Ignatieff Canadian Tour 2009

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 6:40 PM - 0 Comments

Reports from the Squamish Chief, Tyee, Kamloops This Week, Kamloops This Week, Burnaby Now and Canwest.

Kitchen confidential

By Cathy Gulli - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 6:24 PM - 2 Comments

Inside a sparse art gallery in a reluctantly gentrifying Toronto neighbourhood around Dundas West and Ossington streets, some 30 strangers assembled for the latest food fad: Charlie’s Burgers. Chefs from the choicest establishments in Canada collaborate on an inventive menu. It’s served in a secret location to a hand-picked list of guests who gain access by impressing the hosts with their food fancies via an online questionnaire—and by forking over the $110 per person fee.

Dubbed an “anti-restaurant” by earnest bloggers, it’s more like a “guess who’s coming to dinner” party—churches run these all the time; one congregant cooks a meal but doesn’t know for whom until the doorbell rings. The dinner guests, on the other hand, only have an address and a massive appetite. Charlie’s Burgers, like these church dinners, is at once awkward and exhilarating.

The best bits:

• The adventure. To arrive at the venue, guests were instructed to pick up an envelope containing directions, tucked inside a newspaper box. There, a 20-something hipster (later discovered to be one of the hosts) was staked out in a nearby telephone booth, keeping tabs.
• The food. The food! Divine and slothful. Hence, this moving exchange between a few tablemates masochistically consuming the decadent Canard en Conserve by Quebecois ingenue Martin Picard. It was driven to Toronto from Montreal that day. “This is so good. It’s like heaven.” “Yes, this must be heaven. Everything is white in here, the walls, the linens.” “But I can’t finish this whole dish.” “Oh no. Is this hell? We have all this delicious food in front of us, but we can’t eat it!”
• The hosts. So enthusiastic. They volunteered repeatedly to eat the scraps from our plates. One did—an array of eight cheese wedges was just too much for even a pair of guests to ingest in one sitting. Another host, more savvy and sly, confessed to devouring not one but two cans of duck before the event had even begun. Still, he did not turn down one woman’s forkful of foie gras. No doubt, they would have gladly drunk the last drips of wine from even the most food-encrusted glass rim.

As with most foodie matters, the only annoying element of Charlie’s Burgers was the occasional know-it-all-but-really-know-nothing guest who intellectualized—often inaccurately—what is, in its most wondrous form, an emotional experience. Or the rare ungracious guest. One man, who name-dropped local restaurants he’d patronized like a C-list celebrity attempting to prove his place in Hollywood, had this interaction with a courteous host asking how the charcuterie tasted, especially the goose rillettes. “Eeeehhhhh,” he moaned between gluttonous mouthfuls, “Not bad.” The host, seemingly put off by the apathetic response to what was undeniably delectable, responded coolly but cordially: “Oh really? Most of it’s from France. I’ll let them know.”

Don’t ask who runs this show or why. Though rumors are mounting like a sauce (last week, one food blogger offered a five-point argument as to why it might be JK Wine Bar’s sommelier Jamie Drummond. By the way, he was there this night, wearing head-to-toe red and black leather. Eloquent and wacky, he likened “elegant” and “reserved” wines to Catherine Deneuve and quipped about a bad experience with Viagra. ), it doesn’t matter. The mystique is the secret ingredient.

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Meet the poet-diplomat in Kenney's stolen bag

By John Geddes - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 4:24 PM - 10 Comments

Jason Kenney’s stolen reading material struck me as interesting enough to call for a bit of exploring, and I wasn’t disappointed. The path led me to a thoughtful poet-diplomat I’d never heard of before, whose observations about our times and Canada’s place in the world are well worth considering.
Continue…

Harper World Tour 2009

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 4:14 PM - 4 Comments

Associated Press interview here.

Bloomberg interview here.

Financial Times interview here and here.

