Looks like Steve is going to pull the plug possibly as early as Sunday. Mike Brock who has decent “inside the CPC” wiring was kind enough to have me co-host the Al and Mike show (link up later) and told me that the CPC is thinking of running on two themes:
The CPC is the best party to lead through a recession and, wait for it, Senate reform. Ah yes, the old Canadian chestnut the Senate. I love Senate reform. It puts my poli sci brain to work. Rep by pop but not too much. But, as an election issue it is a true snoozer.
Now, “best party to lead through a recession”. Big problem with that is that officially there is no Canada wide recession. Ontario wide, perhaps, but out West things are ticking along, the Rock is doing OK and much of the Maritimes is just fine thank you. Quebec is looking alright….so where is this recession the CPC will be so good navigating?
Second problem, why would the CPC be the preferred party in a recession? Do they have the Keynesian cred that Canadians will likely want to “smooth the business cycle”? Well, they certainly seem to like spending money and are more than willing to measure government spending using the bogus yardstick of % of GDP; but will Canadians, long told that the way out of a recession is for the government to spend money, actually believe that the CPC will cut the cheques? I don’t know but it is not an issue which is screams “elect us”.
Meanwhile, M. Dion looks as goofy as ever with the Kyoto albatross hanging limply ’round his neck and the Green Shift lunacy convincing even Torontonians that spending more for gas, food and heat may not be quite what they want to do even if the West will be paying most of the freight. (In the West we are already getting used to having been written off by the Grits.)
Dion’s best move, in my view, would be to quietly drop the Green Shift and make stump speeches about a glorious - if detail light - Liberal future. The trick being to have as his warm up act none other than Justin Trudeau. It is not as if Justin will have to spend a single day in his absolutely safe Montreal riding. And the man speaks coherently in both of Canada’s official languages. Having been a school teacher he can, no doubt, quiet unruly media - not that there will be any unruliness: the tongue bath awaiting Justin from the Canadian media will make the canonization of Obama by the American media look insincere.
M. Dion can look professorial, say several incoherent things and point at Justin. The crowd, and there will be crowds from one end of the country to the other, will love it.
I fear that Steve has no one in his caucus or running with quite the star power of a Trudeau. Ben Mulroney? Do we really want to go there?
Elections are strange things. They acquire their own dynamic, their own issues and, ultimately their own logic. At the moment there is nothing terrible to nail the CPC with. Neither is there any CPC accomplishment to particularly single out for praise. So the Liberals have the opportunity to run their own campaign on their own issues and, more importantly, on the intriguing possibility that they are really going to renew themselves.
I was on the Al and Mike Show last night and, for a moment talked about why I don’t own a TV and can’t take newspapers seriously, James Lileks gets it,
On the Hewitt show yesterday we were talking about the LA Times difficulties – alas, I can see why their readership has dipped a tad, since the last time I read the paper it was careful, thin, and dull; the national stuff was all tepid Received Wisdom, the international stuff was the standard assemblage of chattering bureaucrats Deeply Concerned about this and that, and the editorial page read like last week’s blogs. likeks
The news sounds like I read it a day and a half ago.
I keep asking people, “When was the last time you saw anyone under the visible age of thirty reading a newspaper in public…under 40?” Us old guys, before smoking became modern leprosy, would rather enjoy going to the local cafe/pub and reading a newspaper in public. I still do of a Saturday afternoon. And I can assure you, in the up market ‘burb I live in, there is not another soul crinkling the pages of the Post/Globe/Sun. It is all old news and really weird spin from boomers who lost the one clue they had back in 1992. The news is dated, the opinion, by and large, a sort of politically null leftism.
I have not agreed with a word the Toronto Star has printed in, what, thirty years? And now they suddenly grab a clue:
Does society need to cast more of a chill on press freedom in order to combat discrimination? Polemicists such as Steyn are better countered in the marketplace of ideas. Readers who feel ill-served are free to go elsewhere.
Parliament and the legislatures should rethink laws that have the effect of targeting opinions rather than actions. the star
As regular readers might guess I am revisiting my position on free speech…OK, done, the Toronto Star, for the first time in thirty years is, dare I say it, right.
The Toronto Star’s gift to English letters, Haroon Siddiqui, with the help of professional scold Bernie Farber, writes a particularly idiotic column on the HRC/free speech mess. Kathy Shaidle responds at some length and demonstrates why she should have a column and Siddiqui should be turned out to pasture.
I am waiting to see the details but it looks like Industry Minister Jim Prentice has caved to the US copyright interests and abandoned the real made in Canada approach to file sharing. He’s softened the blow a little by capping consumer fines at $500.00 (though it is not clear if that is “per instance” in which case it is no cap at all).
But the real danger lies in the details. There are anti-DRM circumvention measures and “ISPs would be obligated to inform subscribers when a complaint has been launched against the consumer by a the owner of a copyright, however they would also be obliged to track that user’s Internet activity for six months in case the information became necessary for legal proceedings.”
