…I said the Speaker would “cave.” He didn’t! I was wrong! I was wrong! Ya-hoo!

Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa. I owe Peter Milliken, who my mother adores, an apology. And I owe James Bowie, student-at-law, a lunch at the Japanese place.

Now, a fortnight hence, if the Reformatories flip the bird in the direction of Parliament again, and Mr. Milliken asks that everyone come together and be nice to each other, yet again, then lunch is on you, Mr. Bowie.

Until then, I stand before you, a chastened man.

(And, impossibly, a little bit hopeful that we may still have a functioning democracy, here.)

(Norman’s take, always worth reading, here.)

(And Susan has a fascinating little exchange with Derek Lee on what lies ahead.)

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Chances of an election being forced? Somewhere between slim and none. Zero, zippo, zilch.

Carry on as you were. I plan to.

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Totally legitimate photo illustrating important issue.

On April 16th senior Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi suggested women who wear revealing clothing are to blame for earthquakes. “Women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases (consequently) earthquakes,” he was quoted as saying by Iranian media.

Boobwash! say tens of thousands of women who refuse to believe flaunting their breasts is triggering a world-wide Boobageddon. Led by Purdue University student Jen McCreight they staged a 24-hour protest Monday.

Dubbed Boobquake, McCreight encouraged women around the world to flaunt their breasts and their cleavage to prove the Iranian clerics wrong. She even came up with some cleavage-flaunting T-shirts that she was selling for charity with messages that read: “Boobquake 2010: Who says science has to be boring?” and “Boobquake 2010: Did the Earth move for you?”

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Tories say Canada won’t fund abortion under G8 plan (Cda-G8-Abortion)
Source: The Canadian Press
Apr 26, 2010 15:49

OTTAWA – The Harper government says it won’t fund abortion as part of its G8 child- and maternal-health plan for poor countries.

That sets up a potential conflict with the U.S. and other G8 partners who say abortion can’t be separated from family planning.

The Conservatives had refused to say if abortion would be covered under the G8 plan.

But MP Jim Abbott, parliamentary secretary to International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda, clarified the government’s position in the House of Commons on Monday.

“Canada’s contribution to child and maternal health may include family planning,” he said. “However, Canada’s contribution will not include funding abortion.”

The Tories have faced criticism at home and abroad since they made the health plan a key agenda item of the G8 summit that Canada hosts in June, but refused to clarify the abortion issue.

Oda is hosting a meeting of G8 development ministers in Halifax on Tuesday.

INDEX: NATIONAL SOCIAL POLITICS

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KINSELLA: What has been interesting, to me, in the Rahim-Helena mess hasn’t been the ill-fated couple, per se. It’s been how the Harper Reformatory government has dealt with the whole mess.

Early on, for example, I opined online about Guergis’s now-infamous tantrum at Charlottetown’s airport. On my Facebook page, one of the first folks to comment about my comment was none other than Kory Teneycke—until recently, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s powerful director of communications, and now one of the most adept Conservative pundits in Canada. Teneycke let it be known that he was no fan of Guergis or her behaviour—and, later on, even seemed to suggest she deserved to be Tasered for her misdeeds.

That evening, I did CTV’s Power Play show with Canada’s only other highly-adept Conservative pundit guys, Tim Powers. Powers, too, mused that Guergis needed to reflect on what she had done. He didn’t sound impressed.

Nobody pays any attention to me, and for good reason, but I told CTV’s Tom Clark that I was amazed by Teneycke’s and Powers’s public utterances, and that it could only mean that the all-seeing PMO was about to cut her adrift.

There’s no way—no way—either of those two guys would ever say something that didn’t meet with the approval of the PM. “Helena, start packing your bags,” I advised. “You’re done.”

Precisely no one, then, should have been surprised to see Guergis and her unlucky husband kicked to the curb by Reform-Conservative officialdom mere days later. It was always going to happen. The only question was when, not if.

That is what intrigues me about all of this sad tale. I don’t see it in any way harmful to the Conservatives’ long-term prospects. For Team Angry, it did two useful things: one, it allowed them to separate themselves from two too-urban, too-hip people whom many in government had come to dislike. Two, it allowed them to look proactive and tough on crime. (Memo to Liberals: when a brown envelope is handed to you, in the future, take it.)

At the end of this drama, I feel sort of sorry for Guergis and Jaffer. The moment Teneycke and Powers started expressing their disapproval, it was all over but for the proverbial fat lady singing. And I don’t get the impression that Mr. Harper dislikes the sound of her voice.

