I'm with Rae. All the way.

From Warren Kinsella's blog May 27, 2010.

"I'm with Rae. All the way."

Referring of course to Bob Rae's recent comments on the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Liberal-NDP Accord in Ontario while he was Premier and a possible future coalition between the Liberal Party of Canada and the NDP.

But is that what Warren really thinks? Is he really with Rae all the way?

From his (now deleted) blog an entry dated October 16, 2006: (highlighting mine)

"Okay, I think I’ve got it all figured out. Call it my pre-Halloween Political Analysis©. After attending the Liberal leadership thing in Toronto – and after reading the learned assessments of the punditocracy, wherein you will find as many opinions as there were journos in attendance – I have figured out that the Liberal Party of Canada is the Party of Fear. Its ultimate leadership selection will be determined by fear.

They are afraid:

• That Michael Ignatieff is too right wing, like Turner or Martin, or too academic, like Kim Campbell;
  
  
• That Gerard Kennedy is too bland, like Al Gore, or too incapable of French, like Preston Manning or John Crosbie;
  
  
• That Stephane Dion is too French, like Gerard Kennedy is too English;
  
  
• That Bob Rae is too much like an NDP Premier who lengthened and deepened a recession, laid off thousands of nurses, oversaw countless businesses shutting down, caused massive economic and social dislocation, seemed indifferent to one of the most scandal-plagued administrations in Ontario history, and only tore up his NDP membership card when it had taken his ambition as far as it could reasonably go. You know, that Bob Rae is, um, still Bob Rae.

The problem is that Stephen Harper doesn’t really scare Canadians anymore, or possibly never did. That’s the Grits’ problem.

Rob Anders, however, remains scary. Also, Liza Minelli. She scares me quite a bit. "



Doesn't sound like he is to me.




Update: Sort of related: Liberals can't remove Iffy even if they wanted to.

Michael Ignatieff: The perfect Canadian

Remember when Iffy said this:

“As everybody knows, I’m just visiting,” Ignatieff said, joking.

“They say it makes me less of a Canadian,” he said, of his former ex-pat status. “But I’m here to tell you it makes me more of a Canadian.”

Rex Murphy's take: This last claim was merely excess and nonsense since, in logic, he’d be the perfect Canadian, by his terms … if he’d never come back at all.

Read the entire article here.

More:

"Michael Ignattief’s core weakness is that so many Canadians are withholding assent to him as their leader because they do feel that, at the most profound level, perhaps he does not know their country."

Rex Murphy is a national treasure.

Paul Martin was right.

I hate to say it but Paul Martin was right.



Canadian cities. Soldiers with guns. In our cities. In Canada.


photo Norm Betts: Globe and Mail


We didn't make this up, but we can still make fun of it.


Enjoy your coalition free weekend.

Some might call it karma. Pocklington to be sentenced Aug 9, 2010

August 9, 2010: The date that former Edmonton Oilers owner Peter Pocklington will be sentenced after pleading guilty to perjury charges in a California court today.

August 9, 1988: Peter Pocklington trades Wayne Gretzky to the LA Kings.



Karma.

Liberals shield Derek Lee from answering questions

The Liberals shielded one of their own from testifying about alleged lobbying at the same Commons committee where they have raked Rahim Jaffer over the coals about the same issue.

But when Lee arrived to face MPs, he argued the government operations committee was not the proper venue for answering those types of questions.

His caucus colleagues used up much of the allotted time with long procedural arguments and Lee left without having to respond to questions.

How utterly hypocritical. I think I now know why Liberals are in favour of the gun registry; they have a tendency to shoot themselves at every opportunity.


Kady live blogged the meeting here:

Some highlights: Martin grumbles that, as far as he can see, the chair has failed in exercising her duties as an independent, nonpartisan chair, what with allowing those heavyweight Liberals to hijack the meeting, and the witness to take part in the meeting, as though he were a member. He makes the absolutely legitimate point that this is just the sort of highhanded behaviour that he sees on the other side of the House, with ministers refusing to allow staffers to testify. Again, score one for Martin, who is absolutely right.

Warkentin tries to make it sound like there are more questions than answers, which, I've got to be honest, isn't really the case -- at worst, it's the same number as when it started. Well, other than the timeless question of why the Liberals are being such complete idiots, but it's not really fair to make it Lee's job to answer that one.

