Over in the financial fever swamps, Iceland’s complete collapse is being projected onto economies which have more than 300,000 people, fish and volcanoes.

Canada is about to go into the Thanksgiving long weekend and the US celebrates Columbus Day on Monday. I suspect there is going to be a lot of panic selling tomorrow. And then three days to actually think about what is real and what isn’t.

There is, I am afraid, a chance that this worldwide financial crisis will make M. Dion Canada’s Prime Minister. Not because Harper did not show sufficient empathy, rather because he failed to properly articulate why, in this particular instance, Canada is in terrific shape to weather the storm. Mentioning his mother and father’s portfolio and noting the buying opportunity was not and could not be enough.

Fanned by an economically illiterate media and the reports of the disasters befalling our American friends, Canadians are damned scared. Scared enough that they might be stupid enough to vote for Dion simply because they have not be sufficiently reassured by Harper.

The main story tomorrow is not likely to be the decision in the Mark Steyn matter or whatever the polls are saying: it will be whether or not the world’s markets regain their confidence. If they do then there is every chance that Harper will be re-elected, if they plunge I am afraid Dion may very well blunder into government. Tomorrow is the last day the markets will be open before election day. A thousand point drop in the Dow and Canada will almost certainly be saddled with a Prime Minister who barely knows what the Dow is.

Not good. Not good at all.

This election is over before it really started. No party has outlined a future for Canada, no party or leader has scored much in the way of debating points, no party or leader has given us any particular reason to vote for him or her.

We will take our long weekend and eat our turkey (or at our house leg of lamb) and, perhaps, talk about politics. Or not. We will certainly talk about the markets and, if we have any brains, how lucky we are to have such boring bankers in Canada. Not an ounce of innovation in the lot of them….thank God.

But nothing in the lame campaigns run by the three major parties or the Green and BQ gadflies has come close to capturing the imagination - such as it is - of Canadians.

The reporting has been polls and gaffes. The polls may have tightened a bit. It is possible, barely, that M. Dion might squeak into minority office. But I doubt it. Instead I suspect that Harper, despite having a war room filled with tone deaf ninnies, will have enough seats to govern.

For about two years and then we will have to endure this farce again. Pray God with at least one party with an actual leader.

Apparently, in Canada, October is the cruelest month. The naked truth of our political bankruptcy is to be exposed like a bag of sub-prime mortgages.

Actually, Lesley, you can thank M. Dion and his war room for the anti-Semitism slur. Apparently, when they became aware of your article they immediately labeled it as anti-Semitic and sought advice from the CJC (knowing full well that the CJC was unlikely to be anything other than anti even the smallest hint of anti-Semitism.) You were done the instant the call was made.

That said, it was not just a single article. You appeared with Troothers on a number of public occasions. Given that your name appears in the Troother’s publicity material it is a pretty clear that you have gone beyond the “just asking questions” stage. Something which, frankly, needed to be exposed to the voters of Kildonan-St. Paul.

At a guess, M. Dion underbussed (thanks Kathy) you because he has enough troubles without being asked to defend the off the wall views of a candidate in an unwinnable riding.

Who benefits - M. Dion.

“If you want childcare, if you want real action on the environment, if you want justice for aboriginal Canadians, if you want a government that partners with municipalities and provinces instead of attacking them, you got to vote Liberal,” he said.

“If you don’t vote Liberal, Canada will go into a major economic crisis,” said Ignatieff, who joined with Liberal Leader Stephane Dion at a morning campaign stop in Stoney Creek.

His appeal comes as a new Toronto Star/Angus Reid poll put the Liberals at 21 per cent, tied with the NDP, with the Green Party at 7 per cent.
Michael Ignatieff toronto star

Well Mike, the thing is that:

a) we take care of our own children,
b) it’s getting colder and the Green Shift won’t change that,
c)aboriginal Canadians have had about as much “justice” as they can take and are in huge trouble as the direct result of a hundred years of useless, albeit expensive, paternalism,
d) the municipalities and provinces need the tax room a smaller and less intrusive federal government will create,
e) Canada is on the way to a 10 billion dollar surplus, has sound banks, a reduced national deficit and a rational (if not ideal) fiscal policy - think of us as Switzerland.
f) All of the above means you guys are tied with the NDP - you are going to lose. The only question is how badly.

