October 31, 2007 - This is a bombshell. The Halloween Haymaker, this is.

Among other things, this is what I would be asking the Minister of Justice (who, helpfully, is close to the allegorical "person of interest") in Question Period at the earliest opportunity:

...

"Mr. Speaker, the former government paid a $2 million settlement to Mr. Mulroney in the Airbus matter. That is well known. A Justice Department investigation into whether that settlement was obtained wrongfully was abruptly and mysteriously stopped by this government. That is less well-known, but it is the truth.

In light of last night's astonishing allegations on CBC's Fifth Estate, Mr. Speaker, does the Minister not agree that - at the very least - the Department of Justice needs to reopen this sordid case, and determine if there was a conspiracy to avoid payment of taxes on hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash handed to Mr. Mulroney in various hotel rooms?  And why not, if not?"

...

Could you run a national election campaign on this stuff? I sure could.

Things just became rather interesting again, wouldn't you say?

October 30, 2007 – For the folks who have been asking/frustrated, I can advise that Amazon sold out of the new book– as have some respected independents like Nicholas Hoare – and that the publisher is moving quickly to get them new copies.  I apologize for the delays and whatnot.

On Friday and Saturday, I will be in Ottawa and plan to meet with the Prime Minister and his cabinet, so that I can demand that the nation’s highways are improved, to speed the passage of trucks bearing my book.  I expect a very positive reception.

October 29, 2007 – Bits and pieces, this and that:

• Exactly. And I rather suspect that Messrs. Gomery et al. are not going to be enthusiastic about the chapter about them in my book. The court action Jack writes about in his story prevented my friend Chrétien from saying much about Gomery. I faced no such limitation.
  
  
• Nicely put by Wells. Agree with every word.
  
  
• Oh yeah? Well, shoot! I guess we’ll be getting far fewer toys painted with lead-based paint, now!

October 28, 2007 - At Mass this morning, there was a prayer of the faithful for "victims of Canadian mining companies in the Congo." That persuaded me to find out what that was all about.

Faith-based education need not only happen in school, you know.

October 27, 2007 - Along with again noting that Peter "C" Newman is a vengeful, bitter, petty Chrétien-hater, it's also worth questioning why the Mop and Pail assigned him to do the now-infamous "review" in the first place. As is well-known, the paper's current editor-in-chief considered Paul Martin Jr. to be the risen messiah - and, simultaneously, regarded Chrétien as simpleton and a poltroon. In Ottawa, everybody knew that.

Newman did what Greenspon wanted done. Classic Ottawa-style mutual back-scratcher.

Yawn.

 

October 25, 2007 – For reasons I do not ken (maybe it's the virus someone gave me, the one that's laid me out for a couple days, leaving me feeling ridiculously sorry for myself as all men do when we get sick), but 'Eddie Vedder' by Local H has been knocking around inside my noggin. The vid's ten years old, and they – absurdly – bleep out the word "“shit," but it’s still a great, great tune.

Keeper sample lines: "If I was Eddie Vedder, would you like me any better?" And, naturally: "That’s it. I quit. I don’t give a shit." On political campaigns, I hear people say the second line just about every day; they, meanwhile, hear me say the first line at least once. They always say: "No."

(And, yes, Local H were always a two-piece. There's a story behind that, but I'm too sick and miserable to bother telling you. And, yes, there is a serious Cobain thing happening there. Noted.)

 

October 24, 2007 – I guess he doesn't want to get fired after all!

(Oh, and apologies to CP – they did, in fact, run a "writethru" later last night quoting Peter Van Loan on his own team's backtrack.)

...

Update:RECASTS with Tory saying religious schools issue is dead (URGENT-Elxn-Tory-Future)
Source: The Canadian Press
Oct 24, 2007 13:50

TORONTO - Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory has publicly backed away from the controversial education policy many feel cost him the provincial election.

After emerging from his first caucus meeting since the Oct. 10 vote, Tory said today he is ready to move beyond the proposal to publicly fund religious schools.

Earlier today, Tory said he wanted to consult his caucus and party members before making a final decision on the issue.

Many caucus members had said they support Tory, but wanted to see him abandon the proposal which they say cost them votes.

Tory staunchly defended the policy throughout the election, saying it was a matter of principle and fairness.

But he acknowledged voters obviously didn't agree.

(The Canadian Press)

...

