May 31, 2007 - I say this not simply because I worked with, and liked, the young Mr. Ghiz: so what.  So what.

Tant pis.

On the day of the big Canada rally in Montreal, my wife and I drove with friends - and our days-old daughter - up the 417 from Ottawa to attend.  And you know what we saw?  You know what we observed, over and over, just past the interprovincial border?

We saw stuff right out of a dictatorship: we saw SQ cruisers pulling over busloads of SCHOOLCHILDREN to check the driver's "papers."  Their objective- that is, the provincial police's objective, and that of the "ethnic vote"-hating government that then ran things - was to prevent SCHOOLCHILDREN from attending a pro-Canada rally.  It was sickening.

That is the kind of thugs we were dealing with - and, at some time in the future, they are the selfsame thugs we will be facing once more.  These people will stop at nothing, precisely nothing, to achieve their goal of a Québécois-only "nation."

With a federalist government teetering on the edge this very afternoon, that's something worth remembering, I'd say.

May 31, 2007 - Last day of May! In a completely unrelated vein, here is today's Post column.

Also, for those of you who have been bugging me about RSS feeds and stuff like that, I can now reveal that a new and improved look for www.warrenkinsella.com is imminent! Its features will include hands-free syncing with your washing machine, fewer icons on your desktop, and no messy leftover soap residue. Stay tuned to this cyber-channel!

May 30, 2007 - Not to get all personal or anything, but what's up with this guy's years-long (and intensely boring) crusade against any politician who tries to prevent people from becoming addicted to drugs? I mean, does he think drug addiction is useful, or something? Drug addiction causes crime, and hurts people, doesn't it?

Libertarians are on crack. Pun intended.

May 30, 2007 - Funny. Well done. I was a Young Liberal until, um, quite recently.

May 30, 2007 - Three contextless, linkless muses:

• Next time a newspaper editorialist lectures you about how we should be more independent, and how we should less preoccupied with the Americans, you make sure to show them copies of the fawning, sucky, uncritical page-one coverage of Arnold Schwarzegger, you hear? Tell them your buddy Warren sent you.
  
  
• I was taking our eldest boy to track practice early this morning and a black cat - with no tail, no less - walked in front of us. What did Warren do? He backed up the entire street, naturally. Irish Catholics R Us.
  
  
• When getting stoked for a run, my son tells me, Helmet and Iggy Pop - particularly 'In the Meantime' and 'Search and Destroy' - are just what the doctor ordered. I agree.

May 29, 2007 - Went to this cocktail thing hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Was kind of boring, left early. I hate cocktail parties.

Oh, and the Senators are going to beat his Ducks, I'd say. I'll tell him the next time we're at a cocktail party together.

May 29, 2007 - It is not only terrific that Robert Ghiz won such a massive provincial Liberal victory in PEI. It is also totally bizarre, because a really affable young guy - who we all knew and who used to work for Chrétien on the Atlantic desk - is now PREMIER OF A PROVINCE.

Sweet Lord, I feel old. Pass the Geritol.

May 28, 2007 - It goes without saying, naturally, that I am very, very sorry for what I said in the past. Please accept my sincerest regrets, Stock.

Off I go to the Flintstones retrospective, which apparently WAS a documentary, after all. Ta.

May 28, 2007 - The Toronto Star's design re-do, as opposed to what the Globe did a few weeks ago, is stunningly good. Kudos to the Starlets.

I say this as a Postie, naturally, where we've been winning design awards for quite a few years now.

May 28, 2007 - I reprise this partial contribution to today's Hill Times only because I generally find Lawrence Martin's stuff weak - and his column on terrorism, written the day before a Canadian soldier was killed, particularly loathsome. Here is what I wrote, in full, some of which ended up on the cutting room floor:

"Last week, the Globe and Mail's Lawrence Martin became the odds-on favourite for 2007's award for Worst Punditry of the Year, with this opening paragraph in a column: "It's a hard sell, this terrorism stuff. When more people are dying on our side of the world from bathtub mishaps than terror outbreaks, you wonder how long the paranoia can linger."

Isn't that funny? Isn't that clever? Terrorism is less consequential than "bathtub mishaps" - and the whole thing is a con job, a marketing ploy, one designed to foist "paranoia" on us gullible rubes not balancing on stools in the (bankrupt) Parliamentary Press Club. If there has been a more contemptible, more loathsome, paragraph written about Afghanistan this year - or anything else, pretty much - I'd love to see it.

Why did Martin's bilious cynicism make me so angry? Because, in Afghanistan, actual Canadian lives are at stake. Real people, with spouses, and kids, and the same hopes and dreams as the rest of us. But, to Martin, it's "this terrorism stuff" - something to be "sold," because it's numerically less consequential than tripping over the toilet.

At the risk of sounding hackneyed and clichéd, we are a nation at war. It's not particularly easy to remember, sometimes, because there are so few outward signs of it. But it is a fact, nonetheless: in the wake of 9/11, we - all of us, even those breathing rarefied air at the Globe and Mail - recognized we had a moral and strategic obligation to combat terrorism. So we did the right thing, and we went to Afghanistan, and the experts tell us - and the Afghans tell us - the job is not done yet.

