From one of Canada’s leading (sic) lights on the right comes this anti-government gem: “If the Liberals were running Canadian Tire, you’d face waiting lists for oil changes and muffler replacement. Forget about getting anyone on the phone, or receiving replies in a timely manner.”It would be funnier if I hadn’t actually tried to get someone on the phone at Canadian Tire a few weeks ago and been shuttled… Read more...

Outgoing IWA president Dave Haggard may be gone — to a new life as a former-New-Democrat-turned-defeated-Liberal-candidate — but he’s not forgotten.That’s because he very kindly left his members a present: a mediated settlement in November’s forestry strike.It’s, er, not going to be very popular. (New IWA contract ‘pretty disappointing,’ says union)But it could have been worse. It could have been one of those contracts the IWA negotiated after… Read more...

You may have noticed a series of really, really big newspaper ads lately from the really, really right-wing lobby group Focus on the Family.

They’re opposing same-sex marriage. But they aren’t dumb about it. This ad smacks of a lot of careful focus testing. The language is tweaked to avoid the kind of overt homophobia that they save for their lobbying efforts and — here’s the rub — membership… Read more...

You never know when somebody on the other side of the spectrum (waaaaaay on the other side) might take notice. (Scroll down to “Canada Votes, Day 3″.)Sure, I disagree with him on the issues. But jimminy, the guy’s written for a U.S. president. So he’s gotta know something about speechwriting, no?… Read more...

If you’re the kind of person who’d like to maintain a healthy skepticism about the news media without crossing the border into they’re-taking-their-orders- directly-from-a-cabal- of-alien-overlords territory, good news.The New York Times has come out with an extraordinary assessment of its coverage during the run-up to the war in Iraq, and finds itself wanting:”Editors at several levels who should have been challenging reporters and pressing for more skepticism were… Read more...

Ever wondered what happens when you get three speechwriters from three different parties in a room together? (Pretend for a moment that the answer is “Gosh, yes.”)

CBC Radio’s smashing morning show The Current did just that today, with yours truly holding up the NDP end.

I liked the other two folks. We were all a little guarded in our responses to some of Anna Maria’s questions… Read more...

I just had a flash-flood of memories with the news that Paul Sutherland, the voice and creator behind Hammy Hamster, passed away earlier this month.I watched that show religiously as a kid. (It was probably all for the best that I never did the math comparing the lifespans of a hamster and guinea pig to the number of years the show had been running.) An entire generation of… Read more...

Edmonton — A visibly shaken Premier Ralph Klein refused to comment today after University of Alberta history professor Lotta Nurv revealed the government’s entire legislative agenda had been plagiarized.”Basically, they just lifted the whole thing word for word from various historical sources,” she said. “A lot of their social policy was cribbed from Vlad the Impaler, for example, and I’ve been able to trace some of their welfare policies… Read more...