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By Warren, on March 2, 2015, at 8:38 am The Globe scored a bit of coup, and got former Barack Obama (and former Dalton McGuinty!) advisor David Axelrod to talk to them over the weekend. He provided some fascinating insights, among them:
“We turned him into kind of an announcer for the government rather than a narrator of where we, as a country, were going. I think we wore him down as a communicator and we wore out his effectiveness, to some degree, by overusing him.
Ronald Reagan, when he addressed the nation, 70 million people would watch. We were all essentially watching a few networks. Now, there (Read more…)
By Warren, on March 2, 2015, at 8:23 am Don’t (a) plead for a call from a respected former Prime Minister (b) promise to keep it confidential (c) then tweet about the call, while (d) making it sound like he called you first.
Thus, sent along by a brilliant Liberal strategist friend, this morning:
By Warren, on March 2, 2015, at 6:22 am You’re the incumbent, you’re smart, you’ve got plenty of experience, but you can’t get ahead in the polls. So what do you do?
You call for a series of leaders’ debates, that’s what you do.
Stephen Harper, however much he disdains the mainstream media, knows one media truism to be irrefutable: politicians are rarely felled by a single news story. If that were not so, Harper would have been long ago dispatched by robocalls, or Afghan detainees, or In-and-Out, or prorogation, or Senators Duffy, Wallin and Brazeau.
But that hasn’t happened. The reason: nowadays, citizens pay less and less (Read more…)
By Warren, on March 1, 2015, at 11:05 pm The passing of Spock – and an imminent move – reminded me of the treasure trove of Star Trek Stuff I own. Among the Trek gems: two original (and authentic) series scripts used by Walter Koenig in Operation Earth and The Cloud Minders. They’re signed by him and other members of the cast, and are the real thing.
It’s time someone else had them to enjoy – I’ve had them for 40 years, when Dan Nearing traded them for an ink drawing I’d done of Bruce Springsteen, back in Calgary.
Email me at wkinsella AT hotmail.com if (Read more…)
By Warren, on March 1, 2015, at 10:51 am A few weeks ago, when some nice folks were encouraging me to run for the Liberal nomination in Toronto Danforth, I finally met with one of Justin Trudeau’s most senior advisers.
There ensued some jousting, and then we got around to discussing why I was not suitable. Chief among the reasons was my view on the international effort against ISIS, led by that crazed right wing maniac, Barack Obama.
I pointed out that my view was in accord with former Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy, former Liberal leader Bob Rae, and former General Romeo Dallaire.
“They are all (Read more…)
By Warren, on February 28, 2015, at 11:51 am Hmm. Kind of odd behaviour for a public servant whose $300K+ salary I help to pay, no?
Perhaps it’s because I hired someone who successfully brought a human rights action against him. Perhaps it’s because not a few of us have regarded him as a raging megalomaniac going back to when he was a mere Assistant Crown Attorney, hunting for headlines in the Ottawa courthouse.
Anyway. Whatever you do, don’t mention this sort of thing. He might block you!
By Warren, on February 27, 2015, at 12:45 pm
I am so, so sad.
Spock gone. I can’t believe it.
By Warren, on February 27, 2015, at 8:45 am Personally, I think the llamas leave the dress behind in the dirt.
By Warren, on February 27, 2015, at 8:21 am Cause. Cause. Cause.
Effect.
I’ve written a couple books that deal with this subject, here and here, so forgive me for asking (what should be by now) a wholly rhetorical question: why do young people turn to extremism?
Because they feel rejected by the mainstream. Because they feel they do not belong. Because they are shunned. So they leave civil society, and embrace a decidedly uncivil one.
As I suggested after the Conservatives foolishly eliminated section 13 of the Human Rights Act, people turn to anti-democratic action when they feel democracy has turned on them. Or, as one (Read more…)
By Warren, on February 26, 2015, at 3:53 pm It started innocuously enough:
This is an Open Carry Llama State. #llamachase
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) February 26, 2015
But, it quickly got out of control:
Madonna was on one of the Llamas, but she fell off. #llamachase
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) February 26, 2015
.@JustinTrudeau just broke his open nomination promise, again, to appoint one of the Llamas to run in the next federal election. #llamachase
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) February 26, 2015
BREAKING: @ThomasMulcair has welcomed one of the llamas that had crossed the Commons floor to nibble food bits in his beard. #llamachase
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) (Read more…)
By Warren, on February 26, 2015, at 2:22 pm Operation Alienation™ hits the jackpot again – this time a family member, no less!
