_________________________________________________________
Wednesday, October 23
Erstwhile Lib leadership possibility John Manley spotted hunched over plate of eggs @ Over Easy, downtown Toronto
***
Monday, October 21
Iggy wants Dion voted out Thursday
Bedrock Liberal Ray Heard, last night waxing lyrical on the Mike Duffy TV show, of all places, prior to John Turner "Memories of Winston's" dinner, confides to Bourque that forces loyal to ambitious Liberal MP Michael Ignatieff want caucus to vote Stephane Dion out this coming Thursday. Meanwhile, the curious are wondering aloud why CTV Ottawa bureau chief Bob Fife keeps pimping the quaint leadership prospects of Lib MP Dominic Leblanc, of all people. But back to the Turner dinner, 'damn fine steak', as one attendee reported, and where the "keep the faith" take-home chocolate bar was a big hit. Spotted among the rabble, no less than both Iggy and Rae, each doing what they could to hide their cheshire cat grins while tenuously cobbling their links back to the Turner era and cautiously gauging support for their own respective imminent leadership runs.
--
Dion, not-so soon departed
Liberal leader Stephane Dion refuses to accept blame for debilitating electoral results ... he blames Conservative propaganda machine for adversely defining his public image, along with ineffective Liberal fundraising methods that desperately need modernizing ... Says he was proud of his electoral program, including the much-unloved Green Shift ... will not say if he will run in the next election or stay on as MP after the next leader is chosen at a leadership convention ... However, Senator Francis Fox says Dion has made an error in choosing to stay as interim leader without soliciting the support of the Party and instead "auto-proclaiming' himself as interim leader, while at the same time losing the 'moral authority' to stay on as leader ... Add to that former Lib CabMin Jean LaPierre, who says the idea that Dion can stay on to help raise funds for the party is preposterous given his proven inability to raise sufficient funds to date to repay his own leadership debts ...
***
Friday, October 17
Whither Dion ?
Source: Dion, a French citizen, may abandon politics,
move to France, teach at Sorbonne ...
***
Thursday, October 16
Ray Heard bells the cat
"Pierre, which Liberal MP, one wonders will have the guts to stand up now and publicly echo Leo Amery in demanding the resignation of the upward-mobile failure, Stephane Dion, who has taken the Grits to their lowest ebb since Confederation?
It was fellow-Conservative Amery who famously addressed his leader, the apostle of appeasement, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, with these words, borrowed from Cromwell, before Chamberlain resigned in 1940 paving the way for Churchill:
You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say,and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!
Raymond Heard
***
Tuesday, Oct 14
Most accurate 2008 election pollster ?
Angus-Reid: Con 38% Lib 28% Ndp 18% Bloc 9% Grn 6%
Actual: Con 37.6% Lib 26.3% Ndp 18.2% Bloc 9.9% Grn 6.8%
***
Sunday, Oct 12
SENATOR MAY ? ENVIRONMENT MINISTER MAY ? HAS LIZ MAY SOLD US OUT ?
Where does Green Party leader Elizabeth May get her marching orders ? Increasingly it is becoming clear that it is not from her party members. With less than 48 hours to go before voters go to the polls across Canada, emotions are running high inside campaigns faltering within sight of the finish line. 50 so-called 'close ridings', in particular, are being pitched to May as do-or-die ridings where she can 'lead Greens to make a difference', presumably by inciting Green supporters to not vote Green, the idea being to support your party by not voting for it, a novel concept to say the least.
In recent hours, Bourque has heard from a number of senior political operatives, notably former senior Green Party standard bearer David Chernushenko, who told Bourque that "Integrity is when you make your actions consistent with your words and your promises. We all look for leaders with integrity. Too bad they are so hard to find.Green Party candidates should expect nothing but full and unwavering support from their leader. They have not received it. She has failed utterly in this one and most important obligation. To back them all to the end. In our 2006 leadership race, only when pushed by me, she promised Green Party members that of course she would back GP candidates 100 percent. Alas, the facts speak for themselves. If I were a candidate, I would be furious. I would feel let down by my leader when I needed her most. I wanted to stay out of this campaign entirely, but when I saw Green Party candidates, voters and donors being sideswiped, I could not stay silent. My friends and family deserve more respect. The Green Party is is not a "flag of convenience" to be raised and lowered on a whim."
For his part, senior Conservative strategist Tim Powers told Bourque that "Dion and May are hypocrites. It is about time that is finally being exposed. Both seem habitually unable to get beyond their own arrogance and recognize they are the biggest problems for each of their respective parties. "
Also heard from was a top Liberal organizer who admittedly worked on the leadership bid of one of Stephane Dion's rivals, in other words someone who has much to gain if Dion and his Green Shift are soundly defeated Tuesday. Yet, this still-very-active politico tells Bourque he fears a secret deal has been cooked between Dion and Elizabeth May (both unabashed disciples of ex-pat Kyoto godfather Maurice Strong, and both currently immersed in a vociferous round of 'doth protest too much' denial about a secret deal) which may explain why she has been meeting with "key Liberal organizers" and is now actively telling Green Party supporters to vote Liberal, of all things.
This, according to our Liberal insider, in exchange for a possible Senate seat and a place as Environment Minister in a Dion-led government. To be clear, Ms May's curious strategy of backing Dion is creating ill-will within her own party to the point that "a lot of Green candidates are upset", according to one national news report this morning. Add to that the fact Dion himself is urging Greenies to go red and join the Liberals.
But as one top NDP strategist well known to media watchers across Canada told Bourque tonight, "Dion's backroom deal with May which was supposed to steal votes from Layton has backfired. Looking at the polls, the Greens are taking support from the Liberals, not New Democrats.
Layton is up in every public tracking poll from the start of the campaign, while Dion is down. This will lead to many NDP pick ups - particularly in Toronto where Layton will spend the final day of the campaign. It's a massive political blunder, another example of Dion¹s poor judgment. Here he is in the final days of the campaign in a fight with his surrogate, not the Prime Minister. While Dion teeters on the worst electoral showing since Confederation, New Democrats will have an unobstructed view to attack the PM on the final day of the campaign. The spat helps, not hurts, Layton¹s growth."
Late tonight, Dion was, incredulously, heard saying to anyone who would listen that "Elizabeth May and I can be counted on to level with Canadians", of all things.
Meanwhile, Grit insider Ray Heard, perhaps the first Liberal to demand publicly many months ago that Dion should resign for sheer incompetence, is telling friends tonight that this news on Bourque of the May-orchestrated Green Shift to the Liberals comes as no surprise. "Its all part of a secret deal between Dion and May. But what maddens me is that, when I publicly endorsed my friend, Peter Kent, the Conservative in Thornhill because he deserves a seat in Ottawa, I was denounced as a traitor and worse by fellow-Liberals. Surely, if Dion can endorse May and persuade her to get her voters to defect to the Liberals at the eleventh hour, I have the same right to ask Grits to vote for Kent....This, friends, is another Liberal farce that will end in tragedy. I shall be the first (admittedly sorely jaundiced) Liberal to call for Dion's head when the votes are in late Tuesday."
Add to that comments from one of Canada's top media personalities, who told Bourque tonight, "if I were a member of the Greens, if i were a candidate for the Greens, I would see her as a traitor, how could i possibly think of her as someone who wants to grow the Greens. She is simply behaving as an agent for the liberals".
Oh, and by the way, fresh on the heels of Stephane Dion's Air Dud carbon-spewing campaign jet, now shocking news of the World Wildlife Fund's "25-day journey around the world by private jet", a $65,000 extravagance in "19 rows of spacious leather seats with full ergonomic support" enjoying "gourmet meals, chilled champagne [and] your own chef." All of which makes one wonder as to what lunacy is fueling the environmental set these days.
***
Thursday, Sept 11
"Len, we have a problem ... Ottawa Citizen newsroom votes 83% to strike"
Cpac: Con 37% Lib 32% Ndp 13% BQ 9% Grn 9%
"Len, we have a problem ... Ottawa Citizen newsroom votes 83% to strike"
***
Tuesday, September 9
Election Curios: Say it ain't so: Dion's Outremont candidate is former co-chair of separatist 'Oui' campaign in NDG during the '95 referendum ... Longtime Bourque reader Ryan Warawa is running for the Tories in Vancouver East ... Speaking of the Tories, they have lost their female candidate in Halifax, when Rosamond Luke dropped out ...Hey, which well-known politico is turning 40 in just a few days ... Multimedia reporter David Akin thinks the Tories are making fun of him ... And, was Goldy involved in this Hill & Knowlton election predictor ?
***
Monday, September 8
Green Rights
For Immediate Release:
Statement on the resolution of the trademark dispute with Green Shift Inc.
The Liberal Party of Canada and Green Shift Inc. have resolved their dispute over the "Green Shift" trademark. The Liberal Party of Canada will continue to use "Green Shift" under license from Green Shift Inc.
Green Shift Inc. is not affiliated with the Liberal Party of Canada and the grant of the license does not constitute an endorsement by Green Shift Inc. of the Liberal Party of Canada.
-30-
Contact:
Liberal Party of Canada Press Office
613-783-8403
***
Sunday, September 7
Election Curios:
From east to west, a midday drive through Canada's Capital, historically a bastion of Liberal support, reveals a one-side election sign war in favour of the Conservatives ...