Ratansi grumbles that she actually gave her ruling way back at the beginning, but it went unnoticed. Probably because you managed to so in such a confusing, convoluted and contradictory way that they were honestly unaware of it. With that, she -- adjourns the meeting. Because that's what she does. Sigh.

Ignatieff's ever shifting position on MP audits.

Ignatieff's ever shifting position on MP audits:

1. A bad idea: “I understand what Canadians are saying. They want accountability and transparency, but I don’t think they want us to be going through our receipts for this meal and that meal” (May 19, 2010)

2. A good idea: “What I mean is, it’s important Canadians know the money we spent is honestly accounted for, and that’s the kind of solution that we need to look for.” (May 19, 2010)

3. A bad idea: ”There is accountability that is in itself a waste of public money. Do you understand what I am saying?”

4. A good idea:” is “entirely in favour” of Fraser making sure the financial controls are “good and right and serving Canadians.” (May 26, 2010)

5. A bad idea: Iggy asks Liberal MPs not to post their expenses online. (May 26, 2010)

What it will be tomorrow? Who knows.


With leadership like this, is it any wonder the Liberals are lost?

Michael Ignatieff preached transparency to the cameras outside of caucus Wednesday but inside he was warning MPs not to be acting as freelancers or mavericks by posting their expenses online.

“Everybody is very confused about what is going on,” a well-connected Liberal MP says.

Liberal MPs – those who have been pushing for more transparency and have posted their expenses online – are being given the cold shoulder by some of the Liberal caucus senior players, according to an MP. Independent thinkers, it seems, will not be tolerated.

“Michael doesn’t want anybody else to put up their budgets,” says the source, who noted the hypocrisy in the fact that Liberals want to be able to manage taxpayers’ money as a government but “don’t want to disclose” the taxpayers’ money they are managing now.

“It’s amazing that we are fighting this,” says the MP.

How dare rookie Liberal MP Michelle Simson post her expenses online. She is going to pay for that one.

Today's EKOS numbers continue to reveal an ugly truth for the Liberals.

They really are lost.

Conservatives: 33.9
Liberals: 25.7
NDP: 16.4
Green: 11.9
Bloc Quebecois: 9.4 (37.4 in Quebec)
Other: 2.7

Harris-Decima

CPC 36

LPC 27

NDP 16

GRN 11

BQ 8

Related: Thomas Walkom (not a friend of the CPC) acknowledges how the Liberals are failing as an opposition under Ignatieff.

Iffy and the LPC in Quebec. More turmoil.

From the Globe and Mail: The president of the Liberal Party of Canada’s Québec wing, Marc Lavigne — who’d been in his position for only four months — tendered his resignation on May 14.

La Presse also reports that one of the Quebec directors of the Liberal Party, Marc Bélanger, sent out an e-mail in April denouncing the increased role being played by Michael Ignatieff’s office to the detriment of party structures in the province. And, on Monday of this week, another director of the Party, Michel Faure, denounced the on-going treatment of the Liberal Party’s executive director in Quebec, Louis-Philippe Angers: “I’ve been able to observe, contrary to official denials, that several attempts have been made to get rid of Philippe Angers…without anyone saying what he’s done wrong. In my view, he’s being harassed, which is unworthy of our Party and unacceptable,” Mr. Faure wrote.


And Denis Coderre still has no idea what the consequences are that Ignatieff said he will have to face.

The LPC. More united than ever!

1 year ago....Ignatieff threatens an election (again)

One year ago Michael Ignatieff was all about EI. So much so that it looked to everyone that we were going to be headed to a summer election and with quotes from Ignatieff like the following, it is easy to see why.

"I'm trying to protect these unemployed workers across the country who badly need help and if the government will work with me, we can get it done," Ignatieff said. "If they won't, we'll have to have an election."

and "And I'm telling you straight and I'm telling you clear: I cannot continue to make Parliament work unless we get substantive EI reform before this Parliament rises in June." "But I can't back down on an issue as fundamental as EI. This affects hundreds of thousands of Canadians."

It sure looked like Iffy was serious but as it turned out he wasn't and Ignatieff got lucky when the PM tossed him a bone and gave him an out by agreeing to hold talks on EI over the summer; which once over, he quickly forgot all about EI.


