“Crickets:” Huge news for Toronto and the city-province relationship, across Canada

— 09.10.2018 07:16 AM

From the actual judgement from Justice Belobaba.  Read to the last line.  That’s something I’ve never seen before:


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Hill Times writes about Tire-gate

— 09.10.2018 06:40 AM

Right here.

Kinsella nearly gets involuntarily, er, re-tired


Hill Times columnist Warren Kinsella looks forward to retirement, he says. But not that kind.

Last weekend, Mr. Kinsella was returning to his Toronto home from London, where he had helped one of his sons settle in at Western University. The author and former special assistant to Jean Chrétien was in the fast lane on Highway 401 when disaster struck.

“I first heard this unsettling woosh sound, kind of like the sound Andrew Scheer made when Max Bernier announced the formation of a second conservative party,”said Mr. Kinsella. “And then there was rapid and dra- matic depressurization, not unlike Jagmeet Singh’s hopes to be prime minister.”

He wrestled his new Jeep to the side of the highway, avoiding any other motorists and — perhaps regrettably from the perspective of his many critics in the Prime Minister’s Office — somehow survived.

“I called for roadside assistance, but they never came. Kind of like what happens when you call the federal government for help,” Mr. Kinsella said. “So I changed the damn tire myself, with my bare hands. I’m from Calgary, after all.” 

The brand new Goodyear all-season tire wasn’t flat — it had completely blown out, resembling a big black rubber band wrapped around Mr. Kinsella’s axle.  It was only later he realized how serious it had been.

“I could have bought the farm,” Mr. Kinsella said. “I apologize to my detractors for not having done so.”

His blow-out attracted some media attention. Global TV’s Sean O’Shea filed a report on the incident. Corus’ Charles Adler had also reported on the incident. The Hill Times, too, has now reported on Mr. Kinsella’s tire blowout, and will stop doing so right about now.


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Pro tip: when you call your opponent too negative, don’t promote the stuff you’ve called negative

— 09.07.2018 12:52 PM

So, the John Tory folks put together a fun little video about the expressed desire of Tory’s main opponent, Jen Keesmaat, to secede from the province and country.  Here it is.



Okay. So, Keesmaat’s folks didn’t like it. They’d been calling John Tory all kinds of nasty names for weeks, but they’re not too good in the dishing-it-out-and-taking-it department. They got all sniffy and told CITY-TV that John Tory “doesn’t want to talk about his record,” blah blah blah.


Anyway. Keesmaat’s comms guy is a good friend of mine, Chris Ball. I like him a lot. In this campaign, we’ve taken good-natured shots at each other, and at our opposing candidates. I tweeted (what I correctly thought was) a funny picture about Keesmaat’s transit and traffic plans, Chris responded with what he (erroneously) thought was a funny picture about Tory.

So I responded with the secession video above. Someone immediately favourited the video. Guess who it was?

I’ve been doing this for a long time, boys and girls, but that’s the first time I’ve ever had an opponent help promote an attack ad about that selfsame opponent.

Anyway, it’s never dull on the old campaign trail!  And, at the very least, it also heretofore eliminates Ms. Keesmaat’s ability to say her opponent is being too negative!


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