NDP - former strategist or former strategy?

If the job of an NDP strategist is to try and attack Elizabeth May in the national media, what's the job of a former NDP strategist?

Evidently, it's the same thing.

To wit, check out this week's capital diary in Macleans:

May has criticized the Conservatives for not honouring the Atlantic Accord, which is ironic according to former NDP strategist Jamey Heath because the accord would see oil and gas expansion off the East Coast. "The Kyoto Protocol says we need to burn less oil and gas," says Heath. "Why would you want to expand it?"

First of all, the Atlantic Accord kerfuffle of the past three years has absolutely nothing to do with, and no impact whatsoever on the volume of oil coming out of Canada's offshore.

Secondly, is Heath a former strategist? Or is he a former NDPer?

Because last I checked, the NDP leader (his former boss) was stumping quite actively in favour of the Atlantic Accord. In fact, Layton was stumping for even more. Layton, if memory serves, believes that non-renewable resources everywhere should be given preferential exemption from the Equalization formula. That means oil and gas both onshore and off, not to mention coal, uranium, potash and every other mineral under the ground.

It's not surprising that Layton's "former" spokesperson would know so little on the subject. A few short months ago the NDP website attacked the Tories with the following gem:

“First they said they would protect the Atlantic and Saskatchewan Accords, and they broke that promise,” said NDP leader Jack Layton.

You won't find that version of the quote on their website now. They took it down after reading this.

So how about a little clarity from our NDP friends? You can't attack Harper for scuttling the Accords on one day and attack May for supporting them the next. What's it going to be?

Whether it be in Halifax or in Saskatoon, someone at NDP HQ has some 'splainin' to do...

John Crosbie is wrong (Part II)

The locals weigh in...

"Most people on this part of the island have a long history of battling the mighty capital city for any chance to grow and prosper..."
"Far be it for anywhere in this province to have the talent and drive to give the high and mighty a run for recognition."

This should be fun to watch.

John Crosbie is wrong

With apologies to one of my dear blogger friends, on this one, I'm not sure I can agree.

While John Crosbie may make a number of valid points in his lengthy rebuttal to the preference of the Williams government to grant some level of autonomy to Sir Wilfred Grenfell College in Corner Brook, the quote below is a remarkably short sighted rationale for a Chancellor of one of Canada's great universities:

" In 1999 there were 3733 high school graduates eligible to become students at MUN. By 2005 the number of eligible high school graduates had declined to 2,493.

This problem is even more serious for the Corner Brook area where the number of eligible high school graduates in 1999 was 182 while in 2005 there were 122. At Stephenville the number of eligible high school graduates were 259 in 1999 but by 2005 had declined to 119."

Therein (along with this pathetic editorial comparing the province's university campuses to fish plants) is a damning statement as to why this man and the rest of the nearsighted townie establishment is out to lunch.

To think, in this increasingly borderless era, that the Chancellor of the largest university east of Montreal, a man once charged with the responsibilities of Canada's international trade, and a one-time legitimate contender for the position of Prime Minister believes that Memorial's (and Grenfell's) recruitment capacity is limited to the high school population of Newfoundland and Labrador is appalling.

If that's what Memorial's Board of Regents really believes, then Grenfell shouldn't walk away from MUN. It should run.

As for the Telegram, their paternalistic editorial is just as bad. The view from the narrows is that the only way you can relate to people from West of the overpass is to talk about fish plants.

"Now imagine that fish company was going to split into two different firms, with two different corporate structures, and with both companies battling for a large enough share of a dwindling resource to try and stay in business."

Spare us the tripe.

Then again, this is the same media organ that cried bloody murder when the previous provincial government decided to move public servants responsible for agriculture and forestry closer to farms and forests. Why should anyone be surprised?

When you live within a 15 minute drive of Cape Spear, you forget what it's like to have neighbours.

When you live on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, it's a bit of a different story. For decades, given the fact that MUN didn't offer courses beyond first year arts at its Corner Brook campus, high school graduates from Port aux Basques to St. Anthony - faced with the reality of having to move anyway - went in droves to Canada's other great universities on the east coast. After all, Halifax, Sackville, Antigonish, and Wolfville are a shorter drive and/or a cheaper flight. And part of the university experience for a growing number of Canadian students is exploring new places, getting away from the folks, etc.

"Grenfell University", in all probability, may not be as big or as prestigious as some of those other Maritime universities who have been around much longer. But (like the nearby University of Cape Breton) it deserves a chance to try.

"Grenfell University" may never have the size or infrastructure to compete with MUN for research chairs, pure research and the sorts of academic endeavours that help attract the best and brightest to faculties like sciences, medicine, etc.

