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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.
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Peter Kent to run
An unimpeacheable source informs me that Global TV newsman Peter Kent has agreed to run for the Conservative Party, taking on Liberal Carolyn Bennett in the downtown Toronto riding of St. Pauls. That should be a great battle.
UPDATE, 05/02/05 12pm: Story confirmed.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:56 AM
Friday, April 29, 2005
Not a good sign for Britain's Tories
Margaret Thatcher is going on holiday to Venice with less than a week to go before the vote:
A close friend of Lady Thatcher, who is 79, said: “She is frustrated that we are not winning.” The friend added that Lady Thatcher had taken the decision herself not to campaign because of her frailty, but said: “She wants to see a Conservative government again. She is frustrated that is not going to happen, despite the Labour Government’s serious shortcomings and all Tony Blair’s lies.”
Canada's Conservatives aren't the only centre-right Western party having trouble gaining power.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:11 AM
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Why anything is possible in politics
Ahmad Chalabi, the much-maligned, scapegoated Iraqi politician, has been named Iraq's new deputy prime minister and oil minister. The man has survived multiple assassination attempts (several bodyguards have been killed), sabotage attempts, bank fraud charges, spying charges, whisper campaigns, espionage, and military raids on his home and office. This is really an astonishing development, and shows why you should never give up on your dreams.
It's great news for Iraq.
And Jean Charest, take heart!
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:26 PM
About that sovereignty poll from yesterday ...
You have to love the media in Quebec. They play the game a bit more aggressively. In today's La Presse, the Globe and Mail of la belle province, they headlined a story <<CROP corrige les résultats de Léger Marketing>> (translation: "CROP corrects Léger Marketing results"). Referring, of course, to the Léger poll published in yesterday's Globe and Le Devoir showing support for sovereignty at high 54%.
The Léger results are tainted, according to CROP's Claude Gauthier:
Pour M. Gauthier, cette différence «importante» quant aux intentions de vote référendaire s'explique quand on prend connaissance des autres questions posées par les téléphonistes de Léger Marketing. Dans la même enquête, on demandait aussi aux répondants s'ils avaient «l'impression d'avoir été trahis ou non par Jean Chrétien et le Parti libéral du Canada après le référendum de 1995». Par la suite, Léger demandait aux Québécois: «Le scandale des commandites vous incite-t-il davantage ou non à voter pour la souveraineté du Québec?»
Meaning, the results are skewed because on the same call people were asked yes or no to the question: "Do you have the impression you were betrayed the Liberal Party of Canada and Jean Chretien after the 1995 referendum?" and "Does the sponsorship scandal make you more or less likely to vote for Quebec sovereignty?"
Even the Parti Québecois own former pollster says this is not the way polling questions are normally done.
Now, there are behind-the-scenes factors at play here. La Presse is an ardently federalist newspaper, Le Devoir has historically been nationalist and is now basically openly separatist. So why would the Globe go in with Le Devoir to pay for M. Léger's services, and not La Presse? And is M. Léger himself a separatist himself? I had thought he wasn't, but would like to know more.
Polyscopique has a good post on this.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:08 PM
Earnscliffe on the take?
Warren Kinsella links to an important story in today's National Post (subscription required) that should be getting more attention. (Then again, there are so many stories that should be getting more attention right now that if they actually did, newspapers would have to double the size of their staffs to cover it all, which will never happen.) According to the report by Tom Blackwell:
Numerous contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars were awarded to a polling company linked to Paul Martin in violation of federal tendering rules, according to a 1995 document obtained by National Post.The contracts handed to the Earnscliffe Strategy Group included seven for the Finance Department when Mr. Martin was the minister, says the report, which has been submitted to a Commons committee investigating the Earnscliffe situation. Many of the tenders appeared to have been drafted so that only Earnscliffe could have won, concluded the document, marked "Top Secret".
