Life Behind The Pay Wall...

...sounds really, really lonely:

In late October, Newsday, the Long Island daily that the Dolans bought for $650 million, put its web site, newsday.com, behind a pay wall. The paper was one of the first non-business newspapers to take the plunge by putting up a pay wall, so in media circles it has been followed with interest. Could its fate be a sign of what others, including The New York Times, might expect?

So, three months later, how many people have signed up to pay $5 a week, or $260 a year, to get unfettered access to newsday.com?

The answer: 35 people. As in fewer than three dozen. As in a decent-sized elementary-school class.

What The CHRC Will Argue

...in its challenge to the Hadjis decision in Warman Vs. Lemire:

...which seems to be the legal consensus on the issue. It will also argue that if Hadjis really wanted to wanted to brand section s54.1 (the penalty provision) unconstitutional, he should have put a little more work into the analysis of it than is evident in his decision.

Prorogation: What's Behind The Anger

There are many reasons to be upset by the Harper Tories' shutting down parliament and fleeing away across the rooftops to avoid questions over the Afghan detainee and other issues. For one thing, it means emasculating the seat of Canadian federal democracy over a scandalette that, if probed thoroughly and completely, would almost certainly not amount to much: the Conservative government inherited a flawed prisoner transfer arrangement from their Liberal predecessors; they were too slow to correct its flaws, but did so eventually. End of story.

In other words, they have chosen to cut and run over a fairly trivial matter, which implies that they treat the institution of parliament as something to be violated casually.

There is also the matter of the offhand brutality with which they have been willing to abandon their own legislative agenda. I personally might not agree with bill C-15 (mandatory minimum sentencing) or their consumer safety laws(C-6), for example, but these were nevertheless the result of an enormous amount of work by people and interests who were invested in them very deeply. And all of this work has been tossed aside at the first sign of political turbulence.

So, not only does the Harper government not give a toss about Canada's democratic process, they don't care about their own policies. They seem to have become entirely opportunistic over their four years in power.

But there is something more basic driving Canadian anger over prorogation, I think. It has to do with Stephen Harper the man, ideological Conservatives like those that fill his government's back-benches, and their relationship to what used to be called The Work Ethic.

I mean, this is the Prime Minister who once that claimed Atlantic Canada was hampered by a "culture of defeat", bred by laziness and a continued dependence on government handouts. This is the Prime Minister who branded the whole nation beyond the borders of Alberta a "2nd tier socialist" country. And this is the Prime Minister whose party has always been more than happy to play the "Bums from Out East" tune for all its been worth, who have argued that their political opponents are a bunch of slackers who "don't understand what it means to meet a payroll", and so on and so forth.

Now this very same Prime Minister has--hey presto!--rewarded himself and his MPs two months extra vacation time. THAT, I believe, is what really grates with Canadians. It's what lies behind the signs proclaiming Get back to work! that appeared again and again at anti-prorogation rallies across the country last weekend.

And I see that Norman Spector is prattling on again about coups, and coalitions between Liberals, Socialists, and Separatists. Well, Mr. Spector, at least these people showed up on Monday, ready to do their job. Mr. Harper and his gang of Calgary Capitalists couldn't be arsed.

If Tory MPs Won't Work, Liberal Candidates Are Glad To Pitch In

If MP Larry Miller won't go to Ottawa and do his job, Kimberly Love will, she told an anti-prorogation rally in Owen Sound Saturday.

And with Parliament shut down, the Liberal candidate for Bruce-Grey Owen Sound was to start today in Ottawa -- unelected, but invited to join the Liberal caucus in committee sessions.

[...]

At the invitation of Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, Love said in an interview, she will be part of Liberal committees starting today in Ottawa to study job creation, governance, pensions and health care.

"I'm not an elected representative, but there is a voice for this Riding on Parliament Hill in the next couple of weeks because the Liberals are going back to work," Love said.

A stunt? Maybe, but a not a bad one when you think about it, though only available to those within driving distance of Ottawa. Hopefully Iggy appears with Ms. Love at his side to draw the contrast between paid Tory MPs who are sitting on their arses in California waiting for the Olympics to break their ennui and Lib candidates who are willing to volunteer for the good of the nation.

Focused, Like A Laser Beam, On Jobs...

"Our constituents have more concerns on their minds," said [Prince Albert Tory MP Randy Hoback] by phone Tuesday from California, where he is vacationing. "They want us to concentrate on jobs, get people back to work, and get the budget back in order. And that's what I'll focus on when I get back to Parliament and that's what I'm focusing on now."

h/t

8 Meetings And A Function

Rick Dykstra tries to convince you he's had a busy week.

