Categories for Musings

…that I never thought I’d live to see grown men saying the things they’re saying about rape.  

Some days, there’s so much evil in this world, you just don’t know what to say.  This is one of those times.

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Why, yes.  Yes they are.  Glad you asked.

From the ever-quick Justin Tetreault:

During the Mike Harris/Ernie Eves years, the Ontario PCs prorogued the Legislature five times: Dec. 18, 1997 to April 23, 1998 – 126 days; Dec. 18, 1998 to April 22, 1999 – 125 days; March 2, 2001 to April 19, 2001 – 48 days; March 1, 2002 to May 9, 2002 – 69 days; and March 12, 2003 to April 30, 2003 – 49 days.

When the Ontario NDP was in government, their party prorogued three times during their five year majority reign: Dec. 19, 1991 to April 6, 1992 – 109 days; Dec. 10, 1992 to April 13, 1993 – 124 days; and Dec. 9, 1994 to April 29, 1995 – 140 days, after which they dissolved government and called an election.

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Finance Minister Dwight Duncan will not run to succeed Premier Dalton McGuinty as Ontario Liberal leader, the Star has learned.

Duncan will announce his decision Wednesday, paving the way for former minister Sandra Pupatello, his close friend and fellow Windsor native, to return to politics and contest the Grit leadership…With the minority Liberal government expected to fall next spring, triggering an election, his Windsor—Tecumseh riding would open up for Pupatello, 50.

She represented neighbouring Windsor West for 16 years until retiring shortly before the Oct. 6, 2011, provincial election.

Now the PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP director of business development and global markets, Pupatello was deputy Liberal leader in opposition until 2003.

In government, she served as minister of economic development, education, and community and social services.

A political firebrand, observers say she would inject some enthusiasm and passion back into a Liberal government that even McGuinty admitted needs “renewal.”

Unlike most other potential candidates, she is untainted by controversies now plaguing the governing party, such as the Mississauga and Oakville gas plant debacles, the ORNGE air ambulance scandal and problems with teachers’ unions who have turned on their former Liberal allies.

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CP, CBC and others are reporting similar stuff.

So, if it’s true that Dwight is leaving, it is another very sad development for Ontario Liberals. Dwight Duncan is a giant in our party; it is hard to imagine it without him.

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Good.

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Anyone got deets?

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Last night, a number of people – many of them Jewish, in fact – drew to my attention the tweet below, authored by Sue-Ann Levy.  When I saw it, I was appalled as they were.  I condemned what she said, and I suspect many others will continue to do so.

Suggesting that Barack Obama is a secret Muslim is Truther/Birther territory.  Suggesting that there is something wrong with being a Muslim is just as bad.

I don’t know Levy, at all, but I would hope that she reflects and retracts and apologizes for what she posted.  It was not helpful, to say the least.

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…and I can tell you that senior Conservatives were quite unenthusiastic about him as federal leader. But that’s that.

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Liberal leadership season is upon us!

It’s all pretty historic, too. For the first time ever, Grits are lining up to choose leaders in Quebec, Ontario and federally. Never before have the three largest Liberal configurations been holding leadership races simultaneously.

Historians will be excited by that, of course, but historians routinely get excited about all kinds of things that aren’t. The rest of us, should we care?

Well, sure. In Ontario, card-carrying Liberals will be selecting the man or woman who, however briefly, will be premier of Canada’s largest province. In Quebec, Canada’s next-largest province, Liberal partisans are currently musing about the three top candidates to succeed Jean Charest, all men.

And federally, of course, the Liberal Party of Canada is now preoccupied with finding a leader who (it is hoped) will win them back Official Opposition status in 2015, and (it is fervently hoped) government status after that.

All of the Liberal parties are going about things differently. Federally, the leadership race will not conclude until next spring. The leading candidate in that race — some might say the only candidate — is Liberal MP Justin Trudeau. Trudeau is so popular, comedian Mike Bullard was moved to tweet this: “Saw and heard Justin Trudeau tonight. The arthritis in my right knee is now gone.”

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