Win by Losing
Toronto author, former Liberal advisor and Martin-hater Warren Kinsela expounds upon a theme that some wobbly Liberals may start to subscribe to if the campaign goes to shit:
Can a political party win by losing?
In the election campaign that effectively begins today, that is the question many Liberals are asking themselves. And, in quiet moments, many of them are concluding that losing power - not for a long time, but long enough - would be a good thing.
As a former senior Liberal cabinet minister told me just last week: "We need renewal. We need new people, we need new ideas, and we need the kind of things that can only come with some time in the penalty box. I can't believe I'm saying this, but we need to lose."
It is not an exaggeration to say that the Liberal Party of Canada is broken. Beset by a paucity of ideas and energy, struggling with mounting debt and scandals, riven by infighting and division, despairing of an ineffective cabinet and a dithering leader, the formerly great party of Pearson and Trudeau and Chrétien is great no more. Its soul is lost.
No better recent example of this can be found than in the sad drama that unfolded in the past few days in the Toronto riding of Etobicoke-Lakeshore. For more than a decade, the riding had been ably represented by Jean Augustine - an honest, respected woman of colour who would have easily won re-election in 2006. But last week, as Ms. Augustine cried in the national Liberal caucus, disbelieving Members of Parliament learned that she was "stepping aside." Having endured nearly two years of bullying by Paul Martin's aides, few believed that Ms. Augustine was doing so willingly.
This week, Liberals in Etobicoke-Lakeshore witnessed the astonishing spectacle of hard-working local Grits being excluded from the process - literally denied entry to party headquarters, whilst Mr. Martin's minions inside ignored their pleas to open the doors. And, shortly thereafter, the locked-out Liberals learned in the media that Ms. Augustine's successor had already been decided - a white man and foreign resident named Michael Ignatieff.
The Globe and Mail and a few members of Toronto's brie-and-chardonnay chattering classes have been championing Mr. Ignatieff for many months, now, talking him up as a successor to Mr. Martin. Despite the fact that Mr. Ignatieff has not lived in Canada for more than two decades - despite the fact he supports George W. Bush's illegal war in Iraq, opposition to which remains one of Jean Chrétien's most popular legacies - Mr. Martin and his bunkered circle of advisors were undeterred.
Mr. Ignatieff, a Harvard University professor and author, arguably possesses an impressive curriculum vitae, as do many of the other rumoured aspirants to the Liberal Party crown - among them former New Brunswick Premier Frank McKenna, former Minister of Justice Martin Cauchon, or former Ontario Premier (and former NDP member) Bob Rae. All of these impressive men (no women among them so far, another telling indicator of the Liberal Party's state of disrepair) would be laudable candidates for leadership.
But - and I say this as one who possesses no enthusiasm whatsoever for Mr. Martin's leadership nor the insular group around him - what the Liberal Party needs is much more than a leadership race. A leadership race will not attract the sorts of things the Liberal Party of Canada desperately needs: new ideas, new approaches, new people and a new generation of leadership. What Liberals need is not just a new leader -what Liberals need is a new Liberal Party.
Power, which Liberals have been privileged to wield since 1993, tends to have a corrosive effect on political parties. Cabinet ministers and Parliamentary secretaries start spending more time in Ottawa than in their ridings; senior staff and Parliamentarians socialize with deputy ministers instead of local mayors and community leaders; the opinions of national media columnists take on a greater significance than the voices raised in town hall meetings and church basements.
In time, Liberals (and, before that, Conservatives) find that they have lost touch with the people they were hired to represent. They start to make mistakes, as they did again in Etobicoke-Lakeshore. They become, in effect, what they were sent to Ottawa to change.
Thus the Liberal Party of Canada, circa 2005 A.D. Dispirited, disliked and divided in much of the country - and spared the loss of power only by the fact that their principal adversaries are (for now) distrusted by many female voters. Too many Liberals confuse the Conservatives' continuing inability to win an election with enthusiasm for the alternative. One day - and one day soon, I believe - the Conservative Party will attract the support of enough Canadians, and Liberals will bitterly rue the day they forsook renewal.
Some Liberals, and all of Paul Martin's sect, will dismiss all of this as the carping of an exiled Chrétien-era Liberal, naturally. That is their way. Their cloistered arrogance - their near-total inability to make out the country that lies beyond the Parliamentary precinct - led to the loss of Mr. Chrétien's majority and, a few weeks hence, will further reduce the dimensions their listing, listless minority government. Their opinion, at long last, counts for nothing.
For the rest of us, however - for a majority of Canadians and, I believe, for a silent number of traditional Liberals - we know that an election loss would be a good thing. For the country, and for a once-great political party, too.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Lomins the lawyer-in-training sent me this, and I almost peed myself laughing. If you substitute "Aikido chop" for "roundhouse kick" you could probably apply most of these statements (substituting pony tail references for beard references, of course) to Stephen Seagal who, for my money, breaks bones and dislocates joints better than any tubby martial-arts star out there today.
Top Thirty Facts About Chuck Norris:
1.Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.
2. Chuck Norris sold his soul to the devil for his rugged good looks and unparalleled martial arts ability. Shortly after the transaction was finalized, Chuck roundhouse kicked the devil in the face and took his soul back. The devil, who appreciates irony, couldn't stay mad and admitted he should have seen it coming. They now play poker every second Wednesday of the month.
3. Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
4. Chuck Norris built a time machine and went back in time to stop the JFK assassination. As Oswald shot, Chuck met all three bullets with his beard, deflecting them. JFK's head exploded out of sheer amazement.
5. Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.
6. Filming on location for Walker: Texas Ranger, Chuck Norris brought a stillborn baby lamb back to life by giving it a prolonged beard rub. Shortly after the farm animal sprang back to life and a crowd had gathered, Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked the animal, breaking its neck, to remind the crew once more that Chuck giveth, and the good Chuck, he taketh away.
7. Chuck Norris once ate three 72 oz. steaks in one hour. He spent the first 45 minutes having sex with his waitress.
8. Chuck Norris's girlfriend once asked him how much wood a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood. He then shouted, "HOW DARE YOU RHYME IN THE PRESENCE OF CHUCK NORRIS!" and ripped out her throat. Holding his girlfriend's bloody throat in his hand he bellowed, "Don't fuck with Chuck!" Two years and five months later he realized the irony of this statement and laughed so hard that anyone within a hundred mile radius of the blast went deaf.
9. The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain.
10. To prove it isn't that big of a deal to beat cancer. Chuck Norris smoked 15 cartons of cigarettes a day for 2 years and aquired 7 different kinds of cancer only to rid them from his body by flexing for 30 minutes. Beat that, Lance Armstrong.
11. Chuck Norris was the fourth Wiseman. He brought baby Jesus the gift of "beard". Jesus wore it proudly to his dying day. The other Wisemen, jealous of Jesus' obvious gift favoritism, used their combined influence to have Chuck omitted from the Bible. Shortly after all three died of roundhouse kick related deaths.
12. If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can't see Chuck
Norris you may be only seconds away from death.
13. Rather than being birthed like a normal child, Chuck Norris instead
decided to punch his way out of his mother's womb. Shortly thereafter he grew a beard.
14. There are no disabled people. Only people who have met Chuck Norris.
15. Chuck Norris can make a woman climax by simply pointing at her and saying
16. Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.
