Canada… the Final Frontier

By Andrew Potter - Saturday, February 21, 2009 at 12:23 PM - 24 Comments

This is simply the best idea I have heard in years: Shatner wants to be Prime Minister. 

I was always a fan, but I’ve loved Shatner ever since he wrote me and my friend Adam a letter in 1992 calling us “twits”.

What happened was the students at McGill voted to rename the Student Union the William Shatner University Centre, much to the dismay of the admin. Shatner told SSMU that he was honoured, and wanted to give a gift to the students. So Adam and I wrote Shatner and asked him to be the official sponsor of our satirical magazine, and he wrote us back saying that he wasn’t going to give us a few grand just so we could tell our kids that we were two of the biggest twits at McGill University. I still have the letter. 

Here’s Shatner’s Fame Audit from Fametracker. I think it is the best thing Fametracker ever published, which is not surprising since the sadly-defunct website is run by Adam Sternbergh. Who, incidentally, was at McGill at the same time. 

Meanwhile, Shatner’s Life and Times biography is spectacular. The CBC should run it every night. 

Shatner for PM!

UPDATE: Warren Kinsella’s on board, so we have our war room.

UPDATE II: I think it is time for the CBC to re-run their Life and Times doc on Shatner. So this comment thread is now a petition:

Dear CBC: 

Please run, as soon as possible, your Life and Times Documentary on William Shatner. 

Yours, 

Andrew Potter (and the undersigned)

Is this the quiet end to pay equity?

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, February 21, 2009 at 10:30 AM - 49 Comments

When the Governor General prorogued Parliament in December, the Harper government’s controversial, and nearly fatal, fall economic update was effectively dispatched to the dustbin of history. But while the government has reversed its projections and shelved its plans to eliminate per-vote subsidies for political parties, it has not dropped one of the update’s more controversial promises—a legislated change to the rules governing pay equity.

The Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act would see issues of equal pay for men and women in the public service dealt with through collective bargaining between union and employer. Complaints would no longer be the business of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, but would instead be referred to the Public Service Labour Relations Board. The Conservatives say this will lead to speedier resolutions of disputes. Critics argue the new legislation will effectively gut the right to equality in the workplace.

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On Martin’s exit tapes and the GG’s snowball fight

By Mitchel Raphael - Saturday, February 21, 2009 at 10:10 AM - 0 Comments

WHY SILENT AUCTIONS MAKE IGNATIEFF NERVOUS

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff was honorary chair of the Winter Palace Ball fundraiser for Ruskoka Camp, which helps underprivileged Russian-Canadian youth. The evening was called “Dancing with the Tsars.” Ceremonial Russian guards lifted their swords as guests entered the ballroom of the Old Mill Inn in Toronto. After walking under the swords with her husband, Zsuzsanna Zsohar, Ignatieff’s wife, made a beeline for the silent auction. Interested in a cream-coloured hand-knit Orenburg shawl, Zsohar took off one of her rings to test its authenticity. (The cloth should be fine and airy enough to go through, she told Capital Diary.) The scarf passed the test and Zsohar put in a bid. “An occupational hazard of my life,” noted Ignatieff, “is keeping my wife from bankrupting us at silent auctions.” Over on the dance floor was a glass case (loaned by Natasha Bronfman, one of the ball’s organizers) with souvenirs that had been given by Czar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Fedorovna to guests at what would be the final Christmas ball at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. Paul Ignatieff, the Liberal leader’s grandfather, served as education minister to Nicholas II.

JOHN BAIRD LOVES QUATCHI

Governor General Michaëlle Jean held a special ceremony on the grounds of Rideau Hall to unveil the Olympic torch for the 2010 Vancouver Games. Schoolchildren, including a Grade 3 class from Leslie Park Public School located in Transport Minister John Baird’s Ottawa riding, were brought in to watch. Baird, who was on hand for the ceremony, welcomed the kids. “You have Quatchi on your face,” he told one child, referring to his temporary tattoo of one of the three Olympic mascots (there are also young sea bear Miga and animal spirit Sumi). The third-grader had no idea his tattoo was one of the mascots, but after the minister explained it, Baird was bombarded with “Who’s on my face?” For the record, the young sasquatch Quatchi is Baird’s favourite. After the ceremony, the Governor General took the kids snowshoeing on the grounds of Rideau Hall and had a fun snowball fight with them. Capital Diary feels obligated to report that the GG appeared to throw the first snowball.