Read further down for more juice: The report even raised questions about the fact that Mr. Herle and Terrie O'Leary, his common-law wife and Mr. Martin's executive assistant, had recently bought some land from CBC-TV personality Peter Mansbridge. They planned to build a cottage on it and the "co-mingling of assets" represented a serious problem if it had not been approved by the ethics commissioner, said the review.
The Earnscliffe people are claiming this is bunk, and that they've been cleared in a report done by Ernst and Young. Neverthelss, this looks and smells awfully bad.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:23 PM
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Oh, how times have changed...
56% of Quebecers want to stay in Canada
Many will be tempted to slip into Chicken Little mode today when the see the Globe's front-page story, "54% in Quebec back sovereignty":
QUEBEC -- Support for sovereignty in Quebec has broken through the 50-per-cent barrier to its highest level since 1998 amid growing controversy over the sponsorship scandal. A new poll shows 54 per cent of decided voters would support sovereignty in a referendum that offered an economic and political partnership with the rest of Canada -- the same question asked in the Oct. 30, 1995, referendum. Polls over the past year asking similar questions showed support of between 44 and 49 per cent for sovereignty.
The question asked in the poll is the same one that was asked in 1995, meaning a wishy-washy, convoluted question.
Now, to be sure, this is not good news. That is a high number, and Leger is a respected polling firm. But is it really that bad? Read further down in the story (I wonder how many people ever do?) to get the big picture. For instance, we learn that:
When asked if by voting for sovereignty they still wanted Quebec to continue to be a part of Canada, 56 per cent of respondents said yes and 40 per cent responded no, with 4 per cent undecided.
Renewed federalism remained the preferred option for a sizable portion of the population, according to the poll, but voters are still deeply divided over the issue. There you have it. Even at the height of this sponsorship scandal, 56% of Quebecers want to stay in Canada. As Sheila Copps said on CTV last weekend, the separatists don't have the guts to ask a real question on separatism. Because if they do, they can't win.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:39 AM
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
No tears for Alfonso
Alfonso Gagliano is really showing a lot of nerve:
"He's [Martin] going to destroy the party and break up the country," Gagliano said during a television interview with the CBC's French-language network.
Gagliano was Canada's ambassador to Denmark until Martin fired him over allegations of impropriety under the sponsorship program, which was his responsibility as public works minister.
Gagliano told Radio-Canada on Monday that the revelations at the sponsorship inquiry – called by Martin – will inevitably lead the country to break up.
The scorched-earth mentality of the man makes you want to vomit. Talk about bitter.
Liberal friend Mike McNair expresses similar thoughts.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:41 PM
Monday, April 25, 2005
Confirm Bolton!
Friends of John Bolton, the troubled nominee for U.S. ambassador to the U.N., have started a blog. Good idea. Conservatives are continuing to innovate on the Internet.
UPDATE: I shouldn't say it's just conservatives. I see my old boss, Arianna Huffington, is getting ready to launch a new innovative, blog-style commentary website, called The Huffington Post. Looks like the list of contributors have an overwhelmingly liberal tilt, but David Frum, Tony Blankley and a few conservatives are taking part.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:16 PM
On Saudi hate
The people at Freedom House continue to push the right message on religious freedom in unfree countries. Today, as President Bush prepares to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, Nina Shea offers a helpful primer on the Saudis' distressing record:
... a publication for the “Immigrant Muslim” bearing the words “Greetings from the Cultural Department” of the embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C., gave detailed instructions on how to “hate” the Christian and Jew: Never greet them first. Never congratulate the infidel on his holiday. Never imitate the infidel. Do not become a naturalized citizen of the United States. Do not wear a graduation gown because this imitates the infidel. The opening fatwa of another a book distributed by the embassy that was published by the Saudi air force responds to a question about a Muslim preacher in a European mosque who taught that it is not right to condemn Jews and Christians as infidels. The Saudi state cleric’s reply emphatically rebukes the Muslim cleric: “He who casts doubts about their infidelity leaves no doubt about his.”