The Globe and Mail article makes no mention of the current media levy on all recordable media nor does it mention the private sharing right which has protected Canadians from the lunacy of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Two things are evident: first, now is the time to grab those torrents and MP3s. Second, hard drive swapping, thumb drives and such like have apparently slipped under the technological radar. Sneaker nets are very powerful when it comes to swapping big files.
One other thing is evident as well, the CPC has no spine at all when it comes to facing down the dying copyright interests in the United States.
Today, the Prime Minister’s Office issued the following statement:
Upon receipt of the Report on the Investigation into Unauthorized Disclosure of Sensitive Diplomatic Information, the following conclusions are noted:
Any comments Mr. Brodie may have made during the lock-up did not reveal any information tied to the diplomatic report, of which he was made aware only on February 28. There is no evidence that Mr. Brodie disclosed any classified information.
Based on the findings of this investigation, there is no evidence that Ambassador Wilson revealed any information tied to the diplomatic report or to any U.S. presidential candidate’s position with respect to NAFTA, though his comments likely helped lead the reporter to the Senator Obama campaign. There is no evidence that Ambassador Wilson disclosed any classified information.
The original diplomatic report was incorrectly classified and had an inappropriately broad distribution list. pmo
Given that the report fully cleared both Wilson and Brodie why release it in the Friday afternoon deadzone? Likely because the PMO does not want the press to re-report a story which they are happy to have fade away. Nothing wrong with that.
I wonder if the CHRC will be floating any decisions, news releases, resignations….
The time to discuss reasonable replies to Mr. Steyn’s piece was after the article was published and before the human rights actions were launched. For Maclean’s to agree to any “settlement” with quasi-judicial proceedings under way would be tantamount to an admission of wrongdoing on our part when we have done nothing but practise responsible journalism.
It would also be improper and damaging to the integrity of Maclean’s, and a troubling precedent in Canadian media, for us to agree to negotiate the content of our magazine in return for the withdrawal of quasi-judicial legal actions and relief from punitive costs of defending those actions.
Moreover, any settlement at this point would have to be approved by human rights authorities in Ottawa, and would thus involve an implicit acceptance on our part of the jurisdiction of human rights commissions to regulate the content of print media publications in Canada. That is an unacceptable precedent.
We believe that a sincere attempt to settle this matter would have involved a direct and timely approach to Maclean’s rather than a press conference and public ultimatum eighteen months after the publication of Mr. Steyn’s piece. But rather than approaching this magazine for the purposes of conciliation, Mr. Joseph and his clients publicly impugned our journalists at a press conference, tactics sharply at odds with their stated goal of reaching an amicable resolution. macleans
I’m buying a subscription!
Overall a really crappy day for the Socks, Elmo and the CIC. And not such a great day for the CHRC as they are going to be stuck hearing this.
(And, by the way, how long can it take to answer my three complaints. Registered letter this week, Federal Court two weeks after that. Clock’s ticking Jadewarr.)
The Lying Jackal reports that the Muslim-3 are planning on holding a news conference to make an offer to Macleans to settle the Human Rights complaint.
I suspect the prospect of another few months of public mockery followed by an unprecedented loss either before the Commissions or in the Courts was more than a little unappetizing. Plus, and I have no way of proving this, the steady erosion of support for the CHRC and the exposure of the CHRC’s wanton disregard for proper investigative methods and procedure, is taking its toll.
A couple of points - Toronto area bloggers, if possible - should try to cover the press conference. Macleans should be looking for an apology and costs from these sock puppets. Remember, the law students are not, in fact, the complainants here. The CIC is and it has the money to pay the significant expenses Macleans has incurred to date.
This is yet another piece of evidence we’re winning.
Update 2:Deborah Gyapong comes up with a reasonable negotiating position: Unconditional surrender with reparations and an apology.
Update 3: Over in “>Lying Jackal land commentors are handing Warren his head on a platter. He’s banned me from his comments - the truth hurts - but the unbanned are going to town. Now, remember, use that link. Page after page of “Lying Jackal” referrals. Has to leave a mark.
Assuming, as all right minded people will, that the now serene Mr. Vigna is successful in establishing the tort of meanness in the Levant matter he should go on to file an action against the awful bastard running Ask the Scold. Just tonight this Scold person has mocked Christians, gays, mentally unserene lawyers (a protected class if ever I saw one), Jews, and incestuous pedophiles.
He is clearly a bad man intent on being mean. He is so mean that I keep laughing at how mean he’s being. Which makes me bad too. So sue, Vigna, do.
I’d file a complaint with the CHRC but, so far, no acknowledgment of my earlier complaints has been forthcoming. Registered mail Friday and ten days later one of those funny sounding writs with administrative law Latin in the Federal Court. I wonder if I should file it in French in the Vancouver Registry….Hmmmm.
I finally have the comments back to working....sort of. Basically I have to wade through the spam to find the nuggets. I do this a couple of times a day. Sometimes comments are lost. I am working on this. What I need is a Capcha like the coolkids have.