October 24, 2007 – I haven’t really said anything about the Ontario election since it took place. But the story below, which just moved on the CP, has persuaded me to break my silence.

John, who I like, has perhaps lost his marbles. He needs to get back to Florida for a really long vacation. That, or this is a cunning ploy to get the Ontario Conservative party to fire him so that he can go back to making money and having a life.

Either way, it’s time for Ontario Liberals to get out the healthy snacks, put up their feet, and watch the show. It’s going to be entertaining.

...

Tory says religious schools issue not dead yet, despite criticism from caucus
(Elxn-Tory-Future)
The Canadian Press
By Chinta Puxley

TORONTO - The issue of public funding for religious schools isn't dead just yet, Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory said Wednesday, despite the party's resounding defeat in the Oct. 10 election.

Just before facing his caucus for the first time since the disappointing vote, Tory said he's not denouncing the policy that many felt cost the party the election.

"I'm not going to prejudge the discussions that are going to happen," Tory said as he entered his party's first caucus meeting at the University of Toronto faculty club.

Tory said he wants to consult his caucus and party members first before making a final decision on whether to continue advocating giving public funding to religious schools that opt into the public system.

...

 

October 23, 2007 - The Canadian Press story has it wrong.  Peter Van Loan, to his great credit, has also denounced the racist Parti Quebecois legislation. Kudos to him.
 
CP needs to correct the story they moved earlier, je pense.


October 23, 2007 – In my limited experience, you eventually run out of Parliament Hill staircases which provide you with a means of escape.

Tommy Schnurmacher of CJAD asked me today if there is an issue out there that Stéphane Dion can turn into a winner.  This would be it, I think.

...

All federal parties denounce Quebec immigration bill except Tories (Que-Accommodation-Tor)
Source: The Canadian Press
Oct 23, 2007 17:43

By Alexander Panetta

OTTAWA - The Conservative government remained silent while all other national parties savaged a Parti Quebecois bill that would keep some immigrants from holding public office in Quebec.

The legislation has been pilloried by other parties in the province's national assembly, been panned as anti-immigrant by opinion leaders in the province, and been decried as unconstitutional.

It would create a new Quebec citizenship and would bestow that citizenship only on immigrants who pass a French test. Failure to pass the test would see immigrants forbidden from sitting on school boards, municipal councils, or in the provincial legislature.

It is the latest twist in an increasingly heated debate over immigration in the province.

Canada's governing party did not appear anxious to get involved in the debate. Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn turned aside questions on the issue.
``That's their debate,'' Blackburn said, referring to provincial politicians. Prime Minister Stephan Harper's office declined to comment.

It was not the first time the Conservatives were reluctant to wade into the debate on so-called reasonable accommodation in Quebec.

Last spring, after several girls were kicked out of a Quebec tae-kwon-do tournament for wearing Islamic headscarves, federal ministers ran down staircases, claimed ignorance of the story, or simply refused to return phone calls when asked about it.

The reasonable accommodation discussion was fuelled early this year by Action Democratique leader Mario Dumont, who suggested that Quebec had perhaps gone too far in catering to immigrants.

The issue spread like wildfire, at one point prompting days' worth of news coverage when a sugar shack removed pork from its traditional pea soup to accommodate a group of Muslim visitors.

The tiny village of Herouxville, Que., leapt from obscurity to international headlines for drafting a town charter with rules for immigrants, which included a rule against stoning women, and another upholding a woman's right to drive a car.

In the midst of that debate, Dumont surged in popularity and nearly became premier in an election last spring.

Now the PQ, their federal cousins the Bloc Quebecois, and the Conservatives are competing to capture votes in the same 41 ridings that Dumont won in the province's mainly rural, francophone heartland.

As a result the Bloc Quebecois has zeroed in on protecting the French language in the new session of Parliament in what may be a parallel effort to the PQ's new French-language bill for immigrants.

And the Conservatives don't want to disturb the apple cart.

Their hopes of a majority government rest largely on whether they win the same ridings as Dumont in Quebec, and alienating the voters who backed him could jeopardize those breakthroughs.

The Liberals and NDP, meanwhile, blasted the PQ legislation.

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion called it a scheme to turn the immigration debate into the kind of English-French spat that has traditionally fuelled the sovereignty movement.

He urged PQ Leader Pauline Marois to immediately withdraw the controversial Bill 195.

