McColeman Supports Patronage Senate Appointments

Voilà Senator Mike Duffy. After promising to create an elected senate, Stephen Harper appointed the Conservative-leaning journalist Duffy to the Senate in 2008. Kind of a nice way ($132,300/year) of saying "Thank you" for years of promoting the Conservatives on TV. Here's our own Phil McColeman with the well-fed Senator Duffy:

Phil to Host Roundtable

Phil is hosting a roundtable on February 4, 2011. This should be a good thing. BUT true to the spirit of this government, Phil is only inviting the rich people in Brantford to attend. They will sit around at the fancy-schmancy Hampton/Hilton Hotel and talk about how great they are. Why doesn't Phil listen to the people who have lost their jobs because of Conservative economic policies?

Phil's Partisan Puerile Penal Preposterousness

Here's what Phil McColeman said in Parliament on January 31st, 2011:

Unfortunately, I am afraid that it already seems to be business as usual for some Liberals. Today the member for Ajax-Pickering* is again sticking up for criminals and promoting the failed prison farm system, a program with a dismal rate of success of less than 1%, and which loses millions of tax dollars each year. I call on the Liberal Party public safety critic and his coalition partners to work with us to get results for law-abiding Canadians and victims and to stop putting criminals' rights before those of victims.

[*The member for Ajax-Pickering is Mark Holland, the Conservatives' whipping-boy for soft-on-crime]

Phil is dead wrong for two reasons.

First, prison farms DO work. Here is a direct quote from a recent Report of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, of which Phil is a member:

A literature review conducted by CSC [Correctional Service of Canada] concludes that animal therapy programs not only help participants by improving their behaviour and learning about discipline, as well as their sense of cooperation and respect for others; they also help the staff of correctional institutions since the presence of animals makes the atmosphere more relaxed and encourages communication among inmates. Finally, society as a whole would benefit from these programs since the participating inmates would learn skills that would serve them well in the labour market and would reduce the rate of recidivism.

Animal therapy programs have proven effective and all participating inmates believe that these programs have undeniable benefits at the human level. For this reason, the Committee has difficulty understanding why CSC decided to terminate the farm prison program at penitentiaries by March 31, 2011. Like many of our witnesses, the Committee is convinced that CSC is on the wrong path in this regard and maintains that CSC should actually increase the number of programs based on animal therapy. [footnotes omitted]

The second reason that Phil is dead wrong is because it is actually the CONSERVATIVES who are soft on crime, specifically, they are SOFT ON CHILD PORNOGRAPHY. From a recent Toronto Sun article:

Tories 'soft’ on child sex crimes: group

The so-called tough-on-crime Tories are "weak" on child sex abuse crimes, according to an anti-child pornography advocacy group.

Brian Rushfeldt, president of Canada Family Action, said Tuesday he's "disappointed" with Bill C-54, the government's efforts to protect children from sexual predators, because it doesn’t go far enough.…

While Bill C-54 does beef up minimum sentences for people convicted of possessing child porn — from 14 days to 90 days for a summary conviction and up to six months for indictable offences — Rushfeldt said the bill does not lengthen sentences for people convicted of making child pornography.

Wow. The "tough-on-crime" Phil McColeman sends pedophiles to prison for a mere 90 days, and does nothing to the monsters who create child pornography. Instead he complains about prison farms, which help keep our society safe. Why doesn't Phil stop playing partisan games and start focusing on the real issues!

Phil McColeman on the recent Cabinet $huffle

In preparation of the recent Cabinet shuffle Phil took dance classes...



After being told that there would not be a dance by a reporter, Phil offered up great insights:

Brant MP Phil McColeman says the Conservative government's cabinet shuffle on Tuesday was not as extensive as he had predicted, but he is happy with the changes.

"I was expecting that there might be more, but obviously the prime minister wants to stay the course," McColeman said of the shuffle, which involved four Tories and an overall increase of two in the size of the cabinet to 38 ministers."

After the Cabinet'$ $ize had been increased by two, (the $econd largest in Canadian history); Phil wanted even more ministers. New Cabinet Ministers receive a hefty $75,516.00 bonus, on top of the $157,731.00 yearly salary of an MP. Phil being a great strategist must have concluded that if everyone was made a minister they would have to make him one. He could be Minister of Flag Protocol...

Phil McColeman embarasses himself again...

After resorting to cowardly personal attacks against the Member of Parliament from Ajax-Pickering, the Speaker forces Phil to withdraw his comments!



Phil is not giving Brant a good name, the Welcome to Brantford sign will one day say:

HOME OF THAT DUMBASS, PHIL.

Quotable Quotes: Finance Critic

The opposition finance critic Scott Brison visited Brantford last week. Here's what he said:

“Wayne Gretzky said 'you don’t skate to where the puck is at, you skate to where the puck is going.' What I fear is that the current government has been so focused on this week’s polls that they haven’t looked ahead.”

Mr. Brison said that we are still in a real recession, and the hard-working people of Brant know that. But the Conservatives, including Phil McColeman, are wasting money on the G20 summit and prisons, instead of investing in long-term solutions.

Phil Makes a Complete Phool of Himself

Phil has a reputation for saying stupid things in the Public Safety Committee and in Parliament. Well he's dunnit again:

Conservative MPs heaped praise Monday on three ex-convicts who've cleaned up their lives, without seeming to grasp they're exactly the types of serious, repeat offenders targeted by the government's latest tough-on-crime legislation.
…
"We need to clearly focus on the type of people -- and they are the repeat offenders, they're the most heinous people -- that we're trying to focus this legislation on," Conservative MP Phil McColeman told the committee.

That prompted witness John Hutton, the executive director of the John Howard Society of Manitoba, to interject.

"I'm sorry, these are the people you're talking about!" said Hutton, extending his arms to encompass the other witnesses at the table.

It gets even better…

As reported by Maclean's magazine, after the meeting Phil called Liberal MP Mark Holland soft on crime. Holland said that this was untrue. So Phil stood up in Parliament and said:

"Mr. Speaker, since being elected to the House some two years ago and a bit, I will take no lessons from the member for Ajax—Pickering when it comes to presenting issues to Parliament that are not based on any factual evidence. I will take no lessons from that member."

That's right – Phil is an expert at presenting issues that are NOT based on factual evidence!

That is what he does every time he blathers on about "tough on crime", after all.