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.

Whew, that was close. The UN is going to save women from PM Harper.

All the lefties of Canada can now breath a sigh of relief. The United Nations is going to save the women of the world from the evil PM Harper.


How?


By appointing Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women. FYI: the commission is “dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women”.


Sleep well lefties. The worlds women are now safe from PM Harper, and wearing immodest clothing, and talking to men in public places, and getting a tan, and .......

Kory Teneycke Zings Jane Taber

Kory Teneycke on Twitter "Don't recall Jane Taber pointing out I was a "paid commentator" when I worked at CTV."

Jane is not big on 'details' Kory; if you notice nowhere in her story does she mention that little detail about Graves giving $11,000 to the Liberals over the last few years.






Related: From BC Blue: 'Oh please… sure, he may not be paid the $200 for those appearances but how much is he getting to be CBC’s in-house pollster?'

Premier Stelmach worried, puts off Senate elections

Premier Ed Stelmach announced today that Alberta will not hold a new round of Senate nominee elections, and will instead extend the terms for the province's three remaining senators-in-waiting; Betty Unger, Cliff Breitkreuz, and Link Byfield who were elected to 6 year terms. Those those six-year terms expire in November and the provincial government has already moved to have new senators-in-waiting appointed, passing a bill extending to 2016 the expiry date of legislation governing senatorial elections in Alberta. This all coming just two days after the federal Conservative government introduced legislation urging the provinces to follow Alberta’s lead and hold Senate nominee elections. ( Update: the actual legislation passed in May extended the term to 3 years and not 6 as was stated at the time of writing)

I have mixed thoughts on this.

First, these Senators in waiting (SiW) were elected for 6 year terms; that is what we voted for and now the Premier wants to change the rules of the game. They were not elected for life, although if appointed to the Senate that WAS what would have happened, which is not really fair to all of us who did vote in the election and for those out there that may want to run for the positions. Let these 3 run again for another 6 year 'term' if this is a problem. (btw Unger and Byfield have said that they'll likely run again in any election)

Now that all being said there is a case to be made that by extending the terms of the current 3 senators in waiting and not holding a new election it could save us some money. Saving taxpayers dollars is almost always a good thing, but since these elections would be tied in with already planned fall municipal elections, those cost savings would be minimal at best.

Not one to get upset over saving the taxpayer a buck or 2 I might be applauding the Premier for this decision except for one thing.

That is not why he did it.

This is.

Wildrose Alliance Leader Danielle Smith announced plans for the WRA to run candidates in any upcoming SiW election, and the Premier is running scared because he knows what the results would be. It is the ugly truth and Stelmach knows that he is in trouble with Albertans and most likely his own party if he keeps this nonsense up.



Another article on the leadership of Premier Stelmach.


Wiki: Alberta Senate elections.

Elizabeth May's Campaign Manager Quits, and other green troubles

A must read blog entry on the current troubles within the Green Party of Canada under Elizabeth May's leadership.

Excerpts:

'John Fryer just quit as Elizabeth May`s campaign manager in SGI. I won`t bother going into the endless list of people who have been briefly associated on a professional basis with Elizabeth May and the current leadership of the Party who have quit, been fired, or just shunted aside.....'

'So there we were, and here we are. A National Party with full slate of directors, leader, deputy-leader, and communications staffers on the payroll, but NO FIELD ORGANISERS!'

'So to summarise, the current leadership has been exposed as hopelessly incompetent with our finances and Party management. They ramped up hiring and spending, then were forced to 180 and fire everybody. The response to the unfolding woes has been to re-focus the Party from encouraging and supporting local organising at the grassroots level, to making electing Elizabeth May the sole priority of the Party. '


And you thought Ignatieff had problems.

What kind of "Rural Canada Matters" strategy.....

What kind of "Rural Canada Matters" strategy keeps in place the much hated gun registry and keeps in place the Canadian Wheat Board which does not allow western (and only western) farmers to sell their own grain?

Answer: The Liberals Rural Canada Matters Strategy.


What does the Liberals RCM strategy actually do?

It plans to put 80 Million dollars towards an advertising campaign to promote farmers markets and locally produced food

Hooray, another Liberal ad campaign; just what Liberal bagmen rural Canada needs!