This is given to Muslim immigrants to the United States!
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:55 AM
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Ignatieff to the rescue?
Colby Cosh adds his thoughts to the increasingly-heard idea that Michael Ignatieff could come to rescue the Liberal Party.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:12 PM
Saturday, April 23, 2005
Worth checking out
According to a seat projection based on the latest polling at The Potent Pew, the Conservatives would nearly form a majority government if an election were held today with the Liberals barely beating out the Bloc Quebecois as the official opposition.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 6:52 PM
What if it was Earth Day and nobody noticed?
Oh, ya. It was yesterday. The CBC did notice, as did Selma Hayek, apparently.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:55 AM
Friday, April 22, 2005
Bono is annoyed
You know things are going really badly for the Liberals when even Bono is turning on them. Good grief:
Rock superstar Bono is irked by Martin's refusal to meet a long-stated standard for foreign aid increases.
"I'm annoyed," the U2 frontman says in an exclusive interview to be aired Saturday on CBC Radio's The House.
"I'm bewildered, really. I'm disappointed."
"I can't believe that Paul Martin would want to hold up history."
Talk about hitting a guy when he's already down.
I wonder who's going to apostacize next? Let's start a pool.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 7:59 PM
More good news for the federal Tories
Jim Flaherty, who served in the Mike Harris cabinet as justice and finance minister, is running federally in the riding of Whitby-Oshawa. An almost certain pick up for the Conservatives.
Other "star candidates" I've heard about are ex-hockey star Russ Courtnall running in Victoria, former national revenue minister and pioneer deficit hawk Garth Turner in Halton, and ex-environment minister Pauline Browse in Scarborough. I haven't heard yet if Peter Kent, the former Global anchor, has made up his mind on whether or not to run, but that's been reported in several places.
If anyone has news of other big names running feel free to share.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 5:46 PM
Frum on Martin
David Frum, in a critical piece about Martin's performance, makes a typically astute point:
The remarkable thing about Paul Martin is the vast gap between the intensity of his desire to be prime minister and his utter lack of interest in actually doing anything as prime minister. The job seems to be an end in itself - and ironically the moral comporomises he made in order to get the job now bid fair to deprive him of it after barely a year of its pleasures.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:08 AM
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Martin's speech
I watched the same speeches you all did, and I can't for the life of me see any way to interpret this as anything other than a big win for Martin. We'll wait and see the post-mortems and polls, but my hunch is that he's just saved his bacon.
The Liberals have shown again tonight why they are the best in the business. Right tone (full of contrition); right message (incredibly apologetic); right time (just when things couldn't get much worse.) Throw in a gutsy, unexpected move (election 30 days after the final Gomery report), and you've got the makings of a brilliant political play! Kudos to Team Martin: they did an even better job keeping a lid on this than even the GWB White House could. Brilliant.
Now, do I think this will stop the opposition from bringing down the government in a few weeks? Likely not. But they have a lot of thinking to do about whether enough voters are against having an election now to hold off a while longer.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:11 PM
QP today
Andrew Coyne has a good (and concise!) play-by-play of Question Period.
Two things I would add: One, it isn't just that Scott Brison has to read crummy French answers off speech cards, it's how bad his French is. It is so, so, so bad, probably the worst I've ever heard in Canadian parliament. Just reply in English, minister, please! Let the translators do the work and spare everyone the agony.
Second, it is really, really sad watching Irwin Cotler, the justice minister, in the House. Day after day, one of the most distinguished Canadian legal scholars and jurists alive today looks like a deer caught in headlights. His responses are embarassing. And they're usually no more than 10 words long. This is a terribly unfortunate way to end such a distinguished career.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 3:20 PM
Tom Hayden to the rescue!
In a throwback to his heyday in the 1960s, radical leftist Tom Hayden is crusading for American army deserters who flee to Canada. Not draft dodgers -- people who go AWOL from America's all-volunteer army. Yes, meaning the army they volunteered for; that they chose to join. Hayden must be running out of causes to champion.
