King Arthur Movie Tristan

True democracy only has one choice. Therefore, Bob Rae is bowing out of the leadership race.

Bob Rae has told his supporters in a conference call Tuesday that he will end his bid for the Liberal leadership, CTV News has learned.

CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife confirmed Tuesday that Rae will not challenge frontrunner Michael Ignatieff -- virtually ensuring that Ignatieff will become Liberal leader.

Rae is expected to formally confirm his withdrawal from the race at a press conference at 3 p.m. ET in Ottawa.

I don't like Bob Rae, and Michael Ignatieff may be the best choice for leader. But if I'm a Liberal today, I wonder what happened to my party that a guy who lived and worked in the United States his entire adult life, is the only guy in the race to lead my party.

Frankly, the Liberals talk about renewal, but without the debate that a leadership race brings, how do you achieve renewal?

History may show that Stéphane Dion did far more damage to the Liberal party than can currently be imagined.

Discounting the results of an election held two months ago, that's fine, but an immediate vote to allow the Liberal caucus to elect a temporary leader?:

The idea of taking away the vote from tens of thousands of grassroots activists in every part of Canada, and reducing the franchise to just 76 men and women seems so out-of-step with the modern world. It makes you shake your head. Here’s just a quick, off-the-cuff list of things that struck me as wrong about this idea...

It’s up to us to put a stop to this hasty, ill-considered idea for electing our leader. I am raising my voice publicly for your right to vote. Please help me by raising yours as well.

Well Bob, last week you didn't give a rats ass about my right to vote. But now that it goes against you, that's undemocratic?

As for Bob Rae complaining about things coming from left field:

I thought I’d seen a lot of politics over 30 years of public service, but this one really came from left field.

Your the Fu*&ing left fielder, you moron.

He got one thing right though, the Liberal caucus is "out-of-step with the modern world." Alas, Bob Rae is out of step with reality, so he's not really one to judge.

h/t Freedom is my Nationality

... please don't call.



While I fundamentally agree with Kinsella that if the Liberals want to start doing better then they need to stop talking about the green shift. But if you are campaigning on a fundamental change to tax policy, literally a completely new way to do business, how can you decide not to talk about that policy? The green shift is a huge change in Canadian governance, with massive implications to the everyday life of Canadians, and Kinsella wants to hush it up?

Who has the scary hidden agenda now?

Thanks to Justice Max Teitelbaum who has declared John Gomery was biased against Jean Chrétien and therefore, his conclusion that Chrétien, and his chief of staff Jean Pelletier, bore some responsibility was wrong. Chrétien was said to be "very very pleased. Chrétien ran a $100 million program in which up to $40 million is said to have gone missing. He is either responsible, or extremely incompetent. As he cannot be responsible, isn't Justice Teitelbaum just declaring Chrétien incompetent? So again, thanks to Justice Teitelbaum for clearing that up.

Actually, as Justice Teitelbaum makes Justice Gomery's findings invalid, and as it's probably an election year, Prime Minister Harper should call a new enquiry into the sponsorship scandal. Think another enquiry would find the Prime Minister had no responsibility when $400M in malfeasance was happening under his watch? And it can't hurt Harpers re-election chances.

Oh, to the person who's going to comment that Gomery cost more to conduct than was stolen and it would be a waste to spend it again: I accept that argument as soon as you show me where you made the same argument re: Brian Mulroney.

When a protocol is in place and the protocol has been breached there will be consequences. If that consequence is that everyone is made aware there is a protocol and it is to be followed - that is a consequence.

This "da proof is da proof" moment brought to you by Education Minister Kathleen Wynne.

The truth, Ms. Wynne, is that if a principle doesn't know that not OK for 2 thirteen year old boys to ambush and beat a grade one boy with a belt, all the memos in the world aren't going to give him the tools necessary to be an effective principle.

Now that the people in charge of "advertising in gas stations from oil companies" have rejected the Conservative's Dion's Tax On Everything ads, can we take it as read that the Liberal Party is "working hand and glove with the oil companies?"

Every once in a while someone pulls out a TV camera or a microphone, and he rails about about some indignity, large or small, perceived or real, ancient history or yesterdays news. Threats are made, breath is held, then he crawls into some cave and hides.

Yesterday I ranted somewhat about how completely useless our Provincial politicians have been lately. Today comes a series of videos by Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant standing around Caledonia with a Tim Horton's coffee talking about the unrest there, and saying things like "here's the bridge; there's the river."

