Not too surprising.
Odd, though, is this little missive from the Western Standard (entitled "Manitoba's Spirited Status Quo" -- ho, ho, ho, chortle -- good one). The Standard is a Republican-yahoo wanna-be publication from Alberta. In this case its writer, Calgary Herald scribbler Ric Dolphin gives an interesting and highly inventive view on Manitoba's political scene -- for the clearly uninterested, navel gazing oilpatch crowd.
Well, there's perhaps no accounting for taste among Huey's staff, but nonetheless it's a very strange piece to put on your site. The implication of course, without any disclaimer as a fig leaf at all, is that Huey heartily endorses the views expressed therein.
Here, then, is a little taste of the views that Hugh apparently agrees with:
"The poll came after the Tories had knifed their former leader, Stuart Murray, in November, forcing the confidence vote that led to the leadership campaign. Murray, 51, a former roadie with Blood, Sweat and Tears, and married to the heiress of the Domo gasoline fortune (slogan: "We Jump to the Pump"), was a nice, bland, ineffectual chap who lacked the killer instinct and seemed polite in legislative debate.
"McFadyen is youthful, glib and urbane in the way that his old boss Filmon once was. He even looks a bit like Filmon in his salad days--compact, slick and stock-brokerish. He's well connected to the Winnipeg Tory establishment that revolves around the brokerage firm Wellington West, where guys like Filmon, now 63, ply their trade among the antique beams and sandblasted brick in the gentrified Winnipeg warehouse district. McFadyen also has those ties to the moneyed Jewish crowd of which his former boss, the well-liked self-made multimillionaire Mayor Katz, 54--arguably the second most powerful elected official in the province--is the political pontiff."
Knifed their former leader?
Well connected to the Winnipeg Tory establishment that revolves around the brokerage firm Wellington West?
Glib?
Well, these nuggets happen to be true, but kind of astonishing he'd put them on his site.
Here are some other memorable quips in the piece:
"[Manitoba is] this black hole at the geographical centre of the Dominion ..."
"In the leadership race that had McFadyen pitted against two conservative Conservatives from the sticks..."
"The only growth appears to be among the native Indian population, and that fact, alas, brings the predictable social ills..."
Nice. Very nice.
On the point of that last quote, we Googled this Dolphin guy, 'cause his name kinda rung a bell and we found out why.
Last year he wrote a piece on the Klein legacy (whut dat?) and the Alberta Conservative leadership. It got some attention for the following:
"Colleen's [Klein] influence is seen as destructive and her motives less than altruistic. 'Once she stops being the premier's wife, she goes back to being just another Indian,' says one of Klein's fishing buddies, in an unkind reference to Colleen's Native heritage. 'Colleen likes being picked up in a car with security and being driven to her next function,' says a longtime campaign manager close to both Kleins."And in 2003 he was whacked by the Alberta Press Council for several pieces that were pretty negative on Aboriginal people, including calling Aboriginal communities "nests of hopelessness ... the road to hell ... and a society in shambles." The council also found "(t)here were many other statements in the columns that the complainants found offensive."
You think maybe this guy has issues or something?
The council fined Dolphin's employer, the Asper-owned Calgary Herald. Wonder if those articles will show up on display in the Museum of Human Rights?
After all, if they're good enough for the Leader of the Official Opposition ...