Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams is taking steps to ensure that his MHAs are backing his Anything But Conservative campaign as a federal election approaches.

In an e-mail Williams sent to his caucus, the premier asks them, among other things, to declare whether they support the ABC campaign, and whom they would work for in the federal election, CBC News learned Thursday.

Sources say it's a move sparked by a report that quotes a federal official who suggested not all MHAs were on board, and some are leaking information to the feds.

Steve Kent, MHA for Mount Pearl North, would normally work for the federal Conservatives, but this year he says he will be actively working in his district — getting the word out that everything needs to be done to defeat Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government.

ODAN has good info, but this is the best I've found so far.

Sociologically speaking, the phenomenon of Opus Dei is not hard to understand. In its original Spanish context, it represented an attempt to harness certain traditional Spanish values--honor, discipline, hierarchy, austerity, and the like--to the project of modernizing a backward national capitalism. For all its talk of inner spirituality, it was, and to a great extent still is, an authoritarian and semi-clandestine enterprise that manages to infiltrate its indoctrinated technocrats, politicos, and administrators into the highest levels of the state.

Charbonneau Barron is entitled to her opinion like all other candidates, said Opus Dei spokeswoman Isabelle St. Maurice.

"When people [get to] know her, they will vote or not for her, thinking maybe she will bring [her beliefs], or she will try to bring something," to politics, she said. .... Opus Dei is not discouraging Charbonneau Barron from speaking about her faith, she added.

"What I heard is the Conservative Party is quite like this," she said.

Foul Ball, Gilles.
Gilles Duceppe has decided to attack a Tory candidate based on her religious affiliations.

I'm no Opus Dei member - but religious beliefs should be absolutely, 100% off-limits in the realm of public debate.

I don't care if this woman is Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, a Rastafarian, Scientologist, Mormon, Evangelical or Wiccan. A candidate's faith - or lack thereof - is an issue between them and their God(s/dess/desses). There is absolutely no place for this in any election, and Duceppe owes the candidate, and all Canadians of ALL faiths, an apology.

If you want to talk about her public comments on a given issue, that's fine. But to say that "she belongs to this religious group, they believe this, and we think that's wrong" is gutter politics of the worst kind.

The irony of Duceppe's foul ball? Quebec is 83.2% Catholic. Many of course are Lapse [sic] Catholics, but the majority would still be mass-attending Catholics - including many BQ candidates, one would have to guess. I don't know how up-to-date Gilles is on the teaching of the Catholic Church, but the new Pope, and therefore the Church, isn't exactly a big fan of the 2 issues Gilles cited - abortion, and same-sex marriage.

How many of his own candidates did Duceppe just condemn for their own, private religious beliefs? How many Quebecois did Duceppe just insult in the most personal of ways? Tune in on October 14th to find out.

Ha, she's executive director of All Women's Empowerment and Development Association and says she was called back to work by them. AWEDA got money from the fed govt, announced in June: "...from the Women's Community Fund of the Women's Program of Status of Women Canada..."

http://www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/newsroom/news2008/0627_e.html

ETA: Apparently she founded the NGO:
[url]http://or/url]

ETA again: I can't find much more about AWEDA by googling; I wonder if she is AWEDA by herself, or if it is an active group that is doing something useful.

... As for Catholics, Opus Dei has had a hand in setting up vicious military dictatorships in Latin America which have certainly not had any qualms about torturing, murdering and "disappearing" countless nominal and practising Catholics, including many priests and nuns.

The wheels are coming off the Con bus:

Dona Cadman Verifies Authenticity of Zytaruk Tape/Far and Wide

If Liberal MP Paul Zed is correct, the Federal Liberal Carbon Tax will exclude oil refineries/nbcdipper

And of course Sparrow is only suspended, not fired....this is getting really interesting.

Isn't Zed the guy who made the funny comments about the Con operative in the squirrel suit? Fifi in Paris in Digby?

Um ... ewwwwwwww? As God is my witness, I have no idea where to go with this.

2006 Federal Conservative Government Cuts
November 2006

Canada Policy Research Networks ELIMINATED

Canada School of Public Service FUNDING REDUCTION

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation FUNDING REDUCTION

Canada Revenue Agency Visitor Rebate Program ELIMINATED

Canadian Heritage Centre for Research and Information on Canada
FUNDING ELIMINATED

Canadian Heritage Support to Canadian Volunteerism Initiative ELIMINATED

Canadian Labour Business Centre ELIMINATED

Canadian Policy Research Networks FUNDING ELIMINATED

Canadian Volunteerism Initiative ELIMINATED

Community Access Program, internet access for communities at
libraries, post offices, community centers ELIMINATED

Court Challenges Program ELIMINATED

Court Commission of Canada ELIMINATED

Environment: Youth International Internship Program ELIMINATED

First Nations and Inuit Tobacco Control Program ELIMINATED

Foreign Affairs and Public Diplomacy Program ELIMINATED

Foreign Affairs Youth International Internship Program ELIMINATED

Health Canada $28.1 MILLION REDUCTION

Health Canada Policy Research Program ELIMINATED

Health Canada Medical Marijuana Research Program ELIMINATED

Human Resources and Skills Development SIGNIFICANT FUNDING REDUCTIONS

HRD Adult Learning and Literacy programs REDUCED AND ELIMINATED

HRD Youth Employment Programs REDUCED AND ELIMINATED

Indian and Northern Affairs Canada FUNDING REDUCTION

Industry Canada Programs including Technology Partnerships Canada
FUNDING REDUCTION

Industry Industrial Programs including Technology Partnerships Canada
FUNDING REDUCTION

LAW Commission of Canada ELIMINATED

Mountain Pine Beetle Initiative ELIMINATED

Museum Assistance Program FUNDING REDUCTION

National Defence High-Frequency Surface Wave Radar Project ELIMINATED

Natural Resources and Environment Climate Change Programs, including
the One Tonne Challenge, 40 public information offices across the
country, and several scientific and research programs on climate
change, 40% BUDGET CUT

Natural Resources Programs for Studying Concrete and Other Materials
ELIMINATED

Public Works and Government Services Canadian Identity Grant and
Contribution Program ELIMINATED

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Drug Impaired Driving Program Training
Budget ELIMINATED

Statistics Canada SIGNIFICANT REDUCTIONS

Status of Women Canada, SIGNIFICANT BUDGET CUT Status of
Women Canada mandate CHANGED; EXCLUDES "gender equality and political
justice"

Status of Women, advocating, policy research and lobbying TOTALLY
BANNED

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada FUNDING
REDUCTION

Workplace Equity/Employment Equity Program SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION