Is Brad Wall the new Danny Williams?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 9:35 AM - 0 Comments

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, not typically a pain in the Prime Minister’s side, is unimpressed with the federal budget. And he’s not afraid to say so with the benefit of alliteration. “The grade I give it is a D … D for deficit … D for delay … And D for disappointing.” Wall had initially seemed supportive, but, upon further review, he’s decided it fails to meet the needs of his province and left his government to fend for itself. “We were looking for a booster shot from the federal initiative,” he says. “I think we’re going to be relying on ourselves to get that done.”

Leader-Post

Living on just 600 calories a day

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 9:34 AM - 0 Comments

Things just keep getting worse for the people of Zimbabwe. Political chaos, a crippled economy, hyperinflation, disease, and now the spectre of famine. Rising demand and a lack of foreign aid will soon force the United Nations World Food Programme to cut the emergency maize rations it provides to 70 per cent of the country (some 7 millon people) by half. Starting in February, Zimbabweans will receive just 5kg of maize a month, which works out to a meagre 600 calories a day. “The new ration falls below what is considered the survival ration. They will be sending their children to hunt for wild fruits or selling the possessions they haven’t already sold to buy food,” says a UN spokesman.

Guardian.co.uk

Halifax principals on the hook for proper garbage disposal

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 9:30 AM - 0 Comments

Halifax-area principals could be fined if their schools don’t learn how to take out the trash. The school board has approved a proposal that requires schools to set up a source separation system and promote proper disposal of garbage, recyclables and organics among students and staff, or risk facing a $100 to $150 fine. City inspection officials will only issue summary offence tickets if an identified waste bin problem hasn’t been fixed, but one board member questioned the initiative, wondering why principals should have to shoulder the responsibility.   

The Chronicle Herald

Vampires back in the closet

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 9:20 AM - 0 Comments

In a reaction worthy of any of her teen girl readers, mega-selling Twilight novelist Stephenie Meyer, has gone on strike. Upset that an unfinished version of Midnight Sun, the fifth volume in her vampire romance series, was leaked online, Meyer told fans via her website that the novel is “on hold” indefinitely. “I’d rather my fans not read this version … the writing is messy and flawed and full of mistakes. But how do I comment on this violation without driving more people to look for the illegal posting?” She does plan to continue with a non-Twilight novel though, according to a spokesman, and plans “to be very selective about where she sends her manuscripts” from now on.

NY Daily News

Bestsellers

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Top-selling fiction and non-fiction titles (week of January 27th, 2009)

Fiction
1    THROUGH BLACK SPRUCE  by Joseph Boyden   1 (20)
2    2666 by Roberto Bolano     3 (6)
3    A MERCY by Toni Morrison    2 (6)
4    THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES  by Nino Ricci   4 (10)
5    THE HOUR I FIRST BELIEVED by Wally Lamb    6 (3)
6    THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows   5  (2)
7    THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON  TATTOO by Stieg Larsson   9 (17)
8    COVENTRY  by Helen Humphreys   7 (20)
9    THE FLYING TROUTMANS by Miriam Toews   8 (20)
10    BLONDE ROOTS by Bernadine Evaristo      (1)
        
Non-fiction
1    OUTLIERS  by Malcolm Gladwell  2 (9)
2    THE ASCENT OF MONEY by Niall Ferguson   1 (10)
3    CHAMPLAIN’S DREAM by David Hackett Fischer    3 (13)
4     A FAIR COUNTRY by John Ralston Saul   6 (17)
5    DEWEY  by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter   (1)
6    MRS. ASTOR REGRETS by Meryl Gordon   7 (3)
7    IN SPITE OF MYSELF by Christopher Plummer    9 (4)
8    THINGS I’VE BEEN SILENT ABOUT   by Azar Nafisi (1)
9    IZZY by Peter C. Newman    4 (2)
10    SEVEN DAYS IN THE ART WORLD by Sarah Thornton 5 (2)

LAST WEEK (WEEKS ON LIST)

Elections in Afghanistan postponed

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

Afghanistan’s presidential election will be delayed until August—despite a constitutional requirement that they be held by April at the latest. Afghan election officials say they need more time to register candidates and all the military to pacify insurgency-ravaged parts of the country. Afghan President Hamid Karzai was elected to a five-year term in 2004. His mandate expires May 22. Leaders of Afghanistan’s parliamentary opposition say they will consider his presidency illegitimate after that date.

The New York Times

Man of the People

By Andrew Potter - Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 7:54 AM - 11 Comments

In which the prime minister tries to promote his new home reno tax credit by showing up at an ongoing two-year project to add a thousands-of-square-feet addition to a half-million dollar home, uses a nail gun but forgets to wear safety goggles for the cameras, screws it up anyway. Oh, and the city sent a special crew the night before to clean the street so he’d be able to drive smoothly up to the curb. And there’s a Starbucks two blocks away. 

link

Chemicals may harm fertility

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 7:40 AM - 0 Comments

Women with higher levels of perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) in their blood take longer to become pregnant, a new study says. Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles took blood samples from 1,240 women at their first prenatal visit, and interviewed them about whether the pregnancy was planned and how long it took them to get pregnant, the BBC reports. They found the chance of infertility (taking over a year or IVF to get pregnant) was much higher for women with high levels of PFCs in their blood. These chemicals, which have been linked to organ damage in animals, are used because they’re resistant to heat, and repel water and oil. One of the UCLA researchers noted that earlier studies have suggested PFCs might harm a baby’s growth in the womb, adding that women with more PFCs in their blood tend to have irregular menstrual cycles, too. The study is published in the journal Human Reproduction.

BBC News

Lingerie Bowl cancelled. [Insert tears here.]

By Scott Feschuk - Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 6:03 AM - 7 Comments

The best part of Super Bowl Sunday – not counting the part where John Madden eats the losing team – has been ruined. By nudists.

You heard me. The Lingerie Bowl, the most thong-based day on the sporting calendar, the championship of the 10-team Lingerie Football League (Go San Diego Seduction!), the game that was to air on pay-per-view during Super Bowl halftime (which typically lasts somewhere between an eternity and an eon), the gridiron flesh dance that… wait – that’s probably not a decent enough description, you probably need a photo to get a true mental picture of what I’m talking about…

… has been cancelled.

Read, weep and prepare yourself Continue…

The end of Canadian conservatism

By Andrew Coyne - Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 2:30 AM - 211 Comments

Say what you like about the Tories: they don’t do things by halves. When they spend, they spend. When they go into debt, they do it $100 billion at a time. And when they decide to finish off what remains of conservatism in Canada—as a movement, as a philosophy—they go out with a bang.

We can safely say that the strategy of “incrementalism,” at least, is a thing of the past. With this week’s historic budget, the Conservatives’ already headlong retreat from principle has become a rout—a great final leap into the void. Understand: there will be no going back from this, for the party or for the country. Whatever the budget’s soothing talk of “temporary” this and “extraordinary” that, and for all its well-mannered charts showing spending obediently returning to its pen, deficits meekly subsiding, multi-billion-dollar “investments” repaid in full, we are in fact headed somewhere we have never been before. We are on course toward a massive and permanent increase in the size and scope of government: record spending, sky-high borrowing, and—ultimately, inevitably—higher taxes. And all this before the first of the baby boomers have had a chance to retire.

Continue…

Yes! We! Almost! Sort of! Are!

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 12:37 AM - 7 Comments

Glen Pearson, bless his heart, foresees a new post-partisan era dawning in Ottawa.

It’s early yet, but already there are brilliant glimmers of hope on the horizon. Take, for instance, this evening’s work to end the capital’s transit strike, as breathtakingly detailed in this dispatch from the Citizen.