BET CHRÉTIEN CAN’T WAIT

Former prime minister Paul Martin spoke at the University of Ottawa about the G8 being obsolete and how the future belongs to the G20. The talk was presented by the university and Library and Archives Canada. At the top of his speech, Martin mentioned how, after he was no longer PM, the archives sat him down for taped interviews and peppered him with questions about his time in office. In the audience was the president of the university, Allan Rock, a minister under Jean Chrétien, and Liberal House leader Ralph Goodale. Martin said he had great things to say about both Rock and Goodale in those interviews but, he added (not too optimistically for his former colleagues), they will never get to hear them because the archives seal the tapes for 30 years. One can only imagine what Martin said about Chrétien.

WE ALMOST HAD A CANNABIS FLAG?

Heritage Minister James Moore presided over a special Flag Day celebration in Speaker Peter Milliken’s Hill reception room. A stunning collection that includes all of Canada’s historical flags (including ones like the white flag of the French navy before Canada was even a country) was created by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney when he was in a prior portfolio. Kenney noted that the Speaker’s reception room was where the parliamentary committee first met to discuss the new flag that resulted in the current Maple Leaf, which first flew on Feb. 15, 1965. A Tory MP noted with a smile that one of the options for the new Canadian flag on display featured a green leaf that, in his opinion, looked a lot like a cannabis leaf.

Man-less women rule the Oscars

By Brian D. Johnson - Saturday, February 21, 2009 at 10:00 AM - 2 Comments

Meryl Streep has been lamenting the lack of good roles for women for most of her career, most famously in 1990 when she said Hollywood was run by a men’s club of “stupid, greedy people” who seemed determined to erase women from the screen. Who could blame her? She had just turned 40, well past Hollywood’s expiry date for leading ladies. But this year Streep, now 59, starred in the highest grossing musical of all time (Mamma Mia!) and broke records with her 15th Oscar nomination, for Doubt. And finally she is not alone. All those actresses who once complained that Meryl took all the good female roles can relax: suddenly it seems there are more than enough to go around.

All five nominees vying to be named Best Actress at the Oscars this Sunday—Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet, and Melissa Leo—play formidable, self-sufficient women who come armed with their own stories. None of these characters is dependent on a man. None is even involved with a man, unless you count Winslet coldly seducing an adolescent virgin in The Reader. These are women on the attack. Compare that to recent years, when the most reliable way for a woman to seduce Oscar was to play a martyr or victim. During the past decade, half the Best Actress winners portrayed damaged souls who died at the end of the movie. And curiously, seven out of 10 played real-life characters—from Nicole Kidman’s Virginia Woolf to Marion Cotillard’s Edith Piaf—as if dreaming up strong fictional heroines was beyond Hollywood’s imagination.

Continue…

A man ahead of his time

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, February 21, 2009 at 2:11 AM - 47 Comments

National Post, January 16, 2008. Any attempt to counter terrorists war-torn Afghanistan will not succeed without an intervention in neighbouring Pakistan, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said Wednesday. Mr. Dion hinted NATO could take action in Pakistan, which has a porous border with Afghanistan, if the Pakistani government doesn’t move to track terrorists.

“We are going to have to discuss that very actively if they (the Pakistanis) are not able to deal with it on their own. We could consider that option with the NATO forces in order to help Pakistan help us pacify Afghanistan,” said Mr. Dion in Quebec City, commenting after his two-day trip to Afghanistan last weekend. “As long as we don’t solve the problem in Pakistan, I don’t see how we can solve it in Afghanistan.”

