On The Outing Of Canadian Cynic

No doubt, most regular readers have heard by now that the identity of Waterloo-based Canadian Cynic has been made public. I can’t speak for anyone else, especially for those whom Mr. Day has affected over the years, but for what it’s worth, I’m willing to use this opportunity to extend the olive branch on this occasion. I’m not asking for agreement, or even understanding necessarily, just some civility in the blogosphere. To some degree we’ve all failed over the past six years since the Blogging Tories, the original blogroll in Canada, to be the alternative information media that the Canadian citizenry expects us to be as they go on to make informed decisions on the future of our nation. Perhaps its time to stop the personality warfare that has distracted us scribes of the digital age from this duty so we can focus on the task at hand.

Associated Press Puts Story on Spin Cycle

It’s sad when you have to turn to CNN to get a better scope of the story. Not that there aren’t wolves in sheeps’ clothing within the otherwise pro-life movement, but did anyone check into whether the doctor had some bad debts or domestic disputes recently? Those who cry that journalism as a profession is dying are a little late to the diagnosis methinks!

Nice Catch Line, But Not Worth The Millions of CPC Donation Solicitations

The federal Conservatives, after releasing what might be one of the most disastrous budgets in recent history, has entered a phase wherein the most important reason to re-elect them is simply to keep the Liberals out. It’s not a reason without merit, but as the Red Tory establishment realized griped about for most of the last 20th century, it’s a flimsy reason that only works when the Liberals do something so disastrous, so corrupt that conservative voters see a clear reason why the latter justifies the former.

In this light, a government which has little defining policy left to bank on has to release an attack ad that goes after the opposition head on. The “Michael Ignatieff. Just Visiting.” line is a very clever bit that lives up to that of “Dalton McGuinty. Not up to the job.” from Mike Harris’ 1999 campaign, but it is sadly not enough to lift the ad to the level of professionalism and credibility that the Conservatives badly need it to be. Jerry Nicholls makes an interesting point on how the ad titled “Hypocrisy” is, well, very hypocritical in and of itself, although I think that the Conservatives have at least a decent plan in drawing attention to Iggypuff’s hiatus from our fair nation…so long as they intend to follow it up with a campaign highlighting that the Liberal leader spent those years away as an Ivory Tower academy wonk who, like too many in that world, is grossly out of touch with how the real world works. Getting right down to the voiceover work (which sounds like it was done by one of the new summer college interns), and the graphics of a sliding Iggy with a poorly timed video of the Liberal attack ads, the entire product comes across as amateur hour.

This, of course, wouldn’t be so insulting except for the fact that the political operations team in Ottawa is so obsessed with keeping their jobs that we among the Conservative base are continually being harassed to a) suck up the entire lack of substantive, truly constructive policy that has been the status quo since the last election and b)make sure the generous cheques are made out to the Conservative Fund of Canada. For all the money that the boys in poli-ops have been receiving, you’d think they’d be able to do better…much better!

Update: here is the Youtube version of the Conservative attack ad:

Obama’s New Regulatory (Censorship) Czar: Cass Sunstein

Adam Thierer outlines in great detail the problems with Obama and his choice for the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Cass Sunstein. Make sure to read it all, but note Sunstein’s recent comments about the Internet and it’s wide range of choices:

“A system of limitless individual choices, with respect to communications, is not necessarily in the interest of citizenship and self-government. Democratic efforts to reduce the resulting problems ought not be rejected in freedom’s name.”

[Via: Five Feet of Fury]

An Artist Who Will Be Missed

Sad news came this weekend as British Columbia Japan-based political cartoonist JJ McCullough has announced an indefinite retirement from his Filibuster Cartoons site. The site has been a personal pleasure to read for years and I only wish JJ the best. As one who took a retirement from all things political for a while, I can certainly understand the relief that comes with leaving the sandbox to the kids but hope that Filibuster will be back again one day. For readers who never knew the awesome work of JJ, treat yourself to his archives from the past decade!

The Faces Of The Homosexual Agenda Enemy

The National Organization For Marriage, a US-based group, has an amazing new advertisement showing the real agenda and real effects behind the push for recrafting homosexual unions as marriages. All that I can add here is a plea to my fellow Canadian socons to wake up and see what a bit of polish, and less self-pity can do for a movement’s image!

Alberta’s New Slogan: “Freedom To Create. Spirit To Achieve.”

Check out the new promotional video for Alberta.

Alberta

It has it’s critics, say, here and here, but I like it.

“Freedom To Create. Spirit To Achieve” challenges a certain complacency whereby having the freedom to create wealth — not just material wealth, but the individual resource to fulfil one’s hopes and dreams — is diminished by overemphasizing our collective niceness as Canadians, specifically, the emphasis that gets placed on tolerance and equality, acceptance and understanding, or on our public welfare services as tenets of civil society. … And on that score, “Alberta Advantage” was always pretty blah, open to interpretation or any supposed advantage one might place on it; a wide swath of winners and losers.

There are people with ambition in this world, those who don’t whine when life — be it certain grievances against history or some amorphous and oppressive “ism” — deals them a rough hand, but keep going, looking for new opportunities for success despite hardship. These are the kinds of people we need to attract to Alberta, to encourage once they get here.

