925...Tobacco Troubles In La Belle

Going through a pile of this week's papers I came across an article by Steven Chase in Thursday's Globe and Mail. Apparently Rothmans, Benson & Hedges is threatening to close a Quebec factory, an enterprise that provides 300 people an income, if Ottawa doesn't narrow the scope of a bill aimed at stopping the manufacture of candy- and fruit-flavoured cigars and cigarettes.

These smokes are allegedly aimed at children and entry level smokers, although, I for one, am aghast that anyone would accuse a cigarette company of deliberately trying to increase sales of its products by hooking young people and tobacco novices to their deadly and addictive product merely by making the taste tasty.

The aforementioned plant is in Quebec City and Quebec MPs are all a twitter, a Twitter and a blogging try to prevent the passing of this bill which is on the floor of the Senate as I write this. Quebec Tory MP Maxime Bernier, you may recall the name, he had 99 Problems last year and the b**ch was one, said in a posting on his blog Wednesday that Conservatives from his province are going to press for changes to Bill C-32.

Kids and smokes, ah, love those Tories.

WFDS

924...George W. Bush Costs You Money

The former POTUS is reaping the money, money that is shoved in the wallets of former United State's presidents after they leave office.

He is also costing you, a tax payer in a country that is not his country, money.

Like the one before him, Bill Clinton, President Junior is on the speaker's circuit looking to pick up a few shekels here and there.

Unlike President Clinton, President G. W. Bush attracts an unruly crowd who seem to think he is some sort of war criminal. Bill Curry in the Globe and Mail this morning reports that this is costing you beaucoup d'argent.

Security for President Bush is going to run in the half million dollar range this year. When he appeared in Toronto it cost over 100 k to protect him from harm; same town, same venue, same time for President Clinton and the cost was a tenth of that.

Libby Davies, NDP MP from British Columbia "...said private-sector firms are likely making money from these events and should be helping the government with the security costs."

Yes they should.

WFDS

921...Good News For Toronto

According to Bill Curry at the Globe and Mail NDP Generalissimo Jack Layton is not going to run for mayor of Hogtown.

WFDS

914...Did You Hear? There Is A Flu Going Around

Apparently.

I have heard about it.

You have heard about it.

Everybody has heard about it.

Everybody except the people who order vaccines for kids apparently.

Caroline Alphonso and Jane Armstrong in today's Globe and Mail write that about 100 students at Notre Dame Regional Secondary School in Vancouver didn't show up for class yesterday, either due to illness or because they were afraid of contracting the H1N1 virus. A student was confirmed to have been infected with H1N1 at the school but the vaccines are still not available.

St. Patrick's Regional Secondary, also in Vancouver, and Shawnigan Lake School, a boarding school on Vancouver Island, also had swine flu cases. Perfect, flu at a boarding school, whatever could go wrong.

Wait, there is more. At Elsie Roy public elementary in Vancouver, 113 of 329 pupils were absent, as well as six staff members. Flu fears.

A vaccine likely won't be rolled out until mid-November, although federal, read Stephen Harper's Conservatives, officials have indicated it could be pushed forward if the swine flu virus quickly turns more severe.

The country below us, the one with the supposedly crap health care system, the United States, will start its H1N1 vaccine campaign early next month.

Perhaps, and this is just a thought, the Tories could send body bags to Elsie Roy, St. Patrick's and the rest of the schools on the west coast?

No need to be unprepared right Leona?

WFDS

900...Champions Don't Make Excuses; NDPers Do

Steve Wicary in today's Globe and Mail talks about why "..my party cannot, in good conscience, vote down legislation that is a step in the right direction."

By "...my party..." he of course means Jack Layton's party, the NDP, a party that if they drew Canadians into an election would get beaten like a rented mule.

Mr. Wicary writes that "Jack Layton explains himself in the op/ed pages of the Ottawa Citizen. The New Democratic Party, he says, is supporting the Prime Minister's legislation on employment insurance reform - not the government as a whole."

And the fact that they are, when you factor in the margin of error, at less than 10 per cent in the national polls and face probable ruin if an election were held this fall has nothing to do with Mr. Layton's stand.

Yeah, surrrrrrrrrrre.

WFDS

880...Gotta Ask:Why/How R Tories Ahead In Polls?

As Detroit and Montreal are to cities, they are where the unthinkable happens on a regular basis; the Conservative Party of Canada is to political parties, they are where the unthinkable happens on a regular basis.