Notes On T.O. Anti-Prorogation Demonstration

So, I had dreamed that I would arrive at this thing and wind up alone, surrounded by un-waved placards and trying to explain to CBC why the event sucked ass so bad. Fortunately, that dream did not come to pass. For although at noon when I first cruised by the Yonge-Dundas Square there wasn’t much happening, by start time a pretty good crowd had gathered, despite the cold weather, and when the march finally kicked off demonstrators stretched from Dundas to Queen street, the road thick (like being on a very crowded sidewalk) with people the whole way. Totally non-scientifically, I would estimate the crowd as being in the high 100s, maybe touching a thousand, maybe a bit shy of that.

So good on the organizers; they sure beat my expectations.

There was a definite orange tint to the crowd. It looks as though our NDP brethren put the “machine” to work; lots of “Stand up to Harper” signs, and CUPE banners, for example. Good on them. There was also a small Green Party contingent, but no official or semi-official Liberal Party presence as far as I could tell (although see below).

And there wasn’t anything too awful in the way of “message creep”. For the most part the placards and chants and attitude were on point.

Just to catalogue the funny stuff:

There was an anti-tar sands banner with a clever, oil-black T-Rex painted on it. There was an international Bolshevik that wanted to abolish the monarchy. There was someone with a sign that had a skull painted on it, an inevitable 911 truther, a couple of black nationalists distributing speeches by Farrakhan across the street, and a guy handing out tickets to some kind of Israel Apartheid thing. No matter what you might think of this last guy’s message, though, he had a really impressive Mohawk-type creation with unshorn locks that fell to his shoulders. (As an aside, Why do all the weirdos have great hair?) There was a stage, and a strong NDP flavor to the speeches given there, as far as I could make out. Luckily, the sound system wasn’t terribly powerful and nobody could really hear their Socialist prattling. And oh yes the same three guys selling competing Marxist -Leninist papers that I saw at the Labour Day Parade were out again. I swear they’re the same three guys I saw on Yonge Street back in 1986 when I first moved to T.O.

And speaking of hair, I got within 10 feet of Gerard Kennedy himself, looking elegantly sexxxy in what I remember as being a dark duffle-coat type thingy. Now, personally, I think he should wear his hair longer. I know that Iggy is trying to get the Libs to project a more professional demeanor, but you don’t waste a head of hair like Gerard’s. His hair is 100% shock-and-awe, and if the Libs sent it on a cross country speaking tour in the run up to the next election they’d pick up two or three seats on that basis alone.

Anyway, I don’t think Mr. Kennedy got up on stage and spoke, but I may be wrong about that.

As for the march itself… it was a march. I don’t much like them as I get a bit dizzy in crowds, but on the upside we did have a piper (bag pipes, in full uniform, probably frozen stiff under that kilt), and many of the young college girls in the crowd looked quite hot, although it’s hard to be sure when they’re all wearing parkas. But the day was chill, so when the actual march ended the crowd dissipated fairly quickly (leaving behind several unappreciated gals making some very good bluesy/folky music on stage, unfortunately).

And I didn’t meet too many other bloggers. I hung with Joseph Uranowski of The Equivocator for most of the event, and saw Ricky of Queer Thoughts at a distance, I think, but didn’t get a chance to talk. Impolitical, buddy, where were you? I heard you was coming and looked everywhere. I was the guy in the dark-colored winter jacket with a hood.

Anyway, a successful protest. Looks like some impact through the media too. In the bar I am writing this post in, one of the regs just told a joke about politics being “prorogued”. So I am sure this story will be in the news after tomorrow, which is the important thing.

PS. 3,000 people? Is my math so bad?

Coming Soon To Ontario

The story is here (and good on Dalton, by the way: close the car plants and those auto-workers can make turbines.). But in the picture they're actually doing it wrong!

H/T

Barring Disaster

...I will hopefully see some people at the demonstration tomorrow. And for me, the real question to be resolved about Toronto's Prorogy Rally is...where and when does the beer drinking afterwards kick in?

h/t

Not Enough Time Off To Memorize His Lines

Defence Minister Peter MacKay welcomed many of the dignitaries to Thursday’s announcement. But there was a slight slip- up.

After mentioning federal and provincial officials, MacKay, who represents the neighbouring federal riding of Central Nova, moved onto the municipal officials, including “our two mayors, Bob and Bob.”

A hush went through the audience before MacKay tried to correct with “Bill and Bill” before the third time was a charm with “Bill and Bob.”

I don't think Mr. Mackay will be parliament ready until at least June.

Today in Forbidden Knowledge

Psst!!! Kid!!! Wanna download those youtube clips to your hard-drive?

To Know Him Is To Sue Him, Part Bazillion

Yesterday, CC pointed out that Khurrum Awan's defamation suit against Ezra Levant appears to be proceeding. In addition, I have been told that Vigna v. Levant (Giacomo Vigna is or was a lawyer for the CHRC) should get underway in February. Keep cranking out them books, Ezra. You'll need the funds, and anyway I'm sure "Oiled Up" will sell in the high double-digits (which may, incidentally, be enough to make it a Canadian bestseller).

