But one adviser within the Smitherman camp, and several political observers without, say Smitherman’s lack of resonance with voters is real trouble that, left uncorrected, will doom his dream of succeeding Mayor David Miller.

“Of course you want to stay the front-runner,” said the adviser, speaking on background.

“It’s not ‘The sky is falling,’ but when you look at where (Smitherman) started and where is now, he’s bled a s—load of votes. It’s got to get fixed, and get fixed smartly. Should we all be slitting our wrists? No. Should we all be saying, ‘Why isn’t our message getting out?’ Yes.”

And:

“How much do I want it? I want it enough that I gave up one of the most powerful perches in the whole friggin’ country to take it on,” [Smitherman] says. “I want it enough that I’ve sacrificed . . . a $170,000 a year job. I want it so bad because I’m so motivated to end the mediocrity which has become the entrenched culture at the city of Toronto.

“I’m working my ass off here.”

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International symbol of the proletariat and the oppressed. Ca-caw, ca-caw.

Meet Roger.

Roger is a fake crow I bought at a dollar store in Maine last Summer.  I put him on the dashboard of my car.  The kids thought it was funny.

So, there we were on Sunday night – me, my daughter and Roger the Crow.  We were driving West on Lakeshore Drive to get near the Much Music Video Awards ceremony, so my daughter could take pictures of a clothed Miley Cyrus.  She was excited.

We stopped for a red light, tunes cranked on the radio. A shiny new van pulled up beside us.  Inside it, five uniformed cops were sitting.  They turned and regarded us.  We smiled; they didn’t smile back.  The cop behind the wheel signalled for me to turn down the music.  I did.

He pointed at Roger.

“What is that for?” he said, unsmiling.

“I beg your pardon?” said I.

“That,” he said, pointing at Roger, as the other unsmiling cops watched.  “What is the meaning of that?”

“Um,” said I. “That’s Roger, a toy crow.  He’s our mascot. My kids think he’s funny.”

The cop nodded and continue to look at us.  He didn’t seem to think Roger was funny.

The light turned green.  We gave the cops a friendly wave, and drove on.  My daughter looked uncertain.  “What was that all about?” she asked.

“You got me,” said I, heading toward Much Music.  “Maybe they thought Roger was a terrorist symbol or something.”

“That’s stupid,” said my daughter, who is fourteen.

“There’s a lot of stupidity going on for this G20 thing,” I said. “I don’t see a whole lot of good coming out of it. I mean, they’ve already written their dumb communique in advance. Why are they even meeting here? Why didn’t they hold their meeting on an island up in the Arctic Circle?”

Roger, doubtlessly agreeing, said nothing.

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The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey indicates the Tories emerged from the session with 34 per cent support — a solid seven-point lead over the Liberals.

The NDP were at 17 per cent nationally and the Greens at 10 per cent…

As the session sputtered to a close last week, the Tories were leading in every region of the country, except Quebec where the Bloc Quebecois strengthened its grip on the province, the poll indicates.

And they had opened up a double-digit lead over the Liberals among male voters (38 to 25 per cent) and even pulled slightly ahead among women (29 to 28 per cent)…

The poll suggests the Conservatives enjoy a comfortable lead throughout most of English Canada:

— In Ontario, the Conservatives were at 40 per cent, the Liberals at 32, NDP at 15 and the Greens at 11.

— In the key 905 area code ridings around Toronto, Tories were at 43 per cent to the Liberals’ 32, the NDP’s eight and the Greens’ 15.

— In British Columbia, the Tories were at 33 per cent, virtually tied with the NDP at 32, while the Liberals lagged with 19 per cent and the Greens with 14.

— In Manitoba-Saskatchewan, the Tories were at 39 per cent, the Liberals at 23, the NDP at 23 and the Greens at nine.

— In Alberta, the Tories were at 55 per cent, the Liberals at 22, the NDP and Greens at 10 each.

— In Atlantic Canada, the Tories were at 38 per cent, the Liberals at 36, the NDP at 17 and the Greens at seven.

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Loyola.

“In a decision that sets back Quebec’s efforts to strip religion from the province’s institutions, a judge has ruled that the government showed Inquisition-like intolerance in the way it imposed a secular ethics course on a private Roman Catholic school.

The ironic reference to religious zealotry in the pursuit of secularism came in a ruling that handed a victory to Montreal’s Loyola High School. The Jesuit boy’s school went to court for the right to keep teaching its ethics course from a Roman Catholic perspective.

In a decision handed down Friday, Superior Court Judge Gérard Dugré said that not only did Quebec violate Loyola’s religious freedoms by insisting it teach the secular course, but also it went about it in a “totalitarian” manner.

“In this age of the respect of fundamental rights, of tolerance, reasonable accommodation and multiculturalism, the attitude adopted by the [education] minister is surprising,” Judge Dugré wrote.

“The obligation imposed on Loyola to teach the ethics and religious culture course in a lay fashion assumes a totalitarian character essentially equivalent to Galileo’s being ordered by the Inquisition to deny the Copernican universe.”

I have a personal interest in this important decision. My father graduated from Loyola High School, and supported it for his entire adult life. I went there, too, for two wonderful years, with boys who came from all faiths. A Jesuitical education – as brief as it was in my case – deeply shaped my later views on politics, trade unionism, social justice and plenty of other subjects. For us, the Jesuits were the greatest teachers one could have.

Here, I suspect the unpopular Charest government’s target wasn’t actually the Jesuits, it was something else – a grubby, cynical manoeuvre to capture some xenophobic/Islamophobic votes. (The manoeuvre is not without its enthusiasts, unfortunately.)

