In The News

1. Vic Toews is proposing to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 10. I'm surprised he hasn't proposed raising it to 55 so that he can get that nasty charge for breaking provincial Election Finance Laws off his record.

As for the proposal itself, I'm willing to bet Joe Volpe sends out a press release decrying the move - it certainly couldn't hurt his fundraising efforts.


2. You may have noticed I don't often delve into astronomy much here but this article really cracked me up:

Astronomers from around the world are gathering in Prague over the next two weeks to come up with the first official definition of the word planet — and puny Pluto might be considered too small to make the grade.

“We have been living with Pluto as a member of the solar system for 76 years, and school children just love Pluto and we can't take it away from them or they will be broken-hearted,” conceded Owen Gingerich, who chaired an International Astronomical Union committee on the matter.

Personally, I think if we're going to refer to Kim Campbell as "a former Prime Minister", I don't have any problem calling Pluto a planet.


3. Andre Boisclair finally has a seat.


4. The above comment is the first time I have ever mentioned Andre Boisclair without making a cocaine joke and this fact alone deserves it's own numbered point.


5. If I was drawn to support a life long right of centre Liberal who represented generational change in the party, I'm not sure how likely I would be to follow him to Bob Rae. The optics of Maurizio's support are great for Rae and it's hard to imagine a better endorsement Rae could pick up. But I really have a hard time believing it will lead to a noticeable shift on the ground.

On the same topic, Any Idiot has a good post up on this, including some great quotes from Maurizio. Among the highlights:

"There's a sense out there that the Liberals are ready for a generational change with experience and also they want somebody who's been a long-standing Liberal member"

"I take no lessons from the NDP on how to govern and how to grow the economy."

That last comment is odd, when you consider what John Ibbitson quotes Maurizio as having said yesterday:

Mr. Bevilacqua replied that, when Mr. Rae left office, "the Ontario economy was the best economy in the G7."

If that's true, maybe we should be taking lessons from the NDP on how to govern the economy.


6. Thanks to a late surge in support for Preston Manning from SDA, the final four are now set in the Greatest PM We Never Had contest:

(1) Stanfield vs. (4) Cartier
(2) Manning vs. (11) McKenna

The next poll will be up on Thursday.


7. 11 Universities opt out of the Maclean's annual rankings.