Access denied

By John Intini - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 3:32 PM - 15 Comments

A Federal Court judge has upheld the the Canadian Border Services Agency’s decision to bar George Galloway. The fiery British MP, who was denied entry into Canada on national security grounds earlier this month, was supposed to give a speech in Toronto Monday evening, but he’ll instead have to settle for delivering it via live video from New York City. In his ruling, Justice Luc Martineau, concluded the CBSA had not strayed from its mandate in turning Galloway back. “The admission of a foreign national to this country is a privilege determined by statute, regulation or otherwise, and not a matter of right,” Martineau wrote. “In this respect Parliament has expressly given the CBSA officers legal authority to exclusively determine whether a foreign national who seeks to enter this country is admissible.” Galloway’s supporters, however, say the ruling greases a “slippery slope” and promise to “appeal and go to the highest court if need be.”

Toronto Star

Will You Sign Jimmy Fallon's Saved By the Bell Reunion Petition?

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 3:15 PM - 8 Comments

Jimmy Fallon has had his first really good idea as a late-night talk show host: lobbying for a reunion of NBC’s Saved By the Bell. His push for this noble goal included an appearance by Mr. Belding himself and an online Saved By the Bell Reunion petition. I will sign it as long as they promise that they won’t let Tori be a part of the reunion.

Ken Tucker asks if this stunt is “lame or not lame,” coming down on the “lame” side. Me, I go for “not lame.” Fallon is trying to go for a style that has Conan’s randomness and pop-culture obsessions but in a slightly less ironic way, and he hasn’t really found it yet. But this is a good start toward finding that style: something that appeals to both sides of us, the ironic hipster side that likes to make fun of bad sitcoms and the sweet, nostalgic side that still loves them. (You notice I didn’t talk about how this bit appeals to people who didn’t watch Saved By the Bell. That’s because there weren’t any.)

For those who want to pretend they don’t remember Saved by the Bell, The Nostalgia Critic reviewed it recently.

Porn embarrassment may be tip of iceberg for British Home Secretary

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 2:25 PM - 0 Comments

Opposition politicians and editorialists keep saying it’s about more than dirty movies. But Britain’s Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, is both a lightning rod and a laughingstock today after an investigation into expense irregularities revealed that her husband Richard Timney had been watching pay-per-view porn, which his wife then charged to the taxpayers. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is backing Smith—but for how long? The expenses probe has also found that she claimed about Cdn$75,000 for her sister’s home in south London as if it were her own primary residence.

Bloomberg.com

Backstage at the Junos

By Nancy Macdonald - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 2:23 PM - 5 Comments

The Junos, recently reduced to a punchline on 30 Rock, have rid Vancouver of its “no-fun image,” proclaimed a banner headline in the Vancouver Sun this morning, evidencing the “screaming fans who lined the red carpet show.” For many of the city’s music fans—and pro-fun activists—that was a tough headline to swallow. Several live music venues, including the Peanut Gallery, Sweatshop and the Emergency Room, have closed recently, the result fines and illiberal liquor and noise bylaws.. And music nights at the Wired Monk coffee shop and Hoko Sushi and Karaoke Bar have been canceled because of pressure from city officials.

So as live music slowly dies in Vancouver, the Junos arrive. Last night’s award winners, including Nickelback (Album of the Year, Group of the Year and Fan Choice Award), were paraded backstage to the media room at GM Place. “Oh, good: a roomful of people we hate,” mumbled Mike Kroeger, Nickelback’s guitarist, upon entering the media room. His brother took over from there: “We are a very mainstream band that’s not popular among the press,” explained frontman Chad Kroeger. “Sam Roberts for example, is more of a critics’ darling. We are a mainstream band—but that’s OK, because our fans like that kind of music.” (Roberts, a Montrealer, named Artist of the Year, is also a fair bit more charming.)

A few more scenes from backstage: Continue…

Conservative MP Rob Anders on the rocks

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 1:57 PM - 14 Comments

Famous primarily for his vote in Parliament against making Nelson Mandela an honorary citizen of Canada—the only MP to do so, he called the South African statesman a “communist and a terrorist”—Rob Anders has more recently been pretty quiet in the House. He may now go silent entirely, as the latest attempts to oust him from his Calgary West fiefdom begin to look promising. Corporate lawyer Donna Kennedy-Glans, who during last year’s federal elections reported Anders had told her Canadian diplomatic and humanitarian efforts should work towards making the world speak English and believe in Jesus Christ, has managed to stack the riding association board with her supporters. In a couple of months, Kennedy-Glans will try to drum up support for a new nomination race, which under federal party rules requires that two-thirds of constituency members vote for a contest.

