GST Rebate Ruling

...is here, courtesy Ms. O'Malley. I'm going to try and give it a read later today, perhaps without success.

FWIW, Kady says:

Will today's ruling affect other political parties?

[...]

...as far as I can tell, it won't, since the circumstances that led to this particular dispute between the Conservatives and the chief electoral officer appear to be unique to that party, which -- if I'm reading this right, at least -- was initially unaware of the fact that a change in the tax law meant it could qualify as a non-profit organization for GST rebate purposes.

Ottawa, Day II

This morning my wife and I walked from Byward Market to The Nature Museum way out on Metcalfe near the highway. Large parts of it were closed, and admission to the rest was free before noon. So in the end we saw the Screaming Kid exhibit on Floor 2, and the Crying Kid exhibit on Floor 4. My digicam's battery died just as I was taking a picture of a prehistoric whale skeleton, so I can't even prove I was there.

Later, I spent a very enjoyable and informative couple of hours drinking alcohol with Macleans Magazine's blogging superstar Kady O'Malley. It will probably take a week to process all the political info I picked up during that time.

As an aside, Ms. O'Malley is ultra-cool, immensely charming, but really, really tiny. Thankfully, I didn't try to hit on her or wear a lampshade or anything stupid like that.

Edmonton Sun Snuffs Neil Waugh

Neil Waugh, a high-profile Edmonton Sun political columnist, and 19 other colleagues were pink slipped today, TSF sources report.

But as long as the Wunderbabe's still working, who cares?

Peter MacKay's Mondo Boner!

The Wonderbabe Strikes!

From The Chronicle Herald:

Mr. MacKay said the timing of the [anti Green Shift] ad campaign has nothing to do with the fact Mr. Thibault’s riding is hosting the Liberals’ Atlantic caucus meetings this week. He said he wasn’t aware the meetings were happening.

From the official CPoC announcement this weekend re said ad campaign:

““Since Atlantic Canadians mostly rely on coal for electricity, oil to heat their homes, and diesel to import food and other items, the permanent new Liberal carbon tax will be devastating for the region,” said Peter Mackay, Minister of National Defence. “It’s no wonder Liberals are spending two days in Digby trying to find ways to fool Atlantic Canadians about it – we won’t let that happen."

Kadey O'Malley: supporting the old boys at Macleans in their dotage.

So The Goal

...was the headline. Those were Paul Well's thoughts when Kady O'Malley's sleuthing turned up how little was actually contained within the Dona Cadman affidavit that inspired "Cadman's widow denies author's story", in which Dona Cadman disputes some painfully trivial aspect of Zytaruk's alleged claims re the Cadman tape.

So does that mean "mission accomplished", as Paul seems to think? Well I don't know. The Tory braintrust has managed to generate a few favorable headlines in gullible Canwest papers that nobody reads, plus Kady's various debunking posts, and then this piece in today's Star in which Zytaruk claims never to have written what Mrs. Cadman disputes in the first place.

And that is pretty much it in the way of coverage, two days in. The Tories have hardly managed to defuse the Cadman Affair as a possible election issue; if anything, they've put the story back into circulation.

Frankly, this sounds like a "war room" with too much cash and time on its hand.

Note: Read this update from Kady where several of the players discuss at great length their positioning on the stairs outside the Cadman home when the now infamous Zytaruk/Stephen Harper interview took place. Or go out and frolic in the sun. That's probably better for your health and state of mind.

BCer was onto this one too.

PS. changed the above a bit based on 1st comment. One day I'll learn how to use that correction feature thingy.

Try A Little Political JuJitsu Instead

Scott Tribe is still banging the drum for an early election. He finds this quote from the Star in support of his position:

"How can this party portray itself as the party of immigration, the Trudeau era of multiculturalism, and here you have this dangerous piece of legislation and you might let it pass because you're not organized enough or your leader isn't charismatic enough to go in an election?" [ Mohamed Boudjenane] said. "People would be more supportive of a gutsy party who will go . . . on a principled position than a party that will stay there until they're in better shape."

What I would tell Mr. Boudjenane (and Scott) is: there are more effective ways for the Liberals to oppose this and other Tory proposals than by forcing an election they would (most probably) lose. Kady "The Blogging Wonderbabe" O'Malley talks of some of the possible stratagems here. In brief, they involve a copious use of the fact that the Libs and other opposition parties have a majority on the various committees, including the Finance Committee where these proposals are (apparently) likely to wind-up. Once in committee, who knows what might be done to change, delay, or discredit them?

And of course in other cases the Libs Senate majority can be used to defuse dangerous legislation.

Now, people might argue that its better to win these things in a stand-up fight, but my opinion is that, at the end of the day, if some piece of junk law disappears in the Senate or is modified beyond recognition and then handed back to the ruling party, that's fine. Victory is Victory.

Because, no matter what you may have heard, Stephen Harper does not have a majority and is not governing as though he did. The Tory agenda as it has developed over the past couple of years is intensely minimalist, and is only about two-thirds accomplished. You want to see what a Tory majority looks like? Then rush into an election for which the Libs are ill-prepared and you may well get a chance.

My bet is it will look like Mike Harris writ large. Who wants that? Anyone? ANYONE???

Have patience, grasshopper! as the old guy in Kung Fu! used to say.

(NOTE: For the time being I have turned anonymous comments off. We shall see how long that has to be for, and it may be permanent. Cheers and apologies to the "good" anons)

Principled NDPers! Get Ready To Barf!

I seldom write about the NDP, because I'm not willing to spend too much time over a fringe party, it doesn't bring me alot of traffic, and frankly its like being a heckler at the Special Olympics. But the following cannot be allowed to pass unchallenged.

Blonde blogging uber-babe Kadey O'Malley's is discussing C-6, the Tories infamous "veiled voter bill":

The Liberals are, as far as I know, the only party to officially...oppose the re-tweaked bill - which, rather remarkably, managed to once again omit any requirement that voters present photo identification, thereby rendering moot any reasonable argument in favour of - or, for that matter, against - forcible de-veiling.

I don't want to walk through the whole idiotic history of this bill again, but O'Malley's comments get to the nub of it. The Tories want veiled (Muslim) women to show their faces when they come to vote, while NOT requiring that they (or anyone else) present photo identification. Thus the act of unveiling will not prove that they are who they claim to be, only that they do indeed possess a face.

It isn't surprising that the Bloc should get behind this legislation, representing as they do some of the most regressive elements of Quebec society. The NDP's position, however, seems to waver between upholding reason and common sense and whoring it up for French rednecks in a desperate attempt to scare up votes in La Belle Province. Shame on them and Jack Layton!