Some quotes on how bad Ignatieff messed up with his threats.


Gilles Duceppe on Iffy: "He just choked. He looked in the mirror this morning and saw Stéphane Dion.”

Chantel Hébert: "If it walks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it's a duck, and in this case it looks like a dead duck." and "I know that he is not Stephane Dion, but even Stephane Dion with all of his language challenges I don't think could have muffed a message that much".

Pickles or Onions.

One year ago, the beginning of the end for Ignatieff.

The coalition returns: It’s not hyperbole to state that on the outcome of the next election rests the future of Canada as we know it.

"It’s not hyperbole to state that on the outcome of the next election rests the future of Canada as we know it."

Um, yes it is, but don't let that stop you Glen Wheeler. Tell us more.

"In sum, we have social conservatives in government slowly remaking the country according to their own political vision."

"Despite the odds in favour of the most right-wing and reactionary government in living memory retaining its hold on power in a federal election likely in less than a year..."

"As a Liberal and executive member of a Toronto riding association, I have some fear myself of being labelled disloyal. My day job as in-house lawyer for a labour union may provide more fodder for accusations that I am an NDP interloper and not a true Grit." (Glad you said it and not me)

"Unlike career hacks, we peons have little to lose, other than the country as we know it."


Hyperbole much Glen?



My favorite line: "That way, coalition will appear to be an answer to public pressure rather than the last resort of losers."

Nice use of the words "will appear" as in it will look like, but in reality will still be, the last resort of losers.

Finally some truth.

Surprised Liberal: You mean if I plead guilty there might be consequences?

A little adscam news for your weekend reading pleasure.

Benoît Corbeil, a former top federal Liberal Party official, sentenced Dec. 4 for influence peddling and fraud, then released about two weeks later, pending his appeal, claims he'll lose his job at the Université du Québec à Montréal if he's locked up. His lawyer, Michel Grenier, maintains the jail sentence and order to pay $117,315 to the Liberal Party of Canada was excessive. Grenier said that in pleading guilty to the charge, Corbeil expected an absolute discharge.

I guess that being a Liberal bagman today does not carry the same weight that it once did.


Enjoy your long weekend everyone.

CBC: Audit us, no way!

It would seem that all the talk from the CBC over auditing MP's is just a little bit hypocritical.

The CBC is among many media outlets across the country that are strongly criticizing MPs for a lack of transparency, but the Crown Corporation is in the midst of its own, much quieter, battle to prevent the release of its taxpayer-funded expenses.

The Crown Corporation received $1.2-billion last year from Ottawa – roughly twice the $544-million spent on Parliament. It is currently in a Federal Court battle with the Access to Information Commissioner, who disputes the CBC’s blanket refusal to disclose any information regarding its journalistic, creative or programming activities, citing section 68.1 of the Access to Information Act.

Is anyone really surprised? I can't wait for Kady's latest on this.

The coolest dad in the world

I am sure that Rachel Harper is thinking that today about her dad, PM Harper. Not because he is the PM, but because of this.

First they came for Facebook...

First they came for Facebook and now the Pakistani Government has banned You Tube and 450 other sites including Wikipedia for being "sacrilegious" to the nation's Muslim majority.

When you give the government the power to censor, they will use it.

You may agree with the government on a particular ban, but one day you won't, and by then it will be too late. Think Human Rights Commissions for something a little closer to home.


Related: This doesn't look good.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington that the United States respects Pakistani efforts to protect the public from offensive images and speech but that Pakistan must also respect freedom of expression online.

Scott Rubin, a spokesman for YouTube, said that the site is working with Pakistani telecommunication officials to resolve the issue and that "we hope we restore service soon." He added: "This is up to Pakistan telecom authority."

I hope they don't go down the Comedy Central route because appeasement never works.

BTW: For the moral relativism crowd out there. Banning over 450 internet sites from over 146 million people is not the same as enforcing rules and the employment contract for 1 single person, no matter how much you want it to be.

LPC, hows that divisiveness workin' out for you?

They have been insinuating our troops are war criminals for a couple of years now, they brought up the abortion debate when there was no need to do so, they have played games and screamed scandal at almost everything that the Harper government has done, they have voted against their own motions, and they have a leader who makes no decisions (when he does he later changes his mind) provides no real direction and refuses to accept responsibility for any of it.