17. Chuck Norris is not hung like a horse... horses are hung like Chuck
Norris
18. Chuck Norris can mathematically make two wrongs equal a right.
19. When Chuck Norris's wife burned the turkey one Thanksgiving, Chuck said,
"Don't worry about it honey," and went into his backyard. He came back five minutes later with a live turkey, ate it whole, and when he threw it up a few seconds later it was fully cooked and came with cranberry sauce. When his wife asked him how he had done it, he gave her a roundhouse kick to the face and said, "Never question Chuck Norris."
20. The quickest way to a man's heart is with Chuck Norris's fist.
21. Chuck Norris died ten years ago, but the Grim Reaper can't get up the
courage to tell him.
22. Chuck Norris appeared in the "Street Fighter II" video game, but was removed by Beta Testers because every button caused him to do a roundhouse kick. When asked bout this "glitch," Norris replied, "That's no glitch."
23. It was once believed that Chuck Norris actually lost a fight to a pirate, but that is a lie, created by Chuck Norris himself to lure more pirates to him. Pirates never were very smart.
24. Chuck Norris won 'Jumanji' without ever saying the word. He simply beat the living shit out of everything that was thrown at him, and the game forfeited.
25. Chuck Norris frequently signs up for beginner karate classes, just so he can "accidentally" beat the shit out of little kids.
26. When Chuck Norris plays Oregon Trail his family does not die from cholera or dysentery, but rather roundhouse kicks to the face. He also requires no wagon, since he carries the oxen, axels, and buffalo meat on his back. He always makes it to Oregon before you.
27. Similar to a Russian Nesting Doll, if you were to break Chuck Norris open you would find another Chuck Norris inside, only smaller and angrier.
28. After much debate, President Truman decided to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima rather than the alternative of sending Chuck Norris. His reasoning? It was more "humane".
29. Chuck Norris once tried to sue Burger King after they refused to put razor wire in his Whopper Jr., insisting that that actually is "his" way.
30. Chuck Norris once bet NASA he could survive re-entry without a spacesuit. On July 19th, 1999, a naked Chuck Norris re-entered the earth's atmosphere, streaking over 14 states and reaching a temperature of 3000 degrees. An embarrassed NASA publically claimed it was a meteor, and still owes him a beer.
Top Thirty Facts About Chuck Norris:
1.Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.
2. Chuck Norris sold his soul to the devil for his rugged good looks and unparalleled martial arts ability. Shortly after the transaction was finalized, Chuck roundhouse kicked the devil in the face and took his soul back. The devil, who appreciates irony, couldn't stay mad and admitted he should have seen it coming. They now play poker every second Wednesday of the month.
3. Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
4. Chuck Norris built a time machine and went back in time to stop the JFK assassination. As Oswald shot, Chuck met all three bullets with his beard, deflecting them. JFK's head exploded out of sheer amazement.
5. Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.
6. Filming on location for Walker: Texas Ranger, Chuck Norris brought a stillborn baby lamb back to life by giving it a prolonged beard rub. Shortly after the farm animal sprang back to life and a crowd had gathered, Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked the animal, breaking its neck, to remind the crew once more that Chuck giveth, and the good Chuck, he taketh away.
7. Chuck Norris once ate three 72 oz. steaks in one hour. He spent the first 45 minutes having sex with his waitress.
8. Chuck Norris's girlfriend once asked him how much wood a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood. He then shouted, "HOW DARE YOU RHYME IN THE PRESENCE OF CHUCK NORRIS!" and ripped out her throat. Holding his girlfriend's bloody throat in his hand he bellowed, "Don't fuck with Chuck!" Two years and five months later he realized the irony of this statement and laughed so hard that anyone within a hundred mile radius of the blast went deaf.
9. The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain.
10. To prove it isn't that big of a deal to beat cancer. Chuck Norris smoked 15 cartons of cigarettes a day for 2 years and aquired 7 different kinds of cancer only to rid them from his body by flexing for 30 minutes. Beat that, Lance Armstrong.
11. Chuck Norris was the fourth Wiseman. He brought baby Jesus the gift of "beard". Jesus wore it proudly to his dying day. The other Wisemen, jealous of Jesus' obvious gift favoritism, used their combined influence to have Chuck omitted from the Bible. Shortly after all three died of roundhouse kick related deaths.
12. If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can't see Chuck
Norris you may be only seconds away from death.
13. Rather than being birthed like a normal child, Chuck Norris instead
decided to punch his way out of his mother's womb. Shortly thereafter he grew a beard.
14. There are no disabled people. Only people who have met Chuck Norris.
15. Chuck Norris can make a woman climax by simply pointing at her and saying
16. Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.
17. Chuck Norris is not hung like a horse... horses are hung like Chuck
Norris
18. Chuck Norris can mathematically make two wrongs equal a right.
19. When Chuck Norris's wife burned the turkey one Thanksgiving, Chuck said,
"Don't worry about it honey," and went into his backyard. He came back five minutes later with a live turkey, ate it whole, and when he threw it up a few seconds later it was fully cooked and came with cranberry sauce. When his wife asked him how he had done it, he gave her a roundhouse kick to the face and said, "Never question Chuck Norris."
20. The quickest way to a man's heart is with Chuck Norris's fist.
21. Chuck Norris died ten years ago, but the Grim Reaper can't get up the
courage to tell him.
22. Chuck Norris appeared in the "Street Fighter II" video game, but was removed by Beta Testers because every button caused him to do a roundhouse kick. When asked bout this "glitch," Norris replied, "That's no glitch."
23. It was once believed that Chuck Norris actually lost a fight to a pirate, but that is a lie, created by Chuck Norris himself to lure more pirates to him. Pirates never were very smart.
24. Chuck Norris won 'Jumanji' without ever saying the word. He simply beat the living shit out of everything that was thrown at him, and the game forfeited.
25. Chuck Norris frequently signs up for beginner karate classes, just so he can "accidentally" beat the shit out of little kids.
26. When Chuck Norris plays Oregon Trail his family does not die from cholera or dysentery, but rather roundhouse kicks to the face. He also requires no wagon, since he carries the oxen, axels, and buffalo meat on his back. He always makes it to Oregon before you.
27. Similar to a Russian Nesting Doll, if you were to break Chuck Norris open you would find another Chuck Norris inside, only smaller and angrier.
28. After much debate, President Truman decided to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima rather than the alternative of sending Chuck Norris. His reasoning? It was more "humane".
29. Chuck Norris once tried to sue Burger King after they refused to put razor wire in his Whopper Jr., insisting that that actually is "his" way.
30. Chuck Norris once bet NASA he could survive re-entry without a spacesuit. On July 19th, 1999, a naked Chuck Norris re-entered the earth's atmosphere, streaking over 14 states and reaching a temperature of 3000 degrees. An embarrassed NASA publically claimed it was a meteor, and still owes him a beer.
Monday, November 28, 2005
When it all comes tumbling down...
So it would appear we have an election campaign on our hands. If Paul Martin is to be believed, this will be a battle between the forces of good vs. the evil "NEO-CONS" (watch for that nugget to surface time and time again in the coming campaign), and their nefarious allies, the separatiste Bloc (Formerly known as Sergeant Duceppe's Lonely Nationalist Hearts Club Band).
It was history-in-the-making. High drama, as MPs rose one by one to vote on a simple motion of non-confidence. When it was over, the ayes had it. The Gomery parliament, as Rex Murphy calls it, was toast.
Anyone else notice that Martin didn't even bother to stand up and announce that he would be visiting the GG in the morning to ask her to drop the writ? By God, Paul Martin will not be held hostage to parliamentary procedure! How dare ye suggest otherwise. Boy, with that big shit-eating grin he wore in the caucus meeting right after the non-confidence vote, you would almost think he had won the damn thing.
