Your Dalton Day Link Round-Up

-I thought the same thing when I watched QP yesterday. I'm not sure Jean Lapierre is necessarily the best person to be revealing the inner thoughts of Jean Chretien's mind.


-The Tories have unleashed a new line of attack on Dion, claiming that a Liberal government would plunge the country back into deficit. I think even Tories will agree this isn't likely, for the exact same reason I don't expect Harper to ever ban abortion or bring back the death penalty - it would be political suicide to run a deficit in this day and age. But it is interesting to get a sneak peak of some of the themes we'll see during the next election, expected to be called in...ummm....ahh....well...


-The Bloc are also advertising...they target the Tories on a wide range of policy positions.


-While I did miss all the fun of the Ontario elections in the fall, the OYL elections figure to be just as intense. Jacob Mksyartinian is running for re-election with OYL Beyond, while Mary Rose Brown is running for President with OYL Roots. Being new to the scene, I don't know all the players, but I would like to put in a good word on behalf of bloggers Justin Tetreault and Danielle Takacs, along with Elyse Banham and Chris Drew, who I hear is running for VP Policy on a "fund faith based schools" platform.

Monday Morning

A few random Monday morning thoughts, posted Sunday night:


1. I've generally been in the "no election" camp over the past two years whenever the "THE GOVERNMENT IS ABOUT TO FALL!!!" speculation has started up time and time and time again.

But, it's really looking like the moment of truth has finally arrived. I think it's safe to say Harper's ridiculous crime threat is going nowhere but, listening to the leaders this weekend, I don't see any way for the Afghanistan extension to pass. I just get the sense that the stakes are too high - both politically and for Canada - for anyone to compromise. Now, this might very well mean the budget gets rushed to ensure the Tories fall on it first but, I would be surprised if this government lives to see April.


2. Looking back at the first week of the Alberta election, it's hard to deny it's been a rocky week for Stelmach - in the words of ES: "Memo to the Premier's Staff: Don't take him "on the road" to make announcements unless you're 100% sure that the people who are present in the room will think the announcements are a *good* thing. You look like amateurs right now, and you're making your boss look like a fool in front of the cameras." It's no wonder Ed went into hiding this weekend.

And while I do think Taft has looked Premierial (what's the provincial equivalent of "Prime Ministerial" anyways?) so far, I am a bit concerned about the number of promises he's making every day. The "(insert city here) agendas" are a good idea, but the risk is always that you'll get portrayed as "tax and spend Liberals". Talking about being fiscally conservative and tossing out a few democratic reform ideas would probably net more votes than the wide range of spending promises we've seen so far. The kind of changes Kevin talked about in Democracy Derailed wouldn't cost much and go to the argument that the Tories have been corrupted by power - hopefully the focus shifts over to those sorts of promises shortly.

So, I'll reluctantly give NDP leader George Mason props for his plan to ban corporate and union donations. Especially since the NDP would be hurt a lot by the loss of the union donations.


3. Congrats to Daveberta on the trio of Canadian Blog Awards he picked up. As the runner up for two awards, I certainly don't mind losing to Dave, if only because it likely pissed off half the Tory war room. And a big thanks to everyone who voted for Calgary Grit!


4. Voting is now open in the Liblogs video contest.


5. Obama swept all four primaries this weekend and is expected to win three more on Tuesday. While Hillary does currently lead due to super delegates, I suspect many of the undeclared super delegates will go Obama's way. Most of the "hypothetical" polls out there show Obama doing better versus McCain than Hillary and when your re-election is the on the line, you certainly take a look at things like that. Personally, I think those polls are worthless, a dumb way to make a decision, and are probably what got Kerry the nom last time. But people still read them and Obama is certainly no John Kerry.

And with the momentum he's got going for him, he's certainly the one I'd be betting on right now.

As Lost Returns...

Lost: The freedom this Afghanistan mission was supposed to bring. This is really quite shocking (hat tip JBG):

A young man, a student of journalism, is sentenced to death by an Islamic court for downloading a report from the internet. The sentence is then upheld by the country's rulers. This is Afghanistan – not in Taliban times but six years after "liberation" and under the democratic rule of the West's ally Hamid Karzai.