Have cabinet ministers fled to Afghanistan for photo-ops, when the political going gets tough back home? Perhaps. But they wouldn't be the first, and they won't be the last.

Has the discussion and debate around Afghanistan become far too politicized, on all sides? Without a doubt. But that, too, is what politicians do. They politicize things.

The one thing on which every politician finds common ground, I hope, is this: cynicism like Lawrence Martin's is appalling, and outrageous, and has no place when Canadians are giving their lives for something that they (and we, at one time) consider so important.

Hey, Lawrence, here's my take on your insight: it makes me want to puke."

May 28, 2007 - My pal Nasty Bob sends a note about legendary Herald music critic James Muretich and albino porn star Rockin' Al:

"Huevos Rancheros put on a benefit for the James Muretich Memorial Scholarship tonight ( Journalism at MRC). When I arrived the gig was sold out- but who was also outside plotting a way to get in, but Rockin' Al himself. Shortly after, Mark Johnson comes out of the hall and somehow through his good offices managed to get Al and I in.

300 people - most forty yrs. and older- all pogo like crazy to Chixdiggit ( Paul Wells shoulda been there ) plus Forbidden Dimension and Huevos. Virtuoso doesn't even begin to describe Brent Cooper on Guitar!

Nasties and Sturgeons should reunite and do the gig next year methinks!

Cheers - Bob"

May 27, 2007 - Up at the cabin, right out of the blue, our youngest boy said: "Daddy, why do kids shoot other kids?"

He must have seen something about this. I told him I didn't know.

"They must be mad each other," he said, which is the only serviceable explanation I can come up with, too.

May 24, 2007 - This one has been stuck in my head since we all saw them a few days ago. I swear to God, these guys can save rock'n'roll, if given the chance.

(Hey, Jackie - wish we had found you there. One of these days I'll get the chance to see you jumping around in the pit to ‘Pints Of Guinness Make You Strong'!)

May 24, 2007 - Good riddance to bad rubbish.

And congratulations to the Harper government for doing what some of us Grits wanted to do. But didn't.

Canada just got a bit better, this afternoon.

May 24, 2007 - Ladies and gents, we have a winner! I bought the shawarma, but he drove me to the airport - James!

It's up to him to disclose his surname. This is Ottawa, after all, and there are privacy laws to observe!

May 24, 2007 - How bad is American Idol? Let us count the ways.

May 23, 2007 - This is a blogosphere experiment.

1. I am in Ottawa tomorrow for a morning meeting.
   
   
2. I do not have any lunch plans.
   
   
3. Anyone who wants to buy me lunch, send an email to wkinsella@hotmail.com.
   
   
4. I will then post a photo of us having lunch.
   
   
5. Half-a-dozen spit-flecked nutbars will blog about all this, because they wear pyjamas and live in their mothers' basement, and they have nothing meaningful left in their lives.

May 23, 2007 - This one'll get the haters a-hatin', I'll wager. Doesn't take much to set 'em off, but it never ceases to be entertaining.

I mean, the likes of Leah McLaren and Peggy Wente may have a dedicated hate web site, but Your Humble Narrator has about three! Beat that!

Now, where is that Kevlar vest?

May 22, 2007 - Brilliant new Facebook group that I have joined, called "Not Really Friends of Warren Kinsella." Join now, join often!

May 22, 2007 - ...oh, and I will be getting the hammers and tongs out for this, in this week's Post column. As my Facebook pals know, I consider it to be the nadir of human civilization, pretty much.

Anyone with bon mots and/or helpful linkage to pass along, you can reach me, as always, at wkinsella@hotmail.com.

May 22, 2007 - A couple folks have asked me why I don't ever show up in this.

Just a hunch, but I'd say it's not unrelated to this.

Adam's certainly hired some interesting people!

May 22, 2007 - My God, this was hard to read.

May 21, 2007 - Yesterday morning at the cabin, we awoke to the kids talking in the next room.

Seven-year-old: "I know what French kissing is. It's when grown-ups open each other's mouths and stick in their tongues."

Others: "Ewww!", "Gross!", "Diss-gusting!"

May 18, 2007 - Now I know why me and my boys are stopped on the 401. It's going to be a long, long day.

May 18, 2007 - Fun post from Ted, from the Liberal leadership convention.

May 18, 2007 - Data smog.

For a few years now, I've been giving speeches about a notion that a smart American guy named David Shenk came up with: it's a phrase to describe what any war room - any campaign - is up against, in the clichéd, 500-channel, 24-7, every-day-of-the year media environment: data smog.

That is, average folks are bombarded with hundreds of thousands of words and images every single day. They are barraged by complexity and factoids, and it creates a "fog" that makes it difficult to figure out what, exactly, is going on in the world. Says Shenk, in what he calls his first rule of Data Smog: "Information, once rare and cherished like caviar, is now plentiful and taken for granted like potatoes." No kidding.

