— Musings —03.30.2011 06:47 AM
KCCCC Day 5: Nobody’s paying attention yet. Calm down.
- About those Liberal ads: If you think you’ve been seeing a lot more of them, this campaign, it’s because you have. Last time around, Stephane Dion, God bless his soul, didn’t want to plumb the advertising depths in the way that Stephen Harper had done. For ten days into the writ, his senior guys had ads ready to go – but Dion refused to give the green light. By the time the Red Leaf folks said they were going to run the ads whether the leader liked it or not, the damage was done. One of my best pals, Bob Richardson, is running Red Leaf this time – and Bob (like me) believes in strike first, strike hard, strike often. You’ll see the impact in next week’s batch of polls.
- The shift begins: As I opined in the Sun yesterday, the Michael Ignatieff depicted in the Conservative attack spots isn’t the Michael Ignatieff Joe and Jane Frontporch are seeing on their TV sets. That, plus the fact that the HARPER HEADING TO MAJORITY headlines are unsettling for lots of demographics (see below) is hurting the Cons. Thus this Nanos. The Tory lead has shrunk considerably.
- Harper’s a Meanie: Hearing this a lot, lately. At the Ontario budget speech, yesterday, a teacher approached me and said that she’s starting to experience a visceral reaction to Stephen Harper’s M.O. “He’s so damned mean-spirited, I find it hard to believe, sometimes,” she said. “My friends feel the same way.” That demo – female, university-educated and/or youngish – is what denied Harper a majority for the past three attempts. More here and here, from female writers. Will women deny him this time around, too?
- May’s Boring: Look, Liz, we all (me included) wanted you in the debate last time. Price of admission? Your suggestion that you would win seats. Well, you didn’t. You had your shot, you blew it. When you get invited to the big kids’ table, you have to show you belong. You didn’t. You don’t.
- What does a war room do? As I have told every youngster who falls into my clutches at the start of every campaign, OUR JOB IS NOT TO WIN THE WHOLE CAMPAIGN BY OURSELVES. Instead, I tell them, yelling entirely in caps, our job IS TO WRECK THE OTHER SIDE’S CAMPAIGN DAY, ONE DAY AT A TIME. And, if you do that for nine days out of a 36-day writ, you have eliminated the other side’s ability to tell their story for a quarter of the campaign. And that’s a campaign that cannot win. Thus, poor Sebastien Togneri. The hapless Tory aide, being probed by the RCMP, helped the Liberal war room to stomp all over Harper’s message of the day on Tuesday. That’s a win, in my books.
- …speaking of war: We are, for the second time in a short time, a nation at war. Just before the election started, the Harper Reformatories effectively declared war on Mu’ammar Qadhafi. They then proceeded to avoid saying anything – anything at all – about the war they committed us to. Where are the media? Where are the Opposition parties? I believe it is right to finally dislodge Qadhafi from power – I wrote a book about it – but do you? And do you agree we need to know more about Canada’s secret war?
- Tim Harper’s back! My chum Harper is back in the Star, and (per usual) doing good work. Tim highlights the reality of this campaign so far – apart from weird hacks like thee and me, no real people are paying any attention to this race yet. They won’t for a while yet, either. So, effectively, the race isn’t 36 days long – it’s about 16 days long for all in the race. That changes perspectives. Or should. And it explains why Harper isn’t looking rattled yet.
- Pic of the day: Look, I’m an amateur musician too (and I’m really amateur). But, having last night spied Harper’s wince-inducing spin on the ivories with that Winnipeg kid who is gaga for Lady Gaga, I think it’s time for the Tory backroom to hang up his piano. I suck, too, fellas in the Tory war room, but I try not to inflict my lack of talent on national television. Enough, already. It’s boring and, frankly, embarrassing. Pic, therefore, of the day:
“Please releassssse me, let me gooooo…I don’t want to be part of your photo op any-morrrrrre…”
[Suggest your own caption song lyrics here! – ed.]
I would have to say Kermit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwup7qFbabA
Definitely Kermit!