Calgary Herald

The politics of Nickelback

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 1:55 PM - 4 Comments

Nickelback, a group that excites large passions on both sides of the critical divide, took three of the top awards last night, including group and album of the year. How can they be so hated AND so beloved? According to the Calgary Herald’s Heath McCoy, “Nickelback represents a class war that exists in rock. In that eternal struggle of art rock elitism versus populist simplicity and escape, Nickelback are proudly low brow. And, in today’s heavily polarized, politicized world, that pushes people’s buttons.” Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger sums it up in his own inimitable style thusly: “We do appeal to the blue-collar working class,” Kroeger once told the Herald. “The beer-drinking, pump-your-fist-in-the-air type whose favourite part of a rock show is the explosions . . . We are those people, and we want to write the kind of songs you can do that to.”

Canada.com

Failed Sketch Shows As Talent Incubators

By Jaime Weinman - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 1:43 PM - 2 Comments

For the last few months, a lot of people have been linking to the famous “First Black President” sketch from The Richard Pryor Show, his network TV show that produced some good sketches, a lot of censor battles, and only four episodes. Seeing the sketch again, one thing that jumps out at you is that for a show that bombed, this show had a lot of then-unknown people who went on to successful careers: among the writer-performers on the show were Robin Williams — before Mork, before anything — Marsha Warfield, Tim Reid, Sandra Bernhard and John Witherspoon.

But that show is hardly the only flop sketch show that produced an impressive crop of young talent. The Dana Carvey Show, which will be released on DVD later this year, was almost as bad a flop, and had performers like Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert when they were almost completely unknown (producer Robert Smigel introduced their “Ambiguously Gay Duo” characters on this show, and transferred them to Saturday Night Live when it was canceled).

The Fox Network had not one but two flop sketch shows in 1992 that featured a bunch of people who would become famous later: David Mirkin’s The Edge had the young Tom Kenny, Jennifer Aniston and Paul Feig, while The Ben Stiller Show had Janeane Garofalo, Andy Dick, and Bob Odenkirk, as well as providing the first big TV writing jobs for David Cross and Dino Stamatopoulos.

Then you’ve got Fridays and its unleashing of Larry David and Michael Richards (and the awesome Melanie Chartoff, one of the people on my list of character actors who always make a TV episode better), though you could dispute whether that counts as a flop, since it lasted two full seasons and got decent ratings.

There must be other examples I’m not thinking of at the moment. I wonder if it’s true that flop sketch shows often produce a lot of people who go on to bigger things, or if I’m just making a correlation/causation error here. (Since sketch shows usually start with a mostly young supporting cast, any sketch show will start out with a bunch of young, talented performers; if it flops, some of them will go on to succeed elsewhere. If it succeeds, they’ll become stars on the show itself.)

Pierre Poilievre v. Google

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 1:03 PM - 51 Comments

The Conservative files a motion asking Google CEO Eric Schmidt to appear in Ottawa and account for Street View.

“We would like to have Google present its case. We would like to hear counter arguments from privacy advocates and, at the end of it all, we will be reporting to government and recommending action,” said Poilievre.

“There are some questions that we have,” he said. “For instance, is there going to be a mass database of people’s images? What are the benefits to Canada of allowing this to occur?”

A core Canadian value

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 12:58 PM - 10 Comments

Liberal Senator Grant Mitchell blogs about Omar Khadr.

Khadr was allegedly involved in the encounter with American forces during which it is alleged that he killed one of them. Yes, this was a terrible tragedy for this soldier, his family, friends and colleagues. But do we not make it worse if we let it undermine the fairness and the justice that Canadians are famous for?

What if

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 12:54 PM - 32 Comments

Ned Franks considers that minor democratic crisis of some months ago.

