Patronage is as old as time itself, but we don’t have to like it
OTTAWA—Canadians seem powerless to stop patronage. We can no more abolish it than we could rid ourselves of shoplifting or Nigerian email investments. It’s no reason to stop trying. When the Prime Minister dumped another 18 cords of deadwood on the Senate floor, media were wide awake. “Another Senate Pig-Out,” read a Calgary Sun headline. […]
Worst Quote in a Crisis: ‘We’ll get back to you,’ UN Sec-Gen Ban Ki-moon, when asked about UN’s role in easing Tibet tensions
OTTAWA—The Associated Press reported sunny “mimosa yellow” will be the fashion colour of 2009. Apparently the colour for 2008 was the foreboding purplish “blue iris.” Great, now they tell us. Here’s the year that was: Best Quote By A Pundit: “Obviously, the bloom is off my long-notorious affection for America,”—Conrad Black, inmate #18330-424, Coleman Federal […]
Dion a ‘kind of accidental leader’
OTTAWA—As the nation bids Stéphane Dion good luck in the private sector, the least we can do is acknowledge his legacy: the passing of the old-time leadership convention. Only two years ago Liberals met in Montreal and voted 318-299 against reforming the party’s constitution to permit membership-wide balloting. They won’t make that mistake twice. For […]
Fact is, deficit spending doesn’t work
Days like this I miss John Ibbitson, a Globe and Mail columnist assigned to Washington. When faced with dramatic political events Ibbitson has reliably cited some weird historical analogy, like, “For years now Ottawa has resembled Vienna, circa 1910”; or “Berlin was like that in 1945.” His columns were unwittingly hilarious. They helped break the […]
Canadian Auto Workers appear friendless in media coverage
In the fable of the grasshopper and the ant, one does not bail out the other. That is the whole point of the story. Among the ants in Parliament and the press and public at large, the Canadian Auto Workers appear friendless. If looming bankruptcy of the auto industry is a problem, it is their […]
Fung’s ordeal would have bankrupted many newsrooms
Newsrooms face a dilemma. There is too much news. We see the irony. It was illustrated by the saga of CBC reporter Melissa Fung, kidnapped for a month in Afghanistan. Amid deserving tributes to her courage one fact went unmentioned: Fung’s ordeal would have bankrupted many newsrooms. War insurance premiums alone would sink the budget. […]
Non-voters get no respect, but they never hurt anybody
OTTAWA—Non-voters get no respect in Ottawa though they’ve got the whole town on its toes. Elections Canada counted 9,568,092 registered voters who failed to cast a federal ballot. Thanks to them no party got what it wanted, and Parliamentary Press Gallery pundits were left to wonder if they were merely talking to themselves. Delightful! Yet […]
Toews’ divorce and new marriage newsworthy for Winnipeg Free Press
Is it news if your MP gets a divorce? Canada’s Treasury Board President Vic Toews’ marriage is an issue for The Winnipeg Free Press, the largest daily in his home province of Manitoba. “Messy personal stuff,” they called it. The Free Press cited his marriage in 11 articles published over five months, not including a […]
Martin casts himself as heroic figure foiled by rotten luck
If this is Monday, it must be Vancouver in a 10-city book tour that’s rekindling memories of Paul Martin and his brief, unhappy prime ministership. In his $38 memoirs and comments to gullible journalists, Martin casts himself as a heroic figure foiled by rotten luck and, presumably, the millions of Canadians who didn’t vote for […]
CTV right to broadcast jumbled Dion interview
In the ashes of a Liberal defeat a conspiracy theory was born. Unchecked, it has spread in the past two weeks. Even some journalists seem to believe it. In the blogosphere it provokes dark muttering of outrage and media boycotts. The claim is this: that Conservative-friendly CTV executives deliberately broadcast unflattering videotape of Stéphane Dion […]