A media notice from the Liberals announcing Stephane Dion's Day One election schedule shows nothing but a mid-afternoon shlep to a bedrock-safe Ottawa riding, followed by an 8 PM bus run to a downtown Montreal Holiday Inn, with reporters told to arrive early so someone called Jae Epworth can load their luggaged sundries onto the bus. Tough as all that sounds, Dion will get a very late start tomorrow, his first scheduled event being an 11 AM shmooze at a local riding campaign office. He'll follow that up with a Dawson College walkabout with astronaut-candidate Marc Garneau just after lunch before calling it a day after an early-evening meet/greet at a place called Buffet Crystal in his own riding. At this rate, he'll wear out most of his press entourage by the time they all have to board their Air Inuit charter to parts unknown later in the week ...
CBC's Peter Mansbridge inexplicably breaks away from hostile Dion press conference to go to the marginalized Bloq/Duceppe press'er ...
And what has become of the great man himself, Michael Fortier, Senator, Cabinet Minister, this and that and so on, has he resigned his Senate sinecure to tempt the electorate in west-end Montreal ? In short, insiders say no, at least not until tomorrow morning, when he is said to be handing in his letter of resignation to both the Senate Speaker and the GG. It remains unclear as to why the curious delay, though he has never been in any rush to actually run for Parliament. However, with the great man's resignation, the Tories fall that much further from any measurable level of control in the Upper House ...
***
Thursday, September 4
GUMDROPS: Stephen Harper set to meet GG Michaelle Jean just after 8 AM Sunday morning to dissolve Parliament, launch election, set for Oct 14th ... Iggy nemesis-turned top Edelman GR poohbah John Capobianco, a Toronto powerhouse in political circles, spotted angled over a plate of designer pizza at posh King St W noodleria Il Fornello ... Inbound Summa strategist Greg MacEachern spotted examining the luxuries at Winnipeg's posh Fort Garry Hotel this week ... Green Party leader Liz May has fired a Vancouver-area candidate by the name of John Shavluk, who has been makin a name for himself online recently ... the BC Conservative Party has fired its leader Wilf Hanni, as faceless and devoid of name recognition as any politician can fear to be ... Stick a fork in Monte, Solberg's done, he won't run again ... and that 'Green Shift' firm has stepped up its legal action against the Dion Grits ...
***
Monday, September 1
Meanwhile, The Dion Libs head to the 'Peg
Meanwhile, the Dion Libs are set to meet in Winnipeg this week ...at posh Fort Garry Hotel ...where luxurious rooms offer feather mattress beds and pillows, down duvet, fine italian linen, even bathrobes and Evian water brought all the way from France, regardless of carbon footprint, not to mention high-speed wireless internet for quick access to favourite online news destinations ...
While in the 'Peg, Dion's Libs will be able to take in 'the best brunch in town' right at the hotel, although ...it remains unclear if the embattled leader will avail himself of the on-site 'Ten Spa' where he can be 'treated and pampered in elegant surrounding', including a decadent 6-hour special where he can enjoy a 'custom facial, signature pedicure, hot cream manicure, mini body scrub, relaxtion massage, and the ever-popular 'Cleopatra Milk and Oil Cocoon' ...
***
Thursday, August 21
Of he they sing
Some will deny it ever happened. Others will claim this jotting takes artistic license to embellish and entertain. A few others may well be too many sheets to the wind to remember anything worth remembering.
Yet, what can be claimed as undeniable fact is that a soothing miasma of Liberal grey matter, (including political wagon masters, communicators, even market researchers) will coalesce just east of Toronto this evening at the home of former Trudeau cabinet minister and current Senator David Smith, (a Dionista to some, a chameleon to others) in the hamlet of Cobourg (pop 18,210), known by long-tooth history buffs as the birthplace of Charles Arkoll Boulton, militia leader in the aptly monikered Red River Rebellion, perhaps symbolically the evening's patron saint.
So tonight the assembled, who span all flavours of Liberal red going back decades, will amply imbibe in both domestic and imported wines, lowlands single malt, iced Canadian rye, and pungent Cuban stogies said to be rolled the old-fashioned way, against the soft sun-kissed inner-thighs of virgin Caribbean damsels.
They will indulge in weighty dialogue, blueskying a palpable return from the political after-life that has been their lot since the last election. Ideas will flow, hope will extend, drama will galvanize, personal greed will be altruistically couched, and an intoxicating elixir will be potioned.
And in between imagined morsels of welsh rarebit, shavings of smoked Kawartha Lakes canard, skewers of President's Choice shish-k-bob, and ears of locally-harvested corn, those in attendance will doff their clothing and bathe in a pool of planning bordering on the Machiavellian. The spectre of a fall election, to be sure, will be tossed and weighed. But the notion of leadership will be profoundly dissected.
And the incandescent aura of a wished-for future federal leader will burn brightly over the shadows of the night.
Developing ...
***
Sunday, Aug 3
Bourque's Mohawk Internet Technologies Dodge
finishes 11th @ Montreal Nascar race ...
***
Saturday, Aug 2
Bourque and Mohawks Are Off to a Great Start at Montreal NASCAR Race
Mohawk Internet Technologies is Partnering With #29 Entry This Weekend
CONCORD, NC (August 2, 2008) The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series is in action this weekend in Montreal as part of the NASCAR Nationwide Series¹ historic appearance in Canada this weekend. Pierre Bourque will take part in the weekend of racing at Montreal's Ile Notre Dame on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series event at the road course on Saturday.
Bourque got off to a solid start on Friday, as preparations began for the race. In opening practice, he started out as fourth quickest. Later on, brake issues limited him to a 17th-place qualifying run, but those issues have been rectified and Bourque is very optimistic about the race.
³Our first practice session went terrific,² said Bourque. ³The car was very, very good and fast. However, we uncovered some serious braking issues afterwards and this track has some very high speed braking points. So we bled the brakes, changed brake pads and made some adjustments. That caused us to qualify in the middle of the pack, but I¹m so proud of everything that the Whitlock Motorsports crew did to the Mohawk Internet Technologies Dodge. There is a lot of energy and enthusiasm from the whole team about this race. We should be terrific and hope to end the day with a top 10 finish.
The #29 Whitlock Motorsports-prepared Dodge that Bourque is racing at Montreal is being sponsored by Mohawk Internet Technologies for this race. It is the first venture for the Mohawks into NASCAR racing and Bourque is excited about the partnership
"I am really excited about this groundbreaking collaboration with Mohawk Internet Technologies,² said Bourque. ³To my knowledge, this is the first time a Mohawk business has entered the world of NASCAR. Not only am I thrilled to have their support, but I am also a longtime client and I can attest first-hand to the quality and performance of their cutting-edge services and technology."
It¹s not just Bourque who is excited either. In fact, both sides of the partnership are thrilled with the arrangement for the weekend.
"In over 400 years, the Mohawk people have never been defeated in battle, and it is with that knowledge and sense of history that we are proud to place the name of Mohawk Internet Technologies on the car of #29, Mr. Pierre Bourque, whom we believe will carry that tradition forward,² said Chuck Barnett, Board of Supervisors for Mohawk Internet Technologies.
Bourque is in a great position to carry along that tradition. He is a veteran of both road racing and stock car disciplines and the Montreal event will require proficiency in both areas for a driver to take home a good finish.
Mohawk Internet Technologies (MIT) is a unique business initiative of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) and its business partners. Keeping with the historic tradition of the North American trading post, MIT serves as one of the predominant electronic business centers on the Internet. MIT is not a bank, casino, or on-line store, but rather the internet service provider for numerous e-businesses who enjoy fast, reliable internet access in a free-enterprise environment specifically geared towards cross-business alliances and development.
The NASCAR Canadian Tire event at Montreal will take place on Saturday, August 2nd.
For more information on Pierre Bourque, please contact Mike Twist at (207) 499-2565 and be sure to check out PierreBourque.net.
For more information on Mohawk Internet Technologies, please visit, http://www.mohawk.ca.
***
Monday, July 28
Bourque: Here's a thought, if we've reached a point where it's ok to shoot two-year-olds,
maybe it's time to rethink Afghan mission ... or at least its leadership ...
***
Thursday, July 10
Bourque on 580 CFRA OTTAWA with Rob Snow ...
***
Wednesday, July 9
Lest we forget, we are the Dead
3:30 pm this aft, I was near Port Hope, Ont heading east on the 401. It was pouring rain like you wouldn't believe. Yet on each and every overpass, cars and fire trucks were stopped and dozens of people were standing in the rain and holding their Canadian flags, all waiting to welcome another fallen hero home. I can't tell you how emotional the scene was ... and when, moments later, I encountered the official funeral procession - police cars, hearse, flashing lights etc ... It went right past me in the opposing direction and despite my best efforts, my cheeks were moist with tears ... For less than a heartbeat I was mere feet away from a man who had given up all of his heartbeats, the ultimate sacrifice to this country of ours ... Man, I wasn't expecting that today ... - pierre
***
Saturday, June 28
Carbolic Adscam Postscript Splits Libs
Bourque has learned that consummate Liberal insider Ray Heard is on the warpath, blasting "Eddie, the shameless apologist for Jean Chrétien' who he says is "grossly twisting the facts in suggesting that Paul Martin owes Chrétien an apology for appointing the Gomery Commission in the light of the Federal Court ruling."
