Get ready.

You can always tell when a federal election is coming in Canada. The political parties commence a frenzy of fundraising. The commentariat start speculating incessantly about when, exactly, the election will take place. The media start writing profiles of backroom “strategists” who real folks don’t care about.

Oh, and conservatives start darkly whispering about coalitions.

It’s already happened at least a couple times on Sun News Network, the canary in the Conservative Party’s coal mine. As one of the network’s house Bolsheviks, I can tell you that Sun News is worth watching for that reason alone: it’s the place where the Stephen Harper Party first road-tests assorted talking points. It’s where they launch various trial balloons, to see what will float, and what will come crashing down to terra firma.

Thus, that hoary old chestnut, the coalition allegation. Harper and his party have successfully deployed it in 2011 and 2008, and they appear to be readying themselves to do so again. Worked before, it’ll work again, right?

Not necessarily. As the Conservative war room has discovered to their vexation, you can’t run the same plays in every game without the other guys eventually noticing. The attack ads that worked so well against Messrs. Dion and Ignatieff, for instance: the same sorts of ads haven’t worked as well against the fresh-faced Justin Trudeau, have they?

But the Tories are undeterred. If the “he’s in way over his head” ads aren’t peeling off thousands of soft Liberal votes, then the coalition canard almost certainly will. That is, Grits and Dippers (and, where available, separatists) are secretly plotting to come together to form a Satanic alliance post-election, thereby defying the people’s will, trampling on democracy, blah blah blah.

Here’s the proverbial fly in the coalition ointment, however: Liberals and New Democrats presently hate each other’s guts. We use that word advisedly: HATE. It fits.

They’ve always sort of hated each other, true. New Democrats see Liberals as soulless, venal hypocrites, interested in power and little else. Liberals see New Democrats as humourless, pious scolds who always prefer talking to doing.

But, lately, the level of enmity between Grits and Dippers has reached feverish proportions.

Dippers say that Justin Trudeau is the political Zoolander: an empty-headed pretty boy who talks a lot about the middle class, but who wouldn’t know the middle class if it bit him on one of his yoga-toned legs. Grits see Thomas Mulcair as Angry Tom, a crypto-separatist whose mere existence is imperiling their inevitable triumphant return later in 2015.

None of this Grit-Dipper odium deters Stephen Harper, of course. He spooked Liberals and New Democrats away from coalition-talk in the past and, by God, he intends to do so again. It worked.

No matter that his party, the Conservatives, was a coalition of the Reform/Alliance parties and the Progressive Conservative Party. No matter that he himself attempted an unconsummated, unholy coalition with the socialists and the separatists in 2004 – even writing a letter to the Governor-General about his willingness to enter into coalition matrimony. None of that matters.

What matters is winning, and Stephen Harper is rather good at winning. His opponents may deny, deny, deny that a coalition is imminent, let alone possible. They may point to the seamy and unseemly Parliament Hill sexual harassment cases – with accusation and counter-accusation flying back and forth – as clear evidence that the two parties heartily detest each other.

But, while all true, that’s all irrelevant. In the lead-up to elections, the truth is usually irrelevant.

Stephen Harper intends to make the coalition accusation again, by God, facts notwithstanding. It works.

It’s soon to be election time, after all, and coalition talk will soon be all the rage.

Get ready.

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Almost wipes out. Hilarity ensues. Caption contest!

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Apropos of nothing, here is my new fave, Plague Vendor, live. The words above come from a comment below the fan’s video, and they sum things up rather nicely. There is god-like genius at work here, folks.

PLAGUE VENDOR FINAL from Kevin Zacher on Vimeo.

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Your Honour, we present this exhibit!

He’s clearing the decks. Could be for the Fall, sure, but I still think the Spring.

Who’s with me?

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Now magazine is irritated with Your Humble Narrator.  For a while – um – now, the alt weakly has been in a state of high dudgeon, and it would be super boring if it weren’t for this: I’m researching a column on some of the hypocrisies of the so-called Left, to try and figure out why they’re in decline politically.  As such, I’ve been researching Now itself, and specifically:

• how it pretends to be progressive, when it is really just a big and profitable corporate interest
• for years busted any attempt to unionize there
• promotes women’s rights, while profiting on advertising that traffics in young girls
• how its boss hopes you spot his ponytail, but not his corporate DNA

And so on.

I’m interested in hearing from anyone – and particularly some of the former staffers at Now – who have stories to relate about its profitability, its union-busting, its hypocrisy on equality issues, and its bosses.  Feel free to confidentially email me at the usual place.

Otherwise, comment, er, now!

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Quote:

“Mulcair is the only leader of a federal party who stands a fair chance of losing his job following the federal election, tentatively slated for later this year.”

I’m not sure I agree with my colleague, who I almost always agree with.  Here’s a couple other scenarios:

• The economy gets lousy, those criminal trials get newsworthy, Stephen Harper has a Senator Finley-less – ie., poorly-run – campaign, and he flat-out loses the election.
• The economy stays strong, nobody cares about the trials, Harper again executes a solid campaign, and Justin Trudeau has a great big verbal flub on the campaign trail – or, worse, during the leaders’ debates – and he flat-out loses the election.

