London hotels close last smoking room

I sense a note of sarcasm here. :)

When Ralph Klein was Premier of Alberta, one of the gems that made it out after awhile was that he'd asked for and received undated, signed resignation letters from those that he'd made members of his cabinet. ...
Just in case.

I'd have thought that would be on Stephan Harper's to do list too.

As I said earlier, I don't think she'll be missed much.

The furor shouldn't have been that she spent $10 on an orange juice, the furor should have been that that's about right given the ritzy hotel she was in.

Ever gone to breakfast and ordered an OJ in Ontario? It can run $3-4 for the smallest of glasses - that's the controversy, my friends. Soon a glass of the stuff is going to cost more than the bacon & eggs.

↑ I think two eggs, under "supply-management" quotas, have the potential of giving the OJ a run for its money Matt.

And the FCOJ futures market took a hit, as well...

A well deserved demotion. Harper handled this well, waiting to demote after the controversy, showing respect to his ministers but also taking the appropriate action.

Lance, I think you're being a bit hard on Ms. Oda: the story leading up to her resignation is no more than about 50/50. I'm just as mad about her luxuriating on the taxpayer's dime as the next guy or gal, and there seems to have been a pattern there, according to Wikipedia.

Nevertheless, her excesses are dwarfed by the spending on Challenger jets of Ethel Blondin-Andrew and the outrageous public pronouncements of Hedy Fry. Might I add that the political party of which Ms. Blondin-Andrew and Ms. Fry are (or were) members hasn't yet, er, coughed up the tens of millions still missing from that little Sponsorship thingee. I seem to recall that a couple of other infamous and ubiquitous claims of the left were used to try to blunt the opposition critique of Ms. Blondin-Andrew and Ms. Fry (which the opposition in the case of Ms. Oda didn't seem to be constrained by). And Ms. Oda at least felt compelled to repay some of her expenses.

Ms. Oda's life story is certainly a compelling one, and she did a lot as a former Ontario PC to bring unity to the CPC after the merger of the parties and her election to the House of Commons in 2004. I had the pleasure of meeting her during that time, and am glad to have had the opportunity.

In this last connection, whatever anyone thinks of Tony Blair, his memoirs contain pithy descriptions of the behaviour of the British Tories in their years in opposition: those descriptions fit the current Canadian opposition parties to a "T": Mr. Blair notes that an opposition leader's job is to chase junk, but he/she always has to be careful about where that pursuit leads. Mr. Rae certainly showed none of that judgment in the case of Ms. Oda, and I'm glad she outlasted him in their respective roles.

I suspect people who travel for business would be a lot less critical. I doubt Oda would have asked how much a glass of OJ cost.

Where was the outrage when Shiela Copps brought the Company Challenger home for the weekends in Hamilton?? The Airport Authority spent tons of $$ to accommodate this aircraft. A special hangar, special security, etc, etc.
Oda is small potatoes compared to the excesses of the Cretin ass kissers.I'm not condoning Oda's spending but, for God sake quit with the ersatz outrage already!!

Quit it with the diversions already.

Gaylord -- totally agree. The outrage against Oda's spending was all out of proportion. Someone suggested she needed a smoking room (fair enough if you are a smoker), but she could never use that as a defense. I think she was treated brutally and there are many far worse examples from the Chretien years. Just a reminder: http://www.dominionpaper.ca/media_analysis/2005/11/08/what_makes.html

I am with David, Scar, Gaylord and LindaL on this. She is being hounded to this extent because she is Conservative, and enough of the crappy smoking photo already. How about a photo of Jack making a hasty exit from a certain pleasure facility.

How about a photo of Jack pushing that gal out of the way when Canada's mens Olympic team scored THAT GOAL in Vancouver?

good times, good times. / sarc.

I kind of liked the fact that she smoked. Showed she had not caved in to political correctness and was still giving the health nazis the finger. Too bad she was incompetent on so many other levels.

Me too, peterj @2:05 Am.

No excuses for Oda. It is no consolation that her excesses were not as great as those of her predecessors.

Harper should have immediately booted her arse out of the caucus when she bullshitted us about the CIDA document. I have no use for lying politicians - of any stripe.

and...

jwkozak91 at July 3, 2012 3:47 PM

He, hee, heeeeeeeeeeee.........

Yeah she was pretty much incompetent when it came to her expense account.

Still nowhere on the level as Pierre Pettigrew and his limo driver he would fly over to Paris for his extended vacations.

Bev and every conservative should know that they don't get liberal passes in the media.