The fate of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh has led to domestic and international protests, and deepening concern about erosion of civil liberties in Afghanistan. He was accused of blasphemy after he downloaded a report from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed.

Lost: Rudy Giuliani. Both Edwards and Giuliani are out of the race. For Giuliani, this Presidential race will go down as a complete failure to launch. As John Stewart said last night "Giuliani was the frontrunner...until people started voting". Then he became nothing more than a 5th place candidate.


Lost: Mike Huckabee's tough guy edge. Hulk Hogan endorses Obama and Ah-nold is ready to endorse McCain. Hasta La Vista Romney!


Lost: Stephen Harper's composure. Every now and then Harper just seems to slip up and go too far, be it the Navdeep Bains incident last year, or his latest Big Fat Greek Gaffe:

Michel Guimond had just asked if the aforementioned fundraiser had ever paid a visit to 24 Sussex. And this was the Prime Minister's response.

"Mr. Speaker, the Bloc MP has mentioned the names of two people of Greek origin, one who's an employee who works here in Ottawa, and another who's a supporter of the Conservative Party in Montreal. The fact there are two Montrealers of Greek origin doesn't mean there's a conspiracy."

Uh-huh. So, to recap, questions have been raised about Dimitri Soudas using undue PMO influence. It's a completely mini-scandal (all together now: "it's all Greek to me!") but, the point of the matter is, no one had even so much as alluded to race before Harper brought it up. A BCer in Toronto has a good run down on this, include Peter Van Loan, taking it to a whole new level.

Monday News

1. Ed Stelmach is going to skip out on the climate change talks tomorrow at the first Minister's meeting. This follows in the grand tradition of Ralph Klein playing hooky from first Minister's health care talks to go to a casino in Hull. And this guy is trying to run on change?

2. Macleans profiles the twelve biggest power players in Stephen Harper's inner circle. And, no, his stylist did not make the cut.

3. No surprise here. Harper backs Manley's recommendations and implies he might get the extra 1,000 troops lined up sooner, rather than later. If he does, it will be interesting to see if he schedules the Afghanistan vote before or after the budget vote.

4. For those who haven't caught in, here are the top ten Barack Obama campaign promises, as presented on Letterman last week. Speaking of which, Obama adds another Kennedy to his endorsement list.

5. The Rhinos are back in Alberta. Among their promises: "Annex Saskatchewan to create more room for affordable housing" and "Merge with the Tories to stop splitting the 'silly vote'".

Tuesday Tid-bits

-This is kind of cool - Stephane Dion blogging from Bali.


-Radwanski is right on the money here. There needs to be some sort of degree of presumed innocence among Parliamentarians because, if scantilycladwomangate has taught us anything, the wild accusations being tossed around are starting to get way out of hand.


-Also via AR, comes Pat Martin's latest media stunt:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DECEMBER 11, 2007

SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN…

…with toxic toy consumer tips for Canadian parents

Oh, please, somebody get this up on Youtube because:

a) I assume Pat Martin will be the one dressed as Santa.
b) This is going to be even more awkwardly entertaining than the puppets press conference this spring.


-From this week's Hill Times:

An online Angus-Reid poll released last month of opposition party leaders showed that 34 per cent of Canadians think that Mr. Layton would make a good Prime Minister of Canada compared to Mr. Dion who had 23 per cent support and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May who had 14 per cent support.

But Liberal MP David McGuinty (Ottawa South, Ont.) said he does not put any stock in polls in between elections. "[If] Mother Theresa were alive, she [would] have obviously [had] the highest rankings too. I don't believe it for a second. When people walk into a ballot box in the next federal election, there will be many questions on their minds.

By my reading, David McGuinty is either comparing Jack Layton to mother Theresa, or implying that Mother Theresa's support levels would dry up during an election campaign. While there is probably some truth to the later statement, I have my doubts that even mother Theresa has the political sense to nix a Santa Claus press conference.

Random Stuff

-Saskatchewan tosses out the NDP then takes a Grey Cup a few weeks later - no surprise given the NDP jinx. It was interesting to see Jim Flaherty and Peter MacKay there to present the Grey Cup. I can understand why the Minister of Defense was there when the player of the game had three interceptions but the Finance Minister?



