“On January 18, 2012 I made allegations that Warren Kinsella was fired from Sandra Pupatello’s campaign for leader of the Ontario Liberal Party. The allegations were false. Mr. Kinsella was not fired from the campaign. I retract those allegations and I sincerely apologize to Mr. Kinsella.”
Matt has also made a generous donation to the Arthritis Society, at my request. Good luck to him and his team in the weeks ahead. Onward and upward.
Tom Who?
Thomas Joseph Mulcair, that is, the fellow alleged to be the leader of both the New Democratic Party of Canada and Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition.
You may have heard of him, or perhaps even seen him on TV once or twice. Bearded, greying hair, doesn’t smile much. Bit of a temper.
Just about a year ago, New Democrats gathered in Toronto to select Mulcair as their leader. It was in all the papers at the time.
“Can Mulcair really become a team leader?” one headline queried, and the answer appeared to be “no.” Beneath it, columnist L. Ian MacDonald wrote that the former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister “has never been known as a team player” and had been “always a polarizing figure.”
The folks at Maclean’s purloined a phrase by Yours Truly, and dubbed Mulcair “Mr. Angry” in a pre-convention headline because, well, he is.
“Renowned for his short fuse,” Maclean’s wrote, adding “critics worry about his temperament.”
“Harper has little to fear from Mulcair,” Barbara Yaffe wrote in the Vancouver Sun, and she was certainly right about that, but for a reason no one anticipated last March. Mr. Angry, you see, has become Mr. Invisible.
He is a political missing person. If we didn’t know better, in fact, we’d reckon that Mulcair had entered a witness protection program.
Folks in Ottawa will tell you, at this point, they see Mulcair just about every day in question period (as if question period matters, which it doesn’t).
They’ll say he has been an active and visible leader of the opposition, but that is only true if you consider what happens in Ottawa to be relevant to the everyday lives of everyday folks (which it isn’t).
Out here in the hinterland — that is to say, in the real world — nobody knows or cares much about Angry Tom Mulcair. Sure, he popped up a few months ago to alienate millions of westerners with his musings about “Dutch disease.”
He fulminated about ethics and fighter jets and the economy. He has permitted a bill to ooze out of his NDP caucus that would repeal the Clarity Act and return us to the unity wars of the past.
And, after that … not much.
As Yaffe foretold, but for different reasons, Harper has indeed had little to fear from Mulcair. The ruling Conservatives seem listless and drifting, but they have remained at the top of public opinion polls for much of Mulcair’s tenure as leader of the NDP. The prime ministerial cat, Stanley, lately seems more relevant than the leader of the opposition.
The Liberals, meanwhile, are leaderless, and located in a distant perch in the House of Commons.
But the Grits generate more ink and more interest than Mulcair’s gaggle of former bartenders and golf course employees.
Justin Trudeau, the likely winner of the Liberal leadership contest, is a human ATM, raking in cash and looking like a winner.
Mulcair doesn’t look like a winner. His problem is that he is not Jack Layton. The much-loved, deceased NDP icon was everything Mulcair is not: Smiling, positive, likeable and energetic.
Why NDP delegates would pick Layton’s opposite to be their leader is an ongoing mystery. But they did.
Tom Who? More like, Tom Who Cares.
Canadians, mostly, don’t.
Why would my friend Pupatello agree to be a Minister of Finance without a seat in the Legislature – when the very people doing the supposed asking were attacking her, not so long ago, for not having a seat in the Legislature?
Politics sure is weird, sometimes.
As he kicks off the 2013 Parliamentary calendar – and as he nears the mid-point in his majority mandate – Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a serene look about him.
The clearest indication of this came on Twitter, naturally, which Harper has embraced with all the enthusiasm of a teenager who received a Blackberry Z10 prototype under the Christmas tree.
There he was this week, merrily tweeting photographs of him partaking breakfast with his cat Stanley. (We are not making this up, as much as we wish that we were.) Later on in the day, Canadians were rewarded with tweeted photos of Harper eating a healthy-looking lunch, and even giving a Conservative MP a high-five. For what, we don’t know. But the Prime Ministerial day presently looks like more fun than a barrel full of Ikea Monkeys.
