"[Bomber lineman Tom] Canada said he's spending the off-season as a white-water rafting guide in Honduras and he'll let his agent handle his future."
Just one week ago, Prime Minister Stephen Harper imposed a government-wide Mulroney isolation order until unproven allegations of a cash-for-planes deal are cleared up.
Ottawa organizers [of a dinner honouring the former Prime Minister], who had promoted the Mulroney salute as a rare opportunity to mingle with the government caucus, confided 17 Conservative MPs, including Health Minister Tony Clement, had backed out or simply not turned up.
The only Conservative of any parliamentary stripe recognized from the podium was former party bagman Senator David Angus. Mulroney loyalists tried without success to cajole a few words of praise from him for the record, but he looked over at me like I was a drill-armed pain-fetish dentist.
Even Grits seemed squeamish at the thought of being recorded as having shared the same physical space as Mulroney. Former Liberal cabinet minister Martin Cauchon ran for the washroom at the sight of me waving a notebook in the air.
The no-contact rule eliminated all parliamentary support staff who traditionally fill in for busy bosses. Politically sensitive lobbyists or industry reps joined the no-show parade, fearing they'd be caught in a published photo with the guest of honour.
It all smacked of excessive precaution and pettiness. One conference official was upset with Clement for giving the event a pass without a doctor's note. "This is about a billion-dollar health research industry, not a political grudge match," he said.
...Yet there's still no sign that Education Minister Peter Bjornson sees any role for himself or his hordes of bureaucrats in the department of education.
Closing schools, reorganizing grades, shipping kids across the city are all matters of local jurisdiction, and no matter how widespread this upheaval gets, it's apparently no business of the provincial government.
Toronto Mayor David Miller’s “One Cent Now” campaign didn’t get a lot of traction in Manitoba (which is odd, considering that the City of Winnipeg once pushed for a “New Deal” for Canada’s cities), but it was a good idea that has been squandered by the federal government’s decision to cut the GST by an extra point.
...The decision to give cities more money falls to the provinces.
"Also, wouldn't raising the PST require a referendum under Manitoba's balanced budget legislation? I doubt that will fly with voters."
10(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to
(a) a bill to increase the rate of a tax if, in the opinion of the minister, the increase results from changes in federal taxation laws and is necessary to maintain provincial revenue or to give effect to a restructuring of taxation authority between the federal government and provincial governments;
(b) a bill to increase the rate of a tax if, in the opinion of the minister, the proposed change is designed to restructure the tax burden and does not result in an increase in revenue.
The whole party structure thing didn't sit well with me. I went to a couple of local meetings but it was a club not a place to discuss ideas. I volunteered to help during the last campaign but no one took me up on the offer.
It seemed that being a party member meant a constant barage of being asked to donate money and trust me, that gets old in an awful hurry.
But I'd add that policy is hardly ever taken seriously by those who play the game (politicians) and those who cover it (media). The end result is that almost all politics is bullshit. Everyday politics is almost all phony issues. The debate -- or should that be 'debate' -- over the environment has long been about Kyoto which wasn't even taken seriously by the Liberal government that signed onto it and later vowed to implement it; Kyoto is a symbol of one's commitment to the environment, not real policy. There is never a debate about healthcare or education, just how much money is going to be thrown at it. Most of Canadian foreign policy discussion is really a proxy for either our view of the United States or our view of ourselves within the world, not a serious debate over our national interests or even our actual role in the world. Most of modern politics is about avoiding real issues.
Even if you don't like baseball you should read this Sports Illustrated profile of New York Yankees' reliever Joba Chamberlain. It is a wonderful story of how Harlan Chamberlain, an American Indian from Nebraska, orphaned and polio-stricken, refused to be a victim, raised his son Joba right and made him a great baseball player and even better man. Men of faith with a passion and dedication to excellence.
Before ESPN the Magazine launched almost 10 years ago, SI had never faced a sustained challenge from the print world. Rather than having faith in its product—curious, well-written literary journalism and vigorous reportage—Sports Illustrated has taken to imitating its younger rival. The result: a magazine that's as hip as a 55-year-old with his hat turned backward.
