July 31, 2007 - An opinion worth reading, but I'm biased. The only thing I would have noted was that the Ontario Conservative platform has been out for two months, and - despite their promises - it still hasn't been costed. Where is the costing?

It's easier for the media to cover other issues, I suppose. But that's a complaint for another day.

David's column:

...

Platitudes and loopholes don't make a platform
The Ottawa Citizen
Tue 31 Jul 2007
David Reevely

John Tory tried something different by putting out his party's whole platform in July, long before anybody cared. We'll see how that plays out come fall. Poorly, I suspect, particularly since I've read the platform.

The Tory Tories intend to do good things, according to their platform. Goodness is their goal. They'll support good ideas, and a goodly number of them. If it's good, it's in the plan.

Consider the environmental file, where Tory promises to focus on everything. "John Tory will tackle all aspects of the environmental challenge," his platform promises. Smog, greenhouse gases, energy efficiency, clean water, greenspace conservation, and on and on -- all will be engoodened under Tory. And he'll do it mostly by fiddling with taxes.

Ah, but how will all this goodness come to pass? God knows. John Tory doesn't seem to. He pledges to "work with" automakers to get them to build cars that pollute less. He'll "remove barriers to technological innovation," "streamline," and "expand financial incentives," mostly with tax credits for, say, insulating your house better.

None of these is exactly a bad idea, but all of them are rather non-specific. Even so, there's scarcely a promise without a loophole. On residential electricity use, for instance, Tory will be "Introducing smart meters where and when they make sense and will actually save energy, without forcing them on consumers."

"Smart" electricity meters measure when electricity is used, so that turning on the oven at peak-use times costs more than it does in the dead of night. The idea is to reduce peak demand, so we don't have to build whole power plants just to serve extremes of demand that only hit a few times a year. It's a no-brainer of a move, a distinctly conservative policy. Ottawa alone already has 140,000 installed. In a pilot project, Hydro Ottawa found they saved money for 93 per cent of users, and cut peak power use by between six and 25 per cent.

Expand that provincewide, and even if we use the lower figure, we'd save enough power to spare ourselves at least two nuclear reactors.

Why would John Tory even talk about this? All it does is hint that Tory thinks environmentalism is cockamamie leftism to which he feels he must pay lip service, rather than a serious economic matter that conservatives ought to own.

The Conservative platform also has an extremely misleading section clearly meant to scare Ontarians into thinking the province will shortly run out of electricity. It draws on official-sounding numbers from the Ontario Power Authority, the bureaucracy charged with planning for the future of the power grid, and includes a graph of megawatts with one line going up, marked "Needed," and one going down, marked "Available." A little note says this is "not including 'committed' resources."

"Committed"? Turns out that means the Conservatives' projection doesn't include power plants the provincial government has already signed deals to have built, or that are so well along in the planning that the power authority considers them just this side of a slam-dunk. The authority, whose duty is to be conservative in its predictions, is planning that they'll be there. The Conservatives, however, are not. And that opens whole grey vistas of environmental horror.

The Tory platform calls closing Ontario's coal-fired power plants, including the biggest emitter of carbon-dioxide in the country at the Nanticoke Generating Station on Lake Erie, "an unrealistic promise" made by Premier Dalton McGuinty's Liberals, though it's a process that's already underway. The Conservatives propose to leave Nanticoke open, but to install scrubbers in its chimneys and "look at how we can use the latest technologies" to cut emissions and pollutants "even more."

They'd rather refit a 35-year-old coal plant, in other words, than make a serious push for renewable energy in a province with vast river systems and huge expanses of open space potentially suitable for solar panels and definitely suitable for windmills. The Conservatives want to "embrace renewable energy sources" and "expand the[ir] role," but there's nothing in their platform that could even generously be described as a commitment.

Not that the Liberal record is great. The Liberals' 2003 promise to close the province's coal plants by this year was unrealistic. Now they're hoping to meet their commitment by 2014.

They cancelled old Harris-era grants to help people buy energy-efficient appliances, then brought them back last spring. McGuinty's government can't seem to find a troubled automaker to ship money to, so they'll start making the lower-pollution cars that foreign car companies produce as a matter of course.

Between the two major party leaders, though, only McGuinty seems to be aware that platitudes about a greener economy won't be enough to get us one.

David Reevely is a member of the Citizen's editorial board. His column returns Aug. 28

...

July 31, 2007 – Good.  This one can’t be ignored, I don’t think.


July 31, 2007 - The Globe's Peggy Wente - who once offered me a job - is in the paper this morning calling my dumb joke "feeble humour" but "the blandest thing [sic] he's ever made." She says she's troubled by the reaction more than the joke.

On that, a reader writes:

...

Warren,

I am a loyal and faithful reader of your blog. Like many political junkies, I enjoy your insights and don't care much for the punk rock stuff - but hey, its your show, and I respect that. And I still visit daily!

My two cents on this cookie business.

1) I thought it was funny, but I knew right away you shouldn't have said it (I suspect, in hindsight, you may feel the same). I didn't have a problem with it, being a 36 year old white male from Atlantic Canada, but political correctness et al has conditioned us all to read something, laugh and then say "oh dear"!.

Most of the time, I don't believe we are "shocked" at the actual content. We have been conditioned to believe we are supposed to be shocked at the content. Its like artificial, peer pressure type shock!

2) If there were no election this fall in Ontario, nobody would have mentioned a word.

3) You don't only give good political advice, you follow it. You didn't run from your gaff (if it really was one), you owned up, you continue to own up and I suspect you will do so until somebody else moves you from center stage. As a former ministerial advisor, I know how difficult it can be to askl somebody they have to own up and eat some humble cookie. I alos know how difficult it is to convince that person to do so.

In summary, joke was funny, (over) reaction was expected and in this crazy world justified, and good on you for owning up.

Jeff H
PEI

...

July 31, 2007 - More on my dumb cookies joke. I regard posting these sorts of columns as part of my penance. Taught by Jesuits, etc. Comes with the territory.

 

July 30, 2007 - A reader writes:

...

Warren,   

I’ve been following your cookie story recently.  While I think it was appropriate for you to apologize, I think the whole thing has been blown way out of proportion.  

What I find hilarious in this is that as I read two of the columns you link to (below) I can’t help but see a woman being objectified (sunshine girl).  Just thought I’d point that out.  

