The Prime Minister’s Office has named columnist Angelo Persichilli as its new Director of Communications, or as I
like to call them, wives of Henry VIII, since they don’t to last very long. Many
are also taking the opportunity to say that Persichilli was basically acting as
a Harper-government shill in his columns anyway, so the PMO might as well pay
him for it now. Meanwhile, people are going over some of his previous columns
and statements – like his fictionalised tale about a Liberal meeting where a group
supposedly were planning a coup against Michael Ignatieff on Bob Rae’s behalf, his complaints that there are too many francophones in Ottawa, and his statement to
a Senate committee on “truth” in journalism to name a few.
Jack Layton’s opponent in the last two
elections, Andrew Lang – brother of CBC journalist Amanda Lang – says he’s
ready to run again, and with Layton gone and the changing demographics of the
riding, he feels he has a shot at winning.
Meanwhile, another NDP MP feels that
Brian Topp should recuse himself from the party’s national council while
leadership rules are being discussed.
Bob Rae went on the offensive yesterday
about his economic record as the premier of Ontario, pre-empting any criticism
from detractors who wonder how he can speak with any economic credibility as an
opposition leader.
Some of those talking heads you see on
political shows may be in a conflict of interest if it’s the party who requests
their lobbyist friends speak on their behalf.
Philippe Lagassé reminds us of the reasons
why the Canadian Forces are indeed Royal from a constitutional and legal
perspective, even if it was crass politics on Harper’s part to rename them as
such.
And Kady O’Malley offers a fact-check of that
Private Member’s Motion of Libby Davies’ that got Sun Media into such a tizzy.
Davies, incidentally, gave a public mea culpa and said it was all a big
mistake.
