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By Lorne, on May 24, 2013, at 10:39 am We are about to go out exploring downtown Edmonton, so just a little something for your viewing pleasure today. It might be useful to bear in mind the context within which this should be viewed, the decision by Mike Duffy in 2008 to show the false starts and stops of Stephane Dion, then the Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, a decision that some say was a significant contributing factor in the Liberal electoral woes that ensued.
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council found that CTV Atlantic violated the Radio Television News Directors Association Code of Ethics in a broadcast (Read more…)
By Lorne, on May 22, 2013, at 8:42 am I have a bit of a busy morning, so I only have time for a couple of short posts. For reasons I have indicated elsewhere, I rarely watch CBC’s The National anymore. However, given yesterday’s shameful and feeble refusal by the Prime Minister and his trained seals to address the rot engulfing his administration, I decided to watch a special At Issue Panel last evening.
Below, you can watch Andrew Coyne, Chantal Hebert and Bruce Anderson evaluate Mr. Harper’s efforts:
Recommend this Post
By David Climenhaga, on May 22, 2013, at 1:26 am Prime Minister Stephen Harper, not pictured because he’s pretty well disappeared, has heeded the touristic lure South America, illustrated above. Below: Canadian Parliamentarian Joan Crockatt and U.S. Representative Davy Crockett. Note to Globe and Mail: There is a difference! Below them: Allaudin Merali.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was apparently grinding away at his Conservative caucus yesterday morning about the need for Senate reform.
An interesting strategy, his!
First you pack the place with self-entitled cheats and porkchoppers like Mike “The Puffster” Duffy, then you argue that their misdeeds are proof the institution needs reform!
If nothing else, this suggests (Read more…)
By Lorne, on May 20, 2013, at 7:29 pm
To watch the disgraced senator performing this new walk craze, please click here. Recommend this Post
By Lorne, on May 20, 2013, at 8:48 am H/t Dawg’s Blog & Alison at Creekside for the inspiration.
Oh, the great outdoors beckon on this fine Victoria Day morning, so for now, allow me to offer you this from today’s Toronto Star:
Hard to believe Duffy has no nest egg
Re: Duffy resigns from caucus, May 17
It seems egregious Mike Duffy has been running roughshod over Canadians for some time, without attracting public opprobrium. Five years ago the Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council ruled that he had violated broadcasting codes and ethics. Three years ago Duffy criticized the University of King’s College and other journalism schools for (Read more…)
By Lorne, on May 19, 2013, at 12:27 pm If you watch this video from the 5:40 mark, a natural question arises: If someone knocks on your door, will the police arrive if you call them?
Recommend this Post
By Lorne, on May 19, 2013, at 7:29 am
Plus a sobering rebuke of Mr. Harper in this morning’s Star editorial:
“This sordid saga of improper Conservative behaviour, high-level secrecy and winking at wrongdoing has infuriated Canadians, disgraced the unelected Red Chamber, and spurred renewed interest in its abolition.” Recommend this Post
By Lorne, on May 18, 2013, at 2:34 pm
I can only hope that the growing public cynicism evident in these Star letters translates into a deep and abiding anger that lasts until at least 2015. Here is a sampling:
Beyond money, audit reveals a bigger problem for Duffy, May 15
This column described Mike Duffy’s problem but the Senate-appointed auditors might have used terminology that was more fitting of the crime, instead of “inappropriately claimed” expenses it might have said “fraudulently claimed.” After all, Duffy’s problem is not much different from that of Harold Ballard when the latter did time for fraudulently using funds from Maple Leaf (Read more…)
By Lorne, on May 18, 2013, at 9:11 am Here is Rex Murphy holding forth on the current ‘troubles’ in Ottawa:
Recommend this Post
By Lorne, on May 17, 2013, at 12:08 pm There just seems to be no bottom to this cesspool. Now the Puffster is said to have tried to subvert the CRTC hearing so that the money-losing Sun News gets its wish to be carried on basic cable.
You can watch the video here.
Recommend this Post
By Obert Madondo, on May 17, 2013, at 9:06 am By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: Scandal-plagued Sen. Mike Duffy quit the Conservative caucus Thursday after his fraudulent Senate expense claims threatened to engulf the Harper government. Duffy, appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2009, now sits as an independent. “It is clear the public controversy surrounding me and the repayment of my [...]
The post Beleaguered Harper-appointed Sen. Mike Duffy Quits Conservative Caucus appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
By Lorne, on May 17, 2013, at 8:48 am
In his column this morning, Thomas Walkom suggests that Mike Duffy’s current scandal-plagued problems are representative of much deeper ones in the Senate, namely that our much-cossetted members of that ‘chamber of sober second thought’ are appointed, not because of their expertise (many of them have none), not because of intimate knowledge of a particular province (Duffy has none, having lived in Ottawa for over 30 years and not even legally qualified to represent P.E.I.), but because the Senate has become, under both Liberal and Conservative governments, a repository of party strategists and bagmen where they can (Read more…)
By Lorne, on May 16, 2013, at 7:53 pm …. people showing such contempt for my intelligence really inflames me:
A senior PMO official told Fife that Duffy couldn’t afford to repay the $90,000 and did not want to borrow money from a bank, fearing that his wife would be stuck with the large debt if he died suddenly from a heart attack. Duffy has battled cardiac problems over the years.