How's all of that divisiveness working out for you?


There is still hope though; here is Ignatieff's latest speech, with commentary by Scott Feschuk


As Warren Kinsella said so eloquently some time ago: 'When they start laughing at you it's all over. Fini.'

Our responsible media, yobs, and banning things for your own good.

Ever had one of those days where there are so many things that you want to comment on that you just can't possibly get to them all? Today is just such a day; I currently have so many tabs open in Firefox that I am getting memory warnings.

So to clear things up:

Our responsible media: Dan Gardner's May 16th story on PM Harper being the love child of Nixon and Dubya. Aside from it being a ridiculously biased piece of crap, why is it listed under news and not opinion? Does DG have some kind of proof of his allegations or does the the Ottawa Citizen not know the difference between news and opinion?

---

The Toronto Star’s Susan Delacourt bemoans that all 19 recipients of federal research grants were men and jumps into the Harper hates women schtick. One problem: Originally, 41 Canadian universities submitted 130 proposals. Forty of them were shortlisted and the universities were then invited to submit specific candidates for the chair positions. None of the 40 candidates put forth by 17 Canadian universities were women. That's right, it was the universities themselves that made the choice, not the government. Sorry Susan, but you didn't do your homework and you got burned. I guess she is going to go after the universities now for their obvious anti-woman bias. Ya right.

---

The Calgary Herald goes after a blogger, makes up quotes, and then edits the fake quote without letting its readers know.

Sara from Choice for Childcare was the topic of attack for Naomi Lakritz of the Calgary Herald who wrote in her article The result of Munsch's admission of his problems has been to stigmatize them even more, as in Landriault's response, which can be summed up as: "He's mentally ill and he took cocaine and drank! Evil man! Get him and his books away from my children!"

Again we have one small problem. Sara NEVER said any of that stuff between the quotation marks. Sara took a little beating in the comments on this but guess for some reason the above quote is no longer in the online article and it has vanished down the memory hole without any acknowledgment made to the readers that the article has been edited or why.

It now reads: "The result of Munsch's admission of his problems has been to stigmatize them even more, as in Landriault's response, which can be summed up as: "He took cocaine and drank! Get him and his books away from my children!"

Hmm, I wonder why they did that?


Related: I made a comment at Sarah's about why the author used quotation marks for something that obviously was never said/written and was subsequently called a "yob" on another blog for doing so .

P.S. You need to read the comments at Sara's latest piece. Honestly, these people are about as smart as a sack of soup. I particularly like Ardvark's take on this:

Ardvark said…

..as in Landriault's response, which can be summed up as: "He's mentally ill and he took cocaine and drank! Evil man! Get him and his books away from my children!"

What kind of writer uses quotation marks for something that clearly was not said?

The kind that prefaces those quotes with "which can be summed up as" to make it clear they're paraphrasing? Christ, I'm getting tired of having to explain stuff to these yobs.

Don't you just love it when you get called out by some sanctimonious know it all who ends up being totally wrong on what they called you out on. (Another 200,000+ links on why quotation marks are NOT used when paraphrasing)

---

Lets ban it! This is getting way out of hand already.

Pakistan bans Facebook because they don't like free speech.

Ontario bans Dan Akroyd's vodka because they are thinking about the children who if left to their own devices would be drinking vodka from human skulls 24/7.
(related: Dan Akroyd donates wine to our troops)

Los Angeles bans future business with Arizona because AZ wants to uphold the law in their state and in turn Arizona wants to ban electricity from going to LA because LA are being a bunch of knobs. ( actually I like Arizona's threat to LA but only because it shows how stupid these bans can be. In fact California may have to ban/boycott itself. )

Rumour also has it that the LA Lakers are going to boycott their playoff games against the Phoenix Suns. I mean if you are really serious about this LA why not go all the way and forfeit the series.

Update: Speaking about that 'tough' Arizona law. It turns out the existing federal law is tougher!

Marlene Jennings cares about members of political parties.

Conservative Party members.

Marlene Jennings Liberal MP for Notre-Dame-de-Grace-Lachine and deputy leader of the Liberal Party of Canada must be concerned as she wrote a letter to the PM asking why Helena Guergis was removed from caucus.

