…it’s exactly the kind of place he detests on a personal level: rural; conservative; Christian; gun-owning; Ukrainian.

h/t Maz2

Ezra wants him fired.

Let’s take this one step at a time.
The CBC’s pollster of record is major Liberal donor. He plots out strategies to beat the Conservatives. And he gives that strategic advice to the Liberals in private — a fact that we only learn about because he blabbed about it to Martin.
Yet Graves appears on the CBC not as a “Liberal pollster” or “Liberal strategist” or “Liberal donor” or “Liberal”, but as the CBC’s trustworthy, neutral, reliable, independent analyst, who cares only about enlightening viewers.
What a scandal.
Could you imagine if the CBC were to hire a Tory strategist as their chief Parliamentary correspondent — while secretly allowing him to continue to work for the Conservatives, and donate thousands upon thousands of dollars to them?
It’s too absurd to even ask the question.

More at Bourque.

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Michael Ignatieff, 2010 – “I don’t want to make false accusations but you don’t get cocaine at a corner drug store, right? You have to get it from somewhere, from someone and usually that means organized crime.”
Canadian Press, 2004 – Authorities suggest organized crime is behind an attempt to transport cocaine using the Sheila Ann, a ship operated by Canada Steamship Lines, the company Prime Minister Paul Martin transferred control of to his three sons last year.
h/t Stephen

Let’s hear some names.

“As I said before; they have real options, a real chance to outflank the conservatives…”

Every time I think of this young parliamentarian I feel a twinge of sadness for the substitute teaching community and “what might have been”.

TRUDEAU: Shelly, you went to an election campaign…
GLOVER: Can I finish? Would you mind if I finished, because I certainly didn’t interrupt you Justin Trudeau.
TRUDEAU: Shelly, you’re totally…
GLOVER: I would like to finish if that’s okay.
GLOVER: You need a leader. And your leader didn’t even hang around after a failed motion that divided your party.
TRUDEAU: You’re ridiculous.

More, from Canada’s best known member of the Lucky Y-Chromosome Club.

“I don’t think my troops are shooting at me,” he said…
(Retitled and bumped.)
Ouuuuuuch!

h/t Orville

Heh.

Learning the wrong lessons from Adscam.

Lorne Gunter; (link fixed)

But let’s assume for a moment that the goal of campaign equity is both attainable and desirable. How can it be achieved if the arbiters of our elections -Elections Canada -appear bent on favouring some parties and prosecuting others?

Flashback – “Shortly after the results of the investigation [of questionable Liberal donations] began to make its way onto the pages of major publications, Elections Canada pulled down the database search function and replaced it with a version that renders the site useless.”

Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Winnipeg Free Press, Feb.4th – I’m left wondering why it seems three trained daycare staff members can’t count to 11.
Toronto Sun, Feb.1st – I’m left wondering why it seems a Harvard trained professor can’t count to -56B.

Laws are for the little people.
Update: “Still waiting for the Libranos to get back to us on this.”

h/t Mel and Wally J.

Really, where better to start?
Someone really needs to get him on the record answering that question. (Just think of the photo op … “Prime Minister Michael Ignatieff at the Morgentaler Clinic, Port-Au-Prince ribbon cutting”.)

“Your responsibility is to show up ’cause it’s your country. So, if you don’t show up, someone else will show up.” – Michael Ignatieff

Bonus Independent* Student Sighting: Romina Siddiqui, 21, a fourth-year economics student, said Ignatieff’s appearance was “very inspiring.”

Rex reminds the incestuous class why nobody cares;

Both parties — both — seem sublimely uninhibited when it comes to walking around, suspending or flouting parliamentary (or other) conventions when political advantage is at stake. And both, in large and small matters — from the squawks of Question Period to the unfailing partisan intemperance of most parliamentary committees — seem to have little to zero regard for “Parliament’s reputation” when a Parliament is actually in session.

Andrew Coyne…

I had thought the feeling of nausea that washed over me at the news was one of disgust. I now realize it was vertigo. The bottom has fallen out of Canadian politics. There are, quite literally, no rules any more, no boundaries, no limits. We are staring into an abyss, where everything is permissible.

…. in 2005.

The War Room strikes again!

The Liberal party made a light-hearted attempt Tuesday to poke fun at Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to impose a three-month parliamentary vacation and wound up instead raising questions about the whereabouts of holidaying Grit Leader Michael Ignatieff.

h/t Dean

Hard hit by the voter imposed ban on paper bags;

Six MPs who ran for the Liberal leadership in 2006 — including eventual winner Stéphane Dion — have missed the year-end deadline to repay loans made to their campaigns, the party says.
Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand in 2008 granted the candidates 18-month extensions to pay off debts, but the party admits tough economic times and the recurring possibility of another election meant they couldn’t meet the date.
Dion and MPs Gerard Kennedy, Martha Hall-Findlay, Maurizio Bevilacqua, Joe Volpe and Hedy Fry were all given extensions that expired on New Year’s Eve.

Century XIII Quatrain 1
His time is up.
Ballots, debates, wild smoke,
Rage and fury throughout every province.
Tears, cries, never times so bitter.
Century XIII Quatrain 2
The czarist prince near the Lakeshore of Etobicoke
Will return in true patriot love.
Going beyond the thoughful ones will draw up a plan.
Rae, LeBlanc, Trudeau, a man in a mask. Others.
Century XIII Quatrain 3
Natural governors prevail:
The brown bag holds the secret.
Banquets offered by day,
Granaries plundered at night.
Century XIII Quatrain 4
The angry barbarian King will be driven west, vanquished.
The people tried by frost,
Women and youth weeping.
The cabinet remains a mystery.
Century XIII Quatrain 5
From the top of the Hill a voice heard,
Be gone, be gone all of you on both sides.
The anger will be appeased by the blood of the blue ones:
From Abbott to Zarac, necks burning in sun, expelled.
Century XIII Quatrain 6
The King and his court in the place of cunning tongue,
Within the temple facing the palace:
In the garden the Dukes of Charest and Dumont dagger tongue.
The scribes rejoice.
Century XIII Quatrain 7
True patriot will sound the trumpet.
Ten ships nearby will turn to drive it back.
Great war ends, the united ones to join in faith.
Through peace he will attain to the empire.
Century XIII Quatrain 8
Near the end of two centuries and eight, governed to its greatest detriment, plundered:
The barbarians may evade the executioner.
Consumed by vapours, great enemy of the entire human race: crazy shithouse rats.
Never were the people so wronged.
Century XIII Quatrain 9
The Gardens at Stanley and Halifax harbours will flood so high
That they will believe the Goracle reborn.
Into the colossal storms the Baird will flee,
Great white ones drowning enrage the people.
Century XIII Quatrain 10
For the war room one, walls will be converted from brick to marble.
Seven and fifty pacific years,
Joy to mortals, the aquaduct renewed,
Health, abundance of fruits, joy and mellifluous times.
From The Quatrains: December 31, 2008

“Ignatieff’s Liberals sink to a new low”

Looks like someone forgot to cleanse thoroughly.
h/t Maz2