Reader Tips

Reader Tips 90 Comments

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Friday night old-time radio crime-detective show, here is William Gargin starring as Barry Craig in the Hay is for Homicide episode of Confidential Investigator (1954, 29:21). Jake is great in this show.

NB: Today’s COMPAS poll gives a value of 22.0 for Vitruvius’s Experimental Election Predictor, the largest value it has ever been for any party in the data I have since 1962. In other words, if an actual election produced a Ve that large, it would produce the largest majority we have seen during that time: on the order of 3/4 of the seats in the House. In my opinion, anyone who is suggesting that Mr. Harper should be replaced at this time, either as Prime Minister or as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, is either (1) simply unaware of these last three Ipsos, Ekos, and COMPAS polls, (2) non compos mentis, or (3) of questionable character.

Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.

90 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. Earlier on another thread I asked if anyone knows what portion of the CBC’s $1 Billion goes to the CBC French language service. I received no reply.
    Does anyone know and/or can they give me a link to try to chase down the answer? On the other hand, maybe this is one of those numbers that is purposely hidden from the Canadian public or difficult to extract for political reasons.

  2. Re-run Breaking News:
    Sandy Rinaldo tasers Craig Oliver in attempted coup at CTV National Headquarters. Lloyd Robertson missing. Fears that he may be in Belize. Hairclub for Men issues plea for calm. RCMP accidentally pepper spray CBC headquarters after dispatcher mixup. Peter Mansbridge tears of joy:
    “I thought you were management. Thank God it was only the police.”
    Don Cherry rumoured to be inside.
    Developing….

  3. vitruvius – I opt for the ‘of questionable character’. For a specific example, here is Bob Rae, on his blog:
    “Our coalition can defeat the Harper government when it returns with a Budget on January 26. We need to continue driving towards bringing down this Prime Minister, who has utterly lost the trust and confidence of Canadians, and of the House of Commons they elected.”
    Notice that the Loyal Opposition declares its intention to defeat a budget without having read it. Notice also, that he ignores the polls that show, as you have outlined, the overwhelming support for Harper and the Conservatives. Instead, he declares that Harper has ‘utterly lost the trust and confidence…blah blah’.
    Then, he says: “We need to work with the majority of citizens of all kinds to bring their will into parliament.”
    Heh – this is from a Coalition that is deliberately set up to prevent it going to be voted on by the electorate; that is set up with the signed agreement from the Bloc that they’ll support it in any confidence vote and thus, utterly ignore any ‘will of the citizens’.This coalition has no intention of asking the citizens what they want – and indeed, is spitting on that will, as expressed in the October election.
    So, yes, of ‘questionable character’ is a, ah, politically correct term for ‘deeply corrupt’.

  4. The problem, ET, is that once I said “anyone”, I couldn’t be too specific in terms of specifying (3), or counter-cases could be found to invalidate my conjecture, so I settled on “of questionable character” as a generic label to characterize an entire taxonomy of misbehaviours. I spent 20 minutes working on what to say after the “(3)”.

  5. The Denver Post explains it thusly;
    [ The newspaper industry has been caught in a tailspin for three years, a trend variously blamed on plummeting ad revenues, declining readership, growing competition from the Internet and a deepening national recession. ] DP
    But their own commenters explain it asteroidly ;
    [ I agree 100% with the previous writer. Newspapers would have more readers if they went back to reporting and leaving advocacy to the editorial pages. Instead they have forced many people like me to seek other avenues for news. You cannot sell advertisements if you are chasing off the majority of your readers with slanted and often unverified reporting. I believe most readers regardless of their political persuasion want to make up their own minds after reading news and do not appreciate biased journalism.]
    http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_11142071

  6. This just in from John Manley in an article at the G&M:
    “As a Liberal, I believe the first step for my party is to replace Stéphane Dion as leader with someone whose first job is to rebuild the Liberal Party, rather than leading a coalition with the NDP.”
    The civil war gains momentum.

  7. If the polls that just came out haven’t destroyed the credibility of the MSM, I don’t know what will. There isn’t one reporter I’m aware of who even dreamed that Canadians would get behind Harper the way they have.
    They’re a bunch of bloody incompetents still prattling on about “Harper’s blunder” even with polls splashed all over the front pages of their newspapers saying otherwise. Talk about tone deaf.