Michael Ignatieff is so far removed from rural Canada that he should require a visa before visiting a farm. Don't believe me? Well then explain just how the following measures, also part of the RCM, relate to rural Canada.

• A $40-million program to help 250,000 low-income children get better access to healthy food.
  
• New health-labelling criteria for food and tougher standards on trans-fats.
• Investing $50 million to ensure foreign imports meet local standards and to improve food inspections, and implementing a review of federal food inspection agencies to ensure safe food for Canadian consumers.

None of this has anything at all to do with rural Canada and looking at the spending I would guess that 95% of the money allocated will be spent in urban, and not rural, Canada.

Take your RCM plan and your divisive Graves Doctrine and go back to Harvard already Iffy; rural Canada does not need you.

Quebec Human Rights Commission: Fork you!

From Tasha Kheiriddin at the National Post:

A family has just been awarded $17,000 in damages because a lunch monitor tried to instruct their then-seven-year-old son to eat with a knife and fork, instead of with a fork and spoon (the traditional Filipino way of eating). Human rights lawyer Pearl Eliadis said the ruling should be a lesson to schools and public service providers that they need to treat people in a way that is respectful of where they come from.


BTW Chinese restaurants across the land beware. If I come in and I find a couple of sticks on the table instead of a fork you are going to be paying dearly for that little oversight. I demand respect, I demand a fork!

What a great land we live in where I don't have to respect your traditions when I walk into the door of your restaurant and want to eat your traditional food and can potentially get $1000's of dollars from you to do it.

We are doomed. Fire them all now.

Even the normally left leaning MSM thinks Ignatieff is wrong

Even the normally left leaning members of the MSM think Ignatieff is wrong on his support of C-232, the private members bill to make it mandatory for Supreme Court Justices to be fully bilingual. (which would disqualify 7 of the 9 current SC Justices!!)

The Toronto Star: "The Senate should exercise its responsibility for sober second thought and block this bill."

Robert Silver (Globe and Mail):"So, about that Senate rubber stamp... if ever there was a bill that was crying out for a "sober second thought" - some deeper study, this is it. "

So we have the these normally left leaning members of the MSM against it, we have former SC Justices against it, and of course many bloggers are against it; now the question is, aside from Ignatieff and the opposition MP's who voted for this nonsense, is there ANYONE out there who does support this?

Between the Covers with Michael Ignatieff.

Michael Ignatieff comments on the subject of twisting media reviews to promote paperback sales of his latest book, True Patriot Love: "I'll take the blame from what's between the covers, not for the cover blurbs."

Since Ignatieff is currently on his book tour let's look between the covers at some of those errors along with a few other things that seem to have been forgotten since the books initial release.



In Canada, empathy has to encompass 33 million people, with competing and conflicting myths of origin, spread across four time zones,, in five distinct economic regions,...

Canada has 6 time zones not 4, but I am not an acclaimed intellectual and author so what do know.


Ignatieff wrote about his great-grandfather giving an interview to the Victoria “Times Colonist” in 1872. There was a Daily Colonist in those days, and a little later a Victoria Times, but there was no Times Colonist for another century as the two papers were merged in 1980. (source)

Not a big error but when you have Google..........


George knew his father was a liberal, both small L and big L, who sometimes voted for the socialist CCF from sheer exasperation.

Cool; except for the little detail that the CCF (precursor of the NDP) was founded in 1932 and didn’t contest a federal election until the autumn of 1935, some months after William Grant’s death which makes the entire comment nothing but fiction, but if it nets a couple of votes, why not a little fiction.


"as Canadians, we cheer for the same football teams as Americans."

Americans cheer for the CFL? You can read about this here and see how our friend Evan Soloman helps Ignatieff out of a bind only to have Ignatieff step into it again when he says "I've watched it (the CFL) all my life." while not explaining how he did so while spending 20 years living in England where the CFL is not available on the 'telly'.



And while the following is not an error factually, it deserves being brought up again to show what Ignatieff will use for political gain.

To imagine it as a citizen is to imagine it as a resident of Yellow Quill reservation in Saskatchewan would have had to imagine it, this Canada where two half-naked children died in a snow-covered field in the sub-Arctic darkness because their father tried to take the sick little girls to his parents and never made it, and all you can hope is that death was as mercilessly quick as the cold can make it. What does a resident of Yellow Quill imagine, what do we Canadians imagine our country to be, the morning we learn that children have perished in this way? It is surely more than just a tragic story of one family. It is a story about us.