Also note the shabby research by CTV: Hayden never served in the U.S. Senate, he was only a California state senator.
UPDATE: CTV.ca has made a partial correction. It now says "retired California state senator" in the text of the article but the picture caption still says "U.S. Senator."
UPDATE II: Daifallah.com gets results! The picture caption has now been corrected, too.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:11 AM
The Toronto Star corrects
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Fun!
Read this.
I just wanted to quickly say how much I am enjoying this. Not that the Liberals are imploding, just watching politics in general. I can't recall federal politics being this much fun since, well, probably the Charlottetown Accord. It's the first time I can remember where there is so much happening on a daily basis that it's almost impossible to keep up. I love it!
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:24 PM
One of the more shabbily reported stories I've seen
It's not my job to defend Warren Kinsella, but he's right about one thing: this story is complete nonsense:
Premier Dalton McGuinty's top political strategist has met secretly with Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's most trusted adviser.
In a twist to the bitter fiscal feud between McGuinty and Prime Minister Paul Martin, Liberal Warren Kinsella attended an Albany Club strategy session two weeks ago with senior federal Tories.
Kinsella, a key architect of McGuinty's 2003 Ontario election victory, spoke with Tom Flanagan, manager of the Conservatives' 2004 national campaign and Harper's closest aide.
The April 6 dinner was held the day after Harper telephoned McGuinty to talk about the premier's campaign for an infusion of $5 billion from Ottawa.
I'm happy to back Warren up on this. I don't know how on Earth this story made it to press, but the whole thing is totally inaccurate.
There was no Tory "strategy session" at the Albany Club. The event was a private dinner for a club that Warren has long been a member of. The club is primarily made up of center-right political activists, journalists, businesspeople and think-tank staff. Warren and other Liberals like John Duffy -- the senior Martin strategist -- are both members. (Duffy was a featured speaker at one of the dinners not long ago.) I remember seeing Warren at one of the club's dinners sometime back in 2001.
Tom Flanagan happened to be there on April 6 because he was one of the invited speakers that night. I'm a member of the club but was not present at that particular dinner, but spoke to a couple of people who attended.
Again, I'm not here to defend Warren but this is clearly a deliberate -- and pretty weak -- attempt to tar him. His demand for a correction is more than justified.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:20 AM
Ten days of hell on Earth
Toby Harnden, chief foreign correspondent for London's Sunday Telegraph, has penned an absolutely riveting account of his hellish days in Zimbabwean jail. Warning: not for the fainthearted.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:29 AM
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Chuck Hagel stinks
I've had it with Chuck Hagel. The Nebraska senator has thrown a stick in the White House's wheel
one too many times. This time his whining is stopping a vote at the Senate foreign relations committee on John Bolton, President Bush's fine choice to represent America at the United Nations. How anyone -- let alone the second-ranking Republican on the committee -- could be so intransigent about such an obvious no-brainer is baffling. Bolton should have already been confirmed by now.
Chuck Hagel is supposedly seriously considering running for President in 2008. Good luck Chuck!
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:08 PM
Political theatre at its finest
Monday, April 18, 2005
That's courageous
Kudos to AEI scholar Michael Rubin, who has again travelled to Baghdad and is staying outside the protection of the "Green Zone." He has filed a piece with some insightful observations on National Review Online today. Worth reading if you are following Iraq's progress.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:54 AM
Sunday, April 17, 2005
"The Liberal Party is not Canada." - Sheila Copps
I never thought I'd be writing this, but: way to go Sheila Copps! She absolutely pummelled former PQ cabinet minister Louise Beaudoin in an interview on CTV's Question Period today.
If you click here you can watch it (link in right-hand column).
UPDATE: The Liberals are getting desperater than desperate. Over on that same right-hand column, you can watch what a panel discussion with Joe Volpe, John Reynods and Ed Broadbent, in which Volpe calls Stephen Harper a bigger separatist than Gilles Duceppe. Oh dear.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:54 PM
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Strike a Royal Commission?
