Standard day at the lake

— 05.06.2012 07:50 AM

Jammed my finger under the cabin fixing a pipe, feels like it’s broken. Dog was lost for hours, Son Two inconsolate; she eventually returned. Blackflies are back with a vengeance.

But that moon was so big and close, last night, all of that was forgotten.


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In today’s Sun (early): Harper’s defeating himself

— 05.05.2012 06:12 AM

Spare a thought, if you will, for a sad Stephen Harper, last week contemplating his first full year of majority governance. It is almost enough to feel some sympathy for him.

Almost.

It’s been a year and a few days, now, since Harper’s Party — because, let’s be clear, the Conservative Party would not exist and would not be where it is without Harper — celebrated their big victory on May 2, 2011. The Cons vanquished their much-detested enemy, the Liberals, and reduced them to a rump in the House of Commons.

They received a clear mandate to kill the long-gun registry, and the Canadian Wheat Board, too.

They elected MPs in every province, including Ontario, where voters have long spurned the advances of Conservative candidates. And they did all this despite the hearty dislike that Quebec voters, and many media folks, feel for them.

But a year later, and despite the upside, all is not well with the Harper Party.


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Robocon: the noose tightens

— 05.04.2012 01:43 PM

OTTAWA — The IP address used to send misleading robocalls to Guelph voters on election day was the same address used by a worker from the campaign office of local Conservative candidate Marty Burke, Elections Canada investigators believe.

The Internet Protocol address — like an Internet phone number — was used by campaign worker Andrew Prescott to arrange legitimate calls through RackNine, the Edmonton voice broadcasting firm.

But the same IP address was also used to arrange the fraudulent “Pierre Poutine” calls that pretended to be from Elections Canada and sent hundreds of electors to the wrong polling stations, Elections Canada alleges in court documents.

RackNine records provided to Elections Canada showed that Prescott’s account had been accessed from a Rogers IP address in Guelph, 99.225.228.34.

 


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Mayor Moron vs. The World

— 05.04.2012 08:24 AM

The Star scribe at the centre of the latest Ford Family Fiasco has an interesting piece about his run-in with the fist-waving Chief Magistrate.  It’s worth a read.

What struck me is the reporter’s discomfort at being the story, as opposed to writing the story (cf. the very last line). To me, that’s a sign of a good journalist.  (It’s why I wasn’t a good one, by the by: I like Plimptonian, Lester Bang-ish first-person stuff.  I find it more fun to read and write. My web site, now in year 12 – and my journals, now in year 40 – are ample proof of that.)

Anyway, I digress, per usual.  Personally, I wonder if there is an explanation for all of this insanity continually surrounding famille Ford,  one that would almost make me feel sympathetic to the guy (almost).

Why anyone isn’t investigating it is a mystery.  But it’s a reasonable question to ask, based on past behaviour.


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Israel, by Israelis

— 05.04.2012 07:30 AM

Whenever I listen to the wisdom of this extraordinary man, he reminds me of the Irish. Yes, the Irish.

He’s a moderate. He’s measured. He’s a thinker.

He’s all the things that the ex-pat Irish didn’t used to be. Irish abroad always tried to out-Irish the Irish who lived there. They’d fund extremism and mouth extremist slogans. They’d try and make up for lost time, like converts always do.

Some in the North American Jewish establishment – its leaders, and the ones in Canada in particular – are a bit like that. They try to out-Israel the Israelis. They’re hardcore. Their head lobbyist, whom I deeply detest, has made their lead organization an arm of the Conservative Party, because he thinks that’s smart. It isn’t.

Anyway, I’d listen to Peres. He lives there. You wannabes? You don’t.


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