The Conservatives were governing with the support of less than 40 per cent of the electorate. Nevertheless, they mounted an astonishingly speedy and successful anti-coalition public-relations campaign. They had only seven days to do this, between the government’s disastrous fiscal update of Nov. 27 and Mr. Harper’s meeting with the Governor-General. While the anti-coalition campaign was filled with misrepresentations and half-truths, it worked brilliantly. Public opinion turned formidably.

(Excerpted from Parliamentary Democracy in Crisis, a copy of which I ordered on Friday.)

Transcript: Obama to automakers: Not good enough

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 12:25 PM - 12 Comments

GM chairman Rick Wagoner is out; GM has 60 days to come up with a better restructuring plan; Chrysler has 30 days to merge with Fiat.

Also: 

“The path has been chosen after consulting with other governments that are facing this crisis.  We’ve worked closely with the government of Canada on GM and Chrysler, as both those companies have extensive operations there.  The Canadian government has indicated its support for our approach and will be announcing their specific commitments later today.”

Full speech below.
Continue…

And now, a trip down former Liberal ministerial memory lane

By kadyomalley - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 11:56 AM - 15 Comments

Gather ’round, children, as former Trudeau cabinet minister Marc Lalonde takes the stand to discuss his post-political professional relationship with  Karlheinz Schreiber. More background on Lalonde’s peripheral, but still intriguing role in the Airbus Affair is available here, courtesy of the fifth estate.

Check back at 1:30 p.m. for all the action as the afternoon session of the Oliphant Commission gets underway. In the meantime, if you missed this morning’s appearance by Bill McKnight, catch up via ITQ liveblog here.

1:13:37 PM
Let the journalistic revolution begin!

Well, the journalistic seating revolution, that is — don’t want to bite off more than we can chew for our first heroic expert, after all. I’ve abandoned the aforementioned media table at the back of the room for a corner seat in the spectator gallery, since I realized too late this morning that you can barely see the witness from that angle — not only is it a fair distance away, but the CPAC riser is in the way. But from the public gallery, which is in the middle of the room and on the right side, I have the perfect vantage point. The only thing lacking is a hard surface on which to pile my rapidly accumulating collection of documents, but really, I’m much better off than the laptop-bound because the BlackBerry requires nothing but a pair of thumbs.

Anyway, I’m sure the hearing will get underway soon – Marc Lalonde has already rolled in, I believe, although to be honest, I’m not one hundred percent sure I’d recognize him.

1:28:29 PM
Oh, there’s something about dollies stacked with binder-stuffed bankers boxes being wheeled in by harried looking lawyers that makes any courtroom afternoon seem more exciting.
1:30:36 PM
And – we’re back! Not only are we back, but the boxes are suddenly at the centre of attention: according to Vickery, they were just this moment handed to him by Team Mulroney, for use during Lalonde’s testimony this afternoon – wow, and here I thought we might get out of here early. Vickery, however, is slightly aggrieved: he was under the impression that all documents to be entered into evidence would be provided in advance. The judge wonders what his proposed remedy might be, and Vickery suggests that he could use a half hour to review the material.

Continue…

The secret of aging gracefully? Pass the Häagen-Dazs.

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 11:50 AM - 4 Comments

French actress Catherine Deneuve’s famous declaration that, after age 30, a woman has to choose between her face and her ass now has scientific backup. A major new study into the causes of ageing, from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, confirms that being thin is what ages us most. The conclusion was drawn after the team studied nearly 200 pairs of identical twins over two years. “A BMI higher by four points was found to result in a younger appearance of between two to four years in women over 40 years old,” said Bahaman Guyuron, the plastic surgeon who led the study. Rajiv Grover, secretary of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, welcomed the findings. “It gives scientific credence to what we always thought but couldn’t prove, which is that it is not what your mother looks like, but volume-loss that makes you look older,” he says. “Excessive dieting will give a woman a gaunt appearance by leading to volume loss in the midface [cheeks],” adding volume loss can be compounded by yo-yo dieting.’ Other factors found to contribute to ageing include sun damage, smoking, drinking, failure to cope with stress and long-term anti-depressant use.

Telegraph.co.uk

Does my brain make me look fat?

