It's hot in Toronto. My New York Clients say it's hot. My Detroit folks say it's hot there too.
Aren't we a bunch of whiny buggers?
***
On a normal day I can see Hamilton from my window at work. The lakers steaming across Lake Ontario, the yachts full of people who apparently don't work, and other stuff. But the lake seems to have completely disappeared as the heat causes some weird effect that might be smog or it might just be steam. Either way it's way too hot.
***
More on the morons and the Pact of Evil
The folks at the Sun and the folks that are left at the Post have been busily predicting the demise of the Tories under Peter Mackay since he became party leader earlier this month. These are the same folks who predicted the demise of the Tories under Joe Clark, and who were preparing the burial for the Tories under Jean Charest.
Well. Let me tell you mister. These particular folks usually define a good party leader based solely on how rightish that leader apears to be. However at election time, Canadians usually have other priorities. The neo-cons in this country still haven't figured this out, which is why, election after election, they are left scratching their heads. Now Peter Mackay appears to be leading the PCs away from the Unite the Right thing and perhaps the conservative Conservatives and the Orchard Conservatives will be able to refocus in a way that this party hasn't since at least 1999.
Also, for some reason, these nitwits at the Sun and the Post seem to think that David Orchard won the PC leadership race. Duh.
The folks at the Sun and the folks that are left at the Post have been busily predicting the demise of the Tories under Peter Mackay since he became party leader earlier this month. These are the same folks who predicted the demise of the Tories under Joe Clark, and who were preparing the burial for the Tories under Jean Charest.
Well. Let me tell you mister. These particular folks usually define a good party leader based solely on how rightish that leader apears to be. However at election time, Canadians usually have other priorities. The neo-cons in this country still haven't figured this out, which is why, election after election, they are left scratching their heads. Now Peter Mackay appears to be leading the PCs away from the Unite the Right thing and perhaps the conservative Conservatives and the Orchard Conservatives will be able to refocus in a way that this party hasn't since at least 1999.
Also, for some reason, these nitwits at the Sun and the Post seem to think that David Orchard won the PC leadership race. Duh.
In case you're fretting about my lack of recent posts, in case it's keeping you up at night and you're beginning to question existence, please don't worry. I'm OK, I haven't been kidnapped and I'm not locked up in a mental ward. I've just started working for a new company, and it's a very demanding job, which at least for now is not leaving me with much leisure time during the week. Of course on weekends you'll still find me in a Muskoka chair with a Labatt's 50.
All the crap that people put on their resumes, for instance "I like a demanding workplace", is crap. At least for me, I'm a lazy bastard. Maybe I should move to the cottage and open up a bait shop. Anything's better than getting up for work before the sun rises *in the summertime*, and going to bed before all the good porn comes on on Showcase.
Oops.
All the crap that people put on their resumes, for instance "I like a demanding workplace", is crap. At least for me, I'm a lazy bastard. Maybe I should move to the cottage and open up a bait shop. Anything's better than getting up for work before the sun rises *in the summertime*, and going to bed before all the good porn comes on on Showcase.
Oops.
I just remembered that I wanted to post more about the Orchard-Mackay deal thingy. I want to avoid sounding like I am putting spin on it, because that's not what I've tried to do with this blog. But I am beginning to be of the opinion that it might be the best possible outcome from this past leadership race.
I was very concerned about the aftermath of the leadership race. I am not a huge fan of Orchard or Mackay, Brison or Prentice. Each of these candidates seemed ready to take the party down a road that I didn't want to travel, some towards a closer relationship with the CA, and of course Orchard is a bit too leftish for my taste. But with Mackay as leader, and Orchard having some influence, we can be sure that there will be no talks with the CA in the near future about uniting the ideologues. Also, I like the idea of a union of the left and right, even if it's really just the centre-left and centre-right. And Orchard appeals to certain groups of voters that we have been unable to attract recently.
Anyway, I had to make that very brief, because it's bedtime for Mikey. My bed beckons. Slumber awaits.
zz
I was very concerned about the aftermath of the leadership race. I am not a huge fan of Orchard or Mackay, Brison or Prentice. Each of these candidates seemed ready to take the party down a road that I didn't want to travel, some towards a closer relationship with the CA, and of course Orchard is a bit too leftish for my taste. But with Mackay as leader, and Orchard having some influence, we can be sure that there will be no talks with the CA in the near future about uniting the ideologues. Also, I like the idea of a union of the left and right, even if it's really just the centre-left and centre-right. And Orchard appeals to certain groups of voters that we have been unable to attract recently.
Anyway, I had to make that very brief, because it's bedtime for Mikey. My bed beckons. Slumber awaits.
zz
Chapter 1
Well congratulations to Bernard Lord are in order. Oh how easy to be negative about a 1 seat majority, but it's a majority. Of course if the NB legislature selects a Tory as House speaker, then that will essentially even the numbers up. Since the Speaker only votes in case of a tie, it looks as if the Speaker of the House in the New Brunswick legislature is going to have the virtual ability to personally decide the fate of pretty much all new legislation. I'm sure there'll be 2 party whips who will want to be his best friend.
Surely at least one or two of NB's Liberals must be getting close to retirement age. Perhaps having their very own personal 18-hole golf course might encourage them to retire a few years earlier than they had planned?
