Kremlin critic "accidentally" shot in the temple by police

By Michael Petrou - Sunday, August 31, 2008 at 10:05 PM - 0 Comments

Criticizing the government in Russia just got riskier.

No one mourns the wicked

By Paul Wells - Sunday, August 31, 2008 at 9:30 PM - 0 Comments

So we saw Wicked at the National Arts Centre yesterday, and it was lovely lovely. Still, if I’d ever written a song as dynamite as “Defying Gravity,” I’d make up some excuse to have it sung twice.

Overture to Gustav, Mauler

By Paul Wells - Sunday, August 31, 2008 at 9:05 PM - 0 Comments

Three articles in which I tried to explain why New Orleans is important and, later, why its recovery is so precarious.

• From 2005, five months before Katrina, a column about the complex interaction of race and music in New Orleans.

• From later that year, a week after Katrina’s landfall, a column about the joy, not just the suffering, that is due to the city’s location.

• From the first anniversary of Katrina in 2006, a longer look at a movie debut, a banjo player, and the shaky state of the reconstruction.

Bush kept his head and the danger's past

By Paul Wells - Sunday, August 31, 2008 at 3:19 PM - 0 Comments

Meanwhile President Bush has cancelled his speech to the Republican Convention and John McCain will radically alter the tone and schedule of the event. I’m not sure why, though; I have it on the highest authority that there were no political consequences from Hurricane Katrina.

Billets doux

By Paul Wells - Sunday, August 31, 2008 at 1:52 PM - 0 Comments

From the Inkless emailbox: Stéphane Dion sets a tone:

Harper must explain why he will break his promise – Dion

OTTAWA – Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion will meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper tomorrow to hear first-hand why the Conservative leader is prepared to break his word to Canadians, forcing an early election in violation of his promise to respect fixed election dates.

“I will ask Stephen Harper face to face to explain why he is in such a rush to violate the spirit of his own legislation. I will ask him to explain why he wants to break his word, yet again,” said Mr. Dion.
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Cat and mouse

By Paul Wells - Sunday, August 31, 2008 at 1:05 PM - 0 Comments

It is probably not ideal that, having put it about for several days that he has no time to meet Stephen Harper before Sept. 9, Stéphane Dion will meet Stephen Harper on Sept. 1. It makes it harder to contrast Harper’s impetuousness with Dion’s calm decisiveness if there is no calm decisiveness. (You think it’s easy to make scheduling?) But moving the drama, such as it is, forward by a week will simplify planning for everyone, and if nothing else it will put paid to the danger that the Prime Minister might go to Rideau Hall and kick off an election without even bothering to see a Liberal leader who spent the summer believing he controlled the timing of an election.

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BTC: It's a date (VI)

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, August 31, 2008 at 11:19 AM - 0 Comments

Dion. Harper. Monday.

Scenes from the Stakeout at 24 Sussex

By kadyomalley - Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 4:49 PM - 0 Comments

Aaron Wherry has the highlights here, but I figured that if I wasn’t going to liveblog JackWatch 2008, I may as well use my BlackBerry for something, right?

Lights, cameras, but when I rolled up, all the action was happening off screen, in the prime ministerial residence, where Stephen Harper and Jack Layton were, I suspect, sitting in awkward silence and watching the minutes tick by, waiting for a sufficient amount of time to have passed so that the latter could leave without the entire meeting looking like a waste of time.

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The Commons: Playtime

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 3:52 PM - 0 Comments

Jack Layton’s car—a Ford Focus with Quebec license plates—arrived from the south, seven minutes late of the 1pm time set for Mr. Layton’s meeting with Mr. Harper. Worse, this stretch of Sussex Drive, just before the roundabout in front of Rideau, does not allow for left turns though, so the NDP leader’s driver was forced to make an illegal u-turn around the cobblestone median to get to the Prime Minister’s driveway.

A graceful approach to history this was not. Continue…

BTC: Your government talking points

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 3:30 PM - 0 Comments

On whether Elizabeth May should now be included in the leadership debates.

“Our view is that there should only be one Liberal candidate in the leaders’ debate. We have an electoral agreement between Mr. Dion and Ms. May, an agreement for co-operation, and she has personally stated that he is her choice for prime minister. So Mr. Dion must stand on his own in the debates. Either Ms. May is in the debate or Mr. Dion is in the debate. But they can’t have both.”

Stakeout at 24 Sussex – The Movie(s)!

