Renters Beware: Vacancies Down, Rents Up (Way Up)

The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation just released their 2008 Rental Market Reports for Saskatchewan. (You'll have to subscribe to get the free pdfs.) Things are looking pretty bad for Regina.

In the Queen City, the citywide vacancy rate is presently 0.5%, which is a 10-year low. (Down from last year's already very tight 1.7%.) Zones of note include the central zone which sits at 0.5% and the university area which is a grim 0.1%.

Rental rates have increased on average by $87 a month.

Up until now, city hall has been basing its decision making on the old figures, so it'll be interesting to see how this survey changes things in the days to come. A major shift in housing strategy maybe?

On the up side, the CMHC is predicting the citywide rate to go up next year as in-migration slows, but only to 1.2%.

In Saskatoon, meanwhile, things look a tiny bit better on the vacancy front. The citywide vacancy rate increased to 1.9% this year up from 0.6% last. This was achieved, however, while rental rates shot up by $129 monthly.

Iggy It Is II

Further to my speculations from yesterday, found out the conservatives sent out this fundraising email calling for party members to make emergency $100 and $200 donations to help the conservatives crack the coalition.

Apparently, the missive was written by Doug Finlay, the Conservative's National Campaign Chair. He writes:

"In yet another stunning and unprecedented demonstration of Liberal contempt for our democratic rights, they've decided to appoint a new leader in his place.

"Not only was the Liberal/NDP/Bloc Coalition not elected to govern this country , but the person who would become Canada's Prime Minister wasn't even the leader of a federal party during the last election and may not even be elected by the Liberal (or any) party's membership .

"The Liberals have decided to parachute Michael Ignatieff into the position of Prime Minister, and one thing is clear: Canadians didn't elect this coalition to form a government , and they most certainly didn't elect Michael Ignatieff as Prime Minister.

What Price Democracy Pt. II

If you need a reminder of how corrupt American politics can be, check out this Harper's magazine article about a sting that editor Ken Silverstein conducted against Beltway lobbyists last year where he posed as a representative of a company with business interests in Turkmenistan, a Stalinist-type former Soviet republic with a horrendous human rights record but plenty of natural gas that the company was interested in doing some image-polishing for in Washington. Junkets for members of Congress? Sit-downs with think-tanks where Silverstein a.k.a. Kenneth Case* would control the agenda? Bullshit op-ed pieces that "respected" academics would sign their name to and publish in major newspapers? It makes for compelling reading.

* Silverstein said in a CBC radio interview that he took Case as his alias, by the way, because of his fondness for singer Neko Case.

"Separatists, Botanists And Snowboarders"

Not surprisingly I get more e-mails than I can open. Just going through yesterday's unread batch and I found this link to a great Lawrence Martin article on Harper's undeserved victory in the coalition wars of aught-eight.

The column's called "Our Robert Mugabe Moment, And Other Unpleasant Memories" and it appeared in Monday's Globe And Mail.

Here's a taste:

"...read the headlines in The New York Times, on CNN, in papers across the globe: "Canadian leader suspends Parliament to stay in power." Would Robert M. approve? A prime minister promises the Opposition a confidence vote. A prime minister sees he will lose that vote. A prime minister moves to shut down the House of Commons, lock the doors of Parliament."

"Canadians democratically elect MPs to their federal Parliament. Whether they be separatists, botanists, or snow boarders, they have a perfect right and responsibility to partake in our governing process."

"But so what if the bullshine meter goes off the charts? We're so used to politicians putting the truth to death that it doesn't matter any more."

Read the whole marvellous piece here.

Iggy It Is

Is it just me or does the coronation of Ignatieff feel like a really bad move optics-wise? I mean, if the coalition survives and tries to offer itself up as an alternative government, we know there'll be more attempts to paint it as a coup d'etat. And all Harper will have to say is, "Even the leader of this coalition wasn't democratically elected by his party" and it'll be game, set and match Conservatives.

Would an internet poll of party membership really have been that difficult? Here we are living in the 21st century ----- it's the freaking future already! ----- and the Liberal brass reckon if they can't get everyone together in a room for a show of hands it's just not on? I suppose technically this process was just to pick their interim leader but wouldn't the smart move after being charged with acting undemocratically be to move forward super-democratically by encouraging Rae to stay in the race then letting every Liberal and their Liberal dog vote for leader? Odds were pretty good Iggy still would've had it in the bag. But no, let's cling to all our antique customs because clearly the canadian public is so well informed about the way the parliamentary system works.