New York Times, February 20, 2009. With two missile strikes over the past week, the Obama administration has expanded the covert war run by the Central Intelligence Agency inside Pakistan, attacking a militant network seeking to topple the Pakistani government. Members of Pakistani tribes offered funeral prayers on Feb. 15 for victims of an American missile attack in the North Waziristan region, near the Afghan border. The missile strikes on training camps run by Baitullah Mehsud represent a broadening of the American campaign inside Pakistan, which has been largely carried out by drone aircraft.

In other news, President Obama’s energy secretary, the Nobel-winning physicist Steven Chu, mused earlier this month of a tax on carbon emissions.

Crossovers That Aren't Really Crossovers

By Jaime Weinman - Saturday, February 21, 2009 at 1:20 AM - 3 Comments

Speaking of Big Bang Theory, it was already announced that an upcoming episode will feature Summer Glau (Firefly, Sarah Connor Chronicles) as herself. This is kind of a “semi-crossover.” Full-fledged crossovers, where characters from one show turn up on another, are still popular, as ABC has proven with its Grey’s Anatomy/Private Practice crossovers. And the Crossover/Spinoff Master page can give you a full history of “true” crossovers. But sometimes the actor from another show turns up playing his or herself, rather than the character. That doesn’t count as a crossover because the two shows don’t exist in the same “universe,” but really, it is a crossover, since the cross-promotional effect is similar.

Though often it’s less about cross-promotion than it is about a plot that calls for a celebrity to appear; the producers may go to another show on the same lot and borrow one of their actors. In this case, Glau’s show, Sarah Connor Chronicles, is a Warner Brothers production, just like Big Bang Theory. And of course, whenever a show does an episode where the characters go to Hollywood, there will be a cameo from a star who appears on the same network or works for the same production company; remember the Seinfeld gang going to L.A. and meeting Corbin Bernsen and George Wendt, or the time the guys from The White Shadow met Ed Asner from Lou Grant (on the same lot and the same network).

The other kind of guest appearance which I always sort of considered a crossover was when a regular from a current series appears in a guest role on another show. This isn’t a crossover in any strict sense, because the character isn’t the one they play on the other show, but it is a crossover in the sense that the network can use this appearance to link the two shows: tonight, [Guy X] from [Show Y] guest stars on [Show Z]. Like the time NBC had Julia Louis-Dreyfus play a guest part on one of their terrible Seinfeld imitators, The Single Guy: she wasn’t playing Elaine, but the point of having her make the appearance was so they could say they had the person who plays Elaine on their show. Of course, sometimes this kind of guest appearance is just the actor taking a week off from his/her show to do another one, like when Sarah Chalke was borrowed from Scrubs to replace Alicia Silverstone in a guest-star arc on How I Met Your Mother. I just think of it as a crossover if the actor is a regular on a show that is clearly much more popular than the one he/she is guest starring on.

(Having a character cross over, on the other hand, can go either way: the character from the less-popular show can visit the big popular one, and that helps just as much as the time The Simpsons made their cameo on the failed spinoff Wiggum P.I.)

Coyne v Wells: it's Obamarrific!

By Andrew Coyne - Friday, February 20, 2009 at 9:25 PM - 30 Comments

Now with 50% more props! And 50% less picture quality! My fault, that: we had to use my MacBook Air to record it, which whatever its other virtues, handles video awfully.

Coyne and Wells post O-day wrap up

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Coyne v. Wells in a post-Obama Ottawa

By macleans.ca - Friday, February 20, 2009 at 8:10 PM - 0 Comments

Coyne and Wells post O-day wrap up

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HQ Version

Coyne v. Wells in a post-Obama Ottawa

By macleans.ca - Friday, February 20, 2009 at 8:05 PM - 3 Comments

Coyne and Wells post O-day wrap up

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A tale of the tape on a couple of alleged fraudsters