-Speaking of the aforementioned Flaherty, why is Peter Van Loan trying to pick a fight with Dalton McGuinty after Flaherty ended the era of provincial bickering this spring?





-It's great to see Stephen Harper leading on the world stage at the recent Commonwealth meetings. Harper's courageous fight against climate change action this weekend brought back memories of Brian Mulroney bringing the Commonwealth onside with Canada to fight apartheid in South Africa. Bravo Mr Prime Minister!


-For those following the Craig Chandler saga, it sounds like the PCs will be deciding to disqualify his nomination at a December 1st meeting which, one imagines, Chandler will not take sitting down.



-Mike Huckabee has a great add with Chuck Norris endorsing him. In Republican circles, Chuck Norris is third only to Jesus and Ronald Reagan for endorsements, so this should help.

Boo!

Kady O'Malley has the full run down of Halloween in Ottawa (including Harper's witty "man in the brown suit" costume). Although he dressed as Laurier, Dion did did provide a big scare to Liberal backbenchers by musing about raising the GST. It's probably not a smart thing to go around talking about something like that unless you're going to do it, but I do think it would be interesting to see a Liberal campaign plank calling for a restoration of the 7% GST, with all the revenue raised either going to income tax cuts or income splitting. Dion's got to show he stands for something next campaign and it would certainly be a bold position to take.

In other news...

1. As a big V for Vendetta fan, I enjoyed the Wingnutterer's look back on the "Income Trust Treason".

2. Stockwell Day has announced that the Canadian government will no longer oppose death sentences for Canadians abroad.

3. I don't really get the full gist of his criticism, but the man who could have been Premier is going after Stelmach hard on his royalty review compromise.

4. Jack Layton may have an ally in his quest to end ATM fees across Canada. It appears that Brian Mulroney was so sick of ATM fees back in 1993 that he needed to get $300,000 from Karlheinz Schreiber in cold, hard cash. Yes, it looks bad that he didn't declare it on his taxes either but I'm sure there's a logical explanation for everything. Unfortunately, I'm only at page 376 of his memoirs but I'm sure Brian will explain everything fully by the end of it!

5. And a big round of congrats for Andrew Coyne - the new national editor of Macleans!

Monday Night News Hits

-The Ontario election is off and running...after being off and running for the past few months. I'd be betting on a McGuinty majority.

-SES has a town hall set up for the Ontario election where, amongst other things, you can try and beat the experts with your predictions. Sounds like fun.

-Stephen Harper has Senate envy. Except in this case, he's not envious of the size, but of how Australia uses it.

-Veil voting has become a hot topic in the Quebec by elections. To me, it doesn't seem unreasonable, so long as veiled voters can show their face to a female elections officer. The vote will be on September 17th.

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.

Manic Monday Links

-James Bow has a good run-down on how campaign '08 has progressed and Greg Staples has the latest poll numbers up. I'll be joining several other bloggers to live blog the results as they come in tonight so tune in for what promises to be an eventful election!


-In the Greatest Premier contest, it's Manning vs Lougheed in the West, and Levesque vs Mowat in the East. I'll be taking a few days off from the contest before resuming later this week.


-On the municipal front, Daveberta is the place to be for Edmonton news. As for Calgary, the Calgary Election 2007 blog has started up and looks to be the site to bookmark for news out of cowtown over the next seven weeks. I'll also be delving into the campaign quite a bit here since I'm working on the Go Alnoor campaign (check out the website, chalk full of You Tube goodness). Declared, or rumoured, candidates for Mayor so far include:

Dave Bronconnier
Alnoor Kassam
Sandy Jenkins
Jeremy Zhao
Oscar Fetch
Barry Eldridge
Doug "at your" Service

With massive growth pressures over the past few years, there are a lot of important issues worth talking about...however, it appears that all the media wants to discuss for the time being are yellow ribbons. I'm thinking of starting a contest where I'll give a free yellow ribbon to anyone who collects all 27 Calgary Sun front page stories on the topic (contest excluded to City of Calgary employees, for the time being).


-I spent a bit of time browsing some of the videos on the Blogging Tories site yesterday. They've got a pretty solid collection for anyone looking to kill some time.