To quote the Lying Jackal, “We are not Afraid”.

This means that the CBC and the Globe and Mail have bought into the idea that the Troothers are anti-Semitic. Which exposes their actions to the scrutiny of the CJC ’cause M. Dion has the CJC on his speed dial.

No mention of BlackRod, or Dr. Dawg or even me. Her “under-bus-ing” was the product of the professionals at the CJC.

Well, bullshit. While there is certainly a strain of anti-Semitism in one fork of the Troother line, the reality is that the entire meme is batshit crazy (and thank you Blazing).

So what happened? Bottom line is that the CBC and the Globe and Mail and the Liberal Party could not acknowledge that a Liberal candidate had been taken down by a weird coalition of lefty (Dawg), neutral, (Black Rod) and apparently righty (me, Kate, Kathy, Free Dominion and the rest of you scoundrels) bloggers. So they had to invent the idea that the CJC was driving the action. Kids, the CJC found out about Ms. Hughes because the Lying Jackal smelt death in the air. Left to their own devices those fearless Nazi hunters would not have found Hughes. Ever. The Jackal earned his keep.

The CBC and the Globe and Mail hate being killed on a story. They were killed here even though a Globe and Mail reporter had called the Hughes HQ before I did. Making the best of a bad situation they have thrown the credit to the CJC….tough nuggies Dawg and Black Rod. At least you made it into the Post.

What the Hughes story is actually about is laziness. A lazy Liberal Party which cannot be bothered to vet its candidates and a lazy national media which cannot do the most basic invesitgation.

My posts took a total of half an hour. From work. MSM - Google is your friend. Use it.

From the Liberal war room:

For Immediate Release. September 26, 2008

Statement from Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion

The Liberal Party’s commitment to tolerance and multiculturalism is paramount.

I have reviewed the past comments of Lesley Hughes (pictured right) and it is clear they do not meet this standard.

While I appreciate her apology, I cannot condone those sentiments in any way.

I have therefore asked Ms. Hughes to step down as the Liberal Party candidate in Kildonan-St. Paul. (national post)

Hi fives all round. As I wrote the Dawg, I despise Troothers and no political party should have anything to do with them.

Good for Dion and good for the Liberal war room for getting rid of this loon ASAP. (Oppsie, not quite - here is Jonathan Kay just before Ms Hughes took her trip under the bus:

Faced with a slam-dunk case in which a candidate clearly had to be turfed, what did Dion do? He wavered. Then on Friday, he told a scrum that he was negotiating with the Canadian Jewish Congress about what should be done with Hughes. Excuse me — but when was a Jewish community group (one of several that purport to represent Canadian Jews) granted the magic power to absolve political parties of their sins? Dion’s utterance betrays the Liberal obsession with identity politics, and the idea that any problem can be solved if only you get the blessing from the properly acronymed groups. There is also the creepy, ancilary question of what concessions the Liberals will make to the CJC as part of these negotiations. national post

The CJC angle is just too weird. Has Bernie become some sort of Jewish indulgence seller? And why would the Leader of the Liberal be so lacking in Jewish contacts that he would have to talk to Bernie? Did he call up the American Ambasador to see how the US wanted this BS handled.

Update: The Globe and Mail spin….Hughes tossed by Joooos (sorry, couldn’t resist the rhyme). Bloggers? No bloggers were involved in the outing of the Hughes views….not one was mentioned by Canada’s National newspaper.

Many official sources are claiming to have warned the American intelligence community, which spends $30 billion a year gathering information, about the attacks on the twin towers on that heartbreaking day.