Nano’s new poll today shows the lead is about 10% for the Tories.. a bit down from 10 days ago. I’m not discouraged or panicking at that number at all. It shows in this poll anyhow, that Harper’s boogeyman about hte evil coalition hasn’t taken root.
Sorry I can’t think of any lyrics, but why do they insist in putting him in these types of photo’s? He looks so unnatural, it’s like they are saying, “Look we know he comes across as weird, but really, he really is a swell down to earth kind of guy, honest, no he really is”. To me it makes him look worse, pretending to be someone is clearly isn’t.
As a parent I find the visuals of Harper using kids in such an obvious and drawn out manner as truly exploitive and are thus repulsive.
And he really sucks in that clip too.
I know I’d feel the same if Layton or Ignatieff pulled the same stunt, although I suspect Layton would at least belt out the tune with gusto and perhaps make people wince less.
Mr Ignatieff is on his game! His speech in Richmond B.C. was electrifying! Where has this guy been for the past couple of years?
He is bang on when he proclaims that Harper’s craving for a majority, one based on a pack of fear-mongering lies, is very arrogant and utterly contemptuous of Canadians’ democratic rights.
What Harper is saying is that Canadians really don’t have any choice but to vote for the only ‘legitimate’ party because non of the other parties are legitimate – they are all led by amoral, reckless people bent on destroying Harper’s vision of a bygone, conservative, Evangelical Christian Canada.
Harper’s Canada is a narrow-minded Canada, a revanchiste Canada, a Canada that turns its back on the future, a Canada that prefers to stare into the rear view mirror at the past, a past in which things seemed so much simpler, a time when the once British Canadian majority ruled with impunity, a time when discrimination against Canadians based on their language, their ethnicity, their religion, their class, their gender, their sexual orientation, was rampant.
Mr Ignatieff, like Mr. Chretien, is speaking from the heart, offering Canadians hope for the future, hope for their country, hope for their families, hope for a better world.
Ignatieff’s Canada is:
A Canada of hope
A Canada of equality of opportunity and a some increase in the equality of condition
A Canada based on the true acceptance of others for who they are, a Canada that is truly democratic
A Canada in which a ‘minority’ of voters does not impose its will and vision on the majority
A Canada in which the government of the day governs for all Canadians rather than the narrow partisan base of party with a mere plurality of the seats in the House of Commons
A Canada for all Canadians who share common values, rights, freedoms, and responsibilities, all while being able to keep their individual and collective identities. Identities are not like hats, citizens can and should wear more that one identity at a time.
A Canada for all Canadians!
Liberalism is alive and well once again in Canada.
I laugh when reading the usual tiresome, threadbare and repetitive fear-mongering comments from Liberals about the Conservatives. Head for the hills!
If the Liberals haven’t noticed, the Conservatives have supplanted the Liberals as the “big-tent”, pan-Canadian national party. The Conservatives are more representative of Canadian society, and have a broader cross-section of support, than do the Liberals. The Liberals have been reduced to being a white, urban-riding party.
For example, the ethnic communities of the country have largely crossed over to the Conservatives. The Liberals have long taken the ethnic vote for granted, even to the point where they pretty much abandoned any ongoing outreach. In contrast, Jason Kenney’s tireless and commendable efforts in forging ties with various ethnic constituencies have produced remarkable, well-deserved results for the Conservatives. This past weekend, while Harper was busy stomping in Brampton in a heavily Sikh riding, Iggy was tasting bagels in trendy, upper-class Outremont.
The Liberals (again, if they haven’t noticed) are in their worst existential crisis in years. They are bleeding votes to the right and centre-right (Conservatives) and to the left and centre-left (NDP), especially the latter.
The Liberals are more obsessed with the Conservatives than the Conservatives are with the Liberals. The Conservatives are sitting pretty: they have a far bigger, stronger and more united core base than the Liberals. Until the Liberals realize (one day) that their real threat is from the NDP, they will never form a national government (unless, oops, they form a coalition, which Iggy has pledged no to do, but I’ll take that with a grain of salt!).