Kinsella calls it a smart use of new technology, but really shouldn't smart use of any technology involve professionalism. The wind blown microphones, Bryant speaks with more "umms" than a Paris Hilton video and jerks around, shrugging and pointing all over the place. This could be smart use of new technology if it was done better (hire a teenager with a cell phone, they'll tell you how to do it) and the subject matter wasn't the complete abdication of the rule of law.

I wrote about the local Liberal nomination a few days ago, and quoted extensively from a Cambridge Times article on the subject, including the following:

Zielstra [nominee Gord Zeilstra]... emphasized other candidates were also given membership signup forms without having to dish out $1 each for them.

Today, the following (excerpted) letter is in the Times from Zielestra's opponent, Robert Konduros:

No free forms here

...I would like to set the record straight and make it clear that I never received any nomination forms from the association...

Also, readers should understand that the essence of the misconduct was not in failing to pay a dollar for each membership form which sounds petty, but that the candidate and the local riding association conspired to ensure his victory contrary to basic fairness and party rules...

Cambridge Ontario has it's federal Liberal candidate for the next federal election, but his nomination is controversial:

Gord Zeilstra has been named the Liberal candidate to represent Cambridge and North Dumfries in the next federal election, but the victory, like the nomination process, has been plagued by controversy.

The Cambridge Federal Liberal Association held its nomination meeting Sunday afternoon and Zeilstra came out on top, beating out Cambridge lawyer Rob Konduros by 24 votes. Waterloo Catholic District School Board trustee Judy Nairn and Jan Liggett followed in third and fourth spots, respectively.

Runner-up Konduros charges the results were skewed as Zeilstra's winning votes represent votes by members who were illegally signed up.

Recently, the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario) officials investigated and concluded that 262 signup forms - which cost candidates $1 each - were obtained for free from someone on the local riding association executive. Zeilstra was ordered to pay $262 in fines and to pay $1,000 collectively to the other three candidates for expenses lost as nomination meetings were cancelled due to investigations. Officials decided not to disqualify Zeilstra or his supporters signed up using the ill-gotten forms.

Konduros insists he is not bitter and will not challenge Zeilstra's win but clearly stated that if illegal membership signups were disqualified as candidates requested, results would have been quite different.

"I lost by 24 votes, but if you exclude the 262 votes Gord obtained illegally, I was the clear winner by 238 votes," he told the Times.

Zielstra was unshaken by the comments, admitting that people on his campaign did use signup forms that were not paid for, but emphasized other candidates were also given membership signup forms without having to dish out $1 each for them. Declining to name names or how many forms were not paid for, he said no one else was fined because he didn't make a formal challenge.

It seems Gord Zeilstra will make a good Liberal. The Liberals have erred, in my opinion, choosing Zeilstra, because incumbent Gary Goodyear had his own controversy last month, and now it will be hard for the Liberals to use that as an issue in the upcoming election.

File under if these guys were Conservatives...

Joanne, over at Joanne's Journey, has been posting about the new Dalton-day here in Ontario. Family Day was granted unto Ontarions the day after the election last fall, as a gracious payoff for electing the Liberals without them having to earn it. It is a statutory holiday that will fall on the third Monday of February every year (Feb 18 this year). The problem is there was no consultation with affected groups. If you are unionized and have a collective bargaining agreement, chances are you are out of luck for the holiday, or will give up a far nicer floating holiday.

Unmentioned in many reports on this is many companies have contracts to fulfil and are returning to those with whom they have contracts trying to renegotiate deadlines. Others, who supply just in time parts, will have no choice but to operate. This is, in short, a big headache for the manufacturing sector, which is supposedly already in crisis.

Where's the CAW crack protest squad when they can be useful?

If this was it, one bad law rushed through, it could be ignored Unfortunately it's becoming Dalton's MO. Consider the street racing law. To combat street racing, anyone going more than 50KM an hour over the speed limit automatically loses their licence and car for a week and face a minimum fine of $2,000. Which takes us to Wednesday:

An 85-year-old motorist lost his licence and his Oldsmobile for a week and likely faces a hefty fine after becoming the oldest person snagged to date by Ontario's stringent crackdown on street racers and highway speed demons.

The man, whose name was not released, was making his way Wednesday along Highway 407 north of Toronto when he was allegedly clocked doing 161 kilometres an hour -- 61 km/h over the posted speed limit.

An 85 year old man, who was going shopping, is now a street racer. Casting a rather wide net , aren't we Dalton?

While the top two are examples of laws that got rushed through, and are thus carelessly written, the following example was, in fact, a long drawn out process. Back on September 17th a new law came into effect that would open adoption records. The government took a couple of years, heard many different views, ridiculed the dissenting ones, and passed the law they wanted all along. This law did not have a crucial "disclosure veto," that allowed somebody to opt out of having their private information passed along if they specifically requested it. Other jurisdictions have had such laws previously, and the disclosure veto was never an issue. But to the Ontario Liberals, it was an issue. Against the advice of their own privacy commissioner, they went ahead and passed the law sans veto.

