Harper Interview Post-Election 2011

This is about as Close as Harper will ever come to an Apology!

Help Make this Interview Happen! Vote To Unseat The CHEAT!

Mchael Ignatieff Drops in to "The Twain Shall Meet"

"Mr. Harper, If you Stop Telling Lies about Us,

We will Stop Telling the Truth about You!"

~ Michael Ignatieff! ~

April ~ 2011

Look to Canadians Rallying to UnSeat Stephen Harper For all the Information You will need to "Help UnSeat the CHEAT"!

Harper Looks Prime Miserable to Me! ~ He is our Prime Misery!

Debating the Debate         

As Long as the Main Stream Media Believes

That Harper Owns the Economy We are Screwed!

The Debate is still a recent event, and it will be getting a Good going over today and for the rest of the Campaign period. As I watch the hapless and incredibly Conservative Evan Solomon, I am reminded of how much Power is in the hands of the Media here in Canada.

So Far they seem to be Mindlessly Bobbling their way through. Bobble Heads are Not Great media. They are in a very real sense among the elitists in this Country, they have things to defend and they will protect their turf. With the exceptions of the veterans; Robert Fife, and Terry Milewski, for instance, I feel that they come off as much less than sincere.

They are quite easy on the Prime Miserable in My Opinion. Do they ever ask (themselves) why everyone is picking on Harper? No, they just say he is... holding up well. They are also saying over and over, that he looked Directly into the Camera. He looked weird to me, and he was Not actually looking into the camera. He was focused at a point just to his Right of the lens. Very Odd indeed. A more reasonable observation would have been to point out his failure to look his opponents in the eye. That is after-all what got us to this point in time. The MSM's myopia reminds me of Bob Cole, who would benefit from a more careful look at the replays, instead of repeating his original missed call.

Hell, were they expecting him to be nervous, or contrite, or reactive, during all of those well deserved criticisms? By what mechanism? He has No Conscience. He is convinced that Supporting Exxon over Canadian citizens is the right thing to do. He is the Immovable Object. I thought he looked anal, and emasculate. He 'pretends' that he is the Victim here and they in the MSM do NOT tell us the Difference. I am still waiting for an apology from Mr. Harper. Instead what we get is a complete denial of the charges. It is interesting that the defendant, now found guilty is now framing it as him having been framed and that it was atrivial Bickering. Enter the Bobble-heads to nod away and agree that it really was nothing. Apparently Contempt is acceptable to a surprising number of Canadians. I feel very differently on the subject as you already know.


I am Not impressed! I thought Harper was evasive, smarmy, misguided and robotic. I wouldn't trust him to feed my Cat!

At Least He Looked Prime Miserable!

 Take the man-Child Out of a place of authority, and figure out a way to put him back in the tube. The fact that he cannot even look the other guys in the eyes should tell us all that we need to know!

In the entire two hours of the debate Harper stared at a spot on the floor somewhere near Duceppe's feet and never looked into the Camera. The Main Stream Media came out saying that Harper held his own during this debate. I didn't see it that way. But since I consider him a Child, I will tell you how other kids saw it!

Ignatieff Draws Praise while Harper Criticized for Lacklustre Debate Performance

EDMONTON — Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff won the televised leaders’ debate after he stopped dumbing down his arguments and started acting like himself, say the three student debaters who participated in the Edmonton Journal’s live chat.



Ignatieff’s impassioned plea for the role of the federal government in supporting equal access to health care across Canada was his strongest point, the three said.

“He had the most consistent message,” Kristen Pue said, adding he also backed up his statements with more examples than the other leaders.

He looked relaxed, and when taking questions from Canadians he answered directly and remembered the questioner’s name, said Sheida Kayat, who judges debates for the University of Alberta Debate Society, the oldest club on campus.

"Nearly 300 participants in the live chat were asked at the beginning who they thought would debate the best, and Harper won out with 38 per cent expecting good things from him.


But by the end of the debate, opinion turned against him. When asked who won the debate, 44 per cent of those on the live
chat voted for Ignatieff. Layton got 41 per cent while 15 per cent thought Harper won the debate. No one voted for Duceppe."
So What Is Real Leadership?

If Any of you 'PMO' Types are looking at this and I somehow doubt you are. I need to know if this is Jenni Byrne. It was sent to me and it is supposed to come from Jenni's facebook Profile.

Apparently She is NOT a very nice human being. If you do NOT know who she is, She is in charge of Harper's re-election Campaign, and is Noted as a problem-child, just like her boss!

For more information on Helping to Un-Seat the Cheat, Read on Down this page, or visit C.R.U.S.H. on Facebook.

Now we need to Figure out How to Get this Mean Genie back in the Bottle, or more accurately this strange Blue Goo back into the tube. A lot of people who are as hated as Harper would just crawl back in and Go away.