A story about us? There is a lot I could say about that but others have said it better, so here is Mark Steyn's take and another view from our good friends at The Politic.

The man is truly shameless.


That is it for between the covers with Michael Ignatieff, as always I recommend you shower up ASAP and have a good Sunday.

-------------------------------------------

Some excerpts from other reviews:

"As an exploration of patriotism, it offers up clichés about modern Canada but little more.True Patriot Love is a well-written disappointment." link

Intellectual Slight of hand. "Canadian patriotism, it seems, is a bunch of infrastructure projects, a better government and enough hot air to open the Northwest Passage." "This isn’t Pierre Trudeau. It isn’t even Lester Pearson. It’s John Turner."


From CS in the comments; King Lear Gate! Too funny, but more of the same from Iffy.

A man of many talents, Ignatieff displays his prowess at the gym.

-----------------------

Blog related: You may notice something new on the blog today, the Blogging Tory Bar located at the bottom of the page. Give it a look and feel free to drop a comment.

A prime minister has one simple job: To keep the country together and not seek polarization...

Michael Ignatieff: "A prime minister has one simple job: To keep the country together and not seek polarization...."

So why do almost all of your policy ideas do just that?

Speaking to the press on his book/while I am here lets talk politics so the taxpayers can pay for this tour, Michael Ignatieff continues to follow the Graves doctrine of divisive politics.

On the gun registry:

The Opposition leader has vowed the Liberal caucus will vote against a Conservative private member's bill to scrap the registry.

"When I talk to cops, they say, "When we go into buildings, we check the registry. We don't send officers in unless we check it."

(Really? So tell me this; if the registry says that there are no guns in that 'building', do the police go in without a care in the world and assume that they will be safe, or do they do the smart thing and assume that EVERY 'building' potentially has a gun in it and prepare accordingly? It sounds to me that the registry may be providing a false sense of security and may actually open the police up to more danger, which if so, is another reason why it needs to go.)



Making it mandatory that Supreme Court Justices be bilingual:

First of all, there's a French fact in Saskatchewan, which is important. It's not the case that French isn't a part of the cultural heritage of the West, just look at the place names. (where have I heard that before?) The West wants in . . . to these great national institutions, but we are a bilingual country. And this is not a minor matter because a quarter of the cases come from Quebec. This isn't me creating a new obstacle that the West has to overcome. This is our country and I want the West to participate and I want our law schools to be sending out the message: "You want to get on the Supreme Court? You might want to study a little French."

(Sorry Iffy but Canadians want the best legal minds to be on the bench, not the best linguists. This is totally needless. divisive and reeks of political correctness just for the sake of it. Obvious unasked question: Should the 6 Justices currently on the SC who are not fully bilingual have to resign? Including Justice Rothstein, who Ignatieff singled out as a "great guy' but who is not bilingual? Oh and 5 minutes in the penalty box for actually using the term "The West wants in".)


And as an added bonus: The author speaks on the LPC situation in Saskatchewan.

We've held Liberal seats in Saskatchewan in the past. There are Liberals out here; we just need to get them out to vote.

("held" + "past" ? Strange that an author on a book tour would have trouble with his tenses, or did he actually forget about Ralph Goodale?)




I am starting to look forward to the next election when the public starts paying more attention and they will get their daily dose of Ignatieff unfiltered.


BC Blue on the Star Phoenix story.

The latest from Ardvark Polling Research:

(Re-posted due to bad link on BT page.)

The conservatives are still ahead.

And now for some free and unsolicited opinion and advice:

I have empirical proof that statistically there is a higher incidence of inmates who vote for the Liberal Party than for the conservatives. That does not mean that Liberals are criminals but it does mean that criminals are more statistically likely to end up in that party than other places.


For those satirically challenged: President of EKOS Frank Graves:

“I do believe, and this gets more subtle, that there is a higher incidence of people who are less tolerant to homosexuals and more wary of other races, within the Conservative Party. I can demonstrate that empirically."

“That does not mean that Conservatives or Albertans are homophobic or xenophobic, but it does mean that many people, and more people statistically that have those points of view, end up in that party than in other places."