As the media and political adversaries begin to spew charges of “intolerance” towards the Conservatives – “intolerance” towards abortion, “intolerance” of homosexuality, and yesterday, “intolerance” of the Metis – I predict that during this coming week, they’ll be reviving the anti-Reform rhetoric charging out and out racism.
And through it all, momentum continues to build. Canwest is reporting that the Conservatives may be within striking distance of a majority government, if poll trends prove accurate.
Paul Martin’s Liberals would do well to consider that the majority of Canadians oppose gay marriage and aren’t nearly as supportive of our no-holds barred abortion policy (Canada has no laws at all governing abortion) as left wing activists would have you believe. Being profiled as an “extremist, intolerant bigot” isn’t likely to convince the majority of Canadians who have quite reasonable objections to abortion and gay marriage to vote for you.

Putin is blunt about Democrat hypocrisy at the G8 summit

Russian President Vladimir Putin stepped into the U.S. political campaign on Thursday, saying the Democrats had “no moral right” to criticize President Bush over Iraq.
The Kremlin leader, answering a reporter’s question in Sea Island, Georgia, suggested that the Democrats were two-faced in criticizing Bush on Iraq since it had been the Clinton administration that authorized the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia by U.S. and NATO forces.
The reporter had asked Putin to respond to U.S. press articles questioning Russia’s place at the G8 feast of leading industrial countries.
Putin brushed these off, saying such articles were part of an internal U.S. political debate.
He went on: “I am deeply convinced that President Bush’s political adversaries have no moral right to attack him over Iraq because they did exactly the same.
“It suffices to recall Yugoslavia. Now look at them. They don’t like what President Bush is doing in Iraq.

hat tip – The Commisar

Steven Taylor has an amusing collection of past punditry about Reagan from the 80’s this morning.

Secret plot by the Tories and Liberals to rig key ridings in 2000 election?

Just when it seemed federal politics couldn’t get any sleazier, Sun Media has learned that a group of powerful Tory and Liberal backroom operatives secretly conspired to bolster the Grit national campaign and skew the results in a number of ridings in the last federal election. Two weeks before Jean Chretien called the country to the polls in October 2000, reliable sources say, a small group of top Tory officials cut a secret deal to help Chretien’s ultimately successful national campaign for a third majority government.
In return, the Liberals agreed to throw the vote in the Calgary Centre riding of then Tory leader Joe Clark.
In what may have been a series of similar deals, sources say the Tories also agreed to “stand down” to help Liberal Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan hang on to her Edmonton seat, which she won by only 733 votes.
…
Clark had entered the campaign with abysmal polling numbers pointing to an almost certain defeat.
Instead, the former Tory leader won by 4,304 votes after a bizarre campaign in which a group called “Liberals for Clark” suddenly popped up from nowhere to back him.

It might help explain that “devil we know” endorsement of Martin by Clark a few weeks ago.
hat tip – An American in TO

A story I picked up while in Fargo – and realized it’s not been mentioned elsewhere. The latest polls out in Minnesota (May 31), show Bush in a statistical dead heat with John Kerry in that state.
Minnesota hasn’t voted Republican in 30 years.

Former public works minister under Chretien, and former ambassador to “get him the hell out of here” Denmark Alfonso Gagliano has been implicated in another scandal alleging undocumented contract awards. This time it’s the Canadian Space Agency with missing millions.
Last week, Gagliano did something most people wouldn’t have expected – he filed a lawsuit for $4.5 million against Prime Minister Paul Martin and the Gov’t of Canada, for damage to his reputation.
Hmmmmm…. I wonder what he’s up to. Here’s a scenerio to consider – imagine a crowded courtroom, Galiano on the stand, testifying to a “chain of Liberal command” in the Adscam affair.
Blowing it all wide open, and on his terms.
I suspect that might just send some scurrying to find ways to keep that from happening. An out of court settlement? I’m no lawyer, but something tells me that prosecuting a former minister on criminal charges would be very difficult if he already had a civil settlement in hand.
“It would be irresponsible to spend taxpayers dollars on a lengthy and unproductive trial.”
And what better way to get even with Paul Martin, than to have that settlement in hand, or alternately, to bring a network of prominent Liberals down with him. Either way, the Martin Liberals lose. And if the gamble pays off, Gagliano might just walk away, giving Chretien his get out-of-Adscam-free card.
And revenge.