• http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Persichilli_Angelo/2007/07/29/4376960.html  
  
• http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/2007/07/29/4377095-sun.html

David Breukelaar

...

 

July 30, 2007 - The Ontario Tory plan to fund private schools continues to crumble:

...

July 24, 2007
MCC rejects John Tory plan to fund private religious schools

TORONTO - The Muslim Canadian Congress has criticized the proposal by the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario to fund private religious schools by diverting funds away from the public education system. The MCC stands for the separation of religion and state. Religious organizations have no role to play when government services are provided to the public. In every sphere of life where government interacts with its citizens—in law making and law enforcement, in utilities, transit, public recreation, social services, and above all, in education—religion is as irrelevant as gender or race.

For this reason the MCC demands that every province in Canada should have a single public school system, available to every child. We believe that only a single unified school systems should be supported by tax dollars.

MCC supports equal opportunity in education for all Canadian children. The same high quality of education must be available to all. Every child has the right to a fully trained and qualified teacher, a professionally developed curriculum, a complete range of facilities and activities, an education, which emphasizes the challenges we can foresee, and the need for training in mathematics, sciences, modern technology, and languages. An education with an uncompromising commitment to excellence, the will to develop new methods and strategies, always to improve, never to be complacent or satisfied. MCC believes that segregated schools cannot and do not meet these standards.

MCC insists that immigrant parents do not have the right to deny their children full access to the opportunities that are available to all Canadians. Every child has the right to learn with and from children of other backgrounds, to be taught the rights and duties of a Canadian citizen, to master Canada ’s official languages. Every child has the right to learn Canada’s culture, which includes history, the rights and freedoms which are embedded in the Canadian constitution, our vast and unique geography, our music, sports, literature, how Canadians do business, and how we interact with each other formally and socially. Immigrants who have chosen Canada must allow their children to become Canadian.

MCC cannot support schools which undermine the values that we and other Canadians cherish. If a school wishes to promote discrimination against women, or against people of other races or religions, if it is not totally committed to our democratic and pluralistic society, then MCC is vehemently opposed. Such schools should not even exist—let alone collect public money. Such schools are no place for the children of moderate Muslims.

The values which are important to progressive Muslims are best taught and learned in public school systems. Where the children of Muslim parents have special needs—for example, space for prayer, observing Ramadan, appropriate gym clothing--public schools are willing to make reasonable arrangements.

The Muslim Canadian Congress does not want to see tax dollars taken from public schools to support segregated schools. We are committed to work toward a unified education system, providing equal opportunity to all Canadian children.

- 30 -

For more information, please call Farzana Hassan at (905) 274-5650
To find out more about the MCC position on funding of faith-base schools, please read this op-ed in the Toronto Star: "Tory attempts to secure religious minority vote"

...

 

July 30, 2007 - Warren takes on Johnny Rotten. Johnny wins, more or less decisively.

 

July 29, 2007 - Interesting. On Friday on CFRB, I apologized on-air, and suggested it had been "seven" on a sexist/stupidity scale. Sheila has a different view.

Angelo, too.

In exchange for providing so much columnist fodder, I demand Sunmedia shares!

 

July 28, 2007 - Up here at the cabin, people think...well, you may not want to hear what people at the cabin think. I certainly did, however.

A cabinet minister, a female one no less, drew this to my attention. It's funny. And I say that as someone who pitied Coyle before he pitied me.

Pity, that.

 

July 27, 2007 - Apropos of nothing, I draw the following to the attention of no one in particular:

...

In the United States, the Bank Secrecy Act requires the filing of a currency transaction report (CTR) for transactions of $10,000.00 or more.

Financial institutions that suspect structuring of deposits to avoid this limit are required to file a suspicious activity report. Title 31 of the United States Code, section 5324, provides (in part):

"...No person shall, for the purpose of evading the reporting requirements of section 5313 (a) or 5325 or any regulation prescribed under any such section, the reporting or recordkeeping requirements imposed by any order issued under section 5326, or the recordkeeping requirements imposed by any regulation prescribed under section 21 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act or section 123 of Public Law 91–508— [...] (3) structure or assist in structuring, or attempt to structure or assist in structuring, any transaction with one or more domestic financial institutions.

Section 5324 further provides that a violation of this provision may be punished by a fine or up to five years in prison, or both...."

...

 

July 27, 2007 – Bits and pieces, this and that on a challenging week:

• I am hoping to meet with Lisa MacLeod next week, so that I can apologize to her in person. It seemed like the appropriate thing to do, so I got in touch with her a few days ago.
  
  
• One person, Burnaby resident Dana Petryga, sent me a note last night suggesting that the emailed responses to my "cookies" mistake (below) were suspiciously positive. That may be so, I told Dana, but it’s the response I got (and it was a response that surprised me, too). I offered to let Dana see all of the emails I received, under the supervision of a third party like an accountant or someone like that, and we’d publicize the results, etc. Haven't heard from Dana since. Funny, that.
  
  
• I only mention this because my Mom may see the Whig-Standard this morning, and get upset. There's a big editorial in there on Yours Truly, containing the sort of thing I'd expect (and deserve), but with this gem near the end: "[With Kinsella], the story comes to mind of the night our own Sir John A. Macdonald, feeling under the weather, vomited on stage during a debate, then quipped that hearing his opponent speak often made him ill." Having never been (seemingly) likened to vomit before, Prime Ministerial or otherwise, I only note for the record that – in just the past few weeks – I have heard from Whig-Standard employees (a) seeking help on research they could be doing themselves (b) asking that I promote on this web site a story published in the Whig and (c) passing along kind words on something I’d typed up. I may be missing something, but I found that a tad ironic.
  
  
• On a completely unrelated topic, here is this week’s Post column, which came out yesterday and I couldn't get around to. Be forewarned: it gives away endings!

 

July 25, 2007 – Survey says…

I promised that I would publish people’s responses to my dumb “cookies” joke.  The response I got was not the response I expected, to say the least. 

Comments came in on Hotmail, but also over on Facebook (increasingly, I find, people prefer that to regular email – but I digress).  I have posted all but a handful of them here, good and bad.  (The ones not posted were potentially libellous.)

Some full names have not been used, because I became concerned that some correspondents were not aware that I intended to publish their comments AND their names.  And some emails were shortened, to avoid making this the longest blog entry ever.

Here goes:

...