Within two days, Two Days! of the laws assent, it was struck down on September 19th by an Ontario Court of Justice, specifically because it did not have a disclosure veto. New legislation was introduced in December that includes the crucial veto.

Three examples of laws passed by Dalton McGuinty's Liberals, three examples of poorly thought out laws, in two cases hastily done. There must be a better way to govern.

Warren Kinsella, a bright capable guy who knows a thing or two about politics, wrote a column in yesterday's National Post: How Dion can Get His Groove Back. According to Kinsella, Emperor Dion's (and that is clearly the implication given in both the headline and the quote "Too many Martin era Liberals cling to Dion's robes.") plight is sad, and not entirely of his own doing.

For Mr. Dion's Liberal party, the Gomery Commission was a shattering blow --discrediting federalism and the perception that Liberals could manage government, all at once. The party has yet to recover from it.

Here's a tip for Warren Kinsella, and the rest of the Liberal party. it wasn't the Gomery Commission that dealt the shattering blow, it was the acts committed by members of the Liberal party that the Gomery Commission investigated that dealt the blow.

Kinsella sounds like a criminal who, when caught, blames the policeman who caught him, or the girlfriend who reported him when he winds up in jail. It is not those who uncover your dirty deeds, it is the perpetrator of the deeds who is responsible. The Gomery Commission didn't hurt the Liberal Party, the Liberal Party hurt the Liberal Party. Insiders putting taxpayers cash into brown paper bags and handing it over to people connected to the party, for work never done, did the damage to the Liberal Party. A government that either ignored or was oblivious (or duplicitous) to the obvious signs of criminality around it created the perception that Liberals could not manage government, not Mr. Justice Gomery or his commission. (Or, for that matter, the press and bloggers who reported on it). If the Liberal party is discredited, it is the Liberal party who is to blame, that's what these guys need to understand.

As Kinsella himself says at the end of the article,

Until it learns those lessons, the Liberal party will remain what it is. Which is to say, mired on the opposition benches and sad.

Problem is, Warren Kinsella and the rest of the Liberal Party still don't understand what lessons they are supposed to have learnt.

Have you seen that commercial yet? Dalton McGuinty virtually giggling into the camera (scroll down the empty page and click on video 3: Public Schools):

You know what I love about Ontario's public schools? They're public.

Not that it's good, effective, gives our kids a superior education, prepares them for reality, or is inexpensive and efficient. No, what Dalton McGuinty loves about the education system is that it's owned and operated by the government of Ontario.

Which makes giggles McGuinty a dangerous ideologue:

Soviet TV, 1978 - Your great leader Leonid Ilyich McBrezhnev:

Comrades. Do you know what I love about Russian made GAZ automobiles? That it takes three years to get one? Nyet. That it breaks down with annoying regularity? Nyet. That it's dangerous, unreliable and poorly made? The way the glove box rattles, the coffee cup holder is twice the size of any coffee cup I ever saw, and the sun roof won't close when it gets wet? Nyet comrades. What I love about my Lada is it's made by the government.

Don't we need a better reason for supporting public education than "because it's public"? And if that's the only reason to continue supporting it, then isn't that an admission that it's time for a complete re-think on the education file?

Stephane Dion's nightmare scenario became a reality in three byelections Monday night...

For only the second time since 1935, the Liberals lost the multiethnic riding of Outremont - and it wasn't even close. They were beaten by 20 percentage points...

With the party hemorrhaging seats in the province...

The party's fall from grace has been staggering in the province...

But despite Dion's optimism, he should expect to face tough questions from his own troops. One Liberal MP went out of his way to point out that the Liberals' current seat-count in Quebec - 12 - is the lowest since Confederation...

Another Liberal MP agreed that it's time for a few changes. (emphasis mine)

OK, those are the highlights, but if Dion is going to get press like that, Stephen Harper need not worry about the backlash from the press gallery.

Gerry Nicholls predicts Dion is toast. He may be right, Liberals don't tolerate losers, and right now that's what Dion is.

Big, BIG ole h/t to Joanne, who really has this story covered, but I'll add what I can.

This post will back track to June 06, when I ran a story about Caledonia, and the natives claim on ten KM from the Grand River. As I noted, "Brantford, Kitchener, much of Waterloo, Fergus and my beloved Hespeler is on their hit list." Today they added Guelph, somewhat arbitrarily it seems, but who's keeping count.