To ensure that your bit of information penetrates the data smog, I tell clients, keep it simple. Don't take two hours to say what can be said in two minutes (or less). Like Confucius said: "Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." We shouldn't.

My colleague Omar came across this amazing web site, which visually - and brilliantly - expresses what I'm talking about. It's the face of data smog, in effect.

It's also a really helpful news tool, and one I intend to blogroll or something. Very, very cool. Hope you find it as useful as I now do.

May 18, 2007 - Wonder why millions of Ontarians voted for Dalton McGuinty in 2003? Wonder no more, folks! They did it, according to the Ontario Conservative Party's star troglodyte, because they wanted to see crack cocaine programs!

Your DAILY HILLIER™!!

"My path removes McGuinty Liberals like Health Minister George Smitherman, who takes our hard earned dollars to fund needle exchange and crack cocaine programs."
Randy Hillier, Ontario Farmer, May 15, 2007

May 17, 2007 – In fairness, it’s not like Rampaging Randy® isn’t without his defenders.  He has, for example, the small dead gal out West who calls for genocide in Africa; he has Dork Boring, the guy who links to anti-Semites and neo-Nazis like David Irving and Doug Collins; and he has…well, you get the picture.  He has the cream of the crop, as it were.

Red-necked, knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers notwithstanding, THE DAILY HILLIER™ will keep on going, folks!  Why?  Because he is Rampaging Randy®, the political gift that keeps on giving! 

...

Speaker of the House: Minister of Health Promotion.

Minister Watson: I want to thank the Honourable Member from Mississauga west and I have some good news to report. Thanks to the will power of the people of Ontario and our community partners and the McGuinty government record investments in the smoke-free Ontario strategy, tobacco consumption rates are down 18.7 per cent in the province of Ontario. But Mr. Speaker, while we celebrate this good news, I have to remind members and those members of the public who are watching, the only political party who did not support this act unanimously was the Tory party, Mr. Speaker. Let me remind the members who didn't vote for this…[and the] latest superstar of the Tory party, Mr. Randy Hillier, has some interesting comments on the smoke-free Ontario act. When asked about selling illegal tobacco, he said "we'll break the law." Mr. Speaker, he was in Smith Falls encouraging the opening of a smoking lounge!

...

May 17, 2007 - Your DAILY HILLIER!™ - and this one, I wager, will end up being news (ie., Q: "Mr. Tory, do you agree with Mr. Hiller?" A: "Um, er, sorry, I have to get lost in traffic again, as I did with the Endangered Species Act last night.").

"I will remove health inspectors."
Randy Hillier, Ontario Farmer, May 15, 2007

Wow. That's all you can say about this guy, sometimes. Just "wow." (And, no, in case you are wondering, Rampaging Randy® is not on the Ontario Liberal payroll.)

 

May 17, 2007 - Today's punk column, on leaky punks.

In case you worry that I am in an atrocious conflict of interest, here, please be advised that the original version contained this paragraph: " Full disclosure: Your Humble Narrator has been a member of perfectly-awful punk rock combos, off and on, since he was 16 years old. He has even written a book in praise of punk, called FuryÂ's Hour (buy it, please, and keep us in beer). His current quartet, made up entirely of similarly-geriatric punks, has a name that cannot be printed in a family-friendly newspaper. Its favourite tune of the moment is called ‘Avril Lavigne Must DieÂ' (sample lyric: "DonÂ't take it personally, we hate everything from Napanee.")"

That paragraph ended up on the edit suite floor, for space considerations. But don't let it ever be said that punks lack a conscience, maaaan.

 

May 16, 2007 - Just got this note from a plugged-in provincial Liberal. It speaks for itself.

...

"We just had Endangered Species Act vote. Premier was there and voted in favour. Earlier in the day he challenged oppo leaders to show up and stand united.

Tory said in his scrum "I will be coming back this afternoon to vote"

But check Hansard. He didn't show up. Tory skipped the vote. And 4 Conservatives voted AGAINST protecting endangered species - including their Environment Critic!

Hampton and Martel also skipped the vote. Gilles Bisson voted against it."

...

 

May 16, 2007 - I draw to your attention that this award recognizes - among other things, and I quote - contributions in respect of "droit criminel." Without the slightest amount of irony.

If I had time, I would post quite a bit more about this interesting subject, but I am late to meet someone in a hotel room about a rather thick envelope.

Ta.

 

May 16, 2007 - Lotsa hits at www.warrenkinsella.com in recent days. Most of it comes here directly, seems, and some from that newfangled "Google" company. And National Newswatch is becoming a dominant news aggregator, clearly. The Top Five:

Top 30 of 2958 Total Referrers
#	Hits	%	Referrer
1	95667	15.20%	(Direct Request)
2	2133	0.34%	http://www.google.ca/search
3	1241	0.20%	http://www.nationalnewswatch.com/
4	839	0.13%	http://www.google.com/search
5	480	0.08%	http://calgarygrit.blogspot.com/

 

May 16, 2007 - In all of yesterday's Against Me! Excitement, I neglected your DAILY HILLIER!™

So here's a dandy one:

"We'll be breaking the law."
Randy Hillier on plan to sell tobacco illegally,
Sun Media, March 23, 2006

 

May 15, 2007 - I am happy. Against Me!, in the middle of it, with my gal and my brother and Muck. What a time it was.

