BBA Mulligan day

We're well behind in commenting on things we wanted to over the past while. So we take this opportunity to write a few brief things on breaking stuff, and a couple of Mulligans from the last week or so:

CF-18 redux? Hard to tell at this point. Sen. Fortier's letter in the FreeP this morning has him denying media reports quoting him saying more than 40% of the Boeing C-17 contracts must be in Quebec before he'll sign. On the other hand, in the math of the upcoming federal election, Harper will give a much bigger damn about Quebec than he will Manitoba.

Good news for Harper. A clear sign that Stephane Dion has poor political instincts is the story reported in the Quebec City newspaper Le Soleil yesterday that he would not object to the lifting of the Liberal's ban on senior organizer Marc-Yvan Côté -- a former Quebec cabinet minister and central figure in Adscam. (Unless we missed it, there didn't seem to be a story in either the FreeP or the Sun. Odd. It's a big story in our view.)

Wheat Board. Manitoba farmers overwhelmingly voted to support single desk selling. There was some griping from Wheat Board opponents, but no one can credibly argue that the majority has not spoken clearly and loudly in this province about the future of the CWB.

Ironically, on the day of the result, Chuck Strahl complained about the Manitoba vote and said question was torqued, then immediately announced there would be a federal vote on wheat (after giving no such assurance in the past). Then, a few days later, his office releases what his version of the question (or as it turns out, three questions) that are so meaningless, if asked they will only highten producers' anger -- even many who would have been open to monkeying around with the Wheat Board. Strange strategy.

"They may as well have asked if farmers would like to sell their barley to little green men from Mars for $200 a bushel," said NFU president Stewart Wells.

Good line.

Wonder one of the first people to propose a Clarity Act for any future referendum in Quebec might hand a copy over to Strahl? Nah. Clarity's fine for Quebec, but Westerners are better off with double- and triple-speak.

Tory/Liberal candidate in Kirkfield Park? Just bizarre, actually.

Hugh's revamped site hosts loony right views

Our sharp-eyed readership noticed that Huey has revamped his personal webpage, and on it there are a selection of news articles that, of course, either praise him and the PCs, or dump on Gary Doer and the NDP.

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 ...

Hmm, it looks more like straw on the ice than "sweeping away", but if you say so ...

“I wouldn’t say I’d never consider it but it’s not something I’m considering right now.”

That's from Mia Rabson's blog re: the rampant rumour we put flesh on a while back about Jennifer Jones running for Team Huey. Rabson says this puts the rumour to rest. However, the quote doesn't exactly sound like it's being put to rest to us -- there's more wiggle room there than in a (Bill) Clintonism.

On the other hand, perhaps she has indeed closed the door for this time around. She may well have followed our advice and called Hugh's bluff, thereby blanking the end and dashing McFadyen's hopes of Jones as his button draw.

Ugh, enough with the metaphors.

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We note our best buddy Tom Bunkbeck's latest installment in his one-man-mission to convince all that Manitoba is the worst s***hole on the planet.

He tees off today by refering to the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce 's "Making Manitoba a Have Province" campaign as proof that our economy is in the crapper.

Well, if that's the Chambers' goal, it certainly isn't stated anwhere we could find. In fact they seem to accentuate the positive as often as possible:

It begins with what we are calling a ‘grand discussion’," explains MCC President Graham Starmer, "One that has the courage to ask the tough questions, builds on a common vision and moves to concrete action." Starmer says too often talk amounts to finger pointing, and harping on our differences and what divides us, rather than building on what unites us.

Who can argue with that?

All the negative stuff in their campaign that we could find seems to be relegated to this sorta weird "Manitobans have a collective character flaw" language:

The Making Manitoba a ‘Have’ Province pamphlet sets out three basic issues that are holding us back: we lack the courage to ask the tough questions, we lack a commitment to the vision, and we lack a course of action.

In any event, does anyone believe the Chambers won't come forward at the end of this campaign and say the results of their consultations show there should be deep tax cuts, especially for business?