Mr. Harper is ^NOT the type to do that. He will need to go down in flames in order to get the point. He does ^NOT seem to understand that he is being held in Contempt by so very many of us.

On May 2nd

Vote for DEMOCRACY

^NOT Contempt!

This Just IN:

This is a very odd way to advertise Compassion, and is in very bad taste for the facebook page of a 26 year old running a national Election campaign. Oh, that's Right, Ethics, Compassion, Empathy, public good, the suffering of others, is^NOT on the Conservatives 'Radar'.
Sadly, If you are reading my Blog, YOU probably Are!

There Are More than 300 Reasons to Unseat the Cheat! Harper Must Go!

This Guy Has Had Enough!



I've had Enough as Well!



This Just In: Harper's Dyslexia Leads to Debate Faux Pas! Not Beiber, Stevie,  Beaver!

I think that that says Most of it, But there are Many Many more Issues than These. Join CRUSH NOW!

The Blog that Broke the Harper Barrier! ~ MY First Text to Video Project!

In this somewhat fictional depiction of our less than great Leader,

he visits the Queen to ask advice, (and also to go over the head of the Governer General as was Suggested by John Baird in early 2009) and she treats him to some clever baiting and a warm yet somehow cold shoulder.

Get used to being treated with Contempt, Mr. Harper, and I can ^NOT wait to see you inducted to Canada's Hall of Shame. This Longer than lifesize video, should assure that you do ^NOT have to wait too too long to become Canada's Next EX Prime Minister.

I hope that you liked this video! t is agood primer for anyone wondering why the Contempt chrge was levelled!

See me at C.R.U.S.H. and on Facebook

Ignatieff ~ To Harper's Character Assasination Attempt!

A Measured Response

From the Canadian

on Whom

Stephen Harper

 Wasted Million$ of Dollars

in a CONtemptable Attempt to Ruin!

I like This!

My Mom will like this!

My Daughter will like this.
My Nieces will like this.
My Nephews will like this.
My Friends will like this!

Dimitri Soudas will ^NOT like this!
Jenni Byrne will hate this.
John Baird will loath this.
Pierre Poilievre will smirk at this.
Jaime Watt will sneer at this.
Evan Solomon will giggle over this.
Vic Toews will feel like a victim!

This will make Harper Shudder!

And All of this!
Absolutely All of it!
Will help make Me like this Even More!

The Time Has Come Canada, The Time Has Come!


Please Comment if You like This!

IS THIS YOUR CANADA? ~ OR HARPER'S?

This it it folks! The Gloves are OFF!



This is a burning Bridge!

No Governement of Canada has ever been Officially designated as in Contempt of parliament. Will the self-proclaimed, "Harper Government" be the First? It is becoming a distict possibility! If the demenor of the Governments' Ministers, so-far Toews and Nicholson who appeared before Committe today does not improve, by this Friday We should know for sure. That is of course only if those on on the Committee do ^NOT lose their patience before then!



THE COMMITEE from CPAC.ca

Procedure and House Affairs (March 16, 2011)

MPs discuss a question of privilege on the government’s failure to disclose cost estimates for its corporate tax cuts and crime bills. The House of Commons Finance committee had requested the documents last November, but the Conservatives cited cabinet confidence and refused to provide the information.



The Chair Joe Preston



House Speaker Peter Milliken has ruled that the government likely breached parliamentary privilege by refusing to release all the cost details.

Please note that regularly scheduled programming may be pre-empted due to live CPAC programming. Please check listings for rebroadcast dates and times.

See what the world is saying about this Committee on Twitter

Follow in real time or catch the summary as Kady O'malley Live Blogs it!

As a self-proclaimed (future) 'Hockey Writer" Stephen Harper understands that sometimes a real man just has to Drop the Gloves.

Even Don Cherry knows that much!

IS THIS YOUR CANADA? ~ OR HARPER'S?

Now for something Completely different! New Liberal ad. Hey they even tell ya who is paying for it. That's cool!


More later! ~ It is going to be a real Ride! ~ Don't be a stranger!

"The Harper Photo Opportunity Dilema" or "Men, Both Dim & Dimmer"

First Things First ~ This Blog is ^NOT  About Science! It is about a Governement so bent on self promtion that they keep getting it wrong. This is but one sad chapter in their story. Let's start with some background.

Stephen Harper speaks at St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic School March 11th 2011 in Guelph Ontario.
As usual his handlers have chosen to use human props. You can see some them
 standing quietly in the background as PM Harper delivers a long speech.
As per usual he (the propagandist) has water they (the props) do not.

This set up for a photo opportunity may look familiar to some of you as this is standard procedure for any right wing Government worth it's Rovian label. The little people as they are called can generally be counted on to stand in the glare of television lights for quite a long time without incident. That is not always the case:

This video is from September 2010 and shows how concerned a man Harper can be when youth are at stake.