I wonder if Paul Martin is starting to regret all that provincial transfer money he cut that would've gone into social studies education.

The Stephen Harper Personality Disorder

According to the Yiddish proverb:

If one person calls you an ass, pay him no mind.

If two people call you an ass, pay them no mind.

If three people call you an ass, have yourself fitted for a saddle.

Dionzo Gonzo

It's official: Liberal leader Stephane Dion will step down as soon as a successor is chosen. That successor is apparently Michael Ignatieff, Dion's rival at the last Leadership converntion.

Ignatieff is smart and well-spoken and should prove a nimble politician capable of effectively holding Stephen Harper's nasty little Tory trotters to the fire. But I don't trust the guy. While living in the United States during that country's worst period of terrorist-induced mass psychosis, he supported the Iraq invasion in a pompous, long-winded essay for The New York Times Magazine. (He later admitted this opinion was sort of a mistake but not really).

A question: how did prairie dog's demonstrably half-wit editor know Saddam Hussein didn't have weapons of mass destruction in 2003, while a presumably fantastically more intelligent Harvard academic didn't?

It's a good thing I'm not being annointed Liberal Leader. I just don't understand complicated politics stuff.

(photo by liberal.ca. Colour balance, cropping by prairie dog.)

How We Lost Afghanistan

One of my favourite blogs, The Galloping Beaver, has an ex-military man as one of its authors. This gives the blog's coverage of Canadian military matters an added level of detail that you don't get from Canadian media, who cover our Afghanistan military adventure the way Don Cherry talks about the Leafs on Coach's Corner.

Well, the sad fact is that we aren't losing the war in Afghanistan: we've already lost.

Read it and weep.

Another blog, Rolling Back the Tide of Extremism, One Post At A Time, tells the same story. It's not a nice story.

All the boosterism, wearing red on Fridays, and yellow ribbons isn't going to change a thing militarily: Afghanistan is where empires go to die. It happened to Alexander the Great, it happened to Genghis Khan, it happened to the British Army twice, and it happened to the former Soviet Union. And it will happen to NATO. In fact, it's already happened.

More Media Carnage

Bill Stovin might not be the only one freaking out about the Leader-Post's campaign for Izzy Asper's canonization. But there’s a darn good reason why. The past – for Canwest and the Asper publishing/communications empire – is all they have left. Their share prices are falling like a rock, they have millions of dollars in bonds coming due in 2010, and the advertising market is as soft as a baby’s bottom.
Like what’s happening with the Chicago Tribune, Canwest is financially screwed. Newspapers -- the ones run by smart people, anyway -- can and will survive the internet, just as they survived television and radio. But they won’t survive their own business stupidity. When you leverage the hell out of your assets, lay off staff, cut yourself off from the community and then wonder why you’re losing readers, subscribers and market share, well, then you may be too stupid to live.
Oh yeah, when Izzy was alive, Canwest traded at over $12 a share. It’s now down to about 55 cents (as of Dec. 5), removing the Asper children from the list of the richest 100 Canadians. If I’m David Asper, worrying about how crummy CanadaInns (nee Winnipeg) Stadium is should be the least of my concerns… then again, it’s that attention to detail that explains why Canwest got into their financial pickle.
And paying the guy who presided over the stock decline more than $900K a year doesn't seem like a smart move, or understandable, outside Canwest's mindset.

(hat tip to Ottawa Watch)

Harper's Quebec Strategy: Revealed!

Was listening to the Sunday Edition yesterday (which was 4/5ths constitutional kerfuffle coverage... the Dec 7 show isn't quite up yet, btw, but the link will get you to it once it is) and during a round table discussion segment, a conservative pundit (not a party wonk, an academic with naked conservative sympathies) argued that the Grit+NDP coalition is undemocratic because the Conservatives actually have a majority of the seats in the house...... if you don't count any of the Quebec seats.

Which got me thinking... is that Stephen Harper's strategy in all this? Drive Quebec to separate, after which he'll get his much-coveted majority government and the Conservatives will become the natural ruling party in what remains of the country?

Wily.

I'm being facetious, of course. Or... on second thought... am I?