Picking up on the theme of the need to renew Canadian federalism, Michael Ignatieff is calling for a royal commission in today's National Post:
If our fiscal crisis is systemic then it needs to be dealt with systematically. A Royal Commission -- with bipartisan representation from all three levels of government -- is one possible way to re-order fiscal federalism for the 21st century. Of course, every red-blooded Canadian groans at the prospect of yet another Royal Commission, yet we forget that a previous Royal Commission, the Rowell Sirois report in the 1930's, set the framework for the post war transformation of the Canadian social fabric, including old age pensions, social security, unemployment insurance and ultimately health care.
The time has come to do something similarly bold and far-sighted in relation to the fiscal problems besetting our federation. Nothing would do more to address the risk of complacency and fatigue that besets the federalist cause, nothing would engage other regions in a national dialogue about our country's future, than a commission, with a targeted mandate to report, and a genuinely bipartisan, federal, provincial and municipal membership, to think long and hard about how to renew our federation's finances in the 21st century. The task of Canadian patriots, in other words, is not only to defend our federation, but to reform it.
The article is an adaptation of a speech the Harvard scholar gave this week at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. Pretty amazing stuff coming from a Trudeauphile. Perhaps the fallout from Adscam is resulting in a watershed where even those who vociferously defended to old, centralist view of Canada are coming to their senses? (Note: I do not wish to pigeonhole Ignatieff into that camp, as I am not familiar with his past writings or views on Canadian federalism.)
A Royal Commission would be so expensive, so boring and seems like a waste of time. But the way Ignatieff puts it, it might be the only choice.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:18 AM
Friday, April 15, 2005
Bouchard to the ADQ?
There are rumours floating around Quebec political circles that ex-Premier Lucien Bouchard is getting ready to jump ship from the PQ to the ADQ. Is there any substance to this? Has anyone heard of it before?
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:17 PM
Toby Harnden is free! or Zimbabwe is a journalistic hellhole
I have been wanting to post on this subject for a few days now but just never got around to it:
A respected colleague and friend, Toby Harnden, was today acquitted and set free on charges of supposedly violating immigration and work permit rules in Zimbabwe. He had been in jail along with his photographer for a few days after covering Zimbabwe's rigged elections (which saw another landslide win for dictator Robert Mugabe) for London's Sunday Telegraph.
The dispute apparently revolved around the fact that Toby misread the amount of time he was allowed to stay and work in the country, because the handwriting on his visa was illegible. Looks like not even the judge could read it clearly, so Toby was exonerated. (In Mugabe's Zimbabwe, no journalist can stay permanently; only temporary visas are issued to minimize the amount of critical coverage.)
Toby Harnden is one of the best and hardest-working journalists I know. I used to sit 20 feet away from him when I was working in Washington; he was then Washington bureau chief of the Daily Telegraph. Way to go Toby for coming out of this safely and a safe trip home.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:06 AM
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Manning and Harris on healthcare
The country's liberal media is presently salivating over comments about the future of healthcare made my Mike Harris and Preston Manning yesterday in Ottawa:
Preston Manning and Mike Harris tossed an electoral hand grenade into the lap of Conservative Leader Stephen Harper on Wednesday, issuing a joint report calling for the federal government to get out of medicare and let the provinces experiment with private health services.
An electoral hand grenade? Excuse me? This story is a great example of how the media hates Conservatives and is hellbent on screwing them over at every available opportunity.
I went to Ottawa yesterday to attend this event. I also went to the press briefing after the formal remarks were over. You could just tell the reporters went into this wanting to write exactly this story. It was as if they already had it written and just needed to plug in the quotes. (The event was not even about healthcare reform, it was about the launch of a new initiative to improve the level of debate in Canada.)
