Category: La Belle Province

E minus 10 days and counting.

And here we go… The MSM continues to hoot that London North Centre is pretty much a writeoff for the Tories, the Dippers tried to suck up to the unions (BIG surprise there, eh?), Memogate seems to have finally shut the hell up and John Q. Londoner seems to think that Haskett’s going to win. Make what you will of it, boys and girls; I’m off to the pub…

The Freeps
No place for cliches
New Democrat appeals to auto workers, industry

The TO Star
Would you buy this brand?

Canada.com
Front-runners in Ont. byelection fight for left-wing votes
Battle wide open in London, Ont., byelection as voting day draws near

Hamilton Spectator
Candidates on the attack

E minus 11 days and counting.

It just keeps going, and going, and going… Move over, bunny, Memogate is here. Yup, the Night of the Living Dunderheads continues as the story of Dave and the Memo continues to lurch and shamble across London North Centre’s political landscape, stubbornly refusing to die. Most of would settle for having it just shut the hell up! I know I would. 🙄 Yes, it’s fun to see the HypoGrits getting spanked with their own favourite little paddle of indignation, but it does get old after a while. And not too much of a while, either. To be blunt, people are just getting sick and tired of hearing about it. Move on, already; there are real issues we want to hear about.

The first all candidates’ slugfest rolled into the UWO campus last night and brought about the usual anti-Tory spin in the media. The Freeps’ story (as you can see below) was headlined “Haskett draws wave of boos,” giving the idea that she is somehow universally loathed. Read the story, however, and you find this little nugget:

Her assertion produced a barrage of booing from the mainly student crowd, which was soon drowned out by cheers from her supporters.

Funny what a headline can do, huh? Time for the links:

The Freeps
‘Memo-gate’ remains a mystery
Campaign notebook
Haskett draws wave of boos

And away we go. Grit candidate Glen Pearson took a swing at his Dipper rival, Megan “never met a man I couldn’t blame for everything” Walker, over the latter’s gleefully opportunistic Munschausen-by-proxy over the turd typhoon (mostly of her own making) surrounding former Pearson campaign worker Dave Burghardt’s blogular musings:

“She took that and torched him,” Pearson said. “She torched the guy. That is as sick as they come.”

Torched the guy? 😯 Sounds like strong language; coming from a firefighter and all. But come on now, Glen; seriously, what did you expect?? YOU were the one that handed her this goose that laid the golden clanger on your campaign rug; remember? This was you, if I recall:

“I did say to her, ‘Megan, it is up to you and your team what you want to do about it, but Dave is a friend of mine,’ and I hoped she would do the right thing. These kinds of things can affect a person and I wanted her to be thinking about that.”

Haskett, meanwhile, has been taking the high road and having nothing to do with the fracas and Grand Treehugger Liz May (trying to BoGarth as much good press as she can) is urging both the Librano$ and Dippomotami to just drop the damn thing, already:

“We’ve only got two weeks left and we should be talking about issues that concern the voters,” she said.

The finger-pointing goes on full steam ahead, though, as Walker yaps that “interception of private communications is illegal,” while Pearson retorts, “Megan says we intercepted an e-mail but we did not. We got it in a mailbox. There was no secret.” The cops, as you can likely guess, want sweet bugger all to do with this idiocy:

Meanwhile, London police said they’re not looking further into the issue of how the Pearson campaign got hold of an internal NDP e-mail suggesting how the “golden” scandal could be exploited to help “bring down a Liberal.”

Also in London, Garth Nader blew into town to stump for May, Ralph Goodale pumped up Pearson (and badmouthed Haskett) and Diane Finley popped by while Haskett talked tough on crime.

Last but not least: DO NOT FORGET that the advance polls are scheduled Nov. 17, 18 and 20, from noon to 8 p.m. at locations listed on your voter ID cards. If you’re going to be busy on the 27th, be sure to vote early. You can also vote early by special ballot at the returning office at Galleria London until Nov. 21; Monday to Friday from 9 til 9, Saturday, 9 til 6, and Sunday from noon to 4. Any questions? Call the returning office at 1-866-241-7804.

And now, the links (yes, I know there’s never much on the race in Repentigny, but I’m just not finding that much…):

The Freeps
Walker ‘torched the guy’: Pearson
May gets a hand from rebel Turner
Haskett plays crime card
Campaign notebook

Okay; it’s about time. After a few weeks of snoozefesting, things are finally starting to show some signs of life in the race to replace Joe Bananas in London North Centre. Things are getting kinda crowded around here, too. With the Tories, Dippers and Granola Grinders all trotting out bigwig to parade about, it’s getting downright windy in the Forest City.

Federal Justice Minister Vic Toews popped in to toot the law-and-order horn with Dianne Haskett (are the Librano$ even aware of that instrument? Oh, yeah; Adscam…). Haskett, true to her word, has waited until all the municipal madness has passed before kicking her campaign into high gear.
Interim Grit poohbah Bill Graham swooped in to join Glen Pearson in the caterwauling about how big, bad, creepycrawly Tory Dianne is “on the extreme right of a party that is already to the extreme right.” Be afraid now, little sheep. Be very afraid.

Meanwhile, to no one’s surprise, Treehugger Liz May’s political sugar daddy turns out to be none other than Garth Nader himself. The Baron of Blab will be in town today to try to drum up votes for the Gaia Gang. Forget it Garth; these aren’t the droids you’re looking for.