They play like this is our last night forever and ever, and nothing could deny us this moment, nothing in the realms of the living and the dead. And we supped on lightning.

Something like that.

Lester Bangs, RIP. You would have loved these guys as much as I do.

 

May 15, 2007 - Bits and pieces, this and that:

• Closing in on 500 Facebook friends! Eat my dust, Summers! Eat my dust, Prince of Wales!
  
  
• Against Me! tonight at Kool Haus! With Cursive and Mastodon! With my gal (I promised to buy her countertops if she attends)! I can't believe she agreed to come! I like exclamation marks!
  
  
• BBC reporter single-handedly resuscitates the reputation of Scientology, and destroys any credibility journalism had left. In forty seconds, too. Not bad.
  
  
• Sigh. They doth protest too much, methinks. Given the carping I regularly hear from Iggy Nation folks about Dion, I'd say they doth protest WAY too much.
  
  
• Oh, and I got an email from a Globe and Mail writer yesterday about kooky Mark Bourrie. Calling it "madness," here was the Globe guy's comment: "I'm just speechless." Here's what he sent to me, as a screen save, and taken from one of Bourrie's many Kinsella-hating web sites:
  
  
  

  ...

  -----Original Message-----
  From: XXX
  Sent: May 14, 2007 4:00 PM
  To: Warren Kinsella
  Subject: Madness
  
  Anonymous said...
  Are you saying you want Kinsella dead?
  5/11/2007 10:59:00 AM
  
  Ottawa Watch said...
  I couldn't care less, either way.
  5/11/2007 11:13:00 AM

  ...

 

May 14, 2007 – This family is simply extraordinary.  I doubt I, or many others, would possess as much generosity of spirit, in similarly tragic circumstances.  Few of us knew the boy who was killed, of course – but we all know how lucky he was to have parents like these two people.


May 14, 2007 Â- Your DAILY HILLIER!™:

"[Canada is a] police state"
Ottawa Citizen, February 6, 2007

 

May 14, 2007 – You know, I am interested in politics, and I used to be quite involved in the federal Liberal Party.  But I must say – based upon these excerpts – this kind of stuff is extraordinarily boring.  Coma-inducing, even.  Whereas her Star colleague, Chantal Hebert, has written something that is a bit more durable and substantial, I think.


May 12, 2007 - The Jayson Blair of Canada. Yet more proof the NNAs are a joke.



May 11, 2007 – Most brilliant newspaper design I have seen in a while:

May 11, 2007 – Speaking as a Catholic, I can say I have observed this phenomenon personally.  It happens when Catholics drive too fast.

May 11, 2007 - Your DAILY HILLIER™!!

"An OPP officer who was standing at the foot of the driveway asked the driver to stop. But Mr. Hillier encouraged the driver to run into the officer.

"Keep moving. Keep coming forward. Let's see how tough this guy really is," Mr. Hillier said..."
The Ottawa Citizen, March 24, 2006

May 11, 2007 - As I often do, I ran into the National Post's dapper and urbane editor-in-chief, Doug Kelly, outside Starbucks this morning. Doug spotted my George W. Bush "INTERNATIONAL TERRORIST" bumpersticker affixed to the rear of my 1974 Super Beetle.

"Nice," said Doug.

May 10, 2007 - Your DAILY HILLIER!™:

"I'm not a farmer...but I do own a bush lot!"
Farm "leader" Randy Hiller, Toronto Star, April 17, 2004.

 

May 10, 2007 -

DR WARREN KINSELLA, JOSC BBSCBANK OF AFRICA BURKINA FASO OUAGADOUGOU_BURKINA FASO

DEAR FRIEND,I KNOW THAT THIS MAIL WILL COME TO YOU AS A SURPRISE. I AM WARREN KINSELLA THE BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER IN BANK OF AFRICA BURKINA FASO. I HOPED THAT YOU WILL NOT EXPOSE OR BETRAY THIS TRUST AND CONFIDENT THAT I AM ABOUT TO REPOSE ON YOU FOR THE MUTUAL BENEFIT OF OUR BOTH FAMILIES.WE NEED YOUR URGENT ASSISTANCE IN TRANSFERRING THE SUM OF $10.5MILLION IMMEDIATELY TO YOUR ACCOUNT, PLUS ONE NATIONAL POST COLUMN, HERE. THE MONEY AND COLUMN HAVE BEEN DORMANT FOR YEARS IN OUR BANK HERE WITHOUT ANY BODY COMING FOR THEM .