• Nicolas Ian Cruickshank: I thought I would write you to express my support for you.  I am almost partisan in the way I vehemently disagree with Liberals on most issues.  I'm one of those idiots you hear on the subway ranting about how utterly devoid of substance they are.  That doesn't mean I do not have a sense of humour or that I would support a politically aimed attack where no merit exists.  I think people get too angry and foolish over jokes, even if they are in poor taste.  This isn't America and we don't have freedom of speech the way they do, but I will still support your right to make a joke.  There are legitimate reasons to attack an opponent but I do not feel jokes should be held to the same account as party positions, platforms and long winded speeches.  I say this as a bi-racial young man who has heard many jokes that are offensive personally that has had to learn to cope and deal with it.  Jokes are often in poor taste, it's almost the nucleus of a good joke.  Dalton, with whom I disagree greatly, supports you on this and I think he deserves kudos for this.  I wouldn’t write him directly to applaud him but this is a non issue as far as I consider it.  If I can deal with enough "white" and "black" jokes in my life then those offended by your joke can move on just the same.  After all it's insensitive but sexist?  That's a bit of a stretch.  I think it takes something more derogatory to be truly sexist. 
  
  
• Rob Edger:  Hey Warren, I'm pretty sure that most people who have followed your writing and know your politics know that you are the furthest thing from sexist.  I took the photo as a joke regarding the Betty Crocker-like outfit that the woman in the photo was wearing, and nothing more.  I doubt that there are a whole lot of people who are genuinely offended by the post. Let the faux outrage begin!
  
  
• [Tory staffer’s name withheld at his request]: Warren, between you, me and the empty milk carton my picture will be on if this ever gets out, but, I thought it was hilarious.
  
  
• Nick Cockburn:  Sigh.  Warren, if it wasn't for that huge paragraph at the beginning your apology might actually look sincere, heartfelt and, you know, humble. Instead it looks like you're going through the motions after giving a huge defensive, passive aggressive rant.
  
  
• M.C.: Didn't Randy Hillier's organization threaten to kill/harm/maim Leona Dombrowsky? So isn't any woman who stands on stage with him a self-hating misogynist? Who frankly is just BEGGING to be called a retro Alice Kramden clone? I wouldn't have appeared on stage with that creep for all the votes on earth. No woman with half an ounce of ethics would… Real women don't give a damn about name-calling, we care about actual real threats to our safety and our lives. Maybe that's why fewer women run…
  
  
• Peter Plumley: Hi Warren, Followed your blog and articles for years… What truly amazes me is how the PC party of Ontario could nominate someone as [LIBEL ALERT] as Hillier, I can remember many years ago they seemed to have more pride in who they nominated and you had to have a bit of skill to carry the colours…
  
  
• Rob [Last Name Withheld]: Good on you for admitting your deficiencies and shortcomings with a sincere desire to make amends.  As a male, I am always encouraged by your progressive attitudes in your columns towards women and minorities.
  
  
• Laura [Last Name Withheld]: Just a quick note because I don't see what the big deal is about with that Hillier/MacLeod photo. I saw it the other day and didn't think anything of it, maybe because I assumed the MacLeod bubble was more about Tory family values politics than anything else. But I have to say, I've read your blog for a few years and it never crossed my mind that you were being anti-woman/anti-feminist. And I'm fairly sensitive to that kind of thing. Anyway, excellent move by
  unreservedly apologizing. It's hard to be mad at someone who takes responsibility for his actions.
  
  
• Michael Bednarksi:  Hi Warren, I know you personally were not trying to refer that women should be just in the kitchen but that Hillier might espouse those values. Keep on writing.
  
  
• Andrew Murison: I see your comment as nothing more than witty banter between to opposing political junkies (that's a compliment to you guys) with the other party taking this too seriously.
  
  
• Jule Sider: Warren - I didn't think the mocked up photo was particularly funny, but as a woman, I didn't think it was offensive - I bake a hell of a brownie myself.  And I don't need Cheri di Novo to tell me what I should be offended about.  I think that we all need to take a deep breath and grow a sense of humour. Jule. ps.  At least the picture itself (the funniest part of this), got play in a national newspaper - but people will miss the whole point, regrettably..... soldier on Warren....
  
  
• Harry Richardson: Warren, old boy, you MUST lighten up!  This is tempest in a tea cup!  A load of utter codswallop!  Take off the hair shirt and add it to kindling under the pyre for the corpse of political correctness!  Add gasoline!  Apply match!
  
  
• Neal Ford: The Motts at CFRB were all over you this morning for your "faux pas". I went to bat for you on this, but halfway through my call my Blackberry cut out.  I think we, as a society need to lighten up, get away from anal retentive political correctness, and "gotcha!" politics. A joke is a joke for crying out loud, and there isn't one of us who hasn't put their foot in a cowpie once in awhile trying to make others laugh. Trying to bring someone down by pouncing on every comment or misplaces comma won't win my vote, and this mentality keeps many good people out of politics, just when we need them most.
  
  
• Kurt Wagner: cheers for owning up to your mistake and admitting the error of your ways, something that a lot of people (right-wing, mainly) would have much trouble doing. it's nice to see when someone is able to unequivocally admit they were wrong and assume all the blame, as you said, "full stop."
  
  
• John Cruickshank: Warren: You’re a classy guy.  The apology was the right thing to do. As someone once said “don’t let the bastards get you down”. 
  
  
• Brian Sayoko: Warren, I have followed your blog for several years with great interest. Although I do not always agree with your views, I respect them. However, even someone of my vintage (I'm a product of the sixties generation) was shocked at the sexism in your description of Lisa McLeod.  I have had the opportunity to meet her on several occasions and she is the last person who fits your sexist description. 
  
  
• The Christian Conservative: Hey, Read the "mea cupla" post about the Hiller photo.  I honestly don't think it was that big a deal, and they're just trying to make hay with it... but hey, this is an election cycle we're going through, no? For the record, I've never thought of you as being sexist, or that the post was meant to be sexist, but it was big of you to pull it and apologize.  As for the "haters" who will keep on making hay about it, forget about them... most of them are just wannabe's, and don't have a clue about how politics really works.
  
  
• Jim Hanna: …it is sad that in this day and age, some people go over the top on these things - after all, all it really took was I am sure a very stern look from your wife. 
  