Chapter 2
A strange thing indeed I received in my inbox today. An e-mail intended for someone else, not even sent to my e-mail address. Of course this has become normal practice for spammers, but I don't understand how this one got to me. It's part of a conversation between a Yank and a Canuck regarding a story that appeared on the CNN money website a few months ago, about some French bashing in the States.. Anyway, that's not important, read this:
**
"Next time they get invaded and occupied, we'll remember not to save their butts. How many americans gave their lives, so that those ungrateful cheese-eaters could have their country and culture back???? Lets hope the united states never forgets this!!!!!! i know i wont! At least the british know who their friends are, and back us up when we need them - good for them. we helped them, now they help us when we need it.
the hotel is NY is only doing that cause they know that no self-respecting person would give those cheese-eaters any money after this. it looks good on them.....keep taking down those french flags mes amis!!!"
**
...wow. Can you feel the love?
I've resisted the strong urge to reply to these clowns, but it certainly bothers me how the French-haters are revising history to suit their wacky opinion. The comment about the Yanks helping the Brits and the French (and of course many other countries who were struggling against the bad guys in WW2) completely ignores the fact that the Yanks sat out the war until they got smacked in the head by the Japanese. Anyway, I'm not going to get all "analyzy" on this stupid e-mail that landed in my inbox by accident.
Chapter 3
So two guys can get married in Ontario now. Some have already since the Supreme Court of Ontario took the unusual step yesterday of rewriting a piece of legislation (as opposed to striking it down or upholding it).
I usually think of myself as being fairly progressive on social issues, and I support the rights of gays, but this idea is just wrong. It makes me ill. This is not an issue of rights, since the only thing that has changed is the matter of government recognition.
The worst part is that there is no rational argument against the idea of gay marriages. On the other hand there is no rational argument in favour of it either, other than the idea that straight people can marry, so it's become a matter of equality. Of course there is no rational reason to explain why straight people would want to be married either.......
So gay marriage is legal now, does that mean it's right? It is perfectly legal to have sex with a sibling in this country, but I think we would all agree about the total (yuck) wrongness of doing that. What I mean is that the Supreme Court of Ontario has legalized it, but that's all. It means nothing, except on paper and perhaps at tax-time. Gay marriage is still wrong, it's still a more, it's still immoral.
Wow, I almost sound like a member of the Canadian Alliance.
Last thing, since there is an election expected this fall in Ontario, don't be surprised if you get a phone call (at suppertime of course)during the summer asking your opinion on this issue.
Well congratulations to Bernard Lord are in order. Oh how easy to be negative about a 1 seat majority, but it's a majority. Of course if the NB legislature selects a Tory as House speaker, then that will essentially even the numbers up. Since the Speaker only votes in case of a tie, it looks as if the Speaker of the House in the New Brunswick legislature is going to have the virtual ability to personally decide the fate of pretty much all new legislation. I'm sure there'll be 2 party whips who will want to be his best friend.
Surely at least one or two of NB's Liberals must be getting close to retirement age. Perhaps having their very own personal 18-hole golf course might encourage them to retire a few years earlier than they had planned?
Chapter 2
A strange thing indeed I received in my inbox today. An e-mail intended for someone else, not even sent to my e-mail address. Of course this has become normal practice for spammers, but I don't understand how this one got to me. It's part of a conversation between a Yank and a Canuck regarding a story that appeared on the CNN money website a few months ago, about some French bashing in the States.. Anyway, that's not important, read this:
**
"Next time they get invaded and occupied, we'll remember not to save their butts. How many americans gave their lives, so that those ungrateful cheese-eaters could have their country and culture back???? Lets hope the united states never forgets this!!!!!! i know i wont! At least the british know who their friends are, and back us up when we need them - good for them. we helped them, now they help us when we need it.
the hotel is NY is only doing that cause they know that no self-respecting person would give those cheese-eaters any money after this. it looks good on them.....keep taking down those french flags mes amis!!!"
**
...wow. Can you feel the love?
I've resisted the strong urge to reply to these clowns, but it certainly bothers me how the French-haters are revising history to suit their wacky opinion. The comment about the Yanks helping the Brits and the French (and of course many other countries who were struggling against the bad guys in WW2) completely ignores the fact that the Yanks sat out the war until they got smacked in the head by the Japanese. Anyway, I'm not going to get all "analyzy" on this stupid e-mail that landed in my inbox by accident.
Chapter 3
So two guys can get married in Ontario now. Some have already since the Supreme Court of Ontario took the unusual step yesterday of rewriting a piece of legislation (as opposed to striking it down or upholding it).
I usually think of myself as being fairly progressive on social issues, and I support the rights of gays, but this idea is just wrong. It makes me ill. This is not an issue of rights, since the only thing that has changed is the matter of government recognition.
The worst part is that there is no rational argument against the idea of gay marriages. On the other hand there is no rational argument in favour of it either, other than the idea that straight people can marry, so it's become a matter of equality. Of course there is no rational reason to explain why straight people would want to be married either.......
So gay marriage is legal now, does that mean it's right? It is perfectly legal to have sex with a sibling in this country, but I think we would all agree about the total (yuck) wrongness of doing that. What I mean is that the Supreme Court of Ontario has legalized it, but that's all. It means nothing, except on paper and perhaps at tax-time. Gay marriage is still wrong, it's still a more, it's still immoral.
Wow, I almost sound like a member of the Canadian Alliance.
Last thing, since there is an election expected this fall in Ontario, don't be surprised if you get a phone call (at suppertime of course)during the summer asking your opinion on this issue.
Wow. I've been away for a while, because I've recently moved to a new company (Sony), and I'm still in the adjustment phase of THAT. But I took today off, and I thought it was a good idea to write something boring as can be, about last weekend's leadership convention. Oddly my web traffic has picked up while I'm away. Does that suggest perhaps that people prefer me when I shut up?
Nope. I didn't go, even though I was a delegate. It was partly because Mr. Bachand left the race, and the format of the convention meant that as a result my vote was going to be wasted on the first ballot. And it was partly because of the Sony thing. Anyway who cares?