WE WANT TO RELEASE THE MONEY AND COLUMN TO YOU AS THE NEAREST PERSON TO OUR DECEASED CUSTOMER(THE OWNER OF THE ACCOUNT)WHO DIED A LONG WITH HIS SUPPOSED NEXT OF KIN IN AN AIR CRASH SINCE JULLY 2002.WE DON'T WANT THE MONEY OR THE OPINION COLUMN TO GO INTO OUR BANK TREASURY AS AN ABANDONED FUND. SO THIS IS THE REASON WHY I CONTACTED YOU, SO THAT WE WILL CAN RELEASE THE MONEY AND EDITORIAL TO YOU AS THE NEAREST PERSON TO THE DECEASED CUSTOMER. PLEASE WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO KEEP THIS PROPOSAL AS A TOP SECRET AND DELETE IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED.

UPON RECEIPT OF YOUR REPLY, I WILL SEND YOU FULL DETAILS ON HOW THE BUSINESS WILL BE EXECUTED AND ALSO NOTE THAT YOU WILL HAVE 30% OF THE ABOVE MENTIONED SUM IF YOU AGREE TO TRANSACT THE BUSINESS WITH ME, 10 % WILL BE SET ASIDE FOR EXPENSES INCURRED DURING THE BUSINESS, I WILL NOT FAIL TO BRING TO YOUR NOTICE THAT THIS TRANSACTION IS HITCH FREE AND THAT YOU SHOULD NOT ENTERTAIN ANY ATOM OF FEAR.I EXPECT THAT YOUR REPLY FOR MORE DETAILS IMMEDIATELY YOU RECEIVE THIS LETTER.YOURS FAITHFULLY

DR WARREN KINSELLA
BANK OF AFRICA

May 10, 2007 – Holy crap – the guy throwing the sucker punch, on camera, was a cop.


May 9, 2007 Â- IÂ'm giving another speech tomorrow morning about why Dalton McGuinty is going to kick John and HowieÂ's collective keesters in the Fall. I intend to wave the front page of the Kingston Whig Standard around as proof:

 

May 9, 2007 - Your DAILY HILLIER!™:

"I don't believe in compromise."
Ottawa Citizen, May 8, 2007

May 9, 2007 - Difficult times for the Ontario Tory Tories, n'est-ce pas? In one Eastern Ontario riding, they've got Rampaging Randy™. And in another Eastern Ontario riding, they've got no one at all. Hoo boy!

And, now, the Whig takes note of the latter:

...

KICKER Tory Wanted

KINGSTON -- Tories in the Liberal stronghold of Kingston apparently aren't too proud when it comes to finding someone to carry their banner in the coming provincial election.

Lumped in with advertisements for mortgage solutions and marital counselling in the Kingston Whig-Standard last month was a non-descript, text-only ad.

It is calling for would-be Progressive Conservative candidates for the October 10th provincial election to step forward.

It won't be an easy task to unseat, John Gerretsen.

The member of the Ontario legislature grabbed 60 per cent of the vote in the last election.

And Liberal M-P Peter Milliken hasn't had a Conservative challenger come within 12-thousand votes in his 19 years in Ottawa.

(Kingston Whig-Standard)

...

...

May 8, 2007 - Starting today as a brand-new www.warrenkinsella.com service offering: YOUR (almost) DAILY HILLIER©!!

For those of you who can't enough of the imbecilities regularly emanating form the Ontario Conservative Party's red-necked, knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing candidate in Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington, like me, YOUR DAILY HILLIER© will provide you with helpful up-to-the-minute updates about Rampaging Randy's latest bilious outburst! Along the way, it'll serve as a useful reminder about why the Ontario Conservative Party is - truly - incapable of running a two-house paper route, let alone government!

Today's instalment, found in a Rob Benzie story in the Star, sees our hero saying this about Health Minister George Smitherman:

"Somebody's going to have to give him one of those needle exchanges so he can settle down."

Is it a cowardly reference to George's sexual orientation? To HIV? To Randy's belief that it's appropriate to medicate people who disagree with you? Who knows, folks!

We do know one thing - YOUR DAILY HILLIER© will continue until the day, soon to arrive, that John Tory sends Rampaging Randy back to whatever he did before he got rabies!

Stay tuned!

May 8, 2007 Â- Lots of us got together at Labatt House last night to raise money for Freedom at Depth, the organization run by Hubert Chretien. FAD teaches scuba diving skills for people with disabilities. ItÂ's a great organization, and the evening was a blast, even for my Tory pals.

Below is a photographic record of the eveningÂ's events, as captured by radio host extraordinaire, pollster extraordinaire and Â- as it turns out Â- photographer extraordinaire Â- John Wright, Esq., P.C., F.B.I., etc.

CanadaÂ's most successful Prime Minister responds to questions about which golf ball brand he prefers.

J.C. with unidentified hot chick from Toronto.

Similarly-unidentified man makes bird sounds as former Prime Minister reacts.

Warren reacts to the news that KeithÂ's Red is now available in Toronto. His B.C. pal Neil Sweeney, right, emits a strange light from his forehead, likely signifying great intelligence.

Peace in our time! PollaraÂ's Mike Marzolini and IpsosÂ' John Wright consummate their, um, business deal. Angus Reid, R.I.P.

 

May 7, 2007 - The fun begins!

So, just to get this straight: criticizing far-right Tory candidate Rampaging Randy means we are comparable to Josef Stalin, who murdered millions? Is that right?