By Jason Kirby - Friday, February 20, 2009 at 8:05 PM - 0 Comments

The alleged fraud of the week goes to Allen Stanford, the billionaire financier accused of masterminding an US$8 billion scam. But the wealthy Texan wasn’t the only accused fraudster in the news. On Tuesday, two days before FBI agents caught up with Stanford, U.S. Marshals arrested disgraced Victoria, B.C. money manager Ian Thow in Portland, Ore. Stanford had been missing for just a few days. Thow had been on the lam from the RCMP since last June. Here’s how the two stack up:

IN BETTER TIMES

Stanford: Chairman of Stanford International Bank, with offices in 136 countries, including one in Montreal. A prominent philanthropist and a major figure in the sport of cricket. Owned an estate in U.S. Virgin Islands and several planes. Estimated net worth: US$2.2 billion.

Thow: Was a senior executive at Berkshire Investment Group in Victoria. Owned a waterfront home, three jets, a helicopter and a yacht. Famous for his lavish lifestyle, and fondness for $1,000 cigars and $10,000 bottles of scotch.

THE ACCUSATIONS

Stanford: On Feb. 17 the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Stanford of orchestrating an US$8 billion fraud, by taking investors money and promising “improbable, if not impossible” returns. He, and two other executives from the firm, face civil fraud charges.

Thow: In 2005, he quit and filed for bankruptcy, claiming more than $40 million in debts and no assets. The British Columbia Securities Commission accused Thow of bilking investors out of $10 million.

THE ALLEGED VICTIMS

Stanford: Still too early for a full list, but the alleged scam was far reaching. Officials in Peru and Venezuela seized accounts at offices there. Regulators in Quebec are looking into Stanford’s Canadian operations. President Barack Obama and other lawmakers who received campaign contributions from Stanford have promised to give the money to charity.

Thow: Dozens of people in B.C. and Alberta. Most are seniors or on the cusp of retirement, and many lost their entire life savings. As one BCSC prosecutor put it: “Thow was … a predator.”

LIFE ON THE LAM

Stanford: Early reports indicated Stanford tried to charter a private plane from Houston, Tex., to Antigua but his credit card was rejected. Stanford turned himself in to the FBI in Virginia, at which point agents served him with the SEC lawsuit. Days on lam: 2.

Thow: Shortly after resigning his job in 2005, and with the RCMP investigating, Thow used his dual citizenship to cross into Washington. RCMP finally laid charges against him last June. He was spotted in Seattle last year. Last week, despite evading police, Thow, with the help of his lawyer, successfully appealed the BCSC’s $6 million fine against him. A B.C. Appeal Court reduced the fine to $250,000. By then, Thow had been living in Portland for several months in a high-end apartment. He’d told neighbours he was one of the first employees at Microsoft and had helped invent the Excel spreadsheet software. He was arrested shortly after leaving his building. Days on the lam: 249.

THE CARIBBEAN CONNECTION

Stanford: Played key role in turning Antigua into an off-shore tax haven, for which the government granted him a knighthood.

Thow: One of Thow’s alleged schemes was to invest his clients’ money in a Jamaican bank, but instead kept the cash for himself.

Note to colleagues calling to check a different rumour

By Scott Feschuk - Friday, February 20, 2009 at 8:05 PM - 10 Comments

The rumour, which is about me liking mustard on my fries, is not true. That is all. Thank you.

The seductions of history

By Brian D. Johnson - Friday, February 20, 2009 at 6:35 PM - 2 Comments

Benicio Del Toro and Catalina Sandino Moreno in 'Che'

Opening this weekend are three very different movies that try to seduce us with history. At the centre of each is a heroic male engaged in a romantic struggle: in the marathon docudrama of Steven Soderbergh‘s Che, a t-shirt icon is brought to life; in Charles Martin Smith‘s whimsical romp, The Stone of Destiny, a guerilla prankster tries to steal back a relic of Scotland’s birthright; and in Benoît Pilon‘s feature debut, The Necessities of Life, an Inuit hunter suffering from tuberculosis in the 1950s is shipped from Baffin Island to Quebec City, where he fights to escape an alien culture. The latter two pictures qualify as Canadian, although there’s not much trace of Canuck pedigree in the soft-headed Scottish nationalism of The Stone of Destiny, which is a Canada-U.K. co-production. It’s a cute caper film with picturesque locations and charming actors, who do their best to make up for a slack drama. To call it a pleasant, watchable picture is to damn it with the faint praise that it seems to solicit. The other two films fall into the opposite category—they are easier to admire than to enjoy. Continue…

How many calories in that beaver tail, Mr. President?