Let's get on to the meat of the matter, the stink in the s***. I probably don't have any insight to offer. So unless you want to read a re-hashing of the week's news, with some idiotic opinion thrown in for flavour, you might as well go.
First off, can anyone tell me what's gong on in the middle east? I've been getting a lot of my news lately in the snippets I get from the little elevator news service thingy (for those of you who don't work in fishtanks that have been stood on their end, I'm talking about a little plasma or lcd display right below the elevator numbers. It shows advertising at the bottom, and headlines and pictures on the top half. Hey, it's better than the old game of "try not to get caught staring at the girl's bum")
The MacKay-Orchard Pact of Evil
The Post and the Sun are agog and appalled. But since the Reform/Alliance decided to go down the road to becoming an ideologically-driven party, the media has assumed that the Tories would eventually follow suit. I think that that was probably my biggest concern during this leadership race, that most of the candidates were somehow planning to change the party into something it isn't. Maybe we got a hint from MacKay about his true colours when he said during the CPAC English debate that the idea of "uniting the right" made us look like a fringe group. That made me feel a lot more comfortable with him, although I still had, and still do have, concerns (we need to get some French into that boy). Anyway, from what I've seen so far, the Post and the Sun are the only ones who are crying foul about the secret pact, and my suggestion to both of those establishments is that perhaps they might want to field candidates in the next Tory leadership choosing thingy.
That's assuming of course, that Peter MacKay doesn't live forever and lead the party until the end of time.
I'm a supporter of the idea of free trade, and I am not opposed to the idea of a review of our free trade policies with the US. I believe that these policies will stand up to review on their own merits. If, however, the review panel (which will include Orchard) can come up with some good suggestions, some amendments to NAFTA, I don't see any reason why we shouldn't at least consider them.
Of course it goes without saying that if Orchard hijacks the review process to forward his personal opinion that we should abolish NAFTA altogether, then the value of the committee's recommendations will be questionable. The PC Party is not going to oppose NAFTA or free trade with the United States.
Anyway, that's about all there is to say about "the deal".
The Nose
Everyone knows that you can't get elected if you have a funny face. Well there are exceptions, Chretien, Mulroney, Diefenbaker, Bush.. but still what's up with Peter MacKay's nose?
I mean, Oh, my, god. Look at that schnozz. It is so big. *scoff* He looks like, one of those guys from that cartoon... He looks like a total dweeb, 'kay?
I mean, his nose, is just so big. *scoff* I can't believe it's just so huge, it's like, out there, I mean - gross. Look!
Great political insight, eh?
That's it for now. Please direct any complaints to here
Nope. I didn't go, even though I was a delegate. It was partly because Mr. Bachand left the race, and the format of the convention meant that as a result my vote was going to be wasted on the first ballot. And it was partly because of the Sony thing. Anyway who cares?
Let's get on to the meat of the matter, the stink in the s***. I probably don't have any insight to offer. So unless you want to read a re-hashing of the week's news, with some idiotic opinion thrown in for flavour, you might as well go.
First off, can anyone tell me what's gong on in the middle east? I've been getting a lot of my news lately in the snippets I get from the little elevator news service thingy (for those of you who don't work in fishtanks that have been stood on their end, I'm talking about a little plasma or lcd display right below the elevator numbers. It shows advertising at the bottom, and headlines and pictures on the top half. Hey, it's better than the old game of "try not to get caught staring at the girl's bum")
The MacKay-Orchard Pact of Evil
The Post and the Sun are agog and appalled. But since the Reform/Alliance decided to go down the road to becoming an ideologically-driven party, the media has assumed that the Tories would eventually follow suit. I think that that was probably my biggest concern during this leadership race, that most of the candidates were somehow planning to change the party into something it isn't. Maybe we got a hint from MacKay about his true colours when he said during the CPAC English debate that the idea of "uniting the right" made us look like a fringe group. That made me feel a lot more comfortable with him, although I still had, and still do have, concerns (we need to get some French into that boy). Anyway, from what I've seen so far, the Post and the Sun are the only ones who are crying foul about the secret pact, and my suggestion to both of those establishments is that perhaps they might want to field candidates in the next Tory leadership choosing thingy.
That's assuming of course, that Peter MacKay doesn't live forever and lead the party until the end of time.
I'm a supporter of the idea of free trade, and I am not opposed to the idea of a review of our free trade policies with the US. I believe that these policies will stand up to review on their own merits. If, however, the review panel (which will include Orchard) can come up with some good suggestions, some amendments to NAFTA, I don't see any reason why we shouldn't at least consider them.
Of course it goes without saying that if Orchard hijacks the review process to forward his personal opinion that we should abolish NAFTA altogether, then the value of the committee's recommendations will be questionable. The PC Party is not going to oppose NAFTA or free trade with the United States.
Anyway, that's about all there is to say about "the deal".
The Nose
Everyone knows that you can't get elected if you have a funny face. Well there are exceptions, Chretien, Mulroney, Diefenbaker, Bush.. but still what's up with Peter MacKay's nose?
I mean, Oh, my, god. Look at that schnozz. It is so big. *scoff* He looks like, one of those guys from that cartoon... He looks like a total dweeb, 'kay?
I mean, his nose, is just so big. *scoff* I can't believe it's just so huge, it's like, out there, I mean - gross. Look!
Great political insight, eh?
That's it for now. Please direct any complaints to here
On Monday the Sun printed a map depicting the routes Holly Jones and her friend took, walking up Symington Avenue, as well as the route Holly took to go home, down the next street west, Perth Avenue.
