Mischief from within the Liberal Party.

Mischief is afoot in the Liberal Party of Canada. Is Michael Ignatieff the only one who hasn't figured it out yet? From CTV's Power Play with Tom Clarke.

The adult conversation that isn't to be, the entire Outremont fiasco, general confusion, Liberal Senators holding up legislation that Ignatieff wants passed, loyalty oaths and caucus secrecy that brings back memories of Garth Turner; it all ads up to internal mischief or as Tom Clarke called it "a more apprehended insurrection that we know to be true".


Big questions remain though; will Ignatieff be able to figure it all out it is too late and will he be able to handle it?


I don't have the answers but I do know that somewhere tonight Stephane Dion will sleep the sleep of angels.

h/t Biff

Late night post election thoughts.

Call Ripley's : The electoral record of the Green Party of Canada now sits at negative 1 after having lost the seat that they never won in the first place.

Dion is in trouble as leader, but his party is going to be in it even worse. A blogging goldmine I tells ya.

Garth Turner gets tossed in a big way. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Some other notable Liberal losses: Dan Boudria, Karen Redman, Omar Alghabra, Robert Thibault, Paul Zed, Ken Boshcoff.

Cherniak is leaving blogging to go behind the scenes with the LPC.

Dion is not a big fan of CTV. "The last one I want to speak first is CTV. Understand that?" Note how tough guy Dion gives CTV reporter Roger Smith a little push after Dion's security has already made the point.

PM Harper in his speech tonight commented that he has been elected 4 times in the last 6 years. It will take some large stones on the part of the 3 leaders of the opposition parties to bring this government down anytime soon.

Locally Mike Lake was re elected in Edmonton Millwoods Beaumont with over 60% of the vote. Meanwhile in the parking lot of his campaign office some mysterious woman was taking pictures of people leaving the party ???

Rahim Jaffer losses to Linda Duncan of the NDP in Edmonton. Someone representing a party that wants to shut down the oil sands. Hey, Edmonton Strathcona voters; any guesses as to where the funding for that world class hospital and large university campus in the center of your riding comes from?

Tomorrow we start taking down the signs.

How's it going Garth?

Steve Janke nailed Garth Turner 2 times yesterday. The first for using the son of his top assistant as a prop for the cameras of CPAC, and the second time when Garth replays the victim card.

Watch this video courtesy of Step to the Right as Garth meets a random Halton resident. If this does not sum up Garth Turner nothing does.




Nice to meet you indeed.


More from Garth but this time Garth is the 'victim' and how the evil ________ (insert party here) are destroying Garth's election signs because he is a ________ (insert party here).
This is made all the more funny considering this entire ploy was predicted by another blogger just days earlier.


Garth Turner doing the Liberal Party of Canada proud and showing us all how politics should be done.

Bob Rae confirms that Dion's carbon tax is not an environment policy.

Bob Rae doing his best Ken Boshcoff impersonation: "Mr. Rae said the plan makes the tax system more progressive and could reduce poverty by 30 per cent and child poverty by 50 per cent with a child tax credit."

There you have it again folks; the green shift is not an environment plan but rather just a tax grab to pay for another in a long line of failed Liberal social programs.

I wonder what Garth Turner will have to say now since it was only a few days ago that Liberal MP Ken Boshcoff faced a firestorm of criticism when he let the cat out of the bag with his now famous statement, The ‘shift’ will transfer wealth from rich to poor, from the oil patch to the rest of the country, and from the coffers of big business to the pockets of low-income Canadians." This admission was vehemently denied by Garth Turner who had the audacity to try to translate what Mr. Boshcoff really meant to say and claim to us all "the goal of the Dion plan, which is to tackle climate change, not to redistribute wealth".


What a mess these guys are. One Liberal MP tells the truth about the carbon tax, whether he intended to or not is another question, another Liberal MP jumps in to spin and translate what the first guy meant, and now a third Liberal MP confirms as correct what the first MP said and in the process discredits the second MP and exposes his Liberal spin.