To give a little credit where it’s due, both Haskett and May have wrinkled their noses at the fracas over Dave “DOH!” Burghardt’s recent political self-immolation:

Haskett: “I’m sorry, I’m not going to jump into the fray.“

May: “Everyone has told me Glen Pearson is a fine human being. Let’s move on, let’s focus on the issues.“

As for Burghardt himself, he has wasted no time at all firing off a letter to the editor, published in today’s Freeps, that could just as easily have began with “quia peccavi; nimis cogitatione, verbo et opere: mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa:“

Pearson ex-staffer makes public apology for distasteful blog

I am truly sorry for a number of things I wrote on a personal blog. Some of the things I wrote cannot be excused. I take full responsibility for any pain I have caused.

In particular, comments made about the Muslim community were born out of my own ignorance. I continue to learn more about the Islamic faith and gain a great appreciation of its desire for peace.

Other comments about the Liberal party, same-sex marriage and women’s right to vote were meant tongue in cheek. For crossing the line into rudeness and cruelty, I apologize. I was insensitive and I was wrong.

I have stopped posting to the website. I realized that my voice was becoming just another angry voice. The world doesn’t need anymore angry voices.

My indiscretions are my own and should in no way reflect on anyone other than me.

David Burghardt

London

I guess nobody ever bothered to tell ol’ Dave that there isn’t much point in falling on your sword when somebody else has already stuck you in the backside with it.

And now, some links:

The Freeps
All-candidates meeting set for tomorrow
Intrigue in cyberspace
Campaign trail gets crowded
Cabinet minister stumps for Haskett
CAMPAIGN NOTEBOOK

Well, it’s been an interesting day, hasn’t it? If you haven’t heard already, neither the Tories, nor the Dippers, nor anyone else needed to do anything to kablooie the wheels off Librano Glen Pearson’s MP-wannabe bandwagon; HypoGrit Dave Burghardt did it for them. The Dippers were so ecstatic about it, they could barely contain themselves and promptly fired off a lovely indignant and snotty memo to everyone that they could spam with it.

Meanwhile, over at the Tory camp, John Q. Londoner is still waiting to hear what’s on Dianne’s mind (but then again, I haven’t been home to check my email yet)… Okay, time for the links:

The Freeps
Blog broadsides Liberal campaign
‘Bringing down a Liberal’

Vancouver Sun
Liberal worker in hot water over blog

Globe & Mail
Liberal candidate’s aide steps down for on-line remarks about women, gays
In the Forest City, two kinds of Tories sprout up

Wow, what are the odds? Who could have ever imagined that of all Canadians, it would be the French that would get grumpy about antismoking laws? As a lot of people (especially smokers in la Belle Province) already know, Quebec hopped on the anti-puffing hypocrisy hayride earlier this year and became the latest in the lineup of regions to ban a perfectly legal substance from just about everyplace in public.

It now seems that a motley crew of bar owners, employees and patrons have taken up the idea that the Quebec antismoking laws are… hmm… how should I put this?

Complètement plein du merde? Pardon my French.

Not being content to merely sit around puffing away in the rain and griping, about 150 owners and employees turned out for a bit of a noisy demonstration outside the provincial courthouse in Montreal. Meanwhile, inside the courthouse:

A Quebec Superior Court judge will be asked today to repeal the province’s anti-smoking law in time for the holidays.

Maintaining they have suffered irreparable financial damage since Quebec banned smoking in bars and restaurants May 31, Quebec bar owners are scheduled to appear in court to ask for an injunction that would temporarily overturn the tough new law.

The injunction is a stop-gap measure while bar owners wait for the Supreme Court of Canada to hear their case challenging the constitutionality of Quebec’s anti-smoking law.

Seriously, folks; just how long did anyone think it was going to take for this to happen?

First things first, let’s get my own bias out of the way. Yes, I smoke; yes, I know it’s a bad habit; and no, I don’t want my kids doing it. But I am also sick and God damned tired of all the hypocrisy from the second-hand-smoke finger wagging crowd. The same frigging idiots that tell me that I can’t sit down and enjoy a stogie in my favourite pub are the same nattering nannies that trumpet the virtues of letting junkies shoot up in comfort and now, giving potheads their own toking pit at work! No, I’m NOT making that up:

TORONTO (Reuters) – The use of medical marijuana has given two Toronto professors the right to something that many students could only dream of — access to specially ventilated rooms where they can indulge in peace.

So, let me get this straight: if I want a butt at the bar with my buddies, I’m either SOL or getting fined (or both), but if I wanna get stoned, I’m not only fine and dandy, I’m going to get a nice little space set aside for me at public expense.  I’m not the only one smelling the bullshit here, am I?

And don’t bother with any of that “second hand smoke” or “burden on the healthcare system” crap, either. The main toxin that you suck back every day is vehicle exhaust and, at over eight bucks a pack, I’m putting a lot more money into the health care system than a nonsmoker is, so don’t try to pretend we aren’t paying our own way.

Another thing that irks me is the “with smoking banned in bars, more nonsmokers will start coming out” nonsense. If there were a market for smoke-free pubs, the free market would have jumped on that bandwagon long ago. How many smoke-free pubs did you ever hear of before it was enforced by Big Nanny? None. But, just in London alone, dozens of small pubs have gone belly up since the Ministry Of Knowing What’s Best For You declared that their patrons had to take their habit out into the elements. That’s a bunch of lost jobs.

You can’t encourage junkies out of one side of your mouth while condemning us out the other. We aren’t doing anything illegal, we pay our own damn way and we are getting damned tired of being treated like second class citizens by holier-than-thou wannabe architects of the future.

As for me, I think I’m gonna go have me a smoke now…