The Liberals have to drop the fear-mongering. When Toronto had its municipal election last November, the Toronto Star and provincial Liberal Party went into high overdrive to terrify voters from voting in Rob Ford as the new mayor. What happened? Ford won with a whopping 47% of the popular vote (and it was supposedly a horserace).
A few things. To say that the Liberals are more obsessed with the Conservatives than visa-versa is a comical stretch given the fact that Harper is widely known for his neurotic hatred of all things liberal and that his great vision of Canada is to destroy the Liberal Party. I don’t see that in either Ignatieff or Liberals in general. Ignatieff wants to steer the country into a positive future and if the Cons want to be a part of that they can but they will have to alter their policies to do so. And saying that Liberals have to drop the fear mongering is ridiculous. It is Harper that is engaging in fear mongering with his coalition side splitter.
Were you paid for this post in Harper Dollars? They will replace Canadian Currency by the time the income splitting measure is introduced supposedly in 2015, though I would be suspicious about any of Harper’s promises.
Remember the Wimpy character in Popeye? Mr. Wimpy Harper says ” I will gladly pay you in 4 years for a majority today”
So Conservatives are more representative of Canadian society? What about the 60 plus percent who never vote for the CPC? What society do they represent.
James – Can you provide some actual data to back-up your claim that “the ethnic communities have largely crossed over to the Conservatives”?
“Ethnic communities” (or “very ethnic communities”) have NOT crossed over to Harper. I should know. I write commentary in some papers, and lived in the midst of 3 of Canada’s largest multicultural communities. I am “very ethnic”. Sure there are some opportunists who were able to flood nomination parties and get a Reform, Alliance, or Conservative “ticket”, but, by and large these people are hated.
Here in the Lower Mainland a certain Reform MP angered the South Asian community so much when she commented (about Gurmant Grewal) that she didn’t want to let “any brown guy” win the Reform nomination, that EVEN the Surrey NDP organizers in the SA community piled their support behind Grewal – just to spite the hateful Reformers. That same coalition of South Asian voters arranged for a BLOCK of support for all South Asian Candidates in the region – and were only split when another South Asian ran for the Liberals.
Conservatives are simply NOT “winning” the ethnic vote. They’ve managed to skewer a handful of “breakthroughs” in some communities with anti-gay rhetoric, or appealed to their (fake) “economic masters” claim with some communities (particularly business people). They are far from “representing” we ethnics. They’re just happy with the skimming of mislead support they got…
here we go again… always looking for the data. Shoud’nt you be on a Republicsn BLOG. Most recongnize you as a planted TROLL. It’s time to change your name so you can get some credibiity back for an hour or so.
that was meant for “the other jim”
Asking a conservative supporter to back up his claims with facts (which he likely can’t) makes me a Conservative troll/plant?
Huh?
Please explain.
I really have to laugh at the replies to my initial comments, especially with regard to the Conservatives and the ethnic vote.
Sorry to break the bad news, Libs, but the Conservatives have eaten big time into the ethnic vote, and they’ve done it through sheer, hard, persistent work and constant outreach. Again, the Liberals have been very complacent about the ethnic vote and have ignored ethnic constituencies for years. They seem to think that it’s still 1969 and that ethnic groups continue to talk about Pierre Trudeau and his policy of multiculturalism.
James – I’ll ask again. Can you provide some sort of evidence or data to back-up your claim that “ethnic communities” have largely crossed over to the Conservatives? There’s no doubt that the CPC has worked hard in this regard, but where’s your proof that such efforts have been as overwhelmingly successful as you are claiming?
Sincerely,
The Bought & Paid For Jim
I wonder how banning Elizabeth May from the debates will play out. I’m disappointed if only because she was very good in the last debate and I like her as a politician. I expect the decision to not let her in this time to stick because the boys (who are the real power here) don’t want her there.