By Stephanie Findlay - Friday, February 20, 2009 at 6:20 PM - 4 Comments

Barack Obama’s pitstop for a beaver tail this week was considered by many a perfect ending to his Ottawa trip. Obama reportedly left Parliament Hill and declared that he needed the tasty treat before boarding Air Force One. When it was handed to the President by BeaverTail employee Jessica Millien in the Byward Market, he graciously accepted but did not indulge. Millien speculated that he ate it in the car on the way to the airport. But given Obama’s reputation as a grilled-salmon eating, gym-going, health-conscious guy it wouldn’t be a surprise if he passed on the Canadian treat. After all, if Obama ate every pastry that came his way his physique would look a look a lot more nutty professor, and a lot less like Abe Lincoln.

Justin-Barry Mahoney, office manager of BeaverTail Canada Inc., said that the tail’s dough comes in at 180 calories. That’s before it’s tossed into a deep fryer and toppings are added. The President opted for the ObamaTail (first served on Jan. 20 at the Canadian Embassy in Washington) which comes with whipped cream, chocolate and maple syrup. Jennifer Kasun, who was working at BeaverTails the day Obama touched down, said that when she was hired she was informed that each tail, fully fried, has less calories than a small fry from Harvey’s (240 calories). An “Apple Fritter” from Tim Hortons, by comparison, totals 300 calories with 11 grams of fat, 5 grams of saturated fat and 16 grams of sugar. And an “Original” doughnut from Krispy Kreme has 200 calories, 12 grams of fat, 5 grams of saturated fat and 11 grams of sugar.

As for whether or not the President indulged, it was later reported that Obama ate a little of the ObamaTail, noting “it was very large.”

That home reno tax credit may yet come in handy

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, February 20, 2009 at 5:39 PM - 3 Comments

Chris Selley sees 24 Sussex as our national metaphor.

Still, this wasn’t how it was supposed to be. At least since the Mulroney era, the government has treated this reno project waiting to happen like political plutonium. Harper was, not surprisingly, no different. After being elected, he ignored suggestions he delay moving in to allow repairs, calling the house “gorgeous” and “beautiful,” and saying he couldn’t imagine how anyone “could complain about living there”—a clear dig at Sheila Martin, who had the temerity to suggest central air conditioning.

These Are a Few Of My Least-Favourite Things

By Jaime Weinman - Friday, February 20, 2009 at 5:13 PM - 3 Comments

Among the things I don’t particularly care for in this wide, wide entertainment world are a) Jenna Elfman; b) TV shows that too transparently try to imitate a successful recent movie; c) Shows about formerly free-spirited women learning responsibility and family values. So naturally I’m totally psyched about the announcement of “Accidentally on Purpose”:

Jenna Elfman has been cast in the lead of the CBS comedy pilot “Accidentally on Purpose.”

Elfman will play a femme movie critic in San Francisco who gets pregnant after a one-night stand and decides to raise the child with its much-younger father.

This was obviously pitched to the network as “Knocked Up without the swear words,” but it also sounds a bit like the time Roz on Frasier got pregnant by a much younger man, except that she didn’t actually raise the child with (or have sexual tension with) the father.

The odd thing about my reaction to Jenna Elfman is that I don’t have the same dislike for Lauren Graham, who is virtually the same actor — looks similar, acts similar, sounds similar, is almost the same height. Yet the wacky, tall, funny-voice, free-spirit act always seemed less forced coming from her than it did from Elfman. I can’t really explain why I feel that way, though.