What a trooper that Harper is. He hesitates, looks back only after being told some several seconds later that a child has fainted and without so much as an ""Are you OK?",  drinks his water and starts right back into his Boring and Somnambulatory monotone.

When this man speaks he just does not seem to be aware of anything around him, and why would he? In his mind, he is the very Center of Canadian Existence. He is, after all Stephen Harper. Besides, he has to concentrate as  he is usually reading his responses, often from a very sophisticated computerized teleprompter.

That not withstanding, he took a lot of heat for this first inciden, mostly in the social media but was not able to spin it successfully in the Main Stream Media and the video was viewed many thousands of times. He made no apology about it at all. He is just too busy a man to be worried about some kid. But that was then and this is now!

Again last week, his handlers rounded up some school kids to serve as human props while he spoke. This time at St. Ignatius of Loyola, a Catholic School in Guelph. And again, no water for the props, just water for the propagandist. (A short mainstream media version)


Here is a much poorer BUT FUNNIER amateur version which goes on a lot longer and seems to have vastly amused the cameraman. He and a friend can be heard roaring with laughter, at first at the fainter, but soon it becomes apparent that his laughter is due to Harper's automatonic continuance of the speech which of course he was droning out in his famous subdued style.



It, I guess, was shot from a monitor, and that is a good thing because I can not seem to find that longer version anywhere, only the shorter edited version. If he had shot it live he would never have managed to get past Harper's highly efficient small army of handlers! Lucky for us he took the time to capture the longer shot or we would not know just how long this man can fail to know what goes on around him.

So, what do you do after such a huge failure to seem quite human in front of the world?  Enter Dimitri Soudas, Harper's PMO twittering spokesperson. Although details of the timing of this are not yet available to me, I am looking for information that would shed some light on what exactly happened in the time between the end of the speech and the taking of picture that he released on Twitter. At any rate Dimitri Tweeted a picture of Mr. Harper and the child who had fainted lying side by side on the floor, Harper looking every bit like a father and mentor. Or at least that is, I think, Dimitri's spin on the story. Frankly I just find it sad that they would go to such lengths to disprove Harper's obvious lack of normal human connectedness.

Dimitri's Tweet: Complete with Right Wing Spin:

The link leads here and you can comment on the picture of our PM laying on a floor next to a student. Oddly Dimitri used the word 'lies'.A fraudian slip? It depends on whether you believe that this was done to sooth the child, or to cover Harper's absolute failure to see past his own nose.


The Photograph: Complete with Left Wing Spin:
Oh, come on, one of the commenter asked when their would be a caption Contest! I thought a short story might be in order!

"Stephen Harper Misreads St.Ignatius Tee-Shirt and Performs Emergency Exorcism"


Still faint from the shock, the Prime minister was lead away repeatedly muttering to himself: "But I was sure it read St. Ignatieff!"

Apparently it had triggered in the overworked mind of Mr. Harper, memories of a recurring nightmare that he has been having since he was a mail room clerk 2nd class, for Imperial Oil in Calgary,the one job that he is still considered adept at. It consisted of delivering weekly huge paychecks to Imperial Oil Executives, an activity that he still considers a hobby.

It is well documented that Mr' Harper has always held chronic delusions about his primary Opponent for years and still insists on telling his distorted views of Mr. Ignatieff. He has even gone so far as to divert Millions upon Millions of taxpayers dollars to purchase advertising on a continental scale to tell repeated lies about Mr. Ignatieff's origin, his experience, and his motives.

The boy, it turns out, was fine, having fainted after having to pretend to listen to a longer than necessary speech by the minority leader, while standing under huge lights, knowing that he was going to be seen all across Canada. That is a lot of pressure on the average teen-aged boy. This is not his fault, he is just a victim of the relentless need for propaganda to drive the Harper Myth. As usual only the prime minister gets water during these speeches, and this is not the first time that this has happened to one of Mr. Harper's young human props. It is time to stop this practice.
No such assurances have been made about the Condition of the Prime Minister. However he is still understandably, under observation.
********************************************************************

What bothers me most about the story is that it is supremely superficial. Harper's huge Party Machine spends massive amounts of his flock's huge fortune on these events. I guess they have a contingency plan for the inevitable fainting. They handled the last one so poorly, and they now know that 14 year olds cannot stand long in stage lights lights and listen to dull men talk, so they have a plan which is the real plan, in essence. "The Hero Photo Opportunity". Enter Dimitri Soudas to get the word and the spin, out to the masses.                      

Clockwork Strange and the Wizard of Odd!

I am adding a video that was sent along by a commenter below, Nadine Lumley, who shares a growing distaste for the Current vacuous dolt at the Helm. Here, he disappoints a whole town and leaves a child crying!