The opposition Liberals have sent a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, demanding to know why Simcoe-Grey Member of Parliament Helena Guergis was booted from the Conservative Party.

Too bad that this is an internal party issue that Jennings, or any other Liberal for that matter, have absolutely no business concerning themselves with; but in Jennings defense she does seem to have a soft spot for people being allowed party memberships. She is on the record as saying that Liberal organizer and disgraced adscam figure, Marc Yvan Coté, should be allowed to return to the Liberal Party after having been BANNED FOR LIFE, even though Cote did not ask to be reinstated.

"I think that Mr. Dion is right,'' while speaking with reporters adding "There are people we would like to see back in the party." Jennings said the "public notoriety'' surrounding his testimony and expulsion from the party was punishment enough for Cote. "He's definitely paid for it."



Marlene Jennings, always thinking of the little guy. Her compassion for others is legendary!


Updated: Thanks to Martin in the comments.

Here is what Marlene was saying just a short time ago. (March 11th, 2010 / 2:35 p.m.)

Marlene Jennings Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC

Mr. Speaker, the calls for public accountability from the Minister of State for the Status of Women and Rahim Jaffer are growing louder every day. They are being called the Bonnie and Clyde of the Conservative Party. They are young, Conservative and above the law.

Members of the Prime Minister's inner circle, like Kory Teneycke, are saying that the minister owes an explanation and an apology and that Rahim owes the same.

Is what the Prime Minister meant a few months ago when he sang “I get by with a little help from my friends”, I get high with a little help from my friends?

Ignatieff: I am more Canadian than you are.

Michael Ignatieff:

“As everybody knows, I’m just visiting,” Ignatieff said, joking.

“They say it makes me less of a Canadian,” he said, of his former ex-pat status. “But I’m here to tell you it makes me more of a Canadian.”

First he claimed that he was not the one starting a culture war, now he is claiming to be more Canadian than those of us who have not lived abroad for 34 years and missed 34 years of our collective history.

Seriously, has this guy lost it? The polls seem to reflect that he has.

The arrogance of Ignatieff is off of the scale.

Ignatieff: We didn't start the culture war, they did.

Ignatieff gets up in front of a paying audience and attempts to re-write history.

Ignatieff said the Conservatives have accused the Liberals of “trying to start a culture war’, but suggests it’s the Conservatives that have really done that. The Liberal leader said “let’s be clear: we didn’t end the 25-year consensus on a women’s right to choose. They did.”

Really? I could have sworn that it was Ignatieff and the Liberals that first played the abortion card with their criticism of the maternal health initiative; a program to help save the lives of women and vulnerable children in the developing world with such things as safer drinking water, inoculations, and improved nutrition.

The Liberals brought the subject of abortion up and they were the ones that tried to, and continue to, play divisive political games with abortion including their motion which ended horribly for Ignatieff and the divided Liberals.

But it is the conservatives who started this entire thing. Ya, right. (Springer has some thoughts on this as does Sandy here.)



And I bet Iffy said it all with a straight face. The same way that he said he was in politics to unite and not divide.

BS! Do they teach revisionist history at Harvard?

My sympathies to the suckers that paid for the privilege of having someone lie to them.


More arrogance from Iffy: He is now claiming to be more Canadian than the 99% of us who didn't live elsewhere for 34 years!

Edited for spelling. Thanks M!

Elections Canada deregisters 10 delinquent riding associations

From the pundits guide:

Involuntarily deregistered electoral district associations, by party and date, since the 2008 general election

Party	Riding	Date
Lib	Timmins – James Bay, ON	31-May-10
Lib	Crowfoot, AB	31-May-10
Lib	Vegreville – Wainwright, AB	31-May-10
Grn	Charlottetown, PE	31-May-10
Grn	Don Valley East, ON	31-May-10
Grn	St. Catharines, ON	31-May-10
Grn	Chatham-Kent – Essex, ON	31-May-10
Grn	Windsor – Tecumseh, ON	31-May-10
Grn	Esquimalt – Juan de Fuca, BC	31-May-10
Cons	Alfred-Pellan, QC	31-May-10
Marj	South Surrey – White Rock – Cloverdale, BC	31-Jan-09

They should have asked for an extension as the Liberal leadership candidates did when they couldn't pay off their debts. Several times!

