ridiculous photo of the day

do not give him the co-ordinates for Stornoway.¹

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1. Thanks to The Globe and Mail and Shaun Best/Reuters for the morning laugh.↩

for those who want more david miller

And now it's official. With Jack Layton's endorsement, Joe Pantalone becomes the official NDP candidate for mayor of Toronto; not that there's any surprise in that.

Let it be known, therefore, if you liked and want more of David Miller and Adam GeeI'mhorny, not to mention union dictated civic government, vote Joe.

shameless re-blog

Following last week's posts on victims of the Harper government's witch hunt, this mornings message in my inbox from National Liberal Fund director Adam Smith really got my attention:

Donald --

The people on Stephen Harper’s enemies list aren’t so different from you and me.

Richard Colvin. Munir Sheikh. Linda Keen. Or the rest of the dozen watchdogs and public servants the Conservatives have fired, forced out, harassed or publicly maligned since they took office.

They’re just regular Canadians, dedicated to doing their jobs the best they can. Telling the truth because it’s the right thing to do.

These distinguished Canadians had the courage to speak truth to power and were punished for it. That’s why I’m asking you to make a donation of $50 or $100, or whatever you can afford, to help us continue standing up for Canadians like these.

I'm not endorsing using this message to raise funds for the Official Opposition (it's a bit over the top) but it does fit with my long-helpd belief that the only way out of the pending crisis for democracy which is a re-elected Harper government is support for the Liberal Party. Not the NDP, no the Green Party, not any other independent candidate, not by spoiling a ballot or staying home; reality is that only the Liberals have any chance of forming an alternate government in Canada that could stop the Harper Conservatives. A vote for any other party is one the Liberals won't get and, by default, is a vote for the Conservatives.

Smith hit the nail on the head, Harper's enemies "aren't so different from you and me:.

tough ones for the law and order government to explain

When Stockwell Day is done expounding on the huge increase in unreported crime (relying on long form census data as his evidence) he and the prime minister my want to explain how it is their government's pledge to abolish the long gun registry is unanimously opposed by Canada's police chiefs.

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police voted unanimously on Monday to endorse a new national firearms policing strategy. In doing so, the association committed to publicly pushing the need for the National Firearms Registry — the long-gun portion of which the Harper government has vowed to abolish.

Not a single hand was raised in opposition to the strategy when Toronto police chief and CACP president Bill Blair called it to a vote at the organization’s annual conference in Edmonton, Chief Blair said. The room was packed with senior officers from police forces across Canada, including the RCMP.

“The information contained in that registry is invaluable to us,” Chief Blair said following the vote. “We believe in its retention. We need to ensure that we educate all Canadians and our parliamentarians on the importance of its retention.” The registry is accessed about 11,000 times a day by police officers across Canada, he said.

link: Police chiefs vote to endorse national firearms strategy

For that matter, the police chiefs have some issues with the census too.

The plan to scrap the long-gun registry is not the only policy of the federal Conservative government that is causing consternation at Canadian police agencies.

The Canadian Association of Police Boards (CAPB) approved eight resolutions when its members met in New Brunswick last week, including one that calls on the government to restore the mandatory long-form census.

The association recognizes “that police agencies throughout Canada depend on reliable, comprehensive demographic statistical information provided by Statistics Canada to establish policing priorities and to determine policing services for their communities,” the CAPB said in a statement released Monday.

link: Police take on Harper over census - The Globe and Mail

I'm looking forward to reading how it's the Liberals who are soft on crime while the government rationalizes away what must be an unprecedented rebuke from the heads of Canada's law enforcement agencies, including its own RCMP.

worth reading

Today, I'm going to let Chantal Hébert (BA, Glendon College, 1976) of The Toronto Star say it all with this commentary on a government that devours the hands that feed it: Public Servants Find Their Voice

A look at the lengthening list of Conservative public service casualties reveals the pattern of a government that has routinely taken to eating its own.

link: Hébert: Public servants find their voice; Stephen Harper MPs and Senators silent - thestar.com

It's an column which deserves to be read in its entirety.

courier bag meets man-purse

It seems the fashion industry's eternal quest to sell us something we didn't know we need has succeeded once again.

There have been many attempts over the past decade or so to come up with a product men could be convinced to buy to carry their essentials to and from work. There comes a time in life when the college back-pack just won't do anymore; we just can't carry that into the board room and have our gym clothes and lunch spill out as we retrieve our laptop.

Man-purses (murses) have been around for years but they have little utility beyond carrying things that we have always carried in our pockets; cell phone and keys. Not large enough for the morning newspaper we read on the subway or the smallest netbook (which itself is useless at the office) and definitely not large enough for lunch, gym clothes and sneakers. Murse sales just have never achieved critical mass.

Briefcases are so last century, I'm not sure they're even sold anymore and, in any case, the nice ones suffered the same limitations as the murse.

Courier bags have served as a classier version of the college back-pack, same materials (no animals killed in their manufacture), room for a notebook computer, phone, keys, lunch and gym gear, all so well organised we could safely open them in public. Plus they are made to be carried over one shoulder to avoid wrinkling shirts [do not wear the shoulder strap across your chest ever, the resulting "man tits" on even the fittest specimens demand we not go there]. And yes, courier bags have achieved near ubiquity, but always with an aura of geekiness or not having quite grown up.