  
• Julie Paterson: Hi Warren, As a woman who enjoys the political soap opera in Canada and do not belong to any party as prefer to distill the information down to the particular candidate in my riding I have to say "hang in there"…Ladies get a life and act with grace. Those who rise above such minor comments and act with class get my vote.
  
  
• Tim Perry: I, as a conservative, just thought it was funny. Goodness me! I always knew the NDP was too earnest to have a sense of humour, but gosh, now my Tories too? I'm glad I don't live in Ontario!
  
  
• Jo C: Hi Warren, We all make mistakes. As a woman, I forgive you. 
  
  
• Frank Parker: Don't be too hard on yourself about the cartoon. We all make mistakes, and as a political strategist you have to take risks, and sometimes they succeed (Barney the Dinosaur) and other times they blow up in your face (but it all will pass eventually). In the upcoming election, I'll be voting PC, but that's because my MPP (Laurie Scott) is fantastic. I enjoy reading your blog, and you do a fantastic job. Don't let the morons on the internet get to you, it is really sad that they have nothing better to do than harass you. Keep on posting, the sane readers of your blog and the people that know you understand that you are far from sexist.
  
  
• Benjamin Sharma: Yes, it was a rather tasteless post, but no, I don't think anyone seriously thinks that you are a sexist pig.
  
  
• Chris Haines: You got your joke photo all wrong.  What you should have done was have Randy Hillier telling Lisa Macleod that she should be baking cookies.  Aside from the fact that he probably did tell her that (or at least was thinking it), it would have made you popular with all the anti-urban voters, who according to Hillier are all anti-women, anti-gay, anti-native and no doubt anti-punk. 
  
  
• Paul McEachern: why the apology? - you really are funny, unlike what your wife and daughter may think.
  
  
• David [Last Name Withheld]: I didn't think the comment was all that bad though and from what I've read of your stuff you're no sexist. Kudos to you for having the guts to just take it down and apologize though.
  
  
• Tony Sproule: you are putting me on right ? - I'd rather be baking cookies than listen onstage to Hillier- and you say the media hordes are upset by this ? my,my,my…keep up the great work
  
  
• Michael Hale: Thanks for finally apologizing for your heinous missives.  Now, I can go back and read all the filth, shit and vitriol that I find on thousands of websites every day that never get apologized for...
  While I respect your decision to offer an apology, I think there is more than a bit of hypocrisy (and political opportunism) in the offended individual's reaction.  Where oh where did that individual, who was so hurt by your comments, ever find the strength to stand in solidarity with Mr. Hillier? I guess offence is only taken when there are political points to be made for one's boss. But that's just me.
  
  
• Tim Lemieux:  Good grief. Conservatives are supposed to be the party with the sense of humour.  All the outraged bleating about a mildly off-colour joke is something I'd expect from Cheri de Novo, but not a Tory candidate.  It’s embarrassing!
  
  
• Jason Chad: I personally find it very amusing that we have various media outlets reporting a joke on your blog as "National News".  This would be a really good time for you to put a big picture of your new book up on the blog to start getting more press for it (or at least mention your next SFH show).
  
  
• Scott Belyea: …I'm not an NDPer or a Tory or whoever you think is after you on this one. I'm someone who's surprised that such a renowned "spin doctor" can be so dumb when he's the one in the spotlight ...
  
  
• Jan Marshall: it wouldn't hurt to take your wife out for dinner tonight
  
  
• Donald Blair: I’m a supporter and member of my riding association’s executive (CFO) for the Ontario PC party. I detest Liberals and don’t like much of what they have to say because I think they’re often hypocritical….Having said that… your comments on Lisa Macleod in the photo were terrible… but you’ve owned up to it, and you did it pretty quickly. You’re a good writer and I am not going to immediately brand you as a sexist.
  
  
• Noah Evanchuk: Warren, In the age of online anonymous smear jobs, you’ve always been willing to own your remarks, in success and failure.  I find your frankness refreshing.  As someone who aspires to public life down the road, I hope to be able to show the kind of immediate compassion when a slight goof is made.  Kudos to you.
  
  
• David MacLean: Schadenfreude is oh so tempting, Warren. But I know you aren’t a sexist pig as your hysterical detractors suggest.
  
  
• Vinho: You are in desperate need of a make over from that picture on Wiki.  And don’t bother to reply to me as I am not interested in anything you have to say.
  
  
• Caroline Lavoie: I wasn't impressed when I heard the story, and now that I've checked it out, I'm still not impressed.
  
  
• David Priebe: Your enemies, and there are many, were waiting for your ill-judged jibe.  That is the way the cookie crumbles.  Strangely, the true racists, misogynists, anti-Semites, etc who advocate discrimination, fewer rights for or even violence against their targets, walk freely on our streets.
  
  
• Sandra MacKay: You got my support on the cookie thing. Personally, I thought the Federal Liberals referring to Deborah Gray(?) of the then Reform Party as a fat cow was more offensive.
  
  
• Chad Swan: I, myself, ain't so sure if the act of sexism or the policical opponents who try to capitalize on the situation and claim the high moral ground are worse. 
  
  
• Colin Toal: You're joke about the defibrilators at the Police Concert wasn't funny either. I died of a heart attack at that concert.
  
  
• Robert McIntyre: Oh look, in your so-called apology you manage to still launch into a nonsensical tirade against Randy Hillier.  
  
  
• Joseph Planta: Illegitimi non carborundum
  
  
• Emily Thomas: don't take it so hard. these sorts of mistakes (in your case, hardly significant but magnified in the relentless public eye) are rough, but people will forget it so quick they'll hardly be able to justify noticing in the first place! man, you're not Jesus! (though if you were you'd probably get no fewer complaints).
  
  
• Victor Wong: In an age of Martha Stewart and Rachael Ray, with two hundred magazines on the newsstands every month explaining the secrets of haute cuisine and the Food Network going gangbusters, and when a rat aspiring to become a world-class chef becomes the basis for a hit cartoon movie, how does “baking cookies” qualify as a sexist crime?
  
  
• Alex Surca: Don't worry about the whole story. That was not wrong regardless of what Lisa and DiNovo have to say. They are just playing politics with this issue.
  
  
• Sara Best: Warren, as a woman who has worked for you in the past, I can honestly say that I've never met a LESS sexist man than you. Utterly ridiculous.
  