Shit-eating grins were not in short supply tonight. Stephen Harper, too, had one plastered to his pasty visage... of course, in his case, it came across like the pained grimace you usually see on a man suffering a particularly troublesome case of flatulence. Old Steve did a yeoman job rallying the troops. None of that "angry-scary boogeyman Harper" that Canadians have come to know and dislike. He was all about the bright and sunny future that will no doubt follow a Conservative victory in the next parliament. As for the other two: Duceppe was Duceppe --thoroughly unsympathetic and madeningly confident and competent. Damnit if I'm not starting to like the guy! Layton looked glum as he read his recipe cards-- I know his handlers have been telling him to try to look more serious and not so gratingly gleeful, but come on, Jack! You just handed Martin his cojones! Try to look like you enjoyed it a teeny-tiny bit, 'kay?
My verdict? Altogether unimpressive, as far as history-in-the-making goes.
...Hey at least the Eskies won the Cup last night. And who better to comment on their triumph than Edmonton's own, The Coshster?
But I digress... we are sure to hear the parties hold forth on a number of issues in the upcoming extenda-campaign (now with more wintery goodness), but one topic that is sure to be avoided like the plague is abortion. It's the one that just won't go away, though, as the Ottawa Citizen's Brigitte Pellerin tells us this week:
Last Thursday we learned that less than 24 hours before the start of the conference, religious (Roman Catholic) authorities at the Oratory had told the organizers to find a different venue. "In the past three days, we have been informed that protests on our grounds are being planned against the 2005 pro-life conference," said Rector Jean-Pierre Aumont. "We have come to the conclusion that we cannot guarantee the safety of people on the grounds of Saint-Joseph's Oratory during this event." Much scrambling ensued, but the conference began more or less as planned at the(Protestant) La Bible parle church in suburban Cartierville. Participants included a number of friends and acquaintances of mine, including longtime journalist Peter Stockland and Richard Bastien of the Quebec journal Égards. MPs Stockwell Day and Pat O'Brien, as well as former Bloc MP and unsuccessful Parti Québécois leadership candidate Ghislain Lebel, were also there. In the end, slightly fewer than 400 participants went about their business, and most deemed the conference a success despite the threats (I'm told a window was broken), graffiti on the church's steps - including a heartfelt "inquisitors to the stake" - and noisy street protests complete with banners that read, "If only Mary [yes, that Mary] had known about abortion" and "Take your rosary off my ovaries."
It's always nice to see such self-described tolerant and progressive folks in action. Quietly and peacefully protesting a conference is certainly legal, awful banners and all. For the record, though, I would like to state that anybody - whether clutching a rosary or, for that matter, a vacuum cleaner - who gets too close to my ovaries will experience a swift elbow to the chin. What's not OK, or legal, is trying to shut down other people's lawfully gathered conferences, no matter how distasteful you find them. Nobody has a right to use violence, or the threat of violence, to disrupt legal peaceful activities by private groups. As for the Catholic authorities at the Oratory who chickened out, they ought to be ashamed of themselves.
...Disgraceful
So it would appear we have an election campaign on our hands. If Paul Martin is to be believed, this will be a battle between the forces of good vs. the evil "NEO-CONS" (watch for that nugget to surface time and time again in the coming campaign), and their nefarious allies, the separatiste Bloc (Formerly known as Sergeant Duceppe's Lonely Nationalist Hearts Club Band).
It was history-in-the-making. High drama, as MPs rose one by one to vote on a simple motion of non-confidence. When it was over, the ayes had it. The Gomery parliament, as Rex Murphy calls it, was toast.
Anyone else notice that Martin didn't even bother to stand up and announce that he would be visiting the GG in the morning to ask her to drop the writ? By God, Paul Martin will not be held hostage to parliamentary procedure! How dare ye suggest otherwise. Boy, with that big shit-eating grin he wore in the caucus meeting right after the non-confidence vote, you would almost think he had won the damn thing.
Shit-eating grins were not in short supply tonight. Stephen Harper, too, had one plastered to his pasty visage... of course, in his case, it came across like the pained grimace you usually see on a man suffering a particularly troublesome case of flatulence. Old Steve did a yeoman job rallying the troops. None of that "angry-scary boogeyman Harper" that Canadians have come to know and dislike. He was all about the bright and sunny future that will no doubt follow a Conservative victory in the next parliament. As for the other two: Duceppe was Duceppe --thoroughly unsympathetic and madeningly confident and competent. Damnit if I'm not starting to like the guy! Layton looked glum as he read his recipe cards-- I know his handlers have been telling him to try to look more serious and not so gratingly gleeful, but come on, Jack! You just handed Martin his cojones! Try to look like you enjoyed it a teeny-tiny bit, 'kay?
My verdict? Altogether unimpressive, as far as history-in-the-making goes.
...Hey at least the Eskies won the Cup last night. And who better to comment on their triumph than Edmonton's own, The Coshster?
But I digress... we are sure to hear the parties hold forth on a number of issues in the upcoming extenda-campaign (now with more wintery goodness), but one topic that is sure to be avoided like the plague is abortion. It's the one that just won't go away, though, as the Ottawa Citizen's Brigitte Pellerin tells us this week:
Last Thursday we learned that less than 24 hours before the start of the conference, religious (Roman Catholic) authorities at the Oratory had told the organizers to find a different venue. "In the past three days, we have been informed that protests on our grounds are being planned against the 2005 pro-life conference," said Rector Jean-Pierre Aumont. "We have come to the conclusion that we cannot guarantee the safety of people on the grounds of Saint-Joseph's Oratory during this event." Much scrambling ensued, but the conference began more or less as planned at the(Protestant) La Bible parle church in suburban Cartierville. Participants included a number of friends and acquaintances of mine, including longtime journalist Peter Stockland and Richard Bastien of the Quebec journal Égards. MPs Stockwell Day and Pat O'Brien, as well as former Bloc MP and unsuccessful Parti Québécois leadership candidate Ghislain Lebel, were also there. In the end, slightly fewer than 400 participants went about their business, and most deemed the conference a success despite the threats (I'm told a window was broken), graffiti on the church's steps - including a heartfelt "inquisitors to the stake" - and noisy street protests complete with banners that read, "If only Mary [yes, that Mary] had known about abortion" and "Take your rosary off my ovaries."
It's always nice to see such self-described tolerant and progressive folks in action. Quietly and peacefully protesting a conference is certainly legal, awful banners and all. For the record, though, I would like to state that anybody - whether clutching a rosary or, for that matter, a vacuum cleaner - who gets too close to my ovaries will experience a swift elbow to the chin. What's not OK, or legal, is trying to shut down other people's lawfully gathered conferences, no matter how distasteful you find them. Nobody has a right to use violence, or the threat of violence, to disrupt legal peaceful activities by private groups. As for the Catholic authorities at the Oratory who chickened out, they ought to be ashamed of themselves.
...Disgraceful
Post-grey cup thoughts:
The CFL is to the NFL as a smash-up derby is to an Amtrack switchyard
The CFL did not "borrow" NHL fans during the strike. It earned every damn one of them. Today, those fans got their new customer bonus.
It's been said before, but it is worth saying again: Players play in the CFL for love of the game, not for money.
... and that makes all the difference in the world.
The CFL is to the NFL as a smash-up derby is to an Amtrack switchyard
The CFL did not "borrow" NHL fans during the strike. It earned every damn one of them. Today, those fans got their new customer bonus.
It's been said before, but it is worth saying again: Players play in the CFL for love of the game, not for money.