No, of course no one belives that. It's their job. It will be expected.

An interesting thing, though, is Brodbeck's selective use of the Manitoba Chambers' campaigns.

On this one, he points to it as proof the province is in terrible shape -- which of course (a) is so far from the truth it's laughable and (b) even his readers don't believe it.

However, we recall that Tom was less moved by the other recent "attitude change" campaign the Chambers are a huge part of -- the Spirited Energy provincial branding project.

Ah well, that wouldn't fit his "s***hole" thesis, would it?

News flash: candidate claims party offered deal to step down from nomination (yawn)

So, let's get this straight -- the internal NDP tempest-in-a-teapot that is the Maples nomination/Kaur Sidhu issue is to the opposition a massive scandal, so big it should delay any thoughts of calling an election (if that were the Premier's intention).

Well, we already dealt with the situational hilarity of that one a few days ago.

The interesting thing is the story that popped up in the past few days about federal Tory hopeful, Ottawa lawyer Alan Riddell, who withdrew in consideration of Adscam whistleblower, Allan Cutler. (You can read the tale here, here, and here.)

Riddell maintains he dropped out only after cutting a deal that he would be financially compensated by the party. Last week Riddell won his case in court for some $50,000 against the Conservatives.

Stephen Harper and party president (and Manitoban) Don Plett denied there was any deal. But the party dropped that argument later and said Riddell voided the deal by speaking publicly about it.

None of that held water in the end for the judge, ordering the Tories to pay Riddell.

OK, so where's the outrage from Manitoba conservatives and their blogging rabble over this one? Absolutely nowhere to be seen.

And unless we've missed something, no one has been saying this is something that deserves any investigation beyond paying Riddell what he's owed.

This must change! We must get behind an unstoppable movement to make the Tories pay dearly for this, this, this ... thing. No?

Hmmm. Yawn. Snnzzzzzk.

Tory nomination news

It is curious with all the Tory blogs spouting nomination news that they either miss or avoid the one that is of most interest.

We mean, really, the Waddells move on Winnipeg (we loved the "our work is done here" line about rural Manitoba -- very reassuring to urban folks). That's significant?

Trudy Turner in Riel? What's that going to be like? "Hi, I couldn't beat weird old Harvey Smith where I'm known. I'm taking on Melnick who's liked locally and where the NDP is strong." Wow, good one.

Or how about Zyla, who at least surprised the pundits about River Heights--Fort Garry in placing quite respectfully?

Kerri Irvin-Ross may have won by a hair in 2003, but the provincial riding of Fort Garry has become very working class in recent years and Kerri has done lots of strong constituency work (apart from recent her elevation to cabinet).

But as we're on the topic of Fort Garry, let's also consider the last public domain Probe poll for a second.

In our first take on it, we postulated from the Free Press story that Probe was probably showing the NDP leading in the southwest quadrant. Indeed, now that Probe has posted the results, that is actually the case (in their numbers at least): 39 for the Tories, 44 for the NDP, 13 for the Liberals.

Remember, this is a quadrant which -- as we've pointed out before -- has four non-NDP ridings in it, out of a total 9 1/2.

That would seem to indicate a possibly very tight race with the NDP in at least one of those non-NDP seats (Tuxedo -- Heather Stefanson, Charleswood -- Myrna Dreiger, Fort Whyte -- Hugh McFadyen, River Heights -- Jon Gerrard).

Or, as we would say more likely, the NDP's hold on its incumbents has probably become quite a bit stronger than people think.

So, dear reader, you decide what that means. Does it mean that Ms. Zyla or her evangelical teacher opponent (or some other candidates that have been rumoured) needn't bother running in Fort Garry, or does it mean Hugh and Heather have to actually worry about holding onto their seats. Hmm.

We think the former is more likely, but are willing to entertain the latter.

However, the most interesting thing is what's coming out of the leaky ship that is the HMS Huey, which has spouted in the direction on more than one occasion toward the BBAs.