  
• Ainslie Harvey: Warren -  I don't think you have anything to apologize for, other than a somewhat lame joke. I didn't find it sexist at all. Contrary to what Cheri DiNovo and a few others think, that sort of comment wouldn't turn me off entering politics, were I so inclined. DiNovo's comments, on the other hand, are patronizing (matronizing?) to women -- are we so delicate that we can't hold our own in the oftentimes circus-like milieu of Canadian politics? I admit that the slab of bacon jokes lobbed at Deb Grey were offensive & certainly deserving of widespread condemnation, but your baking cookies joke? Different league entirely. This should not be front page news. At any rate, it's always funny to see DiNovo and her ilk come down with a case of the vapours.
  
  
• Allan Strader: Warren, tell those politically correct idiots/opportunists to go bake cookies.
  
  
• Patti Skillen: For what its worth, I don't think you are possessed of a neanderthal nature...Anyway, from a female perspective, heartfelt male apologies have a greater value than the original transgression (a function of the fact that one is more rare and therefore more precious than the other).
  
  
• Roderick Mackim: Everybody who knows and admires you realizes your intention was simply to elicit a few chuckles. Even your worthy opponents know that this batch of bad news is a crock(er). Ahem.
  
  
• Geraldine Hyland: You are a classy act Warren! Some people have very thin skinned!. Good man, you handled it all with style and aplomb (love that word!!!)
  
  

...

July 24, 2007 – This is my “delete all cookies” entry, you might say.

I could equivocate, I suppose.  I could be a spin doctor, and query whether the media organizations which have assigned reporters to the story (the Globe, the Star and the Sun) did so because of my ongoing freelance column gig (media critic at the National Post).  Or I could suggest that Cheri di Novo’s outrage relates to the fact that I loudly opposed the political candidacy of a person who had actually smuggled drugs in Bibles (which I did, and still do).  Or I could wonder why Lisa MacLeod is upset about what I said, but not at all about her fellow Conservative candidate, Randy Hillier, who opposes support for “Quebec, Native, Arts, Homosexual, Urban and Multi cultures” (that’s what he said).  Or I could point out that I have columnized against violent pornography, and anti-women movies, and the terrible prostitution ads found at the back of a certain Toronto media organization’s entertainment weekly (they know who they are). Or I could quote one of my editors at the Post, who emailed this to me an hour ago, when I gave him a head’s-up that I would be a media football tomorrow in the competition: “Kinsella a sexist? Honestly Warren it is beyond absurd. I don't think anyone who knows you would ever believe such tripe.”

Or, you know, I could give some other excuse.  But I won’t.  As I have myself advised others before: when you make a dumb mistake, admit it, apologize, and learn from it.

So: I made a dumb, sexist mistake.  DiNovo and MacLeod are right to be critical.  And I should know better.  Full stop.

One of my best pals on Earth is Kiriakos, who didn’t think the cookies joke was all that funny when we chatted at the Police concert last night, and who tonight said something like:  “Now, don’t go putting on your Irish Catholic hair shirt and start beating yourself in public about this, okay?”  (My pathologies are well-known, apparently.) I told him that the Warren Haters on the Internet – and they are an energetic, dedicated lot – are going to be gleefully posting about this one for the next decade or so.   To them, I say: have at me.  I deserve it.  The haters will never believe it, naturally, but it’s true: even at my advanced age, I am seeking to be a smarter male. 

When you preach equality, as I do, you need to practice it.  Therefore, I owe my saintly wife – and my mother, and the amazing women I know and work with, in politics and business – a lot better than some puerile and sophomoric attempt at humour.  In particular, I owe my daughter better, too.

So, by way of conclusion, I again declare to all of you – most of whom I have never met, but many of whom I hear from on a pretty regular basis – that I sincerely apologize.  (Oh, and if you are in the mood to club me, my email is wkinsella@hotmail.com.  Write and I’ll post the best beatings.)  And, in the future, I guarantee you nothing more than (a) I will make more dumb mistakes and (b) I will continue to try and learn from them. 

Now, where is that hair shirt?

July 24, 2007 - An NDP politician is trying to make hay out of yesterday's Randy Hillier photo, I am told.

I took it down earlier today because my wife - who is a lot smarter than I am - thought it wasn't funny.  She's right.  So that's what happened, for those of you who are asking. I unreservedly apologize to anyone who was genuinely offended.

And to the NDPer: by all means, keep talking about volunteers. Our names aren't on the ballot, last time I checked. 

July 23, 2007 - Okay, Kiriakos invited me to the Police concert with a bunch of other guys I will not name. A couple guys were blaming me for breaking up the band, after I was mean to Andy Summers in a phone interview more than two decades ago (he was a dick and he deserved it).

Anyway. Bob and I were outside, doing a running commentary on the demographics at the Police's lucre-related reunion tour: arthiritis jokes, Grecian Formula jokes, walker jokes, you name it.

Then an EMS guy walked past us carrying....a defibrolator. My God, I haven't laughed that hard in years.

A defibrolator at a rock'n'roll show. You can't make this stuff up, folks.

 

July 22, 2007 - We lost our nephew Christopher Perry one year ago. Here is what I wrote then. We miss him.

...

One hundred lifetimes ago, I was a student at Carleton University's School of Journalism, slouched at the back of a classroom, listening to a professor named Brian Nolan talking about death.

As journalists, he said, we would be obliged -- more than we knew, more than we liked -- to write about death. How it always comes too swiftly, and how unready we always are for its arrival. How it is unspeakably cruel. But that how, as journalists -- as writers -- we are obligated to document its comings and goings.

Most of my classmates were in their late teens or early twenties, and -- like most of them -- I considered myself immortal and unaffected by death. So I accordingly could not then conceive that I would ever be overly preoccupied with death. Dreary old obits would be someone else's beat.

And then Nolan -- a former ABC-TV producer and the author of acclaimed books -- told a story whose telling I clearly remember now, so many years later. He told of how, as a cub reporter, he was assigned to write about the death of a child. He told how he acquired all of the requisite information from the police, and the coroner and from witnesses. And Nolan told us how he dithered and delayed in obtaining the last thing that the story required: a photo of the child.

Eventually, following repeated requests and demands by his editor, Nolan observed his feet -- as heavy as concrete -- walking up to the grieving family's front door. He had barely knocked on the door, readying himself to intrude on the grief of strangers, when the father of the child was standing before him. He handed over a photograph. "We've been waiting for you," the father said. The photo contained the smiling face of the dead child.