I live in a pretty safe Liberal riding so, like many, I’ve voted Green in the last few elections just to give them the $2.00. This time the Tories have a strong candidate here and there is a small chance the Liberal could lose so I had decided to vote Liberal just to be sure they won. If this decision doesn’t change I’ll go back to the Greens because I’m pissed.
Both the NDP & Liberals have come out in favor of the Greens being at the debates (can the BQ be far behind) and for that I’m thankful. I was wrong about this, and happily so,
I expect the Tories will not be able to oppose May’s inclusion for more than a few hours as it will bigfoot whatever message they are trying to put out until it’s settled.
Speaking of debates, I think EM should be in.
I also like the idea of GD not being in the English one.
And I’d like to see another one with just MI and SH because those really are the two choices.
And MI would wipe the floor with him.
Watching from afar, the Tories seem off-balance and have, perhaps, underestimated the preparedness of the libs and dips.
Also, it feels like they are fighting last election’s campaign. Serious lack of discipline. This isn’t the Stephane Dion group.
They need to embrace their core values, but in a right of centre way: tough on crime, tough on immigration abises and the refugee board, health care. But, with a little bit of heart. Need to reintroduce the removal of tax-funded support for parties.
In the end, I predict another another minority. But, might be liberal. The tricky thing now is the BLOC. Duceppe’s admission that he can’t participate in governance (see colby Cosh, I thonk) makes it all dicey.
I just might vote for Jack.
P.s. Go see my movie.
I’m starting to like
Harper’s photo ops really do make him look very awkward – he is not a social animal, he does not mix well with people. He really tries hard but he can’t really change his character and personality at this stage in his life.
And when pushed by reporters on issues of substance such as the coalition, Harper’s temper boils up very quickly and he becomes aggressive. Again, his body language changes immediately and he gives away his nasty game.
It does not help that his wife rarely smiles in these painful photo ops. And her body language tells viewers that she does not want to be there. Reminds me of Trudeau’s situations with Marjorie. These too very very painful moments for viewers for both of them and for viewers.
It really is very sad watching Harper’s well-meaning but lame musical performances!
Harper is awkward because in the back of his mind he’s looking at the subjects of his impromptu photo ops showing him with real Canadians and thinking “man are they gonna hate me when I finally get the majority I need to implement my evil hidden agenda!”
“I suck, too, fellas,” – which only indicates that you may have a future in politics. Here’s the thing though. When I saw the clip I wasn’t watching Harper, I was watching the fun the kid was having and the nice, nurturing way they interacted. Actually there were several money shots yesterday with Harper and kids. It’s all about optics and that at least he tried. How about giving Iggy a solo with SFH?
Ads – all parties love them despite their complaining to the contrary.
Iggy’s post-secondary announcement is turning out to be a mis-costed boondoggle before the day was done yesterday. Too bad he didn’t consult with McGuinty on that one.
Actually, the buzz on the Ontario budget yesterday on the newstalk stations that I listened to from London and Toronto were that it was a very conservative budget and that Dalton was smart to be channeling Harper….supposedly. I’m not sure that much attention is being paid to it today though – not as much if there weren’t a federal election.
Inasmuch as I am the only commenter on this site that has ever,ever looked at a porn site on the web, all of you will have to take my word for this: it catches my attention when a Conservative supporter uses the phrase ‘money shot.’
Come again?
If Togneric can’t campaign for the Torys, why can Senator Finley? They’re both under investigation.
Actually, Senator Finley is not under investigation. He’s been investigated and CHARGED! He’s worse than Togneri
There’s also perspective. Togneri was playing a bit-part (“helping with signs”) on a campaign in Edmonton.
Finley is a former national campaign manager with years of experience, is a senator, and is already involved in a court case initiated by Elections Canada yet here he is… involved in an *election*.
Does not compute.
… yeah, Mallick really nailed Mr. Harper again today. His soul-destroying anti-intellectual, anti-community fundamentalist nature, that pits one against the other in all domains, stemming, as it does, from a “current of bitterness, an anger born of a sense of exclusion” (as she quotes from Lawrence Martin’s book).