Harris and Manning were not speaking as Tories, they were speaking as fellows of the Fraser Institute. They both said they have nothing to do with the Conservative Party anymore and don't even know what's going on. Again, this had NOTHING TO DO with the Conservative Party, its policies, or Stephen Harper.
I know the counterpoint: They are high-profile Conservatives, so this story was bound to be written because of who Manning and Harris are and the timing. But the fact is reporters and editors make decisions on which stories are going to get big play and which aren't. Since this story reflects negatively on the Tories, it gets big play. Don't accuse me of conspiracy-mongering because it isn't.
This same thing happens every time anyone tries to start real debate on reform of Canada's outdated, broken healthcare system. And it has to stop. The Liberal Party and the media are equally guilty.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:04 AM
Here's a new Liberal idea...
...fight an election campaign by demonizing the Tories!!! They haven't tried that one before.
This upcoming election they're going to try and paint them as enemies of Canada. What did Samuel Johnson say again? Patriotism is the last refuge of a ... ?
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:01 AM
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Chretien's bullshit on Quebec ad firms
Remember when Jean Chretien testified before Gomery and said that there are two kinds of ad firms in Quebec: federalist ones and separatist ones?
Well, looks like his sponsorship program was giving money to one of the separatist ones, because Jean Brault is a separatist. This story just gets more unbelievable everyday.
(Via Amateur Extraordinaire and Polyscopique.)
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:29 PM
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Put Iran on notice
Iran has rejected Canada's request for a team of international forensic to examine the body of murdered journalist Zahra Kazemi:
"Such a demand does not conform with Iranian laws or international regulations," the spokesman for Iran's judges, Jamal Karimirad, told reporters Tuesday. "Kazemi was an Iranian citizen. Although she also had Canadian nationality, under Iran's laws, an additional citizenship doesn't negate her Iranian nationality. Therefore, Iran's judiciary is competent to carry out the investigation," Mr. Karimirad said.
No surprise here. The farce continues. Now, how will Canada react? After two years of this cat-and-mouse game, will the Liberals finally take more concrete action? So far their behaviour has reminded me of the caricatured Hans Blix dealing with Kim Jong-il in the movie Team America: "If you don't stop I'll.....I'lll...I'll.... write you a letter!!!!!"
The most oft-cited excuse for not taking action on this file has been "What can we do?" That's basically what Pettigrew told me when I asked him about this a few weeks ago. Well, we have to do something.
The first thing Canada should do is recall its ambassador to Iran. Secondly, they should kick out Iran's ambassador to Canada. Then, Canada should dedicate itself to the project of fundamental reform of the United Nations, publicly stating as the reason the Kazemi case. Heck, maybe no one would lisen -- or care. But it would at least be pro-active. Iran has shown it does not deserve to sit at the table of civilized nations time and again.
UPDATE: Good post and cool graphic here.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:57 AM
Listen to André Pratte
A fantastic oped this morning by La Presse editorialist André Pratte in The Globe and Mail about the future of federalism and the dangers posed to Canada by the sponsorship scandal. Pratte lays out a possible scenario that he says has federalists worried:
June, 2005: Stephen Harper's Conservatives win a general election and form a minority government with no elected member from Quebec. The Bloc Québécois takes over 60 of Quebec's 75 seats. 2006: Triumphant after his performance at the federal level, Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe is elected as leader of the provincial Parti Québécois. 2007: Jean Charest's Liberal government is trounced by the PQ. 2008: Mr. Duceppe calls a referendum on Quebec's independence.