Jennifer Ditchburn and Steve Rennie present an alternative view of The Puffster’s finances here.
Recommend this Post
By Lorne, on May 16, 2013, at 9:49 am
In Act 5 Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, when the overthrow of the ruthless, power-drunk politician/king is nigh, Angus speaks these words about him:
Now does he feelHis secret murders sticking on his hands.Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach.Those he commands move only in command,Nothing in love. Now does he feel his titleHang loose about him, like a giant’s robeUpon a dwarfish thief.
Despite the fact that English literature is dismissed by many of our current ‘masters of the universe’ as something of a frill, with nothing to offer the practical, results-driven mentality (Read more…)
By Lorne, on May 15, 2013, at 9:06 pm If you start at about the 5 minute mark, you will witness Harper’s pet parrot Pierre, through endless repetition, parody a Member of Parliament actually answering a question and showing respect for Canadians’ intelligence.
* Show an absolute absence of anything that could be even remotely interpreted as integrity. Recommend this Post
By Lorne, on May 15, 2013, at 8:52 am
It must be very comforting indeed to the increasingly odious Senator Duffy that his relationship with the Prime Minister is so ‘special’ that the latter is willing to exercise unethical, perhaps even illegal interference on his behalf during the Senate’s investigation into his fraudulent expense claims.
For the rest of us, the stench of corruption has reached near-asphyxiation levels.
Recommend this Post
By Lorne, on May 14, 2013, at 10:02 pm
Thomas Walkom explains why. Recommend this Post
By Lorne, on May 9, 2013, at 4:05 pm
Could it be because Senator Duffy was tipped off by the man investigating him for expense improprieties?
Or could it be because once more, an errant staff member is to blame for Conservative ‘irregularities’? Recommend this Post
By Lorne, on April 19, 2013, at 5:12 pm So asks MP Charlie Angus about the subject of this video report, Mike Duffy, who, as we learn, has even less integrity than it would be thought possible for any person to have:
UPDATE: Unbelievable – now Duffy claims he repaid the money in March. Recommend this Post
By Lorne, on March 2, 2013, at 10:03 am
The host of letters appearing in today’s Star attests to the ongoing public outrage over the Senate porkbarrellers. Although in many ways a mere sideshow to the endemic and systemic problems that face our governance, it nonetheless illustrates that Canadian anger, when it can be aroused, can be formidable.
I am taking the liberty of reproducing a few of the shorter missives below, and I also highly recommend Thomas Walkom’s column, in which he lambastes the almost jesuitical reasoning being propounded by defenders of this Senate malfeascence:
They preach austerity but secretly practice gluttony, stealing from the poorest of
. . . → Read More: Politics and its Discontents: Ongoing Outrage
By Lorne, on February 28, 2013, at 8:36 am
But apparently our Prime Minister heartily disagrees, constitutional requirements notwithstanding (BNA Act 23:5). Recommend this Post
By Obert Madondo, on February 27, 2013, at 12:47 pm By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive | Feb. 27, 2013: Has Prime Minister Stephen Harper finally awakened to the reality that Canada’s appointed Senate is indeed a scandal-ridden ”useless, expensive, undemocratic appendage of government”? That a majority of democracy-loving Canadians don’t really find the unfolding Senatorial soap opera engulfing mostly his appointees that funny? Is he finally admitting the truth: he’s the world’s worst talent scout? Earlier this months READ MORE
By Lorne, on February 25, 2013, at 10:45 am Well, in the tried and true tradition of governments announcing embarrassing news on Fridays, ‘P.E.I. Senator’ Mike Duffy kinda sorta admitted to maybe an error, thanks to ‘confusing senate forms’ asking for his primary residence. Not that he did anything wrong, of course, but after 80 days of what Tim Harper calls a sideshow, the rotund representative of the island province told CBC that the issue has become a “major distraction” from the work he’s trying to do for Prince Edward Island, the province he represents in the Senate.
“We are going to pay it back, and
. . . → Read More: Politics and its Discontents: Does Mike Duffy Have ‘Pump Head’?
By Richard Hughes, on February 20, 2013, at 5:14 pm
By Obert Madondo, on February 11, 2013, at 11:59 am By Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive, Feb. 11, 2013: Senator Patrick Brazeau: Brazeau symbolic of Harper’s indifference to First Nations – Winnipeg Free Press Brazeau, Harper and Idle No More – The Tyee Let’s talk about punishing mentally ill – Winnipeg Free Press Brazeau Just Latest Thrown Under Bus by Harper – The Tyee Editorial: Unreformed senator – Calgary Herald Canadian Senate: READ MORE
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