More of the same from the Liberals, and proof the coalition lives!

More divisiveness from the Liberals, but this time it is directed towards Alberta and provincial politics.

From the Calgary Herald:Alberta Liberals need to ruthlessly exploit a "civil war" among conservatives if they want to make gains in the next election; or so says Warren Kinsella.

"When the right wing is splitting up, take advantage of it. Play them off against each other, get tough and creative," Kinsella said.

A "Civil War"? Not that this is a surprise coming from the party that wants to start a culture war to divide Canadians in a sad attempt to gain votes, but WK also said something even more interesting that is going to make Peter Donolo reach for the TUMS this morning.

The coalition lives!

Kinsella said the federal Liberals and NDP are inching toward some sort of co-operation, which may put pressure on provincial counterparts to do the same.

"If the other guys are splitting up, is it a good idea to consolidate to take advantage of that? I don't think it's such a bad idea at all," Kinsella said while speaking about a vote on a controversial resolution to co-operate with other "progressive" political parties in the next election.

Warren, thanks for the confirmation on what so many of us already knew was the truth.

Enjoy your Sunday, but if you are heading off to any type of religious services please be careful as the Liberals may use that against you as part of their culture war.

Monday update: The Alberta Liberals have voted for the resolution to cooperate more with the NDP. Brilliant, now there is even less reason to vote Liberal in Alberta.

"I decided to disclose this event to the public because I play a public role and consider that I must be transparent at all times,"

Pablo Rodriquez: "I decided to disclose this event to the public because I play a public role and consider that I must be transparent at all times,"

All is good except for the little detail that Mr. Disclosure and transparency came clean a full 28 days AFTER the incident.


I wonder what took him so long and if the the big news 28 days ago might have had some influence on just how transparent he was.


ATTENTION MSM: When did Ignatieff find out about this, and was he running in front of any camera available slamming Rahim Jaffer knowing full well what was going on with his own MP?

You might want to ask Iffy the next time you see him because he is all about good timing. Or is he?


Monday update: Bias? What bias?

The deal is done. No election.

Not that it is much of a surprise, because nobody really wanted an election over this, but Parliament has reached a deal on the Afghan detainee documents.

Too bad really. I would have loved to watch the Liberals not show up to vote on a confidence vote dealing with their own motion.

I guess that the lure of the gold-plated pension was just too much for certain MP's to risk losing.


More detail: ht Russ Campbell.

“Under the terms of the agreement agreed to by all parties, a committee of MPs will review all documents in un-redacted form to determine their relevance to the study of the transfer of Afghan detainees by the House Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan. The panel’s decision on the relevance of those documents will be final and unreviewable.

“Any documents that are found to be relevant will be referred to a Panel of Expert Arbiters, who will determine how the information in those documents will be made available to all MPs, and to the public, without compromising national security.”

CBC to investigate if its news is biased.

What they should be investigating is reporter bias, which in turn leads to biased stories, but at least this is a start. (or an attempt to whitewash?)

The CBC has commissioned a study to determine whether its news is biased, the president of the public broadcaster told the Senate finance committee this week.

“Our job — and we take it seriously — is to ensure that the information that we put out is fair and unbiased in everything that we do,” CBC President Hubert Lacroix said.

I am not sure who the third party is that will be doing the study but if they want examples, the blogs are full of them.


Updated: As I noted above, the blogs are full of examples of, lets call it shaky, CBC coverage.

CS put this up tonight listing a few recent examples and his comments are a great place to list the examples you know of, but if you really want a more complete look at all things CBC visit Joel at PTBC.

Feel free to let the CBC know your thoughts here.

Even when they are writing about bias they still take a shot at conservatives: "Lacroix’s comments come on the heels of weeks of criticism from Conservative loyalists who disagreed with the CBC’s decision not to acknowledge that one of its house pollsters and frequent guest on the air also donated substantial sums to the Liberal Party."

"Conservative loyalists"? Labeling people just because they disagree with you is not the way to show that you have no bias CBC, but then again EVERYONE who had issue with this had to be a conservative, right?

And on the Graves thing, it is not about donations specifically but rather that his loyalty or his advice to the Liberals based on polls paid for by tax dollars was NEVER disclosed. Say it with me; full disclosure.