With friends like these....

Garth Turner, again doing more harm than good for the Liberals.

Garth is at it again and this time he attempts to come to the aid of fellow Liberal MP Ken Boschoff who let the cat out of the bag the other day with his comments about Dion's carbon tax being a wealth redistribution plan rather than an environment plan, and Garth in his usual manner ends up causing more grief for the LPC in the process.

Here are a few highlights from Garth's blog entry along with my comments. (Highlighting mine)

"So, yeah, I know what Ken wrote. I also know why, and what he meant."

Got that; ignore your own eyes and the words that Boschoff himself wrote, because Garth knows better. He know what Boschoff really meant to say, and he knows more about what Boschoff wrote than Boschoff does. Hey Garth, do you also want us to ignore Boschoff's interview on Adler on Friday, where he called the carbon tax "a green anti poverty plan", as well? Please tell us what he meant Garth, because obviously Mr. Boschoff didn't have a clue about what was coming from his own mouth and got it all wrong again since you say in your blog entry; "And lost in the spray of this regional pissing match is the goal of the Dion plan, which is to tackle climate change, not to redistribute wealth."

And what about these quotes?

From the green shift plan pg 7: "To help low-income Canadians in particular, and as part of the Liberal 30/50 Plan to reduce poverty in Canada by 30 per cent and cut child poverty in half within five years, "

Dion: "We Liberals also have a goal – to fight poverty. Our Green Shift will be especially targeted to decrease poverty with further emphasis on helping children in poverty," an upbeat Dion told Liberals MPs and party supporters."

"It's a part of the Liberal plan to decrease poverty,"

There are lots more of these I could dig up, but I guess they all have got it wrong because Garth has told us that it is NOT a goal of the green shift " to redistribute wealth."


He isn't done yet folks; Garth wants us to actually believe the following:

"I can also tell everyone reading this that not a single time, not once, has the notion of (a) screwing the West, (b) finding a new NEP, (c) transferring wealth from Big Oil to Toronto, (d) funding lavish new social programs or (e) dreaming up a plan to secure the Eastern vote, been discussed in national Liberal caucus."

Lets see if I have this correct. Garth Turner wants everyone to actually believe that the Liberal caucus has never talked about ANY of the things listed above? No talk about what to do to get the East to vote Liberal? No talk at all about how you guys were going to pay for your 30/50 poverty plan? No discussion about how the green shift may be perceived in Alberta and Saskatchewan? Just what do Liberals talk about in their caucus meetings anyway; last nights big game, how to sit on your hands and not ruin your manicure, the weather, what?

I find impossible to believe that these things have never been discussed in the Liberal caucus, considering the quotes on how this ties to the LPC poverty plan I listed above, but maybe I am reading his spin wrong. Perhaps Ken Boschoff could pop in and explain to us what Garth really meant to say in his blog post. It does seem to be the thing to do in Liberal circles lately. ( "Dion's press secretary clarified the leader's comment, ...)

Keep spinning Garth, because with each attempt you give Canadians another chance to see just how the Liberal Party of Canada likes to operate, and to what levels they will go to return to power.

Truth in Liberal Advertising.

Boom! The words of Liberal MP Ken Boshcoff:

"The Liberal Party’s Green Shift announced on June 19th marked the most aggressive anti-poverty program in 40 years. The ‘shift’ will transfer wealth from rich to poor, from the oil patch to the rest of the country, and from the coffers of big business to the pockets of low-income Canadians."

The Green Shift is not an environment plan.

---

Boom! The words of Liberal MP Martha Hall Findlay

"Findlay said it's impossible to calculate the emission reduction numbers at this point, "because energy prices have gone up so much, we don't know how the shift will affect consumption," she said."

And even if it was an environment plan; the Liberals have no idea if it will even work.

---

Finally some truth in Liberal advertising! I wonder if the dynamic duo authorized those comments?

