Morning Round-Up
1. Yesterday, Dave Bronconnier declared September as "yellow ribbon month" in Calgary. While the timing is a bit suspect, rumour has it that October will be declared "provincial/municipal funding agreement awareness month" or "celebration of overpass construction month".
2. Brian Mulroney is in the news for "lashing out" against Pierre Trudeau. To be clear, this is a former Prime Minister trashing another former Prime Minister who has been dead for seven years, over things the later did a quarter century before becoming PM. Real classy Brian - good to see you aren't bitter or anything.
The Calgary Sun calls it a "clash of the titans", but I'm not sure it can really be considered a clash when one of the "clashers" isn't really able to, you know, respond.
3. Fred Thompson has jumped into the Presidential race and I'd have to peg him as the odds on favourite to take the Republican nomination at this point. The same way a lot of Liberals are longing for another Trudeau, one imagines a lot of Republicans would love to find the next Reagan and Thompson will probably be close enough for many of them.
4. Interesting move for McGuinty to release his full platform over a month before election day.
5. For those who missed it on Saturday, here's the link to Andrew Coyne's "politics here is uniquely stupid" column. Gotta agree, at least partially.
2. Brian Mulroney is in the news for "lashing out" against Pierre Trudeau. To be clear, this is a former Prime Minister trashing another former Prime Minister who has been dead for seven years, over things the later did a quarter century before becoming PM. Real classy Brian - good to see you aren't bitter or anything.
The Calgary Sun calls it a "clash of the titans", but I'm not sure it can really be considered a clash when one of the "clashers" isn't really able to, you know, respond.
3. Fred Thompson has jumped into the Presidential race and I'd have to peg him as the odds on favourite to take the Republican nomination at this point. The same way a lot of Liberals are longing for another Trudeau, one imagines a lot of Republicans would love to find the next Reagan and Thompson will probably be close enough for many of them.
4. Interesting move for McGuinty to release his full platform over a month before election day.
5. For those who missed it on Saturday, here's the link to Andrew Coyne's "politics here is uniquely stupid" column. Gotta agree, at least partially.
Labels: Brian Mulroney, Dave Bronconnier, News, Ontario Election, Pierre Trudeau, US Politics
posted by calgarygrit at
11:56 a.m.
13 Comments:
I too thought it was a bit much for a living former PM to trash a dead former PM. Kinda surprised -- I wonder how true it is (I only have looked at the cover so far).
And yeah, I'm with you on Fred Thompson all the way. If I was a betting man, I'd lay money on him.
By
Jacques Beau Vert, at 3:38 p.m.
Oh, didn't realize you linked to the article.
Duh.
Odd that Mulroney's so personally aggravated so much later. They were both landmark PMs who gave a lot to Canada - in time, I think history will remember both of them in good ways.
Then again, it's probably dispiriting for him to see Trudeau's cult while he's (currently) remembered in a poorer fashion. I guess that would eat at a guy quite a bit, really.
By
Jacques Beau Vert, at 3:44 p.m.
what a classy guy: "hey dead guy, you 'totally' sucked as PM, you big loser!" really, with class like that, it is difficult to understand why he isn't remembered as the greatest canadian.
trudeau really was immoral though, i mean he never accepted bribes in exchange for gov't contracts and then perjured himslef to defraud the taxpayer. didn't he realize that's what all great moral leaders do?
By
canuckistanian, at 4:37 p.m.
You people need to get real.
Mulroney gave an interview about his memoirs. Given that a good portion of his career involved attacking Trudeau's incompetence and cleaning up the complete disaster he left behind in Ottawa, it stands to reason that he's going to reflect a lot on Trudeau and probably not in a very kind way.
Its not Mulroney's fault that Trudeau is dead. The fact remains that Trudeau did generations worth of social and economic harm to this great country. History needs to call him on it, regardless of which side of the grass he's on.
By
BR, at 4:49 p.m.
Because he did more to damage this country than any other PM in our history, Trudeau deserves every word and ought to be remembered as the great disaster he was.
I also hope Fred Thompson wins, I think he would have the best chance of beating the Dems in a year from November, but if I was to bet, I'd have to stick with the favorite, Gulliani.
By
Anonymous, at 5:21 p.m.
It's entirely fair for someone - say, Mulroney - to claim and then demonstrate that Trudeau's decisions in office were destructive and foolish. Policy choices are fair game, dead or alive.
Personal attacks aren't classy, and that's how these come off. What Trudeau believed or felt in his youth is as irrelevant as Bush's alcoholism and cocaine usage.
It wasn't smart for Mulroney to speak that way - it only makes him look small.
By
Jacques Beau Vert, at 5:33 p.m.
maybe Brian as motivated by the recent poll that had Trudeau ranked as the Worst Ever Canadian.
Trudeau did fail to answer the bell in WW2, a significant moral failing and he did like to cozy up to brutal thugs, dictators and mass murderers like Castro and Mao.
Maybe Liberals think those are admirable qualities. Others do not.
By
Anonymous, at 5:35 p.m.
It's all about selling books.
I hear Chretien bitch-slaps Pearson in his upcoming tome.
By
Möbius, at 7:53 p.m.
br; I'd expect him to criticize Trudeau, especially over Meech, but bringing up stuff Trudeau did in his 20s...I dunno.
moebius; And you're probably right. I'm sure CTV and their many media conglomorates and trying to hype this thing up as much as possible and Brian knows a little controvery is good for sales. But after listening the Mulroney Tapes, it really does seem like the man carries a grudge worse than most people in politics. And that's saying a lot.
By
calgarygrit, at 8:06 p.m.
Because he did more to damage this country than any other PM in our history, Trudeau deserves every word and ought to be remembered as the great disaster he was.
Right. Mulroney's "roll of the dice" was such a great success that, by the time he left, we were headed for another sovereignty referendum, the PC party was on the verge of destruction, and we were only just emerging from another deep recession.
The damage inflicted by the failure of Meech dwarfed anything that Trudeau ever did.
By
JG, at 11:24 p.m.
I agree with CG. Talk about his failure with the Constitution, call him a motherfucker over Meech, piss on his grave for snorkeling with Castro - his actions as PM are fair to kick and hammer at. But 30 years before that? It's silly.
I can't imagine Fred and Br condoning drunk driving, draft evasion, and coke snorting, though I can easily imagine their righteous indignation if Gore went on tv and raged about all those things in Bush. So they and Andrew all come off a bit hypocritical...
By
Jacques Beau Vert, at 8:21 a.m.
I'm reminded of what Trudeau said upon learning that Richard Nixon referred to him as "that asshole, Trudeau" when the Watergate tapes were released.
"I've been called worse things by better people."
By
Reality Bites, at 1:15 p.m.
Coyne's dead wrong about Canadian politics being stupider than those down here in the US. John Warner is no statesman, and John McCain is no maverick. They may produce some worthwhile soundbytes from time to time, but when it comes down to the vote, both of them will bend over and do whatever President Bush wants them to, every single time. The entire Republican Party right now is based on pure partisanship and tribal identification, and a very unhealthy dose of anti-gay, anti-Mexican, anti-everyone-except-hardcore-Republicans hysteria. At least you Canadians still maintain some semblance of actual debate.
By
Dr. Happypants, at 6:13 p.m.
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