B.C.’s next Premier?

…she isn’t in the race, yet, but I’ve already heard from many folks – Libs, Cons, you name it – who would jump at the chance to help her.  I know I certainly would offer whatever help I could, in the leadership race and beyond.

Having heavyweights (and, full disclosure, longtime friends) like Messrs. Boessenkool and Marissen at the helm would be a huge asset for a Clark leadership bid, too.  Two of the smartest guys in Canadian poilitics, hands down.

***

“The most intriguing potential candidate remains politician-turned-radio host Christy Clark, who is also said to be seriously considering a run.

She would certainly add some glitz and sparkle to the campaign. During her three-year stint in government, where she was education minister and later minister of children and family services, she was known for possessing superb communication skills.

Ms. Clark also established a reputation for a highly partisan, sometimes confrontational style that made her no friends among teachers in the province.

She is said to have lined up one of the top backroom organizers in the country, Ken Boessenkool, to run her campaign. Mr. Boessenkool has close ties to the federal Conservative Party and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose successful 2006 campaign he helped mastermind.

Ms. Clark’s former husband, meantime, is Mark Marissen, a brilliant campaign organizer in his own right who would undoubtedly lend a hand. Her brother, Bruce Clark, is a campaign fundraiser for the federal Liberals and would have a Rolodex, one would think, that would come in handy when it came to raising money. While she is being pushed hard to run, Ms. Clark, a single mother, has apparently agonized over the decision because of the impact it would have on her nine-year-old son, Hamish.”

UPDATE: The fact that she is pictured here with my friend Joey can only be a good thing, in my geriatric punk view.

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Has it really been ten years this week, little one?

Election 2000
National News
Candidates weigh in on creationism After burning for centuries, the debate on evolution versus creation bedevils leaders
CAMPBELL CLARK AND JILL MAHONEY
With reports from Brian Laghi, Heather Scoffield,, Shawn McCarthy and Susan Bourette
740 words
17 November 2000
The Globe and Mail

OTTAWA and EDMONTON — Stockwell Day’s creationist beliefs sparked a rare mixing of religion and Canadian politics yesterday, with some opponents saying the Canadian Alliance Leader’s religious views should be an issue for voters.

While Liberal Leader Jean Chretien touched only lightly on the question, NDP Leader Alexa McDonough suggested Mr. Day’s politics don’t match the values he claims to hold dear.

After a CBC documentary reported that Mr. Day had said he believes in creationism, that the world is 6,000 years old, and that humans and dinosaurs had once co-existed, Mr. Day issued a statement saying there is scientific evidence to support both the creation and evolution theories of the origins of man.

Yesterday, Mr. Chretien gently poked fun at the issue when he was asked about his own religious views. “I am for the creation of jobs,” he told reporters in Saskatoon. Mr. Chretien is a Roman Catholic, but he said he keeps his religion and his politics separate.

Liberal aide Warren Kinsella was more forthcoming, charging that Mr. Day cannot be trusted to keep his religion separate from his political agenda. In a television interview, he brought out a stuffed animal from the children’s TV show Barney, joking he was the only dinosaur to co-exist with humans.

“The Flintstones was not a documentary,” he said.

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The full Monte, plus me and Peggy.  About 25 minutes in.

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McGuinty ‘very, very troubled’ by video of Ottawa police strip searching woman (Strip-Search-McGuinty)
Source: The Canadian Press
Nov 26, 2010 12:22

OTTAWA – Premier Dalton McGuinty says he’s “very, very troubled” by what he’s heard about a video showing Ottawa police strip-searching a woman in the presence of male officers.

McGuinty says he hasn’t seen the video of the 2008 strip search of Stacy Bonds by Ottawa police, which was released Thursday by an Ontario court.

The premier says most police officers always act in a legal way, but admits video showing a woman having her shirt and bra cut off after struggling with officers is disturbing.

He says “every time something untoward like this happens, it shakes our confidence.”

McGuinty says he wants police to keep in mind that this woman was someone’s daughter, someone’s sister and “for all they knew, this might have been somebody’s mother.”

Last month, Justice Richard Lajoie stayed charges of public intoxication and assault against Bonds and criticized the conduct of police.

Lajoie said he was “appalled” that Bonds was strip-searched in front of male officers, calling it an “indignity.”

The 27-year-old was left topless in a cell at an Ottawa police station for three hours in soiled pants.

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As their token anti-war, anti-gun, anti-Ford-Hudak-Harper, pro-UN, pro-choice, pro-gay marriage secular Communist, I now look forward to duking it out on air!

The Commission approves an application by TVA Group Inc., on behalf of itself and Sun Media Corporation, partners in a general partnership to be constituted and to carry on business as Sun TV News General Partnership, for a broadcasting licence to operate Sun TV News, a national, English-language Category 2 specialty service that will be subject to the standard conditions of licence, expectations and encouragement for competitive mainstream national news services set out in Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2009-562-1.

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Today, I refer you to the fine free opinionizing of:

• Kady on a quiet day in Ottawa and WikiLeaks leaks.  She’s a media machine.
• Lilley on climate change and related confabs.  He’s unconvinced.
• BigCityLib on No Plan Timmy – funny and insightful, comme toujours.
• GritChik, unimpressed – and who wasn’t – by those who joke about getting molested by rent-a-cops.
• Bowie, damning Dion (I think) with faint praise.
• Calgary Grit, on Danny Williams.  I won’t miss him, personally.
• Dawg has gone to Milan! I think my invite was lost in the mail.

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Harris:

“The Liberal leadership has to be nursing a death wish.

Take Bob Rae’s speech this week to the Canadian Club. He ripped into the Tories for “perverting” our foreign policy. This barely a week after Kinky Bob enabled the government to extend the Afghanistan mission until 2014.

When this inconvenient truth was presented to him by skeptical listeners, Kinky Bob huffed and puffed about how we had to listen to diplomats and NATO. No mention of the fact that the people who provide Bob with an office want no part of the mission.

Even former head cheese Stephane Dion can’t stomach Kinky Bob’s shaky logic. Ahead of the parliamentary debate on Afghanistan, Dion ridiculed the notion that training the Afghan army makes sense. Why train them, he said, when these are the same guys who sent the Soviet Red Army packing after nearly 10 years of futile war?”

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“I am writing in response to this article. While the Star acknowledged that Sarah did not consent in any way to the article, it is important to underscore the extent to which her wishes were disrespected. She and I recognize there is a curious public. We also trust that same public would agree that no young woman should be subject to the unfortunate tactics that were employed to breach her personal privacy.”

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I just got helped out by a person named Jazzmine at the Rogers outlet at the Eaton’s Centre.

She was awesome. Don’t lose this person, Rogers.

There. First nice post about Rogers customer service ever.

UPDATE: I posted this too soon.  Get this: I needed a Blackberry to replace the old one.  Simple.  They told me I needed to put a new SIM card in it.  Simple? Not for Rogers! I deal with “customer service” about a half-dozen times – I’m listening to their Muzak as I type this – and the idiots have summarily removed service from my iPhone, the old Berry and the new one.  They’ve even reassigned my phone number somewhere.

You can’t make this up if you tried.  Oh, and I take back everything I said.  Rogers sucks.

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