It has been a little over 3 weeks since the big roll out of Dion's carbon tax and it is becoming more and more difficult for the Liberals to 'sell it' to Canadians. Most are already not buying it and it is only going to get worse from here on out for Dion's plan as the numbers start rolling in that will show the taxpayer just how much this little scheme is actually going to cost them, and how much damage it will do to the Canadian economy.

What will the Liberals be saying a few weeks from now? I think the following taken from this article and attributed Martha Hall Findlay, will be fairly close.

"Findlay, who is also the associate finance critic, commended Dion for putting himself so fully on the line with the sink or swim 'Green Shift' plan."



Update: Garth rides to the rescue and interprets for us stupid Canadians what Ken Boshcoff's words really meant. No interpretation of Findlay's comments yet, but remember spin takes time and even more so when trying to defend a poor plan.

Garth Gets called out

Hey Garth, Jennifer Wright has something to say to you.

The offending Blog post posted June 23 2008. You can see that the Liberals are still trying to use the same spin today as Garth did back in June. Aside from the smear against Ms. Wright, the following part of Garth's post looks to be very interesting and I am sure her lawyers have it all typed up waiting for the court date.

"Actually, here’s the story: Over the months that we worked on this concept of tax shifting, various names were used for the project, the “Green Shift” being decided upon relatively late in the process. Once that happened, a lot of branding quickly took place. One obvious key element was the URL.Within minutes, the existing greenshift.ca site was located, and a strategy discussed for dealing with the commercial company operating it. They would be contacted in advance (which happened)."

Let's see if I have this correct. The Liberals were fully aware that a private company was using the name and the "strategy' worked out was to just call them? (which they did on the night before the plan was rolled out, but after it was all printed up and ready to go) How about checking if anyone owned a trade mark you fools? Did any of the superior minds in that meeting even think of that? Obviously not. Please take a look at this other quote of interest regarding knowledge and timing: Joseph Mayer, the Liberal Party's director of communications, said that although the party realized prior to the plan's launch there was another entity with the Green Shift name he believes "it was too close to shift back."

Got that. It was too late to change the name once the Liberals had found out!



The PR on this is terrible. Maybe someone should have explained to Dion that having a major political party being sued for trademark infringement is not good public relations before having him go out in public and call this woman's defense of her trademark(required by law FYI) as deplorable. Bullying and trying to smear woman entrepreneurs is textbook stupid on so many levels it makes you wonder just who is running the show over there. She told them no when they called, she even sent them a cease and desist order, but the arrogance of the Liberals know no bounds and now she is forced to sue. Maybe the LPC woman's caucus can discuss such examples of courage and leadership at their next meeting. Not Dion's, Jennifer Wright's.


Dion is already failing badly in selling his carbon tax plan to the country, and he is still in the honeymoon period as the real costing to the taxpayer has not yet been completed and exposed to the public. Once that happens his carbon tax will be history, and so will he. It is getting so bad that Dion's own party are leaving him to dangle in the wind on the "tax formally known as green shift". Has anyone seen much of those normally high profile Liberal MP's out there shilling this plan?

Even those that are supposed to be on point for Dion on this are doing him more harm than good by lighting more and more fires. The Garth Turner & David McGuinty show has been a total disaster and if it was Dion who hand picked these 2 to run point on this for him; he deserves all of the consequences that such a poor leadership decision brings.

Garth keeps making Dion look foolish.

Not only did Garth make Dion look like a fool with his original comments, he did it again when he turned Dion into a liar by not apologizing to anyone in Alberta or Quebec as Dion had already stated to the press that Garth had done.

Way to go Garth! I hope you have Elizabeth May on speed dial.


For the record:

Garth's comments: "You might not agree with everything he says, but you have to admire this about him. He stood up once to the self-aggrandizing, hostile, me-first, greedy, macho, selfish and balkanizing separatist losers in Quebec. I guess he can do it again in Alberta. "
"Not there are any similarities."
"Quebec or Alberta, saparatists are losers, ten times out of ten."