By kadyomalley - Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 3:00 PM - 0 Comments

Before Jack Layton finally came out after meeting with the Prime Minister …

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Does it Matter *Why* He Wants an Election?

By Andrew Potter - Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 12:49 PM - 0 Comments

I’ve been spending more time than I’d like trying to sort through this fixed-election stuff. Over at his stuffily-named “Andrew Coyne’s Blog”, AC accuses me of actually cheering Harper on w/r/t ignoring the fixed-election date. True enough. My reasoning is a bit elliptical on this, but it boils down to this: I hate the fixed-date amendment, and I think that if this parliament makes it to the fixed date it will set a precedent that I believe to be constitutionally dangerous in the long term. So, I think the short-term political damage done by ignoring it is mild compared to the constitutional damage that could follow if it becomes entrenched.

That said, I’ve been more than a little intrigued by the to-and-fro between constutional experts. Required reading for today’s class is Errol Mendes’ piece in Thursday’s OC arguing that the GG could well deny Harper dissolution, and Patrick Monahan in today’s Globe replying that, no, actually, she can’t.

Let’s start with Prof Mendes, who says that SH is claiming the right to call an election on two grounds, one constitutional, the second political.

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The Greens enter Parliament — by the back door

By Andrew Coyne - Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 11:38 AM - 0 Comments

Just when you think you’ve seen everything…

The Green Party now has has its first MP in Parliament, and it is a Liberal who had been turfed from that party’s caucus over election financing irregularities.

“Today we make history,” Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said Saturday in a news release in welcoming Blair Wilson of B.C.’s West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country riding to her party.

“I am grateful for Mr. Wilson’s principled belief that the Green Party deserves a voice in Parliament and for his firm commitment to democracy.”

A possible election campaign is looming, with signals indicating Canadians could be going to the polls in mid-October.

May noted in the release that with “a Green MP sitting in the House of Commons, it will now be impossible to exclude the Green Party from the televised leaders’ debates in the next election.”

More here and here and here.

Someone Had to Post It

By Andrew Potter - Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 9:51 AM - 0 Comments

www.vpilf.com

Liveblogging the Elizabeth May press conference: Shifting the Greens' annual convention yet again?

By kadyomalley - Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 9:29 AM - 0 Comments

11:10:01 AM
Okay, so I’m going to say this up front, because y’all know I would never knowingly lead my readers astray, even by omission: Thanks to the miracle of embargoed press releases, I do, in fact, know why we’re here today, but I can’t tell you until 11:30, since a) that would be wrong, journalistically; and b) I don’t think I could withstand the look of quiet disappointment on Elizabeth May’s face if I did. So you’ll just have to wait it out along with that portion of the rest of the world not on the Green Party email. distribution list.

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An illegal election?

By Andrew Coyne - Friday, August 29, 2008 at 7:09 PM - 0 Comments

The idea that the Governor General would be within her rights to refuse Harper’s request for dissolution apparently has other adherents besides crankish magazine columnists. Indeed, constitutional scholar Errol Mendes, professor of law at the University of Ottawa and editor of the National Journal of Constitutional Law, argues Harper’s demand for a snap election may well be illegal:

Many of the powers of the prime minister and the Governor General are governed not by the written Constitution, but by constitutional conventions, including who has the right to dissolve Parliament and call for elections. Constitutional convention gives the prime minister only the right to advise the Governor General to call for dissolution of Parliament and thereby trigger an election. The Governor General has an uncontested residual power to deny a prime minister’s request for dissolution.

Constitutional conventions can be both entrenched in and overridden by statute law. That is precisely what the Conservatives did when they decided to constrain the conventional power of the prime minister to seek dissolution whenever he smelled political advantage to do so.

However, the fixed election law does not constrain the residual power of the Governor General…

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Weekend Viewing: "Meet John Brain"

By Jaime Weinman - Friday, August 29, 2008 at 6:27 PM - 0 Comments

This Pinky and the Brain cartoon (which starts at about 1:39 into this clip, after a couple of other short segments) first aired in 1994 and is partly a relic of the Ross Perot era, but it still works in any era, and especially, in any election year.