``Thankfully we have a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which prevents certain politicians from going off the rails like she has,'' Dion said.

``This will never be welcome in Quebec. The Quebec that I know will never accept this kind of thing.''

The NDP's newest MP also denounced the bill.

Tom Mulcair was a provincial cabinet minister when the debate erupted in Quebec. Now he's in the House of Commons as the Bloc has begun calling on Ottawa to apply Quebec's French-only language laws to federal institutions in Quebec.

Mulcair said the Bloc has passed its ``best-before date'' and is trying to invent a language crisis to restoke separatist fires. He noted that the current situation has existed for 30 years and the Bloc has never shown any interest in it until now. Josee Verner, the minister responsible for official languages, pointed out that the Bloc's own website contradicts the original Bill 101 by including text in English.

``It's more than a bit ironic to see the Bloc Quebecois trying desperately to blow on those embers to try to rescusitate some sort of a fire on an issue that they've paid no attention to in the 12 or so years that they've been in the House,'' Mulcair said.

Mulcair said Marois and the PQ are in the same boat.

``She's trying to come up with an issue that's worked for her in the past.''

He called her proposal ``shocking'' and added: ``It's again an indication that they're out there groping for something to hang on to.''

Mulcair predicted that neither the Bloc nor the PQ will be able to whip up a crisis over language.

He said Quebec society has matured and gained confidence over the past 30 years and French is now generally accepted as the civic language of the province. He's comforted by the fact that reaction to Marois's idea has been almost uniformally negative.

``Quebecers are far more secure in their cultural identity . . . and I think that Madame Marois is playing in a black and white movie in an era where everyone is in high definition colour TV.''

INDEX: JUSTICE POLITICS SOCIAL
© 2007 The Canadian Press

...

October 23, 2007 - More:

...

"We can't take away their right to vote because that is a right we cannot control because we are still a province within the federation. Obviously, the day when the country is there, we will control citizenship, which will have more teeth, if I can dare to say so."

...

Do you get the feeling, like I do, that we should have been paying more attention this Fall to what has been going on in Quebec?

 

October 23, 2007 - Quote:

...

"Those immigrants who fail to develop their...language skills would not be allowed to hold public office, raise funds for a party or petition the [legislature] with a grievance."

...

Those of you who know me also know that this is not a word I use lightly, ever, but this proposed law actually verges on fascism. It does. Nuanced, smirking, focus-grouped, with the requisite smoothed edges, to be sure. But not unlike fascism, just the same.

And it's happening in Canada, in case you didn't know (as I admit I did not). When I heard a blasé Parti Québeçois MNA Daniel Turp being allowed to promote this odious racist plan on CBC Radio last night, it actually gave me a chill.

(And, naturally, the PQ have cynically calculated that it will fail, or be struck down. In that way, they can then be seen as the martyred proponents of pur laine Quebec "identity.")

Some days, you can't believe you are still in Canada. This is one of those days.

Memorandum to Messrs. Harper, Dion and Layton (and all those who rushed to declare an ethnic "nation" within Canada):

What say you now?

 

October 22, 2007 – I forgot that I was on Steve Paikin’s show Friday night.  It’s here, under the “Watch Video” tab.

Paikin is, truly, a gifted broadcaster.  Impressive guy.

October 22, 2007 – Norman "Norm" Spector, one of the biggest jerks in Victoria if not the universe, calls Messrs. McGuinty, Charest and Campbell racists in his column today. Nice.

This, from the guy who said this.

In Canada, as I like to say, the nuts roll to the corners.

 

October 21, 2007 - ...and, in contrast, Mark Steyn has a hilarious and wonderful review of Chrétien's book in the new Maclean's. It's a must-read. Fave bit: 

...

"Is he a nice guy? I like to think not. I'm a nasty piece of work myself."

...

Now, off to the tony King Edward Hotel, no less, to flog my own little tome. If you are swanning through the area and want to pick up a copy (or six, or seven), we'll be in the King Eddy lobby at five-ish.

Steyn. Best conservative writer alive.

October 20, 2007 - The Mop and Pail asked Peter C. Newman to review Jean Chrétien's new book. As Calgary Grit Dan once memorably observed, that's like asking Jerry Falwell to prosecute Spongebob Squarepants.

