Stupidity watch: “Controversial reporter”

So says the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada about Stephen Maher.

Words do not fully express how breathtakingly stupid this is. Stupider than a box of hair. Stupider than a sack of hammers. Stupider than a coat of second paint. Stupider than rice. Stupider than spit. Stupider than Sarah Palin and Dubya.

Actually, I take that back. Even Palin and Dubya wouldn’t have done something like this.

Maher, meanwhile, has just become even more popular than he was before. A raise is in order too, I think.


Not a joke

The ad you may have heard about, and possibly seen.  First reaction: whoever did this was drunk, or on drugs, or both.

I’ll have plenty to say about the NRA and their acolytes in the Sun papers on Sunday.  They won’t like it.


That was then, this is now

Toronto Star, January 17:

Liberal leadership front-runner Kathleen Wynne is rejecting Tory speculation that she would formally join forces to govern with the New Democrats if chosen premier at a party convention this month.

I have not talked about a coalition,” Wynne said after a luncheon speech to the Toronto Board of Trade…

Toronto Star, January 16:

Kathleen Wynne, a front-runner to succeed Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty, and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath are willing to work together to avert an election.

Wynne, who is in a tight leadership race with former Windsor West MPP Sandra Pupatello, said she would co-operate with Horwath or Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak.

Toronto Star, January 15:

Star: NDP leader Andrea Horwath said Tuesday that she would be open to collaboration with the next Liberal leader. Would you entertain a formalcoalition with the NDP?

Wynne: I will be reaching out to both Tim (Hudak) and Andrea (Horwath). I want the opportunity to talk to both of them. And not in a one-off, take-it-or-leave-it way, but I want to figure out how we’re going to do this, how we’re going to establish a relationship. Whichever or both of them are willing to have that conversation, I’m willing to work with them. I don’t know the level of formality. That has to come out of those conversations.

 


The Star on the OLP leadership: Pupatello “smart, feisty,” Wynne “favourite of the left-wing downtown Toronto crowd”

A must-read, as they say.

Sandra Pupatello (6 to 5): She surprised even her own campaign team by finishing first in last weekend’s election to pick delegates to the convention. She won 504, or about 27 per cent, of the delegates. She likely will lead on the first ballot and has lots of room to grow on subsequent ballots. She’s smart, feisty, a favourite of party veterans.

Watch for Pupatello to stress the party’s traditions. Over the past 100 years, the Liberals have chosen only two leaders from the Toronto area and have almost always picked a centre-right leader. That’s exactly how Pupatello is promoting herself: as fiscally conservative and as being from outside the GTA. Taken together with her cabinet experience, she claims these attributes make her the lone candidate with the “electability” factor needed to fight the Tories and NDP in a provincial election.

Kathleen Wynne (3 to 1): She came a disappointing second last weekend when she won just 25 per cent of the elected delegates. Her chances of winning the leadership would have improved dramatically if she had been ahead of Pupatello at this stage. A favourite of the left-wing downtown Toronto crowd, her growth potential on second and third ballots is seen as limited outside of Toronto.


Not actually ridiculous, not actually nonsensical

It’s funny, but I was coincidentally in rural Ontario, today, with about 100 Ontarians (and clients) who happily live in rural Ontario. So I didn’t see any coverage of a certain Toronto-based leadership contender’s speech, wherein she declared that it was “ridiculous” and “nonsensical” for anyone to wonder if Toronto-centric candidates are a liability elsewhere in the province.

I asked these rural folks what they thought.

“She is too Toronto,” one guy said. “Sorry, but you’ll lose if you pick her.”