... and that makes all the difference in the world.
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
My free political advice to the PM as we enter the election campaign:
You can't have it both ways Paul.
Are you the Paul Martin who was Finance Minister in the Chretien government? You know, the guy who steered us to umpteen balanced budgets and who slew the deficit? Oh, yeah? Then you were also , a senior Cabinet Minister, the deputy chair of Treasury Board,and a member of the Quebec Caucus... you know, one of the guys who brought us Adscam, right?
NO?
You knew nothing of the actions of the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party?
Well that's Gomery told us, at any rate?
You repudiate those actions?
Well then, damnit, perhaps you dissociate yourself completely from the filthy corrupt people responsible for that abomination! Maybe even leave the Liberal name behind! Yeah....With your connections and big bucks, you could certainly found your own party, a fiscally conservative, socially progressive party that panders to the provinces! Le Parti Paul Martin! sounds like a winner to me...Force your caucus to choose sides! Force your candidates the same! Come on, last election your people ran as L'equipe Martin, basically forsaking the Liberal brand, and when you did all those great things all those many years ago, it was as FINANCE MINISTER Paul Martin, not as "Liberal MP" Paul Martin, no?
I'm just jokin', Paulie. In for a penny, in for a pound, right? It may be a Paul Martin Government, but its a Liberal Government all the same, and like it or not, you people have been in power for over a decade. And we are getting tired, Paul, oh so tired of your shenanigans. Ultimately, you will be judged by the electorate as a Liberal, because like it or not, all your attempts to "re-brand" notwithstanding, that's what you are.
Question is.. are people sick enough of you guys to throw you out on your ear?
We'll find out in January.
You can't have it both ways Paul.
Are you the Paul Martin who was Finance Minister in the Chretien government? You know, the guy who steered us to umpteen balanced budgets and who slew the deficit? Oh, yeah? Then you were also , a senior Cabinet Minister, the deputy chair of Treasury Board,and a member of the Quebec Caucus... you know, one of the guys who brought us Adscam, right?
NO?
You knew nothing of the actions of the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party?
Well that's Gomery told us, at any rate?
You repudiate those actions?
Well then, damnit, perhaps you dissociate yourself completely from the filthy corrupt people responsible for that abomination! Maybe even leave the Liberal name behind! Yeah....With your connections and big bucks, you could certainly found your own party, a fiscally conservative, socially progressive party that panders to the provinces! Le Parti Paul Martin! sounds like a winner to me...Force your caucus to choose sides! Force your candidates the same! Come on, last election your people ran as L'equipe Martin, basically forsaking the Liberal brand, and when you did all those great things all those many years ago, it was as FINANCE MINISTER Paul Martin, not as "Liberal MP" Paul Martin, no?
I'm just jokin', Paulie. In for a penny, in for a pound, right? It may be a Paul Martin Government, but its a Liberal Government all the same, and like it or not, you people have been in power for over a decade. And we are getting tired, Paul, oh so tired of your shenanigans. Ultimately, you will be judged by the electorate as a Liberal, because like it or not, all your attempts to "re-brand" notwithstanding, that's what you are.
Question is.. are people sick enough of you guys to throw you out on your ear?
We'll find out in January.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
In no particular order...
Looks like we will be having a Christmas election campaign. I'm not entirely sure why this is a big deal, but the pundits would have us believe that this rare occurence in Canadian politics will have far-reaching impacts. I remain skeptical on the supposed significance of a December campaign, and I expect that this election, like so many others in recent memory, will be characterized by voter apathy, low voter turnout, and a continuing decline in Canadians' statisfaction with their electoral system and the political class at large.
Oh, yeah, and crap like THIS doesn't help improve the public's perception of their leaders. How stupid do these guys take us for? This is really too rich.
~~~~~~
I read something eerily prophetic the other day:
"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher."
Those words were spoken by a young attorney on January 27, 1838 in his "Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois". It was his very prescient reminder that it is often within a society that the seeds of destruction take root.
~~~~~~
Another disturbing quote on the death of Europe, and Western society's inexhorable march towards demographic disaster (one of my favourite hobby horses). This one, from George Weigel, author of The Cube and the Cathedral -- Europe, America, and Politics Without God: "by 2050, 60 percent of Italians will not know from personal experience what a brother, a sister, an aunt, an uncle, or a cousin is." Quoted in Ed Thomas, "Theologian Suggests U.S. Learn from Europe's Shift Toward Secularism
June 15, 2005
Is Western civilization intent on committing suicide? Apparently some people are now actively campaigning for the wilful eradication of our species!
Looks like we will be having a Christmas election campaign. I'm not entirely sure why this is a big deal, but the pundits would have us believe that this rare occurence in Canadian politics will have far-reaching impacts. I remain skeptical on the supposed significance of a December campaign, and I expect that this election, like so many others in recent memory, will be characterized by voter apathy, low voter turnout, and a continuing decline in Canadians' statisfaction with their electoral system and the political class at large.
Oh, yeah, and crap like THIS doesn't help improve the public's perception of their leaders. How stupid do these guys take us for? This is really too rich.
~~~~~~
I read something eerily prophetic the other day:
"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher."
Those words were spoken by a young attorney on January 27, 1838 in his "Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois". It was his very prescient reminder that it is often within a society that the seeds of destruction take root.
~~~~~~
Another disturbing quote on the death of Europe, and Western society's inexhorable march towards demographic disaster (one of my favourite hobby horses). This one, from George Weigel, author of The Cube and the Cathedral -- Europe, America, and Politics Without God: "by 2050, 60 percent of Italians will not know from personal experience what a brother, a sister, an aunt, an uncle, or a cousin is." Quoted in Ed Thomas, "Theologian Suggests U.S. Learn from Europe's Shift Toward Secularism
June 15, 2005
Is Western civilization intent on committing suicide? Apparently some people are now actively campaigning for the wilful eradication of our species!
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Blog Revolution
Pajamas Media
founded by Charles Johnson and Roger Simon (the bloggers who broke and disseminated the fake National Guard memo story and brought Dan Rather's Career to an ugly end) is relaunching.
The National Review Online has more here.
Open Source Media will now be one stop-shopping for people who like to get their news from the guys sitting in their living rooms in their pajamas writing -- to paraphrase Jonathan Klein's now-famous description -- and not just from ideologically-driven politically-connected elitist twits from the Mainstream Media. One of the most trenchant satirical takes on the media elite is, of course, this guy.
Ladies and gentlemen, er, we've just lost the picture, but, uh, what we've seen speaks for itself. The Corvair spacecraft has apparently been taken over -"conquered", if you will - by a master race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive earth men or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain, there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.
Pajamas Media
founded by Charles Johnson and Roger Simon (the bloggers who broke and disseminated the fake National Guard memo story and brought Dan Rather's Career to an ugly end) is relaunching.
The National Review Online has more here.
Open Source Media will now be one stop-shopping for people who like to get their news from the guys sitting in their living rooms in their pajamas writing -- to paraphrase Jonathan Klein's now-famous description -- and not just from ideologically-driven politically-connected elitist twits from the Mainstream Media. One of the most trenchant satirical takes on the media elite is, of course, this guy.
Ladies and gentlemen, er, we've just lost the picture, but, uh, what we've seen speaks for itself. The Corvair spacecraft has apparently been taken over -"conquered", if you will - by a master race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive earth men or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain, there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Sleep deprivization
My main squeeze and I went to the Remembrance Day Ceremonies at the National War Memorial last Friday. I was quite pleased to see how many people had shown up. This year being the Year of the Veteran, I suppose people were more inclined to take a little time to honour the sacrifice of those who fought and died for Canada.