In either one of those scenarios, I can easily see the Tories and the Grits readying the gallows for Messrs. Harper or Trudeau.

What thinkest thou, O readers of this here web site?

 

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Apologies for getting all Toronto-centric, but the media in The Centre of the Universe are this morning filled with stories about how the new mayor is going to “get tough” with illegally parked vehicles during rush hour, blah blah blah. There are dozens of such stories.

Here’s the question I therefore asked on the Twitter thing. A few folks apparently agreed with me.

Dear Media: Towing illegally parked vehicles isn't as newsworthy as why illegally parked vehicles weren't being towed before now. Yours, TO

— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) January 5, 2015

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Me: "Wow, you slept late, buddy." Son 3: "Dad, I'm a teenager now. Teenagers sleep in." Me [with much sadness]: "Oh. Right."

— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) January 4, 2015

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If you were asked to assign a word to 2014, what would it be?

Cold? It was indisputably that. Uncertain? With oil costing far less‎ and housing costing ever more, unquestionably. Frightening? ISIS and Ebola ensured that it was.

Politically, there really is no single word that can be easily applied to the year that just went by. So let us look, instead, at ten people who – intentionally or not – shaped our politics and our perspective on 2014.

1. Nathan Cirillo and Patrice Vincent: The murders of these two Canadian Forces men ‎- at the hands of extremists who wanted to make a political statement, and did – still reverberates through our politics. Their deaths provided evidence that seemingly far-flung conflicts, in places like Afghanistan and Syria, aren’t so far away at all.

2.‎ Dave Ross, Douglas Larche, Fabrice Gevaudan: Three RCMP officers were gunned down by Justin Bourque in Moncton in June – and their tragic deaths would not have happened if Bourque, whose own lawyer called a “gun nut,” had been denied access‎ to a powerful semi-automatic M305. 308 sniper rifle. The deaths of Ross, Larche and Gevaudan could have been prevented with better government regulation of the acquisition of firearms.

‎3. Robin Williams: The comic was American, but his August suicide deeply ‎affected many Canadians. Williams’ passing provided us with another reminder that depression – while much-discussed – is still an enormous public health crisis that remains mostly unaddressed.

4. Jian Ghomeshi: Ghomeshi was one of the brightest stars in the Canadian media firmament – but he came crashing to Earth, in October, amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment and assault. His case, while rife with allegations that were disturbing, was also helpful in one way: it shone a light on the scourge of sexual harassment, and forced a debate that was long overdue.
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5. Ahmad Jauhari Yahya: The former CEO of Malaysia Airlines – his tenure ended on New Year’s Day – will be remembered‎ as the world’s unluckiest man. In the space of four months, two of his company’s planes went down – one shot out of the sky by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, the other lost over the South China Sea – claiming nearly 600 lives, among them Canadians. The stories of those two flights provided shocking reminders that life is terribly fleeting, and can be taken away in an instant.
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6. Michael Brown: The August death of the unarmed Missouri teenager – shot twelve times by police officer Darren Wilson after Brown had obeyed commands to put his hands up – set off riots and confrontations across the US, and even ‎protests in Canada. Brown’s death, and the deaths of other black men at the hands of white police officers, stirred up racial tensions in a way that few expected during the tenure of a black U.S. President.
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7. Vladimir Putin: Russia’s arrogant despot invaded the Crimea in February, and set off a conflict that has claimed the lives of thousands. Canada, home to the third-largest Ukrainian population in the world – after Ukriane and Russia – was rightly outraged by Putin’s flagrant disregard for international law and human rights. ‎ Putin, meanwhile, is still in power – and one of the world’s most reviled leaders.

Out of all that, a picture emerges. One word threads its way through the year gone by, and it is not happy one.

2014 was a year of triumphs, and breakthroughs, and some genuinely positive news, of course. But, mostly, the world in 2014 was still simply this:

Dangerous.

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Some of 2014 was kind of meh. I can now reveal, for example, my big news: I was going to be the host of a show on Sun News – but that show got cancelled before it even got aired! Drag. Would’ve been fun. Father John Daly, my priest, knows even more stuff.

But, mostly, it was a great year. My daughter won gold at the North American Indigenous Games – and my sons all had achievements academically and athletically. I finished a book that will surprise a lot of people (I think), and have already started the next one. And, of course, I got engaged to the aforementioned Ms. Kirbie – and we’re looking forward to a great Kinsellabration in Kennebunk at the end of August with friends of every political persuasion.

And, in respect of the political stuff, I would have liked to run in Toronto-Danforth, sure – but some of the Trudeau guys don’t like dissent, and I’m a dissenter. So I’ll be doing other things, politically, in the year to come.

In the meantime, here’s me and my gal on Sun News earlier today, predicting predictions about 2015. Comments about what we had to say are, as always, welcome. And, until next year, have a wonderful 2015 – and accept my thanks for making this web site a success, in its fifteenth anniversary year!

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