  8. *
    the manley thing gets better than that… “The notion that the public would accept Stephane Dion
    as prime minister, after having resoundingly rejected that possibility a few weeks earlier, was
    delusional at best    .”
    *

  9. BCer … trying to figure out these numbers for you, and I find this hilarious document …. just look at the front page …
    http:/ /cbc.radio-canada.ca/annualreports/2006-2007/pdf/AR0607_e.pdf
    The document contains a financial review for 06/07.

  10. The rough answer looks to be about a third of the billion goes to French programming.

  11. New employment stats during this world wide financial crisis:
    United States in 2008 so far:
    LOSS of 1.9 MILLION jobs.
    Canada in 2008 so far:
    GAIN of 130,000 jobs.
    Thank you PM Harper for warning the country during your 2007 year end address that we were heading for rough times world wide and that is why your government was taking pre-emptive steps.
    No thanks to Liberal John McCullum who ridiculed PM Harper after that address and accused him of fear mongering.
    HEH!!!

  13. Let’s not forget, the three leading candidates to be Liberal leader all accepted the delusional proposition and made a point of saying so, in public, when they could have found something better to do.
    There’s still time for that though.

  14. BCer … here’s the estimates for this year … 1.115b search for “Broadcasting”
    http:/ /www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/est-pre/20082009/me-bd/pub/ME-001_e.PDF

  15. The article below – amazingly prophetic !!
    Is that why Canadians are now running in droves !?
    Check the date this was written;
    ——————————————-
    Bob Rae for Canadian Prime Minister!
    By Judi McLeod
    Tuesday, August 2, 2005
    Some Liberals, knowing that polls show they likely will be returned to majority status come next election, are tired of languishing in minority status. They cringed when Martin was given the nickname “Mr. Dithers” by a prominent magazine.
    Should Bob Rae as Liberal leader replace “Mr. Dithers”, it will be a Red Letter Day for Opposition-deprived Canada.
    Voters will get to see party lines made manifest, that the Liberals are really the NDP and the NDP the Marxists.
    Rather than merely in theory, with their styles out in plain sight, voters are apt to run in droves to the down-in-the-polls Stephen Harper.
    Bob Rae for Prime Minister!
    http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/edesk080205.htm
    ———————————–
    Out with STAY STEPHIE STAY
    In with COME BOBBIE COME

  16. Perhaps Manley could kick Rae in the nards one more time, as I don’t think both nuts were driven out the top of Rae’s head with that soccer kick to the slats.

  17. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I mentioned in the comments at NP at least 3 days ago that our PM has been ahead of us all for weeks now. This will go down as one of the greatest political actions in Canadian history. Total agreement on my part that those who are calling for the PM’s head are off theirs!
    I can’t imagine how any other course of action would have so totally won the day as our fine Prime Minister took. It is now critical that all this separatist nonsense be shut down. (For now) Time to settle down and work toward winning a majority in the election that is hopefully soon to come. We must fight them on the beaches!

  18. Remember Paul Martin’s pitiful pleas to the nation that he just wanted to make parliament work and Canadians don’t want an election and then he even gave Jack Layton a $4 billion bribe to vote him out when Canadians discovered his Liberals had stolen at least $100 million from taxpayers that we know of.
    He whimpered and pleeded on National TV. He begged to be given a chance.
    So, what do the Liberals and their power mongering synchophats do to Stephen Harper?
    They give him less than 2 weeks in parliament to solve all of the problems of the entire world and since he failed they want to take him out.
    There is no moral or ethical or even common sense ground left for the Liberals who have proven power at any cost is their only mantra.

  19. There’s no way the liberals can vote down the budget, that would cause an election, and a conservative majority would occur.
    The question remains, who is going to abstain? We know it will happen.