What about regular citizens who dislike you, Randy? Are they also genocidal maniacs, or just garden-variety serial killers?

...

Conservatives Hillier Nomination (Conservatives-Hillier-No)

Source: The Canadian Press
May 7, 2007 14:34

TORONTO - A controversial farm activist and Progressive Conservative candidate for the fall Ontario election calls the Liberal government attacks on him `childish.'

Randy Hillier is the former president of the Lanark Landowners Association who once sent a picture of a dead deer to a Liberal cabinet minister with her name written on the photo.

He won the Conservative nomination for the eastern Ontario riding of Lanark, Frontenanc, Lennox and Addington on Saturday.

The Liberals say his nomination is a return to the divisive days of former Conservative premier Mike Harris, and warn Hillier wants to undo clean water and endangered species laws.

Hillier admits he opposes government regulations he feels are intrusive, but says he wants to become an elected politician to change the laws he doesn't like.

He says fighting for property rights would be something he would have expected former Communist leaders Josef Stalin or Mao Zedong to criticize, not Ontario's Liberal government.

...

 

May 7, 2007 - Well, here's a peppy way to start the work week! Welcome to Warren's life.

Anyone else get an e-death threat from these characters?

...

-----Original Message-----
From: GOOD MAN [mailto:good_manfor_u@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: May 7, 2007 5:16 AM
To: warren@XXX
Subject: VERY SORRY

A am very Very sorry for you, is a pity that this is how your life is going to end is a pity but I will like to give you some chance to help your self RIP.

As you can see there is no need of introducing my self to you because I don't have any business with you, My work as I am talking to you now is just to kill you and a have to just do that as I have already been paid for that.

Some one that I will not like to tell you the name came to me and told me that he want you and the whole of your family dead and he provide us with your name, Address and Phone Number and with my network I sent my boys to track you down and they have done that but I told them not to kill you that I will like to contact you and see if your life is Important to you so I called the him back (I mean my client) and ask him of you email which I didn't tell him what I want to do with it and he gave it to me and I am using it to contact you.

As I am writing to you now my men are monitoring you and there telling me every thing about you. So I will like to know if you Like to live or die as some one has paid for you to die. I am given you just two days to get back to me or I will just make a call and tell my boys to wipe you and your family out.

GOOD LUCK AS I AWAIT YOUR REPLY.

...

 

May 7, 2007 Â- Many hipsters have asked me about Tim Armstrong's 'Into Action' following last night's posting.

Here's the vid, with the obligatory (and necessary) Madness visual reference.

Man, when I saw Rancid at crazed Porter Hall gig in Ottawa, a decade ago, they sure didnÂ't sound like this. Then again, sort of they did.

(Got the tune in your head now, donÂ't you?)

 

May 6, 2007 - Back in TeeOh. Black fly season imminent.

Out on a limb time: Rancid's Tim Armstrong will have one of the huge Summer 2007 hits with 'Into Action.' Catchier than the plague.

Oh, and this limb is studier: Mr. Hillier, the shiny new Ontario Conservative standard-bearer (see below) is going to absolutely, positively famous, although not necessarily in the way he reckons.

We promise.

 

May 4, 2007 - Boy, it sure would be embarrassing to have to advertise for a candidate, wouldn't it?

 

May 4, 2007 - Very sad. I got to know him when he was on the Hill and I worked for Chrétien. A true professional and a decent man. RIP.

 

May 4, 2007 - In high school, Dan Nearing and I used to call each other "Yeti" all the time. We thought it was funny. Go figure.

 

May 4, 2007 - The Star's Urquhart, below, on a guy you may be hearing a lot more about in the coming weeks.

What does it mean? It means, as I am about to tell a group of Centennial College students in a speech, the Conservatives were the ones who hacked the word "progressive" out of their name. Liberals didn't do that - Tories did that. Consciously, deliberately. That strategy is now having consequences.

You can put a shiny new coat of paint on the Ontario Tory Edsel. But it's still a lemon under the Bay Street paint, ain't it?

...

Candidate could be headache for Ontario Conservatives

The Record (Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo)
Fri 04 May 2007
Page: A10
Section: Opinion
Byline: IAN URQUHART
Source: TORSTAR NEWS SERVICE

In the hockey arena in the town of Perth tomorrow, a battle will be fought over the Progressive Conservative nomination for the provincial riding of Lanark Frontenac Lennox and Addington.

Dozens of similar battles are being waged this month and next across the province as the parties gear up for the fall provincial election. But the contest in LFLA, as it is known, will have repercussions that will be felt far beyond the riding boundaries.

LFLA is a new riding, stretching from Carleton Place, just outside Ottawa, to Napanee, west of Kingston. Small town and rural, it is considered fertile ground for Conservatives. Liberal Agriculture Minister Leona Dombrowsky, who represents part of the riding in the current legislature, has chosen to run elsewhere.

With the riding open, three candidates are engaged in a spirited contest for the Conservative nomination.

One of them -- and the reason for the attention being paid to the LFLA campaign -- is Randy Hillier, the 49-year-old founder of the Ontario Landowners Association, a radical rural group that has resorted to civil disobedience to oppose government environmental and agricultural regulations.