“I’m prepared to act at this time, I’m prepared to introduce back-to-work legislation. However, I do need the support of the opposition. So I have approached the Liberal party and asked them for that support,” Ambrose told reporters after acknowledging the two sides are at an impasse. Continue…

The Accountability Act remains a fixer-upper

By Andrew Potter - Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 11:40 PM - 22 Comments

Yeah this looks good:

The Home Renovation Tax Credit will provide a 15-per-cent tax credit to homeowners who undertake home improvement projects by Feb. 1, 2010. The government expects the program to cost $3 billion over the next two years, and 4.6 million families to take advantage of the measure.

But one of the members of Mr. Flaherty’s 11-member panel is Annette Verschuren, the president of Home Depot Canada and Asia.

link

Budget to possibly destroy country

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 10:49 PM - 17 Comments

Unreformed cowboy Myron Thompson seems dispirited.

“The big question is where is this money going and what exactly is it going to accomplish?” Thompson said Tuesday before getting a chance to analyze the nuts and bolts of the Conservative budget. ”And if it’s going into these socialist programs that the Jack Laytons love so much and the Gilles Duceppes, I fear for the country.”

"The Baryshnikov of the hockey rink"

By Andrew Potter - Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 10:17 PM - 3 Comments

This is the best thing ever. In the seventies, Guy Lafleur released an album of hockey exercises set to disco music. They had the launch party at Regine’s in Montreal. Everyone showed up. The record cost $100k, but it was worth it, since it combined, according the CBC reporter, “two of the most powerful trends in our society: sports, and disco.”

I LOVE YOUTUBE

A Maclean's photo poll: Pick the Prime Minister's prop for Thursday's photo op!

By Paul Wells - Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 7:21 PM - 46 Comments

The PMO has just announced that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will visit the construction site at the Ottawa Convention Centre tomorrow morning. Over to you, macleans.ca readers! What prop will he appear with?

1. Nail gun:

2. Cello/ precocious lad combo:

3. Cat:

4. Snacks:

5. Mockup of election promise that will eventually be discarded:

MUSIC: Dudley Moore Was The Greatest Classical-Music Parodist Of All Time

By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 6:51 PM - 5 Comments

I haven’t done a music post in a while, but I don’t have time to write a long post, so as always in a pinch, I’ll rely on YouTube to do much of my work for me. Doing a parody of so-called “serious” music is a tricky thing. Some of it is so esoteric that only musicians would get it, and some of it is so dumbed-down that it has no connection to what it’s parodying (if you see an opera parody with a fat lady carrying a spear and wearing a helmet, and it’s not a parody of Wagner, you know that the parodist has never seen an opera in his life). The greatest parodist of classical music, the one who struck the best balance between parodies for the “learned” and parodies that anybody could get, was Dudley Moore.

You know the late Dudley Moore from his movies, and you may know that he was a trained musician; he frequently played musicians and composed the music score for his first starring film, Bedazzled. But when he was with the famous Beyond the Fringe troupe (consisting of himself, Peter Cook, Alan Bennett, and the annoying Jonathan Miller, who is kind of the Ringo of the group), his specialty was doing classical-music parodies at the piano — parodies that were so accurate that they almost went beyond parody and into the realm of musical criticism: he used parody to make points about the style of whatever composer he was making fun of.

His most famous routine, and the essential classical-music parody of the 20th century, was “Little Miss Britten,” his sendup of England’s most famous composer, Benjamin Britten. Britten was one of the most famous living composers in the world at the time; he’d written many operas including at least two that are still in the repertory of most opera companies (Peter Grimes and Billy Budd). He was also a fine pianist and conductor who gave many performances of his own works and others’. And most of his performances were with his significant other and close collaborator, tenor Peter Pears, a very well-regarded and intelligent singer with a voice that could be described as typically English: for some reason many English tenors cultivate a pale, slightly strangulated voice and weird pronunciation of certain words. Anyway, Britten’s music was written for Pears’ specific voice and range, and anyone who liked Britten’s music (I’m a big fan) learned to accept and even love Pears’s voice because it was so much a part of that music and how it came to be.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t make fun of it. Dudley Moore admired both Britten and Pears, but he came up with a parody so dead-on that Britten, one of the touchiest men in the arts world and a man who held lifelong grudges, was reportedly furious about it. (Pears, a more good-natured person, was said to find it funny.) “Little Miss Britten” is specifically a parody of Britten’s arrangements of English folk songs, which he and Pears frequently performed. Here are Britten and Pears performing Britten’s arrangement of an old English folk song, “O Waly, Waly,” with Pears doing the introduction:

And now here’s Dudley Moore’s parody of Britten and Pears (with Miller introducing it). In one minute and a half he nails both the performer and the composer: he has Pears’ vocal mannerisms and weird consonants (pronouncing “muffet” as “muvved”), and he has Britten’s repetitive accompaniments, melismas, repetitions and foghorn-like extended high notes. Anyone who was familiar with Britten — and he was a big celebrity in the England of the early ’60s, so much of the audience probably did know his stuff a little — finds it hilarious, but even those who aren’t can appreciate Moore’s parody of the nasal English tenor and the “scholarly” rearrangement of old folk songs.

For more, here’s Moore’s parody of Beethoven sonatas (and the over-emphatic pianists who play them), where he arranges and develops the “Colonel Bogey March” in Beethoven style, Continue…

Change we can't even read about, let alone believe

By Paul Wells - Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 6:43 PM - 25 Comments

We’re cranky at Barack Obama over here in the sprawling Maclean’s Ottawa bureau. Turns out the new president is failing an elementary test of transparency.

This afternoon I read that Robert Gibbs, the new president’s press secretary, had disputed details of the New York Times report on Afghanistan strategy I wrote about last night. Well. Over to whitehouse.gov to look for a transcript of the press briefing.

And look. And look. And look. In vain. Because the new administration, unlike at least the Clinton and Bush 43 administrations, doesn’t post full transcripts of daily press briefings on the website. There is no end of touchy-feely Web 2.0 crap on the website, but a pretty drastic reduction in the amount of actual information, compared to what Obama’s most recent predecessors made available. On the White House blog, which I already dislike robustly, there is  one  partial transcript of stuff the anonymous White House blogger thinks we’ll find interesting from one briefing a couple of days ago.

This has caused a kerfuffle here and there in the U.S. blogosphere. Apparently there’s even a Facebook group. It confirms Obama’s reputation as a guy with an unhealthy tendency to try to control his own narrative at real cost to openness and transparency. It is dispiriting and, to anyone who’s worked as a journalist in Ottawa in the last couple of years, too familiar.

Silly question

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 6:18 PM - 46 Comments

If Stephane Dion had, while Liberal leader, pulled approximately the same move that Mr. Ignatieff pulled today, wouldn’t he have been mocked, or further mocked, as a ninny?

On a not-unrelated note, Toronto Mayor David Miller’s “Looks Like A Mayor, Talks Like A Mayor” campaign in 2003 continues to prove wildly instructive.

Why would Liberals oppose a single securities regulator?

By John Geddes - Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 6:03 PM - 7 Comments

A classic way to sum up the historic Liberal brand strength in federal politics is that voters have tended to turn to the party when the ballot question is something along the lines of, ‘Who speaks for Canada?’

That latent advantage might seem greater than ever when the Liberals’ main adversary, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, is dogged by a personal history of showing more passion for respecting provincial purviews than building national institutions.

So why would the Liberals put themselves on the wrong side of the no-brainer debate over setting up a national securities regulator? Is there a more obvious example of a policy issue on which Ottawa should use its clout to rid Canada of economic balkanization?
Continue…

The Commons: Behold, the majesty of ways and means

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 5:34 PM - 16 Comments

At the conclusion of Question Period, the House proceeded with the pro forma. The tabling of documents, the presentation of petitions, the notice of motions for the production of papers, requests for emergency debates.