Stephen Harper ~ Blowing through a Town Near You!

("Get Over it kid, he is ^NOT such a great man")

It is quoted widely that his security bill is something like $47,000,000.oo a year. We know that because it is our money, although he makes getting this information difficult. Some of his huge entourage are paid by the party. That means that wherever he goes, with this huge entourage, properly trained medics and such are bound to be available. There was no need for Harper to intervene.

The Story of his diving in to comfort this child follows almost exactly the now famous plot-line of last summer's odd political theatre involving Tony Clement. Tony tweeted about the big rescue that he arrived late to, because he stupidly took the long way there, and even though it was not him who saved the mysterious woman, made himself out to be a hero!

Having this picture out over the net, knowing that that huge machine is getting it out to their base means that we have to get it out to ours as well.

We, as private citizens, end up having to compete with these huge amounts of cash that Harper's little gig as minority leader generates. I can imagine the elderly who have seen this 'Oh, so Cute Picture' opening up their chequebooks, even as I type this! That is why we need to work so hard to counter the spin from the most powerful and deceptive Prime Minister's Offices this country has ever seen.                 

Oh well carry on, eh?

What is the Meaning of "Small Dead Animals"?

What is the meaning of "Small Dead Animals"?

Is it a cruel joke? It is cruel but no joke! 
Is it written by sadists? Possibly!
Animal Lovers? Not bloody likely!
By tiny lifeless rodents? That may be close.

If this screen shot below is an indication of the content, it is more or less a Sheep fest. It is also a very popular right wing Blog. It is normally a chance for spewing their drivel unchallenged. Apparently that is not the case tonight! I have had enough of them and their small 'L' leader!

It is important to brave those cold waters once in a while and take the C.R.A.P. that will inevitably be flung in order to see just exactly how they go about doing what it is that they do best. And What is that?

Apparently it is Blindly following the rantings of a leader who would like to be the leader of the only political party left standing in Canadian Politics! It is strange and eerily Stalinesque but it is certainly not the first time there has been evidence of such a cult among his followers. I mean just try and engage any of them in a discussion that is about the facts or the figures involved in any given topic.

"Small Dead Animals" is also a place where one can quote; Ezra Levant, Karl Rove, Tom Flanagan, Ann Coulter, Charles McVety, Glenn Beck, Kory Teneycke, Sarah Palin, Bill O'Reilly, George Dubya Bush, Ronald Reagan, and a host of other equally delusional Mental Midgets with impunity and apparently without feeling an overwhelming need to Spit, as I feel a sudden urge to do now! .  .  .  .  .  Pttuuie!

Stephen Harper has finally decided that it is time to push our buttons. He says he does not want an election. He is Lying! He says he believes in Democracy. He is Lying! He says he believes in Parliament. He is Lying!

He does not think that the Government of Canada has any moral obligation to set aside a measly $1.98 per vote for the party receiving that vote. Remember the last time this happened? It was after the breaking of the Fixed election law (in Sept. of 2008) that he had used to get himself elected in 2006. Actually there was also the matter of the short lived Coalition with the NDP not that you will find that on Small Dead Animals.

At any rate the threat of dropping the subsidies and forever tilting the playing field in favor of Harper and his silent big business partners in late 2008 ultimately lead to the hasty formation of a proposed coalition between the Liberals under Stephane Dion and the NDP led by Jack Layton, which still needed the co-operation of Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc Quebecois. If they had not tipped their hand (quite inexplicably in my opinion) they would have defeated The Government in a scheduled vote of Non-Confidence and gone on to implement that Coalition. I have no idea why they showed their hand. I am quite sure they would do it differently if they had it to do over again!

And this time around they will (if he can be believed) get no argument from the NEW Governor General who very recently had this to say: "Nothing Wrong with Coalition Governments ~ Governor General"

So, I give you a peek into the world of the "tiny lifeless creatures" who support this Vacuous Dolt!

If this is too small, open your Status Bar and enlarge to 150%

As you can plainly see, I am not hard to find, but I will not publish Anonymous comments on this Blog as I often do on others. Sorry CONS I am going to have to have some Real Names.

I will update this Blog by replacing the Screen-Shot when I see relevent added comments. Of course If my comment on there is deleted, I will not be doing that!

All's fair in Love and War, and as Far as I am Concerned, Stephen Harper Has Just Declared War on Democracy!

Small Dead Animals discusses Party subsidies complete with comments here, and on this thread you see how they react to media and others calling for less violent rhetoric and the innapropriate use of Guns as political metaphor.

Meeting The Liberal Express was a Refreshing Experience

As any of you who have ever read "The Twain Shall Meet" or know me from Twitter or on Facebook, or have read any of my comments on CBC.ca already realize, I am completely disillusioned by the Harper Government.