We're sure it has spouted in others, but we can only speak to what we know.

We hear that not only has women's curling champ Jennifer Jones , a lawyer at Crocus-central, Wellington West, been hurrying especially hard at Tory events over the past year or so, but is now definitely looking at trading her hack for working for one.

She's 90% along the way of spurning the pebbled ice on behalf of Team Baby Huey, to challege Health Minister Theresa Oswald in Seine River.

Clearly the PCs see Jones as a star candidate and hope this will give them some octane in their tank come the provincial election.

The unfortunate thing for the PCs' hopes in Seine River is rather less optimistic and it comes on several counts.

The first good thing as mentioned above -- the riding in question which had in the past been a Tory stronghold is likely now a pretty safe NDP seat, considering the overall NDP support in the quadrant and the fact that the local representative is a popular MLA who is now the health minister.

The other important thing to rememember is that star candidates, athletes in particular, often don't work out as hoped. Yes, there is Montreal Canadiens' legend Ken Dryden who won his Toronto-area seat for the Liberals and became Human Resources minister. However, he won in a safe Liberal seat beforehand (a condition Dryden had insisted on before agreeing to run, we understand). And it's not as if he overwhelmed while in the minister's office, or afterwords as a leadership candidate.

And it must be remembered, for every Ken Dryden, there is at least one Daniel Igali.

We also understand that Jones and her people have asked for a Seine River riding poll, which the PCs have been reluctant to commission (or hand over, if they already have one).

The stated reason for not doing a riding poll, apparently, is that of not wishing to expend scarce pre-election resources and the Tories are telling Jones she could take the seat handily without any testing of the waters.

We say that's fantasy-land.

Word is also, however, that Jones is becoming a tad wary (hence the word of her candidacy being kept to a very few top Tories), though she has basically committed and feels it's going to be very hard for her to back out considering the level of conversations that have happened.

We submit that if she wanted to avoid the liklihood of losing, she should stick to the mantra of demanding a riding poll before she throws her hat in officially. If Huey agrees to this demand, she will see that she has been fed a line.

And if he doesn't agree to this condition, she's got a good reason to back out.

Our public service has been done for the day. Carry on.

Here, Goertzen, you put on the chicken suit -- I have to, um, wash my hair today ...

OK, we nearly herniated something today from laughing so hard when we found out that the Tories did a flop-flop on calling an election.

Let's be more specific -- the Tories and the Liberals now say they don't want an election any time soon.

The new comedy team of Kevin and Kevin (as in "I love Vic Toews" Goertzen and "I'm crazy -- really crazy" Lamoureux) joined forces to express the opposition parties' demand today that the premier hold off an election, pending Election Manitoba's investigation of the NDP nomination spat in the Maples.

"Whaaa?" you say. "Since when does an opposition admit it's scared of an election, even if they are?"

Excellent question, you sharpie, you.

First off, no sane person would think the accusations in the Maples by a disgruntled New Democrat over internal NDP business is of such import that it should have any effect on whether the premier should call an election.

After all, other accusations by a sitting MLA -- Denis Rocan to be precise -- about his party's malfeasance in manipulating the Carmen nomination against him makes the Maples issue look ridiculously tame, whether any of it is true or not (we suspect not, though).

But unlike the Premier who sent the Maples accusation to Elections Manitoba immediately, Huey has done absolutely nothing with the stinker in his own back yard (neither has Rocan, it must be said, even though he should).

Second, wasn't Hugh just raring to have an election called only a few weeks ago?

Why, yes he was. Here's Hugh in the House on November 30, 2006:

"He's [the Premier] got two options today, Mr. Speaker. Call an inquiry [over Crocus] or call an election. If he won't call an inquiry, will he call an election today?"

Wow. Huey sounded pretty confident then. Pretty cock-sure, eh?

Today, though, it seems not so much the case.

Perhaps that's why he passed off the job of wearing the chicken suit to Goertzen, rather than face the embarrassment of doing the public flip-flop himself.

Why the difference today, you ask? Why the change of heart?