In an email circulated to a small cadre of insiders that was obtained by Bourque early this afternoon, the bedrock Liberal and former John Turner communications director berates Chretien's "Eddie" and lays bare "our dispirited party", which "faces certain defeat under the leadership of the incompressible Dion". The full text of Heard's missive follows:
"Eddie, the shameless apologist for Jean Chrétien, is grossly twisting the facts in suggesting that Paul Martin owes Chrétien an apology for appointing the Gomery Commission in the light of the Federal Court ruling.
As a lawyer, Eddie should know full well that the Federal Court did not suggest the Martin regime did anything wrong in commissioning Gomery to get to the bottom of Adscam outrage. It did condemn Judge Gomery for his biased public musings about Mssrs.Chretien and Pelletier in his blatant effort to become a media darling. This is a serious and deserved rebuke for Gomery, but it does not deal with the wisdom of appointing an inquiry in the first place. Indeed, Paul showed great courage and put the national interest ahead of the party interest in launching the investigation.
As a former communications director to Turner, who was under relentless subterranean attack from the losing Chrétien forces, led by the aforesaid Eddie, may I suggest to him and his ilk that its long past time for the Chrétien stalwarts to bury the hatchet with the Martinites, who admittedly used the same underhand tactics to undermine Chrétien when he was in power that the Chretienites had used against my boss? After all, former bitter rivals Brian and Joe are friends now. Why not Jean and Paul as our dispirited party faces certain defeat under the leadership of the incompressible Dion and prepares to elect a more viable Leader after he returns to academia?
This is 2008 -- not 1988, Eddie!
Ray Heard"
***
Wednesday, June 25
Gazette scribbler L. Ian MacDonald to marry Fraser Institute's Tasha Kheiriddin Oct 11 ...
***
Monday, June 16
Bourque 7th in Nascar race @ Mosport ...
Race results ...
***
Friday, May 16
G&M; blogger Dan Cook points out Stephane Dion's hypocritical flip-flop on his 'Dion Tax' carbon plan. The plan, unveiled this week and panned widely, is at odds with his earlier carbon tax promise during the Liberal leadership campaign , where he asserted to one and all that "I've always been against it. I will have other ways to get there". Indeed ...
Meanwhile, a Paul Desmarais blogger reveals that Maxime Bernier and his biker chick poupoune Julie Couillard were spotted noshing with Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day (& his wife), of all people, at an Ottawa eatery as recently March 31st, despite Mad Max's assertions the tryst ended months ago ...
And what to make of related media reports this morning that Couillard's dad was convicted in 2001 of running a hydroponic marijuana grow-op. Worse, as recently as 2005, Julie Couillard had a year-long two-pronged 'liaison' and business relationship with a man convicted in connection with a merchandise heist. He is reported to have owed $1 million to a loan shark and an associate of the Hells Angels and he eventually committed suicide last year ...
***
Sunday, April 20
Bourque 16th in Iowa Speedway race ...
Qualifying rained out, Bourque started 41st, passed 25 cars ...
***
Friday, April 18
CUPW BIGWIGS CHOSEN
2008 CUPW 23rd Triennial Convention Unofficial results:
National Office
President: Denis Lemelin defeated Deborah Bourque
1st VP: Gayle Bossenberry defeated Andre Frappier
2nd VP: Lyne Bue defeated Cindy McCallum
3rd VP: George Floresco - acclaimed
4th VP: Donald Lafleur - acclaimed
Secretary Treasurer: George Kuehnbaum
Ntl Grievance Officer: Philippe Arbour defeated John Fehr
Health &Safety;: Serge Champoux
Ntl Union Representatives: Cindi Foreman
Cathy Kennedy
Colin McKenzie
Diane Tanguay
Marion Pollock replaced Evert Hoogers
(Pls note not all URs are accounted for)
Regional Directors
Atlantic: Jeff Callaghan
Québec: Christian Martel
Metro-Montréal: Louis Langlois
Central: Mark Evard
Metro-Toronto: Irwin Nanda
Ontario: Gerry Deveau
Prairie: Gord Fischer
Pacific: John Bail
***
Tuesday, April 15
Canada's top local Anchors invade Ottawa for CTV's Celebration of Local & National News ...
Big A-list crowd expected tonight at Ottawa's Metropolitan Brasserie for CTV bash ...
Bourque expands 2008 racing program ...
Sponsor queries welcomed ...
***
Thursday, March 27
DISSENT ? IGNATIEFF DOTH PROTEST
"The statement directly attributed to me in this morning's La Presse is entirely false. I was in Montreal to raise funds to repay my leadership debt. I have worked tirelessly for our Party and our Leader and will continue to work with our strong Liberal team to ensure we win the next election. No one has the right to call my loyalty into question." - Michael Ignatieff
***
Sunday, February 10
Daytona: Bourque knocked out of race while running 4th ...
***
Wednesday, January 30
UBC 'POLICE INCIDENT' SHOCKER
From UBC Prez Stephen Toope:
"There has been a police incident at the Bio Sciences Building, which is located at the intersection of Main Mall and University Boulevard at the University of British Columbia.
On the advice of the RCMP, the Bio Sciences Building has been locked down. Building occupants have been instructed to stay where they are, to secure the room in which they are located, and to await further instructions from the RCMP.
No person will be permitted to enter or leave the Bio Sciences Building without RCMP authorization.
Out of an abundance of caution, the RCMP is advising that others on campus stay where they are currently located. All campus occupants should be aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious circumstances to the RCMP at 911. Persons who are not on campus are advised to remain away from the campus until further notice.
Stephen J. Toope
President and Vice Chancellor
***
Friday, December 21
***
Thursday, November 8
Memo from Ray Heard:
"Dear disaffected Liberal friends and acquaintances
I have told you this before. I am saying it again: This guy Dion has to go.
Like failed chief executive officers on Bay Street, he has to fall on his sword to make way for someone -- I favour the reinvented Bob Rae -- who will deliver returns to his stakeholders, the too patient and much too forgiving members of the Liberal Party. If he stays, we will go the way of Kim Campbell's Tories in the next federal election and Harper will get a majority rooted in Quebec as well as Alberta. (If Steve triumphs in Quebec he will devolve Canada out of existence, and Dion will take the fall for allowing this to happen, but that is another story.)
So, smart-ass Heard, where is the evidence to support your renewed demand for the head of Dion? The new bill of particulars includes Dion's outrageous immediate silence in the face of well-documented media disclosures that Liberal MPs in Toronto and in BC have been shamelessly trying to buy the votes of fringe groups by attending memorial services for terrorist "martyrs" -- Tamil Tiger zealots here, and Sikh thugs who shame their honourable creed in BC. Clearly, the Party now holds the facile pop liberal view that yesterday's terrorist is today's freedom fighter.
This is not the first time, of course, that our Leader has been silent in the face of infamy. Who can forget that, at the Montreal convention that elected him, he failed to speak up loud and clear when delegates supporting another top candidate came up to the beautiful Arlene Rae and told her not to vote for Rae because his wife is a Jew. It was then that I expressed the view that a leader who tolerates such blatant evil -- indeed, a hate crime! -- is not my leader.
I can just see the Conservative campaign slogan in the next election: "The Grits support terrorists! Not only did they vote against extending the terrorism act to find the Air India criminals, an expedient move that flouted the expert counsel of Rae, John Manley and Anne McLennan. Now they bow publicly to the images of terrorists." It will be followed by the chorus that the Grits also want to increase the devalued and hated (by everyone expect the economists, who are always wrong) GST.
Little wonder, then, that so many of us in the maligned but nonetheless profitable trade of spin-doctor are insisting to all who will listen that, yes, we are still Liberals -- but strictly provincial ones in the wake of a victory by Dalton McGuinty. To us, it seems that, if Dion hangs in for another two years or so (a truly grim prospect) Dalton can become the first provincial Premier to be reincarnated as PM.
Lemme out of here, and stay tuned!"
***
Sunday, November 4
Gen Rick Hillier's sold-out Military Families Fund Gala, attended by over 750 mess kit'd, black-tie'd, and gown'd swells in the nation's Capital Saturday night, raised a staggering amount of money for military families in need. Funds were raised both by dinner tickets, as well as via live and silent auctions where bidders were able to snatch up A-level NHL and Nascar memorabilia, travel and vacation goodies, concert tix, artworks, even a golf package courtesy ougoing Lib MP Belinda Stronach. Master of ceremonies Rick Mercer, master auctioneer Dave Smith, and fiddler Natalie McMaster performed for the assembled, which included military hero Lew MacKenzie, Chief Government Whip Jay Hill, even Larry The Mayor Guy, as they sipped Canadian wines provided by Dan Aykroyd. The CDS Military Family Fund accepts donations on an ongoing basis, whether online, by mail, or by phone.
***
Monday, October 15
Heard weighs in on Chretien book
You would expect that bedrock Lib Ray Heard would have an opinion on the new Chretien book.
And, boy, does Heard weigh in. Says Ray,
"The Chrétien book is awful -- distinctly, and typically, low-rent. His ghost-writer, whoever he or she is, should be ashamed of participating in a sub-Arctic version of the Big Lie. How dare he suggest that Paul Martin irresponsibly and irresolutely put our troops into the "killing fields! The "killing fields" were in Cambodia and the evil regime of Pol Pot committed genocide in those fields on countless innocent civilians.