Death seems to have been with us more than usual in this summer of 2006. On the other side of the world, in the Middle East, families on both sides of the divide have been obliged to bury their children. Journalists, meanwhile, have been pressed into the grim service of writing about it. Their dispatches, replete with statistics, convey some of the immensity of war's horror, but none as much as the story or photograph that captures a child's face, or that of a bereaved parent.

Here at home, too, death's presence is too pervasive -- and too inconsistent with the usual insignia of summer, such as barbecues and swimming with your friends. Our soldiers in Afghanistan, heroes all: Just this weekend, Cpl. Francisco Gomez and Cpl. Jason Warren were killed. And then, the weekend before, two other heroes -- RCMP Constables Marc Bourdages and Robin Cameron -- succumbed to gunshot wounds.

At her funeral, Cameron's 11-year-old daughter, Shayne, read these words aloud, and left many of us crying in the process: "Dear mother dearest, the best person in my life, I'm writing this very moment when you're going away. I'm thinking this is a nightmare but why won't I wake up? I'm saying this right now, with all my heart, that I love you. You'll be with me wherever I go, whatever I do in life, and in my prayers.

"I love you so much. You are my world."

In the dolour of this summer, it is easy to regard journalists as unaffected and uncaring about the death that is seemingly all around. But that would be unfair. The writers bear one of the greatest burdens of all: They must tell death's story in a compelling way, in a human way, but they must not choose sides.

I thought of that -- and Brian Nolan's cautionary tale -- on Monday morning when I read this very short story in the Ottawa Citizen, where I used to work as a cops reporter, writing not infrequently about death.

"A 17-year-old male from the Ottawa area was killed in a single-car crash near Rideau Ferry on Saturday night. According to the Ontario Provincial Police, the teen was driving south on Old Kingston Road, just south of Rideau Ferry, about 90 kilometres southwest of downtown Ottawa, when his car went off the road and hit a small brick building that is part of a church.

"The young man, who has not been identified by police, was the only person in the car. He died at the scene. Nobody else was hurt in the crash, which took place about 11:30 p.m."

That young man, that 17-year-old boy, was our nephew, an only child. He was a remarkable, extraordinary person, and all of the world is diminished by his passing, even if the world does not know it yet. As it is, every day, by all of the others who slip away.

Had the reporter obtained his photograph, he or she would have seen a young man, full of life and life's promise, now gone from us too soon.

...

 

July 20, 2007 - Sorry to my many Chilean readers... but I'm with the Toronto cops on this one. So is most everyone.


July 19, 2007 - Just ran into the once-famous neo-Nazi Gary Schipper on Queen Street. I was wearing my Malcolm X shirt at the time. Touché.

 

July 19, 2007 - Was at a fun event at Bob's last night. It was attended by [CENSORED], who was [DELETED], and [EXPURGED] and two chickens. Plus a dwarf dressed as Truman Capote.

Here is today's column. I feel a music day coming on.

 

July 18, 2007 – Gotcha.

We said we’d get a photo of anti-gay, anti-native, anti-urban Randy Hillier with his leader, John Tory. And we did.

(And check out the sign. That's Tory about to speak to, or having just spoken to, a rabidly far-right-wing group. It means these two have been pals for a long time. Interesting, no?)

 

July 18, 2007 – Wow. "F*** you and your grief." Just when you think the blogosphere can’t get any more hateful, someone comes along to surprise you. Amazing.

 

July 17, 2007 - Sorry for the protracted musings absence, folks - where I was, up in the woods, folks think bloggers are a form of footwear (and, heck, maybe they are).

So, what better way to break the silence than with an Important Update® about...Yoko Ono!

An old Calgary high school buddy flipped me this one. He knows that - going way back - I saw Yoko as one of the first prominent victims of rock'n'roll sexism (cf. she broke up the Beatles, she wrecked John's music, blah blah blah). I personally adore her. I think she influenced quite a bit of the popular culture, too, and in a good way (cf. The Flying Lizards, the B-52s, a lot of the Riot Grrrl stuff, etc.).

Here's my buddy's note:

"Warren: Saw Yoko Ono last night (she was the closing act at the Pitchfork fest) and it was pretty much like sitting around listening to Live Peace in Toronto 1969, so naturally I thought of you guys. She hasn't changed much, but the times seem to have caught up with her. The average age was early 20s and everybody was laughing, but with her, not at her. She arranged to give us all flashlights and taught us how to tap out the international code for "I love you." The "songs" were straight up, warbling, primal screaming Yoko. At one point she said something like "you may think that was a lot of noise, but I was living through Hiroshima at the time." Which is true -- she's 74."

 

July 13, 2007 – Here is a rather unfortunate shot of John T. in this morning’s Ottawa Citizen, riding on public transit for the first time:

Or, perhaps he is reacting to this, sent to me last night by a regular correspondent.

Either way, a splendid way to start the weekend!

 

July 12, 2007 – Sure.  Just like his gang’s odious campaign AGAINST Israel was because they LIKED Israel.  Uh-huh.  Yep.  Sure.

With enemies like these, we don’t need friends.

...

CUPE Target Liberals
Source: The Canadian Press
Jul 12, 2007 11:09

TORONTO - The Canadian Union of Public Employees is vowing to use its 250,000 members to target Liberals in the fall election.
Although the union's head Sid Ryan says he is running as a New Democrat in the October election, he says the campaign is not self-serving.

...

July 12, 2007 - A great profile of Richard Warman, the tireless crusader against hate. Worth a read.

July 12, 2007 - This week's Post column, on what some of us saw Sunday night.


July 12, 2007 - Dear Jackie:

Because you share my love for Against Me!, I thought I would write you an open letter about their new record.  It's called New Wave, as you know, and it came out a couple days ago.  The guy I bought it from said he figured I was one of the first people to buy it in Toronto. (I bought Bad Religion's new one one the same day.  More on it soon.)

I needed to hear New Wave a few times, Jackie, to figure out what to tell you about it.

I've interviewed the band three times, and seen them more times than that, and - as you also know - I consider Against Me! to literally have the power to change rock'n'roll (which matters, because I still believe rock'n'roll can better lives).  I think Searching For A Former Clarity is one of the most amazing records ever made. It is a soul-saver.  And I want to die only if I can do it while listening to that record and looking at the faces of my daughter and sons.