Well we know why with Lamoureux. He's in big trouble facing a very strong NDP challenger who's a prominent member of the Filipino community. This is also why Kevvie grabbed this little issue and tried to wring every ounce of publicity possible from it -- going so far as to commit a probably regrettable act of defamation in the legislative hallway aimed at Michael Balagus that may well soon go to the courts.

But what about Hugh?

We'd say a good bet is his internal polling shows that he's in deep do-do and would get slaughtered at the ballot box in any outing in the near future.

Wait, you say? Is it fair to say Huey has flip-flopped on an election call? Perhaps the Maples stuff came to light since the last time he publicly dared the Premier to call an election and he didn't know about the Maples issue, such as it is, back then.

Nah, no dice.

Lamoureux raised the issue more than a week before in the House on November 22 and Mia Rabson wrote about the allegations in the next day's paper (as Kevvie so kindly documents), noting the matter was already under investigation by Elections Manitoba.

Now we don't know whether the Premier will call an election soon or not. But with the opposition so willing to show their chicken feathers, we wonder if this might help Mr. Doer's decision process.

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From the file called: Not Only Does The Media Have No Long-Term Memory, Their Short-Term Ain't Too Hot Neither.

The CBC Manitoba web story about the above affair today begins with the following:

"The NDP government publicly acknowledged on Tuesday that Elections Manitoba is investigating allegations of wrongdoing by party members..."

Well, duh. The Premier's office sent it to Elections Manitoba for investigation as soon as it received Kaur Sidhu's letter in September (about the time Lamoureux decided to sit on it). This fact is actually mentioned later on in the story.

The idiocy goes further, though. The story carries the title "Elections Manitoba investigates alleged NDP misconduct."

Double duh. That was public back in November.

Wonder whether that fits the CBC's standards for journalism?

Here's an excerpt from the foreword to its handbook of Journalistic Standards and Practices: "It [the CBC] has established a reputation for rigorous and courageous journalistic programs, the excellence of which is recognized worldwide."

Hmm. Rigorous and courageous, eh?

But perhaps we shouldn't be too hard on the denizens of 541 Portage Avenue, as here's what they would find if they looked for further guidance from the Mother Ship's website to try and find out exactly what those Journalistic Standards and Practices are.

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After beating up on them, we change pace to simply say: Janet Stewart? Yes. Thumbs up. (Beauregard ... eh, not so sure.)

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Thanks to our correspondents again for this tip:

Long-time mainstay of Osborne Village, Basil Lagopoulos, is putting his well-known restaurant Basil's on the sale block, for a cool $1.5 million. Good luck, sir.

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UPDATE: We note over the morning jo that the only print take-up on the Tory/Liberal laugh-fest was a story by Mia Rabson that got "Web Extra" treatment (in the old days, that simply meant it got the spike). Mia also largely ignored the Maples angle but focused on Tory complaints on how Elections Manitoba operates. (The Tories got more jam out of complaining that a Wheat Board referendum ballot got to a cattle rancher.) Either the Maples "issue" is boring even to the leg watchers, or the potential trouble with upcoming legal action outweighs any minor newsworthiness of the opposition's lame stunt. (Or perhaps a bit of both.) Just so this issue isn't forgotten, though, we'll link to the press release stemming from the chicken suit outing, noting we can only find it on the Liberals' site not on the PCs'.

Take the skinheads lawn bowling, take them lawn bowling ...*

Shocking news: The Tories' youth recruitment strategy was recently revealed on the their website. Read, and weep, fellow progressives:

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Meet and Greet with Hugh McFadyen

Where:
Dakota Lawn Bowling Building
1212 Dakota Street

When:
February 3, 2007

Time:
6:00 pm to 10:00 pm

Tickets:
$15.00 General
$10.00 Students

Pizza and Salad, as well as your first beverage are included in the ticket price.

Presented by the Seine River PC Association & the St. Norbert PC Association

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Following pizza and after the antacid tablets are passed around, Huey will challenge all comers to an intense round of lawn bowling. Should be lively, especially for all those 10 buck ticket holders.

