• Blogging makes money? Bullshit.  I’ve sold some advertising over the years, but I don’t run this web site – which predates the word “blog,” which I hate, and which isn’t a “blog” – for money.  I do it for fun. Anyone who says they can make a living out web logs is full of it.  You can’t.
• London Rippers? A team named after a notorious serial murderer of women: yeah, that’s really funny.  Why stop there?  Why not name sports franchises after other homicidal and genocidal maniacs from history?  The Son of Sam Shooters! The al-Qaeda Slashers! Stuff like that wouldn’t offensive at all, would it?
• F**k Off?: I tell people to do it online every once in a while, too.  I also ban them from this site, Facebook and so on.  But that’s me: I’m not an MP.  My rule of thumb is that Twitter and politicians don’t mix: if they are being careful when they Tweet, they’re boring.  And if they’re not being careful, they get into trouble.  So why bother?
• Hudak Helper? Check out Ontario Newswatch’s lead story and the fun graphic therein – I recognize that!  Since General Mills have sent me threatening legal letters about the further use of same, I will be uncharacteristically careful.  Ahem. But Ms. Kelley is right: Andrea and Tim are besties! Not sure their core supporters are going to dig it, however, which saddens me no end. Stay, Tim, stay!
• Bob’s blast? Is it ever. One of my best friends on Earth – who I did not speak to about this issue – has blasted the federal Grits for their idiotic position on a more-democratic House of Commons.  Quote: “Federal Liberal position on expansion of seats in the House of Commons is idiotic and anti-democratic. So it is okay to maintain over-representation in rural canada, but not okay to provide representation in growing urban (read new Canadians) Canada? Good to see old elites firmly in charge. Pathetic.” Bob was the head of Red Leaf, folks. Ouch!
• A Liberal giant passes? No question there.  Tom Kent was a towering figure in Canadian public life.  When I was partner at a Bay Street law firm, I had the pleasure to work with his equally-amazing son, and we discussed his Dad often.  A huge loss to this country.

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I just saw her speak at the Royal York. John Turner was there and lots of other folks. Very, very impressive.

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What a piece of work Glen McGregor is. How is this news?

I think it’s just about time to publicize my recent correspondence with this jerk, and my less-recent experiences – such as when he publicized my family’s home address, thereby helping neo-Nazis I’d written about here to find us.

From the archives – what happened after McGregor published our home address:

Glebe park closed to foil rumored supremacist picnic

The Ottawa Citizen
Sat May 28 1994
Byline: Carolyn Abraham

In an unusual move, the City of Ottawa has decided to close one of its parks this weekend to foil alleged white supremacist plans for a Saturday evening picnic.

In response to an Ottawa police request Thursday, the city’s administrators decided to close Glebe Memorial Park today and Sunday, erecting barricades and signs reading: No Trespassing.

It was the first case of a park being closed to protect public safety that city and police officials could recall.

Ottawa police made the rare request after a flyer, allegedly from white supremacist groups, was distributed announcing plans to hold a “picnic and midtown stroll at the park at Percy and Chamberlain streets.

The flyer said the event was to “support young White families victimized by RACIST job quotas join 300-400 White families in celebrating our European heritage.

But Ottawa Insp. Patrick Moyle says the picnic was more likely intended to harass author Warren Kinsella, whose home backs on to the Glebe park — an uncommon spot for demonstrations or rallies.

Moyle said Kinsella has been targetted by white supremacists and received threats against his property since his bookWeb of Hate: Inside Canada’s Far Right Network was released earlier this year.

It was to protect Kinsella and his home that police asked the city to close the park. Moyle said police would find it “very difficult to defend Kinsella’s property should a gathering of white supremacists grow threatening adjacent to his backyard.”

When he learned of the park closing Friday, Kinsella said, “It was a prudent thing to do. I was concerned, especially for people who live in the neighborhood. It is distressing.”.

UPDATE: Poor Glen is upset. He has emailed and telephoned me to say that I have mischaracterized the email he sent to me about my private life, back in January. He says “I am happy to post it on my blog,” quote unquote. I’ll bet he is – in that way, he can circulate the results of his investigation into my private life to a wider audience, thereby building on his stellar reputation as the guy who cooked up the “rape Caroline Mulroney” contest. In that January 22 email, he tells me I “look silly” and then relates all sorts of detail that he could have only obtained through such an investigation. One: no, Glen, you don’t have my permission to publish stuff about my private life. Two, get a life.

UPDATED: He’s now sent another email that seems to threaten a libel action. Go to it, pal. We’d love to get you in Discovery to recount what folks in the Hot Room have told me and others.

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Here.

Let’s see if I get this right.  Their super-duper brilliant strategy is to now:

1. Scoff at the Constitution;

2. Dismiss Liberal Premiers who want this;

3. Piss off multiple regions who want democratic fairness; and

4. Echo what right-winger losers like Tim Hudak have said about “too many politicians.”

And people wonder why guys like me don’t have anything to do with the federal party anymore.

Wonder no more, etc.

 

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The good news, I suppose, is that they closely resemble asparagus and a tasty roast.

The bad news is that E.T. tried to call home, but someone trapped him a Tupperware container.

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The millionaire lawyers representing the millionaire troglodytes now running Toronto got their asses kicked in Court, yesterday, when they tried to evict penniless Occupiers who live in tents.

Let me refer them to this:

“2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

(a) freedom of conscience and religion;

(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;

(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and

(d) freedom of association.”

Perhaps they should’ve read that before they stepped into court yesterday to be humiliated.  It is the supreme statute of the land, after all.

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Go, Pat Martin, go.

 

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I have a Man Cold©. (Documentary vid below.) I’m actually impressed: I didn’t get one for the whole provincial campaign. Not bad.

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Still looking for CVs for an unnamed firm – knowledge of Queen’s Park, Liberal pedigree. Email me.

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Nice column. What it doesn’t address is that, in politics as in life, all of us have a past.  As Mr. Rae’s predecessor discovered – as he will discover – no one knows more about his past than the youngsters in the Conservative Research Group.  They have already documented, catalogued and digitized every mistake and misstep Bob Rae ever made, from the time he was in diapers.

Everyone has a past, everyone makes mistakes.  But Rae’s are on an order of magnitude that preordain the result.

It won’t be pretty.

**

Notebook
The Toronto Star
Sat Dec 2 2006
Page: A15
Section: News
Source: STAR STAFF, CANADIAN PRESS

Conservatives’ anti-Rae button hits bottom

The Conservatives seem to have developed a small cottage industry in the distribution of anti-Rae material at this convention.

The buttons just keep on surfacing: “Go for Bob. Go for Broke!” says one. “Call me Bob. Let’s not talk about my past,” says another.

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