Joanne talks about the Haldeman tract, which is that 10KM strip from the grand, a picture of which is here.

Have a peek at the area covered by the track, and understand that Native Groups today declared it's theirs.

Dalton McGuinty was last seen running away from the scene, and threatening CHCH news to not a run their story about it.

Update: It seems Caledonia Wake Up Call was right on the money

We are about to find out just how Biased the Toronto Media is. We all remember how the media spent endless hours covering how controlling Harper (Conservatives) was over the media.

Now we have a clear, direct threat to a Media Outlet by McGuinty's Campaign Office, so let's see whether the media will cover this story to the same degree.

I can find one reference to Premier McGuinty threatening a media outlet if they ran a story.

From a Liberal Party of Canada mailer:

There’s no question that Stephen Harper and the Conservatives’ $22.8 million cuts to arts programs like the Public Diplomacy Program (PDP) and international arts touring are putting at risk thousands of artists’ livelihoods and are hurting our arts and cultural community.

Last week at a roundtable discussion with arts and culture groups like the Writers’ Union of Canada, Mr. Dion pledged to restore the full $22.8 million cut by the Conservatives.

What is it that makes politicians think the Government of Canada, and specifically the Taxpayers of Canada, owe artists a livelihood? And as William Watson points out in today's Financial Post:

The real reason our governments pay out all these subsides is not pseudo-scientific economic calculation but naked political fear of offending lovers of jazz or comedy or fast cars, or the hundreds of other different activities modern governments subsidize. Wouldn't it make more sense if we all used our own money to directly support the activities we each favour?

And if some artist can't create a livelihood under those conditions? Hey, there's an oil patch out in Alberta that has all sorts of livelihoods available.

Hmmm. Hidden camera's at a Tory convention? Ads of John Tory being evasive? Cut and Pastes of Tory bloggers speaking poorly of John Tory? (without links, in case your looking for integrity). Looks like it's going to be a dirty campaign, and looks like it's started.

I just wish I liked anybody in this campaign so I could join the fun.

The Young Liberals have put out a couple of ads, "I'm a Liberal," in which a cute young girl proclaims "Hi, I'm a Liberal," and a fattish, geeky looking guy says "and I'm a PC." Funny how PC looks like Stephan Dion, but the real problem with these ads are, they are direct, unashamed rip-offs of the Apple Mac/PC guy ads.

Of course, their designed to be obviously a take off on those ads, But it is just an unoriginal bit of copying.

Liberals. The old ones steal our money, the young ones steal ideas.

The ads can be found here.

This is clever. The Ontario PC party has made a website with a grant application, to simplify getting one of those pesky Liberal grants. Now you too can receive a grant from Grants-R-Us.

Skimming tax payers cash has never been so easy. And don't forget to tell your friends as well.

I can't figure out governments in this country anymore. The other day I was Praising Baird for his Kyoto paper, The Cost of Bill C-288 to Canadian Families and Business. But yesterdays nonsense makes no sense to me, especially considering the opposition for C-288 put forth by the environment ministry. Last week Baird was suggesting the costs of Kyoto would be onerous, this week he started imposing costs. The environment ministry is becoming the ministry of whack-a-mole (or is that ministry of whack-a-prairie dog?), bashing away here, then there... no up there.

This seems to me a simple problem. You believe global warming is on, it's man-made and it is a looming catastrophe, or you don't. If you believe all three parts of the first statement, then you do anything - ANYTHING - to solve the problem. If you don't believe all three parts of that statement, then you do nothing, because there is no problem to solve. Half measures make no sense. And what John Baird is doing is half measures.

Which is it John Baird?

Then there's the Liberals in Toronto. What ever came over them to release the FLICK OFF campaign. (Notice, by the way, you don't need a fancy font. Use almost any font, type it in caps, it looks like what it's supposed to look like.) If you haven't seen it yet, here it is:

Never mind complaints about prissy indignation, it is entirely inappropriate for a government to be putting together this kind of vulgar campaign. The government should, and must, be held to a higher standard than the rest of us. They should be raising the level of debate, not lowering it.

But what boggles is, did they ever think this would be OK? As the Post points out "...the premier's office thinks parents who find this campaign offensive lack a sense of humour -- that they are just not with it." Did they not realize this would be a problem? Or have they become so removed from reality, that it never occurred to anyone this would be a problem? If that is so, this group needs to be removed from office quick. If only there was somebody, anybody else to vote for.

Oh, and memo to a couple of children of my acquaintance. Telling your dear old dad to FLICK OFF at any time, for any reason, government approved or not, is hereby added to your "I really don't recommend it" list.