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/965344–mallick-the-harper-anthem-usa-usa
It’s not only younger, educated women that are creeped out by him. Anyone with an open mind, intellectual curiosity, or a deeply rooted sense of fairness and community-mindedness senses that they will rue the day Mr. Harper ever gets a free hand in parliament.
.
I wish Mallick (and other Harper critics) would drop the tired old “turn us into Americans” saw. I agree with much of what she wrote in the linked article, but the possible (likely?) changes that could occur under a Harper majority are concerning on their own merits. The fact that some Americans share similar beliefs should have nothing to do with the assessment.
The point being made, I think, is that we can learn from the results of poor policy decisions made in various US legislatures, rather than simply to slam Americans or to suggest that we are to be turned into Americans.
The fact that Mr. Harper bases policy formulation principally on his own narrow and poorly informed opinions, rather than taking a science-based approach, or even a community-minded approach, does not bode well for us.
.
My left leaning mid forties niece (well educated too) is disgusted by this election call.
She says she is going to vote Conservative for the first time in her life.
Were you paid for this comment?™
No. I am a female conservative leaning senior citizen. I read your blog because although I rarely agree with your views, your info is current and you will present the other side. I mention my niece because she works in a professional capacity in social services and I was astonished by her position.
By the way, the comments sections in the Globe and The Star are unreadable as they are inundated by meaningless comments from what must be paid political left wing hacks.
… But that makes no sense. She is going to throw away her ideological principles, and support a party that is completely antithetical to them, simply because she doesn?t want an election at this time?
It?s just crazy!
O.
I saw it happen in Ontario in 1990. I volunteered for our local Liberal candidate (a good man who deserved more than a single term as MPP) and I can’t tell you how many people told me that the weren’t going to vote for him because they were made at David Peterson for calling an early election. I don’t believe that will be a major factor in this election, I’m just saying that people will vote against their nature/interests when they decide that they are angry at a party or leader.
Yes, very interesting to mention Ontario 1990. I’ve thought about that election a lot lately, as I lived through it. I also wonder about the wisdom of Ignatieff shouting enghusiatsically “I LOVE ELECTIONS!” at his campaign rallies.
So your niece thinks it’s wrong to call an early election for the same two reasons — except in conjunction, this time — that Harper did the last two times: because it was a dysfunctional Parliament, headed by a Party all the other members had lost confidence in because of trust issues? And only after 2/3rds of the mandate had expired, so at most, only about $100-M is being lost (and not lost to the Canadian economy: it creates 15,000 short-term jobs, at a time they’re still very much needed), which is just a fraction of what the gov’t has wasted on countless other episodes, ranging from the counter-productive G20 summit to losing our free Mideast airbase in the UAE due to their refusal to negotiate in good faith?
It’s a pity she pays so little attention to politics. Perhaps if you were a bit more caring about your country and your familial obligations you’d help with that.
Did I mention – I’m a conservative.
Marie, I would like to know why you are a conservative, or at least why you support the CPC.
Fiscally, they are irresponsible, that’s not a conservative value. They disregard the traditions of Parliament, that is not a conservative value, conservatives are supposed to want to retain the traditions of the past. They are mendacious and deceitful, that is not a conservative value, conservatives are supposed to stand up for principle. They attack political opponents personally, again, conservatives are supposed to stand up for principle. They reduce every issue to a bumper sticker mentality, Edmund Burke did not do that.
So why would a presumably intelligent person support a party that does nothing for the benefit of our fellow humans, wastes money and claims they are best suited to run our economy, tries to divide Canadians, never enters into a substantive discussion about anything and has a monotonic robot for a leader.
That is something I would really like to know.