I absolutely hate their closed minded, confusing, oddly ideological, "catch me if you can", and strictly scripted approach to governance and information. I have come to not trust them either, to; tell the truth, to share information, to stand and take uncomfortable questions, nor to show any signs of compassion, reason, or any sign of a caring attitude towards Canadians. I have come to expect only contempt, deflection, deceit and denial from the entire caucus, cabinet and their leader.

I realise also, that many Canadians are being told subliminally by the minions of the Conservative Party of Canada, who would have the population in general fail to vote, and work their own asses off to get their base to the polls, that nothing ever changes in Ottawa. I feel that as a result of this 'Meming', as I like to call it, (based on the French term 'meme chose' meaning, of course 'same thing') that far too many Canadians have already come to believe that all political parties and all politicians are exactly like these insufferable ideologues. I do not want to believe that, as it would mean that there is no way out of these tough (meaning Tory) times.

So, when Paul Zed, former liberal MP, invited me and a lot of others to attend a Barbecue in his backyard, and to meet the Liberal Express in Rothesay, New Brunswick, I decided that it sounded like a great way to get some perspective on the subject.

I must admit at this point (again, no surprise to many) that I had already developed a growing deep respect for and a positive impression of what I felt and still feel are Michael Ignatieff's; impressive intellect, reasoned perspective, honourable motives and his compassionate vision of Canada, which I had already taken the time to get to know. I was quite sure that it was a vision not unlike my own.

Besides, I thought, it is an absolutely beautiful drive from Moncton down to Rothesay N.B., which is a very pretty little town just this side of Saint John, some 150 kilometers away down a rather modern highway. The views along the way are spectacular and the Kennebecasis River Valley is incredible in Summer. In the afternoon sun, on August 1st, New Brunswick is as green as Ireland. Not only that, but it was promising to be perfect weather for a drive down the Road. So, careful to recharge a few batteries so that I could take some pictures, I did what I always do, and forgetting my camera at home, sped happily towards Saint John with it's batteries securely in my pocket.

I had no trouble at all to find the place, (ain't google grand?) but had to park on a side street a short ways from the house, as I was, still plenty early but far from the first to arrive. I walked there while chatting about the event with a nice, slightly older gentleman and was soon in the Zed's back yard, behind a large, beautiful two story house, where a couple of hundred people were already gathered.

I soon spotted Paul, who greeted me enthusiastically and warmly, introduced himself, and asked me to make myself at home. We chatted for a few minutes and he soon put me totally at ease. He showed me where I could find something to eat and also told me that the House was "wide open" if I cared to go inside. In the Maritimes, kitchens, if not the rest of the house, are almost always part of the package.


Paul Zed


I said that I was a progressive political blogger and a proud member of "Canadians Rallying to Unseat Stephen Harper" and that I had a few Questions to ask; him, anyone who was aboard the bus, and also his quests. He said that that was the purpose of the evening, that he expected me to have questions and that I was more than welcome to ask anything of anyone at all.

He described his professional and personal relationships with Michael Ignatieff as one and the same, and a warm and close one and that. They had, he added, been good friends for a while. I told him that I was aware of that and that I was hoping to get Michael's attention for a while to ask some questions. Paul laughed and said he knew before he invited me that I would feel that way. We had a good laugh, and I said I'd wander around and that his back yard seemed an "odd setting". He looked momentarily troubled, as I had hoped he would, and I said that it was "the nicest place that I had ever lingered while waiting for a bus".

So, wander around I did, and grabbing a bite to eat from the barbecue and a simple salad I ate while sizing up the still growing crowd. Oddly, they did not strike me as elitists, and they seemed to me like any average New Brunswick crowd. It occurred to me then that the Conservatives did not own the "Tim Horton's crowd" as they so often claim, and that I was clearly standing among them as we waited for the bus.

After eating, I wandered out to the road to smoke a quick cigarette, and just as I reached the roadside, a taxi pulled up. A tall, rather large man, popped gingerly out of it carrying a travel bag. I recognized him as Gerry Byrne, a young and promising Liberal MP from Newfoundland. We soon fell into a pleasant conversation and I asked him his impressions of "Strategic voting" as a better alternative to Danny Williams' A.B.C. campaign, which had worked so well for the Federal Liberals on "the Rock" in the last election. He thought that that strategy was a worthwhile endeavour in the rest of Canada, but that A.B.C. was all that was needed in Newfoundland, citing that the Liberals were so strong there due to Harper having reneged as soon as he became Prime Minister on a written promise to "keep non-renewable energy resources out of the equalization formula" An interesting conversation, to say the least.

It was not long after that that the bus arrived. It was not the run-down rickety old bus that is described in Conservative circles, but a large, clean, quiet, rather pretty bus. In the strong sunshine, it was brightly white, made more so by the richly red lettering and darkly tinted windows, which hinted of air conditioned comfort. In fact it was looking rather smart! Why was the main stream media missing this? That is another blog entirely.