In 2001-2002 I dated a girl who lived on Symington, and the two girls would have walked right past my ex's house (according to the police map). So I know the area very well. There are back alleys between Perth and Symington, big enough for a car, and lined with the type of tiny, dingy garages you seem to only find in Toronto.
If she had walked south on Perth and wanted to take a shortcut back over to the crosswalk at Symington and Bloor, which is less than a block from her house, there is an alleyway that crosses between the streets just a few steps north of Bloor. We always tell kids the dangers of strangers and back alleys and all that, but I remember when I was a kid I loved to take little shortcuts through back-routes. In a normal world.. well I guess it's not really a normal world when there is at least one person at large in this city who has grabbed a child a few blocks from her home, and done unspeakable things.
Visiting my friends this weekend, their son overheard us discussing Holly Jones, and asked what we were talking about. How do you explain something to a six-year old kid, when it's something that gives even grown-ups nightmares?
*************
To W, and to all Toronto parents: Have courage.
One who never turned his back but marched breast forward,
Never doubted clouds would break,
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph,
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to flight better,
Sleep to wake.
Robert Browning (Epilogue--Asolando)
In 2001-2002 I dated a girl who lived on Symington, and the two girls would have walked right past my ex's house (according to the police map). So I know the area very well. There are back alleys between Perth and Symington, big enough for a car, and lined with the type of tiny, dingy garages you seem to only find in Toronto.
If she had walked south on Perth and wanted to take a shortcut back over to the crosswalk at Symington and Bloor, which is less than a block from her house, there is an alleyway that crosses between the streets just a few steps north of Bloor. We always tell kids the dangers of strangers and back alleys and all that, but I remember when I was a kid I loved to take little shortcuts through back-routes. In a normal world.. well I guess it's not really a normal world when there is at least one person at large in this city who has grabbed a child a few blocks from her home, and done unspeakable things.
Visiting my friends this weekend, their son overheard us discussing Holly Jones, and asked what we were talking about. How do you explain something to a six-year old kid, when it's something that gives even grown-ups nightmares?
*************
To W, and to all Toronto parents: Have courage.
One who never turned his back but marched breast forward,
Never doubted clouds would break,
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph,
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to flight better,
Sleep to wake.
Robert Browning (Epilogue--Asolando)
The spin is on; the reactions are coming in. Heather MacIvor over at the Star had some things to say about the Tory by-election win in Perth Middlesex earlier this week, in an article entitled "Whither Tories sans Joe?"
Interestingly enough, she doesn't try to answer the question that the title of her article seems to ask. Rather, she writes a long and misinformed tirade against the PC Party. So I've decided to take it upon myself to write some more crap on the subject. What's that, a rebuttal? Of course you'll believe what I say and realize that she's just plain wrong, because you are getting verrrry sleeeeeepy. OK, ready? Here we go (serious mode: on). She should have had someone proofread it prior to sending it to her editor, because some parts of her article seem to (I'm sure unintentionally) prove the case that the Tories are a national party still in a position to govern.
For instance, when she discusses candidate reimbursement (getting your deposit back), she says "Only 3 in 10 Tory candidates qualified for reimbursement after the 2000 election". From what I remember from my involved days, to get your deposit back, you need 15% of the vote in your riding. That is a figure that would be hardly worth mentioning, were it the NDP or the Bloq or the CA in question, because those parties have always been strong in the ridings they've won, and weak in most of the others (the NDP and Tory votes are more uniformly spread than the other two, which partly explains the low number of seats returned). But that is not normal for the PC Party of Canada, just as it would seem absurd if the Liberals only got such a small number of their depoisits back. I should mention here that the one third figure seems a little low to me, but I'm not posting frrom home so I don't have the resources with me to verify her numbers, and I'm using dial-up here, so I'm not going to go searching the net.
The Natural Law Party has run candidates, and I'm sure they haven't gotten any of their deposits back. So what Ms. MacIvor is really saying, is that only one third of Tory candidates got their deposits back, which is a remarkable fact only because the PC Party is one of the country's governing parties.
"the Tories' financial situation is so dire that they had to liquidate the Bracken House Trust in 2001"
This is true. However, what Ms. MacIvor neglects to mention is that since 2001, the party has paid off it's debt and is now building a warchest. When I say "paid-off", I don't mean in the way that the CA did it, by taking the money from it's riding associations with promises to pay it back at the end of 2003. While Stephen Harper may have declared his party debt-free, he still has loans for the same amount of principle as before, however with a slightly lower interest rate. And at the end of this year, he is going to have to borrow from the banks again to pay back the money owed to the riding associations. What a tangled web....
"Of the 10 by-elections since November, 2000, the Tories have won precisely two. If there's a Tory resurgence here, I can't see it."
Ms. MacIvor may or may not be right. At least she's honest when she says that she doesn't know. Without a crystal ball how could she possibly be expected to see the future of the Party?
And 2 out of 10 by-election victories may not, at first glance, seem like a victory. The thing is, that is 20% of the by-elections since the last general election. But when you consider that the Party only has 5% of the total representation in the house, that's a victory in itself. And it's here that she really begins to play around with the numbers.
"Schellenberger actually won fewer votes in his by-election victory than he did when he lost to the Liberals in 2000, although his vote share jumped from 30 to 40 per cent because overall turnout dropped by one-third."
By-elections always have a smaller voter turnout. Stephen Harper won his riding by less than half of the votes that his predecessor, Preston Manning, won in 2000. It's normal.
But what Ms. Macivor wants you to believe is that those almost all of those who didn't vote in last week's by-election in Perth Middlesex, but did vote in 2000, were Liberal and Alliance supporters. She tells you that those two parties were the only ones affected by the lower voter turnout, and that is the reason for the result. In fact all of the parties were affected by the lower turnout, and the only way to compare the numbers with 2000 properly is by the percentages.