  21. A decade ago it may have been a stretch to mention Canada and Pravda and Marxism in the same sentence.

  22. Globe & Mail poll result surprising so far.
    Who were the biggest losers, in a political sense, in this week’s parliamentary crisis? 44% for Harper and Conservatives. Wishful thinking, I’d say.
    Harper and Conservatives
    44% 1643 votes
    1643 votes
    Dion and Liberals
    53% 1975 votes
    1975 votes
    Latyon and NDP
    3% 101 votes
    101 votes
    Duceppe and Bloc
    1% 38 votes
    38 votes

  24. Dear Ron in Kelowna,
    Interesting find about the newspapers. I’ve been saying that for years about journalists. If people perceive that news reporting is deliberately skewed then trust diminishes. Do it again & again & again and trust is lost forever.
    Just yesterday I wrote a letter to one Geraldine Baum after she published this: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-canada5-2008dec05,0,3038908.story
    Even a 15 year old could pick out her slant from the facts. I was never rude but yet never heard back from her. Here was my closing paragraph:
    You have no idea how deeply it troubles me, and undoubtedly millions of others, how little respect writers like you have for the once great profession of journalism. At one time there was a clear distinction between “news reporting” and “editorials”. Pieces like yours will serve as perfect examples to historians as to how even a moderate adherence to journalistic ethics became unimportant to “journalists” in the early part of the second millennium. And as a direct result of this, people lost faith in their media outlets to report the news accurately. That loss of faith is killing your profession and ultimately will see you without any employment as a result one day too. Let me proactively offer you my condolences.

  26. Boots at December 6, 2008 12:15 AM
    Of course they’re afraid Boots. They’ve almost got Socialism installed and they don’t want anyone to wake up and say “What’s that!”
    Same deal here in Canada. Layton/Deuceppe/Dion socialist trio have almost got it installed.
    Regards,
    Pat

  27. I can just imagine that harper is about to give us the best buget that the people of this country will have seen in many decades.
    1. Cut the gst by 1%
    2. more tax cuts to help stimulate consumers to buy more inturn produces more taxes to the tax man
    3.0 corprate tax to all new buisnesses for 1 year to help stimulate more jobs for those who lose thier jobs in auto industrie and other sectors
    4.CUT POLITICAL WELFARE
    5.Cuts to bueracracy to save tax payers money on labour that is 60% wasted anyway
    6.Sell all crown corps for the private sector would run them better anyway and tax payers wont have to pay for any more packs of gum
    7.Clip the wing of the G.G
    8.NO MORE MONEY TO THE CBC if they cant make it through advertising and programing then people dont want it any way
    Let the three stooges try to shoot that one down and take it to an election.
    HAHAHAHA
    Good luck

  28. “There’s no way the liberals can vote down the budget, that would cause an election, and a conservative majority would occur.”
    With rational, clear thinking people in charge I’d agree with you allan, but there seems to be no one in the Liberal party who fits that description at the moment.
    I mean, we’re talking here about people who couldn’t figure out, and apparently still can’t, that going to the Canadian people with a proposition while your arm is wrapped around a separatist is the equivalent to showing up and a garden party with a skunk.

  29. This is a bit sad but Karma has struck again. Don Newman has jumped the shark,he thinks he is only stumbling over his gemini awards right now,but in the morning reality will set in. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/12/05/f-vp-newman.html Notice the complete absence of current polling numbers and any judgement of the ethics(?) of the coalition. Don,that is the toilet that your head is resting on,not a senate seat.

  30. Two final notes tonight before I sign out:
    1. I received a very nice, albeit generic letter from Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall today. Though I don’t have permission to post it, let’s just say that his views concur very much with those of Stelmach’s and Campbell’s further west.
    2. I have inside info about Roy Green’s show this weekend, though not from Roy himself. Apparently Roy has been frothing/fuming, ready to unleash a tirade of anger at the Coalition. Wherever you catch Charles Adler’s show during the week, you’ll find Roy’s on Saturday & Sunday!

  31. ron in kelowna,
    It’s no longer the news. It’s opinion.
    Harper “…who has utterly lost the trust and confidence of Canadians, and of the House of Commons they elected.” – Bob Rae’s blog feeding tomorrows Toronto Star front page headline.
    They ignore reality and make their own news. They think their news is reality. And once it’s published it is, for most.
    Nifty trick, don’t you think?
    Except for the damn blogs.

