Dear Conservative Party delegates:

We hope you enjoyed your convention in Calgary!

We would recommend where to get the best pizza (Michael’s, on Tenth Ave.), or the best burgers (Peter’s, on Sixteenth Ave.). But, after the Parliamentary session you’ve had, we suspect none of you are in the mood for a festive meal.

You’ve seen your party slip in the polls. You’ve seen caucus members openly castigating each other. You’ve seen your former luminaries – Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau, who your party rewarded with Senate appointments – round on your party, and spill lots of Tory blood.

Most notably, you’ve seen your leader turn like a cornered, wounded dog on his former Chief of Staff, Nigel Wright. Five months ago, Stephen Harper – your leader, not mine – defended Wright in the then-embryonic Senate scandal.

On Tuesday, Harper was a changed man, and it was ugly. When asked about the $90,000 Wright gave to Duffy to cover questionable expenses and protect his leader, Harper was vicious. “One person [is] responsible for this deception that person is Mr. Wright. It is Mr. Wright by his own admission!” Harper thundered.

It was an extraordinary spectacle, and not merely because Harper knows that his authority is slipping away. It was extraordinary because Nigel Wright is no ordinary Conservative.

Full disclosure: my ex-wife was Wright’s partner for many years. They met in the office of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

Wright and I didn’t socialize, me being a hardcore Alberta Liberal, and him being a hardcore Ontario Conservative. We weren’t friends.

I didn’t ask my wife-to-be much about him. But, eventually, I learned a few things. A picture emerged.

Nigel Wright was adopted and brought up in a loving, good family. His parents were not wealthy, and Wright worked hard for everything that he got. He was a deeply religious Anglican who, for a time, contemplated the priesthood.

He devoted himself to his studies, and charitable causes, his faith and – almost as much – the Conservative Party.

Wright conquered on Bay Street as a lawyer and a deal-maker, to be sure, becoming a millionaire at a very young age. But blue Tory blood ran through his veins – and there are only a handful of unelected people in this country who gave as much to conservative causes. Fundraising, policy, organization: Nigel Wright did it all.

On Tuesday, while Stephen Harper cast him as a liar and a wrong-doer in the privileged confines of the House of Commons, Nigel Wright maintained a stoic silence, as he has throughout this sordid affair. While the most powerful man in Canada attempted to destroy his reputation, Wright said nothing.

Unable to believe what I was witnessing, I tweeted that he needed to fight back. Part of my motivation for doing so was empathy: during the federal Liberal civil wars, some of Paul Martin’s thugs had attempted to destroy the reputations of those of us who remained loyal to Jean Chretien. I knew a little of what Wright must be feeling.

But, mostly, I could not believe that this was happening – of all people – to Nigel Wright. If there is anyone of my generation who has devoted themselves more selflessly to the Conservative Party, I do not know who it is.

It goes without saying: I don’t know the full facts in the Senate scandal, which has become a cancer on the government. But I do know that blaming Nigel Wright for all of it is not merely dishonest – it is disgusting.

That man who you cheered and applauded in Calgary, this weekend, Tory faithful? He’s not the formerly young Conservative aide from Calgary. He’s a career Ottawa politician, and all he cares about is his survival.

He doesn’t care about anything else, Conservative delegates. Take my word for it: if he could turn on Nigel Wright, he could turn on someone else, too.

You, for example.

Sincerely,

Warren.

Comments (39)

Here:

I saw your last show at the Echoplex and noticed you had a special guest. I know you’ve often covered the Hot Nasties, but how did Warren Kinsella end up performing with you guys?

We met him through Nardwuar when we went to Canada, and he interviewed us. Then he came and saw us in LA, and we told him “Now that you’re here, you do realize you have to play with us.” He didn’t have a choice; we just told him to shut up and do it.

That must have been a surreal experience, to have someone you looked up to and covered playing on stage with you.

Yeah, it was; you always dream about that as a kid. You hear a song that you think is so cool, and you can only imagine that one day you could play this, and then lo and behold, he was right there on stage with us at the Echoplex show. It was a lot of fun.

Comments (1)

Now, how do I keep and protect her all winter?

Comments (8)

From her Facebook page. Boy oh boy, it is so refreshing to hear from someone who conducts herself like a leader should, eh?

Dear friends,

I believe in restorative justice. Which is the idea that we need to look for ways to help people who make serious mistakes in their lives — as and when they take responsibility for their actions, and accept accountability.

Like all Torontonians, I was very disappointed to learn yesterday from Chief Bill Blair that Mayor Rob Ford has not been telling the people of Toronto the truth about the video widely reported in the media in recent months. Many of yesterday’s revelations about Mayor Ford’s closest associates, activities and personal problems are also deeply troubling.