But it has in its surrounding community and environment, the chance to compete with other Atlantic towns (many of them much smaller) which support and benefit from successful post secondary institutions. Yet these attributes will always be of secondary interest to Memorial's Board of Regents, which resisted degree-granting status for years. Similarly, the Board will never allow corporate philanthropy to spend a dime outside of St. John's, where the oil and nickel producers are encouraged to spread largesse around the townies' hallowed campus.

And why is it that the Telegram accepts as gospel the notion that federal institutions (read: largesse) should be as decentralized and spread around as conceivably possible, while provincial institutions (like MUN) should remain centralized and focused in the capital?

There may be a number of economic and adminstrative reasons for MUN and Grenfell to remain as one university. I'm open to hearing them. But if the best that anyone can offer is this tripe, then I'll have to support Williams on this one. And believe you me, it takes a lot to get me to support him on anything.


And for those of you patient enough to read all the blather above. Here is the kicker:

John Crosbie, yesterday:

"I support completely what has clearly and publicly and firmly been adopted as public policy in post-secondary education in NL since Memorial was created as a University in 1949. That principle was that NL should have one University, Memorial University..."

John Crosbie, in his autobiography, No Holds Barred, at page 210, bragging about the number of post seondary institutions from Newfoundland and Labrador who sent delegates to the 1983 PC leadership convention:

"...it was obviously in my interest to do everything within my power - or within the power of my friends - to maximize the number of delegates that Newfoundland would send to the convention. Normally, Newfoundland, the second smallest of the provinces, sent about 100 delegates to Tory national meetings. But Laschinger - the man was a genius! - found a loophole. The student Conservative club at any recognized post-secondary institution in Canada was entitled to send three voting delegates, so Laschinger said, why not arrange to have more post-secondary instuttes given official recognition and create more Conservative clubs? With the assistance of the Tory government of Newfoundland we were able to find twenty-one such institutions, including the Newfoundland Flying School.

One of my supporters, Lynne Verge, who was the province's Education minister (she later became Tory leader), conferred instant post-secondary status on all twenty-one, and we created Conservative clubs at every one. ...I don't know if it was technically vote fraud..."

One university... indeed.

More on Crosbie tomorrow. I promise.

PS - Just a little fact check. When did Stephenville have more high school graduates than Corner Brook? Really? Does anyone bother checking the sh*t that comes out of Crosbie's mouth? Surely someone could check a map or a census or something to check those numbers he's offering up... According to Census 2001 the number of 15-19 yr olds in the Corner Brook area was 1,840. In Stephenville, it was 590. In 2007 they were 1,725 and 517, respectively.

Tour de France

The Tour de France ended this weekend, with Spaniard Alberto Contador winning the Tour by a narrow margin, after the departure/disqualification of a number of contenders including race leader Michael Rasmussen, Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov, and Cristian Moreni notable among the lingering allegations of banned substances use, failed blood-doping tests, etc., etc., etc.

The yellow jersey for overall winner goes to Contador.

The green jersey for best sprinter to Tom Boonan.

The polka dot jersey for best climber to Juan Mauricio Soler.

To maintain interest in the wake of this and previous years' scandals, race organizers are reportedly adding another prestigious jersey for next year's race, to be awarded to the rider with the "brightest pee"...

It will probably look something like this:

c is for cookie

Boy that "let's get a photo of Randy Hillier" idea sure is generating good media for Dalton McGuinty's Liberals, eh?

What's this, like, Day frickin' seven?

And now Sheila Copps joins the fray... dredging up her own selection of suitable comparisons (yet curiously neglecting this one).

Sheila's is the only* column on this subject of sexism in the media and mens' antiquated perception of women that allows you to scroll down and link to a scantily-clad photo of "Ashley", a 23 year old pisces who's into running and watching football...etc.

But I digress.

In defence of the Liberal mouthpiece at the centre of this circus, it's not like he called her a "Reptillian kitten eater" or anything. Now that would have been news-cycle worthy. That would have been truly evil. That would have crossed the line. That would have...

Oh, nevermind.

On a related note, if I were a reporter, just for fun, my first question on week two of this story would go a little something like this...

As a young woman from New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, and a member of the National Conservative policy committee prior to becoming an MPP, were you equally "disturbed and disappointed" at the time, when a certain MP told Alexa McDonough to "stick to her knitting"? Was Peter MacKay's comment "misguided, unnecessary" and did it "cross the line"?

Really. That's what this story needs, another solid week of probing interviews, pontifications of morality and gender, and sordid expressions of remorse. Surely with a little work we can stretch the thing out 'til Labour Day.

