And here I thought Liberals were vicious

Fifty-two per cent. Wow.

Quick reactions, stream of unconsciousness:

  • Justin Trudeau probably wanted to keep Thomas Mulcair around. The next guy/gal may steal back what Trudeau took from the NDP in 2015. 
  • The Conservatives need the Dippers to have a stronger leader. Maybe they’ll get one, now. 
  • By staying on a bit longer, Mulcair gets his six best years for his pension, no? 
  • So much for that orange breakthrough in Quebec. That’s over. The Bloc will be smiling. 
  • Et tu, Stephen Lewis?
  • The Leap Manifesto is a lengthy suicide note. 
  • Knifed by the very people who defended his every word six months ago. 
  • Wow. 

What do you think, folks?


Tomorrow’s Boston Globe, foretelling the future

It’s to match their anti-Trump editorial inside.

Could it ever happen? Of course it could. Trump has shown us all that many, many Americans are in a decidedly conservative mood. They will never vote for a guy from Vermonet who calls himself a socialist. Sorry, but they won’t. 

Want this front page to be real, America? Pick Sanders as the Democratic nominee. 

  


Catholic church becoming more, well, catholic

“Catholic,” as I am sure you know, means “universal.” That is, it is supposed to embrace everyone, everywhere – in every circumstance. Universal.

My Pope – I feel safe, for the first time in my life, using a possessive in that way – apparently agrees:

ROME — In a broad proclamation on family life, Pope Francis on Friday called for the Roman Catholic Church to be more welcoming and less judgmental, and he seemingly signaled a pastoral path for divorced and remarried Catholics to receive holy communion.

The 256-page document — known as an apostolic exhortation and titled “Amoris Laetitia,” Latin for “The Joy of Love” — calls for priests to welcome single parents, gay people and unmarried straight couples who are living together.

“A pastor cannot feel that it is enough to simply apply moral laws to those living in ‘irregular’ situations, as if they were stones to throw at people’s lives,” he wrote.

I don’t think the document is as positive as the Times report suggests it is, in respect of LGBT people – but give this Pope some more time, he will get there.  After all: he has moved the Church further in the three years of his papcy than it had moved in the 300 years that preceded his arrival.

As a divorced Catholic, I’m happy to see a Pope who finally gets it.  In effect, he is encouraging some creative priest-shopping: find one who will listen to you, and who will act.  (Can such priests be found? Well, yes: I was married by a gay priest who assisted young women with unwanted pregnancies.  And he later died of AIDS. So, yes.)

The Church, as noted, is supposed to be universal.  Pope Francis is making that word finally mean something to those of us who have been waiting.  Thank God, as they say.

 

 


Waiting room

Been waiting around for other people, this week.  So Fugazi’s godlike anthem has naturally preoccupied me.

Fun video.  This is my world.


Dear Dipper mutineers

As you wing your way to Edmonton, have a safe trip.

And if you are looking for something to read, here is a snippet from next week’s Hill Times column.

“…Tom Mulcair made some mistakes, sure. He embraced the losing electoral strategy of Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath and Toronto mayoral candidate Olivia Chow: he moved to the ideological Right. On deficits, on defence, on virtually any issue, the New Democrat leader didn’t sound like a traditional New Democrat. In his mad dash to get to the centre, he left behind his bewildered NDP voters, who accordingly wandered over to the more-progressive Trudeau Liberals.

But, guess what, NDP caucus, and NDP candidates and NDP core? You enthusiastically applauded all that, every step of the way. You didn’t say a word – not a single word – objecting to any of it when you could have. You, like Mulcair, had witnessed Rachel Notley’s rush to the centre, and her resulting historic victory. And you figured you could do the same thing federally. You figured wrong.

So, did Tom Mulcair snatch defeat from the proverbial jaws of victory? For sure. But so did you, Team Orange. So did you. Your fingerprints are all over the crime scene, too.”

Yours,

Warren