My first book was about terrorism.  What I learned:

1. Don’t give what them what they most want 
2. Don’t turn more people into terrorists
3. Don’t hesitate to find terrorists and terminate them

Donald Trump always does one and two. He doesn’t ever do three. 

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20 years ago today. I totally forgot about it. One of my Daisy colleagues reminded me.I would’ve been good at it, I think. 

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We can only hope.

A growing number of advertisers in Canada are feeling the heat for placing ads on The Rebel, a website founded by Ezra Levant as a successor of sorts to the now-defunct Sun News Network.

…Sleeping Giants, an anonymous group, created a Twitter account in November to publish screen shots of ads on Breitbart and to call out those advertisers for appearing there. In February, an affiliated account was created for Canada, and the group began focusing on The Rebel’s advertisers. The Canadian account has used social media to pressure brands such as 7-Eleven, Dynamite clothing stores, PetSmart, the Royal Canadian Mint, the NCAA, BMW Canada – for an ad placed by one of its dealers – and others.

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Let’s recap.

1. The Ontario PCs raised $16 million last year, and the Ontario Liberals – the, you know, government – raised $6 million.  Ten million less.  The government.
2. The most powerful mayor in Canada – a very, very popular guy who has helped the governing Liberals out of many tight spots – has all but declared war on them. And Ontario’s extremely ambitious Transport minister is Number One on John Tory’s hit list, now.  Not good.
3. And, last night in the Sault, the Ontario Liberal Party came third in a crucial by-election – and the PCs, who haven’t held that seat since the 1981 election, crushed them with more than 40 per cent of the vote.

That’s just the past week. Previous weeks have been just as crummy, if not more so.  The budgetary goodies, the Hydro rate cut and youth pharmacare haven’t really done what they were supposed to do.

Radical change is needed.  Three suggestions:

1. Fire the Wizard.  The “chief strategist” is doing to the OLP what the Wizard and his pals did to the LPC ten years ago: killing it.  Get rid of that crew, now, and bring in people who know how to win.
2. New blood, new ideas.  The OLP desperately needs both.  Caucus – and some excellent staff in the Premier’s Office and minister’s offices – say the same thing: the OLP brand is strong, but it needs excitement.  It needs new and better ideas.  It needs new blood, in the form of some impressive candidates and thinkers.
3. Reflect.  I know Kathleen Wynne.  I’ve worked with Kathleen Wynne.  I admire Kathleen Wynne.  And I know that Kathleen Wynne will not let the Ontario Liberal Party go down to third place in 2018.  She will do the right thing.  If she is dragging down the party, she will make the selfless decision.

As of this month, the election is twelve months away.  That leaves enough time – barely – to make some big changes.

Let’s make them, now.

 

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Just getting that out here, about this.

Takes big constitutional balls to say what he has said, very clearly. Ipso facto, I (and Coyne, probably) love the guy.

As Premier Philippe Couillard appears set to kick off a renewed push towards negotiations for Quebec to sign on to the 1982 Constitution, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seems to want to stay out of it.

“You know my views on the Constitution,” Trudeau told reporters in French on Thursday morning in Ottawa. “We are not opening the Constitution.”

The CBC’s French-language service, Radio-Canada, was among media reporting late Wednesday that Couillard is set to release a 200-page document outlining his government’s vision of Quebec’s role within Canada and laying out arguments in support of reopening negotiations.

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Who could it be?

What Toronto City Councillor wrote that his/her residents have "a grade 2 understanding" of issues? #topoli #onpoli pic.twitter.com/cXzAl7PpIM

— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) April 19, 2017

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You’ve probably seen this by now, but it still makes me spit my morning covfefe all over my desk.

Here’s the Unpresident:

Crooked Hillary Clinton now blames everybody but herself, refuses to say she was a terrible candidate. Hits Facebook & even Dems & DNC.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 1, 2017

And here’s my candidate:

People in covfefe houses shouldn't throw covfefe. https://t.co/M7oK5Z6qwF

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 1, 2017

Game, set, match.

Dear Agent Orange: she plays chess.  You still play checkers – badly.

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Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.  A half century.  Incredible.

I don’t remember it coming out, on June 1, 1967.  I was six, and we were living in Dallas.  Much later on, I recall, certain songs would start to leave a mark – Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, Within You Without You (I shared George’s fascination with Indian instrumentation and still do), the title track.  All genius.

And, much later, I’d be amazed that the Fabs did what they did with just four and eight analog tracks.  Eight!  Last weekend, SFH were in a studio that had 64, all digital.  What would Sgt. Pepper have sounded like with that, I often wonder. (And McCartney essentially created DI for his bass! Seriously!)

Anyway: it was this song that remains, to me, the crowning achievement of that extraordinary album – and which is still the greatest pop song of all time.  Some days, I felt like it was written just for me.  You know a song is brilliant when it makes you feel like that.

So – happy birthday, Sgt. Pepper, wherever you are.  You changed the world.

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