What superior people management skills! What morale-building! What a proud legacy!
What a spectacular mess they’ve made.
By Warren, on February 25, 2015, at 10:58 pm Inquiring dinosaurs want to know!
By Warren, on February 25, 2015, at 6:47 pm …in The Calgary Herald by the never-forgotten James Muretich. RIP, big guy.
By Warren, on February 25, 2015, at 7:02 am Lala has been jousting online with various kooky members of the God Squad about the new Ontario sex ed curriculum. I got involved.
By Warren, on February 25, 2015, at 6:06 am TORONTO—The reasons why the Sun News Network failed are, by now, more or less well known.
What’s less known is why it was allowed to fail.
Full disclosure, as I join The Hill Times on a weekly basis: I was the House Bolshevik at the network. Alone among the conservatives, at the start, I endeavoured to provide a progressive point of view. It was never dull.
I’d been ask to contribute to the fledgling venture in the summer of 2010 by Kory Tenecyke. Kory, with whom I’d worked on an environmental project a few years before, promised (Read more…)
. . . → Read More: Warren Kinsella: In this week’s Hill Times: who killed Sun News Network?
By Warren, on February 24, 2015, at 4:34 pm …and he doesn’t get up off the mat, afterwards. Story here.
Her words here:
Don’t mess with this woman, little Con boys in short pants. She’ll make you regret it.
By Warren, on February 24, 2015, at 8:16 am Here is Bill C-51. Here is a bunch of commentary about it.
And here is your chance to pick the party with the position you like the best!
poll by twiigs.com
. . . → Read More: Warren Kinsella: Highly-scientific poll on C-51: vote now! Vote often!
By Warren, on February 24, 2015, at 7:54 am You’ve read about this, I’m sure.
So, why didn’t the supposedly-expert authorities do this?
Question: why didn't cops keep tunnel intact and under surveillance, instead of filling it in and asking public for help? @metromorning
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) February 24, 2015
By Warren, on February 23, 2015, at 11:24 am
42 for the Cons, 34 for the Grits. Hmm.
Looks like the CPC Quebec surge isn’t a myth, after all. Has happened. Wow.
All weird, IMHO, when you look at “direction of the country” finding.
More here.
What’s your take, Dear Reader?
By Warren, on February 23, 2015, at 8:25 am If Sun News Network was still among the living, I’d have several chase producers asking me on today, to talk about the Ontario government’s new sexual education curriculum.
Lala and I had a vigorous debate about all of this yesterday morning, over espresso. For your reading (dis)pleasure, I summarize my main points below.
A qualifier, to acknowledge that what I experienced wasn’t what my peers experienced: I’m a doctor’s son. Me and my brothers were having very open discussions about sex with our parents from an early age. What they taught us, right from the start, was the importance of respect (Read more…)
By Warren, on February 21, 2015, at 5:15 pm I tweeted this, so some guy tweeted back this. I read it fast, so I tweeted this.
Someone tweeted I was a partisan apologist. When I first read it, I thought it said artisan proctologist.
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) February 21, 2015
By Warren, on February 21, 2015, at 10:14 am
By Warren, on February 20, 2015, at 8:24 am It’s a Kerouac line, adapted for the circumstances. Fits.
Lately, I have been peering at this snapshot taken by Eric Grenier, like someone does when they are lost, and they are squinting at a map at the side of the road. Night falling, apprehension rising.
No single poll is reliable anymore. They get it wrong, a lot. This graph is probably different, however, because it is a rendering of a lot of polls, aggregated. It’s therefore harder to dismiss. Thus, I gaze at it, trying to unlock its mysteries.
You can divine its meaning as well as I can. (Read more…)
By Warren, on February 20, 2015, at 8:00 am For reasons of September 9, 2011, I have found this little boy’s story to be very difficult to read about, or hear about. But if you want to help, somehow, here is how you can contribute to the funeral costs.
By Warren, on February 19, 2015, at 2:18 pm Pat Martin, Canada’s own Calvin Klein!
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