet. Dhalla -- who was also the MP behind a ludicrously-irresponsible bill that would have granted pension benefits to immigrants after they'd been in Canada for only three years -- has spent a great deal of time pandering to the immigrant community in her riding. Even if she's done a poor job of serving her constituents, she may yet be able to win reelection based on that pandering.

So even though Ruby Dhalla got outhustled in her own riding, she may yet outrun her principal opponent.

An Idea Crazy Enough to (Never, Ever) Work

Liberal leadership -- or Tory membership -- should be farthest thing from Ruby Dhalla's mind

Writing in a blog post on the National Post's Full Comment blog, Dan Arnold drops an interesting thought regarding rumours that Ruby Dhalla is among the Liberal MPs that may cross the floor.

Arnold provides what he must imagine to be a very persuasive reason for Dhalla to stay put with the Liberal party: defecting will hurt her chances to be leader of the Liberal party.

It's hard to decide which prospect is more unlikely -- Dhalla being admitted into the Conservative party, or winning the leadership of the Liberal party. Not only is either incredibly unlikely, but both are terrible ideas.

The reasons for both come back to one central issue: Dhalla's recent private member's bill that would extend pension -- admittedly, not a full pension to immigrants after only three years of residence.

The bill has drawn near-universal condemnation, and for obvious reasons: not only is it an extremely cynical piece of legislation, but it's incredibly irresponsible to boot.

Even Judy Sgro, normally a close ally of Dhalla's, has announced she will vote against the bill. Usually private member's bills stand a snowball's chance in hell of passing. Dhalla's bill is likely better compared to a single snowflake in the eighth ring of hell.

The Conservative party would have to publicly renounce virtually all of its principles in order to accept Dhalla within their ranks.

The Liberal party, meanwhile, would not only risk alienating its fiscally-conservative wing, but also risk alienating communities of immigrants who came to Canada and earned their position in this country -- not having a government cheque mailed out to them before they had so much as earned their citizenship, as the recipients of Dhalla's bill would recieve.

It's hard to believe that Dhalla wasn't imagining a windfall of votes from immigrants whose parents are receiving an extra government cheque every month. Her bill is so incredibly cynical that it could only be born of sheer opportunism.

Of course, there are deeper problems with Dhalla's bill than simply paying these people a pension. There's something deeply wrong with the idea of admitting immigrants to Canada who are past retirement age unless they are capable of supporting themselves financially.

Cases where an individual is in immediate peril of being persecuted or killed by their state is another matter entirely. Admitting these people to Canada (regardless of age) and extending them financial aid if need be is the right thing to do. (Canada has no business to accept refugees only to live in poverty.)

But cases where an elderly individual is coming to Canada under no such state of peril is another matter altogether. If they are coming to Canada on their own, they'd better be able to support themselves. If they're being admitted under a family reunification program, their family had better be able to support them.

It's in the sense that Dhalla's bill spits on these basic principles that it truly represents Barry Cooper's politics of self-service. The Liberal party has already been bitten hard by the consequences of embracing these politics too closely. The Conservatives would do themselves -- and the country -- a disservice by following suit.

Fortunately, the Conservatives won't be embracing the politics of self-service, at least in the form of Ruby Dhalla. She's already announced that she won't be crossing the floor.

"The rumour mill is in overdrive again," Dhalla wrote in an email. "These people need to find a topic of discussion that doesn't include the name Ruby Dhalla."

The Liberals may not be so fortunate. If Michael Ignatieff can't right the Liberal ship, the party may be in search of a new leader soon. If Dhalla hasn't jumped to the NDP by that time, one can only wonder if she'll make every Liberal's worst nightmare come true.

Ruby's Hot, Hot, Hot

Liberal MP at centre of emerging scandal

Ruby Dhalla is one Liberal MP who turns some heads.

So many, in fact, that Maxim magazine named her the world's third sexiest politician.

But now, Dhalla is at the centre of an ongoing controversy about a Bollywood film in which she starred in 2003. Dhalla has been attempting to block the sale of the DVD, claiming that the film's producers have doctored promotional materials to feature her image. More specifically, she claims that her face has been super-imposed onto another woman's body.

But, as it turns out, there's more afoot in this story than this.

The film, Kyon Kis Liye, received a $13,000 grant from Heritage Canada -- documents CTV obtained from Heritage Canada reveal that the project was judged to "not meet any of the terms and conditions of existing departmental programs," and thus be inelligible to receive such a grant.

At the time Heritage Canada was under the supervision of Sheila Copps, who at that point represented another Hamilton-area riding.

Ruby Dhalla insists that she knows nothing about the grant and Sheila Copps has, to date, not commented.

But with Dhalla working so hard to suppress the film's release on DVD, it's becoming increasingly evident that Dhalla was trying to conceal more than just some allegedly embarrassing promotional materials.

Dhalla's attempt to suppress her own film career doesn't quite pass the sniff test.

Ruby Rocks Bollywood

In an amusing story emerging out of Ontario, Brampton MP Ruby Dhalla is threatening to sue a local film producer.

