Was a sappy film that was all the rage 40 plus years ago. Roy MacGregor wrote a great piece in The Globe And Mail yesterday about David Johnston, our Governor General, who was referenced in that flick. What I didn’t know about Mr. GG was that he was quite the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
I haven’t done a roundup post in quite some time (having focused instead on candidate analysis and preliminary endorsement posts over the past week). But in advance of today’s Montreal debate, let’s take a look at some of the noteworthy developments from the week. – Niki Ashton spoke to the
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: RoboCon: The CIMS has Poutine’s Greasy Thumbprint
How many people play The Sims? Are you going to create a character called Pierre Poutine? Tracey Kent @TraceyKent @4got @tondamacc A CIMS user cannot make changes, run queries on any other ridings but their own. Access approval is hierarchical – @TraceyKent @4got @tondamacc That’s incredibly IMPORTANT information. It’s
Continue readingwmtc: best of wmtc, 2011 edition
During the school term, I am frequently frustrated by not being able to blog. I have ideas for posts that never get written – unusual for me, and unpleasant. If this annual tradition of collecting my best posts from the past year serves no other purpose, it reminds me that
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Voter Suppression – March 11 Toronto Protest
As I suspect is the case with most political bloggers, I offer commentary and provide links to important stories because I love my country and am very concerned about the direction in which it is heading. As well, I am deeply offended when abuse of political power occurs. And, like
Continue readingZorg Report: Sleepin’ Forzanis
Sportchek – a business going sideways, fast. A close friend was talking about getting some new shoes lately, and that made me think back on Sportchek, a business that used to be private, but that is now part of a public, shareholder-driven conglomerate, Forzani Group. You may know Sportchek as
Continue readingFar and Wide: Cheater
There is an interesting tension underneath the robocall story, the debate about resonance, “legs”, staying power, inside, outside, how much impact this scandal is truly having with the general public. Everyone will look to the next batch of polls to denote the impact, others already pointing to specific avenues of
Continue readingwmtc: sunday, march 11: toronto rally for democracy
Yesterday the rallies kicked off in Vancouver. Next Sunday is Toronto’s turn. Demand a complete, public inquiry into election fraud in the 2011 election. Demand a by-elections! Toronto:Sunday, March 11, 201212:00 noonYonge-Dundas SquareOn Facebook Facebook pages for other cities where rallies have been confirmed:CalgaryMontrealOttawaSaskatoon As more cities have information, they’ll
Continue reading@jm_mcgrath, Rob Ford, and municipal governance | #TOpoli
What #TOpoli social-media types get up to on Saturday nights. Sad, isn’t it. [View the story “@jm_mcgrath and the dysfunctions of municipal governance | #TOpoli” on Storify] Seriously, though, a thoughtful, well-argued piece that raises several worthwhile questions about our current governing structures — questions that go beyond the
Continue readingDemocracy Under Fire: Electoral and Parliamentary Reform (part 2)
Electoral reform All the electoral reform in theworld, everybody getting out and voting, more partys represented inthe mix, even a better quality of representative will not make oneiota of difference if the current “if he said it, it must be wrong,If I say it, it must be right” confrontational, non
Continue readingTrashy's World: I think as much of Don Cherry…
…as I do morons like Pierre Polievre, Vic Toews and Dean Del Mastro… but his rant on Brian Burke (GM of the Leafs for those of you not-so-enlightened) was dead on the mark. Leaf Nation has for a while bemoaned the lack of Canadian content on the team, and more
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Sunday Disservice – How do you know its *your* God?
Yes, we do mock religion here. Necessarily so. Today on the Disservice we look at the burning question (heh) of knowing if your magical sky fairy is indeed the correct sky fairy to be spending your time worshipping. I can think of a few possible responses from the deluded that
Continue reading350 or bust: Take Time To Renew Your Spirit
“Guard your light and protect it. Move it forward into the world and be fully confident that if we connect light to light to light, and join the lights together of the one billion young people in our world today, we will be enough to set our whole planet aglow.”
Continue readingThe Happy Wanderer: Sleep all You Want, But Don’t Cut!
Well the story says it all for itself. A Conservative MP sleeps at a committee session on veterans. Now before you bash the Conservative sleeping and saying that he doesn’t care about veterans I think it is important to know that we have all sleepy moments. I just last Friday night slept way too early and forgot
Continue readingImpolitical: RMG call centre in Gatineau used during election?
Noted from a report this week in Le Droit, three Ottawa area Conservative candidates also hired RMG during the May 2011 federal election: Les campagnes de trois candidats conservateurs de la région d’Ottawa ont versé tout près de 30 000 $ à l’une des firmes de sollicitation téléphonique soupçonnées d’avoir
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Dear Alison…
When your bitumen belches carbon into the atmosphere, remember that Ontario is rapidly closing all its coal-burning power plants to reduce our pan-Canadian footprint for greenhouse gases. I don’t hear you thanking us for that. Alberta owns the resources under its soil. But if this were a truly functional federation,
Continue readingTerminology Matters
There is a saying “Tell me how you’ll measure me and I’ll tell you how I’ll behave” If so then we shouldn’t be surprised when political operatives working out of an office called the “War Room” engage in warlike tactics I much prefer this type of terminology
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: Ban Political “Robocalls” Outright!
As noted by several commenters here on this subject, the number of complaints received by Elections Canada about automated phone calls increased exponentially during the last election – from a few hundred in previous years to more than 31,000 in 2011. Whatever the cause involved, something awry must have precipitated
Continue readingNo Comment: “Pro-Life Pharmacist”
Being a pharmacy student is tough. Being a pro-life pharmacy student is even tougher. I am accused of making things up and I am always told that what we dispense over the counter are not abortifacients. It seems that the actual job is even tougher: A couple of months ago
Continue readingGenocide Awareness Project Straight to Your Mail!
Desperate time call for desperate measures… If you live in Calgary, it is possible that you received a postcard with a GAP image (and no, I don’t mean a slim, retouched model promoting overprice apparel). The people behind it are from the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, fronted by one self-righteous individual named
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