DISCLAIMER - Obviously, I didn't make the Sesame Street video above. And I have no idea what the cow is doing in the opening scene. It's probably the last in a series of things starting with the letter C (I base that on my heightened skills of deduction which I have recently acquired at law school, and not my childhood TV memories). Anyway, I figured this disclaimer was necessary, lest I wake up tomorrow to a Globe and Mail headline accusing me of somehow insinuating that women politicians, or internet bloggers have some connection to cows. We live in dangerous times.

DISCLAIMER 2 - I'm sure "Ashley" is a wonderful person, and I know that Lisa is too.

*I stand corrected, Persichilli's piece (and it's a good one) will get you there, too...

Different Tories, Different Stories

The Western Star, today, describing Loyola Hearn's recent spending habits:

"...it was a transparent and meagre attempt to win favour with voters in this province who mostly look at him as standing up for the federal government and selling out this province."

The Western Star, one week ago, in a banner headline describing Danny Williams' recent spending habits:

"Premier brings optimism to Corner Brook"

Yikes. How's that for a double standard.

Polls!

Not sure who posted this one, but it's fun. Vote for your favourite all time Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador.

PSSST... I would never, ever use this as an opportunity to aggressively suggest for whom you should vote.

Will the pending Mulroney/Schreiber circus have local fallout in Central Nova?

On the heels of the Conrad Black trial, it appears Canadians may get to suffer through another high profile bit of legal wrangling.

Having filed a motion in Ontario today to set aside Thursday's default judgment against him to the tune of $470,000, former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has bought some time to clear the air over this whole affair. While legal teams for Mulroney and Schreiber argue whether to settle this matter in Ontario or in Quebec, the national media salivating at the prospect of a public airing of their grievances, the most interesting place to be a fly on the wall is probably around a certain family dinner table in Central Nova.

One of Schreiber's long-time defenders is former Mulroney-stalwart Elmer MacKay, father of current foreign affairs minister Peter MacKay, all three of whom (MacKay, MacKay and Mulroney) have represented the riding of Central Nova. As recently as last year, Elmer was using Peter's Central Nova constituency office to send correspondence in defence of Schreiber. It wasn't the first time the elder MacKay came to Schreiber's defence, having helped bail him out of jail in 1999.

Which begs the question, if these two former political allies and purported business associates have a long drawn out public dispute, who's "side" will Elmer be on? And what about Peter?

A little more political intrigue to get tongues a-wagging in Central Nova, where - ironically enough - MacKay is facing a former Mulroney staffer in what had already promised to be an interesting race.




On a completely unrelated note, is now a good time to start asking again just who paid off Peter MacKay's leadership debts?

More Townie Bullshit

From the Letters to the Editor in today's Townie Tory Telegram:

"Separatism may be an impractical solution to these inequities, but a threat to separate unless those Terms of Union are renegotiated seems to me to be a plausible and workable tactic."

If the idiot advocates for this kind of nonsense premise their own argument with descriptions of separation as - in their own words - "impractical", then it really isn't much of a threat, is it?

As a strategy, or a "workable tactic" it seems pretty downright stupid.

Couteau a la gorge doesn't really work when you tell the guy with the neck that the blade is made of rubber before you point it at him.

Maybe the rest of Canada should tell these wankers to go ahead and have a damned referendum. Silencing whining townies was fun sport 60 years ago. It could be again.

Even better. How about if the rest of the province held a referendum to separate from St. John's? Think about it - we'd get the lion's share of Equalization and other transfers based on need, we'd have all the federal employees, and then start our own bureaucracy, too. Not to mention that we'd get about 99% of Newfoundland and Labrador's current portion of Canadian territorial waters, including the oil reserves, and whatever fish Loyola Hearn hasn't manage to give away. Folks in St. John's could settle for a slice like that off of St. Pierre and Miquelon. The sovereign principality of Avalon, or the "Overpassey", or whatever the hell the Townies prefer to call their new state, could have Danny Williams as monarch, Andy Wells as Crown Prince, and Bill Rowe as Ambassador, etc.

The rest of us could simply move on.

Where's Pat Binns going?

Why would anyone working at DFAIT (gate2.dfait-maeci.gc.ca) Google the terms "Pat Binns + Ambassador"?

And why would they end up here?

In Today's Star

One of the many great reprieves of being out of that whole politics racket is dealing with the annual problem of proper attire for the Calgary Stampede - something I might have forgotten about entirely if not for this Star column.