BHO: McWhorter weighs in

By Andrew Potter - Friday, August 29, 2008 at 6:22 PM - 0 Comments

As if anyone is still thinking about the speech, but John McWhorter has a pretty interesting blog entry:

One workaday aspect of the speech was Obama’s fondness for referring to moving ahead rather than backwards, and one “forward” aspect of the whole event was the beyond-race, miscegenated air of the whole affair; it was café au lait, like Obama’s parentage. Café: when he got wound up, Obama started going “black” on his final vowels (listen to the way he lowered and softened the final -y sound on words like country and community–it’s very black church). Au lait: his wife and daughters have straightened hair–no matter what the Obamas mean about our getting past race, it would be considered distinctly poor P.R. for her to wear her hair natural.

link

Who, II

By Andrew Coyne - Friday, August 29, 2008 at 6:04 PM - 0 Comments

I’m beginning to revise my initial reaction to John McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin for VP. I still think it makes it harder to play the “experience” card against Obama, and find it distressing that both parties should put such greenhorns on their tickets at a time when the United States faces such enormous challenges. But there’s a strategic cleverness to the pick that I did not at first appreciate.

One, judging by the largely ecstatic reaction in the conservative blogosphere, McCain has at a stroke made peace with the Republican right, yet in a way that does not wave a red flag in front of moderates and independents.

Two, he has picked a candidate who reinforces his themes of cross-partisanship and integrity, a pork- and corruption-fighter who has more than once taken on her own party establishment. Appealing both to the base and to cross-over voters with the same choice is a neat trick.

And three, she’s a woman — a woman, moreover, who defies easy categorization: a basketball-playing, moose-hunting beauty queen, a pro-life feminist, a chief executive and mother of five, a Caprasque everywoman who looked not the least bit intimidated at being so suddenly thrust onto the national stage.

But still… I love Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as much as the next fellow, but he was a senator, not a potential president. The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard was fun, but it was a TV show. Could this woman really be president? Could Obama? Doesn’t experience count for anything?

History in the making

By John Parisella - Friday, August 29, 2008 at 5:25 PM - 0 Comments

Yesterday it was Barack Obama making history. Today it is Alaska Governor Sara Palin’s turn to make history. She is the first female candidate to be on the Republican ticket and should the McCain – Palin ticket win, she will become the first female Vice-President in U.S. history. So, whoever wins in November, the face of the American government will have changed. Eighty eight years ago women in America got the right to vote, and forty five years ago Martin Luther King delivered his landmark speech that resulted in Civil Rights legislation. And now in 2008, we will finally break barriers.

It should be noted that the last two states to join the United States of America were Alaska and Hawaii in 1959. It is quite significant that both theses states will be sending a representative at the highest level of the American government and neither of these state carries the political clout to make a difference in the Electoral College. Both Barack Obama and Sarah Palin were chosen because of their respective qualities and ultimately the American voter will decide which one will make history on November 4.
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Obama is ready to lead

By John Parisella - Friday, August 29, 2008 at 5:23 PM - 0 Comments

The Democrats in Denver can leave town with the calm assurance of a successful convention, united and with a clear sense of direction. Rarely have we seen four consecutive nights of solid and inspirational speeches. From Ted Kennedy, to Michelle Obama, to Hillary Clinton, to Bill Clinton, to John Kerry, to Al Gore, to Joe Biden, and finally to Barack Obama, America was once again treated to the best expressions of speech making in America. The speech delivered by Barack Obama yesterday, however, stood apart from all the others.

We all know that Obama’s candidacy is historic and the fact that he delivered his address 45 years after Martin Luther King made his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech only added to the historic occasion. What was more important was the content of Obama’s speech. He delivered a clear distinction between the America he wants to lead and a John McCain America. He showed a combative streak as we have rarely seen of him, and energized the crowd for the fall campaign. What was particularly significant was his description of his priorities should he become president as of January 2009. It was inspiring and it was clear. He concluded his speech by returning to the ideals and vision that has been so successful for him since he began his campaign in February 2007.

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Ethnic cleansing in Georgia

By Michael Petrou - Friday, August 29, 2008 at 4:22 PM - 0 Comments

Human Rights Watch released a report  today that reveals the widespread burning and looting of ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia.

Human Rights Watch researchers witnessed the looting by Ossetian militias. They also spoke with several members of these militias who admitted their objective was to ensure the Georgians had no homes to return to – in other words, to ethnically cleanse the region of Georgians. These attacks took place in areas under the control of the Russian army. Most of the destroyed homes have their exterior walls intact, indicating they were torched as opposed to hit by shells or bombs. Only homes along the main road through Tamarasheni had collapsed walls; Georgian villagers report that Russian tanks had systematically fired into these houses on August 10.