German Intelligence (BND) claims to have warned the U.S. last June, the Israeli Mossad and Russian Intelligence in August. Israeli businesses, which had offices in the Towers, vacated the premises a week before the attacks, breaking their lease to do it. About 3000 Americans working there were not so lucky. Lesley Hughes - Get the Truth

h/t Dawg/ Black Rod

(I have been trying to reach Ms. Hughes campaign office for confirmation…line’s busy.)

UpDate: Reached the Campaign Office and spoke to the very pleasant campaign manager, Selina Bieber. They are aware of the story…the Globe and Mail had called. they are trying to verify it. I left my number and said I’d be happy to talk to the candidate.)

Update II Smoking Gun! At the lovely “Canada Wants the Truth Blog” from 2007 “Barrie Zwicker and Lesley Hughes to speak Thursday September 6th, Winnipeg MB Canada

Thursday on the 3rd floor of Mondragon (91 Albert street.) for 7:30 PM, featuring Author, Media Critic Barrie Zwicker & Fromer CBC jounalist, Editor of Canadian Dimension (www.canadiandimension.com) Leslie Hughes will be discussing 9/11.”

Hey, isn’t Barry Zwicker Smilin Jack’s Troother pal??

——–

Update III And here is a report of Ms. Hughes as a panelist at a Troother event.

——-

Update IV: Here we go. Thank you Kate, Blazing, Daimnation and Jonathan Kay at the National Post for linking into this story. With Jonathan we now have MSM ignition….The Post breaks stories, let’s see who follows.

On a side note - I wrote Jonathan to ask him to credit Dr. Dawg and The Black Rod from whom I got the details. So far no call back from Ms. Hughes or her campaign office.

Selina Bieber, Ms. Hughes’ campaign manger who I had a nice chat with this afternoon told me she had already heard from the Globe and Mail - question of the day - will the G&M go with the story or will they sit on it? I am not optimistic. And what of poor Jason? Crickets? Or a head explosion of Biblical proportions?

Update V: The Globe and Mail weighs in - by basically burying the story (they hope) blending it with assorted other candidate outrages.

Winnipeg-area Liberal candidate Lesley Hughes was forced to explain an article she had written about conspiracy theories alleging that the U.S. government was behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and that Israeli businesses had advance warning to vacate the premises. The remarks surfaced a day after she joined Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion in a major public outreach to Canada’s Jewish community.

“I find any interpretation of my journalism as anti-Semitic personally offensive and I heartily apologize for that perception,” she said in a statement released late yesterday. globe and mail

Non-apology, apology not accepted: yes, the underlying narrative of the Troothers is implicitly ante-Semitic; but, more importantly, it is batshit crazy. You cannot apologize for being insane - you just have to live with it. But the Liberals are surely not so desperate that they have to nominate crazy people.

But what were the Liberals thinking having Dion sign her nomination papers? More on that tomorrow.

“You are going to be seeing Stephane Dion unplugged,” he said. “I think you are gong to see a campaign more focused on touching people’s hearts and rallying the troops.” CP

Well I suspect that is the end of M. Dion’s charisma campaign. I, for one, will miss the electric Dion.

At any moment I expect the Libs to break out a cardigan and finally complete the transformation of M. Dion into Mr. Rogers.

Cool.

And in taking that position he argues, as Premier he should be letting people know of what he sees as the negative effects of such a program, based on what ever analysis they can reasonably do.

Wall maintains he isn’t picking political sides, but standing up for Saskatchewan’s interest. newstalk650

I cut my Liberal political teeth in Saskatchewan. In Shaunavon down in the Southwest. And, to declare interest, my boys, Sam and Max’s, mum is from Biggar.

Ralph Goodale campaigned for my guy in Shaunavon. He helped but not quite enough. We lost by 142 votes.

Saskatchewan is enjoying a bit of a boom right now. Potash is up, wheat is up, and they have found a really big oil deposit in the Bekken. There may still be some Liberals in Saskatchewan; but the whole Green shift idea is sinking them fast.

The instant the NEP is mentioned the people in Saskatchewan get angry. And there is no way to talk about the Green Shift without reminding people of the NEP.

The Liberals are screwed…..and a good man like Ralph is going down.

Bye Ralph.