What started off as a spontaneous, completely unscripted show of respect in 2000, the year the tomb of the unknown soldier was unveiled, has now become something of a tradition: Again this year, at the conclusion of the ceremony, once the barriers came down and the VIPs had left the cenotaph, crowds of people paraded by the large bronze tomb to deposit their poppies on the bronze lid. In minutes, the tomb was completely carpeted with the bright red flowers. I found that strangely touching.
Later on, I bumped into one of my old militia buddies from my days with the
Lake Sups, now a Sergeant in an intelligence unit. The encounter made me a bit nostalgic and got me to thinking about the good times I had with that unit. They weren't all good times, of course. I remember times on summer course in Wainwright, Alberta or Gagetown, New Brunswick, when things got really tough.
One of my abiding memories is the torment of sleep deprivation. Every soldier who has experienced this misery could tell you stories of the games your mind can play on you when you are five days into a week-long exercise and you are trying to function on a hour's sleep a night. Field exercises on leadership courses, in particular, are deliberately structured so that it is impossible for candidates to get more than one or two hours of sleep in any twenty-four hour period. This is meant to simulate the reality of living under combat conditions and test your ability to cope with physical hardship in a high-pressure environment.
One exercise in Gagetown sticks out in my mind. My platoon was in a defensive position, and we had been attacked and gassed repeatedly over two days, so everyone was in Top-High, meaning we were wearing full Nuclear/Chemical/Biological Warfare (NBCW) gear and gas masks. It was the phantom hour of four-thirty in the a.m., the time when attacks usually occur, and I was in a bad way. My fireteam partner was grabbing some shut-eye in the bottom of the trench and aside from the sound of his shallow breathing through his gasmask, there was complete silence.
Suddenly, as I felt myself drifting into a dozy state, I heard a distinctive metallic thump, very close by. I tensed, cocking an ear a peering into the darkness to try to discern some movement in the killing zone to my front. There was nothing. I relaxed a tiny bit, and gripped my C-7 rifle. Then, a couple of seconds later, I heard the sound again. I was sure that I had heard something, but once again, I couldn't see anything moving to my front. I looked through the optical sight, scanning my surroundings. Nothing. In the minutes that followed, I heard this sound several more times, and each time, I got a little more nervous. I began thinking that maybe one of the psychotic directing staff was nearby, and had decided to fuck with my head.
There was a story, circulating around that time, that a few weeks back, one of the candidates from another platoon had spotted a pink bunny rabbit and a giant yellow duck frolicking in the field in front of his defensive position, and had reported this to his section commander over the radio. At first, this was written off as the twisted hallucinations of a sleep-deprived idiot, and the exhausted troops overhearing this situation report over the company frequency had shared a good laugh. An hour or two later, another candidate reported the same thing. By the time the third report came in of an identical phenomenon, there was no longer any laughter, and some candidates began speculating on the onset of some form of mass hysteria, a madness brought about by sleep deprivation. The story goes that the Regimental Sergeant Major and Commanding Officer of the Infantry school had rented some costumes and gone out into the field as a lark, just to throw a mind-fuck into the poor buggers who were on the exercise.
Now this story is probably apocryphal, and in subsequent years, I'm certain that I heard a couple of variations on that little tale, but at the time, it sounded plausible, and as I stood in my trench, listening for more metallic bangs, I began to convince myself that I too, might soon be visited by pink bunnies and yellow duckies. Finally, after several more minutes of anxiety, I discovered the answer to the mystery. As I rested my face against the coolness of the rifle propped on a sandbag at the lip of the trench, I heard an even louder bang, and immediately felt a sharp pain in my knees. Shaking my head to clear out the cobwebs, I noticed that I seemed to be hunkered in the trench a bit lower than I had been a few seconds before.
It turns out that I had been passing out from exhaustion every few minutes, and as I drifted off, my knees would crumple, and hit the front of the corrugated iron of my trench. This was the metallic banging sound I had been hearing. The sound would then jolt me out of my daze momentarily and I would spring up and scan the training area for a few minutes until I began to fade out again, at which point my knees would hit the front of the trench again, startling me awake. Did I feel stupid? What do you think?
A few days ago, I came across this exchange on some web board, and it made me laugh:
Want to practice sleep deprivation?
It's called college dude...
Do what I did- take a full course load at college(at least 16 units), juggle intramural sports (I did crew), and pledge a fraternity (preferably one that hazes) and you'll come closer to the FUN of sleep deprevation =)
-Bro
Been both places (college/work/fraternity/IM sports life versus BN) and can compare. They don't.
While I am sure you may feel sleep deprived with your collegiate/life pursuits, you "only know what you know". The next time you are going to crew practice or enroute to your next class and are so tired that you have to sprinkle Copenhagen speckles in your eyes to stay awake as you pause to borrow a couple quarters from a talking cheeseburger so you can stick them into the nearest tree to get an icy cold Coke to come out the bottom of it, come back here and tell us about it. We'll be able to relate.
Unless you have gone through sleep-deprivation, military-style, don't talk to me about how tough those grad-school all-nighters were!
Saturday, November 12, 2005
A meeting of the minds
Funny anecdote about British philosopher A. J. Ayer I stumbled across:
At a party in 1987 Ayer, then 77, encountered Mike Tyson harassing Naomi Campbell and demanded Tyson stop. Tyson said "Do you know who the fuck I am? I'm the heavyweight champion of the world." Ayer replied "And I am the former Wykeham Professor of Logic! We are both pre-eminent in our field; I suggest that we talk about this like rational men."
Funny anecdote about British philosopher A. J. Ayer I stumbled across:
At a party in 1987 Ayer, then 77, encountered Mike Tyson harassing Naomi Campbell and demanded Tyson stop. Tyson said "Do you know who the fuck I am? I'm the heavyweight champion of the world." Ayer replied "And I am the former Wykeham Professor of Logic! We are both pre-eminent in our field; I suggest that we talk about this like rational men."
A few remarks before we proceed
To those of you who may have noticed how sloppy my blog is getting, what with the idiosyncratic line spacing and odd paragraph structure: duly noted.
I only just realized that when I import text into blogger, I have to re-do the sentence and paragraph breaks, or it comes out looking all cock-eyed.
I promise to be more diligent in the future.
To those of you who may have noticed how sloppy my blog is getting, what with the idiosyncratic line spacing and odd paragraph structure: duly noted.
I only just realized that when I import text into blogger, I have to re-do the sentence and paragraph breaks, or it comes out looking all cock-eyed.
I promise to be more diligent in the future.
Monday, November 07, 2005
Quebec Dehors!
The veil has been lifted from my eyes and like the song says, was blind,
but now, I see...
Quebecers have it too damn good in Canada to ever willingly leave! A net benefitter of Federal Transfer payments, the province will continue to hold the sword of Damocles over Canada's head as long as it can. The minority, those hardcore sovereignists who favour outright independence --Parizeau comes to mind --can at least be admired for their willingness to cross the Rubicon. I think most soft-sovereignists, who are in the majority, secretly dread the prospect of going it alone. That doesn't stop them from leaving that tantalizing possibility on the table. And every once in a while they make the right noises and rattle the cages in what has become a particularly clever democratic con. Separatism is a chimera, a bluff that has somehow lasted 40 years.