Andrew Coyne is back, but his blog doesn’t seem to work that well in Opera and even worse in Mozilla. But he had something to say today about the backtracking of Liberals on promise making, and the non-consequences of promise breaking.

Mr. McGuinty responded by suggesting he was not banking on Mr. Martin’s $9- billion health care plan — the centrepiece in his platform — as it was just “a campaign promise.” Mr. Martin raised the ante, insisting that a politician should only promise what he can do, and “whatever you say you’re going to do, do.” Stung, Mr. McGuinty chose this week to announce that he would bring in a bill setting fixed election dates, so that “never again will a premier have the ability to set election dates when it is politically opportune for the government.” Wait a minute: are you saying that Mr. Martin… ?
All hugely entertaining, as I say — almost as good as the debate between Jean Lapierre and Jean Lapierre. But not so much fun for Mr. Martin. Things had deteriorated to such a point that by week’s end the Prime Minister was forced to issue a new promise: that he would keep his promises. If he had not kept at least three of them within two years, he told reporters, he would resign. This raises all sorts of interesting epistemological questions. What does he do if he doesn’t keep that promise? Kill himself?

Mr. Coyne goes on to ask ” How do we hold politicians to their promises?”, and tosses around ideas for a “Truth In Politics” law.
Unfortunately, that would require politicians pass such a law. Absent a coup by Preston Manning, that’s unlikely in the extreme. But there is recall – which has the additional selling point of being flexible enough to remedy the incompetent and/or dishonest.
Or, failing that…

“Stephen Harper has been clear about his plan for Canada. He has said over and over, and again this past week, that his intention is to reduce taxes until they are lower than those in the United States.” — Liberal Leader Paul Martin, Rideau Hall, May 23, 2004.

A year or so ago, I was talking provincial politics with a friend in the Saskatchewan government. She made what I thought was a strange statement – that women in Saskatchewan didn’t “trust” the conservative SaskParty leader Elwin Hermanson. There was no further attempt to explain what this meant – just a blanket statement that he wasn’t “trusted”.
I wondered, trust as in “trust to do”? Trust not to do? Trust with your wallet? Trust in a dark alley? I didn’t ask at the time, and I should have – how do you even know this? Polling? And what prompted the governing NDP to ask such a undefined question in the first place?
The NDP had been push polling, of course – seeding a meme into the voting public, to draw upon later during a campaign. When the election was called, the local media fell in line, making the never defined “trust” question part of their own coverage of the election.
Well, the trust meme has already surfaced in the federal election, and on cue, it’s being pushed by the media.
It’s astonishingly counterintuitive – in view of the arrests and premature shutdown of the ADSCAM hearings, the biggest scandal in Canadian government history. Yet it doesn’t stop CTV’s Lloyd Roberston and Tom Clark from raising the “do Canadians trust” question when referring to Conservative Stephen Harper, in the guise of political analysis.
Harper is going to have to find a way to respond to this without defensiveness, that throws attention back on the question itself – to draw a white hot circle around the bigotry of a media and Liberal default position that suggests that “Western Canadians can’t be trusted”.
He went part way yesterday with his response to the media questions after the election call, and is being widely quoted;

“You know, in this country, you can be a Canadian without being a Liberal. The government seems to forget that. That’s why they need to be defeated. “It’s that kind of arrogance that leads to the waste, mismanagement and corruption we’ve seen.”

Not a bad start. We’ll need more of this.

It’s officially official. The election call will be made tomorrow. Martin is heading to the polls with an Ontario base angry at broken election promises by the provincial Liberals, ADSCAM’s wrapup was ugly and unconvincing, and Quebec support for Liberals is collapsing in favour of the Blok. The West? Still hates ’em and the announcement about insignificant changes to the gun registry won’t have earned anything more than cynicism.