In stark contrast, Canada's qualified commitment to fighting terrorism in Afghanistan, a commitment made by a Liberal government and now honoured by Stephen Harper, is a peace-making (not just peace-keeping!) enterprise that bears the stamp of NATO and the UN and is thus, one must presume, in accord with international law.
At least Mulroney wrote his own revisionist stuff! Chretien, who never had an original thought beyond the instinct for seizing the jugular, would have splintered the party even more with this outpouring of venom if his protege, Dion, hadn't already rent it inseperably in two.
Moreover, when Chretien, echoing Et Tu, Brute! (even if he never read Shakespeare in the original) refers to Martin's palace guard as "goons" for daring, at a meeting in a seedy Toronto airport motel, to question how long his tenure should last, he uses a term -- I prefer "thug" to "goon" -- that applies equally to the unrelenting efforts of his own hatchetman, led by that intellectual midget, Eddie Goldenberg, to drive John Turner of office. The pot is again calling the kettle black.
Gimme Mulroney any time!"
***
Wednesday, October 10
Ray Heard: Dalton next Liberal Party of Canada leader ?
Bourque has learned that bedrock Liberal Ray Heard is telling fellow "disaffected Grits" that Ontario Premier "Dalton McGuinty will succeed Stephane Dion, the sub-Arctic idiot savant, as leader of the federal Liberal Party."
This, in a confidential memo (the "Heard Memo") obtained by Bourque where Heard says he feels "qualified to be the first party member to make this bold prediction, since I have been vindicated by recent event, including the Carroll fiasco and the Outremont debacle, for having become the very first Liberal publicly to call for Dion to resign as any pukka Bay Street exec would do if he had failed so miserably after ten months to deliver the promised goods. This call ... was widely echoed, anonymously, by other dissenters."
Why is Ray Heard saying it will be Dalton after Dion?
"Well", says Heard in his stunning memo, "some of my associates in the older reaches of the Party, co-creators all of the Trudeau myth, are saying very privately, while professing undying loyalty to the cock-up prone Dion, that the new, carefully controlled Dalton has just what it takes gracefully to take the reins from Dion after a Tory victory in the next federal election."
Indeed, Heard writes that McGuinty's "victory over John Tory tonight shows he's a winner who can focus, in the Clintonian idiom, on a single winning issue (funding religious schools)".
Heard points to "Don Guy, the partner of Dion pollster Michael Marzolini, he has a brilliant campaign strategist who makes John Tory's ideologocally flexible wizard, John Laschinger look like, well, John Tory when he masterminded Kim Campbell's unprecedented humiliation."
Ouch, them's fightin' words, though it remains unclear if the footloose Marzolini, one of the Party's most insightful backroomers, will cling to Dion's sinking ship !
Heard goes on to note that "Dalton, moreover, is NOT from Toronto. This is a huge asset in a party whose grassroots resent and the fear the self-appointed centre of the Canadian universe. He is not involved in the unseemly conspiring against Dion that is being conducted by the "Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae camps which, beyond a profound loathing for each other, share the reasonable view that Dion is a dead man walking. Dalton is, to boot, more bilingual: his French, in a party that insists on bilingualism, is a heck of a lot more comprehensible that Dion's English."
Or so the Heard Memo goes.
"Dalton", adds Heard, is "an increasingly vocal protagonist of more power for the provinces, is relatively acceptable to Quebecers because he does not share the federalist -- make that centralist! -- passion Dion is presumed to have inherited from Trudeau by way of Chrétien, to whom he owes his success, such as it is, in politics."
Still, Heard offers a caveat about Dalton replacing Dion. Says Heard, "it is that, if Stephen Harper is smart, he will call an election late in the fall to decimate Dion and win just enough seats from the Liberals and Bloc in Quebec for a slight majority. Dalton needs time to prepare a bid that would be a coronation given the dearth of other serious contenders. Dalton steps into the federal arena, then, only if Dion can hang in for another year or so, and this depends on Harper."
Now, there may be other Liberals "who could look like a winner in the post-Dion era", as Heard puts it, noting that "Frank McKenna is making too much money as vice-chair at the resurgent TD bank and enjoying Rosedale parties with the likes of Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Moses Znaimer (of all people), ever to be tempted to occupy Stornoway."
Ray Heard has been knee-deep in Liberal politics for eons. He has an institutional knowledge base of Liberal tentacles and skeletons. He knows how to connect the dots.
Looking further into the future than the McGuinty era, Heard says he "already sees two contenders. Ruby Dhalla (blessedly from Mississauga, not Toronto), who is quite the most focused Grit on the political talk-shows, has a wide following among Young Liberals on the Internet and shows a rare capacity for intellectual growth, and Dominic LeBlanc, the smart Harvard Law grad and close pal of the Third Man, Justin Trudeau, who seems to have inherited his mother's brain as well as her looks".
There is little doubt that the explosive assertions contained in the so-called "Heard Memo" will cause deep consternation in certain Liberal circles, as well as glimmers of hope for other Liberals who feel an equally deep sense of disenfranchisement.
Developing ...
***
Saturday, September 15
Mutiny on the Good Ship Liberal ?
"Woe is me" would pretty much sum up embattled leader Stephane Dion's tenure atop Canada's natural governing party. An unlikely political boss with a professorial affectation, Dion's post-leadership convention honeymoon lasted barely hours before the wheels began to fall off the bandwagon, such as it was.
To be fair, Dion has faced a variety of insurmountable obstacles since Day One on the job. For starters, Dion's political acumen never overcame his leadership rivals claims that as a Cabinet Minister, he "just couldn't get the job done", something the Conservatives were quick to parrot to his constant frustration.
But the worst elements of Dion's tenure were not amplified to the public by MPs from other parties. Instead, they were whispered internally by fellow Liberals working their disruptive magic for those who would be king, the disgruntled leadership also-rans all too anxious to see Dion flushed from the leader's office, whether by an electoral loss or a mere discharge of self-confidence that might lead to an abandoning of duties.
And in such an unhealthy political diaspora, subterfuge, ego, and ambition align to corrode status quo, to malign benevolence, and to usurp authority. As one very senior Liberal MP told Liberal candidate Bourque back in 1992, a Liberal politician's worst enemies are not in the other parties, they are your colleagues within the Liberal Party.
Today's schism predates the recent leadership convention. The splits within the Liberal party harken back to the Trudeau/Turner era, followed by myriad Turner/Chretien convolutions, subsequented by the Chretien/Martin dichotomy, and now buffeted by the tenuous Ignatieff/Rae/Dion fooferaws. Personal tiffs abound, as do vendettas, hurt feelings, and un-assuaged arrogance.
This is the world that Stephane Dion has tapped into, this is the dilemma he struggles with, this is what fuels what many senior Liberals increasingly feel is the beginning of the end of Stephane Dion as Liberal leader.
The fact that life may go from bad to worse for Dion should his party lose, as predicted, all 3 imminent by-elections can only expand internal resentment of his leadership, and whatever resulting discomfort he may be subjected to.
Developing ...
***
Sunday, August 5
RACE FANS LAP UP NASCAR
Bourque qualifies 17th, finishes 12th @ Montreal ...
***
Monday, July 23
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is looking at delaying Ontario by-elections to avoid a conflict with the upcoming Ontario provincial poll-vault ... Greenie Liz May denies internal party turmoil and has yet to pronounce on the devastating effects of China's huge climate-changing dust plumes ... And Bourque hears that Liberal leader Stephane Dion, who had to cut short a recent Toronto schmoozer, said to be 'very weak' and suffering from 'severe exhaustion' ...
***
Wednesday, July 18
Heard's Shot Across Dion's Bow
Bourque has received a copy of an email sent to a number of people by longtime top Liberal insider Ray Heard. In it, Heard blasts Liberal leader Stephane Dion's decision to "parachute an academic who was a journalist at Le Devoir into Outremont because he is a fellow francophone Quebecker".
According to the Toronto-based Heard, "this suggests Dion has one standard for Quebec and another one for Ontario ... because, in the spring, I urged Dion and Rae to see to it that Marva Wisdom, who happens to be an Afro-Canadian and a distinguished scholar, should be named by the Leader as the candidate in Guelph. After all, she was for three years Chair of the party's Policy Commission and chaired the Platform Committees in the last two elections. Our appeal was spurned, yet another guy in a suit won the nomination to succeed Brenda Chamberlain. That vote was conveniently held after many of Marva's supporters at Guelph University had gone home. This act of betrayal caused Charlie Coffey, a former RBC vice-chair and long-time Liberal, to say he wanted to tear up his membership card in disgust. Marva, who supported Ken Dryden in the leadership stakes, remains eminently qualified to get an uncontested nomination. But she is a beautiful, brainy black women from Ontario, not a white male from Quebec, so we can forget that."
***
Sunday, June 10
Goodale Looks Ahead, Preps Post-Dion Leadership Bid
Ralphie is to summer in Jonquiere, learn French, nibble poutine & gulp Maudite. The elected lifer suddenly needs to learn French ? To rep Sask riding by remote-control ? Has Dion ok'd ?