Newman hates Jean Chrétien because Chrétien wisely resisted all of his sweet blandishments over the years. He refused to give Newman an interview.

Brian Mulroney, whose ego has its own weather system, succumbed. He is still attempting to remove Newman's cutlery from his back.

On the subject of Jean Chrétien, Peter "C" Newman isn't to be believed. He's past his due date. He's petty. He's Jan Wong in a silly hat.

You're welcome.

October 18, 2007 - On the plane, finally, returning to TeeOh.

Sitting here, I observe that the only thing worse than UTD (Unfortunate Tattoo Decisions, seen many times on this trip), are UBD (Unfortunate Braid Decisions, which seem like a great idea after a few margaritas on the beach, and looked great on Bo Derek, but don't look so good on anyone else, especially in Canada).

Off we go,  two hours late. Must be Air Canada!

October 18, 2007 - Congrats to Jason, and all parties, for this. And thanks to AV and RW for the heads-up.


October 18, 2007 - This week's column, cut way back for space. Heading home.


October 17, 2007 - Thanks to the many folks who sent along this link to the Mercer bit. (Mercer: Willie Bailor segment)

Unfortunately, as many pointed out, he talked about an old book - not the new one. C'est la vie.

...

“Liberal strategist Warren Kinsella told all in his 2001 book, Kicking Ass in Canadian Politics.  Tory strategist Tom Flanagan was next with Behind the Scenes in the Conservative Rise to Power.  Now, NDP strategist Willie Bailor releases his forthright memoir, Scraping by and Taking Names.”  

...

 

October 16, 2007 - Cool! A friend in Newfoundland just emailed me to relate that The Mercer Report just mentioned the new book! Based on Rick's regular viewership, that's a potential 1.7 million sales! Hot damn! Yahoo! Eat my dust, J.K. Rowling, you rank amateur!

Anyway. First person to send along the link to the Mercer clip gets the new book - AND the last one! (Second prize gets the last three books, yadda yadda, budda-boom, etc.)

Rick Mercer makes waves, even when one is in far-away Jamaica. Cool, mon.

October 16, 2007 - Um, how is this in any way news?


October 16, 2007 - I'm in Jamaica and supposed to be leaving my Rogers Blackberry alone (it's broken, anyway). Wells is in Paris and supposed to be going off on an educational venture. He still manages a more lucid take on the Chrétien-Martin thing this week, here.


October 15, 2007 - I hope he doesn't quit. He's done some great work.

 

October 15, 2007 - And folks wonder why folks like me have no interest - zero, zippo, zilch - in assisting the federal Liberal Party. Wonder no more.

 

October 14, 2007 - Jim, you ain't seen nothing yet. Wait until my little book comes out - and the trial with said firm starts in the next few weeks. Just wait.

 

October 13, 2007 - Old person writes column. Yawn.

Bakk 2 the beech.

October 12, 2007 - Arrive in Montego Bay...and we get Air Canada Canada Horror Story© number two: one of our bags was broken into and ransacked.

 

October 12, 2007 - Get this: we are on an Air Canada flight to Jamaica, and the pilot just announced that someone "forgot to get customs documents stamped." So a packed flight awaits for that, for an hour. Possibly more.

Another Air Canada Horror Story©. One in a long, long series.

 

October 11, 2007 – The morning after – and what a morning. My head hurts.

The magnitude of the win is humbling. Ontarians have put their faith in Dalton McGuinty, big time, but I am confident he is up to the job. I know he is.

Me? Back to Daisy, back to reality. And off to Jamaica for a few days with my gal, too, who puts up with plenty.

Thank you to all of you – Tories and Grits and Dippers – who sent along kind notes this morning. I said to all of them what I say to you now: when you have a leader like Dalton McGuinty – and a campaign team with the likes of Don Guy, Gordon Ashworth, Laura Miller, Charlie Angelakos, Deb Roberts, Cameron Summers, Brendan McGuinty, Chris Morley, Dave Gene, Christine McMillan, Aaron Lazarus, Alex Johnston, Steve Dyck, Ben Chin, Gerald Butts, Jackie Roach, Dave Pryce, Rod MacDonald, Babs Joy, Matt Maychak, the Road Warriors, Will and Kristan and the Media Monitors, Bjorn and the Digital terrorists, the Fearless Team McGuinty War Room, and so many others – it makes it a lot easier.