On the new slogan I say job well done.

CTV Power Play: Monte Solberg vs Jane ‘Giggles’ Taber and Shiela Copps

Wow! Monte certainly held his own in the face of Shiela Copps’ frothing over the Garry Breitkreuz and Canadian Shooting Sports Association dinner issue. That is, when Sheila wasn’t stumbling over her own words and thoughts in order to come out with something even remotely resembling a coherent and informed sentance.

And Jane ‘Giggles’ Taber let her do it! And here I thought Tom Clark claimed that this kind of behaviour wouldn’t be tolerated on his show. I sincerely hope Monte says something.

And I don’t know how many people caught it, but just before they ‘faded to black’ for commercial, Jane and Shiela were giggling together. Over what, I certainly can’t say for sure, but it certainly looked unprofessional on the part of Jane Taber. I don’t know that I actually expected professionalism from her, but in either case, I was enormously disappointed!

When they did come back, I did notice Jane looking a little spooked, as though perhaps someone read her the riot act, and she had some attempted but ultimately weak ‘good’ things to say about the Conservatives. Even if that was the case, it’s too little, too late Jane.

Jack Layton dips his fingers where they don’t belong…..again.

On Wednesday, March 18th 2009 as reported in the Montreal Gazette, Jack Latyon, Leader of the NDP, dips his fingers into a jurisdiction not his own.

First, as if it weren’t enough that Quebec abhors federal intrusion into their affairs, Jack Layton goes on to petition the Prime Minister to drag himself and government spending into the mess as well.

NDP leader Jack Layton said he intends to immediately send a letter making the request to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Next week, he intends to raise the issue of advertising by government departments and crown corporations in the chain’s newspapers during question period in the House of Commons.

Now, for a man trying to make gains off of their first MP elected in a province notorious for demanding more federal money, he is making the enormously stupid demand that the Federal Governmnet do exactly the opposite. Add to that, he is actively tampering in provincial jurisdiction; behaviour which is anathema to Quebecers and only serves as evidence for the BLOC and the PQ to use against Federalism. [insert golf clap here] Well done Jack. Well done.

Last night, Isabelle Dessureault, vice-president public affairs for Quebecor Media, responded to Layton’s plan saying he does not have all the facts.

“What the NDP is asking the government to do is take sides in a context where one of the two parties (Quebecor) exercised its rights under the actual laws in Quebec and Canada,” Dessureault said in an interview.

Dessureault noted that an inspector from the Quebec’s labour standards board recently visited the newspaper concluding no violations of the Labour Code in the current dispute.

What I personally find amusing, is that Jack Layton (the man who refuses to co-operate with the Conservatives on anything now asking for a favor?) continues to believe he has any influence with the Conservatives anymore. I dare say he has little credibility with even the Liberals these days.

That only leaves….oh yeah….

CP Journalist States the Obvious: Spread the News

Micheal Ignatieff has been warned, Canadian Press reporter, Alexander Panetta has uncovered irrefutable evidence that that Conservative party is going to start attacking Micheal Ignatieff and the Liberal party of Canada.

OTTAWA — The Conservatives are scouring hundreds of hours of videotape as they prepare to pummel their key rival Michael Ignatieff with attack ads leading up to the next election.

The Harper government had been uncharacteristically tame toward the Liberal leader until last week, when MPs began taking shots at Mr. Ignatieff in the House of Commons.

That was just the opening salvo.

The Tories already have anti-Ignatieff ads ready to air at a moment’s notice, and are also combing through a lifetime’s worth of musings from his career as a public intellectual.

Wow, riveting stuff – but what evidence does this reporter have?

Two government officials say they toned down the partisanship because there was little public appetite for politicians squabbling during an economic crisis where people are losing jobs.

So two anonymous government officials are his source. Yup, but to further his investigative scope Alexander digs even deeper:

“We poll better on offence,” said one government official. “That’s always sort of guided us.”

Ah, there you go, another anonymous government official dishing the dirt. But wait, Alexander isn’t finished yet – he’s no longer concerned with quoting anonymous government officials, he is speaking in more general terms now:

Tories say there will be three themes to their attacks: that Mr. Ignatieff is an out-of-touch elitist; that he flip-flops (they will cite his shifting positions on a carbon tax, on coalition with the other opposition parties, and on Israel’s 2006 bombing of Lebanon); and that he’s a fair-weather Canadian.

They say their research keeps turning up first-person references to the United States in which Mr. Ignatieff — then a professor at Harvard University — appeared to be describing himself as an American.

Those occasional references to Americans as “we” were already an issue in the 2006 Liberal leadership race, but the Conservatives say they’ve been stockpiling plenty of unused material.

There you have it folks, a journalist who is so busy stating the obvious that he’s forgotten to include the names of his sources.

Alexander, now it’s my turn to state the obvious – political parties are partisan organizations whose job is to win elections. Political parties are successful when they effectively characterize their opponents, and their ideas, as out of touch and wrong – that’s kind of the whole point of politics, isn’t it?

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