Liberal Mauril Bélanger got up and asked that the House move post-haste to discussion of the capital’s public transit strike. The Speaker agreed with the gravity of the situation, but noted that the weather outside was dreadful, a snow storm adding to the already icy hell that is Ottawa. In the interests then of everyone getting home safe—public transit obviously not being an option—the debate would be held Thursday.

Business moved then to Ways and Means Motion No. 1, resuming adjourned debate of the government’s budgetary policy. Up first, the leader of Her Majesty’s Official Opposition, the honourable member for Etobicoke-Lakeshore.

Most identifiable members of the government side had long since left. Bev Oda sat alone along the front bench, working through some paper work.

“Canada’s ship of state has entered some very rough and turbulent water and the captain’s steering through this storm has been erratic,” Michael Ignatieff said, barely restraining himself from breaking into that timeless sea shanty about the drunken sailor. “He misjudged, he misled, he misguided. At first he failed to act and then he acted irresponsibly. Now finally, he recognizes that we are in real danger. Finally, he is taking some measures to head for safety, but it has been a long time coming.”

Continue…

*Shoe-bomber figure not included

By Kim Pittaway - Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 5:00 PM - 3 Comments

It’s a familiar scene in Gillian Green’s Toronto home: her five-year-old daughter, Pascale Bonnardeaux, and a friend huddle around a pile of Playmobil toys. Construction workers mingle with farm animals, fairies sit next to the Baby Jesus (a new favourite from a recently acquired Playmobil nativity set), and all are patients in the doctor’s waiting room that Pascale and her friend are creating.

If Green lived in Germany, the Netherlands or Switzerland, there might be an odd addition to that tableau: armed airport security guards. That would be thanks to the Playmobil Security Check Point, a toy not available in Canada, that consists of an airport hand-luggage X-ray machine, metal detector, two guards and a passenger with suitcase. The item was released in the U.S. in 2004 but withdrawn in 2006, says U.S. marketing manager Michelle Winfrey. It’s still available on Amazon.com, and product reviews posted on the site have recently been making the rounds on Twitter and email, as much for their colourful criticism as for the toy itself.

“Thank you Playmobil for allowing me to teach my five-year-old the importance of recognizing what a failing bureaucracy in an ever-growing fascist state looks like,” wrote Zampano from New York City. “There’s no brown figure for little Josh to profile, taser, and detain?” queried a user from Tremonton, Utah. Loosenut from Seattle wrote, “My five-year-old son pointed out that the passenger’s shoes cannot be removed. Then, we placed a deadly fingernail file underneath the passenger’s scarf, and neither the detector doorway nor the security wand picked it up. My son said, ‘That’s the worst security ever!’ ”

Playmobil traditionally has a more benign image, one the German company, a frequent winner of toy awards, has cultivated with great success. The latest sales figures from its parent company, Brandstätter Group, show 12.5 per cent annual growth, with global sales of $641 million. Still, the company’s preoccupation with detail and hyperrealistic settings has produced some curious offerings: safe-cracking jewel thieves, jail cells and police tracking dogs. Catalogues for Germany and Switzerland show Playmobil police headquarters featuring arms lockers stocked with tiny rifles and handguns.

Playmobil officials would not confirm when work began on Security Check Point, but said it typically takes three to four years to bring a new toy to market. It was “retired” in the U.S. not as a result of negative consumer reaction, says Winfrey, but as part of a normal rotation of stock.

So why is the offering generating such a strong reaction? Toy expert and author Stevanne Auerbach, a.k.a. Dr. Toy, suggests the juxtaposition of the round-headed, smiley-faced figures with the realistic sidearms and security apparatus may be partly to blame. A non-Playmobil Scan-It Operation Checkpoint Toy XRay has prompted far fewer comments on Amazon, and more explicitly violent toys such as Transformer SWAT Team and plastic AK-47s rate no comments at all.