There seems to be more weighing on Mr. Harper these days

By Macleans.ca staff - Friday, February 20, 2009 at 5:13 PM - 20 Comments

Stephen Harper has in past acknowledged that keeping his weight down is a struggle. Shortly after his election in 2006, the PM confided to a Quebec TV host that the battle of the bulge has been the “problem of my life.” Harper shed a few pounds prior to the last election campaign, but he appears to have packed them back on in recent weeks. At his past few public appearances, the PM has looked noticeably heavier than he did late last year. Of course, standing next to the considerably leaner Barack Obama this week was bound to be unflattering to Harper. Still, it’s probably a good thing he skipped Obama’s trek to the ByWard Market for a sickly-sweet, deep-fried Beaver Tail. Continue…

'It will ever be thus'

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, February 20, 2009 at 5:00 PM - 12 Comments

Stephen Greene, one of the new Conservative senators and formerly chief of staff to Preston Manning, tells the Hill Times that the Senate should do away with its Question Period.

“We can look for ways to eliminate needless party divisions. In this spirit, I suggest that we abolish Question. The government is never happy with the questions; the opposition is never happy with the answers; there is no audience, in any case; and it will ever be thus. Question Period, potentially, stands in the way of the real work we must do here.”

In defence of the Obama-in-Ottawa throng

By John Geddes - Friday, February 20, 2009 at 4:07 PM - 22 Comments

To scoff at the outpouring of adulation that greeted Barack Obama on Parliament Hill sounds sophisticated. All those people who were so thrilled just to be waved at from behind a sheet of Plexiglas—giddy hero-worshippers. The teenagers who screamed at a glimpse of the President during his surprise appearance at the market—no better than fans of the latest pop star.

Dismiss them all as silly, and you can congratulate yourself, I guess, for being above all that. But you pay a price for your detachment, and it’s too steep for me. For the right visitor, I let a little part of me inwardly cheer along, even as I keep my head down and scribble, as is my habit, in my notebook.

I’ve covered many visits by foreign leaders and dignitaries, and I’ve come to believe that the enthusiasts who fill out the crowds are often responding, not to shallow celebrity, but to the deeper values they associate with their hero of the moment. Ideas and goals are abstract; people yearn to identify them with a remarkable individual.

One evening a few years back I stood on a rope line when Nelson Mandela was leaving a state dinner, across the Ottawa River from Parliament at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Mandela was supposed to walk straight to his waiting car, but he recognized a journalist, who had formerly worked in South Africa, and broke his stride to say hello. He shook a few hands, and dispensed his smile—right there, right then, not on TV or in a photograph.

We reacted the way crowds, small and large, always react to him: we allowed ourselves to be moved because his story is so moving, his demeanor so convincing. It’s not too much to say that he is a walking emblem of freedom and dignity. You won’t persuade me that responding emotionally to his smile or the clasp of his hand is the same as swooning at a wink from a movie star on the red carpet.

When Vaclav Havel visited Ottawa to address Parliament, many journalists I know—including more than a few for whom a jaded stance is their natural posture—were thrilled just to know he was in town. He is not quite a Mandela; Havel’s style is less heroic and more sardonic. Yet the two men share stature for having survived hard times for those who love liberty, and come out the other end talking with undiminished energy about what is possible, and possible through democratic means. Aloof observers of our game of democracy are supposed to keep their cool even in the presence of such figures, I suppose. I’d rather let a little warmth flow through me, thanks anyway.

I mention Havel and Mandela because I was here for their Ottawa visits. But Churchill in 1941, or Kennedy in 1961—or choose another figure from history whom you happen to admire—also stirred those who came to see them in their day. Obama is not yet in their league, of course, and very likely never will be. Yet if we weren’t ashamed to allow ourselves to shed a tear, or smile like idiots, or fix on a little gesture or phrase, for the great men of the past, how can we deny the same human response to those who feel the same way about Obama today?