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That, at least, is the shorthand we use at my firm. When we design campaigns for clients, we start from the proposition that the online world is delineated into gender camps.

As a seminal Ipsos study showed a few years ago, bloggers (and those who read them) tend to be angry, white, college/university-educated males. That’s why Stephen Harper’s acolytes are so preoccupied with blogs, for example.

Facebook, meanwhile, is wildly popular with everyone – but no one as much as young, upwardly-mobile women. For quite some time, they have been gravitating to Facebook in astonishing numbers – which is why centre-left political parties (like the Liberals and the NDP) need to be doing more in the FB demi-monde (but aren’t, go figure).

The Star has an interesting column this morning about this latter phenomenon.

“…Many parents would find it difficult — impossible even — to keep their daughters from surfing, let alone texting, during the week.

And besides, is it really that unhealthy? Is 21st century texting worse than 20th century tying up the phone playing High School Confidential with all your besties? Is Facebook any different from group mall-trawling for cute outfits and cuter boys?

Apparently so, at least according to Dr. Leonard Sax, author, physician and psychologist. He sees threats to children everywhere, in unnecessary prescriptions for ADHD meds, unchaperoned parties, department stores that sell sexy Ts for 7-year-olds, and in what he calls the “cyberbubble.”

That’s skewing their self-image and their world view, Sax believes.

“Most parents have no clue how kids are using Facebook,” he says…”

That’s a truism. Most parents “don’t have a clue” how their children are using any Internet tool – because they don’t understand the Internet like their children do. As a Dad, I am constantly amazed (and concerned) about the degree to which my children have an online life – and how I can only ever glimpse the faint outlines of it.

Anyway. Suggesting that kids are more cyber-savvy than adults is stating the manifestly, glaringly obvious. My point is different. My point is that those cyber-savvy boys and girls have embraced different media within the New Media. If anyone has any theories why that is so – and it is decidedly so – comments are welcome.

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The Globe story a lobbyist worked to suppress with threats and dark warnings – successfully?

This one is going to be interesting.

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Heard this for the first time at the March 25 Against Me! show in Kingston with my buddy Richard Warman.  What a night.

My kids love – and I mean love – this song.  Tonight, Boy Two was hollering it as we drove down Queen Street with the pizza and the ‘Avatar’ rental.

Christ, I love punk rock.

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• The Decentralized Centre: CP veteran Steve Mertl – who shares my fondness for big dogs, and less so tiny yappy ones – discovers that Harper’s PMO has now seeped into places other than Ottawa.  Norman Spector, me and a few others don’t ever recall that happening with any Prime Minister, going way back.  When we were in power, we shut down regional ministerial offices.  The Harper guys, meanwhile, expand them.  Interesting contrast.
• Lobbyists lobbying: I’m a lobbyist.  Also lobbyists, or lobbying, are the Salvation Army, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, Oxfam Canada, the Lung Association, the World Wildlife Fund and every Canadian university.  What gives lobbyists a bad name, mainly, are people/organizations who try to pretend they’re not lobbying, or registered lobbyists, when they are. It’s only a dirty word if you act like it is.  That, among other things, is the legacy of Rahim Jaffer and his ilk.
• Border buffoonery: During the course of various cross-border jaunts over the years, I’ve encountered some very polite border guards.  Increasingly, however, I’ve dealt with some – on both sides of the border – who are rude and crude tin-pot dictators who, among other things, have used exaggerated “terrorist” threats to justify their rude and crude behaviour.  They need to be reined in, big time.
• Sex sells: Sorry, Adam, but you’d be among the first to say “The provincial Liberals have failed because they haven’t put the brakes on their bureaucrat’s sex ed proposals.”  Instead, you and others are now saying we “failed” because, um, we did. Some days, you just can’t win.  (Even when sex is the subject matter!)
• The iPhone i-Leak: I was a bit suspicious about the story about the over-refreshed Apple employee who “lost” a prototype of the new 4G iPhone in a bar.  I mean, these guys at Apple are more secretive than an invitation-only get-together by the Yakuza, the Cosa Nostra and the NSA.  I grew more suspicious when I saw what the “accident” did to their stock price.  Anyway – looks like others were suspicious too.  And, yes, I’ll get it when it comes out: it may be a trick, but it’s a fun trick.

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Sounds like a name for a punk band.

My view?  If you have an electoral strategy, don’t talk about it.

Say who you are, be who you are, and do what you need to do.  But don’t say you want to have a “war” about anything.

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