Who knows why he’s determined to go now. My suspicious nature suggests there is more to learn on the ADSCAM front, or ominous signs for the economy ahead. Or some known unknown? Not much else makes sense. Speaking of which, how may photos do you think they shuffled through at the Ottawa Citizen before they settled on this one? Heh.

Presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry is hinting that he may continue to presume, and not accept the nomination at the Dem convention in July. A delay would allow him to avoid campaign spending limits. (At what point does presumption become assumption, with its associated peril?)
Bill Quick is running a bumper sticker contest. My favorites so far;

John Kerry once made $750 million by saying “I DO”
Now he’ll make $75 million by saying “I DON’T!
BrINg 200 MillIOn DoLlaRs iN UmArkEd BiLLs oR I wOn’t AccEPt tHe NomInatiOn – AnOnYmous

Heh. If lowly blog commentors are coming up with stuff this good, the late night talk shows will have a field day.

Moron.

Even the Flames are having a hard time getting used to the attention that comes with being on the A-list. Flames president Ken King thought it was a crank call when his cellphone rang in the final minutes of Wednesday’s 3-1 victory over the Sharks and he was told it was Prime Minister Paul Martin’s office.
“I said, ‘Yeah, I’m Daffy Duck and I’ve got a hockey game to watch here’ and I hung up,” King said yesterday.

Well, duh.
(Tickets to the Calgary games for the Stanley Cup finals sold out in 90 seconds.)

And the Democrats let him get away.

“Most Democrats and Republicans, including President Bush and Sen. Kerry, agree that we must successfully finish what we have started in Iraq. Now is the time for all who share that goal to make our agreement publicly clear, to stress what unites us. Many argue that we can only rectify the wrongs done in the Iraqi prisons if Donald Rumsfeld resigns. I disagree. Unless there is clear evidence connecting him to the wrongdoing, it is neither sensible nor fair to force the resignation of the secretary of defense, who clearly retains the confidence of the commander in chief, in the midst of a war. I have yet to see such evidence. Secretary Rumsfeld’s removal would delight foreign and domestic opponents of America’s presence in Iraq.”

And this from John Kerry’s left-hand man;

Shamefully we now learn that Saddam’s torture chambers reopened under new management, U.S. management.”

How much less “polarized” and how much more secure would America (and arguably, Iraq) be today, had Joe Lieberman been the presumtive nominee? Americans would have had a sane and rational choice to make between two serious men, who understand that there is a fundamental difference between torture practiced as state policy and torture practiced as punishable criminal activity.
Ted Kennedy cannot tell the difference. And in not officially distancing himself from the elder senator and denouncing his statement, John Kerry is revealing that, at his core, he is still the man who came back from Vietnam to falsely accuse those he served with of committing criminal acts, before Congress, to serve his own political ends.

The Canada Health Act meets Indian Self Government.
Toronto Star editorial:

“In this latest attempt to do an end run on medicare rules, the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation plans to build the clinic on land it owns in Saskatoon. The band has teamed with European investors to build the clinic, which will offer magnetic resonance imaging to paying customers. The Saskatchewan government objects because it sees this scheme for what it is: An attempt to breach the Canada Health Act by introducing two-tier medicine in the province. But the province fears it is powerless to stop it. First Nations, such as the Muskeg Lake Cree, are exempt from provincial rules. Aboriginal-run medical facilities do not have to live by the health act, which forbids queue-jumping for those who can afford to pay for medical service. So, it’s over to Ottawa. Health Minister Pierre Pettigrew and the rest of the federal cabinet should put a stop to this immediately.”

Get the popcorn.

Mark Cameron neatly ties together the developments in Adscam today.