In taking on the Jesuits in a “totalitarian” manner, however, the Quebec Premier has made a big mistake. The order has been around for centuries, and has seen many governments come and go. It won’t simply abide a ruling that requires it to denude itself, and its teachings, of any meaning.

I fundamentally believe in the separation of church and state, as regular readers will know. Most of the time, the threat to civil society involves religious figures attempting to impose the tenets of their faith on government. But, sometimes, it also involves government bureaucrats attempting to impose their misanthropy on religion. Neither should be allowed to stand.

What’s your view? Comments are open, as always. Keep it civil, please.

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Davies’ own statement was wildly offensive and wrong.  The tweet by the CIC – which has seemingly become a de facto arm of the Conservative Party of Canada – is also offensive and wrong, and homophobic, to boot.  (They apologized, after getting caught by LGBT community.)

I suppose I shouldn’t be disappointed.

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My God Almighty, this guy is a great communicator.

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Not super-duper sure it’ll work, though!

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This and this.

Discuss.

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…or so says this Harris-Decima poll, below.

What would account for these results?  Are they wrong?  Is the Fake Lake Clambake truly, as some in the Opposition believe, a way to finally defeat the Harper government?  Or has it all been wildly overblown by the media and the Opposition?  Your views are welcome, because – I have to say – this one surprises me.

G8/G20 ok with Canadians despite fake lake and $1B price tag: poll (G8-G20-Poll)

OTTAWA, Ont. – A new poll suggests most Canadians are not unduly troubled by the fake lake or $1-billion price tag of the coming G8 and G20 summits.

The Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll found 76 per cent of respondents said the back-to-back weekend summits in Muskoka, Ont., and Toronto were either very or somewhat important versus 20 per cent that were opposed.

The Harper government has been under fire in recent weeks for the bloated cost of the summits, the vast majority of which is for security, including the $1.9-million Canada Corridor designed to sell Canada to visiting journalists.

At the G20, where the global economy is the focus, 66 per cent of those surveyed said they expected “a little” progress would be made, while 21 per cent expected none at all.

At the G8, where the Harper government has made improving the maternal health of Third World women a priority, 63 per cent expected “a little” progress versus 22 per cent that expect none at all.

The June 10-13 telephone survey of 1,000 Canadians has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, 19 times in 20.

(The Canadian Press)

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I found this in the Web Archive “Wayback” machine, and thought I would post it.  This Father’s Day hasn’t started off particularly well, either, but that’s the way it goes, I guess.  Have a good one, all you dads out there.

***

June 20, 2004 – Ever since I can remember, today has been the day when (like you, perhaps) I would call my Dad to wish him happy father’s day. Or, if he was nearby, I would give him something – usually a book about philosophy, or the origins of religions, or something like that. He loved those.

This year, Father’s Day isn’t going to be all that great, for reasons that most of you already know about. But I’m also determined to make the best of it, because I’m a Dad now, too, and I have four little people who need me.

I’m also determined to say thank you to a lot of people. Since my Dad got sick, about a month ago, a lot of folks have been calling, or sending emails. Quite a few of the emails were from people I have never met. Some were from people who went to school with my Dad, or were taught by him, or practiced medicine with him. And there were many, many notes and calls from people who had been friends, or co-workers, or even adversaries during political campaigns and the like. For me and my family, these expressions of kindness and concern were remarkable. And they helped us get through a very difficult time.

Two notes deserve special mention. I received both prior to my father’s death, in the early morning hours of Tuesday. They influenced me in a way I will remember for the rest of my life.

One was from a friend who is the son of a former Prime Minister. In it, he told me to spend every moment I could with my father – to stay with him, and worry about other things later on. So I did that.

The other note was from a former Toronto Star writer who I knew from my Ottawa days, but with whom I had lost touch. But his advice, too, helped me a great deal. He told me he had spent time at a sibling’s bedside, as cancer claimed her life. In their time together, he told her everything he had never said before – the things he had held back. He told me to try and do similarly. And I did.

That advice – from Justin, and from Bill – I will remember for the rest of my life. And I thank them for it.

Now, I have many friends from my involvements in politics over the years, so I knew I would hear from some of them. But I never expected what happened.

At the funeral, my Mom and my brothers – and me – were so happy to see friends like Jean Chrétien, Martin Cauchon, Jean Pelletier, John Rae, Jean Carle, Charlie Angelakos, Jaime Watt, Greg Lyle, James Villeneuve, Bob Richardson, Graham Scott, Tim Powers, Tara Shields, Dave Gene, Sean O’Connor, Doug Wotherspoon, Krista Nicholds, Sean Malone, Sharon Smith, Jim Watson, my in-laws, friends from Queen’s Park, colleagues from Navigator PPG – along with my Dad’s family, and his friends and co-workers at Canadian Blood Services, or McGill, or Queen’s, or the University of Calgary. Before the funeral, there had been quite a few special phone calls – people who took time (a lot of time) to speak with my mom: our family’s friend Jean Chrétien, Dalton McGuinty, and Stephen Harper. Stephen’s call – and what he had to say – I will remember for a long, long time.

To everyone who passed along their thoughts and wishes – and to all of my fellow bloggers, who were extraordinarily kind – I, we, cannot thank you enough. I read many of your messages to my Dad before he died, and they were appreciated more than words can express.

My Dad wanted me to get back I into the game before this election was over (and we both had a good, long laugh about one journalist’s suggestion that the Martin regime should reach out to me). So I will do that. But before I do so, I wanted to thank all of you for your kindness and support.

And, to my Dad: happy father’s day. Fortis in arduis, forever.

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