Too early for Jane Fonda, we had Jack

By Barbara Amiel - Wednesday, February 9, 2011 at 11:05 AM - 5 Comments

Bryce Duffy/Corbis Outline

On the way to this column, I got distracted by Jack LaLanne videos on YouTube. Shameful, I know, but I must have spent nearly two hours watching them. I had intended to put in a note referencing his death just last week at the age of 96 and thought that perhaps I could view a few old shows from the sixties when he had his morning half-hour TV exercise show and wax nostalgic. Turns out there are hundreds of LaLanne videos online, including a hypnotic interview with Groucho Marx.

Jack wore a jumpsuit before Donna Karan got us in them and, something I had never noticed before, he wore black ballet shoes with black socks for his TV workouts, probably because Air Nikes hadn’t reached conception. He opened his fitness gym in 1936 in Oakland, Calif. (California is the only cliché about Jack), and the obits named him father of the American fitness movement, which is a triumph for the short man who started out truly fat and poxy, unlike the faux acne complexions and cellulite thighs universally recalled by gorgeous movie stars. I defy anyone not to like Jack after watching him, or to resist—behind the privacy of their computer screens—sucking in their waists and resolving to exercise more and eat better.

Jack was something else: he came from the tradition of the muscleman of the 19th century, the stunt guy at circuses who could lift improbable weights. Jack’s stunts included celebrating the U.S. bicentennial by swimming one mile, shackled and handcuffed while towing 13 boats symbolizing the 13 colonies with 76 people on board—and he was 62 years of age. His enthusiasm was so contagious you’d almost think you should do it yourself, perhaps starting off with the trussed part in the shallow end of the swimming pool.

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Getting a jump on things with parkour

By Leah Mclaren - Wednesday, February 9, 2011 at 11:03 AM - 2 Comments

On a dark, damp January afternoon in an abandoned south London council estate, an 11-year-old boy is trying to summon up the courage to jump off a six-foot-high brick wall onto a concrete bollard. He crosses and uncrosses his skinny arms, assessing the distance, then shakes his head. “I can’t do it.”

“Yes you can,” a man in a hoodie standing on the ground below instructs him. “Just bend your knees, spring up and forward. Let your legs absorb the impact.” The boy leaps, one trainer-clad foot flung out in front, but at the last second dodges the bollard and lands on the pavement beside it. The hooded head shakes, then speaks. “That fear you feel? It’s all in your head. Now try again.”

Welcome to the inner-city grit and inspiration of parkour—a training discipline and urban lifestyle philosophy that has become a British fitness obsession.

Initially called the “art of displacement,” and more commonly “free-running,” the practice originated 25 years ago in the suburbs of Paris among a small group of young, ethnically diverse French men determined to use the concrete jungle to strengthen both the body and the mind. This founding group of nine, known in parkour circles as the legendary “Yamakasi” (a Lingala word that translates to “strong spirit”), combined the influences of Japanese anime, Jackie Chan movies, martial arts and even comic book superheroes to bring a Zen-like focus and discipline to the age-old childhood pastime of scaling walls, hopping fences and jumping from roof to roof.

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How to fund an arena for a hypothetical NHL team without really doing so

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, February 9, 2011 at 11:02 AM - 73 Comments

Greg Weston previews the government’s next move.

Sources tell CBC News that the Conservative government is considering allowing part of the federal gas tax revenues to be used for construction of “large entertainment centres” such as the proposed new Quebec City arena. Cities and towns across the country currently share an annual pot of just over $2 billion from the federal gas taxes collected at the pumps.

While municipalities are free to pick their own projects, the federal government stipulates the gas-tax money can only be used for infrastructure such as roads, sewers and water treatment systems. Sources say the Harper government is considering simply amending the federal regulations to allow municipalities to spend all or part of their annual gas-tax funds on entertainment facilities such as a new NHL arena.

Cindor Reeves and the Toronto Star

By Michael Petrou - Wednesday, February 9, 2011 at 11:01 AM - 5 Comments

The Toronto Star is now following the story. Here’s my piece from two weeks ago the triggered the current wave of coverage. Here’s my more in-depth feature from 2009.