At issue is Kyon Kis Liye (which translates into Why? And For Whom?), a film about a Hamilton-area murder in which a man poisoned his wife in order to enjoy the proceeds from her life insurance policy. Dhalla starred in this low-budget film in 2003.

Dhalla insists that some of the promotional material for the film's DVD features pictures were doctored -- essentially that her face was photoshopped over another woman's body.

"I have worked extremely hard to get to where I am and will not be exploited by individuals," Dhalla says in a statement. "I have taken and will continue to take all necessary legal action to stop this opportunism, defamation, slander and exploitation by the producers."

Charanjit Sihra, the film's producer, vehemently denies this. "That is her. That is her body. That is her face," he insists. "She doesn't want the movie to be released. The pictures are from the movie."

"We want to see this movie go to homes. This film took a lot of work. She is the one causing nonsense because she is holding a politician's job. Indian people feel if someone works in a movie they should not be a politician," he continues. "But we feel that she did good work on the film and should be proud to show the people."

In other news, Calgary West MP Rob Anders is preparing legal action over a newly-disovered tape of him performing a duet of "It's Raining Men" with William Shatner.

Stay tuned.

Glass Ceiling Breakage Deferred

No women in Liberal leadership race as Martha Hall Findlay demurs

In what's emerging as the latest in an amusing trend that should be very distressing to many Liberals, yet another potential contender has bowed out of the impending Liberal leadership campaign, set to conclude in April.

Martha Hall Findlay will not run to replace Stephane Dion, making it more likely that there may be no women in the Liberal leadership race.

Ironically, it was Dion himself who had pledged to improve the prominence of women in the party by nominating more of them for elected office. In his wake, however, it seems that women are no more prominent within the party than before. Considered it merely yet another one of Dion's unaccomplished goals.

The party has clearly not come very far since the days when Sheila Copps stayed in the Jean Chretien/Paul Martin leadership contest just for the sake of keeping a woman in the race.

While Ruby Dhalla may still run, one has to consider that the hiked entry fee for the contest -- up to $90,000 from $50,000 in 2006 -- may keep dark horse candidates such as Dhalla out.

While the lack of women in the race will almost certainly prove to be distressing to many Liberals, the lack of candidates in general should only more so. So far, Justin Trudeau, Frank McKenna and John Manley have all decided not to seek the leadership.

While Michael Ignatieff will almost certainly do so again, only two candidates -- Dominic LeBlanc and Bob Rae -- have formally declared. One has to imagine that many Liberals are becoming concerned with the lack of real options that will be open to them come April.

Update - Gerard Kennedy has officially announced that he won't be seeking the Liberal leadership. Nor will Denis Coderre.
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That now places the tally at two confirmed candidates, and six declining candidates.

Things must be getting very tense at Liberal Party HQ.

Attack of the Vandals

Canadian voters must face the unblinking truth

There’s no question that elections can often bring out the best – and the worst – in people.

As Canada’s current election draws toward its conclusion on January 23rd, vandalism of election signs has become an issue – one that many point to as one of the uglier sides of the current election.

All across Canada, Liberal party campaign signs have been defaced, often with the words “Thieves” and “Adscam”. Conservative party signs have not been immune to this vandalism either.

Liberal candidate Dr. Ruby Dhalla (running in the riding representing Brampton, Ontario) has a theory of her own: she believes her political opponents are responsible for the vandalism of her signs, noting that in many cases the signs had been replaced with signs for her Conservative opponent (this may be fair game, given that particular occurance).

However, it is important to realize that those vandalizing Liberal signs and those vandalizing Conservative signs are motivated by two very different ideas, and are doing so for very different reasons.

Those vandalizing Conservative signs are probably mostly doing so for the same, tired old rhetoric: the Conservatives are evil fat cats that will erode civil rights, destroy the social safety net, and transform Canada into a clone of the United States. These are the sort of people who spread fear either mindlessly, having bought into the fear-mongering tactics of the Liberal party, or those who are doing so in a very calculated fashion: because they know having a party like the Liberals in power benefits hem, and they will do anything to make sure they continue to enjoy those benefits.

Given the facts behind the current election, however, there is something I find inherently patriotic about vandalizing Liberal election signs – particularly that of the “thieves” or “adscam” variety. These brave people are putting themselves at risk to ensure that those planning to vote Liberal in the coming election will not be able to do so while pretending Adscam – or any of the other mounting scandals – never happened. Sometimes the truth has to be rubbed in people’s faces before they’ll wake up, and these people are doing just that.

Not that I am encouraging this sort of behavior, per se – merely condoning it and applauding it. There is, however, one caveat that must be added: there is a line that must be drawn.

All over the country, there are those who are afraid that their homes will be vandalized next – this is something that can not and must not be tolerated. All differences aside, people should be encouraged to vote from their consciences. If one’s conscience demands they vote Liberal, then so be it. That is fair, and they should. If their conscience, however, is choosing to ignore important issues – such as government corruption – then those with the will to do so should force them to acknowledge them.

God willing, that is exactly what those people will do.