You are invited to a Birthday Party

Someone has a sense of humour.

Courtesy of the CBC.

More on Count Ignatieff here and here.

CDN High school students don't know our national anthem

This is messed up:

When it comes to Canada's national anthem, only 67 per cent of Canadian high school students know the words — and even fewer can hum along, suggests a survey done by the University of Victoria.

Lyrics ratings:

• Newfoundland, 87%
• Alberta, 83%
• British Columbia, 76%
• Ontario, 65%
• Manitoba, 57%
• Quebec, 36%

If it wasn't for hockey games and the recent Olympics I imagine the results would have been even worse. Oh Canada!

I would ask that you please refrain from providing any personal opinions....

The muzzle.

From RCMP Deputy Commissioner Killam: "I would ask that you please refrain from providing any personal opinions and re-direct all media inquires on this issue to National Communications Services...."

I take it that the Deputy Commissioner is afraid of what the rank and file of the RCMP really think about the gun registry.


Related: Ignatieff has the same view of his own caucus.

Happy Birthday Michael Ignatieff

Michael Ignatieff is 63 years old today.

Have a Happy Canadian Birthday Michael.* From the Albertaardvark



*He may not used to that, having celebrated over half of his birthdays outside of the country, but today I can put partisan politics aside and wish him the best.

Our government is folkophobic!

It had to be said and I said it.

The Harper government is Folkophobic!

How else can you explain the Edmonton Folk Music Festival not receiving funding from the federal Marquee Tourism Events Program if there is not some deep-seated anti folk music agenda at the heart of this decision.

That has to be the reason no?

Heather Mallick for Governor General.

Heather Mallick for Governor General!

She is a media personality, she has worked for the CBC, and she is a Canadian woman.

Before you go running for the torches and pitchforks ask yourself; what did the last 2 GG's have for qualifications that Mallick doesn't?


Ok, you can go get those torches now.

A question for Jack Layton

Jack, a hypothetical for you. Would you resign from the NDP caucus if on the day the election writ was dropped you were named in a lawsuit from, well lets just say, a conservative blogger from Alberta as an example?


If not, perhaps you could take Senator Ruth's advice and.....



update: BMO says the lawyers named in the lawsuit (including Shory) are not part of the fraud.

Related: Don't believe me about the law suits Jack, listen to Paul Szabo .

The Star, G&M, and Canwest forced to CHANGE reporters at Gitmo.

Michelle Shephard of the Toronto Star, Steven Edwards of Canwest, and Paul Koring of the Globe & Mail have been banned by the Pentagon from returning to Guantanamo Bay.

The Pentagon noted that this ruling can be appealed and now Canadians everywhere along with the Obama administration await to hear what Canwest, The Toronto Star, and the The Globe and Mail have to say?


Initial reports from the NP here. The Star here. Globe and Mail here.



Pissing off our allies. Just another reason why military documents should not be seen by the press or any Gilles, Jack, and Iggy who happen to temporarily occupy an office in Ottawa.

CTV reporting that Helena Guergis dropped as the CPC candidate in Simcoe-Grey

From CTV News:

The Conservative Party's National Council has bounced Helena Guergis as the nominated candidate for Simcoe-Grey, CTV News has learned.

She was informed of the decision Wednesday afternoon, as was her riding association, CTV Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife reported.

Sources told CTV News that Guergis was removed as a candidate because Conservatives are concerned an election could be called at any moment, and they need to have nominated candidates in all 308 ridings.

Also from CTV the latest poll from Nanos: CPC up 2.5 to 37.2% LPC down 1.4 to 33.2% NDP down 1.6 to 16.2% BQ up 1.9 to 9.6% and Greens down 1.4 to 3.8%

Greens up in Calgary! Comment number 1 is brilliant. How can we make that happen?

Don Martin talks with Jean Chretien

Don Martin had a little meet up with former PM Jean Chretien. Chretien didn't say much about Ignatieff and the Liberal troubles, which DM says 'speaks volumes' in itself, but he gives a nice round up of the latest Ignatieff gaffes and stumbles.

You can read here.

Some excerpts:

The amateur-hour mistakes piling up under Michael Ignatieff's reign have to stop soon or the party could, predicts a senior party strategist who has served three Liberal leaders, hit the rocks at just 50 seats, which would guarantee a Conservative majority.