As of this morning, I am starting to promote the new book, which is being shipped to stores this week. Chris Cobb at the Citizen was the first to interview me about it. Doing a bunch of radio on it today, too.

Oh, and I have a thing in my home paper, the Post, about why I think we won. Here it is. I’m certain I’ve gotten a few things wrong, but I usually do.

Off to Jamaica soon. Thank you to all of you for the congratulations (and the hundreds of kind notes about Sheena, too).

Must. Get. Sleep.

 

 

October 9, 2007 -

Attention News/Assignment/Photo Editors:  

Media Advisory -  Warren Kinsella Campaign For Nothing - 2007  

TORONTO, Oct. 9 /CNW/ - Leader of Precisely Nothing Warren Kinsella's itinerary for Election Day, Wednesday, October 10th:

   
8:20am     Battered van departs home to take kids to school

10:00am    No Media Event/Photo Opportunity. Probably take a nap.
             
12:00am    Walk over to The Tulip on Queen East, like four years ago. Order Salisbury Steak, as usual.

2:00pm    Another nap.

7:30pm     Kinsella Non-Campaign Vehicle departs for Global TV Election Night Show. Drive self. Will probably get lost, because he forgets where the studio is. Will get in fight with Bill Carroll.
              
11:00pm    Kinsella, happy, heads to Liberal HQ on Queen Street (Timing approximate). Heads across street to the Duke of Gloucester for a beer with whoever will be nice to him.

2:00am     Bedtime.

To join the Warren Kinsella Party Non-Campaign Media Bus email: wkinsella@hotmail.com. He will allow you to buy him a beer.

                    - 30 -

October 8, 2007 - When you are ahead by 15 points, and folks are starting to try and figure out who will be Leader of the Opposition, what does it mean?

It means you don't believe a damn word of it, and you work even harder. And, most of all, you

GET OUT THE LIBERAL VOTE.

October 8, 2007 - Having been more preoccupied with our kids in the past couple days, I didn't notice this. It's silly.

Positive or negative, advertising - online and otherwise - only works if it strikes a responsive chord in the viewer.  They don't get hung up on adjectives, so much. If it seems untrue to them, they'll punish the source of the ad.

That's one of the main reasons why John Tory and his Conservative Party have steadily dropped in this election campaign.  It's not simply that the entirety of their communications - from ads to speeches - is "negative."  It's just that voters have concluded that the Conservative claims are false.

They're right about that, too. 

Reading the CP dispatch, I have to query: what does it mean, "controversial?" To me, "controversial" is anything a conservative doesn't like.  If so, yes, I'm controversial.

(And, while I am asking useful questions, can I also get a tenure track position reading web stats, and then give interviews about them, and get called an expert?  Then I would be a "controversial" "expert," which would be kind of cool.)

Anyhow.  Here's the latest diary vid from John.  It's fun. Perhaps someone could write a thesis about it!

 

October 6, 2007 - The border collie we named Sheena - after the Ramones song, but who our daughter called Shina and Buppy, and my wife called Sheena-bo-weena, and my sister-in-law called her Speckled Trout - came leaping into our lives nearly 16 years ago, after I found her (or she me) on a farm in the Eastern Townships. Though the runt of the litter, Sheena was possessed (and quite possibly just possessed) of extraordinary intelligence and energy. Like all border collies, she saw her Earthly task as imposing order on chaos. She set about doing it right away.

One Spring day, for instance, when we were canoeing the Tomofobia River in the Townships, Sheena swam alongside us - for kilometre after kilometre - while all the other dogs stuck to land. Another time, I threw a volleyball at her, and she poked it with her nose, sending it right back into my hands. She thereupon kept doing that for half and hour, never once missing the ball. Another day, when she was a puppy, she was annoyed with us for having the temerity to leave her alone while we went to work - so she expertly chewed at the bottom of a rare antique sideboard, somehow knowing that it was the most valuable thing we owned.

She could open closed doors by turning the door knobs.  She could run faster than any other dog in the places we lived, in Ottawa and Vancouver and Toronto. She herded the waves, on our lake or in Maine or in Vancouver.  She always seemed to know when we were in distress, and quietly sidled near. And she was famous, too: our friend Rockin' Al once made her the star of cable TV comedy; another friend, Ottawa mayor Jim Watson, referred to her in a speech. Everyone knew Sheena.