So both you and your niece should read this Hansard excerpt from the then much more Honourable Stephen Harper in which he explains the importance of the very thing he just lost his government over:
failing to provide credible, ample information on the full costs of the legislation being proposed, which prevents MPs from discharging their responsibility to exercise their due diligence to make prudent, fiscally responsible decisions to protect taxpayer dollars.
http://impolitical.blogspot.com/2011/03/harper-then-and-now-on-costing-of.html
Democracy is a bitch. I wonder what your “well educated” niece would say could justify an election at this time? I expect nothing short of Harper being convicted of a felony would do it and even then it would have to involve small children.
Even if there was an election every six months it’s fine with me as long as all the democratic rules are followed. That’s how our system works.
If you want a system where elections are scheduled at set times I suggest you try the USA.
^And yes I know we have ‘scheduled’, in theory, elections here as well.
I wonder if the Liberals shouldn’t get some of these great live speech clips from Ignatieff into the commercial rotation. He was very strong on Harpers “you people” gaff and his response on “we are are all real Canadians” not ethnics was electrifying.
It was powerful is way we haven’t seen in Canada in many decades. ( Not even JC, sorry Warren) It was like going back to leaders who believed in something Trudeau Douglas etc. Of course both Mulroney and Chretien had great moments when their genuine love for the country shone through over and above the partisan spin. Nothing like that from Martin, Layton, Harper era.
according to this article Harper singing was a request made by a journalist
http://blog.decisioncanada.ca/uncategorized/harper-plays-music-with-10-year-old-youtube-sensation/
Hope they didn’t waste on of their four questions they’re allowed to ask him each day on that
they certainly didn’t ask the ex-PM if he agrees with the lyrics to that “Born This Way” song the little girl is so fond of, which is an affirmation of rather more Liberal values than the CPC’s:
“Don’t be drag, just be a queen
Whether you’re broke or evergreen
You’re black, white, beige, chola descent
You’re lebanese, you’re orient
Whether life’s disabilities
Left you outcast, bullied or teased
Rejoice and love yourself today
‘Cause baby, you were Born This Way
No matter gay, straight or bi
Lesbian, transgendered life
I’m on the right track, baby
I was born to survive
No matter black, white or beige
Chola or orient made
I’m on the right track, baby
I was born to be brave
I’m beautiful in my way,
‘Cause God makes no mistakes”
Iggy’s Redux http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/03/29/duelling-war-rooms-ignatieffs-resp-thing-redux/#idc-container
Rumours of Trudeau’s death are greatly exaggerated. I will tell you, as I have told many others Gordo, he is a star that cannot be beaten. Not this election. Not the next. Or the one after that.
This has been an unpaid message from the fan of J. Trudeau club. Thank you for your participation.
as if anyone frequenting this site has any insights into, or even contacts with, the BQ (which is what’s so absurd about all you the coala-conspiracy nuts).
But I’‘ve heard — or read, rather — that:
“Griping about excessive Harper-Ottawa control over nominations is an emerging pattern. It’s been raised in [not only here in in Regina Wascana, but also in] Alberta and Okanagan-Coquihalla, where local party members went so far as to claim the process to replace Stockwell Day was ‘rigged’.
…Former Saskatchewan Party MLA Jason Dearborn — one of those once interested in the Regina Wascana nomination — has written a commentary raising concerns about the above process and wondering if this was a ‘direct attempt to suppress the democratic process . . . perpetrated by unelected party staff intent on controlling a tight message for national consumption.’
Other Conservatives are -at least privately -far more pointed, talking about the Darth Vader-like control of Harper and the nastiness of the staff that surround him. ‘They’re just a bunch of mean buggers,’ said one Conservative, seeking anonymity for fear of retaliation.”
Read more: http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Harper+handed+handlers+raise+eyebrows+among+local+Tories/4526928/story.html#ixzz1I6eiaCVz
“All You Need is Love!” (kids and dogs are good at reading body language).
BTW, not only was Harpie’s falsetto as thin and unconvincing as his sweater-boy persona, but his song choice (John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’) was even more antithetical to his true self, and a real affront to its composer and alleged idol.
http://actsofcitizenship.blogspot.com/2011/03/isnt-that-special-harper-indoctrinates.html
what’s Iggy’s talent? Find one and then maybe we have a discussion. So far…..pretty much eating his way into Jack Layton’s ridings.
