The friends of Rob Ford

Two of Rob Ford’s most eager activists/campaign workers are Arnie Lemaire and Kathy Shaidle.  Lemaire runs a Muslim-hating web site called “Blazing Cat Fur” that, most recently, ran a contest encouraging people to send in cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, inter alia, as a pig – and regularly calls for an end to Muslim immigration. Shaidle – who happens to be Lemaire’s wife, and oversees a white supremacist web site called “Five Feet of Fury” – has called Muslim children “parasites,” Islam “fucking retarded…[for] ungrateful beligerent foreign savages…a sick, sick religion,” and said this about Muslim Pakistani immigrants: “most of them can’t even read…What we really need to do is stop immigration from Pakistan and other crazy Muslim countries filled with illiterate, violent tribal peasants…”

For weeks, Shaidle and Lemaire have been agitating for Rob Ford, and have even been at the forefront of his online campaign strategy (as here).  Their association with him and his campaign cannot be denied.  And nor have I found any evidence that the Ford campaign has in any way denounced Lemaire or Shaidle.  Instead – and as in the “investigation” of the Toronto Star, which Ford loathes – they are clearly working in lockstep.

Which brings us to us one of the biggest stories in the world this week, “Reverend” Terry Jones plans to burn copies of the Qu’ran on September 11.

That vile act has been condemned by our Prime Minister, the President of the United States, the Pentagon, the Vatican, Glenn Beck, and pretty much everyone else.  Everyone recognizes that Jones’ plans will cause an extraordinary amount of trouble – and quite literally put allied troops in danger in Afghanistan.

But has Rob Ford?  Why hasn’t he condemned Shaidle and Lemaire, instead of permitting them to sell Ford campaign swag?

Why won’t he condemn Lemaire’s most-recent posting, wherein “Blazing Cat Fur” shows the Qu’ran being burned – and in which he says the opposition to Jones’ plans are “sickening,” quote unquote.

Reading this, and the implications of it, I expect Rob Ford will now scramble to denounce the Qu’ran-burning – and frantically distance himself from the likes of Lemaire and Shaidle.

But the question remains: why hasn’t he done so before now?


Furious acting curious

“…one point has become perfectly clear: Smitherman is running aimlessly through political no man’s land; he won’t survive out there for long.” (Spacing Toronto, John Lorinc, Sept. 9)

“…he’ll never out-do Ford, but his eagerness to try will alienate the centre-of-the-road voters he should be assiduously courting.” (Spacing Toronto, John Lorinc, Sept. 9)

“Given that Smitherman seems determined to cede vast tracts of his political messaging to Ford, I’m guessing there are now thousands of voters — many living in the older core areas – who no longer have any idea whom to support.” (Spacing Toronto, John Lorinc, Sept. 9)

“But if Smitherman and his team were paying attention for the past two or three years, they would have recognized that the…“war on waste” message took precedence.” (Toronto Star, Royson James, Sept. 9)

“He could have owned this issue. Now, all he has left is a risky gambit that might confuse voters.” (Toronto Star, Royson James, Sept. 9)

“Now, as the Toronto mayoralty heads into the final weeks and an Oct. 25 voting day, Smitherman is struggling to create a persona, an easily digestible vision of what he stands for.” (Toronto Star, Royson James, Sept. 9)

“When it was pointed out to [Smitherman] that he was sounding all too much like Ford — who has pledged to do away with both the Land Transfer and Personal Vehicle Taxes plus many councillor perqs — he insisted he is THE ONE with experience managing “substantial” budgets.” (Toronto Sun, Sue Ann Levy, Sept. 7)

“But let’s not forget that this is the same guy who in his maiden speech to the Board of Trade and in subsequent interviews last December — when the polls put him on top — said he would not touch the land transfer or personal vehicle taxes” (Toronto Sun, Sue Ann Levy, Sept. 7)

“From the beginning, his campaign has suffered from a bewildering incoherence…he seems to want the job desperately because … well, because he wants the job desperately. What, exactly, he would do with it if elected is less clear.” (Globe and Mail, Marcus Gee, Sept.8)


So much for this week’s Sun Media/QMI conspiracy theory…

…as debunked by Norm Spector, here.

That’s not all: here’s the head of the CRTC – Konrad von Finckenstein, a man who was a plenty-powerful mandarin in the Chretien-Martin years, too – dispensing with the grassy knoll conspiracy theorists:

“I would like to categorically state that no one at any level of government has approached me about the Sun TV application, the appointment of the CRTC’s vice-chair of broadcasting, or my own mandate. Quebecor’s application is being treated according to the CRTC’s well-established processes.”

