• Deficits, Paul Martin, a sudden surplus, Duffy, polls and pols: it’s open thread time.  
• I’m driving for ten hours today. And my focus will therefore be on getting Sons 1, 2 and 3 safely back to Canada. 
• So, comment away. When we stop for gas or whatever, I will approve your bon mots. 
• Have a great day and a great weekend. And I hope this KCCCC stuff is providing you with a bit of entertainment during the Mother of All Elections!

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• Justin Trudeau has rolled the dice, big time. He says, if elected, he will run big budgetary deficits – $10 billion a year for three years.
• Why did he do it? I suspect he knows that – at this point, at least – he is running third.  Individual horse race polls notwithstanding, any credible synthesis of voting intentions suggest this thing is still between Team Orange and Team Blue. So he figured he had to make a bold move, and he did.
• When all else fails, go left. By just about every economic measure, Trudeau is now running to the left of Mulcair. And he has therefore commenced attacking the NDP leader for being an austerity-loving Thatcherite. Will it work? I don’t think so.
• Trudeau’s deficit pledge requires a fundamental reordering of our thinking on what the parties believe. It was always simple: Conservatuves on the right, New Democrats on the left, and Liberals in the pragmatic middle. Can the ideological underpinnings of a political party change? Of course. But only over a long period of time, with careful reflection and lots of consultation, and certainly not during the middle of an election campaign.
• It helps Trudeau’s opponents. The Conservatives have repeatedly attacked Trudeau for saying that budgets “take care of themselves.” The NDP has been frantically attempting to shift towards the economic middle. With one swift and decisive move, Trudeau has provided evidence in support of the Tory criticism – and has opened up a ton of centrist ideological breathing room for the Dippers.
• That all said, could his deficit gambit work? Maybe. Perhaps. But at this point, it looks a bit dangerous. Justin Trudeau has rolled the dice – and only time will tell if he’s rolled snake eyes.

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• A nice young fellow from iPolitics got in touch with me this week. Some of my friends in other parties, too: Robin Sears, Will Stewart and Tim Powers. We were all asked what the parties should do post-Duffy and post-Labour Day. Here.
• Those guys are smarter than me. Heed what they say. And here’s what they have to say. 
• Robin Sears: “I think this long campaign was a very foolish mistake by the Tories.”
• Will Stewart: With Duffy now adjourned until November, his Conservatives need to “start driving their own message again so they can stop addressing [Duffy] at every campaign stop.”
• Tim Powers: “If part of [the NDP and Liberal] narrative is the government is old, it’s crooked, it’s gone against its core raison d’être, you’re going to keep [Duffy] going.”
• Me? As you guys know too well, I think the only people who care about scandal stuff work in Ottawa or in the nation’s news rooms. They don’t care about Duffy nearly as much as politicos or journos do. They – living in the real world, as they do – think it’s still only about the economy, stupid. And, so far, no one has come up with the winning economic story, have they? Nope. 

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Written by Pierre and me when we were 17 or so; reprised here, 35 years later. We had a very positive view of the future, as you can see.

When I see the faces going by me
And I feel the screams inside of me
And I wonder what they’re thinking now
And I wonder if they think at all

Why, why, do they?
How, how are they?

They say that the times are a-changin’ now
And they say that things are better now
And I see the paper every morning
And I think I like the comics best

I see the way they fucked my world
And I think I love my world
And I want to kill all of them
And I know that that’s their master plan

I am tired and there’s hate inside of me
And I wonder why they murdered me
And I wish I could start all over again
For I’m 18, and I’ve given up

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I can resume my career as a beach sketchbook artist. Later. 

  

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• So, we got hitched down by the ocean. Nothing fancy, lots of family and friends, Hot Nasties reunion, lobster, weather was great. And I got to marry my best friend. Not bad.
• Kind messages were received from Jean Chretien, John Turner, Kathleen Wynne, Dalton McGuinty, John Tory and Laureen Harper. Thoughtful words sent along by lotsa other folks, too, of every political persuasion.
• In attendance at the wedding? Politicians, politicos, hacks and hackettes. And, between courses, there was a lot of gossip about the election taking place back home. Here’s a sampling of observations, synthesized.
• “It’s a bit like an American election.” Down here, primaries and general elections go for month after month after month. There’s tons of advertising, intermittent debates, and very little public attention paid to the proceedings. Sound familiar?
• “It’s the pre-season. Nobody’s paying attention.” Unless and until there is something to persuade them to pay attention – like an exciting candidate (Obama 2008) or a candidate to be angry about/with (Trump 2015) – Joe and Jane Frontporch are much more preoccupied with soaking up the last of summer’s rays, or getting the kids ready for school, or whatever. They simply have not clicked in to this election.
• “Trump represents a new kind of politician, like Rob Ford.” They are angry, populist, and they say whatever pops into their tiny craniums. But there is clearly a constituency for what they are saying, and how they are saying it. In the Canadian election, there is no one like them. Harper is the incumbent, Trudeau has spent more time at 24 Sussex than Harper has, and Mulcair is fully a part of the Central Canadian Establishment, however much he denies it. So who gets the growing Angry Vote?
• Anyway, gotta go. Got a tent to take down, and the remaining rentals to take back. It’s a bit foggy still, but we wish you were all here with us later on, to have a drink down on the beach, and talk politics. Have a terrific day back home. See you tomorrow.

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No KCCCC today. Getting, you know, married. 

That’s me and my gal before the Red Sox game this week. She makes me pretty happy. 

She is smart and sensitive and strategic and strong and sexy. She is brilliant and beautiful. She is fun and funny and fabulous. She is my best friend, and she still takes my breath away when she walks in the room. 

In a few hours we get hitched, with all our six kids and family and friends and assorted punk rockers there for the party.  Wish all of you were, too. 

Today, Kinsellabration!

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They play I Am A Confused Teenager! They’re not teenagers anymore! The Palma Violets sort of like this song! Four people were there to witness history!

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• A loose cannon: Noun – a person who cannot be controlled and who does or says things that cause problems, embarrassment, etc., for others
• There are a few rolling around on deck, today. Now, of course, whether someone is a “loose cannon” or not is quite subjective. It is in the eye of the cannon beholder, you might say. I’ve been called one, in my day. But I believe that you sometimes need to take big risks, in order to score on an opponent. Like with this trip down memory lane. (My good pal Jon Kay said I won the 2000 election with that stunt, but that isn’t true. Anyway, I digress.)
• Randy White is a loose cannon. And he’s back in the news, broadly hinting that he’s going to be voting for the godless socialists. My only advice to my Bolshevik pals? Be very, very careful. This is the same guy who sank the Conservative campaign in 2004, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, when he mused out loud about overruling judges and the Charter.
• Asa was a loose cannon, too. And as we documented on these pages yesterday, the charming Calgary Liberal candidate had some decidedly less-than-charming things to say about others. To her credit, Asa decided she had become a liability and pulled the plug.
• Donald Trump is the Father of all Loose Cannons. But he’s using his enhanced loose cannon status to win the Republican race and now, look quite competitive with the Democratic Party front runner. To wit, being a loose cannon can raise all boats just as much as it can sink all boats. Trump is proving that, at a historic level. However much he is a racist piece of human garbage, he’s doing it.
• Loose cannons roll around on the deck, sure. But sometimes they can score a direct hit on the other side, too. As Chrétien used to say me: “If you don’t try, you won’t lose. But if you do try, you might win.” Fire!

 

 

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