Human Rights Watch concludes that what they have seen “adds up to compelling evidence of war crimes and grave human rights abuses” and says the Russian government should prosecute those responsible.

 Human Rights Watch does great work, and its researchers are brave men and women. I crossed paths with them several times along the Chad – Darfur border in 2006, and they were willing to venture closer to death and destruction than most. One can only assume that this last bit about urging the Russians to prosecute those responsible shows they have a sense of humour, too, because Russian guilt starts at the top.

 Immediately after this conflict began, Vladimir Putin, who still runs the show in Russia, accused Georgia of genocide and said they were responsible for 2,000 deaths. Russian media were full of lurid atrocity stories, such as one about Georgian soldiers herding Ossetian civilians into a church and setting it on fire. The Nazis actually committed such a crime in the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane during the Second World War. Hollywood resurrected the story in the Mel Gibson stinker The Patriot. Nothing of the sort took place in South Ossetia.

Human Rights Watch  interviewed a doctor at the only hospital in Tskhinvali, who said 44 bodies had been brought to the hospital since the fighting began, military personnel and civilians. She said that most people killed in the city had been brought to the hospital prior to burial because they local morgue was not working. She added that most of the wounded were military personnel. Russia has since scaled back its casualty estimate to 133 – although Collin Sawatzky, in a letter in this week’s issue of Maclean’s, repeats the slur that the Georgians killed “some 1,000 civilians,” in addition to more than a dozen Russian “peacekeepers.”

In other words, Putin lied. Well, politicians lie all the time – and the less free a society is the more its politicians lie, because they don’t have to worry about journalists calling them out. But Putin’s lies about massacres and ethnic cleansing resulted in real life atrocities taking place when Osettians and, it would appear, Russian soldiers had their opportunity to take revenge for something that never happened. 

Obama Who?

By Andrew Coyne - Friday, August 29, 2008 at 3:56 PM - 0 Comments

Oh, and about that other event (strange how quickly Obama’s acceptance speech has been forgotten, which is only partly attributible to McCain’s VP pick)… This is the best analysis I’ve seen:

If you listened closely to the 46-minute address, however, you heard two speeches crushed somewhat jarringly together.

The first half, one suspects, was the speech that Obama felt he had to give: a traditional partisan appeal that, for all his sonorous cadences, read like it could have been stitched together randomly from speeches delivered on any given day from rank-and-file Democrats on the floor of the House of Representatives.

There were denuciations of outsourced manufacturing jobs and promises to save Security Security and frequent baiting of John McCain for being the candidate of the rich and a weakling against Osama bin Laden.

The second half sounded like the speech Obama wanted to give: a plea for a new brand of politics, one in which politicians don’t attack each other’s motives or character and Washington calls a ceasefire in such drearily familiar fights as abortion and gun control.

Obama did not acknowledge the two halves of his address — the partisan top and the post-partisan close — much less try to reconcile them. Blurring inconsistencies under clouds of polished language is the right of any politician. What’s more, a convention acceptance speech is not the time for a seminar.

Even so, it was notable that Obama’s speech offered countless rhetorical stanzas but not much in the way of a  sustained argument aimed at convincing people who are not already enthusiasts, or for whom the charge that McCain would represent four more years of George W. Bush does not by itself close the deal.

BTC: New hotness

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, August 29, 2008 at 3:47 PM - 0 Comments

Yesterday’s conventional wisdom: The Prime Minister will ask the Governor General to dissolve Parliament late next week, setting up a vote on October 14.

Today’s gossip: October 14 is a Jewish holiday and, so as to avoid a vote on that day, the writ will drop this weekend or the campaign will be longer than originally planned.

Update. From Canadian Press. “Liberal insiders were pointing out Friday that the Tories’ preferred election date of Oct. 14 falls on the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. They suggested Mr. Harper may court a backlash from the Jewish community, which he has courted assiduously for two years.

“A PMO official said Sukkot, along with Thanksgiving and several other religious holidays during October, ‘does present challenges’ in choosing an election day. But he noted that people can vote in advance polls if they can’t or don’t want to cast a ballot on election day.”

Update II. From the Globe. “The Canadian Jewish Congress has written a letter to the Prime Minister, warning that holding an election during Sukkot would make it difficult for some Jews to get to the polls and would rob political parties of workers. Mr. Harper also might suffer a backlash from a group of influential voters he has worked hard to court.”