(cross-posted at IBS)
On October 14, 2011, the BC Caucus of the NDP sent a letter to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird about FATCA. The letter states five objectives which the caucus said should guide Canada’s negotiations with the US on FATCA. (See BC Caucus Letter to Flaherty and Baird re-IRS, please read the objectives on page two). I and, I think, any reasonable Canadian could accept an IGA if it incorporates and respects ALL of these five objectives. I cannot support an IGA that fails any of these five, nor can I support a political party that would sell out any of these five objectives. It sure looks to me like a clear and excellent policy statement.
Tom Mulcair said in Toronto Thursday (see the other threads) that the NDP doesn’t have a position on FATCA and won’t until he consults his caucus. Sorry, Tom, but twelve BC members of your caucus actually listened two years ago to their US-born constituents and formulated a position before you were chosen leader. What’s wrong with that position? Why haven’t you endorsed it, and why have you waited this long even to answer questions about FATCA, refusing to date even to acknowledge receipt of emails sent to you from around Canada concerning FATCA?
The answer, my friends, may be blowing in the following quotation from a fund-raising appeal sent by NDP National Director Nathan Rotman about a week ago to all NDP party members.
“We’ve got some of the best talent in the world working with us here at New Democrat headquarters. For example, Jeremy Bird, an Obama campaign strategist and architect of the most impressive field campaign in electoral history.”
Aside from the exceptionalist (and arguable) characterization of the Obama campaign, please note that the only people named in this letter by Rotman are Mulcair, Tommy Douglas, Jack Layton, and Jeremy Bird. Bird isn’t a Canadian or an NDPer, and Mulcair isn’t fit to be mentioned on the same page as Tommy and Jack, in my opinion. But Mulcair and Bird are what NDP members are supposed to get excited about and are asked open their wallets for monthly donations from now until the election.
Just as disturbing, I seem to recall reading that at the April national policy convention of the NDP, some accredited delegates who had paid the convention fees had their credentials lifted and were expelled from the convention, for daring to exercise their rights of free speech by carrying placards on the convention floor, criticizing US drone strikes among other things, during a speech by a prominent member of the Obama team (I forget whether it was Bird or someone else). That smacks of Chicago-Democrat-style “democracy” as witnessed on world-wide television during the 1968 Democratic Convenion in Chicago (run by Mayor Richard Daley and his thugs) and also behaviour by the Obama forces at the 2008 Democratic Convention aimed against Hilary Clinton supporters, as reported by Atticus in various comments on this website and in private emails and conversations with some of us.
Have National Director Nathan Rotman and Leader of the Opposition Tom Mulcair sold their souls to the Obamacrats? Do we have in the NDP a Fifth Column of ACTUAL US persons wishing to undermine both the NDP and Canadian sovereignty? Are Chicago-style politics and US-style campaign strategies part of Tom Mulcair’s “vision” of “remaking democracy” in Canada? If so, that isn’t a vision, it’s a nightmare.
I am a citizen of Canada and only of Canada. I am a firm believer in Canadian sovereignty. I have been supporting the NDP now for more than 40 years. But I will not support any political party, never mind the NDP, that can’t figure out how to run a national campaign without asking for American “help” and opening the door to a Fifth Column subversion of Canadian sovereignty. If the NDP can’t figure out a Canadian campaign strategy without help from an Obama organizer from the States, why should anyone think they can run our country without “guidance” and “advice” from Washington, either? (There, Tory, Liberal, Progressive Canadian, and Green ad-agency writers, I’ve just handed you a gift. Please use it in good health.)
The NDP has forfeited any future financial support from me. It has forfeited my membership in their party. And, unless there is a radical change of the direction I am now seeing, it will forfeit my vote in all future federal elections and by-elections.
If you’re an NDP member, don’t sit on your hands and allow this subversion of what once was a proud Canadian party to happen. Write the national office and Mulcair, and your MP if he/she is NDP, and tell them what I just wrote above and told them in a letter to both of them and my MP Paul Dewar about a week ago. To which letter I have yet to receive any reply.
“American Woman, Stay Away from Me.” Remember that song? Revival time, I think. Gee Mulcair and Rotman, would you have banned this song from the April convention too? Thanks to Youtube, the Guess Who in 1970, still relevant and still stirring my soul:
NDP supporters in Nova Scotia waited for years for the NDP to take power. For a long time Alex McDonough sat alone in the N.S. legislature. Finally, in 2009, the NDP achieved their first government. Needless to say, NDP supporters were elated. However, after not a very long time had passed , ardent NDPers started to refer to the NDP as the New Disappointment Party.
What the Dexter government started to do was hand out massive amounts of money to large businesses, including $300 million to the Irving family, almost all of which was non repayable. For those not familiar with the Irving family, they practically own New Brunswick and are one of the richest families in Canada. Very recently, the NDP handed out $8 million for a golf course in Cape Breton owned by an extremely wealthy person from Chicago.
There’s an election going on now in N.S. Quite interestingly, the Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives are calling for an end to big government handouts. The PC’s, in particular, are promoting more assistance for small business. Quite a juxtaposition!
I don’t know what this has to do with FATCA except to say that one’s perception of a political party can be quite different from reality, especially if that party gets into a position of power. We just have to look South to Obama and the Democratic Party who are responsible for and promoting FATCA.
.
@Hazy: I think Brent Rathgeber probably summed up well what happens to many political parties when they get into office:
“I barely recognize ourselves. I fear we have morphed into what we once mocked”
He resigned from the Conservative caucus.
http://brentrathgeber.ca/wordpress/i-stand-alone/
@Schubert, Others: I don’t know if anyone remembers, but I rewrote the words to American Woman in early 2012.