As you said the last time we discussed them, their music is honest and emotional in a way that no one else's is, these days.  How much do I love them?  I wake up to their 'Pints Of Guinness Will Make You Strong' every morning - every single morning - that's how much.  Then I make my wife dance with me, and she shoos me away to go feed the kids.

And, so, New Wave.  What can I tell you?

There are moments of greatness, here and there, like 'White People For Peace,' which they played last time they were in town.  There's also 'New Wave,', which kicks off the album.  There's 'Thrash Unreal,' which is, and whose words are - like most of Tom Gabel's words - completely extraordinary, and in which he (gallantly) comes to the defence of an aging addict, dancing alone in a grimy bar to Billy Idol songs: "No mother ever dreams that her daughter's going to grow up to be a junkie."

And then, and then...there's the other stuff.  'Stop,' which - and I'm not exaggerating here, Jackie - sounds like it could have been written, and recorded, by the Bay Street Rollers.  (In a bad way, I mean.)  'Borne On The FM Waves of the Heart,' a sappy duet with the forgettable Tegan Quin of Canada's forgettable Tegan and Sara.  Something called 'Animal,' which sounds like it was produced by Butch "Garbage" Vig...which this record actually was.  It's so...disappointing, Jackie.  Against Me! suddenly don't sound so special anymore, and it's enough to break your heart.  It's broken mine.  I feel a week of Black Flag coming on, to help me get some balance.  Followed by a a weekend of Fear.

Because you and I are old enough to remember Lester Bangs, Jackie, I couldn't think of a better summary of New Wave than one of Bang's most memorable (and best) reviews.  You remember the one:

...

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

...

For New Wave, that about says it all.  This is what it sounds like when giants fall down.

Yours sincerely,

Warren

 
July 11, 2007 - Golly, the Ontario Tories sure are afraid to have John Tory photographed with their anti-gay, anti-Native, anti-arts, anti-urban star candidate Randy Hillier. I wonder why. Hmmm.

Of what do I speak, you ask? Well, here's the release that went out:

...

Tory and Hillier break out the barbecue

SMITHS FALLS -- John Tory, leader of Ontario's Progressive Conservative Party and the Official Opposition, will attend a barbecue Wednesday with Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox-Addington candidate Randy Hillier.

The event is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Leo Jordan's Farm on 489 Kelly Jordan Road off Highway 15 north of Smiths Falls.

Admission costs $10 and tickets are available at the door.

Call 613-267-6661 for more details.

...

And here's the exchange between a young Liberal who tried to buy a ticket and Brendan Howe, John Tory's press secretary:

Howe: Turn around and leave!
Young Liberal: I can't be here?
Howe: No!
Young Liberal: It's not a public event?
Howe: No - it's a private farm! Leave!

Not very nice. I sure don't remember Mr. Howe acting this way when he was seeking a job with a Liberal cabinet minister back in 2003.

Anyway. Here's a promise: we'll get the photo, folks. And if we somehow don't, we'll draw the attention of a few million voters to the fact that Johns Tory and Laschinger don't want the photo taken.

Either way, it makes the point, wouldn't you say?

 

July 11, 2007 - Another reason why I, and others, admire Andrew so much. (And, parenthetically, it's another reason why the Lawrence Martins of the world are wrong to repeatedly denigrate the Post for its editorial politics.)

 

July 10, 2007 – Um, no.  And I say that as a member of the club, too.


July 10, 2007 – A wonderful, inspired appointment.  And a Hell of a great guy, too.  Kudos to all who were in on this one.


July 10, 2007 – Another victory by one of my living heroes, Richard Warman. In this case, one of Canada’s bravest citizens again won at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. The case involved repeated calls for genocide against the Jewish, black, and homosexual communities as well as the mentally disabled (among other hate propaganda). The respondent was issued a permanent injunction to cease posting hate propaganda to the Internet and fined $4,000.

Here is the link. Way to go, Richard. You are an inspiration to me and others.

July 9, 2007 – Toronto Life is coming out with a profile of John Tory, apparently.  A correspondent asked me if the below story will be referenced in it.  I told him I doubt it.

...

INTO THE WILDERNESS: IT WAS THE MOST DISASTROUS POLITICAL CAMPAIGN IN CANADIAN HISTORY. WHAT TOOK THE TORIES FROM A MAJORITY

by Jack Aubry, Ottawa Citizen

The most disastrous political campaign in modern Canadian history was over and about 80 Tory faithful remained at the post-election wake on the 15th floor of Conservative headquarters in Ottawa.

Small pins bearing a phoenix had been handed out after the extent of the debacle was apparent. The Progressive Conservative Party, which had won 211 seats in 1984, had been crushed, left with only two spots in the new House of Commons.

A mythical bird of great beauty said to live 500 years, the phoenix burns itself to death only to rise from its ashes in the freshness of youth. After a campaign marked by self-immolation, the Conservative party could only pray for a similar rebirth.

Earlier in the day, even before the votes were counted, the party had started selling its furniture at headquarters. A color television had disappeared during the evening.

At the party, some grumbled about Prime Minister Kim Campbell's performance. Others observed that if headquarters staff was so smart, why did the Tories end up with only two MPs? It gave new meaning to the party`s election slogan: Think Twice.

John Tory, the national campaign chair, was at the party. A Toronto lawyer, Tory had been the consummate professional, always calm in the face of daily adversity. But nothing had prepared him for a night like this.

About 2 a.m., Tim Norris, cabinet minister Paul Dick's chief of staff, passed Tory as he left, sarcastically commenting, "Thanks for f---ing up the campaign, pal."

George Hofsink, an aide in Dick's office, then approached Tory to finish what Norris had started. Dick had been highly critical of the national campaign on television, saying he'd never seen such an inept campaign in his life.

Hofsink told Tory there were four reasons for Monday's devastating results: Harry Near, a senior adviser; Allan Gregg, the pollster; Tom Trbovich, director of national operations; and Tory himself. According to Hofsink, Tory was to blame for the worst campaign ever, Near for the worst leader's tour, Gregg for the worst ads and Trbovich for allowing the party to rot.

Tory jabbed Hofsink's chest with his finger. He told Hofsink a lot of people were to blame. Hofsink persisted, repeating several times: "You must take the blame for this, you must take the blame."