* With thanks to eagle-eyed correspondents and deep apologies to Camper Van Beethoven

Odds and sods ...

Today we see Brodbeck do an absolutely fawning requiem for Vic Toews's mercifully short stint as justice minister. It is absolutely over-the-top in burnishing the Vicster's rep and blaming others for the guy's missteps.

Check this out:

"Making major changes to the Criminal Code is no easy feat, especially when those changes run afoul of the political ideologies of senior bureaucrats...Try telling senior justice officials that what they’ve been doing for the past 13 years, like allowing killers to get house arrest, was the wrong thing to do and that you want to change it... They don’t like it very much. And because politicians are vulnerable to the far-reaching powers of senior bureaucrats, it’s easy for senior officials to sabotage the efforts of any minister."

Could you imagine Tom saying the same about ANY minister in, say, the Doer government? That they in fact were not responsible for problems, but in fact it was the fault of entrenched and powerful senior bureaucrats?

Actually, Tom has argued strongly for a very narrow version of ministerial responsibility in the past, including taking aim at Gomery's excusing of Paul Martin in Adscam on the exact same basis Tom now uses to excuse Vic's failures.

Ah, well. We suppose it all depends what team is up at bat.

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Bunkbeck's most recent attack on government advertising involves his taking umbrage with the "Manitoba Means Business" campaign, claiming our province is pretty much in the crapper, business-wise, therefore the advertising is dishonest, says Tom.

Interesting, though, the lead business story in Saturday's 'Peg Sun is how Winnipeg's real estate market keeps on breaking records and the supply can't keep up with demand. Curious how that can happen in a weak economy, eh?

And in his best 1984/War is Peace, writing style, our Tom attacks employment growth in Manitoba, demanding why it is not as red-hot as Alberta's -- ignoring that Manitoba still has statistical full employment, as it has for the past several years under the NDP, now down to 4.1%.

Manitoba employers can't hire enough people. Everyone knows that. (Again, funny how that could possibly be the case in a weak economy.)

Well, maybe everyone know this except our erstwhile Sun scribbler.

It must be said, Tom has become a cartoon character of a right-wing columnist -- a bit of a self-parody like Gordon Sinclair or Lindor Reynolds.

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Very interesting stuff emerging about Sam Katz's hero, Rudy Giuliani -- who of course came here last February during the City Summit to wax eloquent about his crime fighting efforts as mayor of New York. Since then, Katz has been pushing to adopt the CompStat computer system Giuliani claims helped reduce crime by 60% in NYC in the 1990s. Critics say CompStat is more gimmick and make-work project than an effective crime-busting tool.

However, apparently Giuliani's campaign team's greatest worry in their manoeuvering towards the 2008 presidential race is his many business dealings since leaving the mayor's chair, including lending his name to big coal, big nuke and big pharma -- which has apparently made Rudy very wealthy in the past few years, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.

We wonder if CompStat will seem as sexy to Sam if Rudy turns into a political non-starter?

Harper to Vic: Here's a class A kick in the nuts

Yowch.

That's the only possible conclusion of anyone who has a smidgen of a brain about today's federal cabinet shuffle in regards to Manitoba's favourite mustachioed MP (who's frequently mistaken for Jack Layton and the Video Professor) Vic Toews.

How else do you explain the demotion from Justice minister -- guardian of one of the Tories' five sacred priorities (the Law and Order Agenda) -- to chief accountant?

Don't believe us? Well, Manitoba's correspondents may not think so, but let's take a look a little further afield. Here's early analysis from Macleans:

And so, for this term of government at least, Toews will be judged mostly on a stint at justice that was long on rhetoric, but short on actual accomplishments.

In fact, Toews managed to steer only two minor pieces of legislation through the House of Commons before getting the hook. The first, a ban on street-racing, was supported by all three opposition parties; the other, which restricts sentences of house arrest to non-violent criminals, passed only after it was significantly altered by the opposition.