Mayor Ford obviously faces some serious challenges in his life. I hope he finds help soon.

I also believe that as our Mayor — head of our city administration and Toronto’s representative to the province, the country, and the world — he must take responsibility for his actions. A good place to start would be for him to now face up to the truth, and to tell it.

Our city deserves better.

Olivia

Comments (27)

…his high-priced legal mouthpiece, no less, has decided to play a game of high-stakes chicken.  Release the video, he says. Right here.

He may be saying it because (a) he knows the video showing Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine is central to the Lisi extortion prosecution, and the Crown would therefore never agree to release it until trial.  Or, he may be saying it because (b) he is suddenly somehow indifferent to what happens to his client.

Me, I think alternative (a) is most likely.  It’s a clever little P.R. stunt.  Look like you have nothing to hide, etc. etc.

So, here’s my alternative suggestion: as I posted yesterday, there is a second video.  It, too, shows the Mayor of Toronto getting fried with the same folks.  It isn’t evidence in the Lisi prosecution.

Call Ford’s lawyer’s bluff, Toronto cops: ask him if he’d agree to the release of that video, right here, right now.

He won’t say yes. And his little P.R. stunt will be revealed to be just that.

Comments (13)

Wow.

Oh, and check this out: a drunk named “Ian” calls a right-wing radio host. It’s Rob Ford. Listen.

Comments (21)

Still think we’re all Ford enablers?

By the way, I am told that both videos – there are two on the hard drive – show Ford getting wasted. Only one is being used in the Lisi prosecution.

Comments (9)

A few weeks ago, I wrote this:

“There is no way on God’s green earth — none — the RCMP, and/or the Canadian law enforcement/intelligence community, would have let Harper get that close to Ford if the latter was facing an imminent criminal charge, or proof of involvement in a serious crime.

The RCMP’s Protective Policing Service is sworn to protect the prime minister in every way.

…So why would the Mounties allow Stephen Harper anywhere near Rob Ford?

Because they have formed the opinion that, lawsuits or not, the infamous crack video is — as its owner later told that same Toronto newspaper and U.S. website — “gone.”

Pictures say more than words. The Harper-Ford picture says plenty.

Namely, the video is gone, baby, gone.”

The full column is here.

Now, as the entire world knows, Toronto’s Chief of Police today all-but-said that his force now possessed the video. It was big, big news.

In his dramatic press conference, Chief Blair said this:

“As a result of the evidence that was seized on June 13, [2013,] at the conclusion of Project Traveller, a number of electronic devices, computers, telephones and hard drives were seized and all of the devices that have been seized have been subject to forensic review and examination by members of the Toronto Police Service intelligence unit computer technology section.”

And:

“On October the 29th, on Tuesday of this week, we received information from our computer technology section that in the examination of a hard drive that had been seized on June 13, they were able to identify a number of files that had been deleted and that they were able to recover those files.”

Get that? They get the hard drive that everyone on the planet has been looking for on June 13, 2013 – and, 138 days later – the army of cops working this file decide to, you know, take a look.

Do you believe that? I sure don’t.

I mean, if it’s true, it certainly explains why the RCMP had no objection when PMO was planning that September press conference, doesn’t it? Toronto cops didn’t tell them, because Toronto cops didn’t know what they had.

But – having a been a cop reporter, way back when – I don’t believe for a New York Minute that Toronto forensic types didn’t go over that hard drive with a nit comb back in June.  If they didn’t do that, they all deserve to be fired for gross incompetence.  I mean, it was only the most sought-after video in the world.

Something smells, here.  And, if the Commissioner of the RCMP wasn’t on the blower to Chief Blair after his little press conference – saying something like: “Did it occur to you to check all the evidence you possessed before we put the Prime Minister of Canada beside the target of a criminal investigation? Did you, perchance, have the Prime Minister under surveillance when you apparently had your mayor under surveillance? Planned to tell us about that?”

It wouldn’t be a happy conversation.

Right about now, somewhere between Ottawa and Calgary, Stephen Harper is – justifiably – kicking some Mountie behinds.  He’s saying: “When were morons going to tell me that you were okay with me standing beside a guy who was under police investigation at the time I was standing beside him?  Oh, and also that he was on a video or two, smoking crack? When were you guys planning to tell me that?”

See where I’m going with this?  After 138 days, Toronto cops didn’t know what they had? I rather doubt it.

So why didn’t they tell the RCMP?

Your guess is as good as mine.  That part I don’t understand, at all.

Comments (26)

…he should think again.

My little BBQ vid, from the 2011 Ontario campaign. An oldie but a goodie.

Comments (25)

It has been suggested to me by about a gazillion people, in the past 30 minutes, that I re-post this.  (Political) life imitates (punk) art, you might say!

Comments (10)