I am so sad to read this:

Canadian novelist and poet Robert Kroetsch has died in a car accident near Drumheller, Alta. He was 83.

Kroetsch died Tuesday while returning to his home in Leduc, Alta., from the Artspeak Festival in Canmore, according his publisher University of Alberta Press.

What an extraordinary man he was!  I know, because Kroetsch taught me in 1980, in my first year at the University of Calgary.  Without getting into too much detail, I was leading a pretty rock’n’roll lifestyle in those days, and doing all kinds of things I shouldn’t have done.  I missed a lot of classes and assignments, and I had rock-bottom grades to show for it.

One day, I got back an essay I had written for Kroetsch’s English class.  I don’t remember the grade, but I certainly remember every word of what he wrote:

YOU ARE DESTROYING A GREAT TALENT.  ROBERT KROETSCH.

I remember reading those words like they were written yesterday.  They had the desired effect, too.  I resolved to get my act together – so I quit what I was doing, transferred to another university, and ended up graduating in a lot better shape.

You know those teachers who change your life?  Dave Beatty was one, and Father O’Brien, and George Roseme.

And Robert Kroetsch, who I will miss, and whose words I took to heart.

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You should see this.

We Ontario Liberals wanted to not just tell voters that there is a multi-billion-dollar hole at the centre of the PC platform – that it is is “dubious” and “false,” as Jeff Simpson put it this morning – we wanted to show them.

Some of our smartest economic guys and gals (we call them “the mathletes,” for anyone wondering) have spent days meticulously poring through the PC numbers. This morning, they briefed a lot of reporters at Queen’s Park about what they found. No adjectives, no spin, no finger-pointing: just a very factual analysis.

We captured their presentation on a little video, for you to watch and decide for yourself. Hopefully, we will convince you that the PC platform truly is as bad as Simpson says it is.

And, hopefully, it will help us to earn your confidence – and your vote – in October.

PC Platform Costing from Ontario Liberal Party on Vimeo.

UPDATE: More here.

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I was sent a photo, last night, of one of the 20 SUVs NDP leader Andrea Horwath plans to ferry her and her staff around the province in the coming provinmcial election. Some of you asked questions: why does she need twenty SUVs?  Beats me.  Are they hybrids?  Beats me.  I don’t know what the size of the resulting carbon footprint will be, but I sure know that it sure tells us a thing or two about Andrea’s ego footprint.

Anyway, after the pix went up on Twitter and so on, her fart-catchers promptly went ape.  Below, just a couple of them – from Jeff Ferrier, who is a “former” Horwath press secretary (who sure acts like a “current” press secretary, while at Toronto Community Housing), and Mike Rosenstock, one of Horwath’s personal staff who bills himself as a “researcher.”  Uh-huh.

Anyway. I think the Horwath gang are upset because someone caught their newly-wrapped SUVs on camera – they’d clearly been saving them for some announcement.  My free advice: stop parking your big secrets in plain view, Dippers.  Oh, and stop being such sucky babies: you guys (federally and provincially) are fast developing a reputation for being able to deliver a punch, but never being able to take one.

Now, get ready for a pile of outraged/hurt comments from New Dems in comments.  They can’t help themselves!

 

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He takes a few swings at us, too, which you can read in the link below.

But, boy, does he ever let the Ontario PCs have it.  I wonder if these quotes will show up in an ad, sometime soon?

“Tim Hudak is not the first politician to take voters for chumps, and he certainly won’t be the last. But the Ontario Conservative Leader’s platform, on which he’ll fight the fall election, is based on so many dubious, to say nothing of false, premises that he must be counting on the electorate’s ignorance for victory.”

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Spotted…I can’t say where. But I sure hope her campaign vehicles have a small carbon footprint!

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This guy never ceases to amaze.  Reporters and even partisan Conservatives are shaking their heads at his latest self-promotion stunt.

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“OTTAWA – The RCMP is looking into allegations that the Harper government misappropriated funds in order to lavish $50 million on a cabinet minister’s riding prior to last year’s G8 summit.

The probe comes on the heels of an auditor general’s report earlier this month, which concluded the government “did not clearly or transparently” explain how the money was going to be spent when it sought Parliament’s approval for a G8 legacy fund for Tony Clement’s riding.

The Mounties’ involvement was prompted by a complaint from former Liberal MP Marlene Jennings. She was interviewed for an hour last week by three RCMP officers.

“My sense is that they’re taking it very seriously,” Jennings said in an interview Tuesday.

“My sense is that they’re looking at this to see if there are any elements of proof that there may have been wilful intention to mislead Parliament.”

 

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BCL noticed that Mark Steyn hasn’t been around for quite some time, and started asking around.

As I recall, there had been some indication, some months ago, that the U.S.-based writer was facing some health challenges in his family. I fired off a note to him at the time, offering best wishes, etc.  I didn’t get a reply, but I hope that whatever challenges he was facing at a personal level have been resolved.

Oh, and just to be clear, I still disagree with just about everything he says, particularly the Islamaphobia.

 

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Higher drug prices, among other things.

…this column is a look back at the battle of 2010 for the hearts and minds of voters on a controversial government proposal — and the corporate interests that tried to counter it: The generic drugs law brought in by the Liberals just over a year ago aimed to curb excessively high bills for medicine in Ontario pharmacies — and sparked an unprecedented campaign-style conflict. The lessons learned will be studied by both the Tories and Liberals in the coming campaign.

When the chain drug stores and independent pharmacists banded together for a no-holds barred fight against the government, they went to Crestview Strategies Inc., a consulting firm well known for its focus on opinion research — and opinion change.

Crestview’s founder, Mark Spiro, is now the campaign manager for the provincial Tories. A Crestview partner, Chad Rogers, is the PCs’ volunteer campaign secretary overseeing research, messaging and advertising. Neither would agree to be interviewed for this column, citing their corporate policy that prevents them from confirming or discussing any work they do for clients.

Further glimpses into that firm’s approach, and the Ontario PC’s priorities, here and here:  “Rothmans also hired Crestview Public Affairs, a lobby company founded in 2004 by Mark Spiro, a Conservative insider and former campaign manager for Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak.  Around the time the health minister told her provincial counterparts she was quashing the new labelling initiative, Crestview Public Affairs made a flurry of new registrations on tobacco-related topics.”

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What would Tommy Douglas do?

The Saskatchewan socialist icon was, among other things, the founding father of the movement that would ultimately become the NDP. Prior to his death in 1986, the Baptist preacher — and former leader of both the NDP and its predecessor, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation — was a giant on the Canadian political landscape.

He was also a socialist, and no big fan of Liberals. So what would the prairie Goliath make of his part’s doings in Vancouver over the weekend?

You may have heard: At their confab in B.C., hundreds of the party faithful surprised everyone — me, included — by doing the unexpected. Instead of passing a resolution removing the word “socialist” from the preamble to the NDP’s constitution, they let it stand. And, most surprising of all, the NDP declined to reject future discussions about a merger with the Liberal Party of Canada, too.

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