-Adam Radwanski's vagabond blog can be seen over at the Globe these days. In his Friday post, he has a good run-down of the whole agents provocateurs fiasco.

When Harry Met Cherie - Day 50

The story that refuses to die continues, with these gem quotes from Cherie Cymbalisty, the Cowboys waitress who flirted with Prince Harry back in early June:


"We thought that was the only way to make them go away and not make up stuff about me," Ms. Cymbalisty said.

Within four hours, the News had a Calgary writer interviewing her.

"They tried to make it sound dirty. I told them the story of how Harry and I just talked and they made it out like he's a pervert and he's not."

The News story referred to a drunken Prince Harry asking Ms. Cymbalisty if she was wearing underwear, and "totally distorted" the incident, the bartender said.

"He asked nervously that my skirt was very short and he shyly asked if I was wearing underwear. He was very polite. He was not disrespectful and was not leering."

[...]

"I know you can't believe anything that's in them. Look at how they changed my words. All I ever wanted was to put some pictures of that night in my album of celebrities who have come into the club over the years I have worked there."

Now, she's concerned about what Prince Harry might think of her.

"I think everyone's out to get him. I want him to know I'm no sellout. We had an amazing connection that night. I realize the one time he tries to have a normal night out, he now thinks they are going to sell him out. And that's not what I tried to do at all. I just wish I could tell him that, but I can't."


Exactly! How was Cherie supposed to know that selling the British Tabloids stories about Prince Harry's interest in her undergarments would get blown out of proportion. She's the innocent victim who never wanted to hurt him in all of this. How dare anyone suggest she did it for money, or to try and turn the whole thing into a playboy spread. Well, anyone besides her lawyer that is.



IN REAL NEWS...

-Graham Thompson gets off a good zinger to start off today's Edmonton Journal column:

If we're ever in the situation where the world is about to be destroyed by a giant asteroid in 15 minutes, somebody should have Premier Ed Stelmach hold a news conference and broadcast it around the globe.

For anyone watching, that final quarter of an hour will seem like an eternity. At the 10-minute mark people will be cheering on the asteroid.

To sit through a Stelmachian news conference is to witness an end to the laws of relativity and syntax as we know them.


-You know it's a slow news week when The Hill Times starts speculating about Michael Fortier's leadership ambitions. One thing at a time guys. First the Senate Appointment. Then a Cabinet position. Then election as an MP. Then we can talk about leadership.

Random News

None of these stories really catch my eye, but if anyone wants to comment, go nuts!


1. Stephane Dion, who voted in favour of Harper's Quebec as a nation resolution, wants Harper to clarify what Dion and most of the Liberal MPs actually voted for.


2. The federal building fire sale that I'd always thought was a fairly dumb idea could be hitting a snag.


3. Say it ain't so, Joe.


4. The Hill Times wades into the great NASCAR debate.

Monday Morning Briefing

1. For a fun time, be sure to check out the Gerrymandering game.


2. Saturday's Globe profile echoes the Right Side Up hypothesis that Harper runs into trouble once he runs out of scripting.


3. The blogs are up in a roar over the news that the Conservatives will be sponsoring Pierre Bourque's (from "news" site, bourque.org) car on the Canadian NASCAR circuit. This is definitely surprising news; I wasn't even aware Canada had a NASCAR circuit. Still, it makes a certain degree of sense - if you enjoy watching cars go around and around in circles for hours, I can see how the Conservative Party would appeal to you.

My favourite quote from the story is via Diane Finley:

The minister won't say how much money the sponsorship of the race car is costing the Conservative Party: "That would be Pepsi telling Coke what its recipe is."

I'm not sure I fully understand her analogy in the first place, but given their historical dominance of the market, I for one, don't think Coke has too much to fear from Pepsi.


4. The always insightful Paul Jackson has some musings on why Albertans don't like the provincial Liberals:

Liberal Leader Kevin Taft, who is not a shark, but in an aquarium full of these preying creatures, sees victory ahead in the next provincial election.

If so, my friends, put your wallets in a safety deposit box, because a Liberal government will ransack taxpayers, and lead our province into Depression-era debt.