Otherwise, Toews' legislative forays have been failures ranging from the minor to the abject.

Double yowch!

Of course, in the past with Reg Alcock, TB minister has been viewed as a coup. But in the Harper world, Treasury Board is no longer an empire that doles out goodies, but a 'time out' corner with a rubber stamp for the approval orders coming from the tall foreheads in the PMO.

Toews worst crimes seem to be his unflinching attempts to influence the Conservative mandate along a socially conservative agenda, a la Reform.

Again from the Maclean's piece:

Toews' apparent Plan B revolved around a "Defense of Religions Act" that would allow public officials to refuse to perform same-sex marriages; his legislation would also have enshrined the right of religious leaders to criticize homosexuality and refuse to do business with gay rights groups.

Clearly, Harper is now totally uninterested in the "let's tell Canadians how to live their lives" agenda of the so cons in the Conservative caucus. Being associated with this agenda is a rap that killed Harper in the past, but also a difficult one to manage as it is one so close to the hearts of much of his politcal base in the West.

Overall, though, it may benefit Manitoba to have Toews in the TB spot, if he is able to deliver (and that might be a big if, depending on his ability to sway the boss on Manitoba priorities).

But to view it anything BUT a demotion for one who had been such a star -- especially without any advance media warning of the move -- would be naive in the extreme.

So when did Environment become an 'arduous' ministry?

OK, everyone knows Stephen Harper is shuffling cabinet on Thursday. Ooooooh.

The main impetus is to deal with the hulking wreck of a situation which is his fave woman cabinet minister, fellow Albertan Rona Ambrose -- and to position himself for a federal election which could come anytime after the budget later this winter (or after the Bloc's resolution on Afghanistan, if you believe them).

It is highly annoying, however, to read all the shuffle speculation pieces and read how we should feel badly that Ambrose had such a hard time of it. Really? When in living memory has there ever been an "embattled" environment minister before.

Ever? At any previous point in Canadian history? Don't think so.

Sure the environment we'd say is the most important long-term issue (though increasingly short-term) facing the planet, let alone the country. But, if you're at all doing your job, it should be the ministry of good news. Defend the Earth here. Hand out grants there.

And, if things go badly, you can somewhat truthfully say that the responsibility is everyone's, not just the government's -- and people pretty much have to nod in agreement. Or if there's ever a big environmental incident, there's usually a big corporation at fault you can blame and levy big fines and send people to jail.

"She's such a loyalist that she let the PMO micromanage her office," is the line from "Tory insiders" about what went wrong.

Even with an agenda driven by the Alberta oil patch (read: subsidiaries of American oil companies), she botched her portfolio so badly in so short a time, she wasn't doing anyone any good -- except critics of the Harper's anti-Kyoto/climate-change-denial agenda on the environment.

How about some truth from the Parliament Gallery, as in "she's incompetent and should be out on her ear"?

We won't hold our breath for that one.

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Farewell Curtis, it was an abrupt announcement of your departure from blogland. It will be a poorer place for it.

Welcome back, Hack.

Oh, alright already ... Seasons Greetings, Happy New Year, etc.

Today we were digging out -- no, not from the dump of snow we got -- but from the tons of email (well, OK, just a few) chiding us for not doing the season's greetings thing at all, let alone at the appropriate time.

We had been of the feeling that our readers hardly needed us to wish them a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, uh, Merry Kwanzaa, and a Happy New Year.

But in an uncharacteristic bowing to pressure, we do indeed extend these well wishes to all and a Happy New Year.

Now, get back to work.

Mr. Harper's economic plan for Manitoba

From the CP's Michael MacAfee in the Globe:

"Once the CWB's single-desk system is abolished, we think the Canadian wheat industry may lose advantages to other competitors," Yang Hong, general manager of the wheat division of China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corp., wrote in response to written questions.

Mr. Yang said the corporation may consider buying grain from other countries if Canada can no longer guarantee reliable supply and quality.

Yikes.