As it pulled in and came to a stop, a loud applause, and excited voices gathered around it. I was excited to see who exactly would be on board. I have been following it on Twitter, and can tell you that the cast keeps changing as different members of the Liberal team join it at different stops as Mr. Byrne was about to do.

The first person, that I recognized was Senator Jim Munson followed by Marlene Jennings, one of my absolute favorite Baird baiters from Question Period, whom I suddenly found myself face to face with.

 

Under the Flag as I Chat with Marlene Jennings

 Next came Judy Sgro, formerly Veteran's Affairs Critic, and still a member of the committee responsible for overseeing it. Next came the talented Dominic Leblanc, followed closely by My current MP, Brian Murphy, whom I had become re-acquainted with as he spoke at the CAPP Rally in Moncton, in January and with whom I had the pleasure of talking over Coffee at Tim Horton's right after the Rally.

I was, as I said, standing face to face with Marlene Jennings, who was accompanied by her teenage daughter whom she introduced. I noticed that she had cigarettes and after spending almost an hour on the Bus, we soon found our selves alone and out of the way, smoking and talking about the G20. I had asked her opinion on the prospects of an inquiry, and she was quite candid about her dissatisfaction of the authorities handling of the crowd. She was refreshingly open, and was aware of the man from Thorold who had been relieved of his prosthetic leg, and literally dragged off to the detention center for a 27 hour ordeal. She knew about many of the stories that I had heard and was not impressed with the situation saying that she felt that even though it would be hard to ever get Harper to agree to an Inquiry, she did seem to think that some of the questions being asked would result in proceedings against at least some of the police officers involved. This she said could be done with or without any official inquiry. I was impressed that she was so comfortable giving me her take on it. We made our way back toward the crowd and parted as she approached another guest who wanted to speak to her.

The next person I spoke with was Senator Jim Munson, who worked with now controversial Senator Mike Duffy years earlier while they were both with CTV. He was less than shy as he described how Mike had declared during the Chretien years that he was "quite willing to become a Liberal", if it would only get him a Senatorship. I saw right away that this was scoop enough to satisfy even a real reporter, so I asked if he understood that I would be sharing that story, and he added that it was not a secret and added that it is a shame that Duffy was now only a shallow shill for Harper and had become a mere caricature of himself. I thanked him for his candor and accepted his business card.

I was not surprised to hear that Duffy story. Not really. I can count on one hand those who still feel good about Duffy. The one who comes quickest to mind is the often irascible Ezra Levant who seems to tolerate him quite nicely as seen in an interview he recounts from 2008 with Mr. Duffy, then still with CTV.

At this point I realised that I was within a few feet of Michael Ignatieff, and I slipped in closer and soon got a chance to meet him.

I had been watching him move easily about the crowd and was amused that whenever he met anyone, he introduced himself. Was there anyone there who did not know his name? Probably not, but at any rate I found it to be charming and not the habit of an arrogant man.


I got to talk to Michael Ignatieff, and was quite surprised by
how comfortable and welcome he made me feel and how pleasant he
was, even when I asked him some serious questions. I realised
that this was not Stephen Harper. This guy was listening!


I shook his hand and introduced myself, as did he. Again, I found it disarming. I sensed that he was comfortable and I was not made nervous by him. I told him a few things about myself and that I had a few short questions for him from some of my friends on Facebook. I asked him a couple of questions about life on the road and such and then asked, if he was going to be asking for an Inquiry into the Police actions at the G20 in Toronto. He said much the same thing as Marlene Jennings, although, like her it never sounded scripted in the least. He was simply responding to it by giving me his thoughts on it.

He said that he saw no need to press for a Federal Inquiry, as it was unlikely to happen under any circumstances, and like Jennings had said, that there were Provincial Government, and Internal Police Inquiries, as well as many different involved interests launching individual proceedings on behalf of many individuals. He was convinced that these would shed a lot of light on the subject and that it was his opinion that the Liberal Party was more interested in laying the blame squarely at the feet of Stephen Harper.

He went on that Harper, could so easily have chosen a more suitable location almost anywhere outside of Toronto, and that the city had tried to make it clear that they preferred that it not be held in the GTA and that it could best (as in more cheaply and more safely) be done at the Exhibition Grounds. He said that Harper absolutely insisted that it be held, in what became the RED ZONE, and that the city was not given any other option. Ignatieff seemed to think that by the time all of the interested parties were through with the process, justice would be served.

As I have had a few days to digest it and to look into what exactly is already being done and all that is looming, he may very well be right on the money. He will, I think, be satisfied that Harper will be ultimately made to pay, by the ombudsman of Ontario, by the police commission in Toronto, by the People of Canada, who are forced to pay the Billion plus for it and that the police involved will be held responsible by individual prosecutions launched in the name of individuals and not by governments.