Hillier is an outspoken populist who deplores both "the silent mob majority'' in the cities and "welfare farmers.'' He has decried marketing boards and environmental legislation such as the Clean Water Act. Accordingly, he has earned the enmity of both mainstream farm organizations and environmentalists.

Which is why, if Hillier wins the nomination tomorrow in Perth, he could become a major headache for Conservative Leader John Tory.

While the Conservatives under Tory have played footsie with the landowners by voting against the Clean Water Act, among other things, they have been careful to distance themselves from the association's tactics (including confrontations with food inspectors) and over-the-top rhetoric.

Accordingly, when Hillier first announced his candidacy for the Conservative nomination in LFLA earlier this year, there was talk the party might find grounds to disqualify him. But Hillier could then have chosen to run as an independent and split the right-of-centre vote, thereby handing the riding to the Liberals.

So the Conservatives approved Hillier's candidacy. Hillier, in turn, had to sign an undertaking to ''support and promote'' the party platform and to pledge not to run as an independent if he is unsuccessful in the nomination fight.

Asked if he has any problems with any parts of the Conservative platform, Hillier says he isn't sure and adds: "I'll become more knowledgeable of specific policies after Saturday (nomination day)."

Running against Hillier for the nomination are Jay Brennan, 45, and Brent Cameron, 41. Both are former aides to Conservative MPPs.

Hillier, who predicts he will win on the first ballot, describes his two opponents as "status quo"' candidates. "They have moved in conventional political circles,"' says Hillier. "I went to a different school."'

You can see why the Conservatives will be holding their collective breath as the voting begins in Perth tomorrow.

Also watching closely will be the governing Liberals. They often try to portray Tory as a wolf in sheep's clothing, and they are frustrated that the media keep portraying the Conservative leader as a moderate.

Thus, the Liberals would like nothing better than to tie Tory to Hillier and the landowners. Yesterday, in an attempt to trap the Conservatives, the Liberals produced a motion underlining the legislature's support for marketing boards.

In an article last year on marketing boards, Hillier wrote: "When looking at what went wrong in agriculture, the answer is simple... (Farmers) traded away their God-given right to be masters of their own destiny, to grow, market and process their product, for false security and safety. However, they foolishly believed they could keep prosperity and the rewards of their ambition. Many marketing and commodity boards now have absolute power to control the buying, selling and production of commodities."'

During debate on the motion, the Liberals made frequent references to Hillier's stand. But the Conservatives didn't take the bait and voted for the resolution.

Ian Urquhart covers provincial issues.

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May 4, 2007 - I always wondered, when this rightist newspaper "publisher" was giving speeches around Ottawa, calling Chrétien a criminal, what his angle was. Now I know.

 

May 3, 2007 - Cosh is right, of course. This one of those rare instances of all-party unanimity, and all-party stupidity, too. But as Wells notes, that's what happens when a pro-Hamas parader is calling the shots.

What a disgrace.

 

May 3, 2007 – Seeing as how I have a cabinet minister, several members of the Premier’s staff, his pollster, his campaign director, umpteen staffers, a couple Chiefs of Staff, two members of the Ontario Liberal Womens’ Commission executive, and one of the Premier’s music-loving sons in my (closing in on 500, Summers!) Facebook friends, I am quite curious as to how this will work out.

 I’m not saying I disagree with the decision, necessarily, but can’t you now just see Queen’s Park staffers, casting furtive glances, huddling around computer terminals at seedy Internet cafes along Yonge Street, checking to see who has shared a recipe or sent good wishes on their wall? 

 I recall this sort of thing has been attempted before, with limited success.  But, as I say, what do I know?

May 3, 2007 - This week's Post column. Nobody calls ME a stud muffin, I note.


May 2, 2007 - Two weekly publications in Canada have become powerhouses on the web. The Hill Times is one, and the new-look Maclean's is the other. The fact that I periodically write for the former should not disqualify me from making this expert assessment.

Meanwhile, a nice reporter from the latter called me today about the latest federal fundraising disclosure stuff. Among other things, I find it richly ironic that the other side of the argument - the one bleating about "reputation" - is a bankrupt who was nailed for tax evasion.

Only one thing is as dumb as a sack of hammers, and it ain't the legislation.

 

May 2, 2007 - I trust the good people of Cobourg will send this Galt person the correct message, at the correct time. It'd be nice of Runciman got sent a similar message, as well.

What does it all mean? It means, Virginia, we have stumbled upon the new Ontario Tory Tory Tory campaign strategy: just make stuff up!

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It's going to be a long campaign

Editorial
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Updated @ 8:53:53 AM
Cobourg Daily Star

What next, we ask. First, Northumberland Quinte West provincial Progressive Conservative candidate Cathy Galt gives false information about wait times at Northumberland Hills Hospital, and now she's out sending email petitions suggesting the McGuinty Liberals are all set to begin metering private water wells. (Please see story, page 1).