I would love to find someone to record it with me. Anyone up for several of us in several differnt locations singing part of it, videotaping it and somehow slicing that video together into one You Tube video?
What would be the copyright implications? I wrote to Randy Bachman asking him to record it, but I didn’t get a reply. I was not able to find out how to contact Burton Cummings.
Here are the revised lyrics. Changes are in caps.
AMERICAN TAXMAN
American TAXMAN, stay away from me
American TAXMAN, JUST let me be
Don’t come a hangin’ around my door
I don’t wanna see your face no more
I got more important things to do
Than spend my time MESSIN’ with you
Now TAXMAN, I said stay away
American TAXMAN, listen what I say-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay
American TAXMAN, get away from me
American TAXMAN, JUST let me be
Don’t come a knockin’ around my door
Don’t wanna see your shadow no more
YOU MAY THINK YOU can hypnotize
I SEE RIGHT THROUGH YOUR LIES
Now TAXMAN, I said get away
American TAXMAN, listen what I say-ay-ay-ay
Now TAXMAN, get away from me
American TAXMAN, JUST let me be
American TAXMAN, said get away
American TAXMAN, listen what I say
Don’t come a hangin’ around my door
Don’t wanna see your face no more
I don’t need your war machines
I don’t need your ghetto scenes
YOU MAY THINK YOU can hypnotize
I SEE RIGHT THROUGH YOUR LIES
Now TAXMAN, get away from me
American TAXMAN, JUST let me be
Go, gotta get away, gotta get away now go, go, go
I LEFT YOU LONG AGO
WHY ARE YOU NOW MY FOE?
Bye-bye Bye-bye Bye-bye Bye-bye
You’re no good for me
I’m no good for you
NOW GET AWAY-AY-AY-AY
Schubert suggests the song “American Woman” and Crystal London in IBS has new lyrics to the “Star Spangled Banner.”
When I think of IRS and FATCA I can’t get Bob Dylan’s song “I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more” out of my mind. Perhaps lyrics could be made more relevant?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfdJc5Sp5E8
Some of the original lyrics:
“I ain’t gonna work for Maggie’s brother no more.
No, I ain’t gonna work for Maggie’s brother no more.
Well, he hands you a nickel,
He hands you a dime,
He asks you with a grin
If you’re havin’ a good time,
Then he fines you every time you slam the door.
I ain’t gonna work for Maggie’s brother no more.”
I ain’t gonna work for Maggie’s pa no more
No, I aint gonna work for Maggie’s pa no more
Well, he puts his cigar
Out in your face just for kicks
His bedroom window
It is made out of bricks
The National Guard stands around his door
Ah, I ain’t gonna work for Maggie’s pa no more.”
Thanks Blaze. I’d forgotten your re-write, but now I remember. Wish I could help, but I have a tin ear and can’t carry a tune, sorry …
@Hazy
don’t get me started on the Bob Rae days in Ontario (Rae actually was, or pretended to be, NDP at one time …)
reminds me of one of Mark Twain’s more cynical quotes — when asked by someone who he was going to vote for in the next election, he is said to have replied, “I never vote for a politician, it will only encourage him.”
My former home state used to switch parties in the Governor’s mansion every election. The philosophy was, they’re all crooks, don’t let any of them stay in longer than one term — that way we keep them on their toes and prevent them from doing any REAL damage.
I’m all for proportional representation. Some writers have moaned, if we do that, we’ll have perpetual minority governments. Thing is, I don’t have a problem with minority governments (at least other than the Harper ones, but he governed as if he had a majority when he didn’t, and Ignatieff was too much of a wimp to do anything about it). Speaking of Fifth Columns, boy did we dodge a bullet by never letting Iggy into 24 Sussex … I see he’s back at Harvard now where he belongs. At least Mulcair is French-Canadian dual and not US-Canadian dual, though I’m now wondering whether he isn’t a closet American at heart.
It’s all about votes. Our politicians should be reminded in any communication:
Canada’s estimated 1,000,000 so-called “US-persons” (and their spouses, partners, family, and associates) are a large constituency. 3 to 5% of Canada’s population could be directly victimized by this issue.
As FATCA’s direct effect on their personal lives – their privacy, welfare, and financial security – becomes widely known, this group will become a highly motivated, single-issue political force.
FATCA’s Canadian victims are a force to be reckoned with. The demographics of this group – education, career, involvement in community and social networks, resources, and ability to communicate and network – make them formidable political activists.
Ideas to push:
FATCA is unlawful in Canada.
FATCA’s Canadian victims: 3% of Canadians.
Can my bank ask me where I’m born?
No Canadian has 2nd class rights – regardless of birthplace.
A FATCA IGA would be only law in Canadian history to discriminate based upon birthplace.
Border baby example : Canadian citizen at birth, yet FATCA victim for life.
When White Kat and I were interviewed at the mini protest, the reporter REALLY did not seem to like the idea that Canadian spouses, children and those who came here as babies were included in FATCA. When I said “It might seem reasonable that they are doing this to me, for some but, I draw the line when they are coming after my Canadian spouse and child” out came his notebook. He said “Can I quote you?” and from that point on took notes furiously trying to get it all down. He’s the one that questioned Flaherty after talking to us. I’m going to be sure to include the fact that more people swept up in this are NOT dual than are. One American in the family means everyone is harmed by FATCA, not just the dual American/Canadian. Canadians will hate that. It’s not fair what they are doing to expats at all but, what they are doing to others is utterly unjustified.
When treasury said in effect that we “choose” to go abroad so now our foreign spouses and children wouldn’t justify exempting “signing rights” from this craziness he tripped up. We can point to his own remarks to show that MANY others will be harmed and that the U.S. thinks this is just fine with them.