After seven weeks in an inhuman pressure cooker, Tory snapped and grabbed Hofsink by the shoulders with his thumbs at his neck and shook him, saying: "We're all to blame. We're all to blame. It is not only my fault."

The music died as all eyes in the room fell on the pair of arguing Conservatives. And just as quickly, Hofsink was ushered out of the room and the party resumed. Tory left a few minutes later.

After a long and humbling 47-day campaign, with bone-tired workers at their wits`end, the confrontation was predictable and telling. It symbolized a campaign marked by strategy disputes, poor communications and nostalgia for the electoral glory days under Brian Mulroney. It was the catharsis of a deeply divided party trying to assess the damage and assign the blame.

...

July 8, 2007 - So there I was on the 401 heading West, annoyed that I had forgotten my Blackberry back at the cabin, annoyed that someone had stolen my Ramones licence plate frame, annoyed that I had to come back for a meeting Monday morning...when I saw this.

From Belleville to Toronto, on every single overpass along the 401.  Every single one.  Hundreds of people standing there, facing the East, holding Canadian flags or little signs or waving at the cars below.  It was very powerful, in a way that is hard to explain.  It was all to greet them, of course.

I forgot what I had been annoyed about.  So I turned off the radio, and drove towards home. 

Sometimes you forget, but then - every so often - something happens to remind you what a great country this is, and how lucky we all are to be here. 

This was one of those times.

July 6, 2007 - And, in other news, a group of armed, drug-dealing Crips and Bloods kindergarteners have been arrested in a massive police crackdown. Also, Britney Spears' infant child has received her parole officer's approval to join a three-ring circus, thereby opting for a more stable home environment.

 

July 6, 2007 - We are sad she didn't get that roll because of the emotional tole it has taken. But we are confident that she will get out of that emotional holl she has been in, and get back to doing what she does so well, which is, er, slithering around in videos like a white-trashy, trailer-park peeler.

With, um, a poll.

 

July 6, 2007 - Just heard from a friend at a newspaper. Some piece of human garbage - in Ottawa, looks like - has vandalized our Dad's Wikipedia page.

I wonder who could be frigging insane enough to do that?

 

July 5, 2007 - MSNBC's Keith Olbermann eviscerates Bush for Libby pardon.

 

July 5, 2007 - SFH is in the studio today, recording a new record of atrocities. Before we disappear, here is today's column.

 

July 4, 2007 – An advance snippet, from this week’s column.  For those who were asking if I noticed. 

I noticed.

...

“…But if Tyendinaga resident hothead Shawn Brant was counting on an extreme over-reaction in the media, he didn’t get it.  Apart from the despicable, evil commentary found on the conservative blog called ‘Right Girl’ – wherein the site’s owner actually declared that Natives “do absolutely nothing except smoke, drink and f*** their daughters” – it was difficult to find many Canadian media sources falling into Brant’s trap.  They did not rise to the bait, and demand that the federal or provincial governments ruthlessly crush dissent on the First Nations’ Day of Action.”

...

July 4, 2007 – Bend it, Howie!  (The truth, that is.)  Cool new advertising, from the Ontario cousins of the BC New Democrats, the party that stole from charities.  And from the same ad agency favoured by the BC New Dems!

...

NDP TV Ads
Source: The Canadian Press
Jul 4, 2007 4:58

TORONTO -- The New Democrats are targeting Ontario's soccer-crazed multicultural community with television ads.

The spots are set to air on the Telelatino network during the FIFA U-20 World Cup soccer tournament for the next three weeks.

The party's logo will also appear from time to time in the on-screen graphics beside the game time.
The English-language ads tout fairness for families and call for a 10-dollar minimum wage.

In the 30-second ad, N-D-P Leader Howard Hampton is seen playing soccer with his kids.

...

July 4, 2007 – Interesting idea:

...

Ont Street Racing Tory
Source: The Canadian Press
Jul 4, 2007 7:40

TORONTO - Ontario Conservative Leader John Tory is proposing a series of measures to put the brakes on street racing on provincial highways.

He is calling for police aircraft to target dangerous drivers, an idea Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield has said she is considering. Tory would also like to see tougher penalties for street racers and more officers on the roads to catch them.

Tory says anyone exceeding the speed limit by 50 kilometres an hour or more should be classified as a street racer. This, he said, would allow police to suspend driver's licences and confiscate vehicles for seven days on the spot.

...

Perhaps he could started with this guy:

...

Darts and Laurels
National Report
1 May 2004
The Toronto Star

JOHN YAKABUSKI: For setting a poor example; The Tory MPP for Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke faces losing his licence over three speeding tickets he's had since being elected last October.

...

July 3, 2007 - Hey! Cool! He's back! Now he can expense his passport photo, flowers to the spouses of deceased board members, and charge per diems 365 days a year! Yahoo!

...

APPOINTMENT TO THE ROYAL CANADIAN MINT

OTTAWA - The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, today announced the appointment of Mr. Claude F. Bennett to the board of directors of the Royal Canadian Mint, for a period of four years.

"I am very pleased that Mr. Bennett has accepted this appointment," said Minister Cannon. "With his many years of service to the citizens of Ontario, he will now be able to share that expertise on a board of a national corporation for the benefit of all Canadians."

Mr. Claude F. Bennett is a former member of the Provincial Parliament of Ontario. He served as minister of various portfolios including Housing; Tourism, Culture and Recreation; Industry; and Municipal Affairs. He has also served as chair of the Ottawa MacDonald-Cartier International Airport Authority, the Ottawa Transition Board and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Mr. Bennett was alderman of the City of Ottawa four times between 1960 and 1967.

...

 

July 2, 2007 - So there I am, back from the woods, stinkier than the multiple road kills we passed on the way, covered in dime-sized bug bikes, intent on buying some Thomson's Water Seal at Rona on Queen Street in the Beach to get the steps sealed before the kidlets get back, when I hear a familiar voice...the Premier of all Ontario. In line, buying a fly swatter. Mrs. Premier was there, too.

"Fly swatter, eh?" said I, always with that writer's eye for detail.

"Yessir," said the Premier. "Thomson's Water Seal?"

"Yep," said I. "Sealing the front steps and porch."

"Have a good one," said he.

You can't make this stuff up, folks. And call me the next time you see John Tory lined up somewhere other than the Four Season's, would ya?

Over and out.