Yeah, no if you want those numbers you've come to the wrong website. I'm too lazy to open up Internet Explorer and go to Yahoo. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.
And the one thing that stands out in this particular by-election, even perhaps above the Tory victory, is the NDP vote, which rose from 6% to 15%. I read an article last week that suggested that the reason for this is that the "I hate everybody" vote is moving from the CA, and back to the NDP, where that vote has traditionally been parked. These are the people who distrust politicians and all parties, but still get out to vote.
There are always ways to spin political events, but playing spin doctor with numbers is usually dumb. It's just too easy to get called on it by someone who knows the facts. Better to resort to sloganeering (Reform Party), consistent name-calling (Liberal Party Ontario), or wedge-issues (Liberal Party Canada).
---
Mike Wilson is a freelance moron, with a degree in something from Carleton university in Ottawa (he forgets exactly what). He has written for the diary of Mike Wilson, in which he once begged his future self to send money back to the year 1980, once time machines are invented, so he could attend a concert by the band "the Monks". Other writings include various assignments from 1972 through 1987 when he was based out of the Fenelon Falls Public School, and later the Fenelon Falls Secondary School.
Interestingly enough, she doesn't try to answer the question that the title of her article seems to ask. Rather, she writes a long and misinformed tirade against the PC Party. So I've decided to take it upon myself to write some more crap on the subject. What's that, a rebuttal? Of course you'll believe what I say and realize that she's just plain wrong, because you are getting verrrry sleeeeeepy. OK, ready? Here we go (serious mode: on). She should have had someone proofread it prior to sending it to her editor, because some parts of her article seem to (I'm sure unintentionally) prove the case that the Tories are a national party still in a position to govern.
For instance, when she discusses candidate reimbursement (getting your deposit back), she says "Only 3 in 10 Tory candidates qualified for reimbursement after the 2000 election". From what I remember from my involved days, to get your deposit back, you need 15% of the vote in your riding. That is a figure that would be hardly worth mentioning, were it the NDP or the Bloq or the CA in question, because those parties have always been strong in the ridings they've won, and weak in most of the others (the NDP and Tory votes are more uniformly spread than the other two, which partly explains the low number of seats returned). But that is not normal for the PC Party of Canada, just as it would seem absurd if the Liberals only got such a small number of their depoisits back. I should mention here that the one third figure seems a little low to me, but I'm not posting frrom home so I don't have the resources with me to verify her numbers, and I'm using dial-up here, so I'm not going to go searching the net.
The Natural Law Party has run candidates, and I'm sure they haven't gotten any of their deposits back. So what Ms. MacIvor is really saying, is that only one third of Tory candidates got their deposits back, which is a remarkable fact only because the PC Party is one of the country's governing parties.
"the Tories' financial situation is so dire that they had to liquidate the Bracken House Trust in 2001"
This is true. However, what Ms. MacIvor neglects to mention is that since 2001, the party has paid off it's debt and is now building a warchest. When I say "paid-off", I don't mean in the way that the CA did it, by taking the money from it's riding associations with promises to pay it back at the end of 2003. While Stephen Harper may have declared his party debt-free, he still has loans for the same amount of principle as before, however with a slightly lower interest rate. And at the end of this year, he is going to have to borrow from the banks again to pay back the money owed to the riding associations. What a tangled web....
"Of the 10 by-elections since November, 2000, the Tories have won precisely two. If there's a Tory resurgence here, I can't see it."
Ms. MacIvor may or may not be right. At least she's honest when she says that she doesn't know. Without a crystal ball how could she possibly be expected to see the future of the Party?
And 2 out of 10 by-election victories may not, at first glance, seem like a victory. The thing is, that is 20% of the by-elections since the last general election. But when you consider that the Party only has 5% of the total representation in the house, that's a victory in itself. And it's here that she really begins to play around with the numbers.
"Schellenberger actually won fewer votes in his by-election victory than he did when he lost to the Liberals in 2000, although his vote share jumped from 30 to 40 per cent because overall turnout dropped by one-third."
By-elections always have a smaller voter turnout. Stephen Harper won his riding by less than half of the votes that his predecessor, Preston Manning, won in 2000. It's normal.
But what Ms. Macivor wants you to believe is that those almost all of those who didn't vote in last week's by-election in Perth Middlesex, but did vote in 2000, were Liberal and Alliance supporters. She tells you that those two parties were the only ones affected by the lower voter turnout, and that is the reason for the result. In fact all of the parties were affected by the lower turnout, and the only way to compare the numbers with 2000 properly is by the percentages.
Yeah, no if you want those numbers you've come to the wrong website. I'm too lazy to open up Internet Explorer and go to Yahoo. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.
And the one thing that stands out in this particular by-election, even perhaps above the Tory victory, is the NDP vote, which rose from 6% to 15%. I read an article last week that suggested that the reason for this is that the "I hate everybody" vote is moving from the CA, and back to the NDP, where that vote has traditionally been parked. These are the people who distrust politicians and all parties, but still get out to vote.
There are always ways to spin political events, but playing spin doctor with numbers is usually dumb. It's just too easy to get called on it by someone who knows the facts. Better to resort to sloganeering (Reform Party), consistent name-calling (Liberal Party Ontario), or wedge-issues (Liberal Party Canada).
---
Mike Wilson is a freelance moron, with a degree in something from Carleton university in Ottawa (he forgets exactly what). He has written for the diary of Mike Wilson, in which he once begged his future self to send money back to the year 1980, once time machines are invented, so he could attend a concert by the band "the Monks". Other writings include various assignments from 1972 through 1987 when he was based out of the Fenelon Falls Public School, and later the Fenelon Falls Secondary School.
