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Blog of Adam Daifallah -- author, journalist, law student. Lover of politics, writing, golf, curling, fitness, fashion, bacon and maple products -- not necessarily (but probably) in that order. Partisan of the Anglosphere. Contact me via email at adam@daifallah.com. This summer I am joined by Keir Wilmut and Omar Soliman.
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
Rod Roddy, RIP
Rod Roddy, the guy who told "The Price is Right" contestants to "Come on down!!!" all these years, has died of cancer. I'm sad about this. I used to love watching The Price is Right as a kid when I was home sick and I thought Roddy was really neat and funny. Especially cool were the outlandish outfits that he would wear. May he rest in peace.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 6:11 PM
Amiel on fire
Just back from the Maccabi Canada dinner in honour of producer Robert Lantos of Alliance Atlantis. (sat the National Post's table!). VIPs on hand included runner Donovan Bailey, figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, former Ontario Premier David Peterson, Norman Jewison, Atom Egoyan, Moses Znamier and Lord and Lady Black. Mrs. Black (Babara Amiel) was the keynote speaker and gave what I think is probably the most spectacular display of oratorical genius I have seen. She literally had me in a trance throughout her entire 15-20 minute speech on anti-Semitism. I hope I can get a copy of it and post it, but I'm not too optimistic.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:03 AM
Friday, October 24, 2003
If only they had gone along
News tonight that the Orchardites (the federal Tory members opposed to merger with the Alliance) will take their fight to the courts to stop conservative unity. This is an unfortunate but unsurprising development.
This news rekindled memories of my time in the federal Tory party, especially the events of the fall 1999 annual meeting, held in Toronto. At that AGM, a critical mass of young Tories tried to shift the party's course, which we thought was heading in the wrong direction under the leadership of Joe Clark. One thing that made us particularly uneasy was Clark's embrace of David Orchard, the man whom he had defeated a few months earlier for the party leadership (Clark, during the leadership race, had even called Orchard a "tourist" in the the party.) We wanted Orchard out. His main goal was to return the Tories to its pre-Mulroney position of opposing trade liberalization with America, so we proposed an amendment to the PC party constitution that would have enshrined support for free trade in the aims and principles of the party. The motion was defeated on the floor of the convention. While the majority of delegates supported free trade, they voted against the amendment (The main excuse I recall hearing was "I support free trade, but party policy has no place in a party's constitution.")
I wonder now if that resolution had in fact passed whether all this Orchard trouble would have been avoided. I guess we'll never know.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:25 PM
Wednesday, October 22, 2003
State of P.R.
Today I have another piece up on National Review Online, this one about the State Department's spinning on the Iraq situation, otherwise known as the Colin Powell image rehabilitation project. Go here to read it.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:17 AM
Tuesday, October 21, 2003
Malaysian PM repeats
You know this would be more offensive if it weren't so sad. This guy is obviously so pathetic and in need of help. I have not seen too many public condemnations by groups such as the Arab League, have you? Nice work by Chretien shaking hands with the guy, too.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 4:00 PM
Saturday, October 18, 2003
Merger Mania
The "unite the right issue" dominates the news in Canada again today. The Saturday editions of the paper are chock-full of coverage. Both the Post and Globe had really excellent profiles of Belinda Stronach, the Magna International Inc. CEO, and her role in making this happen.
Due to my obvious biases, I particularly like the lead editorial in today's National Post.
It is vitally important for pro-unity members of both parties to join the other party to make this go through. It is most important for CAers to join the Tories, however, as they have a much bigger fight on their hands.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 5:09 PM
Friday, October 17, 2003
Thursday, October 16, 2003
Joe Clark, not a conservative
Joe Clark is the best proof living of the old adage that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Today Mr. Clark publicly announced he is opposed to the deal to merge the PC and Alliance parties. This is not a surprise. Joe has never supported creating a single conservative party because he is still stuck in the 1980s. I feel sorry for Mr. Clark. He's so out of touch, it's kind of sad.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:10 PM
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
Calder's hubris
Just saw the Liberal MP for Dufferin-Peel-Wellington-Grey, Murray Calder, proclaim on CBC that voters will reject the new merged conservative party because when they go to the polls they'll say "if it ain't broke, no need to fix it." I love it. This is exactly the kind of arrogance that is going to cost Liberals like Mr. Calder his seat in the next election.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:13 PM
Right to Unite
After years of toil and sweat, the right is (apparently) uniting. This is a really memorable day. It still hasn't sunk in yet. We must resist the temptation to declare victory too early, however, as both parties must approve this deal in a grassroots vote. The Tories may have a battle on their hands, with David Orchard and his cronies sure to get organized to kill this.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 7:47 PM
Harper MacKay: Rule yourselves out of running for leader
Much ink has been spilled on the subject of uniting the right in Canada. There is (was?)apparently a desire for the leaders of the two parties, Peter MacKay and Stephen Harper, to meet again early this week to see if anything can be done to salvage this. They have not yet met, but I hope they do and that they can hash something out – both men have invested far too much stock in this process to have it fail now. If it does fail, the credibility of both parties will be shot. It has to go through.
It looks like one of the main problems is that they are both trying to get some kind of tactical advantage over one another. In Harper’s case, I think it’s because he wants to run for leader of the new party. Both of these men should put the good of the conservative movement, their parties and the country itself ahead of their ambition and rule themselves out of the running for the top job in a new party. This would remove any doubt that these negotiations are being done in good faith.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:53 AM
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