Dion's comments: "He retracted and it's not something we want to do. We want to have a respectful debate." source and "It's unacceptable, we don't discuss this way. He said he was sorry, he said what he had an obligation to after what he said." source

Garth's non apology:

So, why should I even try to justify my words? My attempt to show the Liberal leader has the stones to face down those who think of themselves first, and the country second – no matter where they hail from – succeeded only in making his task more difficult. That was not my intention. Nor do I have anything but respect for my fellow citizens in Quebec and Alberta.

But there’s no way I, as a federal member of the Canadian House of Commons, am going to lay down before people who openly advocate ripping the country apart. Moan all you want about money, or lament those who don’t share your culture or language. But don’t expect me to roll.

And for fun this little excerpt: (note he leaves out the words "separatist losers in Quebec. I guess he can do it again in Alberta" in this version) "The issue is a single sentence in my last post in which I drew comparisons between those who wish to separate from Canada, whether they live in Quebec or Alberta. I called such separatists, who put regional and self-interest ahead of the national cause, “self-aggrandizing, hostile, me-first, greedy, macho, selfish and balkanizing.”

Hey Garth, you put a quote around the period following the word balkanizing. You would almost think that was done on purpose to deceive, but you would never try to hide the truth from Canadians would you Garth?

Marlene Jennings. Why smear one when you can smear them all.

Marlene Jennings, the Liberal MP for Notre-Dame-de-Grace-Lachine expresses some of that well known Liberal love, trust and respect to many in the Canadian civil service in another lame attempt to smear the government.

Marlene Jennings said this: "Mr. Speaker, this whole sad story looks like an attempted cover-up involving Foreign Affairs, Public Works, Public Safety, Transport, the Privy Council, the Prime Minister's Office, CSIS and the RCMP. Why such a cover-up? " source

The Liberals are about only one thing; returning to power, and they smear anyone and stop at nothing in their efforts to regain that power.


In this case Jennings just smeared for political gain 1000's of honest hard working Canadians working in Foreign Affairs, Public Works, Public Safety, Transport, the Privy Council, the Prime Minister's Office, CSIS and the RCMP as corrupt and somehow involved in a cover up to protect the PM and his government. In another recent example the Libs usurped the wishes and trampled on the legal rights of a private company in their attempt to camouflage the true nature of Dion's carbon tax proposal by stealing its name. Not cool for the self proclaimed 'party of the charter' and so called champion of social justice and human rights. But using the name against the wishes of the owner was not enough for the Liberals. When the rightful owner dare not fall in line with what the Liberal Party of Canada wanted they found it in their interests to attack the owner of this company, a private citizen.

Unbelievable, and yet they expect this type of thing will somehow get them voted back into power. Well at least some of their supporters feel that way.


FYI, some more of Jennings antics can be found in these links here, here, and here.

Dion's Carbon Tax Revenue Neutral? Impossible!

As per usual the Liberals are playing fast and loose with the facts in trying to sell yet another of their big ideas to the Canadian electorate in order to get themselves elected and back into power.

Heard this one before? The Green Shift will be revenue neutral and ALL of the money collected will go back to the taxpayer. It will not make money for the government, and it will NOT cost the government any other money to run. FYI directly from the green plan: "This shift will be done in a revenue neutral way –putting it in law that every dollar that is raised from carbon pollution will be returned to Canadians in tax" cuts."

Well I am calling BS to that and to all of the great minds in the Liberal Party of Canada who are, with a straight face, claiming this to be true.

Aside from the fact that no one believes this claim to be true, as governments have never been able to pull it off before in spite of their promises, and forgetting totally the truly ridiculous notion that that NO extra people or new bureaucracy will be needed to run such massive taxation scheme, there are a couple of other reasons why the carbon tax cannot possibly be revenue neutral as claimed by the Liberals.