Tonight we might get to find out who kidnapped Zoe.
The Season Finale of the West Wing is on tonight (7PM not 9), and it's Aaron Sorkin's last episode. I haven't heard if the series will continue under someone else, but here are some suggestions:
-Quentin Tarantino. More swearing, more blood, snappier lines and dancing. Toby finally gets to take out his inner angst by slowly killing off his co-workers, one-by-one, execution-style, while telling pithy jokes about how useless life is. Tarantino is featured as the new Vice-President.
-Michael Eisner. The show becomes a semi-musical. Whitney Houston and Elton John hired on as permanent songwriters. The new Vice President is a talking tea-cup.
-Joss Whedon. A gate to hell opens up under the White House. Teenage girls roam the halls fighting evil creatures. Josh has a mid-life crisis. The new VP is a British punk-rock vampire with a soul named Spike.
-George Lucas. Fires the whole cast and makes a show about the previous administration.
-Steven Spielberg. The USA is governed by two mice. One is a genius, the other's insane. They're laboratory mice, their genes have been spliced. They're Pinky, they're Pinky and the Brain Brain Brain Brain.
President Brain and Vice President Pinky try to take over the world by night, starting with Iraq. Every episode ends with the lines:
"What are we going to do tonight, Brain?"
"Same thing we do every night. Try to take over the world!"
The Season Finale of the West Wing is on tonight (7PM not 9), and it's Aaron Sorkin's last episode. I haven't heard if the series will continue under someone else, but here are some suggestions:
-Quentin Tarantino. More swearing, more blood, snappier lines and dancing. Toby finally gets to take out his inner angst by slowly killing off his co-workers, one-by-one, execution-style, while telling pithy jokes about how useless life is. Tarantino is featured as the new Vice-President.
-Michael Eisner. The show becomes a semi-musical. Whitney Houston and Elton John hired on as permanent songwriters. The new Vice President is a talking tea-cup.
-Joss Whedon. A gate to hell opens up under the White House. Teenage girls roam the halls fighting evil creatures. Josh has a mid-life crisis. The new VP is a British punk-rock vampire with a soul named Spike.
-George Lucas. Fires the whole cast and makes a show about the previous administration.
-Steven Spielberg. The USA is governed by two mice. One is a genius, the other's insane. They're laboratory mice, their genes have been spliced. They're Pinky, they're Pinky and the Brain Brain Brain Brain.
President Brain and Vice President Pinky try to take over the world by night, starting with Iraq. Every episode ends with the lines:
"What are we going to do tonight, Brain?"
"Same thing we do every night. Try to take over the world!"
Salam Pax is writing his Dear Raed blog from Baghdad again. It appears they have internet in Baghdad again, if that was the problem. It seems he continued to document the entire war from his perspective, and posted the whole thing when he had internet available. I'll have to wait for a day when I have lots of spare time to get caught up.
Excerpt from March 24:
**
In the [oh-the-irony-of-it-all] section of my life I can add the unbelievable bad luck that when I wanted to watch a movie because I got sick of all the news, the only movie I had which I have not seen a 100 times is “the American President”. No joke. A friend gave that video months ago, I never watched it. I did last night. The American “presidential palace” looks quite good. But Michael Douglas is a sad ass president.
**
And in conclusion, he writes:
**
We didn't do no liberatin' and pullin' down statues to be told, "get in the kitchen and fry those felafal balls, bitch."
Get ready for a wild ride, Iraq.
**
Excerpt from March 24:
**
In the [oh-the-irony-of-it-all] section of my life I can add the unbelievable bad luck that when I wanted to watch a movie because I got sick of all the news, the only movie I had which I have not seen a 100 times is “the American President”. No joke. A friend gave that video months ago, I never watched it. I did last night. The American “presidential palace” looks quite good. But Michael Douglas is a sad ass president.
**
And in conclusion, he writes:
**
We didn't do no liberatin' and pullin' down statues to be told, "get in the kitchen and fry those felafal balls, bitch."
Get ready for a wild ride, Iraq.
**
Well, here's some news that's a bit better.
We won the by-election in Perth-Middlesex tonight.
Congratulations to Gary Schellenberger, the newest Tory MP. Here's the early Globe story.
This by-election was marked by the discovery that Canadian Alliance candidate Marian Meinen had written a letter to an Alberta newspaper, in which she called Ontarians "unthinking masses", because she was unhappy with the lack of CA representation in the province. Vancouver Scrum did a little thing on "the Meinen Affair" earlier this week. If you really want a good commentary on the story, I'd recommend that you go look at his site, because I've got nothing interesting to say about it.
Interestingly, Kent over at Torydraft had this to say about tonight's victory: "We're back". Interesting because I remember David Small uttering exactly the same 2 words while riding the elevator to the Tory shindig on election night in 1997. So it's sort of one of those touch wood things.
Once again, congratulations Gary what'syername.
We won the by-election in Perth-Middlesex tonight.
Congratulations to Gary Schellenberger, the newest Tory MP. Here's the early Globe story.
This by-election was marked by the discovery that Canadian Alliance candidate Marian Meinen had written a letter to an Alberta newspaper, in which she called Ontarians "unthinking masses", because she was unhappy with the lack of CA representation in the province. Vancouver Scrum did a little thing on "the Meinen Affair" earlier this week. If you really want a good commentary on the story, I'd recommend that you go look at his site, because I've got nothing interesting to say about it.
Interestingly, Kent over at Torydraft had this to say about tonight's victory: "We're back". Interesting because I remember David Small uttering exactly the same 2 words while riding the elevator to the Tory shindig on election night in 1997. So it's sort of one of those touch wood things.
