Was up in Kincardine, Ont. at a Holiday Sin Bin last night, bored. So I looked at old photos on the iPhone. Found this one, from a few weeks ago up at the cabin. That’s Roxy, Canada’s Best-Loved Political Dog, in the woods as they were turning.

Boy, do I miss that place.

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Ouch.

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…In one editorial published before the May 2011 federal election, Mennonites were reminded about the pacifism that is at the centre of their faith, and to vote accordingly.

The same magazine also published articles urging government to “spend less money on war.” There was another story urging compassion for the poor.

There was also one applauding young Mennonites advancing the tenets of their faith through involvement in politics.

For those sins, some faceless thugs at the Canadian Revenue Agency sent a letter to the Mennonites. The letter warned them they were going to lose their charitable status if they published “editorials and/or articles that appear to promote opposition to a political party, or to candidates for public office,” and that under the Income Tax Act, charities are “prohibited from engaging in partisan political activities.”

The letter blandly described itself as a “reminder,” but Canadian Mennonites knew what it was. It was yet another government telling them what to think — and threatening to punish them if they didn’t.

The Mennonites quietly noted that they’d once been critical of Toews. Maybe that’s what it was all about. They’d been critical of a powerful man.

The Mennonites have said, with some considerable sadness, that they’ll go along with the demands of the fascists in the federal government. That, I think, is a real shame.

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From the Kingston Whig-Standard, May 25, 1996. In yesterday lies tomorrow, etc.

“…Liberals insiders say all will not be roses for Kennedy when he shows up at Queen’s Park.

“He’s only been a member of the party for three months and he was talking with and meeting with people about his chances for being party leader before he was elected. That ruffled a few feathers,” said one insider.

“He won’t be getting any breaks in caucus, that’s for damn sure.”

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So says the Calgary Herald.  Just spotted.  Jumped to number two, which is rather nice of my home town:

This week NON-FICTION Last week

1 Emotional Enlightenment . Jane Birdsell. Interpreting our emotions. 1

2 Fight the Right – Warren Kinsella. How to fight the conservatives.

3 Texting Dictionary of Acronyms . Randall Manning. Decoding text speak. 5

4 The Wisdom of Psychopaths . Kevin Dutton. How psychopathic traits can actually be good. –

5 You could live a long time . Lynd-say Green. How to have more quality of life as we live longer. –

6 Walls . Marcello Di Cintio. People who live behind barricades. 4

7 Seeking the Summit . Sydney Sharpe. The story of Sam Switzer. –

8 The Universe Within . Neil Turok. The future is shaped by the human mind. 3

9 Train in Winter . Caroline Moorehead. Women resisters sent to Auschwitz. –

10 1982 . Jian Ghome-shi. A teenager trying to fit in. 2

Information provided by Owl’s Nest Books and Pages on Kensington

 

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Gave a speech last week – and the week before that in Vancouver and Calgary – saying the same thing: the progressive coalition is women, young people and newcomers.

Without them, progressives can’t win.  With them all, progressives can’t lose.

Worked for Obama, it’ll work for Trudeau.

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We need a winner, who wins outside Toronto. Who’s all about jobs, not controversy. A uniter, not a divider. Honest, frugal, tough, smart.

There’s only one person who meets that job description:

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Sigh. Here we go again.

Here’s one from the archives:

“Just study the case heretofore be known as the Toronto Star, et al. vs. Rob Ford.

The Star threw everything it had against Ford — and everything it had behind Smitherman. The Star — which still has the largest circulation of any newspaper in the Greater Toronto Area, and therefore some degree of clout — laboriously chronicled every one of Rob Ford’s misdeeds.

His mug shot from a Florida bust (a Sun scoop, by the by). His drunk-driving record. His drug possession charge. Even unsubstantiated suggestions that he had gotten too physical with others.

Simultaneously, the Star openly offered campaign advice to Smitherman. In one now-infamous column, the newspaper’s director of communications and community relations — whatever the heck that is — offered detailed campaign advice to Team Smitherman, from advertising to staff. A Ford victory, said this fellow, would “embarrass the city (of Toronto) around the world.”

And, as historians will note, Ford won in a landslide.

The moral of the tale: media boosterism for a particular candidate – on the Left or the Right – doesn’t work, if it ever did. It turns people off.

Stick to reporting the news, instead of making the news.

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As regulars know, zombies freak me out. I am, however, prepared for the zombie apocalypse, 24/7.

I do not regard this movie as entertainment. It is a documentary.

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…and some Canadians did well, sayeth Nate Silver:

“…Ipsos, which conducted online polls for Reuters, came close to the actual results in most places that it surveyed, as did the Canadian online polling firm Angus Reid.”

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