***
Thursday, May 31
PEI's Ghiz voted illegally
"In October 1995, Mr. Ghiz was a student at Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Quebec. He was part of 380 students who were the subject of a complaint by the YES Committee because they were illegally inscribed onto the referendum's electoral list. On the day of the referendum, a member of the YES committee heard Ghiz swear that he was a resident of Quebec, when in fact his true residence was in Charlottetown. At that time, his father was Premier of PEI ..." More: '95 referendum rewind ...
***
Wednesday, May 30
"Le tout" Queen's Park and Bay Street today at Toronto's Economic Club for lunch with California Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger. Major bank honchos, leading political figures, top pollsters and lobbyists, myriad movers and shakers, not to mention a few lucky lesser mortals, all to rub shoulders and hear what the Hollywood Kennedy-in-law has to say ... Top Liberal oligarch Mark Marissen, still scratching his head, wondering who the heck was pinging him on his Blackberry as he jetted business class to Ottawa from Vancouver earlier this month ... PEI potato patch folks wonder if defeated Premier Pat Binns erred in not using ad master Bob Brennan, the man behind successful Tory romps in '96, Y2K, and '03 ... Quebec Premier Jean Charest, once dubbed "Captain Canada", lately ensconsed between rock and hard place, now pondering July election if budget defeated ... Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, coming to grips with recent poll showing popularity dip ... Green Party leader Elizabeth May has opened a campaign office in Central Nova ... And condolences to the friends and family of longtime CBC News producer Danny Malanchuk, dead from complications during heart surgery ...
***
Monday, May 28
It is is election day in PEI where a large voter-turnout is the norm. A close finish is expected ...
Are aboriginal & associated activist groups planning a blockade and/or coordinated series of traffic disruptions at the BC Ferry Services Tsawwassen Causeway over the Canada Day long weekend (Fri-Sun. 29/June-01/July) ? One wonders if Ferry Workers will cross any such blockade, which would risk shutting down the bulk of ferry operations in BC over that three day period. BC Liberals are pondering the prospect of a head-to-head Oka-style confrontation ...
The Ottawa Senators, now flying high, should do well to remember "Mayor Jim", their biggest booster when the franchise was just a twinkle in Bruce Firestone's eye ...
And "get well soon" wishes out to well-known Ottawa bon-vivant and longtime Air Canada PR genius Hugh Riopelle, recovering from a stroke suffered over the weekend while golfing at Ottawa's Hunt Club, where he's been a member for 50 years ...
***
Thursday, May 10
World/Hell/Handbasket Dept: Urgent CBC Memo
"To all Toronto Staff: Hey CBCers, Sean Cullen is on The Gill Deacon Show this morning, and they need an audience--right now! Seriously. Literally. So if you'd like to see Mr. Cullen, head up, down or over to their studio on the sixth floor ASAP (right now, it's 10:10 a.m.), between the orange and green elevators." (No confirmation this was unpaid leave for all who responded)
***
Wednesday, May 9
RCMP nabs Environment Canada staffer
So reads a release: "Early this morning, the Ottawa RCMP arrested a male employee from Environment Canada for Breach of Trust under the Criminal Code for leaking secret draft legislation. On April 17, the RCMP Commercial Crime Section received a complaint from Environment Canada¹s security department that a draft secret copy of "Climate Change Section of the Eco-Action Plan" had been released publicly. "An employee who violates the terms of their workplace security clearance, including the release of secret documents, may be subjected to legal consequences, including criminal charges," says Supt. Stan Burke, Officer in Charge, Financial Integrity, "A" Division. The matter remains under investigation.
***
Tuesday, April 17
Dump Dion Plot ... Latest Poll #'s ... Impeach Cheney ... & NHL Habs For Sale ?
The Dump Dion forces have finally shown their hand. In this latest salvo in the Liberal Party feud, bedrock Liberal strategist Ray Heard has unleashed a scathing missive (see below) against sundry targets, both within the Liberal party and in political media circles. In his email, a copy of which was obtained by Bourque, Mr. Heard says he speaks "for many other Liberals who are already involved in the necessary, if otherwise covert, process of dumping Dion as soon as he loses the next election". He goes on to accuse Stephane Dion of being an Emperor without clothes, lambaste "egomaniac" Maclean's scribbler Paul Wells, and bait his "enemy", the superstar Dion blogger Jason Cherniak ...
Decima's latest shows the Tories @ 34%, the Libs @ 31%, the NDP @ 15%, the Greens @ 11%, and the BQ @ 7% ...
It's reached the boiling point. Articles of Impeachment are to be filed on US VP Dick Cheney ...
Two PC MLA's in New Brunswick crossed the floor to sit with the new Shawn Graham Liberal government this morning. Joan McAlpine and her husband Wally Stiles were both elected for the first time in 1999. Joan served in Bernard Lord's cabinet for her entire tenure in government. They both represent Moncton area ridings where the Liberals were all but shut out in the provincial election. Watch for Joan to be named to cabinet soon ...
The Old Port of Montreal Corp has a few new faces on the Board, notably new Chairman Bernard Roy, the indefatiguable Mulroney-era PMOer, and the lithe and lovely Tasha Kheiriddin, author, raconteur, ex-Avi Lewis cable TV producer ...
Word is that a female Quebec teacher is among the victims of yesterday's grisly Virginia Tech shooting ...
Red Bull, yes, that ubiquitous energy drink owned by the Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz, is said to be interested in buying the NHL Montreal Canadiens from the American George Gillet ...
And, ouch, built tough ? Ford has recalled 500,000 vehicles ...
--
This just in from Ray Heard ...
"From Ray Heard to Jason Cherniak, whoever you are
-- another chapter in the Dump Dion saga
Re your two emails today and your Blog entry about your not-so-humble servant: Stay tuned!
This is only beginning of the end -- and I love it, because this Emperor has no clothes. Any Liberal Leader who does not know who Peter C. Newman is, is clearly not a student of the eras of Pearson and Trudeau -- or The Dief -- whose many failures and occasional triumphs are object lessons to anyone who presumes to become our chief magistrate.
If my emails and phone calls are any yardstick, I speak for many other Liberals who are already involved in the necessary, if otherwise covert, process of dumping Dion as soon as he loses the next election. Given his credentials in so tirelessly plotting against Chretien for a decade, instead of loving him to his political death, Scott Reid should appreciate this looming debacle, where history repeats itself as farce.
As for Paul Wells: He is an egomaniac. It is an anatomical fact that his huge, swollen head is in inverse proportion to his body as well as his brain. (I suspect that Wells, like Joe Clark, cannot swim due to the heaviness of his head, but, as usual, I digress.) Wells's main topic, after all, is himself. Hence, there are more personal pronouns in his copy than verbs. But, at least, he has the distinction of being the only MacLean's columnist who is not shamelessly shilling (or is that shrilling?) for Conrad, who will be acquitted notwithstanding their sucky ass-creeping.
So, young Mr. Cherniak, instead of the aforesaid Mr. Wells (clearly no relation to H.G.!) gimme Simpson, Coyne, Corcoran, Francis and Wente any day -- throwbacks to the era when columnists wrote about great public issues rather than what they had for breakfast.
Who, anyway, really gives a flying fig about what Wells thinks of Scott Reid, or Ray Heard, for that matter? Reid and are history and I am grateful for that having spent two miserable years in Ottawa serving John Turner. But the difference between Reid and me is that he and his thuggish comrades brought Paul Martin from the (inherited) status of majority PM to a total loser, whereas I, after signing on in 1987, helped Turner to double our seat number in the 1988 election, thus giving Chrétien, despite his plotting against JNT, a solid platform for further growth, an easy task given the ineptness of Kim Campbell.
Finally, if you were a smarter spin-doctor, Jason (the namesake of that B movie axe-man) you would abide by the basic rule of flackery: never, ever, promote your antagonists by quoting them, because all you do is draw attention to their heretical views! Your idol, Mr. Dion, can thus thank you for keeping this issue alive by acknowledging my existence on your Blog. Please keep up the good work in the cause of the enemy. To succeed, we need enemies like you.
Cheers -- and welcome on a long ride!
Ray Heard."
***
Monday, April 16
Gumdrops
Superstar Dion blogger Jason Cherniak is calling on "Nincompoop" Ray Heard, the senior Liberal strategist who shocked the political world this weekend by belling the cat about a frothing family feud over Stephane Dion's dubious leadership qualities, to quit the Liberal Party ...
Longtime marijuana advocate Marc-Boris St-Maurice is abandoning his quest to run as a Liberal party candidate in the thanklessly separatist riding of Laurier-St-Marie in urban Montreal. Word is he might have been pushed out by pro-Dion operatives worried about stirring up media interest in the party's position on the abolition of marijuana laws ...
and Bourque has heard there is a move afoot in the rural Nova Scotia riding of Central Nova by disenfranchised Liberals to run a so-called "independent" Liberal candidacy against the Dion-May cabal. On the one hand that would mean another non-Mackay name on the ballot to draw votes away from Green party leader Liz May. On the other hand, it means a likely reduction in the number of potential volunteers from Liberal ranks who might otherwise find themselves working the trenches for Ms. May during the upcoming election. Developing ...
***
Sunday, April 15
Liberal Party feud breaks open ...
Yesterday, Bourque was first to reveal a Liberal family feud between senior party strategists Ray Heard and Scott Reid over the relative value of Citoyen Dion's leadership and whether or not it was time to pull the plug on Dion for the good of the party (see below).