Chuck Guit� and Jean Brault, President of Groupaction, have been arrested on fraud charges related to $2 million worth of communications contracts for the firearms registry. Two grassy knoll-ish thoughts cross my mind. First, it’s interesting how the Liberal scandals seem to be coming together. You half expect it to come out in discovery that Guit� and Brault planned their fraud over a round of golf on Jean Chr�tien’s Shawinigan golf course followed by drinks at the Auberge Grand-M�re. Second, and more seriously, it’s interesting how the RCMP investigation seemed to proceed at exactly the speed necessary for Liberal election timing. This allows the government to quietly bury the Public Accounts Committee inquiry, say that arrests have been made and action is being taken, and refuse to answer further questions for fear of interfering in a police investigation.
If one had confidence that the RCMP were an entirely impartial, non-political police force, these kinds of unworthy thoughts would not cross our mind. But given the fact that Giuliano Zaccardelli has shown himself to be a political initimate of the current government, and that the RCMP itself has been implicated in Adscam, you can’t help but wonder whether the RCMP and the government colluded on timing (or if the RCMP just decided to speed things up as a pre-election gift for Martin). Remember that Liberal Quebec lieutenant asked for arrests to be made in advance of the election only a few weeks ago

Not an unworthy thought at all. News story here.

Mr. Kenney, who has in the past boasted of his virginity, said the only business Mr. Gagliano conducted on the trip to Italy was to rub shoulders with Ms. Lollobrigida, whom he called an “aging sex kitten.”
Mr. Kenney’s mispronunciation of the famous actress’s name led to cat calls from the Liberal bench. Human Resources Minister Joe Volpe, who was born in Italy, even called Mr. Kenney an “idiot.”
Through howls of laughter, Mr. Kenney later apologized if he offended anyone in “the aging sex kitten community.”

Sheila Copps could not be reached for comment. Then of course, nobody tried.

After witnessing the bizarre behavior of Bob Kerrey and Air America’s mentally challenged Janeanne Garafalo on the moonbat parade that the Daily Show with Jon Stewart has become (last night a mention of Noam Chomsky drew wild audience applause that surprised even Stewart) , I’m tempted to email and suggest he have John O’Neill on as a guest.
Does Stewart – who has taken to ridiculing military losses in Iraq, while guffawing Chomsky admirers affirm his wit – have the balls to bring someone on his show who both served with and has openly challenged the fitness of John F. Kerry to serve as Commander In Chief?
I suspect not.
But, I think this would be a worthy internet challenge to mount. Email the Daily Show here.
Update: – Oh, dear…..

Perhaps there’s another explanation for Bob Kerrey’s loose and expletive deleted performance on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.

When Bob Kerrey, one of the panel’s most outspoken members, left early for an appointment (as did commission vice chairman Lee Hamilton), Bush called out to him as he was leaving and told Kerrey, “Keep your spirits up.” Some thought Bush was alluding to Kerrey’s especially “spirited” recent appearance on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show…

“An aide says campaign surveys show Kerry remains unfamiliar; many voters don’t know he saw Vietnam combat.”

Pollster: “Were you aware presumptive Democratic nominee John F. Kerry served in Vietnam?”
Respondant: “No….. You don’t say?”
Pollster: “Were you aware presumptive Democratic nominee John F. Kerry served in Vietnam?”
Respondant: “No… I was under a rock for the past year.”
Pollster: “Were you aware presumptive Democratic nominee John F. Kerry served in Vietnam?”
Respondant: “Does a bear shit in the Vatican?”
…
Pollster: “Is that a no?”

John Ibbotson writes yesterday in the Globe And Mail;

With yesterday’s landmark speech, Paul Martin tacitly acknowledged what Canada’s foreign policy establishment has refused to accept for decades: that the United Nations is a failure, for which there is no solution.

[If this had been Stephen Harper, the press would have been falling all over themselves to condemn questioning the existance of the UN as “scary and extremist” ]

The Prime Minister’s proposed alternative is a new international body, the G-20 summit of world leaders, representative of North and South, developed and developing, rich and poor: a working group unfettered by the UN’s bureaucracy and its anachronistic Security Council.
It is a bold, though perhaps unworkable plan. But however it is ultimately greeted by the world community, Mr. Martin’s proposal at least recognizes and sets out to correct a fundamental flaw in Canadian foreign policy, one that has left us hostage to a dysfunctional world body whose interests are often irrelevant to Canada’s.

I think there may be another reason. With Adscam wearing down the Liberal fortunes, Martin may be worried about the looming UNSCAM investigation steamrolling into the media news cycle during a federal election, and is trying to distance himself from the multi-billion dollar financial scandal that parallels his own.