The solution.

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Here.  No apology to the paper’s readership, as predicted.

(Reminds me of a big error the Spec’s owner, the Star, made but refused to apologize for. See number five.)

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Now they are smearing her with financial audits they haven’t actually released. From the same fiscally-incompetent crew who shit the fiscal bed on the fighter jets. Amazing.

Anyway, this latest stunt fits the pattern. Therefore, tomorrow’s column isn’t about Chief Spence and the Cons – it’s about how the Cons’ pig-headedness has turned Chief Spence into a folk hero.

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Son One has suggested that I kill him instead of making him go back.

“That sounds a bit extreme,” I suggested. “Besides, you only have another decade or so of school to go. What could be wrong with that?”

I can now hear him upstairs, actually moaning.

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As a political contrasts go, it was stark.

It came in the same week, too. In the very same week Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence was continuing a hunger strike, vainly seeking a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss the Third World living conditions of Canada’s First Nations, we learned his most senior minister — Jim Flaherty — had expensed makeup.

That’s right, makeup. Documents tabled in the House of Commons revealed Canada’s finance minister, who makes about a quarter of a million a year, charged taxpayers nearly $130 to pay for makeup. For him. To be precise, Flaherty expensed $119.15 on “cosmetics” and $9.99 for “beauty supplies.”

He bought Cover Girl loose powder, Maybelline loose powder, Maybelline concealer, Maybelline “Min Blush,” Maybelline LMU, Smashbox concealer, cosmetic wedges, a powder brush, a foundation brush and “SBM Top Zip Shave.”

The purchases were approved by Flaherty’s parliamentary secretary, Shelly Glover, in 2008 and only came to light in an iPolitics report last week on New Year’s Eve.

The cosmetics were purchased “to prepare the Minister of Finance for the numerous television interviews conducted with media outlets from across Canada,” Flaherty’s underlings wrote, in a document that sought to justify the expense.

When a Liberal MP asked about other Conservative ministers charging taxpayers for makeup, Harper’s bureaucrats — the Privy Council Office — demurred. “(The Privy Council Office) has no information in response to the question,” they said,

Of course they don’t. Why would they? This, after all, is the Tough Guy Conservative regime of Messrs. Harper and Flaherty — all about getting “tough” on crime, and getting “tough” on terrorism, and making “tough decisions.”

Not a very tough guy, though, is it? You know, swanning around Ottawa, wearing Maybelline and Cover Girl face paint. Kind of soft, isn’t it Jim? Kind of flaccid, wouldn’t you say, to charge taxpayers for your makeup?

This is one of those stories some folks in Ottawa think isn’t one. Like Bev Oda’s $16 orange juice, for example. Outside Parliament Hill, that one met with more than a few shrugs at the start. But it became a pretty big story, didn’t it? Ended Oda’s political career, didn’t it? It did, it did.

Now, we shouldn’t expect Flaherty’s boss to say much, if anything, about this latest steaming pile to emanate from Conservative Ottawa. Harper, after all, has been using a makeup artist for years — her name is Michelle Muntean, we know that much — but he refuses to tell us how much it costs. That is, how much it costs us, the taxpayers, with whom Conservatives used to claim to be so preoccupied.

Again, not very “tough.” It’s sort of girlish, isn’t it boys? Perhaps you should give your crotches a quiet pat or two, to reassure yourselves that you’re still, you know, all there.

It is unknown what Chief Spence thinks about this insanity. In the past two weeks, she has indicated she is prepared to starve herself to secure a meeting with Harper.

Her hunger strike, bearing the name Idle No More, has attracted the attention of media from around the world. And, in one much-seen moment, an Idle No More sign even appeared in the middle of CNN’s New Year’s Eve broadcast.

If Spence is disgusted by the likes of Harper and Flaherty, nobody could really blame her. Here she is, having to starve herself to get a meeting with Harper, but he still won’t. All around the time we are finding out that Jim Flaherty thinks it’s OK to charge taxpayers for his Cover Girl.

Get that? They’ll expense makeup. But they won’t make time to meet Spence.

There are days a lot of us actually, truly hate this “government.”

This is one of those days.

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Here.

Questions and answers:

Why did the elusive Chris Mazza “break his silence”? Because someone suspects they are about to hear from the OPP, and because they want to lay some PR track before that happens. That’s why.

Why did the Globe give Mazza such an uncritical platform? To piss off the Star and Kevin Donovan, who arrogantly think that they alone are responsible for exposing all wrongdoing in the world, and who also believe the sun of journalistic goodness solely shines out their asses. That’s why.

Why should you care? You shouldn’t. It’s PR bullshit, from start to finish. This guy was a creep – and a Conservative creep, to boot – and he richly deserves the misery that has been his life in the past year. Evidence of his creepiness? Continual use of that poor kid’s death in virtually every public statement he has made. It’s a disgrace.

And so is Chris Mazza.

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…because, as Twain said, reports of our death have been an exaggeration.

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Check this out. Read it where this guy says I claimed my web site would become “dominant.”

Problem: I didn’t say that. I was linking to the CBC’s web site, which has no paywall. Here’s the original posting.

(I love his snotty use of “sic,” too. Nice fellow. UPDATE: he’s removed the “sic,” but he still hasn’t admitted his error.)

Who made this error, which is a pretty big one? The Editor-in-Chief of the Hamilton Spectator, that’s who. The entirety of his column is defeated by his rookie error, in fact.

I therefore amend my original thesis: it isn’t just paywalls that will kill off many newspapers.

Sloppiness will, as well.

Oh, and Mr. Editor-in-Chief guy? It’s a web site, not a “blog.”

You got that wrong, too.

(Post script: I’ve emailed him seeking a correction. Anyone think it’ll never happen? That, too, is a trait of most newspapers.)

UPDATED AGAIN: A generous apology, accepted:

Correction in progress. Forgive me. Also, “sic” was inserted by a copy editor and removed when I saw it. Unfortunately, I did not understand my error until I saw your post now.

Paul Berton
Editor in Chief
The Hamilton Spectator / thespec.com
905.526.3482
Pberton@thespec.com

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Check out the last sentence:

“With Trudeau as Leader, the Liberals garner the backing of 42 per cent of decided voters, pushing the Tories to a distant second place (26%) and the NDP to third (19%).”

Wow.

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Congrats to Scott Tribe, and thanks to all (Bob Richardson, Stephen Taylor, et al.) who lent their support, too.

Now, a new question remains: what are the criteria for accreditation?

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