He should enjoy it while he can. Ominous clouds are gathering on the Conservative horizon, and not even joyful Twitter tweets can obscure them.
For starters, there’s the war thing. Faithfully reprising Richard M. Nixon – who also launched a secret war, except in Cambodia – Harper appears to be leading an unaware nation into a combat role in Mali. And, while he wants us to pay attention to his cat Stanley, he’s evidently less interested in Canadians knowing what awaits in a faraway African quagmire.
Thus, we had to learn from French TV reports that we are sending untold numbers of special forces commandos to Mali. Similarly, we discovered a Canadian cargo plane – and the personnel required to keep it aloft – are heading there, too. And it was Mali’s president who told us that – on Twitter. (Pix of the Mali presidential cat? Untweeted. Canada’s Parliament? Unconsulted.)
Meanwhile, in this hemisphere, troubles aplenty await. Frustrated by Idle No More’s inconclusive conclusion, many First Nations leaders remain unhappy, and are promising a Spring that will be memorable for blockades and road closures. Elections Canada’s investigations into the Conservative robocalls scandal continue.
Cravenly seeking a few extra votes in separatist-led Quebec, idiots within the NDP want to scrap the immensely-popular Clarity Act. In so doing, the New Democrats are ensuring an unwelcome return of past constitutional and unity battles. Which Harper, and Canadians, need like a hole in the head.
In mid-April, Liberals are expected to elevate Justin Trudeau to the Liberal Party leadership. However much Conservatives like to publicly claim that they will welcome the Montreal Grit MP’s arrival on the big stage, they privately acknowledge that Trudeau’s surging popularity remains a political problem.
In the boxing ring, the much-disliked Conservative “Senator” Patrick Brazeau learned – the hard way – what can happen when Cons underestimate Trudeau. And, in previously-hostile places like Kamloops, Trudeau recently attracted more than 600 enthusiastic supporters. (The last time a federal Liberal brought out that many Westerners was to attend a hanging – of Liberals.)
Most worrisome, for Harper, remains the economy. Concerns persist about Canadian household debt, a declining housing market, a flattened commodities market, and ongoing economic instability in Europe and the U.S. Fully half of Canadians have told Harris-Decima that they are worried – or “very worried” – about what the future holds for them and their families.
The Bank of Canada has downgraded its projections for the year, foretelling that economic growth will decline. The combined budgetary deficits for this year and last are expected to be at least $10 billion worse than forecast by the Conservative government.
When in tight spots in the past, Harper rolled out his piano to play Beatles tunes, or posed in a cuddly sweater. This year, he’s tweeting photos of Stanley the Cat. Will it work again?
We shall see. But even Stanley might acknowledge that, after six long years in power, Stephen Harper’s troubles are increasingly unlikely to be tweeted away.
There’s a couple in the papers today – one in the Globe, one by Canadian Press, about Grits and Tories, respectively.
What do staffers think about such profiles? They hate ’em, mostly. They inevitably cause problems with or for the boss, and with political peers. Jealousy, anger, distrust, you name it.
There’s a reason, therefore, why staffers don’t usually consent to profile interview requests. No good ever comes of them.
Just-released audit by a forensic accounting firm:
He broke the law again.
What will the law do about it? Do date, SFA. But, once again, Ford’s facing the (unlikely) prospect of being removed from office.
Still think this clown was worth voting for, those of you who did so?
Davey Snot on skins, fresh from court (he’s wearing his barrister’s stuff, no less); the Dimmer Twins (in matching outfits!) on strings. Playing, for the first time ever, ‘TV Show’ at the Rehearsal Factory. Lyrics-for-the-ages-below! Politics is never as fun-loving as this.
We’re super bored now
Nothin’ to do now
Our current reality blows
Let’s watch some reality shows
CHORUS
We got our TV, we got our TV:
TV, TV
We got no books now, don’t read ’em anyhow: TV, TV
We don’t like the daylight
It’s always way too bright
We don’t ever need to work
When we have our Captain Kirk
CHORUS
Spongebob, Gilligan, Flintstones too
Much to see, nothing much to do
Don’t need no PC, don’t need no repartee
Who needs T Rex when we got TV