Today, Bourque has learned that the two have been asked to square off on cable TV in a verbal joust to be hosted by Parliament Hill longtimer Mike Duffy.
It's not quite a "Thrilla in Manilla", but the reverberations of this open wound point to a deep gash within the country's so-called natural governing party. Call it a continental divide, if you will, a test of wills still simmering since last year's inconclusive leadership race foisted an unprepapred third-tier Chretien-era Cabinet minister to the top of an unsuspecting and unexpecting tribal alliance of Liberals still licking their wounds over their recent loss at the polls.
The Dion leadership is now a big question mark within the party.
"Fact is, many senior Grits are absolutely appalled but afraid to speak out", acknowledged Mr. Heard, in an email to this scribbler.
As one prominent Liberal blogger put it to Bourque in an email last night, "it's like Chance the gardener from the movie Being There has come to life and is now running the party". Or so it would seem.
This latest public display of (dis)affection is the talk of the weekend in Liberal circles and promises deeper ramifications in the weeks to come.
Now, Bourque has obtained a copy of an email sent by Ray Heard to a couple of reporters less than 48 hours ago, in which he refers to the hapless Dion-May deal as a "devil's pact" and where he offers his views "on the record":
"I say this on the record. Some Liberals feel today Mr. Dion should be forced to quit as leader. His deal with Elizabeth May, a social reactionary, is the very last straw. It denigrates the tradition that the Liberals are a national party. Though he was the architect of the Clarity Act, Dion is cynically kowtowing to the decentralists in Quebec; he does not, like his predecessors, speak up for Canada any more.. He refused to support extending the terrorism provisions Bob Rae said were needed to find the Air India terrorists. He is fudging the commitment to fight terrorists in Afghanistan his own government made. He is surrounded by a bunch of control-freaks who will not accept the offers of veteran strategists, who date back to Trudeau, to help with policy. Both Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae are eminently qualified to succeed him before the next election and I cannot fault their supporters for plotting to dump him before its too late." - Ray Heard
And so, yes, a fractured Liberal Party is set to (not so) quietly unravel.
***
Saturday, April 14
From Heard to Reid ... and from Reid to Heard ...
To Scott Reid
"Your performance in defending that idiot savant, Stephane Dion, on the Duffy show yesterday confirms beyond question you are the sub-Arctic Comical Ali of the Liberal Party. Defending the indefensible has become your forte in a crowded field of amateur Liberal spin-doctors. Your fractured rhetoric underscores that your background before joining Paul Martin was strictly municipal.
However, you were dead on when you called me a "whiner" because, perhaps like Thersites in The Iliad, I have always spoken out when there is time to avoid disaster.
Thus, I publicly warned Paul Martin that you and the other thugs in his entourage would take him right down the tube if he didn't dump you during his long quest to topple Chrétien. My counsel was to love Chrétien to death to get him to depart gracefully. When I did this, you lectured me in an endless email. In a career that includes covering the White House, editing a metropolitan daily and running a network news division, I have never been addressed in such juvenile terms.
Thus, at Royal Bank, I advised Cleghorn and Barrett their merger would be dead on arrival unless they gave notice of their intentions to Chretrien and Martin.
Thus, covering LBJ and Nixon, inspired by I.F. Stone, I saw a disaster pending in Viet Nam.
So now the battle is joined, Reid. I love a fight, whether physical or verbal, as you shall learn."
Ray Heard
To Ray Heard
Thank you for the note Mr Heard.
When appearing in media on behalf of the Liberal Party, I take the position that I should offer a vigorous defence of the Liberal Party and its Leader. And I'm proud to have that opportunity because I believe strongly in the Liberal Party of Canada.
I make no claim to perfection. And I've never reacted to any of the public criticisms you've leveled against me personally. In spite of the fact that we've never met or spoken I felt you had every right to critique my conduct while I worked for Mr Martin.
Yesterday, I was asked for my opinion on your call to unseat our leader before the next election. I gave my opinion and I stand by it.
Cheers
SR
***
Thursday, April 5
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It will be tuxedos and stilettos, as over 1000 of Ottawa¹s most debonair men and dangerous women meet for an evening of classic intrigue, live entertainment, gourmet hors d¹oeuvres, and of course... martinis.
The Ottawa Gala is one of the most popular black tie optional events of the year; don¹t wait to get your tickets. Complete your mission and show you care by helping raise money for local children-at-risk initiatives.
Saturday, April 14, 2007 8 pm to 2 am
Government Conference Centre, 2 Rideau St.
Black tie optional chic mandatory.
General Ticket $50 VIP Top Secret Clearance $100 (Limited availability!)
For more information or tickets visit: www.ottawagala.com
***
Sunday, April 1
Chretien: The Comeback Kid ?
With the Liberal Party trailing the governing Conservative Party by a wide margin in recent polls, rumours of fact and facts of rumour have been percolating to the extent that disgruntled Liberal insiders, both pro-Dion and supporters of his leadership opponents, have been exchanging knowing glances, innuendo'd emails, and philandering phone calls, all to the effect that time has come to seek out a strong consensus-building Liberal with the kind of hands-on leadership qualities that can handle the challenge that befits a man who has won three successive majority elections: Jean Chretien.
The man is said to be ready and waiting for the call.
His longtime praetorian guard, pollsters, and spin-meisters are all girding for battle. "Pierre, the scenario is simple", confided a Toronto-based politico well-known to late-afternoon TV watchers, "one way or another, the odds are stacked against Stephane. He'll go down in the election and the call will immediately go out for Chretien to be drafted into service."
Meanwhile, journalist Michel Vastel is reporting on his website that Chretien has just completed his 700 page autobiography, set for imminent publication. Developing.
--
Monaco-based tech company to buy Bourque ?
***
Saturday, March 10
crop: lib 33% pq 29% adq 26%
Heard @ Hy's
***
Wednesday, Feb 28
Nascar: Bourque will race @ Montreal !
Bourque talks racing ...
***
Saturday, February 17
Bourque talks racing with Norris McDonald ...
***
Monday, February 12
Adscam & Basi
Two words that send shivers down the spine of certain high-level federal and Ontario Grits, particularly the pompous and the bombastic. Indeed, with ongoing RCMP investigations and upcoming criminal trials on both fronts, many high-flying Liberals are thinking twice about potential ramifications as takedown artists and gluttons for punishment seek a combo plate of red herrings and fall guys to usurp national media attention from past mis-deeds and forthcoming public indignations. Indeed, a perfect storm of Liberal horrors is on the horizon. As a longtime Liberal, one shudders in disgust.
***
Sunday, February 11
*** A Bourque Exclusive ***
Are Canadians driving away from Kyoto ?
by Charles Adler
If you want to examine the strength of someone's so called convictions, pay attention to their words. But pay very close attention to their deeds. Ottawa Citizen columnist Randall Denley really gets it when he writes you are what you drive. Pointing out that while the polls say we Canadians are concerned aobut the environment, our actions reveal we really aren't prepared to make serious sacrifices. Very few it would seem are even prepared to make small sacrifices.
Let's take this thought straight to the Canadian highway. Have you noticed the amount of gas guzzlers?
How can you not when they are as large as Chevy Silverados and Ford 1-50's. Denley points out those two models were the top two selling vehicles in Canada in 2006. At this point you can stop reading, if you choose to. No other point being made by Denley or yours truly or anyone else can possibly punctuate the point better than the sight of the monster SUV and the more traditional pick up truck, or as they say in my neck of the woods, the half ton.
While tonnes of trees are being chopped down to create the pulp, to create the paper to distribute the story that we Canadians really really really care about the environment, the pieces of paper with our signatures on them, our cheques, are being written to buy vehicles like the one I drive. I call it my 500 horsepower Kyoto Anti-Christ.
Denley is one of a growing number of Canadians who demands that we take a look in the mirror.
"Be honest. When you're in the new car showroom, is your main concern how many kilograms of carbon dioxide that shiny new vehicle will emit, or how many horsepower it has? And what about all those must-have features? Even when we choose cars that are relatively good on gas, we impair that performance by adding automatic transmissions, power seats and air conditioning. Running an air conditioner can increase fuel consumption by 20 per cent in city driving."
Never mind the political polls folks. Follow the consumer polls. They are the ones that force us to put our money where our mouths are. As Denley points out, when car shoppers are asked to say what it is they are looking for in a vehicle, environmental friendliness is the highest priority with 2.2 percent of them.
In a recent interview I did with the boss at Decima research, I asked the question, What percentage of voters really think of the envronment as their number one issue. The answer was nineteen percent. That means fewer than one in five. How does that small ratio get turned into the story that it is the country's most important issue.
I will leave that for the catalytic spinners among us.
Charles Adler is the host of Adler on Line on the Corus Radio Network
Listen to Adler's interview with Mark Holland by logging on to CharlesAdler.Com
Contact him through his website or email him at adleronline@gmail.com
***
Saturday, February 10
*** A Bourque Exclusive ***
by Charles Adler
"The Conservatives are back on track." This bold new assertion is not coming from a Harper cabinet minister, a right wing tv talking head or a blogging tory. The words flow effortlessly from James Travers, the National columnist of the Toronto Star.
The Conservatives may have been floundering in the summer and fall when their eye was on the foreign policy ball. The airlift of Canadian passport holders in Lebanon, the Conservative policies in Afghanistand and the middle east kept Harper away from his strengths.