Yet, and let's be realistic folks, if an election were held today Stephen Harper and his crew would get more seats than the Liberals and form yet another minority parliament.

What the f'ck do these guys have to do to convince Canadians that they are unfit to govern?

Take this week. The Health Minister's department sends body bags, properly called post mortem kits because it is more than just a bag, there are toe tags and everything, before vaccine to remote communities in Manitoba, remote aboriginal communities.

They are going to skate. Sure, the native leaders are pissed. "It was insulting," said David Harper, Grand Chief of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, quoted in today's Globe and Mail. "Body bags may be part of flu preparations, but so is medications. Why do we get body bags before we get medication?" The chattering classes are also pissed but the inbetweens, the ones who decide elections, not so much.

Wait, there is more.

The former national caucus chair, married to a minister, Helena Guergis, Rahim Jaffer, got busted for drinking and driving and cocaine. What makes this ironic in the GOP kind of way is Mr. Jaffer, the only Conservative to lose in Alberta last year, pinned his electoral hopes in 2008, as reported on Global National last night, on smearing the NDP as pro drugs with attack ads. The arrest of an anti drug champion on multiple drug charges is, well, ironic, doncha think?

Yet the Conservatives are going to skate and spin their way out of this too and continue to lead in the polls.

WTF?

WFDS

866...Jay Leno Has A New Show

"Cut rate snooze inducing third rate bore" is what the USA Today had to say about the new Jay Leno Show on NBC, a program that is, sorry, was to redefine how over the air TV networks were going to program and generate revenues.

Quoting Appleton, Wisconsin's WVBO's Rich Allen, the program has been entirely revamped from the late night Tonight Show that Mr. Leno hosted for almost two decades.

They got rid of the desk.

John Doyle in the Globe and Mail this morning also savaged the program. Mr. Doyle says the 17.7 million viewers that Mr. Leno got opening night will not be replicated. That was the nicest thing Mr. Doyle had to say about the show.

WFDS

836...Perhaps The Tories Should Take ESL

ESL.

That is English As A Second Language.

They are courses typically offered to new Canadians but in this case I think Stephen Harper and his gang should take them just so they can understand what Michael Ignatieff means when he says thing.

The opening paragraph of Campbell Clark's piece in the Globe and Mail today states that the next PM has ruled out forming a coalition government if he doesn't get a majority; the Conservative's have reacted by airing new adverts saying that if elected he will form a reckless coalition.

This is where ESL courses for all Conservative's would come in handy.

WFDS

815...Elizabeth May Deathwatch V.2

In response to Post 812 Elizabeth May Deathwatch I recieved this thoughful reply:

janfromthebruce said...

Well than, the libs need to stand down (like they did in Nova Scotia) and give May a free ride.
Or is running as a liberal the only alternative you had in mind?

September 9, 2009 9:11 AM

Thanks for the comment but let's face it, the Liberals stood down in Central Nova and Elizabeth May got her head handed to her.

Ditto in Saanich-Gulf Islands. One on one Gary Lunn would destroy her.

It is fairly obvious to me that if after, as the Globe and Mail's Bill Curry reported earlier this week that the riding was selected "...after extensive party polling and research..." as the best chance for the Green Party leader it means that she has no chance anywhere in Canada.

Personally I think she is trying to position herself for the cash for life sinecure of the Senate of Canada.

WFDS

800...Tim Powers Says Mean Things About Libs

Tim Powers, an Ottawa Conservative Party hack/apologist/mouthpiece has poison prose in this day's Globe and Mail where he "...raises the question: what do they drink, other than their own bath water, at Liberal HQ?"

Mr. Powers, I have been to Liberal HQ and they do not drink bath water there, they have a very nice coffee machine with lots of buttons, a Timothy's I think.

Try and get your facts straight.

WFDS

755...Elizabeth May Doesn't Read My Blog

Which makes me sad.

Well, no, actually it doesn't make me sad because, apparently, the leader of the Green Party, the woman who will be the next Prime Minister of Canada if enough Canadians go insane and vote for her and the Green Party, not only doesn't read The World Famous Dan Shields, she also doesn't read the Victoria Times-Colonist, the paper of record in the riding she is going to conquer, Saanich-Gulf Islands, the Globe and Mail, Le Devoir, the Ottawa Citizen, the various Suns, the Washington Post, watch CBC Newsworld, listen to 680 News or have someone to do it for her.