They love him because as a black man in the White House he represents a triumph of progress. They admire him because he carries himself with a poise that invests mass politics with a seriousness it too often lacks. They fall for his oratory. They hope he can solve big problems. And, yes, they like his smile and the cut of this suits (so sue them).

Often enough crowds turn out for politicians who don’t deserved the cheers. It’s wise to be on guard against demagogues and worse. That’s not enough reason, though, to disparage the energy generated by close proximity to a leader who promises better.

Note to colleagues calling to check a rumour

By Paul Wells - Friday, February 20, 2009 at 4:06 PM - 30 Comments

The rumour, which is about me going to work somewhere else, is not true. That is all. Thank you.

Canada’s Western tigers take a tumble

By Nancy Macdonald - Friday, February 20, 2009 at 4:02 PM - 0 Comments

Thunk. Alberta, which had been racking up budget surpluses in every year since 1993—the year Bill Clinton was inaugurated—just announced a whopping, $1-billion deficit for 2008-2009. This follows fast on B.C.’s $495-million deficit announcement—its first since Premier Gordon Campbell’s 2001 law promising balanced budgets. So now, as Canada’s Western tigers stumble, economists consider which province is better positioned to weather the global recession.

In one corner: Alberta, where plunging oil prices have taken a bite out of provincial revenues. The provincial economy is expected to shrink by two per cent this year and more than 15,000 jobs will be lost. In fact, Alberta—which has led the country in job growth for the past several years—is expecting unemployment to jump from 3.6 to 5.8 per cent in 2009. Market meltdowns, meanwhile, have reduced its $16-billion rainy-day, Heritage Savings Trust Fund by nearly $3 billion. (To temporarily plug the budget gap, Alberta has been forced to begin draining its $7-billion “sustainability fund,” a provincial contingency fund; the spectre of public sector job cuts and tax increases, however, are already being raised.)

In the other corner: B.C., which shed a record 68,000 full-time jobs in January alone. B.C. suffers from the same rapid implosion of commodity prices—in lumber, minerals and metals, as well as oil and gas. There, growth is expected to contract to 0.9 per cent this year—less, by half, than Alberta. But contractions in sectors like mining and forestry—which has all but disappeared—could be far worse than government forecasts, warn economists. Unemployment, meanwhile, which recently hit 6.1 per cent, is up from an all-time low of 3.8 per cent last March. And nearly one in ten jobs in B.C.—where building permits are drying up at a faster rate than the national average—is tied to the construction industry. (Already, the ripple effect of slowing construction has begun hitting suppliers of lumber, drywall, flooring, machinery, windows, cement, wiring and paint.)

Still, there is “no question” B.C. is better positioned to face the coming storm, says Niels Veldhuis, chief economist of the Fraser Institute. Alberta will be “harder hit,” because the province is “much more exposed to the energy sector,” the primary driver of the its economy, says James Brander, professor of International Trade at the Sauder School of Business at UBC. With its hands in oil, gas, mining, forestry, fisheries, manufacturing, high-tech, bio-tech and filmmaking, not only is the B.C. economy more diversified, but its government has been “very prudent, over the past three to four years,” at reigning in public sector spending, says Veldhuis.

Alberta, in stark contrast, has done a “very poor job.” There, spending increases, which hit 10 per cent in each of the past two years, following huge increases during the final Klein years, have been “astronomical,” says Veldhuis. (Program spending increased 174 per cent, from $10 to $30 billion, between 1995-1996 and 2007-2008.) B.C. is also the only province in Canada that exports, substantially, to Asia, adds Brander. (Indeed, 53 per cent of its exports ship to the U.S., compared with 80 per cent for the rest of the country.) Bad news considering that Japan, B.C.’s second-largest buyer, declined by 3.3 per cent in the last fiscal quarter—twice or more the pace of either the U.S. or Europe. “A lot will depend on what happens to commodities prices,” says Veldhuis. “If we see an up-tick in energy prices in 2010, the downturn in Alberta will be short-lived.” That, however, requires peering into a crystal ball, says Brander. One thing is certain, he says: This is going to be a very ugly quarter, for both B.C. and Alberta.