Pratte offers some sage advice:
Since the rise of the separatist movement in the 1960s, federal politicians have tried everything, to no avail. There's been the Trudeau approach; the Chrétien approach (i.e. "Don't worry, be happy"); the sponsorship approach; Plan B (the Clarity Bill); the "do nothing, say nothing" approach again. And here we are, with sovereignty as popular today (supported by 40 to 45 per cent of Quebeckers) as it was in 1980, the year of the first referendum, and with Canada at the mercy of any event that would cause a surge of nationalist sentiment in Quebec. Yes, federal politicians have tried everything . . . except what Quebec federalists have repeatedly implored them to do. André Laurendeau, Daniel Johnson Sr., Jean Lesage, Claude Ryan, Robert Bourassa and Jean Charest all concluded that the one way to solve the Canadian problem is to reform federalism. The specific proposals have evolved over the years -- special status, distinct society, asymmetry -- but the basic idea has remained: Recognize in the Constitution, and in the functioning of Confederation, Quebec's particular contribution to the Canadian mosaic.
The key line here being: "Yes, federal politicians have tried everything . . . except what Quebec federalists have repeatedly implored them to do." This is precisely the problem. The federal Liberal Party's approach to "solving" the Quebec question always involves more big government, more centralization, more top-down BS from Ottawa. The only real attempt to "save" the country that could have ever worked was done under the Mulroney Tories.
I don't know about everyone else, but I'm in the camp that believes Canada cannot forge ahead and reach its full potential until the Quebec question is solved. My view has become hardened after living here for the past eight months and travelling outside of Montreal to places like Quebec City, Drummondville and the Eastern Townships.
Waiting around for a crisis is a stupid strategy (although what's going on now could be construed as a crisis, I suppose.) The national unity question needs to be addressed sooner, not later.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:46 AM
Monday, April 11, 2005
Seems to be some outrage
Even I have to admit to being a bit startled by these polling results, from Liberal-friendly firm Ekos. A huge drop for the Liberals everwhere. But the real shockers are that the Tories are now actually ahead of the Grits in Quebec! I would have never thought this possible. It looks like they could even win a seat or two. Also note the NDP spike in BC.
If these trends hold it will be impossible for the Conservatives to hold off forcing an election.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:46 AM
Treasonous Liberals
Great line from a National Post column today by Colby Cosh:
Liberals like Sheila Copps have been telling us that the struggle to brush up Canada's image within Quebec was the moral equivalent of a war. On that logic, their party must now bear the stigma of high treason against the war effort.
Read more.
UPDATE: Great closing graf:
The cause of federalism in Quebec must somehow be disentangled from the Liberal party if it is to survive. Whether this means a migration to the Conservatives or the creation of some new vehicle for pro-Confederation sentiment, the status quo cannot be permitted to stand. Viewed one way, the whole picture painted by Mr. Brault is merely a long series of illicit cash transfers from the self-effacing "R.O.C." to Quebec. If Quebecers now demonstrate that they are content to acquiesce in banana-republic behaviour that benefits (some of) them, they will come to be regarded outside Quebec as implacable enemies of fundamental decency in politics. And in the long run, Confederation cannot bear that kind of disagreement over basic ethical norms.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:39 AM
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Goodbye Jack Nicklaus
The greatest golf champion ever to play the game, Jack Nicklaus, has said he will not play in another Masters. Nicklaus missed the cut this week, citing that he feels he cannot compete anymore.
You have to respect that. Nicklaus, a six-time winner, could stick around until he dies like some guys do (former champions get an automatic invitation every year) but who really wants to see The Golden Bear limp around the course and shoot 90? I certainly don't. Obviously, he doesn't either.
More than likely in a year or two or three he and Arnold Palmer and maybe Gary Player will reincarnate the "honourary starter" group which the Masters had until a few years ago. Byron Nelson, Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen (Nelson is the only one still alive) used to hit one shot off the first tee and then pack it in.
I was fortune enough to attend the Masters in 2003 when Mike Weir won. I'm glad I was able to see Nicklaus in action there, because I was always afraid I would never get to see him before he quit playing competitively. He will be missed, but it is to his credit that he knew when it was time to say goodbye.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 2:26 PM
Who is David Kilgour?
One of two Liberal MPs from Alberta, and he's talking about crossing the floor to the Tories.