For a laugh, I would regularly declare Sheena to be crazy, and that I should have left her on the farm. But everyone knew, notwithstanding my bluster, how much I loved her. As my brother said, more than once: "We all know what shape you'll be in, when you have to take her to the vet for the last time."

But Sheena kept living - she seemed eternal. Through the death of my Dad, our nephew Christopher, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, Sheena was always with us. So, too, for the arrival of our daughter and three sons, whom she always watched over, and whom she never once nipped. She was with us, a fully-accredited member of the family, through all of joys and the sadness, for year after year.

On Thursday and Friday, my friends in the Ontario Liberal War Room knew something was up. The polls were showing us moving ever-further ahead, and everything was going great, but I'd keep disappearing for long walks. On these walks, I was talking on the phone with my wife, trying to figure out what to do. The vet had told us that Sheena was in pain, that she could not anymore do the things that made her so remarkable, and that we knew what we had to do. But how? When? How do we tell our kids, who have known Sheena, and loved her, for every single day of their short lives?

This morning, while some family and war room members kept the kids busy, we took Sheena to the vet for the last time. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done. My brother knew. 

Sheena, the greatest dog who ever lived, died in our arms just past 10 a.m. this morning. With my left hand, I could feel her fierce border collie heart slow, then stop. She then moved into my heart, where she has taken up permanent residence, chewing up the furniture.

Back at home, we told the kids that my Dad, who they had called Bubba, is now taking her for a walk, and that their cousin Christopher will play catch with her after that.  We told them that when she needs a rest - which isn't often - she will sit by the shores in Heaven, and impose order on the waves, forever.

October 5, 2007 - Our latest rejoinder to the Orange people.

October 5, 2007 – CanWest just posted these results, so I guess I can now, too.  What does it mean?  It means we keep working, and we GOTV. 

...

McGuinty headed to majority: poll
Joseph Brean
CanWest News Service
Friday, October 05, 2007

TORONTO - Despite starting the election in an almost dead heat with the Progressive Conservatives, Ontario's Liberal party appears to be surging towards a strong majority in next week's election, with more than double the seats of the beleaguered Tories, according to results of the latest poll.

That would return Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty to the premier's office, and mark a bitter defeat for former broadcasting executive, veteran political strategist and Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory, who lost a close Toronto mayoralty race in 2003.

Among decided voters - which according to the Ispos Reid poll is all but four per cent of them - the Liberals have the support of 43 per cent, while the Tories have 32 per cent. Just two weeks ago the spread between both parties was just three points.

The poll also puts the NDP at 18 per cent support, and the Greens at six per cent.

"I think the campaign was probably over just following the leaders debate (on Sept. 20), and that was mainly because there was nothing new introduced. I think the campaign was finished on Monday afternoon, after the change of position of Mr. Tory (who retracted a pledge to fund religious schools)," said John Wright, senior vice-president of public affairs for Ipsos-Reid, which conducted the poll for CanWest News Service/Global News.

Tory's change of heart - to hold a free vote on religious schools funding, rather than push it through unilaterally - has evidently not changed the minds of voters. Seven in 10 Ontarians are opposed to the proposal, most "strongly," the poll says, while only three in 10 support it, only 12 per cent "strongly."

Wright said if Tory had not backtracked, he could have at least emerged with his own personal integrity, but now almost two-thirds of the province (61 per cent) sees the move as "simply cynical vote-getting as opposed to a principled stand. It's an unfortunate situation all the way around"

Despite McGuinty's well-documented broken promises not to raise taxes, which Tory tried to exploit in attack ads, the latest seat projections suggest the Liberals could almost match the 67-seats they held at dissolution.

"I think the campaign was a little bit like an intercepted pass," Wright said. "Mr. Tory rolled back, trying to get this (broken promises) issue out really early on in the game ... But the ball was intercepted, and McGuinty sprinted down the sidelines. (NDP leader Howard) Hampton didn't get off the bench and now blames the media for a short game."

Wright said polls have consistently shown that half the province resents McGuinty for broken promises not to raise taxes, 35 per cent are committed to him, and so the election was primarily about the remaining 15 per cent, who wanted to see something new. The opportunity for that has passed, however, and the numbers are unlikely to shift in the final days, no matter how hard the parties campaign.

"This weekend, people want to cut turkeys on their plates instead of talking to turkeys at the door," Wright said.