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 11:48 AM - 0 Comments

The way the brain forms in the womb may explain why some people wind up with eating disorders such as anorexia. British scientists say that screening children as young as eight years old may help identify those most vulnerable to the “size zero fad” and the celebrity thin craze. Of the 200 anorexic women studied, 70 per cent had damaged neurotransmitters, which had changed their brain structure slightly. The findings are especially profound because they show that an abnormally wired brain affects weight, rather than the popular belief that being underweight affects the brain negatively. What’s more, the research is surprising because it indicates that brain wiring may be more responsible for anorexia than environmental factors or poor parenting. 

Guardian.co.uk

Popcorn: the newest victim of the recession

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 11:46 AM - 0 Comments

Movies are doing great in the economic downturn, but you know what’s not doing so great? Concessions. People want to go to the movies for cheap entertainment, but they don’t want to spend extra money on popcorn and candy. In desperation, movie theatres are doing the unthinkable and reducing the price of junk food, even offering “value menus.” What’s the world coming to when movie theatres can’t make money by charging inflated prices for unhealthy food?

Variety

The failures of capitalism have their rewards.

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 11:45 AM - 4 Comments

The U.S. Government’s mind-boggling $787 billion economic stimulus package and $3.6 trillion hard times budget have spawned growth in at least one sector—lobbying. The Washington Post reports that more than 2,000 companies, municipalities and associations have hired D.C. Lobbyists since the Nov. election. “We’re busy as bees out here,” says one trade association. “Making honey.”

The Washington Post

A strange request

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 11:29 AM - 16 Comments

Glen Pearson gets a phone call.

Ironically, I was in discussion with some constituents this weekend in my office when I received a call from a Conservative MP from another part of the country – a friend who shares many of my non-partisan views. He wanted to talk Africa, specifically the recent cuts made by his own government to development funds to eight African nations. We had discussed many things over the last two years, but to my knowledge we had never conferred on Africa itself.

After excusing myself from the meeting, I listened in surprise as he told me of the sharply negative response he had received from some members of his church concerning the aid cuts. It turns out he’s a member of a committee in that congregation that is funding a couple of programs in one of the very countries that just had its long-term funding cut. I listened reflectively, feeling my own anger mount again as I remembered the shock to my own system when I heard of the government’s “mean shift” away from Africa.

Then a strange request: Would I be willing to be more aggressive in the House concerning the cuts, seeking at least a time of reappraisal of the results of such a decision. Let me get this straight: a member of the government was asking me to be more forceful in opposition? Indeed, we are living in strange times.

Pregnancy makes women forgetful

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 10:56 AM - 0 Comments

A group of researchers from Australia and New Zealand have proven the long-held stereotype that pregnant women are forgetful is true. The memory tests involved 30 women in their first trimester, another 30 in their third trimester and 30 women who were not pregnant. While no change was found in measurements of the pregnant women’s visuospatial memory—they performed worse when measuring their auditory memory. Pregnant women scored an average of 10 points lower than those who weren’t pregnant for a combined memory score. Researchers say the findings are important because clinicians need to be aware that information given to pregnant women orally may not be retained as well as written information.

The New Zealand Herald

Student government leaders talk to big government

By Mitchel Raphael - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 10:54 AM - 8 Comments

Members of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) were on the Hill lobbying MPs on issues pertaining to Canadian post-secondary institutions. Here is Zach Churchill (right), National Director of the CASA, with Liberal Cape Breton MP Mark Eyking.

Labour Minister Rona Ambrose with Stephen Lecce, President of the University Student Council at the University of Western Ontario.

Continue…

Screen all teens for depression, panel urges

By macleans.ca - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 10:36 AM - 1 Comment

Doctors should routinely screen all teenagers for depression, a condition that affects about six per cent of American teens, according to the United States Preventive Services Task Force. The independent panel, appointed by the government to set guidelines for treatment on various health issues, advises doctors to screen even those teens who don’t show symptoms of depression; its guidelines go beyond those from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which encourage doctors to ask teens about depression. Of the roughly six million American teens who suffer from depression, most are undiagnosed and untreated, notes the Associated Press. The new recommendations, published in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics, underline that early screening for depression is crucial as it can lead to isolation, school problems and even suicide.

The New York Times