As the only "viable Federalist alternative" the Liberals (both the provincial and federal varieties) also benefit from this shell-game, vowing to defend Quebec's interests in the Federation (read: allow Quebec to continue to take out more than they put into the Federation) even as they raise the specter of the unholy alliance of separatists and those scary Western Conservative-Reform-Alliance freaks who don't represent mainstream Canada. They are right about the Conservatives being freaks, but so what... At this point, I'd vote for the freaks over the crooks.
I think the secret of the separatists' success is to just keep coming up with clever ways of making us believe their impotent little threat is real, while reassuring Quebecers that a vote for sovereignist candidate is really a vote for a voice for Quebec --seemingly contradictory messages.
Every 15 years or so they have taken to holding a referendum (preferably immediately adjacent to another constitutional humiliation), just to remind us they have us by the short-and-curlies. The referendum question is just ambiguous enough that people don't really understand what they are voting for.... Theirs is a policy of uncertaintly, and their domain is a land of bright futures, emotional appeals, and promises never realized.
Ultimately, the separatists devour their leaders as eagerly as they acclaim each successive saviour as they arrive on the scene. We've gone through two supposedly separatist premiers who were too milquetoast to bite the bullet and re-referendum since Parizeau went down in flames a decade ago.
Now, no matter how badly Federalists cock things up in the coming months and years, I predict that Quebecers will not go all in on a clear question in the next Referendum, tentatively scheduled for October 2010. When all the smoke clears, everything will be the same as it ever was, and the litany of grievances can continue.
The man that Ghazi Algosaibi, the Saudi cabinet minister, described as "the dismantler of sovereign nations and destabilizer of whole regions" wrote about the bizarre little polity right across the Ottawa river in a recent issue of The Western Standard.
You oughtta read it, there are some very juicy bits!
At this point, I'm starting to wonder how soon it will be before someone outside Quebec decides to start an expulsionist movement.
Andre Boisclair should be treated humanely by Quebecers -- as in put down like the Humane Society puts down stray dogs.
The veil has been lifted from my eyes and like the song says, was blind,
but now, I see...
Quebecers have it too damn good in Canada to ever willingly leave! A net benefitter of Federal Transfer payments, the province will continue to hold the sword of Damocles over Canada's head as long as it can. The minority, those hardcore sovereignists who favour outright independence --Parizeau comes to mind --can at least be admired for their willingness to cross the Rubicon. I think most soft-sovereignists, who are in the majority, secretly dread the prospect of going it alone. That doesn't stop them from leaving that tantalizing possibility on the table. And every once in a while they make the right noises and rattle the cages in what has become a particularly clever democratic con. Separatism is a chimera, a bluff that has somehow lasted 40 years.
As the only "viable Federalist alternative" the Liberals (both the provincial and federal varieties) also benefit from this shell-game, vowing to defend Quebec's interests in the Federation (read: allow Quebec to continue to take out more than they put into the Federation) even as they raise the specter of the unholy alliance of separatists and those scary Western Conservative-Reform-Alliance freaks who don't represent mainstream Canada. They are right about the Conservatives being freaks, but so what... At this point, I'd vote for the freaks over the crooks.
I think the secret of the separatists' success is to just keep coming up with clever ways of making us believe their impotent little threat is real, while reassuring Quebecers that a vote for sovereignist candidate is really a vote for a voice for Quebec --seemingly contradictory messages.
Every 15 years or so they have taken to holding a referendum (preferably immediately adjacent to another constitutional humiliation), just to remind us they have us by the short-and-curlies. The referendum question is just ambiguous enough that people don't really understand what they are voting for.... Theirs is a policy of uncertaintly, and their domain is a land of bright futures, emotional appeals, and promises never realized.
Ultimately, the separatists devour their leaders as eagerly as they acclaim each successive saviour as they arrive on the scene. We've gone through two supposedly separatist premiers who were too milquetoast to bite the bullet and re-referendum since Parizeau went down in flames a decade ago.
Now, no matter how badly Federalists cock things up in the coming months and years, I predict that Quebecers will not go all in on a clear question in the next Referendum, tentatively scheduled for October 2010. When all the smoke clears, everything will be the same as it ever was, and the litany of grievances can continue.
The man that Ghazi Algosaibi, the Saudi cabinet minister, described as "the dismantler of sovereign nations and destabilizer of whole regions" wrote about the bizarre little polity right across the Ottawa river in a recent issue of The Western Standard.
You oughtta read it, there are some very juicy bits!
At this point, I'm starting to wonder how soon it will be before someone outside Quebec decides to start an expulsionist movement.
Andre Boisclair should be treated humanely by Quebecers -- as in put down like the Humane Society puts down stray dogs.
Two Things:
ONE
John Ivison makes a good point in last Wednesday's column:
One suspects that Gomery's relatively measured language was in part dictated by
his desire not to give the sovereigntists too much ammunition. Regardless, in
the short term, his report should help the Bloc sweep away many of the remaining
Liberal seats outside the federalist salient of Montreal at the next election.
Martin may have escaped censure yesterday, but a near wipeout in Quebec could
leave his hopes of a majority government in tatters. He could still eke out a minority government but, in that event, his life
expectancy as leader would be similar to that of a fruit fly.
For the rest of the country, Gomery has presented a challenge: Are you prepared
to hold your politicians accountable when a judge finds members of the ruling
party were running an elaborate kickback scheme in order to fund that party?
If we are not, we can hardly blame Quebecers if they decide they want no part of
it.
TWO
Maybe we should not want any part of a Province that seems to so maliciously predisposed to take offence at
anything.
Memo to Quebecers outraged by the conduct of the GG: One of your two major political parties wants to elect a guy who, by his own admission, liked to snort the occasional line of coke into his head while he was a Minister of the crown,both commiting a crime and indirectly supporting the activities of Les Hells. The GG made some jokes about it. Deal with it.
The real joke here is a party that would actually consider having this piece of crap for a leader. Pathetic
ONE
John Ivison makes a good point in last Wednesday's column:
One suspects that Gomery's relatively measured language was in part dictated by
his desire not to give the sovereigntists too much ammunition. Regardless, in
the short term, his report should help the Bloc sweep away many of the remaining
Liberal seats outside the federalist salient of Montreal at the next election.
Martin may have escaped censure yesterday, but a near wipeout in Quebec could
leave his hopes of a majority government in tatters. He could still eke out a minority government but, in that event, his life
expectancy as leader would be similar to that of a fruit fly.
For the rest of the country, Gomery has presented a challenge: Are you prepared
to hold your politicians accountable when a judge finds members of the ruling
party were running an elaborate kickback scheme in order to fund that party?
If we are not, we can hardly blame Quebecers if they decide they want no part of
it.
TWO
Maybe we should not want any part of a Province that seems to so maliciously predisposed to take offence at
anything.
Memo to Quebecers outraged by the conduct of the GG: One of your two major political parties wants to elect a guy who, by his own admission, liked to snort the occasional line of coke into his head while he was a Minister of the crown,both commiting a crime and indirectly supporting the activities of Les Hells. The GG made some jokes about it. Deal with it.
The real joke here is a party that would actually consider having this piece of crap for a leader. Pathetic
Friday, November 04, 2005
PQ, please pick this guy as your leader!
November 2, 2005
Gov. Gen. blasted for coke joke
SAGUENAY, Que. (CP) - Andre Boisclair, the front-runner in the Parti Quebecois
leadership campaign, says he is upset by comments made about him by Gov. Gen.
Michaelle Jean.
Jean referred to Boisclair in a speech she gave at the annual Parliamentary
Press Gallery dinner on Oct. 22. In her speech, Jean cracked several jokes about
Boisclair, including one that played on the dual meaning of the word coke, and
saying that Boisclair always follows the party "line."