The first reason I dealt with in an earlier post and as of yet it really has not been refuted by Garth or the rest of the LPC spin machine which is currently in overdrive selling Dion's plan.
If this plan is a success and our CO2 emissions do manage to go down, where will the money come from to pay for the already promised income tax cuts and tax credits? Those tax credits rise in the forth year of the carbon tax by an already determined amount, but if there is less carbon use to tax, there WILL be a shortfall and that money has to come from somewhere. Where?

The second reason I have not yet seen touched on anywhere else, as everyone has been busy trying to figure out what it is going to cost individuals and business, but it is something that makes the revenue neutral claim a totally fraudulent one.

Just how are all of the cost increases that the Government of Canada are going to have to pay out because of the Green Shift going to be paid for?

That's right. The millions of dollars extra that it will cost the Canadian Government, to heat all of those massive buildings across this great country of ours, to power the computers & office lighting in those buildings, , keep the RCMP, Coast Guard & armed forces moving, idle the PM's parked limo, keep Dion's night light powered up, or just about anything else that you can think of that is required just to operate a government on a daily basis will have to be paid for. But if every dollar collected is going back to the taxpayer as a tax cut or credit as claimed by the LPC; just how do all of these increased costs, which are directly the result of the green shift, going to be funded?

Revenue neutral my ass. Just how do you Liberals figure you will slip these costs past the AG?


Spin away.

Some thoughts for the first day of Summer

I saw one of these earlier tonight while out for my evening stroll. Is this the future of transportation in Canada post Green Shift?


Kind of cool looking and as a bonus it's Canadian made! Even those not so motorcycle inclined might just give this a look. Nice work Bombardier, but perhaps you might want to consider applying the KISS (keep it simple stupid) principle to your website. I couldn't get the site to load properly and annoying potential customers is never a great idea if you are trying to sell me something. No link for you!

-----------

Lots of spin from the Libs on the Green shift but the facts are what they are and it is a dud. I will post more on why I think this at a later date but the carbon tax and Dion are toast.

Fearless prediction: By the end of July, Dion will be fighting off his own party over the blow back his MP's are going to receive from the public over the Green Shift. With the open revolt Dion will be unelectable and effectively done as the leader.

I still think that they will give him his one election, but the party brass are going to be calling the shots and Dion will be just a lame figurehead.

By the way, great job Bob! Writing a policy that was sure to fail with the voters but yet was so appealing to the ego of the leader that he would run with it was pure genius. You will be getting another shot at the title when the dust settles.


.

Rick Mercer, modern day political Nostradamus.

Rick Mercer must be some kind of seer of the Canadian political scene, and frankly his Nostradamus like powers scare me.

----------

It is the only logical explanation, otherwise how could the second segment from The Rick Mercer Report that aired earlier tonight on the CBC possibly be explained?

Sometime recently he had the "vision", perhaps while he was in the centrifuge or perhaps it was in a dream, but at some point Rick Mercer foresaw the future. Then he rented a choir, some acrobats, a couple of unicycle riding jugglers, procured some low budget but flashy pyrotechnic devices, rehearsed what by Canadian television standards would have to be called an extravagant musical number, filmed it all, did the editing and still managed to get it to air the same day as the Federal Budget comes out.

How did he know Dion would again cave? I mean with Liberal MPs, all of of the bloggers who thought otherwise, , and MSM pundits thinking an election was near; how could Rick Mercer know this in advance? And will he promise to only use this power for good and not evil? That my friends is the real question.


I think after I call CSIS, I am going to line my walls with tinfoil and hope Rick Mercer doesn't mind being exposed.

Al

Update: Thanks to Christian Conservative for finding this on YouTube

More bad news for the Liberal Party of Canada

I was going to post a little roundup on the misfortunes of the LPC over the last couple of days when I came across another one to add to the list.

Stephen Taylor has some questions for Garth Turner about how he is raising money. It is a must read about how our old friend Garth might be in violation of Election Canada rules. Interesting timing since Garth and the Libs have been trying to stir up the pot over CPC practices. I will be watching this one carefully over the next little while.

