The GTA’s finest punk outfit, the Flatliners, a Fall 2010 big fave of the daughter and me.  They’re playing on December 17 at Sneaky Dee’s with the Menzingers, after a big tour with Against Me!

What a song.  What a band.

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I’m a judge for this thing tonight. I like the band names:

• The Back Issues – Maclean’s
• The Deadlines – Toronto Star
• The Everywhere – CityTV
• Mental Circuit – Reuters
• The Snipes – The Globe & Mail
• The Screaming Headlines – Toronto Sun
• Stimulus Package – The Canadian Press & The Globe & Mail

Should be fun.  But they should have these guys playing:

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For Immediate Release

TORY SLAMS HUDAK

Former Leader Criticizes Conservative Non-Answers on HST

(Queen’s Park) – Former Leader John Tory slammed Tim Hudak and the Ontario Conservatives for their failure to answer questions about Ontario’s harmonized sales tax:

• “When they would ask the Conservatives and the NDP well, if you were in would you do away with it? They wouldn’t answer. Would you lower the rate? They wouldn’t answer.” (John Tory, CFRB, November 3, 2010)

• “…the parliamentary opposition [Conservatives] was utterly unwilling to offer any alternatives.” (John Tory, CFRB, November 3, 2010)

• “McGuinty was left with…an opposition which wouldn’t answer questions leading people to believe; well you know if these other people got elected, we’d probably have the HST anyway.” (John Tory, CFRB, November 3, 2010)

Tim Hudak and the Conservatives supported tax harmonization until the day the McGuinty government introduced it. Then they voted against a tax reform package that cut taxes for Ontario families and reduced business taxes to help create jobs. But for more than 18 months, Tim Hudak has refused to answer and won’t commit to repealing the HST.

Even John Tory knows: when it comes to tax harmonization, Tim Hudak just doesn’t get it.

– 30 –

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He’s amiable. He’s smart. He’s reasonably bilingual. He’s well-respected. He’s got movie-star good looks. He’s seen as a moderate in a cabinet bursting at the seams with deconstructed Reformers.

And, most notably, he is the Conservative who lots of Liberals fear the most.

He’s Jim Prentice.

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So, I get iLife and Mac OSX Snow Leopard.

So I download ’em on my Mac.

So I go to play one of the kabillion songs I have laboriously placed on iTunes over a period of years.

So the playlists are there.  The music is there.  But the song information is not.

So the iTunes window is just blank.  Playlists on left, nothing on the right.  Zero, zippo, zilch.

So I’m getting a bit nervous about this.  Dunno how to fix it.

Suggestions?

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Spotted on a door at one of the nicer Italian restaurants I’ve been to in Toronto.

Generally, I’m not fussy about what other people say about my religion. But I have to say, I found this image offensive enough to raise with you. Am I right? Am I wrong?

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1. He was the only current member of the federal cabinet that ever was hired by the Chretien government – to do aboriginal affairs work. He was that respected.
2. He was, and remains, the only member of the current cabinet who I have ever truly feared – because he is the only one who can give them the majority they desire.
3. He was one of the few members of the current cabinet who was admired and liked by politicians on all sides of the House.

His departure is a huge loss for this government. And if he isn’t planning to run for the top job from the outside, he’s crazy.

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A few folks have asked me what the resignation of Gord means for Dalton [full disclosure: whose caucus I’ve given comms advice].  Some columnists have written about this too.

As someone who has actually lived in both B.C. and Ontario, and been involved in politics in both places, here’s my take.  Consider them your free talking points.  You’re welcome.

• The two situations are different. B.C. rolled out their change first. Ontario learned from their mistakes, and implemented the HST in the Summer with little to no controversy.
• B.C. has recall legislation, and Ontario doesn’t. Recall gave Campbell’s political opponents a focus for their attack.  The fact that B.C. Liberals had campaigned on a promise not to implement the HST didn’t help matters.
• When he introduced HST, Campbell started to go down in the polls, and he kept going down. McGuinty never really dropped – and he certainly didn’t drop in the way that Campbell did.
• The Atlantic provinces introduced a blended tax more than a decade ago. All of those governments did fine, politically, after that.
• B.C. is not Ontario. They have a very polarized political environment, one that historically encourages weird political movements. Ontario doesn’t.
• Hudak is completely compromised on HST; he has no credibility on the issue. He said he’d get rid of it, but now he quietly admits he won’t. The NDP, meanwhile, aren’t very credible in their new “tax fighter” role; socialists, after all, love taxes.
• Bottom line, in both B.C. and Ontario: taxes aren’t ever really about taxes.  Politically, they’re always about character. McGuinty is the only guy who has been consistent and truthful on the HST; Hudak, meanwhile, lied.  Simple.

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Best of luck, “friend.”

Break a leg, as it were.

UPDATE: BCL weighs in. Is the enemy of my enemy my friend, even if she’s a white supremacist?

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Sums up my view rather succinctly.

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