The event was broadcast on a cable television network.
In mid-September, Boisclair admitted to using cocaine in the 1990s while he was
a minister in the cabinet of the provincial government. But he has revealed few
details.
Speaking prior to a debate between PQ leadership hopefuls on Wednesday,
Boisclair said he was shocked at Jean's behaviour before the 600 invited guests,
including Prime Minister Paul Martin.
"The images speak for themselves and everyone who saw those images understand
that they're out of place," Boisclair said.
"Mrs. Jean was not participating in a private event. Mrs. Jean was participating
in a public event, televised, taped."
Jean's speech, in which she also joked the only reason she was appointed to her
vice-regal post is because she is "hot," has drawn the ire of other PQ members.
Interim party leader Louise Harel and the party's intergovernmental affair
critic Jonathan Valois both criticized Jean's comments as inappropriate earlier
this week.
Boisclair's past has been an issue in the leadership campaign and it was again
before and after Wednesday's debate.
Four of his rivals stated publicly before the debate that the former cabinet
minister should come clean about his past.
"I invite him to stop running away and to answer the questions. He answers or he
withdraws," Pierre Dubuc told reporters. "We can't continue like this."
Another candidate, Jean Ouimet, expressed concerns about what other revelations
about Boisclair's past might come out during an election campaign against the
Liberals.
Boisclair's main rivals, Pauline Marois and Richard Legendre, were not among the
group.
Following the debate Boisclair was confronted with the question yet again at a
news conference.
He told reporters he did cocaine "a few times."
When pressed for more details on the time frame of his use, he replied "seven or
eight years ago."
"Listen, I made a mistake and I regret it very much. But it's a mistake of the
past. A long time ago. I never had a dependence problem," he said.
Boisclair also declined to say who supplied him with the drug and became visibly
frustrated when a reporter asked him if that person had ties to organized crime.
"Honestly, do we ask Jean Charest where he bought his pot from? If the person
who sold him pot had links to criminals," Boisclair said before cutting the news
conference short.
Pure douchebaggery!
November 2, 2005
Gov. Gen. blasted for coke joke
SAGUENAY, Que. (CP) - Andre Boisclair, the front-runner in the Parti Quebecois
leadership campaign, says he is upset by comments made about him by Gov. Gen.
Michaelle Jean.
Jean referred to Boisclair in a speech she gave at the annual Parliamentary
Press Gallery dinner on Oct. 22. In her speech, Jean cracked several jokes about
Boisclair, including one that played on the dual meaning of the word coke, and
saying that Boisclair always follows the party "line."
The event was broadcast on a cable television network.
In mid-September, Boisclair admitted to using cocaine in the 1990s while he was
a minister in the cabinet of the provincial government. But he has revealed few
details.
Speaking prior to a debate between PQ leadership hopefuls on Wednesday,
Boisclair said he was shocked at Jean's behaviour before the 600 invited guests,
including Prime Minister Paul Martin.
"The images speak for themselves and everyone who saw those images understand
that they're out of place," Boisclair said.
"Mrs. Jean was not participating in a private event. Mrs. Jean was participating
in a public event, televised, taped."
Jean's speech, in which she also joked the only reason she was appointed to her
vice-regal post is because she is "hot," has drawn the ire of other PQ members.
Interim party leader Louise Harel and the party's intergovernmental affair
critic Jonathan Valois both criticized Jean's comments as inappropriate earlier
this week.
Boisclair's past has been an issue in the leadership campaign and it was again
before and after Wednesday's debate.
Four of his rivals stated publicly before the debate that the former cabinet
minister should come clean about his past.
"I invite him to stop running away and to answer the questions. He answers or he
withdraws," Pierre Dubuc told reporters. "We can't continue like this."
Another candidate, Jean Ouimet, expressed concerns about what other revelations
about Boisclair's past might come out during an election campaign against the
Liberals.
Boisclair's main rivals, Pauline Marois and Richard Legendre, were not among the
group.
Following the debate Boisclair was confronted with the question yet again at a
news conference.
He told reporters he did cocaine "a few times."
When pressed for more details on the time frame of his use, he replied "seven or
eight years ago."
"Listen, I made a mistake and I regret it very much. But it's a mistake of the
past. A long time ago. I never had a dependence problem," he said.
Boisclair also declined to say who supplied him with the drug and became visibly
frustrated when a reporter asked him if that person had ties to organized crime.
"Honestly, do we ask Jean Charest where he bought his pot from? If the person
who sold him pot had links to criminals," Boisclair said before cutting the news
conference short.
Pure douchebaggery!
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Gomery
Here is the comment I would have written on the Canada.com sound off board, if only I had not been at work....
Bravo Allan Cutler!
Remember folks, one honest man helped start the avalanche... More than ever,
Canadians should see the value of a strong public service, governed by ethics
and in the public interest, and politically neutral. The alternative is more
unethical scumbag bureaucrats like Chuck Guité. Guité facilitated the operation of a
parallel unaccountable bureaucracy run by PMO for the benefit of filthy bastards
like the sorry parade of Quebec operatives and politicos that we saw at the
Gomery inquiry.
Even after 13 years of uninterrupted Liberal Government, it is worth the effort
for public servants to remind themselves that they while may work for the
Government, but they don't work for the LIBERALS.
The Liberals are finished in Quebec for a while, I think.
Here is the comment I would have written on the Canada.com sound off board, if only I had not been at work....
Bravo Allan Cutler!
Remember folks, one honest man helped start the avalanche... More than ever,
Canadians should see the value of a strong public service, governed by ethics
and in the public interest, and politically neutral. The alternative is more
unethical scumbag bureaucrats like Chuck Guité. Guité facilitated the operation of a
parallel unaccountable bureaucracy run by PMO for the benefit of filthy bastards
like the sorry parade of Quebec operatives and politicos that we saw at the
Gomery inquiry.
Even after 13 years of uninterrupted Liberal Government, it is worth the effort
for public servants to remind themselves that they while may work for the
Government, but they don't work for the LIBERALS.
The Liberals are finished in Quebec for a while, I think.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
If people are looking for real reasons to fret about the Middle East, I submit for your consideration:
Exhibit A: The first stirrings of civil war in Iraq, and perhaps eventually, in the islamic world between Shia and Sunni
An increasingly Bellicose Iran
Iran has a long term strategic interest in supporting the Shia majority in Iraq, particularly once the yanks are gone, against the Sunni insurgency. However, just about every other neighbouring arab nation is Sunni. Will Iraq be the battleground for islam's version of the Thirty Years' War? With recent sectarian violence, are we witnessing a prelude to the start of a major war within islam?
Exhibit A: The first stirrings of civil war in Iraq, and perhaps eventually, in the islamic world between Shia and Sunni
An increasingly Bellicose Iran
Iran has a long term strategic interest in supporting the Shia majority in Iraq, particularly once the yanks are gone, against the Sunni insurgency. However, just about every other neighbouring arab nation is Sunni. Will Iraq be the battleground for islam's version of the Thirty Years' War? With recent sectarian violence, are we witnessing a prelude to the start of a major war within islam?
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Duceppe calls for the creation of an army for Quebec. OK, to do what, exactly? In the last two centuries, Quebec Nationalists never saw a conflict they weren't ready to denounce as British or American imperialist aggression... and we all know how things turned out for them the last couple of times Quebecers took up arms...