The sponsorship scandal is again raising it's ugly head courtesy of former PM Jean Chretien. It looks like JC has had his lawyer busy trying to quash some the Gomery Commissions findings that placed some blame with the PMO and hurt JC's feelings. JC has never been happy about the entire sponsorship issue; in his book he stated that Martin made to much of a deal out of it and should have swept it under the rug instead of calling an inquiry. As usual, in the Liberal Party, the buck stops nowhere. H/T Christian Conservative


Some big news out of BC where the MP Blair Wilson,Liberal critic for revenue (the irony here is priceless) is in some hot water for spending allegations in the 2006 campaign. Wilson resigned today after first denying anything was improper, but it looks like someone upstairs was trying to do some damage control and Wilson's tune changed a bit. I wonder how Stephane will deal with the above mentioned Garth Turner allegations? Better keep that Press Release handy; just cross of one name and add another.

So much for the big plan of painting the conservatives as a crooked party. It was a dumb idea to begin with, but now with the Wilson story, Garth's potential troubles, and of course JC bringing up the grand daddy of all, the sponsorship scandal, the Liberals continue to look like buffoons.

This last one may not be much, but having just read the Susan Delacourt story in the Star, where everything seemed to be coming up roses for the Libs in the GTA area*; the president of the Sarnia-Lambton federal Liberal association, Anne Marie Gillis, has resigned because of the poor leadership of Dion. The Liberals are desperately hoping that the major cracks and trouble seen in Quebec wing will not pour cross over the border into their last major area of support in the country, but didn't those cracks in Quebec just start out small as well? Here's hoping.

*How could a survey of the Liberal party's 47 riding presidents in the GTA possibly be representative of anything? It would be like asking the Board of GM what type of vehicles are the best, or asking Leafs coach Paul Maurice who will win the cup. The entire story looks like a sad attempt at cheer leading that the Star, and Delacourt, should both be ashamed of.


Late update: It seems that Blair Wilson at one time was contemplating running for the LPC leadership and the entire country into the ground with his management skills. H/T KerPlonka

Dion sees his shadow. No election for 6 months.

So, the very absent from any recent public events, Stephane Dion came out of hiding today to shuffle around the bones of the Liberal Party of Canada.

He named our old friend Garth Turner as a "special" advisor. I wonder if Garth's special talents will be used to help Dion with the clean campaign that he is eventually planning to run; because we all know Garth is never in the muck. ( I almost chocked typing that)

Dion also named, in what I consider a very bizarre choice, the infamous Bob Rae as the LPC's foreign affairs critic. The unelected Rae, who hit single digits in his popularity as former Premier of Ontario, was also a challenger of Dion's at the leadership convention late last year, and remains hungry for Dion's job. I say bizarre choice because even though everyone is blaming Iggy for a lot of the knife play as of late in the LPC, I have yet to see Rae make any of the 'support Dion' type of speeches Iggy has made.

Think about this; in who's best interests is it to have all of Dion's and the LPC troubles be front and center in the MSM for all to see, and have these leaks blamed on the #2 choice at the convention, Iggy? Ignatieff supporters may indeed be responsible for much of the backroom antics that are going on, but I doubt it could be considered a benefit to their guy to be blamed publicly for either the antics or the leaks. Maybe it is a case of keeping your enemies close, but judging by Dions lack of leadership skills and political smarts, I doubt it.

Dion who had earlier in the day spoken about how his party was or would not be obstructionist in Parliament, also named Pablo Rodriguez as critic for the Economic Development Agency (Quebec). We all remember Pablo as the sponsor of the private members' bill that appears to make the government comply with Kyoto, while in reality might just be the textbook definition of obstructionism, as well as a colossal waste of taxpayer paid time. Perhaps Pablo could help Stephane out with the current Jamie Carroll problem; as Pablo has called for him to be fired even after Dion publicly stated his support for Carroll. One big happy family.


