Who said this?: “The national flag of Canada is a symbol of honour, pride and Canadian identity.”
And who said this?: “As Canadians from coast-to-coast-to-coast celebrate our great country’s 145th birthday, let us also celebrate the values for which Canada has become known around the world.”

Noble sentiments, all. Still don’t know who uttered those fine words? Well, the first quotation was supplied by no less than Prime Minister Stephen Harper, on Flag Day, in February of this year.

The second quotation comes to us from NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, on Canada Day. In his stirring statement, Mulcair declared he was “very proud” to be Canadian, and that the rest of us should be, too.

It’s odd, however. When it’s safe to do so, both Harper and Mulcair insist they are brimming with pride about all things Canadian. Both men make speeches, every single day, flanked by Canadian flags. Both men profess to be “proud” of Canada. Both are members of the Privy Council, no less, which means that the flag will be flown at half-mast on the unhappy day that they slip this mortal coil.

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Our ‘Why Do You Hate Me?’ CD, on Universal/Sudden Death records, is out next month! Get it on iTunes here!

Ugly Pop’s re-release of the Hot Nasties’ EP has sold out! They’re reprinting another thousand!

We’ve booked dates in Ottawa, Toronto, and Southwestern Ontario for the next few weeks!

And, because it’s my web site and I feel like it, here’s our ‘Double Bubble Trouble’ vid! Exclamation marks!

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On the one hand, their mere existence hurts conservatives all over the place. Every day, they hammer the conservatives’ brand.  They remind voters why they need to vote liberal.  That certainly was the case in the last provincial election, in the GTA and beyond.

On the other hand, they’re out of control.  They’re idiots.  They’re a Biblical political plague.  They are even losing the support of hardcore conservatives.

Why won’t one of those big-wheel conservatives say to them:  “Stop! Stop! Can’t you two act like adults, for once?”

They won’t, however.  Which should secretly please liberals everywhere.

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Look, I know the whole world is saying it’s awful. But I’ve downloaded it, and it’s better than the GPS system I paid for.

Sorry to mess with the popular consensus and all that, but it really ain’t that bad. At all.

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The New York Times is preoccupied with the practice from another angle.  Me, I do it for all of my books – and always in situations where I think there is a possible libel action lurking in the wings.  Quote approval isn’t the defence of consent, per se, but it’s been legally useful to me more than once: due diligence, responsible communication defence and all that.

That’s what I did, in fact, in this case involving me and the CBC, which went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada – and which we won.

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Here.

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This is divine retribution, you might say.  Well deserved.  I hope she kicked his ass but good.

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Never thought you’d see that headline here, eh?  But he is.

Just had lunch with a very senior Conservative – friend of Mike Harris, Brian Mulroney, all of them – and he said the same thing.

“This notion that the Liberal Party is dead is total bullshit,” he said.

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The thing below is both funny, and a coincidence.

A coincidence because a DNC guy was in here yesterday, and I told him (a) I once reviewed West Wing for CBC, and said I didn’t really like it because nobody in politics is ever as smart as the characters on the show, or is walking around and talking so much, and (b) everyone in Ignatieff’s office was obsessed with West Wing, which suggested to me that they were headed for a thumping, which they were.  Because they secretly considered West Wing to be what really happens in politics.  Um, no.

Funny, because it is.  A bit too long, but it makes its point (over and over).

Now, start hectoring me, West Wing maniacs.  If you must know, Star Trek is really the best politics series: fly in, convert the locals (by force, guile or good looks), dress it up as “values,” and then fly away.  That’s politics.

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Publish anti-Muslim material: it’s free speech.

Publish anti-Kate Middleton material: it gets your newsroom raided.

And some wonder why large swaths of the world mostly detest us.

Wonder no more, etc.

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