Le Devoir

Pierre Bourque has been running a headline most of the day: "PEI'S GHIZ VOTED ILLEGALLY"

Really? Take a closer look. This article is complete horseshit.

You'll note that while our journaliste goes through the pains of lamenting the 12-month residential requirement for voting municipally in Quebec, (which burned one of his separatist pals) here's something you won't read in Michel David's piece-of-merde article:

The Conditions for exercising your right to vote provincially in Quebec, courtesy of the DGEQ's website:

"Hence, anyone who wishes to participate in this democratic exercise must meet the following conditions on polling day:

- be eighteen years of age;
- be a Canadian citizen;
- have been domiciled in Québec for at least six months."

How about, insted of this tripe, we get a le Devoir journaliste to write an article on why it is that if you lived in the townships, spoke English and spelled your name with the letter "z" you automatically appeared on a PQ scrutineer's challenge list at the voting station?

We've just gone through another charade of an investigation into the dealings of the federalist side in the last referendum. Mabe one day Quebec will have a Premier with the courage to call a similar investigation into the tactics of the separatists as well.

YLC ads

These Young Liberal ads (which you've probably seen by now) are getting rave reviews.

As they should.

Food for thought

Read this and remember it next time a politician in your area promises to build more highways, pave more roads, or lower your gas prices.

Canada's New-ish government

Flashback:

Mr. Baird told the Citizen this week that he had "huge concerns" about the Liberal practice of relocating jobs to court favour and win votes.

- Ottawa Citizen, February 8, 2006

Minister Fortier stressed that owning and managing real estate is not part of the federal government's core business. "The Government should do what governments do, that is concentrate on its priorities, and owning office buildings is clearly not a priority for Canadians"

- Press Release, Public Works and Government Services Canada, March 5, 2007

Which makes this item in today's Ottawa Citizen a real treasure:

"The federal government will build two new office towers in Gatineau and transfer some 6200 jobs to the Quebec side of the Ottawa River within the next five years..."

It's like deja vu all over again...

For more fun, Ed adds some local flavour.

Preston Manning, and everyone else who founded the Reform Party 20 years ago today must be having a ball with this one.

ho hum

I guess this signals the end of the fiscal imbalance, right?

Beam me up

WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, New Mexico (AP) -- A rocket payload that flew briefly into space with ashes of astronaut Gordon Cooper and "Star Trek" actor James Doohan was recovered Friday in the New Mexico mountains.

Families of the deceased, and employees of UEP Aerospace who launched the rocket nearly three weeks ago, expressed their relief that they were able to recover the rocket and its cargo ahead of Keith Richards.

huh?

If there are two things in this world which I have great trouble deciphering, they would be: (a) whatever gets written on VOCM's "news" website, and (b) whatever comes out of Jack Layton's mouth.

Can someone - anyone - either from VOCM, or from the NDP, please post a comment below explaining what the hell any of this means?

"Layton Supports Province's Attempts for Control of Hibernia"

Attempts?
Control?
Purchase?
Transfer?

Funny, too, that none of Layton's widely reported yet seemingly vague commitments on Equalization, Hibernia, etc. nor his St. John's speech seem worthy of mention here. Rather odd, that.

Taken for a musical ride

Selected clips from yesterday's Globe and Mail editorial:

"Given that the campaign was fought in large part over the questions of integrity in the Liberal government, and given that the Liberals began to sputter in the polls immediately after the probe was announced and never recovered, it's not unreasonable to say that news of the investigation was the turning point of the campaign."

"The lengthy investigation implicated no politicians or staffers in the former government. It has revealed nothing that points to a major policy leak leading to widespread insider trading ahead of the announcement, as the opposition parties had charged. It failed to turn up anything more than an alleged small-scale trading scam by a single person. This is no smoking gun; it looks more like a grasped straw."

"...the reputations of many long-serving public-officials, not to mention the fate of the government, were dragged through the mud by the RCMP's heavy-handed approach."

"Canadians might have hoped...that there was some substance behind the probe, that they were doing something more than just going on a highly public fishing expedition."

Too bad the Globe's editorial team couldn't entertain such a possibility when this "story" first broke.

After all, as politically-driven, amateurish, vindictive and unprofessional as the RCMP's conduct might have been, they don't own a printing press and they didn't put it on the front page of any newspaper.