He made it very clear that he wanted to stay out of the fray and let these forces do the damage, and that he would do his best to keep Harper at the very center of it all. I suspect that he plans to be busy getting ready for an election call that may not happen right away, but that he feels he owes it to Canadians that he be ready for when it does. If he has this figured correctly it seems obvious that Harper will be busy as well! And i hope distracted.

I will stop here for now, but I will publish this and edit it as necessary later and add the rest of the story after I sleep for a few hours. It is now 6:44 AM in the Good Ol' Maritimes.

There is a whole lot more more to tell! see Part two below.

Meeting The Liberal Express was a Refreshing Experience <> Part Two <> <> A Shared Vision of Canada <>

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Michael Ignatieff's Vision of Canada (or at least <> my impression of it)

Back to [Part One]
As enthused as I was with the ease with which Michael Ignatieff had fielded and answered all my questions, I still had one more item on my agenda. I had gone there not just to meet him but also to hear him speak. I wanted to be there in the crowd, as he spoke, in order to get a sense of his style, his outlook and his vision,  and i wanted to try to get a sense of the spirit of the man.

I did not have to wait long. I could see Paul Zed moving towards the P.A. system on the steps of the old barn and I moved to the back of the crowd so I could take it all in, and see also how the audience was going to react to it.

Paul picked up the mic, and thanked us all for coming, and casually mentioned that there was still food on the grill, and that he was very happy to have all of us there and that he was very happy to have Michael there as well. He said that it was Michael's sixth trip to Saint John in the last few years and that he had often stayed right there at Paul's house. He introduced him as Our next Prime Minister and the crowd applauded loudly and enthusiastically as Michael Ignatieff stepped up casually, smiled as he thanked Paul, and took the mic.


<>Note<>: I will not be "quoting" the Speech, as I did not tape it, But here are my impressions of it and since I've already let the cat out of the bag,  it the main reason I found this trip so refreshing!


This is New Brunswick of course, and it is also Nouveau Brunswick, so he opened with a bit of history on it's roots, and remarked on it's various peoples which he said included; La Brayonne, Les Acadiens, United Empire Loyalists, First Nations ( Mi'kmaq and Maliseet ), Early European settlers and more recent immigrants from all over the World. He said that New Brunswick was as proudly multi-cultural a place as there is in Canada, and that he was proud to have roots here.



Michael and Zsuzsanna
Fisher House Kings Landing

 I did not realise that he had roots here, so I listened intently as he told us that they had just come from Kings Landing, an Historical Settlement along the Saint John River which is a recreation of a New Brunswick town from the period of 1780-1910 and that he was surprised to realise that, one of the oldest buildings there was called "Fisher House" and was built by an ancestor of his named, not surprisingly, Fisher.

That was cool enough in itself, I thought, but he then said that his Grandmother,  Maude Parkin Grant, who was, I assume, on his mother's side, was also a New Brunswicker and that she was buried in Salisbury NB. ! ! !

Well, I instantly let out a 'slightly too loud' ~  "Hey! that's My Hometown! ~

I am certain that he did not know it was me who shouted, but I think he heard it, because he decided to elaborate. I guess he was in no hurry.  And as it turns out, he was not.

He said that he, along his wife Zuzanna, and  his friend (our host) Paul Zed had made a very special trip to Salisbury, NB, just last summer, to find her resting place and hopefully her headstone. They managed to find it, with a little help, cleaned  it up a bit and spent  some time there reflecting on what it means to have roots here. He said that he had always been very much at home here, but was even more-so since, the trip to Salisbury. It was not hard to believe as he seemed to be having fun and was in fine form. 

He used no script, no teleprompter, no cue cards and he showed no signs of needing them. That alone was Refreshing. He was in fact, as it turned out, just warming up.

<>Note<>:  I found out later that evening from another guest that they had managed to find it in a farmer's back field that in the corner of which was hidden the few grave markers there and that it was now somewhat grown up and is lightly wooded. The guest also said that Paul would be able to give me more information on it, including the farmer's name. I am only 15 minutes from Salisbury, and I know my way around, as I grew up there, so I thought I might love to go and try to find it myself and brush it off, and spend a little time contemplating my own roots. That sounded like a worthwhile thing to do! And this time, I promised myself, I will not forget my camera!

He then smiled broadly and said that he was here to do better, that we deserved and needed better, and that we need a Government that is based on Compassion and Respect. That we need a government that values education, values science and reason, values the environment, and that values and respects people.

He said that he was not really a partisan, and that he valued co-operation and that a good government worked with the opposition parties and sought out information from many sources to insure that things progress. Progress, he noted was a word that was used no longer by the Conservatives. And that we can all see that cooperation was not Harper's style. He said it would be his style.