Update: In related news, The National Post offers Warman a "satisfactory settlement agreement", and his libel action has been discontinued.

Jay Hill: Prorogation Is NOT Vacation Cuz You Should See My Meeting Schedule

As Government House Leader, I will be working tirelessly with my Cabinet colleagues in preparation for the re-opening of Parliament. Cabinet and Treasury Board meetings are still being held on a regular basis.

So a job that could have been completed for January 25th gets stretched out over another two months. Parkinson's Law.

I will also be spending this time meeting with stakeholders and business representatives to discuss the priorities they envision for the months and years ahead.

Typical Corp-speak. Teamstorming to leverage the synchronicities, and all that.

Prorogation (?) Continues To Take Toll

The new EKOS has Libs and Tories in a statistical tie. Interesting in that:

1) The weekly trend shows a gradual Tory decline beginning before the prorogation decision. Its easy to forget that they were riding a string of bad news in the month or so leading up to that decision.

2) The Libs are finally starting to benefit a little from that decline, rather than bouncing along the bottom at around 27%.

3) The polling dates are from Jan 13 to Jan 19, so Harper's relatively adequate response to the Haiti earthquake doesn't seem to have helped him much.

And, OT, this is clever. Liberals should at least learn how to feign non-arrogance, at least for short periods of time.

That's Mr. Moron To You (UPDATE: Ted Morton Impersonated Online)

Wouldn't surprise me, given the nature of his twittering, if Frederick Lee didn't have some trouble with his own name. Or someone at politwitter will need to make a few apologies.

I don't use politwitter, but it looks like you have to sign up yourself yourself.

PS. Looks better if you click on the pic.

PPS. Could also be a prank. The original twitter feed is clearly his; someone unbeknownst to Ted might have signed him up for politwitter, and removed a strategic letter from his name. In which case politwitter should review is security features.

UPDATE: David Sands says the origonal Ted Morton twitter feed, and the politwitter stuff, are "not real", which I would assume means we are looking at a case of impersonation. Someone is going to have some legal troubles.

PPPS. Unless that "Satire" note at the end of the politwitter entry there is enough to get the satirist off the hook. I'm not sure the people responding to his "tweets" have figured that out, and he links to the actual Ted Morton website, which seems like a possible no no.

You'll Be Moved

Toilet problems at the new T.O. Sun

Dead But Not At Rest

10 percenters touting the same tough on crime legislative package the Tories prorogued down the toilet are still appearing in mailboxes across the land. Because if you ever passed this stuff, you couldn't run on it.

Van Loan: Demoted and Chairless

Remember the fake security meeting Harper held a week ago? Remember people asked why Peter Van Loan wasn't given a chair at the meeting?

Looks like we've got an answer:

Aides in several ministers' offices, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said that Raitt was not the only minister that Mr. Harper and his inner circle were dissatisfied with:they were also said to be unhappy with Mr. Van Loan on the public safety file.

And:

In for a demotion along with Ms. Raitt is Peter Van Loan, whom colleagues said was less than able at managing the security agencies reporting to him while he served as Public Safety minister.

Note how anonymous colleagues were happy to trash talk Van Loan to the papers as word of the shuffle got out.

So in fact, his positioning in the above photo (and video footage) may have been a subtle form of public humiliation, just as many commenters originally speculated.

Ottawa: the Kremlin sans vodka.

Respond, Iggy

Yesterday, we noted that The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is trying to pressure the opposition parties to appoint anti-gun registry MPs to the committee that will consider a bill (C-391) to kill the registry when Parliament resumes in March. They argue that, since a majority in the House passed the bill once, the committees that consider its further progress should reflect this fact. Today, the Winnipeg Free Press has picked up the story, and we learn the CTF position is also that of the Harper Torys.

More importantly, the Free Press has attempted to contact the opposition parties to ask if they are going to play along:

A spokesman for NDP Leader Jack Layton said the NDP has no plans to change their appointee to the committee. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's office did not respond when asked for comment.

I sometimes get the impression that the LPoC brain trust, while paying lip-service to the registry for the benefit of hardcore Liberal supporters (who support it), would really like to see it die quietly in the night so as to be off the table as an election issue in rural Canada. Not responding to this kind of query only exacerbates that impression.

Whereas, I am convinced, fighting C-391 in committee and in the Senate can still kill it. What are the odds that Harper and Co. will go another year without proroguing again, thus resetting the clock on all of their legislation? Given their recent behavior, I would say those odds are pretty high.

(I am also about half-convinced that this is one of those pieces of legislation that the Tories don't really want to ever be signed into law. But that's another post)

That'll Be $36,000,000 Please

The Scott Ross calculates the cost of the Harper Holidays. A speculative exercise, but the first attempt I've seen to put numbers to the situation.