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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, December 29, 2004
Is Dennis Prager right?
From his New Year's wish list column today:
Wish No. 5: All those Americans who said they would move to Canada if George W. Bush were re-elected will do so.
A number of Americans announced that if President Bush were re-elected, they would move to Canada. This is a fine idea -- for them, for Canada and for America. Canada (outside of Quebec) shares our language and is within driving distance of most Americans, yet is becoming completely European in its values -- secular, leftist, socialist, pro-redefining marriage, anti-military, pro-UN. American leftists would feel much more at home there. And Canada would love to have them. It is the most sparsely populated country in the world; they seek immigrants; and Americans already speak the language. Moreover, it is not terribly cold everywhere in Canada, even in winter. Americans who hate George W. Bush should give it some thought. And while we're wishing, let those Canadians who believe in Judeo-Christian values, fighting for freedom, small government and marriage involving a man and a woman move here. Then we can have two affluent countries sharing the same land mass and language develop each according to its values and see which produces a better place.
From a purely non-emotional, logical perspective, this idea actually makes some sense.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:54 PM
Friday, December 24, 2004
It's Christmas Eve!
This may well be the last post until after Christmas so Happy Holidays to all and if you live in Ontario -- be safe!
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:18 AM
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Going tab?
Sorry posting has been light - I'm away from my fast Internet connection so there's been little ability or time to post. If you have a sec, check out this story for a glimpse into the probable next phase of Canada's newspaper war.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:59 PM
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Sign me up
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Blunkett takes a dive
David Blunkett, the British home secretary, has resigned after a laundry list of scandals, the latest of which was the discovery of an email showing he tried to fast-track a visa application for his ex-lover's nanny.
Ummm, hello Judy Sgro?
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 3:29 PM
The strange case of Bernard Kerik
Seems it was more than an illegal nanny that ruined his bid for Homeland Security secretary.
Kerik was evidently having an affair with publishing titan Judith Regan. According to this article he was also having a second affair (his actual wife was pregnant at the time) and he was also using on-duty NYPD officers to help him write his memoirs.
I'm glad this guy is not going to be in President Bush's cabinet. It would have caused a major embarassment if all this stuff had come out after the fact. Kerik ought to remain in private life, it seems.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:34 AM
Monday, December 13, 2004
Harper redeems himself ...
... a bit
He has a good article in today's Financial Post, responding to Terrence Corcoran's recent piece attacking the Conservatives.
Why didn't Harper respond with this originally, instead of the strange letter to the editor from last week, discussed below? It's a mystery.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:36 PM
Sunday, December 12, 2004
Naresh and Priya
Continuing this blog's tradition of posting personal items now and then, here is a picture from the engagement party for my friend Naresh Raghubeer and his bride-to-be Priya in Brampton last weekend.
(l to r: me, Jim Larocque, Priya, Naresh, Alex Lalka)
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:34 AM
It's a start
Already signs are appearing that the post-Arafat era will be a much-improved one: The Palestinians have apologized to Kuwait for supporting Saddam's invasion in 1990.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:30 AM
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Appreciation
Just wanted to say thanks to all who frequent this website. Yesterday www.daifallah.com had 673 visitors, an all-time high. Hopefully this blog will continue to grow in the new year.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:50 PM
Friday, December 10, 2004
David Brudnoy, RIP
The famed gay libertarian radio show host, David Brudnoy, has died at 64. I used to listen to Brudnoy's show when I was a teenager in Peterborough. Somehow Peterborough radios were able to pick up his station, WBZ AM. Brudnoy was an amazing radio personality and a real contrarian. He really challenged you and made you think. He will be missed.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:05 AM
Best piece on Conrad Black so far
National Review Online today reprints Mark Steyn's column on Conrad Black from a recent issue of the Western Standard:
The final reckoning on whether or not Conrad Black was a great businessman remains to be seen, but he was a great newspaperman and, in Canada, Australia, and elsewhere, readers are the poorer without his vision and his gusto. Meanwhile, Hollinger's a shell, the future of its two remaining titles is in doubt, and the share price is back down to where it was in January, when Conrad was bounced as chairman. What a great year's work.
Read the whole thing.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:58 AM
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Congratulations David!
David Hearn, an old golfing friend from my competitive junior days, has qualified for the PGA Tour. This is an unbelievably huge accomplish, and surely a dream come true for David. Way to go! I'll be able to say "I knew him when..."
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 4:21 PM
Where's the outrage?
Absolutely terrific piece by outspoken McGill University professor Gil Troy on the decline of free speech at Quebec's campuses in yesterday's Globe and Mail, stemming from the cancellation of speeches by Premier Jean Charest, U.S Ambassador Paul Cellucci and former Israeli PM Ehud Barak for "security reasons" in the last three months:
Where is the outrage? When did conformity with the prevailing orthodoxy become the only valid admission ticket for speaking to students? Shouldn't my colleagues be up in arms, teaching our students how to dissent peacefully? Shouldn't my colleagues be mobilizing, organizing, demonstrating, offering to protect Mr. Cellucci, Mr. Charest and Mr. Barak from the wrath of our protégés? When did complacency and cowardice become the popular substitutes for civility and courage on campus?
