It’s reach for the Topp!

Monday’s news wasn’t really news — veteran NDP backroom guy Brian Topp has finally revealed what pretty much everyone already knew: He covets the New Democrat leadership, and will formally seek it. Around Ottawa, it’s been an open secret almost from the moment of Jack Layton’s sad passing.

While not news, Topp’s ambition does provide us all with an unprecedented opportunity to have fun with words.

When we meet his family, will the event be hailed as “Pop of the Topps”? Is Brian at the Topp of the leadership pack? Will he now claim to be a Topp-drawer candidate?

Anyway, you get the idea. It’ll be fun for headline-writers, but possibly not Brian Topp.

 

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…by a reporter who joined his bus today:

Instead, he talked about “Bob” and “Jim”, two life-size posters of forestry workers. It was an attempt to illustrate the supposed unfairness of the immigrant workers tax credit, but mostly backfired as the stand-up cardboard figures eminated more charisma than the Tory leader.

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What do you do? Keep working like you’re way, way behind. Take nothing for granted.

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Citizens, which Ontario do you favour?

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• Ottawa Citizen: “The questions for Randy Hillier about his unpaid taxes have now grown sharper, with the revelation that the MPP did not disclose the issue to the provincial integrity commissioner when making his financial declaration last year.”
• Sun Media: “The Canada Revenue Agency put two liens worth about $15,000 on Hillier’s home in July 2010, a fact Hillier did not mention on his MPP disclosure filed less than two months later. Both his party and his leader were also in the dark about the tax issue.  Hillier did not respond to a request for comment Sunday.”
• CP/Huffington Post: “Tim Hudak’s campaign mantra that Progressive Conservatives are the only ones who will defend hardworking taxpayers was derailed Friday by revelations that a high-profile Tory is embroiled in a long-running tax dispute.”

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HAMILTON – Liberals ridiculed Tory MPP Randy Hillier’s claim he “misread” disclosure forms, omitting an unpaid tax bill the federal government is trying to collect from him.

The Grits even produced a video on Sunday modelled after the Progressive Conservatives’ Tax Man spot targeting Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty — instead calling Hillier the Tax Dodging Man.

“Pay your taxes, Randy. The rest of us do,” the spot said.

And the party put out a press release playing off the yes or no disclosure question on whether he or his wife owed any back taxes that Hillier said tripped him up.

“Is Tim Hudak A Leader? Yes ( ) No (x)” the release said, slamming the PC leader for not publicly chastising the usually outspoken Hillier.

The Canada Revenue Agency put two liens worth about $15,000 on Hillier’s home in July 2010, a fact Hillier did not mention on his MPP disclosure filed less than two months later. Both his party and his leader were also in the dark about the tax issue.

Hillier did not respond to a request for comment Sunday.

“I don’t understand why he refuses to take a stand on what his candidate has claimed,” Liberal MPP Linda Jeffrey said of Hudak.

 

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Spot political quiz time: Who said this?

“(We need) practical and affordable measures to help new Canadians find employment and create jobs.”

Here’s another one. Who said this?

“(Immigrants) have great challenges in having their foreign degrees and qualifications recognized by the relevant licensing bodies here in Canada — we all have a role to play in helping new Canadians make the transition into our workplace.”

Weak-kneed lefty politicos? Soft-hearted Liberal premiers like Jean Charest? Christy Clark? Dalton McGuinty? Were those welcoming words uttered by Grit politicians, seeking re-election in Quebec or B.C. or Ontario with the help of so-called “ethnic” communities?

Nope. No, they weren’t.

Those words were voiced by senior Conservatives. They were the words of Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak, in fact, and federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.

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Up next: Tim Hudak on why “Giamatti” sounds like a “foreigner” name.

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CP reporter to Hudak: “Why are you allowing your party to put out ads lying about the Liberal promise?”

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