As if in anticipation of victory, McGuinty has cut his recent campaign appearances to about two a day, compared to as many as four earlier in the race.

Before the campaign began on Sept. 3, around 35 per cent of voters believed the McGuinty government did a good job and deserved re-election, a figure that has since risen to 44 per cent. More than half, 51 per cent, believe it is time for a new party to take over, but that has not translated to support for the Tories.

Not all news was bad for the Progressive Conservatives, however.

In the vote-rich Greater Toronto Area, the Liberals lost about four percentage points in the last week and have the support of 43 per cent of voters. The Tories rose two percentage points in the area to 34 per cent.

The PCs also saw gains in the surrounding 905 area, raising their support to 42 per cent - just one percentage point behind the Liberals.

In northern and eastern Ontario the Liberals dropped five percentage points in each region to stand at 42 and 37 per cent respectively.

The Tories, however, jumped eight percentage points in northern Ontario and three percentage points in eastern Ontario to stand at 14 and 39 per cent respectively.

In southwest Ontario the Liberals appear to be surging, with gains of 14 percentage points and 48 per cent support. In that region the Tories dropped 16 percentage points and have the support of 28 per cent of voters.

Wright said the only factor likely to influence next Wednesday's vote is voter turnout. The poll, conducted by telephone Oct. 4-6, surveyed 800 Ontarians, and is considered accurate to within 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

National Post
© CanWest News Service 2007

  ...

October 5, 2007 – In this story, Chinta is hearing from a lot of the same Ontario Conservatives we’ve been hearing from. The knives are out, I suppose, but we don’t intend to stop working hard. That said, the commentary here bears a strong resemblance to the sort of stuff I remember from way back in the Fall of 1993.

When John Tory ran another Conservative campaign, surrounded the same men.

...

Conservative insiders lament leader's missteps in Ontario election campaign (Elxn-Ont-Torys-Troub)
Source: The Canadian Press
Oct 5, 2007 14:18
By Chinta Puxley

TORONTO - With election day in Ontario just days away, frustrated insiders close to the beleaguered Progressive Conservatives, rattled by fallout from the religious school funding firestorm, are laying the blame for the party's campaign-trail struggles squarely at the feet of their leader.

John Tory, long billed as the man who would rescue the Conservatives from the lingering memory of the Mike Harris era, has instead become the party's biggest liability, they say, thanks to a single issue: his ill-advised proposal to fund faith-based schools.

And as the vote draws closer, at least two veteran caucus members fear the Conservatives no longer have a chance to form even a minority government. As a result, the party is asking itself some tough questions.

How, they wonder, could Tory, a veteran of Ontario's political backrooms since the days of Bill Davis and the Conservative dynasty known as the Big Blue Machine, fail to anticipate the ensuing controversy and how it would play into the hands of the incumbent Liberals?

Did he genuinely expect, after weeks of staunchly defending the proposal, that giving his caucus members the freedom to effectively kill it by voting it down in the legislature would undo the damage wrought by months of sustained criticism and media attention?

``People thought John Tory was going to be the new guy, they all believed in him and they had a lot of faith in him,'' said one veteran Conservative caucus member.

``Nobody wanted to vote for McGuinty. But this just turned it around. I just can't believe it.''

One frustrated Conservative member said it will take a ``miracle'' for Tory, who also has to worry about a difficult battle against Education Minister Kathleen Wynne in his hand-picked riding of Don Valley West, to win his seat, let alone become premier.

While strategists within the Tory campaign say the leader's free-vote strategy did mitigate the damage somewhat, others remain baffled about why the policy was adopted in the first place and why it took so long for Tory to distance himself from it.

Although Tory spent months defending his plan as a ``matter of principle,'' of equity and fairness, his hands were tied three years ago when he promised to address the issue when he ran for the party leadership.

Under pressure from right-wing opponents Frank Klees and Jim Flaherty, who wanted to restore the unpopular private-school tax credit axed by McGuinty, Tory said he agreed to offer some form of support to private schools.

``That is a commitment that I honoured because I believe that when you make these kinds of commitments, it is important to honour them,'' he said earlier this week.

Those schools would have to be faith-based, teach the provincial curriculum, hire accredited teachers and administered standardized tests, he said. Given that prominent Liberals like McGuinty and Wynne have in the past espoused similar views, Tory felt it wouldn't be a tough sell, insiders say.