To paraphrase the Globe's own piece, couldn't Canadians have equally hoped that there was some substance behind the press gallery's coverage this whole affair, that they were doing more than just going on a highly public fishing expedition?

Paul Wolfowitz

I didn't think "exit strategy" was in Wolfowitz's vocabulary.

Until now.

Misdiagnosis of priorities

This is truly scandalous:

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. (CP) - The Newfoundland and Labrador government knew for half a year that more than 300 women did not receive the proper treatment for their breast cancer because of a faulty test, but did not inform the public.

Maybe - just maybe - if the entire apparatus of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador didn't spend 100% of its time looking for Canadian bogeymen, pissing on federal politicians of all stripes, shapes and sizes, launching ridiculous lawsuits, planning separatist rallies, monitoring and stacking open line shows, obsessing over personal approval ratings, appointing party hacks to monitor their own elections, double-billing its' expense accounts, tearing down Canadian flags, building an Orwellian cult of personality, chest-beating over non-development of oil resources, concealing their own numbers on federal transfers, and twiddling thumbs at meetings with its provincial counterparts, then maybe, just maybe, some portion of that government could do something useful during this term of office.

Something useful, like... informing cancer patients in a timely fashion that they have reason to believe they've been misdiagnosed.

Wow.

Somewhere in Confederation Building the wheels are turning. Got to get more callers on the air to talk about last week's rally...

How did I miss this?

As the scant, short and effortless posts below indicate, I've been rather busy of late. (Toronto - EEEEK!!!)

Too busy, even, to read the papers this Saturday, or to visit regular websites.

If you missed it, like I missed it, here is why Andrew Coyne can be a real treasure sometimes.

"It was never intended that, 140 years later, the provinces would still be carving up the country into preferential trade areas. Rather, the Fathers of Confederation envisaged a common market, with a federal overseer -- as is the case in every other federation."

Bang on.

Why isn't there one MP out of 308 saying anything remotely along these lines? Just one?

Tories turn back time

We used to joke, during the Stockwell Day era, that the guy came from the jurassic era.

Then we cringed, during the Stephen Harper era, that Canada's New Government would turn back the clock on social progress. On child care. On equality issues. On the Charter.

But today, a blogger actually managed to turn back time. Yessir. Today's public apology from Steve Janke is somehow dated March 2nd, 2007.

Better early than never.

Even the Ottawa Sun...

... is starting to think Canada's New Government is run by whackos.

Iraq

Read this, and remind me what civility, freedom, liberty, democracy, justice, etc., etc., etc. the "coalition of the willing" has brought to Iraq in these past four years. What a horror show.

Sunday reading

Could Peter Jackson's Telegram column mark the beginning of the end of rhetoric trumping common sense in the pages of St. John's newspapers? Let's hope.

UPDATE...

...meanwhile the "Independent" shows its "independence" and quality journalism once again by printing its master's speech as front page news. The aptly named "Independent" remains as "independent" as it was since its first issue, which featured a full page colour photo of the patron saint of Newfoundland martyrdom himself, given out for free at every corner store in the province, conveniently (if memory serves) on the eve of his election.

Which begs the question - who pays the bills over at the Independent anyway? Its subscribers?

Watch for government ads featuring the Dannystan wordmark to double or triple in the months leading up to another election. Independence is a wonderful thing.

nomination abomination

If Premier Williams was genuinely serious about turfing the Conservative MPs from his province, wouldn't he be able to do it quite easily by stealing their nominations from them? Seriously, the current membership in either Fabian Manning's or Loyola Hearn's respective riding association can't be more than a couple hundred votes, at most.

Surely a local political colossus like the Premier could muster the couple hundred necessary votes from within his own party ranks to win a nomination fight on his home turf. Couldn't he?


And - from the same article, another great quote from Williams:

"I am encouraging Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and Canadians..."

Memo - Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are Canadians. You and your townie merchant crowd lost that battle. And try as you might, you'll lose it again.

And...

...it would appear that Tories, too, are entitled to their entitlements. So to speak.

amour du soi

Danny Williams' circular lexicon knows no bounds. From a CP Wire story today:

"It's not separation that we crave, but respect. Self-respect builds self-confidence, self-determination, and self-reliance, economically and socially,'' he said.

How do you crave self-respect? Better still - how do you get it from someone else?

Back in Ottawa...

...and soon on my way to Toronto for the rest of summer.

I may have little time on my hands to post stuff this week, but someone else sure does.