Warren Kinsella

Canada Live, May 16: Mulcair is dumb, Oreos aren’t, and Ont. PC sexism

Warren — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:42:43 +0000

I try and get Rageaholic Tom to calm down. Doesn’t work.

What am I about to do on the Sun News Network set?

Warren — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:40:59 +0000

Carter’s Tips

Warren — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:11:28 +0000

Check ‘em out!

Jacob Blum: Ornge insider (and Conservative insider, too)

Warren — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:16:16 +0000

Jacob Blum, along with his well-documented struggles with drugs and homophobia, is a Conservative, and – just a few months ago – a former Ontario PC campaign manager. He was also one of the Conservatives who helped create and manage Ornge, and who was paid handsomely for it along the way. He was, turns out, this morning’s star Ontario PC witness at the shambolic Ornge hearings.

But when Liberal MPPs questioned Blum about his Conservative pedigree and pals, a curious thing happened: Blum became a bit, well, forgetful about his PC connections and his recent partisan past. Here’s a summary of Blum’s sworn testimony, with a formal transcript to come later. As you read it, do you get the impression the former Ornge boss was being entirely, you know, truthful about his Con connections?

MPP: Are you a Conservative?

Blum: I was in university.

MPP: Did you run any Conservative campaigns?

Blum: I ran a campaign based on the candidate not the party.

MPP: Do you know Tony Clement?

Blum: I may have shaken his hand.

MPP: Do you know Guy Giorno? Lynn Golding?

Blum: Yes. I met Guy in the Nineties in passing.

MPP: What about Kelly Mitchell?

Blum: I met him at a function and kept in touch with him. I brought him in as a consultant.

More from the overflowing “Needs An Editor” file

Warren — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:22:00 +0000

This could have been summarized in a tweet.

Then we saw who wrote it, and understood.

I’ve quit my life and moved to Florida to work as a writer. See ya.

Warren — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:13:03 +0000

JetBlue employees in Florida pull 18-month-old from flight
The Daily News (Kamloops)
Fri May 11 2012
Page: B9
Section: News
Column: Warren Kinsella
Dateline: FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.
Source: Associated Press

Officials say an 18-month-old girl was mistakenly pulled off a JetBlue flight before it left Fort Lauderdale because airline employees thought her name was on the U.S. no-fly list.

The child’s parents told ABC television network affiliate WPBF they believe they were targeted because they are of Middle Eastern descent and the mother wears a hijab.

Great journalism

Warren — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:56:57 +0000

…and out of it emerges a portrait of a greatly self-indulgent, spoiled, dislikable little twerp.

Ornge and Cons: latest update

Warren — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:43:46 +0000

Can’t wait to hear tomorrow from the anti-gay Ontario PC campaign manager with, er, a pharmaceutical interest!

Also coming up in coming days: this session by Messrs. Giorno and Martin, both at Fasken’s, both advisors to Ornge and both card-carrying Conservatives!

Wow! There sure were a lot of card-carrying Conservatives making big bucks at Ornge, weren’t there?

Oh, yes, there were. Stay tuned!

This was hard to read

Warren — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:32:32 +0000

VIS are always hard to read, but this one more than most.

In today’s Sun: Con war room, missing in action

Warren — Tue, 15 May 2012 05:00:08 +0000

Brad Lavigne looked stumped, for a moment or two.

Lavigne — the brilliant Jack Layton loyalist who helped pilot the New Democratic Party to its historic gains in the election of one year ago — seemed uncertain, however briefly, about what his answer should be.

In an exchange with Tim Powers — the much-liked Conservative Party pundit — Lavigne had been asked about when Stephen Harper’s war room intended to start attacking newly minted NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair.

Lavigne eyed Powers warily. The two political strategists were on a stage at the Ottawa Congress Centre for the annual gathering of Canadian realtors. Finally, Lavigne allowed that he did not know, exactly, when the ruthless Conservative attack machine would strike. “But it’s coming,” Lavigne said. “It’s coming.”

Indeed it is. But when? And, more significantly, why hasn’t it happened already?
The questions aren’t irrelevant.