Over the past few months I have seen more and more of a hybrid between the murse and the courier bag. Smaller courier bags made of more elegant materials (leather (faux and real), canvas trimmed with leather), often bearing prestige designer labels [Mountain Equipment Co-op may be a designer and have its own label but it suggests you are going canoeing and not down Bay Street]. These new bags can easily hold keys, smartphone and a netbook or an iPad. No room for lunch, but only losers carry their lunch; that's what restaurants are for and besides, the serving class needs the jobs. The only drawback I can see is that there is no room for the workout gear. Are we supposed to workout in our condo gym before heading out to the office? Are we supposed to have the perfect body because of our genes and never really every have to work out? Maybe all those unused overnight storage lockers at the gym finally will find renters.

Testifying to the success of this new fashion accessory, a stroll through The Bay revealed a section devoted to their sale as large as that devoted to shirts and ties. It rivalled the women's hand-bags section in size if not the number of offerings. Maybe men don't want too get to close to one another as they shop for such a personal accessory. And the prices - well let's just not go there.

But to really take over the market, we need a better name. Men's shoulder bag doesn't quite make it. Suggestions anyone?

next up to the guillotine?

In the long list of agency heads who dared to disagree with the Harper government and paid the price, will Konrad von Finckenstein be next?

Is Stephen Harper set to move against the CRTC?

Insiders say the PM wants Konrad von Finckenstein out well before his term as chair ends. And vice-chair Michel Arpin is being ushered out the door.

link: Is Stephen Harper set to move against the CRTC? - The Globe and Mail

The pattern intensifies: Linda Keen challenged the government on nuclear safety and is gone; Munir Sheikh challenged the government on the census and is gone; Pat Stogran gave the government as hard time as veterans' ombudsman and will be gone in a few weeks; Marty Cheliak holds views contrary to those of the government as the RCMP lead on the gun registry and is mysteriously re-assigned; the list goes on (more here).

I surmised the CRTC was in trouble last December when Tony Clement moved to over-rule it and allow Globealive to launch a wireless telephone service in Canada, despite the commission's determination that Globealive does not meet Canadian ownership rules. What looked like a populist more to appease the rabble calling for cheaper mobile phones [Canadians complain about cell phone prices only slightly less than they complain about the weather] may have been, in fact, a trial balloon to see if the CRTC will kowtow to the government or uphold the legislation it is legally bound to enforce.

Lawrence Martin's report of the prime minister's meeting in New York is astounding.

Last year, as revealed by The Canadian Press, Prime Minister Stephen Harper lunched in New York with Roger Ailes, president of Fox News, and Rupert Murdoch, who owns it. Kory Teneycke, Mr. Harper’s former spokesman, was also present at the unannounced event.

Mr. Teneycke later became the point man for Quebecor’s Pierre Karl Péladeau in his effort to create a right-wing television network modelled along the lines of Fox News. The new network is a high priority for Mr. Harper, for whom controlling the message has always been – witness his government vetting program – of paramount importance.

link: Is Stephen Harper set to move against the CRTC? - The Globe and Mail

One thing that has kept Harper from the majority government he so desperately seeks is the constant questioning of his motives by publicly and privately held media in Canada. Even the National Post cannot be counted upon to be unquestionably non-questioning. Sun Media though, is pretty close to blindly loyal. If only that loyalty could be transferred to television. So why not sit down with the experts in right-wing media and your media guy and talk about how to bring the model north of the border? Then send your media guy to Péladeau and Sun Media with just a suggestion that he could help with any regulatory issues that might get in the way of launching a new TV channel.

Sun Media made its application for a broadcast licence and was rejected by the CRTC by reason of the current moratorium on any such licences [until Canada converts to digital broadcasting next year, there is a problem with available spectrum]. The CRTC suggested Sun Media could re-apply for a cable licence and try to convince cable operators to carry its signal [which would be charged back to consumers] but that is hardly good enough for Péladeau or Harper. With a broadcast licence, cable companies would be required to carry the signal,at no cost to Sun Media, and deliver it to every cable subscribing household in Canada. Simply put, it would give Harper's supporters a line into millions of Canadian homes to spread their conservative propaganda. Péladeau has vowed he will have the licence he wants and be on the air in 2011. And Stephen Harper has vowed there won't be another federal election until 2011.

Clearly, if von Finckenstein and/or the CRTC get in the way something will have to give, someone will have to yield and, at the moment, it's Stephen Harper who has the power advantage.

Maybe Martin is correct that the government is trying to induce von Finckenstein to leave with the promise of a prime appointment far outside Canada. A quiet resignation would present far better optics than a messy one such at the government got from Keen, Sheikh or Stogran.

Which will it be Konrad?

what could this mean?

Back when Paul Martin was Prime Minister, I subscribed to an e-mail feed of media releases from the PMO. It wasn't the primary feed sent to media outlets, but every day or so, sometimes more often, I'd get a message from the PMO about a speech the PM had made, or the announcement of a new federal program or grant. They're not the sort of things people suffering from e-mail overkill want, but for a politicized retiree they held a level of interest and provided talking points - the intended purpose - for encounters with friends and colleagues.

No surprise, when the Harperites moved in to the Langevin Block, these missives stopped abruptly. I assumed Martin's team hit the delete button on the mailing list as it was on the way out the door, or at least sent it to the National Archives for 25 years if required to do so by law.

Fast-forward four years and behold, the daily e-mails have resumed. Seems the PMO did retain, or has found at the bottom of some file folder on the computers in the communications office, my address. Don't assume I am being informed of significant program or policy announcements that I might not learn about from The Globe and Mail or CTV News. These are more along the lines of "PM Harper addressed a crowd in <fill in name of city> today". This morning's informs me that Harper attended a hockey game in Barrie, ON, last night, accompanied by Peter MacKay. Well that is something the CBC Morning News did not report.

With the PM insisting he is not planning for or expecting an election, what could this newfound interest in communications with the masses mean?