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
W's brother cynically uses his skillful handling of Hurricane to crap all over whiny incompetent douchbags from nearby state
From Saint Petersburg times, by way of Cox and Forkum:
Gov. Jeb Bush praised Florida emergency management officials on Monday while
blasting the efforts of Louisiana officials during Hurricane Katrina.
Bush said Florida responded successfully in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma
because the state relied on the expertise of local emergency managers. He said
relying on federal emergency officials can be a fatal blunder.
"Our system is a bottoms-up system," Bush said. "In the case of Louisiana it was
left to the federal government to fill a void and the consequences are there for
the rest of the world to see."
"This is the model for how to respond to hurricanes," Bush said of Florida.
"Compare this to what happened a month and a half ago in other parts of the
country."
From Saint Petersburg times, by way of Cox and Forkum:
Gov. Jeb Bush praised Florida emergency management officials on Monday while
blasting the efforts of Louisiana officials during Hurricane Katrina.
Bush said Florida responded successfully in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma
because the state relied on the expertise of local emergency managers. He said
relying on federal emergency officials can be a fatal blunder.
"Our system is a bottoms-up system," Bush said. "In the case of Louisiana it was
left to the federal government to fill a void and the consequences are there for
the rest of the world to see."
"This is the model for how to respond to hurricanes," Bush said of Florida.
"Compare this to what happened a month and a half ago in other parts of the
country."
Happy Saint Crispin's day
On Today's date, 590 years ago, King Harry's English whipped some French monkey ass at the battle of Agincourt:
This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say "To-morrow is Saint Crispian":
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say "These wounds I had on Crispin's day."
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
William Shakespeare's Henry V
On Today's date, 590 years ago, King Harry's English whipped some French monkey ass at the battle of Agincourt:
This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say "To-morrow is Saint Crispian":
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say "These wounds I had on Crispin's day."
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
William Shakespeare's Henry V
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Randomosity
I watched the first part of CBC's Trudeau II, which has gotta be the cheesiest and nonsensical title for a this TV movie they could come up with. It's actually a prequel to the Trudeau movie they did with Colm Fiore a while back. That one covered his years in public life. This one covers the years he spent going to university, and his time as a lawyer and left-wing intellectual. From what I can gather from this movie, Trudeau spent most of the war acting petulant and supercilious with authority figures, whining about conscription, and being cold and distant to his girlfriend while Canadian boys were fighting the krauts across France, Belgium and Holland. I note he also spent some time growing a really stupid looking amish beard, traveling the world so that he could hang out in chinese opium dens getting high and learn some yoga. His time bouncing from university to university studying whatever caught his fancy is also mentioned in passing. A disconcerting picture of this Liberal icon emerges: that of a thoroughly unsympathetic provocateur and dilettante --a term he actually uses in conversation with another character when talking about himself.
I'm not sure where the creators of this telepic were going... Are we meant to grind our teeth over the injustice of Trudeau being denied a Rhode Scholarship, knowing as we do what the future had in store for the man? Are we meant to laugh along with the ineffectual "silk stocking socialists" of the Quebec intelligentsia (another term used in the movie) as they mock the hidebound establishment and ossified clergy that propped each other up in the Duplessis years? The main character in this biopic is nervy, restless, unfocussed, moving from one incident to the next without any sense of who he is or what he wants to accomplish
By the end of the first part of the miniseries, I felt pretty ambivalent about the Trudeau character as rather unsympathetically portrayed -- by two different actors, mind you -- and yet, I'm not sure that was the intent of the producers. While the film is far from a hagiography, the several messianic references are too blatant to miss. Not knowing much about Trudeau's life before his meteoric ascent to the pinacle of Federal politics, I can only assume that things will pick up for the guy in the next instalment, which covers the late fifties and sixties, and that the writer and director will get to the point.
Earlier, I watched the Parliamentary Press Gallery Gala on CPAC. That's the annual dinner where the GG, PM, and leaders of the other party give speeches poking fun at themselves and each other. A dorky Canadian roast, I guess is the best way to describe it. I think this kind of thing should be required viewing for voters. At times entertaining, even gratifying, but most importantly, illuminating. A PM normally bereft of eloquence sheds his nervous manner and aggravating stammer to crack a few funny and surprisingly self-depracating and self-aware jokes at his own expense. A stiff cold-fish of a Leader of the Opposition emerges as a witty and genial guy with a knack for mimickry. Even the NDP boss came across as a funny guy, singing a clever little medley of songs about his party's lamentable recent tendencies towards whoredom.
If people could see more of the lighter side of these three blowhards, and if each of them were just a little more natural and frank about their opinions with the electorate... if they could only be themselves a bit more, speak a little more plainly, and pay a little less heed to their handlers and spinners, we might start to have decent voter turnouts in this country.
I watched the first part of CBC's Trudeau II, which has gotta be the cheesiest and nonsensical title for a this TV movie they could come up with. It's actually a prequel to the Trudeau movie they did with Colm Fiore a while back. That one covered his years in public life. This one covers the years he spent going to university, and his time as a lawyer and left-wing intellectual. From what I can gather from this movie, Trudeau spent most of the war acting petulant and supercilious with authority figures, whining about conscription, and being cold and distant to his girlfriend while Canadian boys were fighting the krauts across France, Belgium and Holland. I note he also spent some time growing a really stupid looking amish beard, traveling the world so that he could hang out in chinese opium dens getting high and learn some yoga. His time bouncing from university to university studying whatever caught his fancy is also mentioned in passing. A disconcerting picture of this Liberal icon emerges: that of a thoroughly unsympathetic provocateur and dilettante --a term he actually uses in conversation with another character when talking about himself.
I'm not sure where the creators of this telepic were going... Are we meant to grind our teeth over the injustice of Trudeau being denied a Rhode Scholarship, knowing as we do what the future had in store for the man? Are we meant to laugh along with the ineffectual "silk stocking socialists" of the Quebec intelligentsia (another term used in the movie) as they mock the hidebound establishment and ossified clergy that propped each other up in the Duplessis years? The main character in this biopic is nervy, restless, unfocussed, moving from one incident to the next without any sense of who he is or what he wants to accomplish
By the end of the first part of the miniseries, I felt pretty ambivalent about the Trudeau character as rather unsympathetically portrayed -- by two different actors, mind you -- and yet, I'm not sure that was the intent of the producers. While the film is far from a hagiography, the several messianic references are too blatant to miss. Not knowing much about Trudeau's life before his meteoric ascent to the pinacle of Federal politics, I can only assume that things will pick up for the guy in the next instalment, which covers the late fifties and sixties, and that the writer and director will get to the point.
Earlier, I watched the Parliamentary Press Gallery Gala on CPAC. That's the annual dinner where the GG, PM, and leaders of the other party give speeches poking fun at themselves and each other. A dorky Canadian roast, I guess is the best way to describe it. I think this kind of thing should be required viewing for voters. At times entertaining, even gratifying, but most importantly, illuminating. A PM normally bereft of eloquence sheds his nervous manner and aggravating stammer to crack a few funny and surprisingly self-depracating and self-aware jokes at his own expense. A stiff cold-fish of a Leader of the Opposition emerges as a witty and genial guy with a knack for mimickry. Even the NDP boss came across as a funny guy, singing a clever little medley of songs about his party's lamentable recent tendencies towards whoredom.
If people could see more of the lighter side of these three blowhards, and if each of them were just a little more natural and frank about their opinions with the electorate... if they could only be themselves a bit more, speak a little more plainly, and pay a little less heed to their handlers and spinners, we might start to have decent voter turnouts in this country.
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