“Categorically.” When someone like von Finckenstein deploys language like that, it means something.

George Soros and Margaret Atwood, presumably, could not be reached for comment.


Open letter to Premier McGuinty

Dear Mr. McGuinty:

My youngest son, who is eight, is profoundly displeased with the educational system as it relates to him. He has therefore petitioned me – perhaps 100 times, if not more – to ask you the following:

“Daddy, have you asked Premier McGuinty if I can be home-schooled, yet?”

I look forward to receiving the answer to this question at your earliest opportunity. In the meantime, please accept our best wishes.

Yours sincerely,

Etc.


Wow

Received from a friend at CTV – and I am very sad to see my friend Tom go.  He will be missed:

Tom Clark and CTV to Part Ways

Toronto, ON (September 7, 2010) – Tom Clark, host of CTV News Channel’s POWER PLAY WITH TOM CLARK and former CTV News Washington Bureau Chief, has moved on to pursue other opportunities, it was announced today.

In his almost four decade long association with CTV, Tom Clark has become one of Canada’s most respected journalists. In that time, he served as CTV’s China Bureau Chief, CTV Washington Bureau Chief, host and senior correspondent of CTV’s W5, as well as reporting from seven war zones, natural disasters and political upheavals. Clark witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the student uprising in Tien An Men Square. He covered almost every federal election in Canada since 1974.

“CTV is extremely proud of its long association with Tom Clark, and wishes him well in his future endeavours,” said Robert Hurst, President CTV News.

CTV, Canada’s Olympic Network, is also Canada’s largest private broadcaster. Featuring a wide range of quality news, sports, information, and entertainment programming, CTV is Canada’s most-watched television network. CTV Inc. also owns radio stations across the country and owns or has interests in leading national specialty channels, featuring news, sports, factual, arts, entertainment, music, youth and fashion programming. Official broadcaster of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and London 2012 Games of the Olympiad, CTV Inc. is owned by CTVglobemedia Inc., Canada’s premier multi-media company, which also owns Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail. More information about CTV may be found on the network’s website at www.ctv.ca.


– END –


Back-to-school bits and pieces

After a marathon journey from Maine (note to file: Border Services regard “puppies” as “goods”), I was able to get oldest child to her first day of Grade Ten. She was disinterested in my many stories about my first day of Grade Ten, back at Bishop Carroll High in Calgary.

Sigh.

Some bits and pieces for back-to-school Tuesday!

  • Justin Trudeau packing it in? I certainly hope not.  I haven’t heard from my old friend in a while, but I think he’s one of the brightest of the bright lights in the federal Liberal caucus.  And on mornings when no less than the Montreal Gazette is urging people to vote ADQ in St. Laurent, we Grits need the likes of Justin carrying the torch in Quebec.
  • Sun TV hysteria, redux: Margaret Atwood, former author/free speech advocate, did herself no favours last week when she seemed to call for the censorship of a TV network that doesn’t even exist yet. Ditto that obtuse Soros online petition, that was so totally stupid it became (for a variety of reasons) the object of nation-wide ridicule.  This week, I expect more of the same, because stupidity is self-replicating.  Here’s a tip, folks: Kory – now on vacation in Florida with his family – couldn’t buy this kind of publicity for a kabillion dollars.  Sheesh.
  • Bruce Carson, new COS: Well, not so fast.  Some say he ain’t gonna be the top PMO aide.  But if he is, then he’d be a good pick.  He’s widely respected by the Cons I know, and I’ve found him to be pretty easy-going fella, too.  However, my fave pick – from last week’s comments – is found here.
  • Rocco and Rush: Rocco, still basking in the tripling of his support from last week’s poll, does well at the Labour Day parade; Rush Ford, in this Marcus Gee column, not so much. Fun quote: “people will sour on Rob when they figure out that half of the stuff he says is wrong, that his figures don’t add up and that you can’t fix what ails the city just by cutting city council in half and slashing what councillors spend on photocopying toner.”
  • Morissey is the “sub-species,” actually: As one of the many with a lingering fondness for the Smiths – and an enthusiasm for animal rights work – I was disappointed, to the least, to see Morissey refer to the Chinese people as “a sub-species.”  It made me feel like I did when Woody Allen married his daughter: at a certain point, an artist shouldn’t expect that what he or she does in his or her personal life won’t end up negating all the greatness of his or her art.  At a certain point, you just stop paying attention to them, artistically and otherwise.