If these are indicators of Mrs. Galt's present and future judgment, they do not speak well for her bid to be elected MPP for the riding of Northumberland Quinte West.

Mrs. Galt has so far in her candidacy not made many public statements, however, with these two she has demonstrated she is either lamentably unfamiliar with facts that should either be known, or could easily be verified, and/or she's unwilling to let the truth get in the way of a good smear campaign.

Why, on God's green earth, would the McGuinty Liberals - or anyone else, for that matter - even consider metering water wells on private rural homes?

The answer, of course, is no one would consider such a thing. Such a measure would be ridiculously costly, immensely unpopular and totally unnecessary.

If Mrs. Galt had stopped for an instant to consider, one hopes she would have been able to reach these conclusions herself.

However, having received erroneous information, that should have raised red flags all over the place, the least she could have done was check it out, before she distributed e-mails perpetuating the error.

Why didn't she? Well, we can only conclude that she recognized metering rural water would be foolhardy and rural political suicide, so she decided to try to make hay.

Northumberland Quinte West Liberal MPP Lou Rinaldi has accused Mrs. Galt of spreading misleading information. The word he did not use - but we will - is deliberately.

If an idea sounds implausible, that should be all the more reason to check it out thoroughly before disseminating it. If she didn't know it was wrong, she should have.

Moreover, from the sounds of things, the error began, not with anything the Liberals said, but in the PC camp, with no less a personage than Mike (the Knife) Harris's former solicitor general, Bob Runciman.

"I have no reason to believe that the information Bob Runciman got from a reliable source is not valid," Mrs. Galt has stated.

Really? And, if she got another email from PC headquarters telling her Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty was "an evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet," would she have no reason to question the veracity of that, either?

Now, however, Mr. Runciman is doing his best to disavow any responsibility, saying the petition came not from him, but from a constituent who overheard - and misunderstood - a comment at a meeting.

It should be quite obvious to anyone following the environmental file that water metering has long been suggested by the conservation camp for the water bottling industry.

Commercial water bottlers are typically licensed to take a specific (huge) amount of water every year, but there is no sure way the government, as licence-grantor, can confirm how much is actually taken.

Clean water is a serious issue. It is simply not fair for Cathy Galt, or anyone, to set off a false alarm in the rural community in this irresponsible way, suggesting even private or agricultural use may be metered and then, God forbid, billed.

If this is going to be the quality of the "debate" we can expect from now until the provincial election October 10, it's going to be one long, hot, miserable summer.

 

May 2, 2007 - Norman Spector likes to refer to me as "the cancer in Canadian journalism and politics." That's not very nice, is it? Golly.

Anyway, I had wanted to send an email to Norman's Globe and Mail email account, to say that all is forgiven, but it doesn't seem to work anymore.

Anyone know why? Those rascals at Frank mag say that his weekly column has been canned. Say it isn't so!

 

May 2, 2007 - Whilst I was up in the woods, watching trees fall over - and, I might add, the experience causes me to wonder, no more, whether trees falling in the proverbial forest make a sound when you are there to hear it (they do) - the Hill Times came out.

Me and my Tory brother Tim Powers do this 'Wise Guys' thing for the weekly Parliamentary paper, and it's a lot of fun. Why do they publish us? Beats me. Perhaps it's Kate Malloy's atonement for inflicting the Zundel-admiring Tom Korski on the rest of us every week.

Part of my contribution to this week's issue is seen below. I post it here because, well, I feel like it. And because the Afghanistan detainee mess - along with the anti-Kyoto gambit someone dreamed up, and now undoubtedly regrets - is why the Decima is reporting that the Grits and the Tories are now tied, methinks.

...

"Some years ago, a former Cabinet minister told me that the assignment he feared the most - and the one, happily, he never got - was Defence. "The generals send limos to meet you, and give every appearance of listening to you," he said. "But, at the end of the day, if they decide to f**k you over, they will. They won't even hesitate."

At the time, we Liberals were still in opposition and - as now - making life as difficult as possible for then-defence minister Kim Campbell over Somalia, over racists in the Airborne, and over the EH-101 Helicopter purchase. Whatever we could do to make Campbell's day miserable, we did. She was going to be leader of the Conservative Party, we reckoned, and we had a job to do.

All of that came to mind, this week, as current Defence Minister O'Connor started to take on that unmistakable deer-in-headlights look. It's an expression all of us have seen before, and something we've all seen on the faces of plenty of Ministers of Defence, too. At the end of the day, the generals will always indeed f**k their political masters. It's their way.

Unlike Campbell, the current minister will have some difficulty washing his hands of the Afghan detainees/torture quagmire, however. For starters, he's a former military man himself, and that brings him closer to the PR blast radius. Secondly, he is arguably the most pro-military-brass minister we have seen since...well, since forever. Both of those factors combine to limit the Minister's long-term prospects.

As would my former Cabinet minister friend, I have some sympathy for Minister O'Connor. But, at the end of the day at DND, if you get too close to the generals, you almost always live to regret it. They'll drive over you in their limo as readily as they'll give you a lift."

...

May 1, 2007 - One year of Daisy!

One year of freedom!