Death of newspapers will result in greater corruption

By macleans.ca - Friday, February 20, 2009 at 4:00 PM - 40 Comments

People have been predicting the demise of newspapers for years, but now that newsrooms are shutting down, some are taking a hard look at what comes next. And the view isn’t a good one. In a lengthy piece the New Republic bids adieu to newspapers, and hello to a staggering rise in corruption among public officials, once they realize they’re less likely to be exposed. Yes, there have been some instances where bloggers have uncovered wrongdoing. But the blogosphere is mostly parasitic, feeding off traditional news media, even as they revile the MSM. The story looks at numerous cases where investigative print reporters who have rooted out corruption have since been axed to cut costs. Whatever hopes we’ve put in new technology to replace professional news gatherers are likely to be dashed. The resources that permitted the old media to develop sources, conduct rigorous fact checking and expose corruption are vanishing faster than the new media can replace then.

The New Republic

My heroes

By Ian Cruickshank, Takeoffeh.com - Friday, February 20, 2009 at 3:50 PM - 0 Comments

On almost every trip, I make time for a short pilgrimage in search of one of my heroes. They can be musical, historical, literary or artistic, past or present, really anyone I admire or who inspires me.

For instance, ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ is my all-time favourite movie. Peter O’Toole’s charismatic portrait of the star-crossed war hero not only launched O’Toole’s acting career but also reintroduced the legend of Thomas Edward Lawrence.

Continue…

Oprah’s octuplets coup

By Anne Kingston - Friday, February 20, 2009 at 3:17 PM - 1 Comment

Oprah has endured her share of knocks lately—first there was the flap over her endorsing yet another memoirist who fabricated facts, then there was the fracas about her gaining weight even though she employs a legion of people to keep her trim. But her brilliant manipulation of the octuplets’ circus suggests her mojo is back. Winfrey cannily sidestepped a face-to-face with the much-reviled, fame-seeking mother of 14, Nadya Suleman, who had expressed desire to tell her story on the show. Instead,  she sat down with Suleman’s father, Ed Doud, today to tape an interview that will air Feb. 24. In the snippets released, Doud echoes public sentiment about his daughter, calling her and her fertility doctor “absolutely irresponsible.” He also expressed doubt about her sanity: “Now I’m no psychiatrist, but I question her mental situation,” he said. Yet he also used the powerful Oprah platform to ask for financial assistance for the family—not for his troubled daughter, but rather her vulnerable children: “I say to everybody now: People, we do need help. Do not punish my daughter for what she had done and do not punish the babies, because they were given by God.” All in all, brilliantly played.

Turn Those Machines Back On!

By Jaime Weinman - Friday, February 20, 2009 at 3:13 PM - 2 Comments

You may have seen this viral video from CNBC’s Rick Santelli, whose rant on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange has made him into the new Joe the Plumber (finally, someone replacing Joe the Plumber as a folk hero). It’s a strange but familiar form of populism, essentially predicated on the idea that commodities traders represent the “silent majority” and that traders and brokers and CNBC viewers will lead the new revolution against deadbeats and “losers.” Populist anger is fine, though the results aren’t always satisfying (the huge antiwar protests of 2003 didn’t influence many lawmakers, even Democratic ones). But while there’s plenty of opportunity for populist backlash against all the recent bailouts, most of it has been expressed through demanding more tax cuts (Congressional Republicans) or CNBC guys like Santelli saying that the CME is representative of all America. I think the Republicans probably will improve their message in time for a good showing in the 2010 midterms, but for now, they do seem to have misunderstood the success of Nixon’s “Silent Majority” catchphrase: it wasn’t about just claiming that the elites really are the Silent Majority.

But in casting traders and CNBC anchors as the underdogs being crushed under the jackboots of The Man, he’s not alone; Randolph and Mortimer Duke already created the Revolution 26 years ago when they railed against the fat cats who were trying to take their money away from them. Stand tall, Rick!