He briefly touched on; Harper's treatment of the Press, his lack of cooperation on any level, the one source contract for $16,000,000,000.oo for the stealth F35s, the Cost and the overall handling of the G8/20, right down to the fact that it was stupid to ever have had it in Toronto, and the Fake Lake. He mentioned the incredible amount being spent to show how well Canada Inaction Plan is being managed, the Omar Khadr issue, his total lack of action on the environment, the Prorogations, one being the result of his dragging his feet (he left out his dragging knuckles though) on the detainee issue, his gutting of Human Rights Commissions, his ideological redistribution of funding from humanitarian to the more right wing NGOs, the recent announcement about changes to the census, in spite of Canada's almost unanimous disapproval and his stubborn insistence that it will go ahead. There were a host of other issues. All of which are of interest to to me as a Canadian and as a member of CRUSH.

He said that it should be obvious to any Canadian paying attention that the Harper Government had no respect for Canadian institutions and that they were continually attacking them, using Ideology instead of Intelligence, Fiction instead of Facts, dismissing science, dismissing all expert opinion, and disregarding the opinions of civil servants and was constantly making glaring mistakes because of it.

He said that the word 'Accountability' had at it center the smaller word 'count' and that the Harper Government could not count, and that we could not therefore count on them.

He said that the Liberal Party of Canada was the party at the very center of Canadian life, but that it was also widely based  and very inclusive, and that it was the only party that had any real chance to defeat Harper and form a government, and that a vote for the NDP, or the Greens, was in fact a vote for Stephen Harper.

He said that he hoped disillusioned "Progressive" Conservatives who where tired of the lack of progress and the gutting of Canadian institutions and democratic traditions understood that there was a place for them in the Liberal tent.

He hoped that New Democrats, who were tired of the current Government's contempt for Parliament and democracy in Canada and their insatiable thirst to gut Canada's much needed  social programs  will also feel welcome within in the Liberal tent.

He said similarly, that those who intended to vote Green, would take heart in the fact that the Liberals are a party that has a deep commitment to the Environment and that again there is room for them under the Liberal banner. He urged all Liberals and would-be liberals to urge all Canadians that it was time to unite the huge majority of us who will not give Harper our support and to unite to defeat him under the Big Red Tent that is the Liberal Party of Canada. The party, he said  "at the very Center of Canadian Life!

At this point, Paul Zed joined him briefly and gave him, among other things, a case of 12 Moosehead Beer and said he could enjoy it later to which Michael responded with a quick flick of the tab, a hearty drink, a quick wave and a Cheerful good night to all!

I was quite impressed by the speech, finding it satisfying, encouraging, entertaining and inspiring.
I found his style deliberate and well focused with a good cadence in spite of the fact that it was not scripted and that it was almost 20 minutes long ("In a gadda deveda" was only a little over seventeen minutes and I suspect, it was scripted, lol) and it sounded very sincere. It was delivered in a strong but friendly tone and was loud enough when required and subtle enough where necessary.

That was not the end of the evening, nor in fact, the BBQ. There was still lots to talk about, and plenty of enthusiastic guests to talk to. I was about to take a quick break and grab a smoke, but saw Michael had been asked to give a quick scrum to a handful of local reporters, and with out so much as a second mouthful of MooseHead Beer, walked a few feet onto the lawn and took those questions. I got up quite close but could not hear all of it, but one Question was dealing with Canadian Nuclear Energy and I was able to find a short piece on it in the Telegraph Journal. I of course commented there, and I await the moderator. Feel free to comment on it yourself.

Well I am going to call this episode Part Two and push the button soon but before I do, let me just tell ya that in Part Three, I meet Wayne Easter, and get a chance to talk to Judy Sgro about her time as Critic for  Veteran's Affairs. And I still want to give you my impression of Zuzanna, with whom I talked, after the speech and before watching the Bus leave for Moncton. I was about 5 minutes behind it, and never saw it at all on my way home.  So I guess it must have worked pretty well, eh? It was a great night for driving, and I wasted no time getting home.

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My Vision of Canada

The Sun is well past risen here in the east as I try to find a way to direct attention to a small meadow in my mind where the river is deep at the shore and to a magical canoe exactly large enough to hold all who dare come aboard.
To each a paddle,
to each a bow,
to each a song
and seeds to sow.
As we set out
none say goodbye
for none are left ashore.

For all aboard
and each aboard
a feast of words awaits.
A feast of hope,
a feast of light,
a feast for all to taste.

We are not kin,
and yet we breathe
the air the same as all.
Together in this craft so light,
this craft with room for all.

D. Kim Leaman 07/2008

Ignatieff samples a MooseHead and waves it to the crowd.
A vision we share!