But these days, the Star columnist thinks that the PM is back on his game. His most recent cabinet shuffle was well done, as was his most recent speech at the Canadian club, a mini throne speech. But what about those Tory attack ads which received prominence during the super bowl?
Travers thinks the controversial ads that the Tories have been running, worked on damaging Dion in the public eye. Regardless of how many social scientists tell you that negative ads don't work and regardless of how many pollsters tell you that Canadians saw the ads as unfair, there is a truism in life that is irrevocable. Life isn't fair. Politics isn't fair, and so voters don't expect fair.
And so is there is no national hissy fit over the ad. What there is a growing perception that Dion is weak.
It didn't take a lot of cattleprodding on my part to get Travers to cough up why the ads scorched the Liberal leader's thin layer of skin. "Those ads worked because the Liberals I talked to think they worked," said Travers.
You can look at the recent polls, Leger and S.E.S and conclude that the Tories are on a roll. In the key battleground province of Ontario, the Tory lead over the Liberals is sizeable. If an election were held today, the Liberals would likely lose more ground to the Tories in Canada's largest province.
While the environment may be an issue that Stephane Dion thinks of as his winning pony, his thinking may be addled. But it may be turning the leader into on trick pony, in the eyes of his own caucus.
Another Toronto Star scribe, Susand Delacourt points out in her Saturday column that Liberal caucus members are now muttering about Dion's single minded focus on Kyoto. They fear it may not be enough to get them back to what they think of as their rightful place in Canadian society, government.
Travers in his interview with me revealed the dirty little niggling secret that has been festering in the minds of all those grits who held their noses while voting for Dion. "Liberals at the Montreal convention knew that despite the green scarves, Dion did not have a good record as environment minister. He did nothing on the environment when he was minister and Liberals knew that would always make him vulnerable," Travers said.
If Dion tries to make environment the voting issue, which he undoubtedly will, are the Liberals guaranteed gains at the ballot box? The nightmare scenario for them is that Dion is handing the NDP and GREENS an issue on a platter. Liberal votes in Ontario may very well bleed into the Green and NDP camps. A split on the centre left leaves only one clear winner.
In the end, Stephane Dion's Green Scarf politics may turn out to be the most boneheaded strategy since Paul Martin decided to go on his Adscam apology tour. In some ways the environment issue may have peaked anyway. While people were getting out the golf clubs in Ottawa and Toronto back in December, these days they are back to winter as usual. Environment Canada will likely record February of 2007 as one of the coldest on record.
There is no irony like political irony. Stephane Dion's green scarf may be suffocating Liberal chances of returning to power any time soon.
Charles Adler is the host of Adler on Line on the Corus Radio Network
Listen to Adler's interview with Mark Holland by logging on to CharlesAdler.Com
Contact him through his website or email him at adleronline@gmail.com
***
Thursday, February 8
Holland the Second Coming Of Nunziata
Mark Holland has been considered a rising star in the Liberal ranks. He is getting nearly as much face time as his leader.
Unlike his leader who is more savvy than many of his critics believe him to be, Mark Holland is following in the footsteps of the ratpackers who came before him. Some in the Toronto area see him as the second coming of John Nunziata.
If you are at this point asking John Who than you get the point.
Holland is riding the Kyoto horse into as many confrontations with Alberta as possible. He tells me he wants to cap oil sands growth and then goes on and claims that what he said has been distorted.
He doesn't offer a flat denial to Dave Rutherford when my Corus Radio colleague in Calgary asks him an honest question, "Would a Liberal government consider nationalizing Alberta Energy industries?"
Now, Holland may think, and his leader who refuses to put the neoratpacker in the dog house may agree, that stoking a Canada vs Alberta war is a strategy for victory in the coming election. While this is politics at its worst, and certainly has none of the feel good kumbaya strains that the Liberals were playing at their most recent convention, Canadians may get suckered into thinking that Alberta is a dragon that needs to slain by the Liberals.
Adscam is what took the Liberals down. Kyotoscam may return them to power.
It's up to Canadian media hold the Liberals feet to the fire and keep asking Mark Holland, Stephane Dion and other Liberals the question, "What price do you want Canadians to pay to support the Kyoto ideology?"
So far the popcorn responses that Holland and other Liberals put out contain empty kernels. The typical response is that whatever price we pay now is a very small one compared to what we will pay if we do nothing.
Any voter who falls for that kind of pitch will deserve a return of the scam artists.
***
Tuesday, February 6
Lib MP Stephen Owen will not run again ... ***
Sunday, February 4
A Bourque Exclusive
LIB MP HOLLAND: "THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES"
As I apply my ink stained fingers to the trusty keyboard, it's been more than
72 hours since Mark Holland, the Liberal Natural Resources critic, belched out the
most threatening words I have heard in a political conversation in years.
But for some reason the Mainstream Media has seen them not worthy of
attention.
Pierre Bourque of the Bourque Newswatch asked me to scribble my
thoughts on the interview with the Liberal MP which contained serious
threats to the Western Canadian economy all in the name of respecting
Kyoto.
When I asked Holland whether a Liberal government under Stephane
Dion would shut down or limit oil sands production if necessary to meet
Kyoto targets, his response was, "Exactly." He then went on to say "I think
what you are going to see is we're going to say you cannot exploit that
resource, basically go in there and pump it out as fast as you can
to give it to the Americans and sell out our national interests and
blow apart our emissions targets."
I want to give credit where credit is
due. Lorne Gunter of the Edmonton Journal in his Sunday Feb 4 column did
write about this. But is Lorne Gunter in the only mainstream
journalist/columnist in the country who thinks this is newsworthy?
Is he the
only one who understands what it would mean to the economy of Western Canada
and ultimately the entire national economy to tell the energy producers to
STOP developing the oilsands, to just tell the guys with the dozers to take
their "filthy work ethic" to the unemployment line. Is Gunter the only
one who understands the message Stephan Dion's government would send to the
capital markets about the unworthiness of investing in the Canadian Energy
Industry? Is Gunter the only one who gets how this would level a frontal
assault on the Toronto Stock Exchange where so much of what we call growth
is dependent on a healthy Oil patch? Is Gunter the only one who gets that
this would create an attack on our dollar?
Now perhaps the mainstream media feels that this is not a good time to
second guess the fantasies of the Opposition Natural Resources critic.
After all Dion and his crew are supposedly on the right side of the Kyoto
angels. Perhaps waving a red flag at Alberta is considered the right thing
to do in Western Canada. Why dwell on the obvious cause of CO2 emissions in
Ontario and Quebec, the fact that half the population of the country, lives,
works and drives there?
It's much easier for Liberals to demagogue the issue
and pretend that it is ALBERTA energy that embarasses Canada in the hallowed
shrine of Kyoto. Perhaps one ought to stop giving the mainstream media
excuses for ignoring Mark Hollands sourgas? Maybe it's the oldest reason in
the hills. Holland is to the left of the Canadian centre. Does anyone doubt
that if a member of Harper's gang were to say something that came right out
of rightfield that might be embraassing to the leadership that it would find
itself planted firmly on the front pages as well as the teleprompters of
Mansbridge, Robertson and Newman?
Warren Kinsella, who was interviewed on Adler on Line after Mark Holland
offered his emissions, said he coudln't believe what Holland was saying and
thought the Liberal brain trust would immediately disown this stuff.
But
they haven't.
Perhaps it is because if the mainstream media don't seize on
an event, the Liberal mandarins have no reason to think it ever really
happened. Kinsella said that the Liberals need to be reminded that it was a
Liberal Government after having reviewed environmental impact studies that
approved the initial exploration of the oil sands in 1967 and that
successive Liberal governments went on to approve the expansion of that
exploration not once, but twice in 1978 and again in 1983.
A day after Mark Holland's threatening remarks, he appeared on my Corus
colleague Dave Rutherford's program and was asked whether a Dion government
would consdier nationalizing oil companies if they didn't meet Kyoto
standards. Holland replied, "If they refuse to work with us....there will be
consequences."
On the same day Holland fired this new shot not across but into the bow of
Alberta, the former premier of the province, Ralph Klein told my radio
audience, "I have a message for the honourable member from Ajax Pickering.
Stay out of our business." Klein may no longer have political power. But
nobody should doubt that if the Dion-Holland Liberals plan to put a clamp
on the continued growth of the Alberta economy, the price to pay for all of
us will be enormous.
At the moment, we need to ask the question, "What price
are we paying for the Mainstream Media's cold blooded decision to ignore the
Liberal agenda."
Charles Adler is the host of Adler on Line on the Corus Radio Network ***
Saturday, February 3
Meanwhile, La Presse, a Montreal newspaper, is reporting that Quebec Premier Jean Charest is ready to call a provincial election at the end of this month ...
And a new poll shows a tight race in Ontario where John Tory's Tories (34%) and Dalton McGuinty's Liberals (33%) are deadlocked, suggesting a potential minority government. The NDP, meanwhile, trail with balance of power at 19% ...
***
Friday, February 2
Summa poohbah Tracey Hubley was seen dancing a jig today for reasons best left to sidebars at Hy's ...