  32. Two comments:
    First, amid the general CBC bashing, let me praise them for one thing they do well – their “Galaxie” music service. On my Rogers cable, I get a choice of many themed music channels – electronic, classical, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, hard rock, folk, world, jazz, ambient and more – all of which are commercial and announcer free. I know I’m paying for it through the CBC tax subsidy (and doubtless a fee to Rogers), but unlike Sirius or XM, I don’t have to buy a special radio to receive it. It’s not a huge thing, but it is nice to have.
    Second, not that many months ago, we were subject here to daily – and lengthy – pieces of quasi-illiterate, pro-Moslem drivel from a troll with a variety of pseudonyms. I started responding with “too long, didn’t read” to every comment. Some people here chastised me for doing so, but we haven’t seen that troll here for some time. I don’t want to indulge in post hoc ergo propter hoc thinking, but if a similar troll pops up in the future, I’m going to respond the same way, and see what happens.

  33. We’re not out of the woods yet. I read Manley’s. article in the Globe
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081205.wcomanley06/BNStory/specialcoment
    He blasts Harper as the one who started it all. The MSM has been pushing that narrative. and the polls show people do believe some of that narrative.
    Manley goes on to say the libs need to elect someone before XMAS to clean up the mess. (him perhaps? – my speculation)
    If he jumps in our boy’s numbers will plummet.
    This is a volatile situation, very emotional for Canadian. We have a temporary respite that could easily swing back just as hard with the right liberal in place.
    JD

  36. The old cliche is literally true, true, and true: shooting the shooting of the shooting messenger is da poof.
    (H/T Marshall McLuhan said that first.)
    The “veteran”, Mick Gzowski, son of the CBC’s “icon” Peter Gzowski, has been fired.
    >>>> Mick’s mother is (was?) Citoyen Dion’s English-language teacher.
    How does Citoyen pronounce Gzowski?
    “A staffer said Mr. Dion and his team have lost the confidence not only of the Liberal caucus but also of Liberal staff.
    “I am a f—ing Liberal and I don’t think they’re competent enough to run the government,” the staffer said.”
    …-
    “Source: Liberals to fire videographer”
    “On Friday, Liberal sources said, she [Johanne Senecal, Mr. Dion’s chief of staff] moved to fire Mick Gzowski, the party’s veteran videographer.”
    http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/1094499.html
    …-
    Here is another who should be fired:
    “No winners after week of unnecessary hell
    Don MArtin: Incredibly, it was only a week ago today that negotiators from all three opposition parties gathered in an Ottawa hotel suite to midwife a Liberal-led coalition aimed at taking down the six-week-old Conservative government” (nnw)

  37. “The man is fundamentally goofy.”
    Who whom?
    Googoo serves up “goofy”.
    Give Rasp some traffic>
    The Daily Rasp: Coalition Deathwatch 2
    5 Dec 2008 … The man is fundamentally goofy. Posted by thedailyrasp at 4:47 PM. Labels: LaDrew National Post Dion Liberals Canada politics Jean Chretien …
    thedailyrasp.blogspot.com/2008/12/coalition-deathwatch-2.html

  39. CBC declares Krista and Me and CBC not biasssed.
    Cue the LaughTrack: “CBC’s office of the ombudsman, an independent body,”.
    Fire. Them. All.
    …-
    “CBC ombudsman clears reporter
    By ROB NAY, SUN MEDIA
    The Winnipeg Sun
    A review of a CBC journalist previously based in Winnipeg has cleared her of bias allegations.
    CBC’s office of the ombudsman, an independent body, released a review of journalist Krista Erickson amidst allegations from federal Tories that she supplied questions to Liberals in Ottawa during the Mulroney-Schreiber hearings.”

  40. In late 2007, I raised the question of how Muslims would respond to Barack Obama, a born Muslim, were he elected president of the United States. Well, that has happened and this weblog entry reviews some prominent and interesting voices on this topic.
    Convert to Islam or Else: An Egyptian Islamist, Hassan Abu Al-Ashbal, launched a three-part appeal to Obama: convert or do what we want – or else.
    Courtesy of Daniel Pipes weblog…

  42. You can quote all the polls you want, vitrivial, when your dear leader turns tail and runs. You can extrapolate seat numbers till the cows come home, pc guy, after the pantload you worship has shut down democracy.
    “Silencing the voice of MPs elected by Canadians, shutting down the House of Commons and continuing to cling on to power when you’ve lost the confidence of that house is not democracy.”