He writes books, for one. Like:
A Just Measure of Pain: Penitentiaries in the Industrial Revolution, 1780-1850 Macmillan, 1978
The Wealth and Virtue: The Shaping of Political Economy in the Scottish Enlightenment (editor with Istvan Hont) Cambridge University Press, 1983
The Needs of Strangers Chatto & Windus, 1984
Nineteen Nineteen (with Hugh Brody) Faber and Faber, 1985
The Russian Album Chatto & Windus, 1987
Asya Chatto & Windus, 1991
Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism BBC Books, 1993
Scar Tissue Chatto & Windus, 1993
Isaiah Berlin: A Life Chatto & Windus, 1998
The Warrior’s Honour: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience Chatto & Windus, 1998
The Rights Revolution House of Anansi Press (Canada), 2000
Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond Chatto & Windus, 2000
Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry Princeton University Press (US), 2001
Charlie Johnson in the Flames: A Novel Chatto & Windus, 2003
Empire Lite: Nation Building in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan Vintage, 2003
The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror Princeton University Press (US), 2004
American Exceptionalism and Human Rights Princeton University Press (US), 2005
After Paradise Chatto & Windus, 2007
For which he’s won Prizes and awards, like:
1988 Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction (Canada) The Russian Album
1988 Heinemann Award The Russian Album
1993 Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) Scar Tissue
1993 MIND Book of the Year/Allen Lane Award Scar Tissue
1993 Whitbread Novel Award (shortlist) Scar Tissue
1999 James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for biography) (shortlist) Isaiah Berlin: A Life
1999 Jewish Quarterly Literary Prize for Non-Fiction (shortlist) Isaiah Berlin: A Life
2001 George Orwell Prize Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond
… while our former PM, who once famously plagiarized the speech of Australia’s PM, merely claims to be writing one book, on hockey, for over a decade, now.
Thank You!
The networks chose to show Stephen Harper play and sing.
I doubt they were forced.
Most nerdy dads I know wish we had the bollocks to sing with cameras running.
That echoes responses at work this morning.
The CBC chooses what they put on the television and radio.
I have long since given up on CBC radio for education, Mallick’s concern notwithstanding.
Paid or not, quite a few of progressives I know at work are not happy with this election.
My prediction – same result as at dissolution.
If the Libs are lucky.
Pedro
So Layton is now proposing tax cuts for businesses (of course in his own convoluted NDP way). Now that Layton is moving further to the center than the Liberals, I wonder if Jack is concerned that he is going to lose the extreme left wing socialist side of his support to Iggy’s liberals.
My red meat eating uncle who lives in Alberta, and is not educated, is disgusted with the tone of this campaign set by Harper. He is also embarrassed about how Steve lied about the coalition stuff and about how he keeps ragging the puck. He is still going to vote conservative though.
My niece though, who is in her mid forty’s, is educated, and is a sensible progressive middle class Canadian, she is not falling for any of the conservative spin, doesn’t even speak to uncle in Alberta, and is set on voting for Michael Ignatieff in this election. Go Figure!
Maybe ask your uncle what he thinks of Harper’s sidling up to that little girl to bask in her reflected Youtube glory, given that she’s the no. 1 fan of Lady Gaga, who, er, wore a meat dress, to draw attention to, er, allowing gays to be all they want to be in the military.
http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/stopthepresses/279379/meet-the-mystery-meat-dress-lady-gaga-explains-rare-vmas-outfit/
should’nt there be a law banning those type of politico’s from using such a sweet and amazingly taleneted young girl as a political stunt / prop?
Shame on him and his handlers. When she gets older- I’m sure she’ll ask her parents.. what were they thinking?
Re: Pic of the day: Laureena looks about as enthused as watching paint dry…..Thoughts running through her head-“Gad, I wish I was back at the Chateau Laurier with a dry martini right about now”…….