She is not in the loop. Nor are her people. Loopy but loop free is she.

How do I know this?

Because she was interviewed live last hour on 580CFRA in Ottawa by Rob Snow and found out for the first time, hours after little old insignificant me found out even, that the Premier of one of our esteemed provinces, Manitoba, Gary Doer, had resigned yesterday and was the new ambassador to the U. S. of A., a country whose border she is perched on today, what with her being in Niagara-On-The-Lake doing whatever it is when she is not fixing the planet.

In all seriousness darling [see, I didn't call her baby] you would think that you would try to be as current as me; being current is merely a hobby/obsession for me, for you, Madame Leader who has deluded herself into thinking she will be a Member of Parliament, it is a job requirement.

Seriously, pay attention, darling [see, I didn't call her baby this time either], pay attention.

WFDS

700...Eleventh Province

When it is plus 35 it is hard to focus on the need for a warm [note to those living in Victoria: your city is not warm in the middle of winter it is just less cold] place for Canadians to park their butts and their money during the middle of yet another freeeeeeezing winter.

This morning's Globe and Mail is trying to sharpen that focus with a piece on the ongoing want and need of the Turks and Caicos Islands to find a home inside our native land.

The idea of annexing the small chain of islands, population of which is about the size of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan at 36,000, has been bandied about since the time of Sir Robert Borden, circa World War One.

Right now the Islands are going through a bit of a corruption scandal and are looking for a place to call home.

C A N A D A ?

WFDS

674...Former Failed Leader Gives Advice To NDP

Ed Broadbent, who was a spectacular failure as a leader of the New Democratic Party, is now an elder statesman, eminent grise and all that of Canada's perennial fourth place national party. Mr. Broadbent gave a speech last night at the Dipper convention in Halifax that Michael Valpy of the Globe and Mail breathlessly reports was blah blah blah and blah.

Seriously, same old, same old.

Mr. Ed "...proclaimed the arrival of “a social democratic moment” in Canadian politics." in his speech.

Well, la di f'ing da. Where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, from you, Mr. Ed, repeatedly in the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and 2000's.

Tax the rich, social equality and on and on and on.

Again proving that he and they don't get it the New Democratic Party, which very well could be the Democratic Party when you read this, will still get destroyed in the next election, picking up its usual handful of seats here and there and ultimately contributing next to nothing to Parliament.

Not even bronze medalists they are tired. So tired.

WFDS

648...NFL Will Not Be Spoiled This Autumn

By a fall election in Canada.

So says the former Globe and Mail staffer and current professor of political science at both Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Guelph, Geoffrey Stevens.

Mr. Stevens scribbles in today's Globe that there is no way that either side really wants an election, there will be lots and lots of posturing but when it is all said and done Mr. Stevens postulates that the next election won't be until late in 2010. The NFL is safe.

That takes care of that.

WFDS

640...Ottawa Boy Comes Home

Bryan Adams, who usta live in The Nation's Capital, is cruising through town this week, the 12th to be precise, as part of a Canadian tour.

He spoke to Brad Wheeler of the Globe and Mail and when asked what his most Canadian trait was he replied that "I can tell the difference between a beaver tail and Hortons bits."

Sics all around btw.

WFDS

609...Tasers In The News Part One

In the wake of the British Columbia inquiry into the tasering to death of near immigrant [remember, he hadn't even cleared customs yet] and Polish citizen, Robert Dziekanski, police forces across the land are instituting rules on the use of Tasers.

What the f'k was going through their heads previously, I mean you give the police a toy that sends a gazillion volts [or amps or something] through 'dirt bags', and let them use it at their own discretion, i.e., no rules and then, eek, someone gets killed and there is some sort of suprise.

Now there are rules and, according to Dawn Walton's story in Saturday's Globe and Mail, they are going to be enforced in Alberta or else. Or else, something.

Beauty.

WFDS

583...Tories Prepare For Autumn Election

Brian Laghi in this morning's Globe and Mail writes that the Conservative Party of Canada is holding meetings starting today in my hometown and your National Capital with the express purpose of getting the troops ready for a fall election.

Say it ain't so.

There should be some sort of law against having an election during the heart of the football season. It is hard enough to follow the CFL, NFL, CIS, NCAA and BCS without having an election take up part of one's brain.

Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff, the guy with the moustache and Gilles Duceppe, play nice, at least until the end of the regular season.

Please.

And thanks.

WFDS

564...Denis Coderre

Daniel LeBlanc in this morning's Globe and Mail reports that Denis Coderre, the Quebec Member of Parliament for the Liberals, becomes a cultural icon/target this fall on the Radio-Canada [that is CBC's French TV, I know, why is it not TV Canada? Here's why, it is based in Montreal, where the South Shore is East of the City.] hit show Et Dieu créa … Laflaque. The show is an homage to the British program Spitting Image.

The program runs at 7:30 Sunday nights on RadCan and draws an average of 800,000 viewers.

The title is derived from the 1956 French film And God Created Woman starring Brigitte Bardot, with Mr. Laflaque being a fictional anchorman.

WFDS

547...Quebec Keeps 'Open Mind' On Euthanasia

Friday in the Globe and Mail Joe Friesen and Rheal Seguin wrote that "The Quebec government says it is open to debating the legalization of euthanasia..."

A report from the Quebec College of Physicians recently recommended that euthanasia be considered appropriate in some cases. La Belle Health and Social Services Minister, Yves Bolduc, concurs with the report.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are under federal jurisdiction and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson says he doesn't want to renew or reignite the debate.

Euthanasia is legal in both Holland and Belgium and many Canadians have went to Switzerland where assisted suicide is kosher. The Dignatas Center in Switzerland was in the news recently when Sir Edward Thomas Downes, a renowned conductor [tip off, re renown, the "Sir"] and his terminally ill wife choose to transit themselves to the other side.

Oregon also allows patients with six or less months on the clock to commit assisted suicide and it will soon become law in Washington state.

The fear is that assisted suicide will become a slippery slope; in practice that has not happened in Holland and Belgium. We have a form of it right now here in Canada with do not resuscitate instructions given to medical professionals regarding those who are super ill.

Health care should include death care too.

WFDS

541...Tim Powers Doesn't Like Mikey I

Tim Powers is an Ottawa based Conservative Party hack, and I mean that in the nicest way.

He is also featured on CFRA [btw, it is a Farm Boy day!] panels discussing politics with Liberal hacks and NDP hacks. No Green Party hacks on those panels; shouldn't what's her name be complaining to the CRTC about that?

I digress.

Tim, er, Mr. Powers, wrote a seemingly thoughtful piece about the future Prime Minister of Canada, Michael Ignatieff's cabinet, buried in yesterday's Globe and Mail.

Le cut, le paste:

Iggy makes a cabinet?
Tim Powers

I know I did have a few beers last night, but when I woke up this morning to read
 Jane Taber's column about Michael Ignatieff apparently offering people cabinet
posts I thought I should have been a character in the movie The Hangover.
You know the one where the main players get so loaded that when they wake
up the next morning they can't remember what they did and how they changed
their worlds.

So a leader whose party has no platform; who at this point according to polls
 has lost what ever momentum he had in polls; who now in a recent Macleans interview
 is found to have trashed his party's Pearsonian peacekeeping traditions;
 is making a cabinet? And oh yes, he is the Leader of the Opposition,
 a mere technicality of course. This latest adventure is either
exceptionally audacious or the height of that Iggy arrogance that drives
 so many batty except it seems the great man himself and a few of his sycophants.

According to Taber's report: "The Liberal leader recently visited former B.C.
 attorney-general Wally Oppal, who was narrowly defeated in the May provincial
election, and offered him the justice portfolio if he were to run federally,
according to a source close to Mr. Oppal." If Jane's story is right
it appears that Iggy and his Liberals still haven't learned that
Canadians hate that entitlement attitude of theirs. Remember that
classic line from former Liberal minister David Dingwall:
"I am entitled to my entitlements." It was that frame of mind
that led to the sponsorship scandal, sank the Martin juggernaut
and put the Liberals on the bench.

Canadians do have this terrible expectation that people who seek
 public office work for their vote and offer some plans on what they might do.
 Presumably Iggy forgot about that while he was away. The Liberals don't have
 an inherit right to govern despite their Leader's current delusion.

In case it also slipped your mind Michael, in
 parliamentary democracies like Canada, there is a process called an
 election whereby those common folk known as the Canadian public
decide who becomes the government.

Not happy one bit, is Mr. Powers. And you thought I was snarky.

WFDS