If that happens and Prime Minister Stephen Harper axes public financing for political parties, as he almost certainly will, the party Jean Chretien built into a majority monolith will crumble into long-term dust.

The list of brain dead activity in just the weeks since the party's Deep Thinkers conference has become the Red Book to self-annihilation.

Mr. Ignatieff's weekend push to extend Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean's term was so bizarre, the Liberal strategist refused to defend it on CBC's Power and Politics show this week.

It couldn't get worse. But on Wednesday, it did. Incredibly, Mr. Ignatieff ran away from a move proposed by the Conservatives to expand lobbyist contact registration to include all MPs, not just cabinet ministers. The mind reels at such irrational behavior.

Poor Iffy.

It gets worse; as today the OLO had to issue a clarification for Ignatieff's comment that he would gladly open up his appointment book for all to see. " My appointment book is an open book, you can take a look" link to video approx 5 min mark then once you have watched that, watch the video titled "Richard Madan in Ottawa"

Apparently staff in the OLO "gasped" when they heard Ignaiteff's comment.

What is in the book Iffy? What are you trying to hide.

I think a motion should now be made for him to produce the book to Parliament. Do you think such a motion would get the backing of the NDP?



(H/T Joanne and everyone at BLY)

Karlheinz Schreiber found guilty, clock starts on how long it will take for the Liberals to demand he be brought back to Canada.

Karlheinz Schreiber has been convicted of tax evasion in Germany and sentenced to 8 years in prison for failing to report millions in income.

How long before the Liberal Party demands he be brought back to Canada?



Related.


Sort of related.

Is it just me......

Is it just me or does anyone else think that Bob Rae will be holding a press conference soon where he will say, "Mr. Ignatieff your time is up." ?



With friends like this.........

Rare Kudos for Jack Layton

I don't do it often here on the blog, but Jack Layton deserves some recognition for displaying some class on the Governor General issue.

Layton, as opposed to Ignatieff, was able to keep his mouth shut, not hold a press conference, and did not feel compelled to abuse the trust placed in him by the PM who reached out and asked Layton for his thoughts on the selection of a new GG.

Way to go Jack, you are hands down a better, and smarter, politician than Ignatieff is or ever will be. You deserve to be in the OLO office more so than the current occupant.

New private members bill a logical extension of the bilingual SC bill

My sources in Ottawa have alerted me to a new private members bill which may be introduced some time in the next few weeks.

The subject: our Olympic athletes.

The proposed private members bill appears to be a logical extension of another recent private members bill, C-232, which requires supreme court justices to be fully bilingual. A bill fully supported by all of the opposition parties.

The new bill proposes that only fully bilingual athletes be allowed to represent Canada on the world stage.

An anonymous comment from the leader of a major party on the proposed bill :"There's a French fact in Canada, which is important. It's not the case that French isn't a part of the sports heritage, just look at the French terms in sports. Grand Prix, Dressage, Derailleur, and the sport of the common people, fencing, is full of French terms such as engarde, Coupé, Sabre and many more." adding "You want to get on the Olympic team? You might want to study a little French."


Sydney Crosby was unavailable for comment.

Michael Ignatieff: Arrogance Personified.

Micheal Ignatieff is DEMANDING that the Governor Generals term be extended for 5 years.

Hey Mike, (can I call you Mike?) have you ever thought that the GG doesn't want to do another 5 years? Have you asked her?


A guy who can't even get his own party to do what he wants now demands that the PM extend the GG's term.




h/t National Newswatch.



Update: the Liberal spin on this was that Ignatieff was asked for his opinion. Well Whoop-dido; but that does not excuse his arrogance.

Ignatieff was asked for his opinion ( as Stephen Harper was when he was leader of the opposition) and instead of just telling the PM quietly as has been done in the past, Ignatieff decided that his opinion was too important not to share with the common people and decided to play politics with it by running to the press.

That good readers, is arrogance personified!

It is a good thing that Ignatieff doesn't get to see any secrets; he can't keep his yap shut.

Wait a minute!!!!!


Related from Joanne at BLY.

A Sunday duet. PM Harper and Brian Adams

and in case you missed it:PM Harper and Chad Kroeger.