Apparently he's outraged over the sponsorship scandal. Actually, it's probably just that he knows he'll lose his seat in the next election if he doesn't switch.
Kilgour was a Conservative once upon a time -- but he defected to the Grits in 1990 over his refusal to support the GST. So this would be a flip-flop-flip for the man. He's pretty conservative, actually, and is opposed to gay marriage. (Useless factoid: his sister is married to ex-PM John Turner.) But should the Tories take him back? It would give them all but one of the seats in Alberta, leaving Anne McLellan as the lone member of the Alberta Liberal caucus.
But is Kilgour, who has shown no loyalty to anyone but himself, worth the risk?
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 2:21 PM
Friday, April 08, 2005
Check it out early and often
Polyscopique, a great bilingual blog, is all over Adscam. His posts from the last four days are mandatory reading.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 12:08 PM
Well, it's been an interesting week to be in Ottawa...
... and there's so much other stuff in the news its been tough to keep up. Adscam, the Pope, Charles and Camilla, the world curling championship and now The Masters! Help!
The mood in this town right now is (pausing to think up a good word) frenzied. I attended Question Period Tuesday and you could just feel the electricity in the House. The Conservatives smell blood. Amongst the Tories I've talked to here (mainly staff) there seems to be a feeling that a non-confidence vote could come as soon as in a month.
I haven't read through all of the Breault testimony, but hope to do so on the weekend. Like all of you I've read and heard just the highlights. Of course I'm outraged, but most of this information was previously known. I remember hearing at the offices of the National Post months ago that the real story here was not the giving away of millions of dollars for no work at Quebec ad firms, but rather the enrichment of the Liberal Party with that money.
If Breault's allegations are true, the Liberals will be decimated in Quebec for at least two or three elections, maybe longer. And this whole debacle could have very ominous consequences for the future of the country.
As for whether this could finally mean a change in government, I will only say this: never underestimate Canadians' tolerance for this stuff. If an election were called tomorrow, I'm not even sure the Liberals would lose. They forgave the Grits for the billion-dollar boondoggle at HRDC, the gun registry, and more. Most people just don't care. History shows that until the economy tanks, and rank-and-file voters feel tangible pain in their wallets, they are reluctant to switch governing parties. We'll see if this time it's any different.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:45 AM
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Another day, another outrage, Part XXIV
Monday, April 04, 2005
JP II
Just taking a quick minute out from the frenzy here at Forum to note the death of the Pope. Obviously -- and quite rightly -- the media has focusing on this story almost exclusively for the past 72 hours. As a non-Catholic who is interested in religion but not well versed in church doctrine, I can't really speak to the Pope's legacy in that area. Those debates are for another day. (And on top of that, I think they are often cheapened because many people who think they know what they are talking about but don't really have a clue get involved in them.)
What I do know if that this Pope was an extremely important political figure; doubtless one of the most important of the 20th century. John Paul recognized early on the horror of Communism. He knew it well, having seen the devastation the Soviets brought to Poland.
Along with Ronald Reagan, the American labour movement (yes, they were pro-freedom at that time) and the CIA (whose then-director, William Casey, the Pope regularly met with in secret) John Paul II helped bring revolution to his native land, which kickstarted the collapse of the Iron Curtain across Eastern Europe. John Paul spoke out against violators of freedom the world over through the entire course of his papacy. Because of that he will not only go down as one of the key religious leaders of modern times but also as one of the most important political ones. He was a liberator, a visionary, and a statesman.
Let us never forget his immense contribution in bringing human rights, freedom, and democracy to the world's oppressed peoples.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 10:46 AM
Friday, April 01, 2005
Blogging will be light to non-existent for the next week
I'm going to Ottawa for a week for a program called Forum for Young Canadians. It's a week-long leadership conference for high school students. I went when I was in grade 12, and now I'm coming back as a "staff assistant" (they ask alumni to return to help run the program.) The schedule is pretty intense, so not sure how much time I'll have to hit the Net.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:30 AM
Great blog
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