  43. Spector highlights a wonderful editorial by Andre Pratte of La Presse. It puts the lie to the comment that calling the Boc Seperatist is not Anti Quebec.
    Best quote, and one that shoudl be emblazoned in the PMO
    “Refusing to bow to all our paradoxes is not to reject Québec.”
    It’s ok to say you dont want Seperatists to hold the balance of power, you arent being a bigot, you arent being “anti quebec”, there is nothing wrong with what has been said to date. Just dont expect the paradoxes to go away, you just arent forced to accept them yourselves.

  44. The ‘coalition’s mode of operation silence all MPs except for those in the Bloc. The coalition sets up the Bloc, made up of MPs who are electorally out of reach of over 80% of the electorate, as the sole vetting Agent in the House.
    This reduces the votes of ALL other MPs to irrelevance. All that counts is that Vetting Power.
    Furthermore, the coalition does not put this arrangement to the people of Canada in a full election; they simply set it up by themselves, via backroom deals, using our money as bribes, offering Senate seats and cabinet positions. This is an abuse of not only the electorate but also of the parliamentary system.
    Because something IS, ie, because there is nothing in the Constitution that says that you CAN’T do this, does not mean that you OUGHT to do it (famous distinction between Is and Ought).
    The coalition’s denial of the Canadian electorate’s October vote, their refusal to put their coalition to the vote – is an abuse of the electorate.
    Their coalition package, in itself, held together by a party out of the reach of the majority of Canadians, and with a signed agreement not to vote against confidence Motions..even before knowing the content of those Motions..is an abuse of our parliamentary system.
    The Coalition is a totalitarian proposal and deeply violates the principles of democracy.

  45. Hey Manny, what day next week was Parliament scheduled to adjourn for their 6 week Xmas break. Wed? Thurs?

  46. Manny,
    Sorry your team wasnt able to pull it off. But the government will still present a budget and you can vote on it. Isn’t it in the interests of all Canadians that a budget, which is what this whole thing was about, be presented and voted on.
    While I know you are certain that an election wasn’t going to be called it might be….I look forward to the argument that an election isnt democratic.
    Happy Holidays, make sure you tlak to your MP and make sure you contribute before Dec 31 and after Jan 1 to your favourite political party, assuming you do that kind of thing.

  48. ET. It is 2008. I’m sure there is medication out there that would treat your particular kind of dementia.

  50. Roundup the Separatist Coalition.
    Down the Separatist Coalition.
    Long live Canada.
    God Bless Stephen Harper.
    …-
    From Daily Blogger:
    “# Joe Molnar Says:
    December 6th, 2008 at 11:01 am
    MSM blame Harper for percipitating a national crisis with the ” fiscal update”.
    If anyone thinks it was a mistake rather than a plan they should reconsider.
    Harper must have had inside info early on to the machinations of the Bloc and the Layton ND’s, immediately after the minority situation resulted.
    Removing the taxpayer funding from political parties would drive the other parties instantly to a coalition, simply because of their financial need and self preservation.
    Denying the civil service union the right to strike was another factor.
    Pushing the Libs, Nd’s and Bloc immediately into a coalition was a master stroke , thereby moving them into far leftist territory ,and the country at at the mercy as it turns out of the separatist Bloc.
    The GG had two choices, if the conservatives where defeated, call an election or prorogue parliament until a budget is presented.
    The coalition option would have been ( and still will be ) the beginning of the end of Canada, based on Western Canada seeking separation. The petions are already out there.
    Not only that, since all three leftist parties all propose universal day care funding (a communist notion) among other leftist planks, essentially thay are (all three) by ideology communists.
    Giving Canada it’s first coalition communist government!!
    # Lee Says:
    December 6th, 2008 at 11:39 am
    Joe Molnar, I think it went back farther.
    I believe that Mr. Harper saw the formation of this coalition and thats why he called the October election, hoping to get a majority and put an end to this nonsense.
    Anyway, for whatever reasons, whats done is done, and its time to take the long view.
    How are we to vote now, knowing that a coalition could be formed at any time?
    It seems to me that in order to put some sanity into our democracy, we need legislation to say that we cannot have a change in Government without going to the people.”
    http://jacksnewswatch.com/2008/12/06/daily-blogger-saturday-december-6th-2008/

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