Months before the writ was dropped, Tory tried to soften the idea by announcing he would form a commission headed up by former premier Davis, his mentor and close friend, to study the issue.

But the Liberals had already come out swinging. McGuinty called the plan a ``segregation'' of children and said Tory planned to take $400 million out of existing public schools to fund the religious institutions.

``It's like starting a forest fire and it caught on very quickly,'' another Conservative veteran said.

At the same time, Tory was being warned that the policy could torpedo his chances in an election that was widely considered his for the taking. Prominent political historian Michael Bliss wrote to Tory several times during the summer, warning him he was ``sleepwalking towards electoral disaster.''

Bliss never received a reply.

He said Tory surrounded himself with ``young smart-asses'' who denied him the sense of history that makes it clear it's a mistake to mess with people's public schools or to advocate crossing the streams of church and state.

``The McGuinty government dug itself into so many holes, this election was Tory's for the taking,'' said Bliss, a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. Tory, he said, has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

``This was suicide,'' Bliss said. ``I've never seen a more suicidal campaign.''

The party tried to douse the controversy early, the week before the writ was dropped, by holding an event at a Jewish school so Tory could highlight the policy early.

Instead, his musings that creationism could be taught in Christian schools on top of evolution and ``other theories'' just added fuel to the fire.

As the days went on, ``no matter what we did, that was the focus each day,'' said one of Tory's top advisers.

Concern about the issue was ``growing in intensity'', something that wasn't lost on any of Tory's advisers, caucus members or candidates.

``We're not stupid,'' the adviser said. ``We weren't sitting here saying, 'It's okay, carry on.' . . . It was frustrating. It became the elephant in the room.''

Veteran caucus members began to mutiny, privately warning Tory they were going to speak out against the policy to ease the concerns of their own constituents unless something changed.

Polling in those ridings found the policy to be just as unpopular as the caucus members had warned. All the while, Tory continued to pound the pavement with the media in tow, getting a tongue-lashing from voters about the issue at virtually every stop he went to.

Yet he stuck to his guns, convinced voters would embrace his mantra that ``you can't go wrong doing the right thing.'' A few days after maverick Conservative Bill Murdoch openly opposed the policy and said he would vote against it, Tory finally seemed to see the light.

He attributed his change of heart to the upbraiding he received from voters, but party insiders say he knew he had no choice. He spent days huddled with advisers, trying to work out how to maintain his staunch support for the policy while giving his caucus some badly needed breathing room.

In conference calls with his caucus and candidates, Tory said he was urged to drop the policy entirely or put it to a referendum. Minority rights shouldn't be decided by the majority, Tory said, nor was he interested in killing a policy he believed in.

The free vote was a ``logical conclusion for John to reach,'' said one Conservative caucus member. ``We (had) to . . . allow the dust to settle on this.''

Tory gave his war room the go-ahead to book the economic club for Monday, Oct. 1. They wanted to explain the ``significant decision'' on his terms, in a detailed speech without the hurried nature of a press conference or scrum.

``This was never the most important issue to me nor is it to the people of Ontario,'' Tory told reporters after the speech. ``I'd like to move on to discussing some of the real issues.''

The about-face, party spin-doctors vehemently insisted it wasn't a flip-flop, was a ``big gamble,'' said pollster Greg Lyle. But the Conservative hand was forced when Tory's strong, poised performance in the televised leaders' debate failed to move the polls, he said.

``The status quo wasn't really an option,'' said Lyle, of Innovative Research Group. ``The numbers were simply too strong to ignore.''

Tory's top advisers admit they could have offered a free vote earlier, but say the impact of the Oct. 1 announcement has been palpable. Phone calls have started coming in, requesting signs and donating money. Volunteers are more enthusiastic and optimistic.

``The phone calls turned 180 degrees from negative to positive,'' said one of Tory's top advisers. ``I've never seen anything like it.''

Others feel the fight has already been lost. A longtime party stalwart grumbled that the flip-flop has breathed new life into the divisive issue, allowing it to continue dominating headlines.

``It doesn't look too good. He may not even win his seat,'' said one caucus veteran, adding the faith-based issue remains top of mind for voters when he goes door-to-door.

``It's still out there.''

INDEX: EDUCATION POLITICS RELIGION
© 2007 The Canadian Press

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