Why do you think Albertans have never elected a Liberal government since the First World War era?

Because we have long memories.

So lock up your daughters, as the Broadway musical proclaimed.

Yes! I can't tell you how many times I've door knocked for the ALP and heard angry voters berate me with shouts of "damn that Rutherford!" or "**** Sifton, screwed our province!".


5. I noticed an add by the government of Nova Scotia against Harper re: the Atlantic Accord in my Globe & Mail this morning...

The Senators are out, and so is Senate reform

1. The Green Party environmental platform calls for a dreaded carbon tax and higher gasoline prices. Sure, it'll be unpopular, but if people are serious about meeting Kyoto (and the Greens certainly are), you'll only get there with hard line tactics like that.


2. On the international scene, G8 leaders have agreed to consider thinking about perhaps maybe possibly wanting to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050. And people laughed when Harper said he'd be instrumental in bridging a compromise...


3. I'm not sure if this helps or hurts Dion's status as a "leader" or a "hero", but Liberal Senators are shelving Harper's Senate reform bill for now.


4. Bill Casey is gone from the Tory caucus. I seem to remember a few commentators being hard on Dion for booting Comuzzi for breaking party ranks on a budget vote in March...I invite them to weigh in.


5. I've got to hand it to SDA for the "IOC rapes gay nazis" description of the new London 2012 Olympic logo.

Won't the real Gord Brown please stand up, please stand up, please stand up...

-One of my pet political interests is finding leadership races I could win by signing up a rec league soccer team. Last year, I reported on the PEI NDP race, won in a close 29 to 19 vote. This week, the Nova Scotia Green Party held their AGM and, in a tight three-way race, Ken McGowan emerged the winner in a 32 to 20 to 9 nail bitter.


-Apparently the oilsands will be exempt from several of the clean air regulations...you can bet the opposition parties are just going to love this.


-Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. UPDATE: And Lawrence Cannon gets hit too...


-Leeds-Grenville Conservative MP Gord Brown (no doubt busy campaigning for Tony Blair's job), has been caught Jaffering a constituent.


-Didn't take long for Justin Trudeau to attract controversy.


-After going 7 for 8 and 3 for 4 in the first two rounds, I'll take my chances and bet against Detroit for the third straight round. Anaheim versus Buffalo is your final.

Leaders and Leadership

1. Sarkozy victorieux!


2. Andre Boisclair is drawing fire from within the PQ, and prominent sovereignist Yves Michaud has called Boisclair "childish". (no doubt this arrogant comment will rouse the distracted giant and lead to many attacks against Mr. Michaud from Quebec bloggers)


3. The provincial PCs held their annual convention in Edmonton this weekend. Usually it's hard to get media coverage of a policy convention but they succeeded in grabbing quite a few headlines, as far away as Calgary:

Tories express Anti-Calgary sentiment
Alberta divide appears to be growing

EDMONTON - A ripple of anti-Calgary sentiment seemed to permeate the Progressive Conservative convention Saturday in Edmonton, with samples coming in both noise and numbers.

Mayor Dave Bronconnier's political tactics were the target of rowdy party members, then Calgary candidate Joe Lougheed -- son of former premier Peter Lougheed -- was rejected in his run for Tory party president against Edmonton-area candidate Marg Mrazek.

But the most palpable moment came when a crowd of more than 1,000 Tories gave Premier Ed Stelmach a raucous 40-second standing ovation, after he attacked Bronconnier -- who wasn't in attendance -- over the mayor's claims a lack of provincial dollars are delaying LRT expansion.

They were also quick to put Stelmach's keynote speech up on Youtube. Since, as a Liberal, I feel it's in my party's best interest to have as many Albertans as possible hear Ed Stelmach speak, I present the clips for everyone here to peruse.

(clip 1, clip 2)

"Hocus pocus, boogah boogah economics"

1. Elizabeth May is in hot water for comparing someone or some action to Hitler or Chamberlain or something of the sort. Since I'm sure you all came to this blog for my expert analysis, I will offer this profound insight which you are unlikely to see anywhere else: it was stupid of her to say that.