I think they became the popular substitutes when good people refused to stand up and make noise about it. Thankfully, that seems to be changing now.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:30 AM
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
More on why Harper will never become Prime Minister
According to a Conservative Party source, rank-and-file party members are quite upset with Harper's letter to the National Post (see two posts down.) As I said, the letter was one of the most strategically boneheaded manoeuvres I've ever seen. There was not absolutely nothing to gain from writing it.
Today, the Post carries a piece from publisher David Asper (subscription required) which took Harper to task. The money quote is in the last graf:
Looking forward, Mr. Harper, our sincere hope is that you hire an experienced group of advisors with demonstrated electoral success, and make a greater effort to hold the government accountable, focusing on making the next election a legitimate battle of ideas. (bold emphasis mine)
I have nothing to add.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:17 PM
Good reading
Monday, December 06, 2004
Why Stephen Harper will (more than likely) never become Prime Minister
Because of moves like this --from the letters page of today's National Post:
Re: A Lesson for Harper, editorial, Dec. 2.
This editorial repeats a post-election pattern of entirely groundless allegations that the Conservative Party has abandoned its positions.
What is clear is that when our party opposes Liberal positions on national defence, unethical conduct, Kyoto, child care or taxation, your editorial pages are unsupportive or silent. In fact, when we fought to have tax reductions included in the government's program, your editorial dismissed the effort as unimportant.
But it is more than these issues where the National Post lets conservatives down. We fight against the weakening of marijuana laws that protect children. The Post supports the government's misguided approach. We advocate provincial rights. You come out against Atlantic Canada's offshore revenue claims and ask us to write off Quebec. We fight for the traditional definition of marriage. You are silent.
We do, of course, attempt to evaluate demands for regional spending carefully and fairly, whether these are made for reasons of trade, infrastructure or cultural development.
In our meeting last week, President Bush and I did indeed discuss conservatism. I was able to tell him that Canada most certainly has a conservative party. What it lacks is a national conservative newspaper.
Stephen Harper, leader, Conservative Party of Canada.
This letter -- especailly its final paragraph -- is a perfect example of the kind of sloppy unprofessionalism that has been the modus operandi of Harper's communications shop for, well, since he became CA leader in 2002.
I'm not at the Post right now so I feel that I speak frankly about the paper. Look, it is not as conservative today as it was when it launched in 1998. That's not a secret. But for Harper to attack what is still the most pro-Conservative party newspaper in the country in this callous way is total lunacy! It makes no sense strategically and shows a tremendous lack of judgement. There is absolutely nothing for Harper to gain from doing this. He will only alienate the paper's staff into writing about him more critically -- which would put every big paper in the country squarely against him, instead of just two out of three.
This letter is probably an attempt to assuage the concerns of blue Tories who've been complaining that Harper is moving the party too far to the left. Odd way to do it. The editorial Harper is attacking, A Lesson For Harper, took Harper to task for being too mushy on policy and encouraged him to stop apologizing for conservatism! It was the most conservative editorial I've seen in the Post for months! Some highlights:
Leading up to last June's election, Mr. Harper spoke out forcefully for tax cuts, military spending, health care reform and ethical government. Before that, he strongly opposed inter-regional transfer payments that make poorer regions fiscally dependent on Ottawa, and was clear in his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol. But since the campaign ended, he has been almost invisible, popping his head above ground only occasionally -- and even then often to echo his support for some Liberal initiative or another.
In the past few months, Mr. Harper has soft-pedalled tax cuts, endorsed the Liberals' massive increase in health care spending and dodged questions about whether his party endorses Canada's participation in the U.S. missile defence program. Meanwhile, he and his party have failed to provide vocal opposition to the Liberals' planned funding of hundreds of thousands of new daycare spots, and endorsed a new transfer payment scheme that will only make regional disparities worse.
I'd be interested to know if Harper actually personally signed off on the final draft of the letter or whether it slipped through mistakenly. It should never have been written, but if anything, it should have been signed by a lower-ranking party official or a staff member.
I like Stephen Harper, but his Ottawa press operation is an amateurish joke. They continue to demonstrate that they they aren't capable of winning an election -- and worse, that they probably don't deserve to.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 5:29 PM
Sunday, December 05, 2004
Your tax dollars at work
Saturday, December 04, 2004
Liquor
Ontario's government liquor monopoly is a travesty. I cannot believe that a province doesn't allow privately-owned stores to sell even beer and wine.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:30 AM
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
I have an article today...
...in The New York Sun about President Bush's visit to Canada.
I think one of the tougher things in journalism is writing for a foreign audience, especially about a topic you know well. One never know exactly how much the reader already knows. There's a fine line between keeping it simple so they understand the subject at hand, and flat-out talking down to the reader. I hope I've struck the right balance for a New York audience here.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:51 AM
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