Preston Manning Is Gonna Shit A Phonebook!

An outdated and insulting column from an appointed hack.  The dumbest bit:

Members of various ethnic communities are fed up with platitudes. They are active members of our society at all levels, and they demand no special status – they just want an equal opportunity to contribute to the continued development of their communities. That’s what they should expect and that’s what we should demand of them.

So according to Leo Housakos, immigrants get special status while the rest of us schleps pay the bills.  I`ve heard that line before, and it is exactly the kind of toxic blithering that Preston Manning warned his fellow conservatives against last weekend.  And kudos to him, by the way.  He is telling his own that if they want to get the keys to the nation they have to stop behaving like the intellectual equivalent of drunken frat-boys.  That he`s getting some flack from right-leaning pundits like Chris Selley simply highlights the difference in seriousness of the projects they are engaged in.  Manning wants Conservatives to prove themselves fit to rule; Selley wants to them to remain the clowns of chattering class.

The UpSide And DownSide Of The Tories Moving Right

...and going all SoCon, and etc.

The Upside:

"Harper's approval rating is in the 90s for Conservative supporters,' Graves said. 'There's a vivid gap between the Conservative base, who are very happy with the general direction of the country, and everyone else.'"

The Downside:

Asked which party they would support if an election were held tomorrow, 36.7 opted for the Liberals while 30.2 per cent chose the Conservatives. About 15.5 per cent supported the NDP, while the Green party was the choice of 8.1 per cent and the Bloc Québécois was backed by 9.4 per cent.

Tory supporters sound like they are eager to become the Official Opposition, again. Unless they've figured out how to vote twice.

PS. 36%/30% seems a very important ratio the last couple of elections, being more or less what the range of what Libs/Tories have earned over the last decade or so (since Martin's first Gov.). Makes me wonder if most of the changeable minds in Canada change from Lib. to Tory and vice-versa. Have I, as a Lefty Lib arguing for an outreach to NDP/Green voters, been barking up the wrong tree all my adult life?

Eat The Rubber Chicken, Win A Handgun

Here's what you might win when you go see Garry Breitkreuz's talk re. repealing the long-gun registry at the annual meeting of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association on April 18th:

From the map there don't seem to be any nearby farms, so you can't engage in that old Tory sport of getting drunk and shooting barn-yard animals, but you're barely 20 minutes from downtown T.O., where Liberal men wander about in fish-net stockings, and not far from Brampton, either, where I hear they have a lot of dark skinned types.

A target rich environment, in other words.

Update: Invite WITHDRAWN.

Scientists? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Scientists!

From Bob McDonald of Quirks and Quarks:

The one scientist in this country who had direct access to the Prime Minister is being dismissed. Canada’s National Science Adviser, Dr. Arthur Carty, was appointed by former Prime Minister Paul Martin to provide expert advice on the government’s role in matters of science and science policy.

Typically Tory, fire your scientists and keep a psychic hairdresser on the pay-roll.

h/t desmog.

PS Today's Suzuki column becomes particularly relevant.

The Grinch Who Stole Family Day

Mr. Paul Dewar (Ottawa Centre, NDP) asks if the Harper Tories will let everyday Ontarians who work for the Federal government take off Dalton McGuinty's "Family Day" (as an aside, I read this term and stifle the urge to barf...why not "St. Ignatz Day" or something half decent like that?) to "spend family time together".

Pierre Poilievre (Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board, CPC) lashes back:

We in fact provide 11 holidays to our federal employees, whereas the province of Ontario only provides 10, so there is an additional day. I hope the member is not suggesting that we take one of those holidays away from our public servants, many of whom live in his own riding.

In other words, the only way the Tories can let hard working federal civil servants in Ontario take "Family Day" is if, for example, they cancel Xmas.

Man these guys are hardcore. But since I am pro-cancelling Xmas, my response is conflicted.

Big h/t to the Cowboys.

That Pig Had A Name!

"Fred", it was, before he was sold by his owner to Lost Creek Plantation, where he was gunned down by 11 year old Jamison Stone in what looks increasingly like some kind of barbaric Red State coming-of-age ritual:

FRUITHURST, Ala. -- The huge hog that became known as "Monster Pig" after being hunted and killed by an 11-year-old boy had another name: Fred. The not-so-wild pig had been raised on an Alabama farm and was sold to the Lost Creek Plantation just four days before it was shot there in a 150-acre fenced area, the animal's former owner said.

So Lost Creek Plantation is like one of those places where people go to hunt buffalo, where they goad farm-raised animals into running the length of a narrow enclosure and "sportsmen" blast away at them from close range.

Sweet home Alabama, where you buy your wife a pig for her birthday, or signal your boy's passage into man-hood by handing him a .50 calibre pistol and telling him to go kill hisself that same tame hog, which has been reclassified as "feral" upon its release at the "hunting preserve" so you or your boy won't feel twinges of self-conscious embarrassment.

Particularly galling is the fact that Phil Bisset, the pig's original owner only stepped forward with the true story when he heard reports that photographs of old Fred had been doctored to make him appear larger.

That was a big hog," said [Mr. Bisset].

Sir, you failed that pig! You should be ashamed of yourself.