Once again, congratulations Gary what'syername.
I got this in my e-mail today, it's quite brilliant. Of course when you're as dumb as I am, even Stephen Harper seems brilliant.
It seems Andy Rooney doesn't like telemarketers or junk mail, and he has some ideas to irritate the companies that are responsible. I wonder if he's given any thought to battling spam e-mail?
By the way, this is Andy Rooney, from the television show 60 Minutes. Not to be confused with Mickey Rooney, the short fat guy from the television show "The Black Stallion", and crappy movies going back to the beginning of the Great Depression.
Andy Rooney's tips for telemarketers and junk mail ...
Three Little Words That Work!!
1. The three little words are: "Hold On, Please ..."
Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.
Then when you eventually hear the phone company's "beep-beep-beep" tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task.
These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.
2. Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?
This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone.
This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a "real" sales person to call back and get someone at home.
What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of their system.
Since doing this, my phone calls have decreased dramatically.
3. Another Good Idea:
When you get "ads" enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these "ads" with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away.
When you get those "pre-approved" letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope.
Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 37 cents postage "IF" and when they receive them back.
It costs them nothing if you throw them away.
The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.
One of Andy Rooney's (60 Minutes) ideas.
Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express.
Send a pizza coupon to Citibank.
If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back!
If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them.
You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing!
Eventually, the banks and credit card companies will begin getting their own junk back in the mail.
Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it ... Twice!
Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea!
If enough people follow these tips, it will work --- I have been doing this for years, and I get very little junk mail anymore.
It seems Andy Rooney doesn't like telemarketers or junk mail, and he has some ideas to irritate the companies that are responsible. I wonder if he's given any thought to battling spam e-mail?
By the way, this is Andy Rooney, from the television show 60 Minutes. Not to be confused with Mickey Rooney, the short fat guy from the television show "The Black Stallion", and crappy movies going back to the beginning of the Great Depression.
Andy Rooney's tips for telemarketers and junk mail ...
Three Little Words That Work!!
1. The three little words are: "Hold On, Please ..."
Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.
Then when you eventually hear the phone company's "beep-beep-beep" tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task.
These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.
2. Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?
This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone.
This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a "real" sales person to call back and get someone at home.
What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of their system.
Since doing this, my phone calls have decreased dramatically.
3. Another Good Idea:
When you get "ads" enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these "ads" with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away.
When you get those "pre-approved" letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope.
Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 37 cents postage "IF" and when they receive them back.
It costs them nothing if you throw them away.
The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.
One of Andy Rooney's (60 Minutes) ideas.
Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express.
Send a pizza coupon to Citibank.
If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back!
If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them.
You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing!
Eventually, the banks and credit card companies will begin getting their own junk back in the mail.
Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it ... Twice!
Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea!
If enough people follow these tips, it will work --- I have been doing this for years, and I get very little junk mail anymore.
Boy this blogger thing is slow tonight. In the time it's taken for the page to load up so I can write this drivel, I've visited a whole assortment of other people's pages, and started loading up a page with some Honda Flash video advertisement.
I've had my nose buried in the books getting ready for an interview tomorrow, and it seems I've missed quite a few things. Apparently there was a leadership debate tonight on Ontario's PBS (I forget the name of the network). But there is going to be a replay tonight. No time though, unless I tape it and watch it...whenever. And tomorrow night at 8pm (EST) there will be another debate on Newsworld. Likely it will be replayed at 11PM.
Still waiting for the Honda page to load up.
I got some bad news tonight though. I checked my e-mail, and I had several queries from people asking my opinion on Andre Bachand's pulling out of the leadership race.
Huh?
So, I browsed my way over to the Bachand campaign website, and yes, Andre Bachand seems to have dropped out of the race today. Well, what's a poor Bachand delegate to do now?
After I finished picking my nose in disgust, I decided to log on to my blog. And that just about brings you up-to-date on what I've been up to for the past hour. How've you been?
OK, it's been half an hour, and that Honda ad still hasn't come up yet. It still says it's loading up though. Try here. Much faster, unless you like to wait for hours. It's up to you.
Anyway, as I said at the beginning of this incredibly dull and useless addition to the internet, I've been extremely busy, and probably don't have time tonight to comment on Bachand's retirement from the race.
But since Ian asked, I'll go over what happens with my delegateship. On the first ballot my vote is still dedicated to Bachand, since he didn't pull out in time (we've all been guilty of that). However on the second ballot, I am free to vote for whomever I wish. Which, come to think of it, is what would have happened if Bachand had stayed in the race. Nothing changes at all, except that my first ballot vote is wasted.
Realistically though, there is one important thing that changes (for me). Paul Martin... errr I mean Peter Mackay is going to be crowned leader of the party, he's just too far ahead for even a combined effort by the other candidates to conquer him. So I will probably save myself 600 bucks and watch the coronation on TV for free. Maybe I'll spend the money on that great SONY PDA I've been looking at. The only difference is I can't write off an $800 (US) toy like that on my taxes like I could with the convention fees. Or can I......?
I've had my nose buried in the books getting ready for an interview tomorrow, and it seems I've missed quite a few things. Apparently there was a leadership debate tonight on Ontario's PBS (I forget the name of the network). But there is going to be a replay tonight. No time though, unless I tape it and watch it...whenever. And tomorrow night at 8pm (EST) there will be another debate on Newsworld. Likely it will be replayed at 11PM.
Still waiting for the Honda page to load up.
I got some bad news tonight though. I checked my e-mail, and I had several queries from people asking my opinion on Andre Bachand's pulling out of the leadership race.