This isn’t the first Playmobil toy to run afoul of consumer politics. In 1997, the Christian Science Monitor reported on a muzzled bear toy, part of a set of medieval troubadours, and a set of medieval hunters, sold with a deer they’d killed. Both sold well in Germany but failed in Britain. Anti-hunting sentiments in the U.K. were to blame, Playmobil founder Hans Beck said at the time.

Auerbach, who describes Playmobil as a “conscientious company,” says the corporation misstepped in offering the checkpoint as a separately sold toy in a politically charged post-9/11 North American market. Still she believes it should be sold as part of full airport sets since it is a “realistic detail of the airport experience,” and could be useful in teaching children what to expect on an airplane trip—a use the company is actively promoting in its “At the Airport” lesson plans, offered to U.S. teachers through a partnership with academic publisher Scholastic.

But in the end, kids use toys as they want to. Green’s seven-year-old, Ethan, uses his Lego to build guns, and on a recent car trip transformed the backseat drinks console into a gun mount. “Parents can’t wrap their kids in cellophane and protect them from reality,” says Auerbach. She wonders if the fuss over the toy says more about parental baggage than play value. “Every one of the Amazon comments is a political statement,” she says. Still, even she is indignant about one aspect of the toy: the price. “Fifty-five dollars is outrageous!”

Reasonable Question of the Day

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 4:28 PM - 30 Comments

The NDP’s Megan Leslie questions the government’s home reno policy.

Building a deck is a nice thing, but what about Canada’s homeless who cannot front the money for the tax credit?

Or, for that matter, a house upon which to add that deck

The New New New New We Really Mean It This Time Cooperation starts here!

By kadyomalley - Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 4:27 PM - 17 Comments

In a hastily assembled scrum, Conservative House Leader Jay Hill just confirmed that the government will support the Liberals’ proposed amendment to the budget, and has no problem with the notion of providing regular reports to Parliament.

UPDATE – Full transcript, courtesy of MediaQ:

Question:                               Mr. Hill, what’s your reaction to Mr. Ignatieff’s amendment?

Hon. Jay Hill:                  Well, I’m very pleased to state that the government will be supporting the Liberal amendment to the budget.  We are very pleased as well that the Liberals have decided to support our budget.  We look forward to working cooperatively with them.

You know, this is nothing new.  We’re always accountable to Parliament and to the Canadian people, so this is just another mechanism for us to report back to the House of Commons about the progress that we intend to make.

Question:                               Why did you decided to support it?  What did you like in it?

Hon. Jay Hill:                  Well like I said it’s nothing that we don’t normally do, which is report back to Parliament upon the progress that we intend to make in addressing the economic situation that faces our nation.

Question:                               Sir, Mr. Layton was talking this morning about a coalition between the Liberals and the Conservatives, with you supporting the Liberal motion is there a coalition now?  Or is this tongue in cheek?

Hon. Jay Hill:                  Well, look, I’m just saying that I’m very pleased on behalf of the Canadian people that need this assistance that’s contained in our economic action plan, that the Liberals have decided to support our economic action plan and get this through Parliament as quickly as possible so that the funds and the assistance can flow to Canadians from coast to coast.

Question:                               Mr. Ignatieff said this morning the whole reason they’re putting this amendment in place is because the Harper government has a record of promising and not delivering.  What do you say to that?  What is he saying here?

Hon. Jay Hill:                  Well, quite to the contrary.  As I said, this is nothing new.  We’re held accountable and we always report back to Parliament about what we’re doing and how we’re progressing and how we’re representing our constituents and we will continue to do that.  The amendment just states the obvious.  So we’re very pleased to comply with it as we move forward.  Thank you very much.

Full text of the motion after the jump:
Continue…

Week In Pictures: Jan. 23rd – Jan. 29th, 2009

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 4:06 PM - 0 Comments

Click here to view this week’s best photos.