Lily’s story
Lily Shang is a young friend of mine. We met through Liberal stuff, and I saw right away that she is a very impressive person. She’s a talented musician, an award-winning student, and a committed political activist. I last saw her before she left for New York City to start a new life. We talked about her career and the political future.
Last night, a Star reporter got in touch with me to ask if I knew Lily. I asked why. The reporter told me that “her husband was being pretty hard on her.” When I Googled Lily’s name, I saw why. And, this morning, I saw the resulting story. There are others, told in a gossipy, adolescent tone.
I’m biased, because I like Lily, like many Liberals do. But, on the heels of that story about the Harpers – and given that my family is going through something similar, with my divorce pleadings being swapped like hockey cards by two newspapers and OLO operatives in Ottawa and Toronto – I think a truism bears repeating. Here it is:
This is nobody else’s business. Leave her (and them, and us) alone.
Help wanted
A Toronto-based PR/GR firm is looking for a bright young consultant with a Conservative (or conservative) pedigree. If you know such a person, send along a CV to wkinsella@hotmail.com.
Canada at war
…because we are at war. We’re a nation at war.
It’s easy to forget over the holidays, I suppose. And, because it is happening so far away, in a place where most of us will never go, it seems like something happening in a movie theatre. But for the Armed Forces, and for military families, it is much more realistic than that, I reckon.
Military expert Scott Taylor – who has forgotten more about this country’s military than I, or most of this web site’s readership, will ever know – writes about the war this morning in the The Chronicle Herald. I urge you to read all of it, because it isn’t just an important column – it’s a courageous column. It’s courageous because pro-war voices are pervasive, and utterly dominate the discourse in Canada, these days. They attack and malign whomever speaks up against them.
In particular, I wanted to draw to your attention the following:
And:
It’s unfortunate that – every time I voice an anti-war opinion – I feel obliged to state that my Dad was an officer in the Armed Forces, that we grew up around the military, and that I wanted to join the military myself. But such is the effectiveness of the military lobby, with their embedded journalists and wined-and-dined politicians: they make you feel a bit guilty about challenging the conventional “wisdom.”
But my view remains unchanged: I feel – and apparently Scott Taylor agrees with me – we have done our bit. After almost a decade, it is time for other nations to step up. Canada can apply her considerable expertise in many other parts of the world, where terror and tyranny also run unchecked. Propping up Afghanistan’s dictatorship does us, and the world, no good.
Who else feels as I do? Not bloody many, by my count. The Conservative government, naturally, equates the untendered acquistion of billions in unneeded fighter jets with patriotism. My party, meanwhile, isn’t much better: after opposing extending the war – and after repeatedly demanding that the government make good on its promise to withdraw in 2011 – the Liberal leadership now cheers it on, blithely giving the pro-war lobby the votes they needed to continue making billions. And to keep a corrupt dictator in power.
The New Democrats and the Bloc feel similarly, I think, but they will never be close enough to power to do anything about it. So, for years to come, we will continue to lose young lives. We will continue to receive returning soldiers at CFB Trenton, and watch the grim trek down the Highway of Heroes to Toronto.
And, eventually, we will ask ourselves: for what?
Even the Vice-Regal guy agrees with us!
Coming up: the “I have no relationship with the Governor-General” press conference! Stay tuned!
If Timmy Hudak can’t run his own party, how could he ever run Ontario?
What’s it all mean? Well, it means they are Reformatories, for starters. They are two parties within one: Conservatives on one side, rural extremists on the other.
And Timmy Hudak did a secret deal with the latter to win the leadership of the former. Soon enough, he’ll pay a price for that secret deal.
He won’t like the outcome.
I know the author of that email
Angelo’s column today, always worth a read.
I stand by what I said: if the Conservatives and the Reformers got their act together, we’d be in big trouble. They did; we still are.
And they’ll keep winning as long as we keep splitting the vote.
In today’s Sun: best and worst political moves of the year
What Christmas is all about
What’s it all about? Well, I watch this every year with my kids, who I miss. Linus sums it up well, I’d say.
Hug yours, right now, and Merry Christmas.
On rumour’s tongues, continual slanders ride
This is very sad and unnecessary. But it’s also unstoppable, in my experience.
To see what I mean, plug in “Warren Kinsella” into a Google search, and read what comes up as recommended search terms two, three and five.
In our case, it happens to be true. In our case, in fact, political enemies of mine – Conservatives and Liberals – have circulated copies of the pleadings to two newspapers, three hate bloggers and each other. I know who did it, and I’ll be dealing with all of them soon enough.
But in respect of any family, here’s free advice: don’t be a complete lowlife and scumbag. Leave them alone.
(And I can’t believe this crap is happening at Christmas, either. But it is.)
UPDATE: The Globe has removed the posting it had up this morning.