You don’t see this gem too often in any of Frank Klees’ pious pressers: Ornge effectively started in at least 2000 (or sooner).

You know, when the Cons were the government.

[Ornge CEO and founder Chris] Mazza said the use of air ambulances really took off in 2000 after the provincial Ministry of Health became convinced air ambulances were effective.

“We convinced the ministry it was in the patients’ best interest around the province,” he said.

The St. Catharines Standard, January 20, 2003

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…by someone who knows whereof he speaks. Like he says: too little, too late.

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Promise to stop taking billions in taxpayer dollars. If you dislike what the government’s doing, stop taking government money, okay?

You’re welcome.

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The youth of Quebec doth protest too much, some say.

The protests have been going on in the streets of la belle province for more than 100 days. Thinkers and pundits have attempted to glean their significance, if any. Media from around the world have covered the demonstrations, which started out being about tuition and have now somehow morphed into something else.

Most of the older, conservative commentators don’t like what’s going on. It makes them grumpy. Columnist Andrew Coyne offered that the Quebecois students were interested in no less than “crippling democracy.” Said he: “(It’s) a crisis of democratic government, the most serious in a generation.” Over at the Globe and Mail, Jeffrey Simpson dismissed all of the students’ concerns as “completely bogus.”

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Quote:

Reeling from a drop in advertising revenue, Postmedia Network Inc. will axe dozens of newsroom jobs across the country and stop the publication of Sunday papers in several of its largest markets.

It’s the second time this month the company has announced layoffs, after cutting 25 out of 58 jobs in its Postmedia News division. It made the decision to close the wire service and go with Canadian Press content for “commodity news” that can be produced by a wire service instead of staff reporters.

The company told employees Monday afternoon that Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton would lose their Sunday papers and that the National Post would stop printing on Mondays through the summer for the fourth year in a row. The chain will also stop publishing on holidays such as Victoria Day and Canada Day.

I was at the Herald when they commenced publishing the Sunday magazine – they gave me my first break as a freelancer, in fact – and at the Citizen when the Sunday edition started up. So I find this all very sad.

You don’t have to be an economist to know where this is all headed: the end of broadsheets. It all seems like this inexorable downward spiral, which started when media organization themselves started to give away content online, and in commuter tabloids and so on. If you act like your stuff doesn’t have any value, nobody else will think it does, either.

They’re now fighting a rearguard action, and it’s too late. They can’t put the genie back in the bottle.

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We get letters. Lately, we’ve been getting letters from New Democrats – all coincidentally anonymous, all suspiciously-similar, most helpfully originating from the National Capital – who profess to be profoundly, deeply hurt/angry/disappointed that Warren has been critical of Thomas Mulcair, their latest anointed saviour.

Here’s a summary of their talking points (which all read like talking points, naturally):

• Warren, I thought you were a progressive. So sad to see you talking like a conservative. So very, very sad. Sad!
• Warren, the Liberals are never coming back. You’re lashing out because you’re desperate. Ha, ha, ha, ha.
• Warren, the NDP is leading in the polls and that’s proof your attacks aren’t working. You are a [insert epithet here].

And so on.

As you are perhaps aware, I have occasionally critiqued Conservatives over the years. I’m known for that (I even have a book coming out about that). Most of the time, most Conservatives react to my stuff with humour and a shrug. Sometimes, they even want to hear what I have to say (as Sun News Network did, and does, and they pay me well for it).

Dippers, I have found, are different. Dippers are pious, condescending, humourless windbags. They regard any criticism – even, say, about how incredibly funny it is that a self-professed environmentalist like Angry Tom would have multiple garages for multiple vehicles – as treason. They go apeshit whenever you have the temerity to poke fun at them. (They’re like Paul Wells, in effect, except there’s a whole party of them.)

I’m a bit surprised that I even have to say this, but here goes.

Here’s the deal, Dipper kiddies: I’m a Liberal. Your idiot leader turned his back, categorically, on a partnership with Liberals. He said he didn’t want peace, when a few of us were suing for it. He said no.

So, Dipper folk, we are therefore enemies. As with Conservatives, I will do my level best to step on your throat. I will hit you, over and over. I will rip your face off, if you give me half a chance.

You are the enemy, and that’s a role you chose for yourselves.

Now, quit sending your whiny letters, because they’re fucking boring, and so are you.

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Your first task: explain why your boss, an erstwhile environmentalist, has a four car garage!

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…show him a picture of his FOUR CAR GARAGE.

UPDATE: My great friend McGregor, for what it’s worth, says the Google image they used is distorted. I look forward to them making the appropriate clarification, which I will then re-post here.

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His Royal Highness The Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, Prince and Great Steward of Scotland, Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Royal Knight Companion of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Member of the Order of Merit, Knight of the Order of Australia, Companion of the Queen’s Service Order, Member of Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council and Aide-de-Camp to Her Majesty, gave a small diplomatic smile.

For a guy with that many titles, and as many official duties as the official heir to the throne apparently has, Prince Charles — as he is more often known — isn’t unused to awkward introductions.

It’s a Tuesday morning in the Distillery District in Toronto. Perched on a smallish stage beside his wife, Camilla Parker Bowles (the Duchess of Cornwall), and Dalton McGuinty (the premier of Ontario), Charles looks like he wants to burst out laughing, but keeps his cool. A local TV host — with big hair and a bigger personality — was speaking, overly long, and telling jokes that were falling flat. Charles remained the picture of restraint and politeness.

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It’s a hot topic. At the G20 in Toronto, and now with the ongoing demos in Montreal.

My question: it’s clearly detention, as defined by the SCC. So why don’t the kettled demand immediate access to legal counsel?

If they don’t get it, bring the mother of all class actions.

Am I missing something?

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