Oh, and Dion did see his shadow today, so according to Wiarton Willies guide to Liberal politics, that means no election for at least 6 more months. Hey, taking advice from a groundhog might just be a good thing for the Liberals, heaven knows they are not getting any leadership from anywhere else.

Al

Another GT Moment

This little gem from our old friend Garth Turner, who has written a little critique of the CPC website on his blog. He seems to have an issue with some spelling on the CPC site and writes the following:

"Do the young ones know how to spell ‘aloud’? If the Cons are feeling so confident, then why’s half their web site a trashing of Stephane Dion? Have the blackhead-poppers replaced Doug Finley? Do Conservatives think Canadians want negative politics? Have they read a poll lately? Do they think stupid, out-of-contenxt pictures will make people vote for them? Are these the folks you want running the country?

And, no, we’re not making this up."

I do not know who the "we" are who write your blog Garth, but maybe you could get one of them could run a spell checker.


updated: The old Garth supports cuts to the court challenges program among other things, but his current party is against that. Ht: Christian Conservative

Another example of Social Justice

The daily antics of the Liberal party continue to amaze me. They have hit rock bottom and the more they whine the more support they lose.

From CTV : A Commons security guard forced the Conservative research employees to leave Thursday while one mingled with reporters to record a scrum with Liberal Leader Stephane Dion.


Unbelievable. How will this be spun by Dion and his "crew"? I do not think it can be spun but we shall see in good time.

Limiting who can or can not be at a public event is not the best way to display that you are the party of social justice.


I feel that even the most rabid Liberal is starting to see that Dion was a mistake, and spinning this crap is becoming a increasingly difficult thing to do. Well, at least if you want to look in the mirror that is.

Does anyone remember the CPC meeting in Toronto recently? A private function where a Star reporter got into a snit because she was not allowed in. Oh the outrage, I just wonder what the Star will say about this story.

Better yet, I wonder what Garth has to say about this one?

Stay tuned, more to come I am sure.



Al

Hey Garth!!

You might have missed this yesterday, but fellow blogger Len has a question for you to answer if you have the backbone to stand up for your own words time.




Some background on the subject for those not playing along at home.

H/T to ChuckerCanuck, who first spotted the fact that Garth did some editing to his site by not only removing his post calling the PM a political whore, but also his statement of retraction regarding that post.

Garth contradicts his new boss.

Who is telling the truth?

While I was checking out Garth Turners blog this morning I noticed a reply that he made in response to a readers comment about Bob Rae writing Liberal campaign policy. (Source, see the first comment)

Readers comment snipped for brevity ..."The Liberals at this time do not have a platform. It is being written by Maurice Strong’s nephew, and PowerCorp VP John Rae’s brother - former NDP Bob Rae as I understand it....Because the Conservatives had already brainstormed their election platform which you endorsed by running under it you did not like the fact that you were not part of it at that time.
Is this fair comment?"

Garth's reply:
"No, it is wrong. First, the Liberal platform is being written now by elected people. I know, for obvious reasons. Second, the Con platform is already written, and your MP has diddly to say about it. This I also know. — Garth''


Liberal Party press release: December 19, 2006 TORONTO – Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion announced today that fellow former leadership candidate Bob Rae will be Co-chair of the Election Policy Platform Committee for the Liberal Party of Canada ...

Another Liberal Press release: ...Leadership race runner-up Michael Ignatieff will serve as the Liberals’ Deputy Leader, bringing his wealth of knowledge and strong policy background, while fellow leadership candidates Bob Rae and Scott Brison will be in charge of developing the Liberal Party platform for the next election campaign.


Last time I checked, Bob Rae was not currently elected, but Garth does seem to be very sure of himself as he added this part to his comment " I know, for obvious reasons" , so what are the possible reasons for such a statement:

Maybe Bob Rae is on his way out because he opposes Dion's position on the anti terror legislation? Maybe Dion lied to Canadians about Rae's position in the party? Or just maybe Garth is just an idiot and has no clue what he is speaking about? Either way it looks like Garth is up to his old tricks again.

Al