The RCMP is considering an inquiry into competitive practices by the oil industy at the refinery level, rather than at the retail pumps level, the traditional red herring for government competition probes that tend to lead to benign findings ...
and an email from a top Liberal blogger tonight, a mea culpa of sorts, and an admission. Said the blogger, "dammit, Bourque, I spent the better part of last month condemning you, but I confess, I am hopelessly addicted to you. I crawl your site multiple times daily like ants at a picnic. God Bless you, Pierre, for all that you do. You really are the standard we all aspire to." Amen, humbly.
***
Thursday, February 1
A Bourque Exclusive
LIB MP HOLLAND GOES NUCLEAR ON KYOTO - by Charles Adler
If Ajax Pickering MP Mark Holland was telling the truth today on Adler on Line, Canadians ought to be very frightened. When I pressed Holland to get beyond the plattitudes about how sincere Mr Dion is about his love of the environment, the Liberal MP blew my audience away. His rhetoric indicated that a Dion government would get into the face of Canada's energy producers.
Little doubt was left in the mind of observers that the Holland/Dion strategy was to be as confrontational as possible with Alberta voters and their provincial government.
Holland said a Liberal government would manage Alberta resources responsibly. He said, "We need to stabilize the oils sands. We are not going to allow companies to exploit that resource, to pump it out as fast as you can and give it to the Americans and blow out our emissions targets."
When I confronted Mr. Holland about serious job losses that would surely be the result of this kind of federal government policy, he talked about a British study that said short term pain was needed in the interests of dealing with climate change. This was necessary, said Mr. Holland, to prevent longer term economic pain.
Is this the real agenda of sustainable development that Stephane Dion has been talking about? The voters in the coming months leading up to an election campaign need to ask themselves four questions.
1) Do they want the federal government to impose its will on Canada's energy producers and the provincial government of Alberta.
2) Do they think the capital markets in Alberta could survive an all out assault on them by the federal government, one which would dwarf the Liberal Natioanal Energy Program a generation ago.
3) Do they think the people of Alberta will take this sitting down. Or will many of them rise up and insist that their govenrment roll out a Quebec style referendum?
4) After years of listening to the Liberals talking about Tory hidden agendas, has Mr Holland given us an insight into the hidden Liberal agenda?
I expect Mr. Dion and his mouth pieces to say that Mark Holland was not speaking the Liberal opposition when he dropped the Liberal Kyoto bomb on Adler on Line. But that shoudn't allow any of us who want this country to stay united to let our guard down. The Liberals have talked a good game on National Unity. But it seems every time there is a close call on this country being dismembered, a Liberal seems to be sitting in the prime minister's office. Canada's economy is a tower of strength right now. We can only hope that it continues to be sustainable if and when voters take a leap into the darkness with Dion.
Charles Adler is the host of Adler on Line on the Corus Radio Network --
***
Thursday, January 25
Leger: Con 35% Lib 32% Ndp 13% Grn 9% ***
Wednesday, January 17
Gregg: Lib 35% Con 31% Ndp 15% Bq 11% Grn 8%
***
Tuesday, January 16
May election in Quebec ? ***
Sunday, January 14
This is Winnipeg in January. And I won't lie to you. It's colder than a witch's attitude. My truck is a big ass S.U.V with fuel economy that is embarrassingly low. These days I have to fill it up twice as much as I do in the summer time and when is the last time you made sure you were wearing thermal gloves and underwear and a very thick toque in order to spend three minutes outside filling your tank? These days when highs get don't get much better than minus twenty five and lows get lower can get close to minus 35, you have to admit to being 85 percent Canadian and 15 percent wack-job to love the prairie. And yet I do love it very much.
I did seven winters here in the eighties and eight more since I moved back here in the winter of 1998. It is cozy and friendly and a piece of earth that is more down to earth than any place I have ever lived.
It's my kind of Canada.
- Charles Adler, ***
Monday, January 8
Kinsella, so often shamefully mired in the muck, should spend more time on positive issues seeking the higher ground ...
And former Liberal CabMin Andre Ouellet is suing the government for $3 million for wrongful dismissal. In a story this morning in Paul Desmarais' La Presse, a medium-sized Quebec region newspaper, reporter Gilles Toupin writes that, according to documents obtained under Access to Information, the Martin government gave Ouellet barely 37 minutes to resign as head of Canada Post for reasons long in dispute, this despite repeated assertions at the time by (then) Revenue Minister John McCallum that Ouellet resigned on his own. Either McCallum was oblivious to his own responsabilities, or something's beginning to odoriferously smell like ocean species ...
***
Thursday, January 4
Decima: Con 34% Lib 31% Ndp 15% Bq 10% Grn 8% ***
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
According to an internal document, Guy, who won't be involved in any way in any Ontario government work, will be offering "expertise in strategy development, management, execution and relationship-building" to "lead POLLARA through its next stage of expansion
to meet the growing needs of its customers at home and abroad".
It is expected that Guy will be steering the company back toward the private sector, where it has enjoyed its greatest success. Don Guy will continue to serve as campaign director for the Ontario Liberal Party, a role he has held since 1998 through to the October 2007 Ontario general election.
***
***
Filed by Pierre Bourque
--
BOURQUE NEWSWATCH
by Charles Adler
Lib MP: Peter Mackay blew $45K on Challenger flight to Rome ...
When will the Mainstream Media start covering the Liberal Agenda?
by Charles Adler
Listen to Adler's interview with Mark Holland by logging on to www.charlesadler.com
Contact him through his website or email him at adleronline@gmail.com
What do these three have in common ?
Sarkozy, Dion, Royal. Three politicians, three aspirants to high political office, three headed to imminent elections, three Citizens of France, three members of the European Union. Remarkably, one of them can vote for one of the others, though the others cannot vote for that one. While one has said he would renounce his French citizenship, he has yet to do so, and insiders suggest he will likely refuse to do so, underlying a primary conflict of interest, this despite every evidence that Canadians are in no rush to have a Citizen of France as their next Prime Minister. It remains unclear who Dion favours in the French Presidential elections, or whether he will refuse to cast his vote at the French Embassy, conveniently located next door to 24 Sussex Drive, a duty of every French citizen and a right he continues to enjoy, though no less than Conrad Black suggests today that he favours Nicolas Sarkozy over Segolene Royal to save Europe from its "torpid dyspepia". What do you think Dion should do ? ....
Senior Dion Libs are telling Bourque that the MP Mark Holland's shocking comments about the Party's secret plans to socialize Alberta's oil sands industry have caused the Party significant negative impact in the West at a time when the Liberals are desperate to build support for their cause across the land. Indeed, Holland was said to have spent a significant part of the day today cobbling together some semblance of a rationale to soothe over the scar left by his iambic utterings emitted on an open-line radio show yesterday, the gist of which was re-hashed by Charles Adler in an exclusive text for Bourque last night. Add to that one Dion kool-aid drinker, who noted by email, "Pierre, it's one thing for Stephane to unleash our pit bulls, it's another for the mutt to tripod a squirt on Alberta". According to another source inside OLO, there's a small chance Holland may be demoted from his current critic's gig. One wonders why ...
After several hours of hot Kyoto air in the House of Commons this week, one is left to wonder what specifically a Liberal government under Stephane Dion would do if Canadians give him the keys to kingdom.
Listen to Adler's interview with Mark Holland by logging on to www.charlesadler.com
Contact him through his website or email him at
Bourque has learned that CPAC has sent the Conservative Party a 'cease and desist' letter regarding the use of video poking fun at Liberal leader Stephane Dion in current advertising ... Bloc & Tory MPs were seen cozying up to outbound Lib MP Jean Lapierre at his Ottawa farewell party Wednesday evening. It seems the soon-to-be-again Quebec media personality has more gravitas than he ever did as an MP ... And what ever do Rahim and Helena talk about at night when the lights go out ?
Decima: Lib 33% Con 32% Ndp 13% Grn 9%
Adler: It's my kind of Canada - A Bourque Exclusive
"Why do you bother living there?" It's a question that I get pestered with time and time and time again. In the nineties when I lived in Tampa Florida, nobody asked me the question. Truth is there are more thunderstorms in Tampa than just about anywhere else in the world. And during those scalding hot days of June, July and August, where temps consistently and reliably were in the middle to upper nineties with humidity that made the place feel like one huge steam bath, I would silently say to myself, " I can hardly wait to blow this pop stand." The journey from Tampa to Boston was emotionally easy. New England is a four season environment and all of them are eminenty bearable. No friend would get on the horn with me and ask me what the hell I was doing living across the river from Harvard and M.I.T. There was plenty of candlepower to keep conversations stimulating and weather never became an issue. But that was then and this is now.
Canada's national talk-radio host.
Our pal, the (at times) irreverent, incandescent, and neo-punk fugue warbler Warren Kinsella, has emitted a surprising guttural to nemesis Terrie O'Leary, one of Paul Martin's staunchest acolytes: "I provided testimony to the Standing Committee on Public Works (PAC) in April of 2005. I also authorized and presented to the Committee various documents. I regret any harm these statements may have caused Terrie O'Leary. At no time in any dealings involving myself and Ms. O'Leary or at any other time did I observe any evidence of any kind that Ms. O'Leary was ever personally involved in improper contracting activity."
Gumdrops
Bourque has learned that Don Guy, the Ontario Premier's former Chief of Staff, is now President and CEO at Pollara, the country's leading public opinion and market research company.
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