Huh?
So, I browsed my way over to the Bachand campaign website, and yes, Andre Bachand seems to have dropped out of the race today. Well, what's a poor Bachand delegate to do now?
After I finished picking my nose in disgust, I decided to log on to my blog. And that just about brings you up-to-date on what I've been up to for the past hour. How've you been?
OK, it's been half an hour, and that Honda ad still hasn't come up yet. It still says it's loading up though. Try here. Much faster, unless you like to wait for hours. It's up to you.
Anyway, as I said at the beginning of this incredibly dull and useless addition to the internet, I've been extremely busy, and probably don't have time tonight to comment on Bachand's retirement from the race.
But since Ian asked, I'll go over what happens with my delegateship. On the first ballot my vote is still dedicated to Bachand, since he didn't pull out in time (we've all been guilty of that). However on the second ballot, I am free to vote for whomever I wish. Which, come to think of it, is what would have happened if Bachand had stayed in the race. Nothing changes at all, except that my first ballot vote is wasted.
Realistically though, there is one important thing that changes (for me). Paul Martin... errr I mean Peter Mackay is going to be crowned leader of the party, he's just too far ahead for even a combined effort by the other candidates to conquer him. So I will probably save myself 600 bucks and watch the coronation on TV for free. Maybe I'll spend the money on that great SONY PDA I've been looking at. The only difference is I can't write off an $800 (US) toy like that on my taxes like I could with the convention fees. Or can I......?
Here's an interesting Report on Business article on the subject of spam e-mail.
Speaking of which, here's a website that all Yahoo Mail users should look at. Apparently Yahoo is responsible for a lot of that spam you've been getting, and this page lets you turn the Yahoo-generated spam off.
Speaking of which, here's a website that all Yahoo Mail users should look at. Apparently Yahoo is responsible for a lot of that spam you've been getting, and this page lets you turn the Yahoo-generated spam off.
I don't want to keep picking on Paul Martin about his blog (which he has begun writing to again), because really blogs are personal and probably not fair game for the type of criticisms I've lobbed his way on the topic of his blog.
But I do have one last thing I want to say, and that has to do with a post back in March. March 14 to be exact. On that day he wrote this sentence on his blog:
"I’m also going to try and show better form: shorter blogs, more casual subjects and so forth.".
He hasn't really gotten any more casual in his writing, but he's in the middle of a leadership race, so I'll let him have that one. But instead of shortening up his posts, it seems that his posts have doubled in length since he wrote that sentence.
Not that it really matters. Paul, your blog is a great place for you to get in touch on a more personal level with your constituency. Your April 28th posts seems to suggest that is one of your aims. So why don't you use your blog to tell us about your personal feelings about these "town halls". Were there any questions you were unprepared for? What did you have for breakfast?
But I do have one last thing I want to say, and that has to do with a post back in March. March 14 to be exact. On that day he wrote this sentence on his blog:
"I’m also going to try and show better form: shorter blogs, more casual subjects and so forth.".
He hasn't really gotten any more casual in his writing, but he's in the middle of a leadership race, so I'll let him have that one. But instead of shortening up his posts, it seems that his posts have doubled in length since he wrote that sentence.
Not that it really matters. Paul, your blog is a great place for you to get in touch on a more personal level with your constituency. Your April 28th posts seems to suggest that is one of your aims. So why don't you use your blog to tell us about your personal feelings about these "town halls". Were there any questions you were unprepared for? What did you have for breakfast?
I just finished watching the movie Moulin Rouge starring Obi Wan Kenobi (the younger).
Wow. Visually it was just amazing, with a lot of dancey sequences. It's a story(A) about writing a story(B). It gets a bit complicated, as Story B is actually about Story A. And the people in Story A are trying to influence what happens in story B. Basically it's a fun musical, set in Paris in the year 1900. Enough about that.
If you liked the thing they did in the movie "A Knight's Tale", where they threw modern music into an old-timey story (remember the dancey song that morphed into a Bowie song?), then you'll love Moulin Rouge, where the whole movie is full of modern songs, like "Roxanne" by the Police. Some of it was brilliant, like Ewan MacGregor singing Elton John to Nicole Kidman:
"I hope you don't mind
I hope you don't mind that I put down in words
How wonderful life is while you're in the world"
Some of it was less brilliant, for instance the part where two guys were singing "Like a Virgin", horribly, to each other.
Anyway, next time you are having trouble picking a movie to rent, this is my recommendation. I promise you won't be disappointed. I haven't loved a movie like this in a very long time.
"So exciting, the audience will stomp and cheer!
So delighting, it will run for 50 years!"
Wow. Visually it was just amazing, with a lot of dancey sequences. It's a story(A) about writing a story(B). It gets a bit complicated, as Story B is actually about Story A. And the people in Story A are trying to influence what happens in story B. Basically it's a fun musical, set in Paris in the year 1900. Enough about that.
If you liked the thing they did in the movie "A Knight's Tale", where they threw modern music into an old-timey story (remember the dancey song that morphed into a Bowie song?), then you'll love Moulin Rouge, where the whole movie is full of modern songs, like "Roxanne" by the Police. Some of it was brilliant, like Ewan MacGregor singing Elton John to Nicole Kidman:
"I hope you don't mind
I hope you don't mind that I put down in words
How wonderful life is while you're in the world"
Some of it was less brilliant, for instance the part where two guys were singing "Like a Virgin", horribly, to each other.
Anyway, next time you are having trouble picking a movie to rent, this is my recommendation. I promise you won't be disappointed. I haven't loved a movie like this in a very long time.
"So exciting, the audience will stomp and cheer!
So delighting, it will run for 50 years!"
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