The footnote sorta says it all "...but his campaign strategists nixed plans to post it on Dryden's website." Living proof that as a staffer you can never truly win an argument with a determined politician, you can only postpone defeat.

"We need to do a better job at promoting..."

... or so begins the second paragraph of this story, posted to a certain politcal party's website earlier this week.

It features a who's who of Canadian authors, responding to this:

"A Liberal government will make cultural promotion an important component of Canada’s activities abroad with the immediate restoration of $22.8 million in cuts made by the Harper Conservatives, Liberal Opposition Leader Stéphane Dion said today."

And the response from the participants seems to be glowing:

"It's wonderful to hear that – finally! – there’s a political leader who recognizes the value to a nation of its creative talent," says Margaret Atwood.

"It is a great relief to know that our government-in-waiting recognizes and can see the value of Canada’s remarkable creativity, and the authority it has earned both at home and abroad," adds Graeme Gibson.

Fine. Dandy.

But let's keep in mind that they're celebrating the possibility of the restoration of what already was. On the surface, there's not necessarily anything big, shiny and new here for authors, publishers, artists or anyone else. And maybe - just maybe - a little less silent bystanding last time around would have meant avoiding having to fight today for the kinds of programs you already had before.

Hopefully, it's a sign that progressive Canadians are starting to care enough about the country they thought they had to stop taking this kind of policy for granted at election time.

Better still, it's a subtle reminder to every national interest/advocacy group in this country to pay a little more attention to the future direction of Canada's New Government - especially when it starts floating trial ballons like legislating against the federal spending power and gets a response of virtual silence.

We need to do a better job at promoting, indeed...

Grin and bear it.

Not to be messed with.

Tagged - "Eight Random Things"

Normally, not my thing, but I need content...

Tag Rules:

1. All right, here are the rules. 2. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts. 3. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves. 4. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules. 5. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.


... I have been tagged by Jay at the Sleveen Institute

(1) I own a “Sleveen” T-shirt that I bought at the Downhomer shop on Water Street.

(2) I live in Cabbagetown in June, sur le plateau en juillet, and in North End Halifax by September.

(3) I am a first generation Canadian, by about 40 days.

(4) I think Danny Williams and Jean Charest both make Rene Levesque look like a federalist.

(5) I could not conceivably work in a professional environment without spell check.

(6) I am a pinko-commie-liberal who agrees with 80% of Andrew Coyne's columns, finds 90% of Mark Steyn's columns amusing, and is 100% disappointed that Daimnation has to leave my hometown. Go figure.

(7) I am convinced that Facebook was created by Tom Ridge before he left Homeland Security.

(8) I will absolutely kick your ass at cribbage, backgammon, 120s, or Settlers of Catan.


I tag the following people:

WJM at Labradore
Ed at Bondpapers
Red Tory
Simon at Offal News
Pumpernickel
Jarvis
Mike P.
Dulse and Fog

For the record...

CORNER BROOK, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR--(Marketwire - July 4, 2007) - The Honourable Loyola Hearn, Member of Parliament for St. John's South-Mount Pearl, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, and Minister responsible for Newfoundland and Labrador, on behalf of the Honourable Monte Solberg, Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, today announced funding of $363,300 for two Employment Assistance Services (EAS) projects designed to help 1,900 unemployed individuals in the metropolitan Corner Brook area.

Wicked. Awesome. Wonderful.

That's the first time I have seen the words "metropolitan" and "Corner Brook" in a sentence since the department store at the Millbrook Mall closed its doors in the late 80's.

But that's not the only funny thing about this press release.

Loyola Hearn, prior to his elevation to the Cabinet of Canada's New Government, was a high school principal, and became a Member of the House of Assembly in 1982, where he remained until 1993, holding posts including Minister of Education. And in 2000 was elected a Member of Parliament.

Apparently, Loyola is the cabinet representative in Canada's New Government for all of Newfoundland and Labrador.

I challenge anyone who has followed Loyola's political career for all of these 25 years to find another press release issued from within the "metropolitan" area of Corner Brook.

Just one.

You would think, in a quarter century, the second largest city in the province would have been worthy of a visit...

Oh well, at least he didn't have to spend his uncomfortable night in the second city in a Winnebego like some of the "locals".

Right Wing Republicans - Soft on Crime

Just when you thought his approval rating couldn't get any lower - George W. Bush commutes Scooter Libby's sentence.

Just when you thought Paris Hilton's jail term was a bit of a farce - George W. Bush commutes Scooter Libby's sentence.

Just when you thought the Putin/Bush summit featured the leader of only one truly corrupt government - George W. Bush commutes Scooter Libby's sentence.

Unbelievable