Obviously, Jack Layton is in agreement with this assessment:

"Well, we certainly would have never made any such comparison," he said. "I think it's very unfortunate and certainly not something that we consider to be wise or appropriate."

I agree. Anyone who would compare something like the Kyoto accord to appeasement lacks common sense and good judgment.

Via Aaron Wheery comes this gem from Jack:

"Mr. Speaker, enough is enough. We have been hearing those kinds of comments from the Prime Minister for 16 years since he began promising to clean up the air for Canadians and instead we have worse pollution than ever. He makes Neville Chamberlain look like a stalwart in standing up to a crisis. Smog is sending people to emergency wards at unprecedented levels. The prairies are drying up. We have forest fires like we have never had before. All we get are promises of plans to be brought forward some day. Will he bring forward a plan, yes or no?"

2. Speaking of Macleans, their Instapundit feature gives a nice round-up of the daily news for anyone wanting to get caught up on the news at a site that doesn't sell headlines.


3. The Danny Williams Dave Bronconnier versus Paul Martin Stephen Harper Ed Stelmach feud is is all the rage in Alberta these days.


4. It's always fun to see what different Tory Cabinet Ministers think of the entire "nation" question. Jean-Pierre Blackburn appears to subscribe to the Diefenbaker deux nations philosophy.

Bag 'O Links

-Lots of Afghanistan news. The Liberal motion to set February 2009 as the withdrawal date will be voted down tonight thanks to the NDP even though 2/3 of Canadians agree with it. Gordon O'Connor, meanwhile, is in trouble for the treatment of prisoners, and Dion has some egg on his face for an odd proposal.


-After going 7 for 8 in first round predictions, I'll go with the Ducks, Sharks, Sabers and...I dunno...let's say Sens.


-Looks like the Clean Air Act is dead, although I wouldn't be surprised to see one of the opposition parties bring the amended version back on an opposition day.


-The sexy centrists are no more...it'll be Royal versus Sarkozy in the French election run-off.

Thursday News Round Up

1) Harper has announced he will be appointing barley farmer Bert Brown to fill a Senate vacancy. Bert Brown is, of course, famous for plowing the following phrase into his field in the 1990s: "Triple-E Senate or else...appoint me and screw the effective and equal part of it".


2) After Rona Ambrose's initial Green Plan was met with scorn and ridicule leading to her departure from the file, the Conservatives are planning to release a new and improved Green Plan which...wait for it...weakens the targets set out in their first plan. Either the Tories are trying to dampen expectations, or this is their election trigger.


3) Speaking of the environment, John Baird went before the Senate today to claim that meeting our Kyoto targets would lead to a massive recession, unemployment, sky-rocketing gas prices, the cancellation of Hockey Night in Canada, and the closing of all Tim Hortons coast to coast.


4) I don't think we'll see the Greens stand down in St. Catharines but the mere fact that some of their members are talking about not running a candidate is exactly why I thought the Dion-May deal was a strategic coup de force for the Liberals.

In The News

-I have to give a thumbs down to Ontario's MMP referendum. I'm not completely against electoral reform, but when you have party leaders writing the party list, you have a situation where MPPs are being appointed which strikes me as being completely against the principle of having an elected house.


-Buzz is the Liberals will be releasing TV ads this week.


-The Hill Times has a good run down of the backroom mechanics going on in Parliament regarding key legislative bills and (of course) election timing.


-For anyone interested in drafting an essay dealing with the impact of technology on modern debate, check out this contest.


-Don Baird had a column in the Herald last week talking about the Alberta Liberal Party's "attack on Stelmach" plan of action.


-Stories like this, would seem to lend some credence to the theory that the May-Dion deal is targeted not so much at Peter MacKay, but rather at Jack Layton.


-Elizabeth May mentioned this little old blog on QP yesterday. Since she's let the cat out of the bag, I guess I can announce what has long been rumoured. Liz and I have signed a pact whereby she refers to me as a "funny blogger" and I do not call her decision to run in Central Nova "mind numbingly stupid". I'm sure this move will be controversial, but we feel it will be mutually beneficial.


-In one of my all time favourite inadvertent transitions, a CTV news story the other days on Canadians being overweight was followed by an add for Tim Horton's new triple chocolate donuts.