The comic stylings of Tony Clement

By Scott Feschuk - Wednesday, February 9, 2011 at 9:45 AM - 51 Comments

The Globe’s Jane Taber reports:

Before sitting down to eat, all [guests at Tony Clement’s 50^th birthday party] were required to fill out a long-form census of 40 questions about the Industry Minister. Given the controversy caused this summer over the government’s decision to scrap the mandatory long-form, all the guests had a good laugh.

Ha ha! Oh God, this is sooooo funny, Tony! Just brillllllliant! Because it totally Continue…

Stephen Harper and Canada, a love story (IV)

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, February 9, 2011 at 9:04 AM - 251 Comments

Eleven years before he declared himself and his side to be “Canadians first and only,” Stephen Harper declared his allegiance to an Alberta quite apart from Canada.

The following op-ed was published by the National Post on December 8, 2000, shortly after that year’s federal election. Sorting out how he got from writing what appears here to saying what he says now probably goes as far as any question towards sorting out Stephen Harper. Continue…

The backlash against unpaid internships

By Josh Dehaas - Wednesday, February 9, 2011 at 8:51 AM - 29 Comments

When Michael graduated with a fine arts degree from the University of Toronto last spring to a tough job market, he was thrilled to be offered the position of marketing assistant for a festival. The posting said “compensation to be determined,” which he thought meant minimum wage or more. At the interview, he learned it was an unpaid internship with a $50-per-week stipend. He took it anyway, hoping it would give him “a foot in the door.” He’d live with his parents and get a part-time retail gig to pay the bills. But there was no time for a retail gig. Every evening was eaten up on the phone for work or driving around (in his own car, paying his own gas) putting up posters for the festival.

Laura was similarly disillusioned with her experience. She got no orientation and no training on her first day of work at a big-city daily newspaper. Instead, she was handed a press pass and told to laminate it on her way to the first of that day’s press conferences. She too paid for her own gas, her own parking, her own cellphone bill. The University of Alberta graduate was treated as a member of the full-time reporting staff—except she got paid nothing. At the end of the internship, instead of offering her a paid position, they brought in another intern. They do that every month. “Why hire me when they could just get another unpaid intern?” she says.

It turns out her internship was illegal, considering she was working at a for-profit business, wasn’t in school, and was doing work normally done by a paid employee. But Laura hesitated to complain, for fear of being blacklisted. (Like Michael, she still doesn’t want her real name used for this article.)

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The Commons: The Prime Minister does not deign to explain

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 6:39 PM - 78 Comments

The Scene. Perhaps to his benefit, Michael Ignatieff sounded a bit hoarse, suffering it seems from a bit of a cold. It lent a bit of gravity to his words. In general, he sounds better when he sounds a little tired of this nonsense.

“Mr. Speaker, a perimeter security deal that has harmonization of entry and exit standards will confer on the U.S. government unprecedented amounts of information about Canadians. I do not think the Prime Minister is being straight with Canadians about this issue,” he ventured. “The deal would impose U.S. Homeland Security standards on this side of the border.”

He was, with this first try, flirting with presumptuousness. “Why,” he asked, “is the Prime Minister even contemplating the surrender of Canadian privacy rights to U.S. Homeland Security?”

This was easy enough to deny and so the Prime Minister went ahead and did just that. “Of course,” Mr. Harper declared, “no such thing is being contemplated.”

So what is being contemplated? Here the Prime Minister had two sentences—a total of 66 words that read as if scripted by at least as many communications specialists. Continue…

But will it reach Montreal?

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 5:22 PM - 16 Comments

US vice president Joe Biden and transportation secretary Ray Lahood announced a plan to ask Congress for $53 billion over six years to build high-speed rail in the US. The Quebec government’s representatives in the US have been pushing for a corridor that would connect eastern US cities with Montreal.

You can read the full announcement here.

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Catholic bishops in Quebec want government help

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 5:18 PM - 124 Comments

Quebec’s Catholic bishops are asking the provincial government to help their struggling parishes make ends meet. The group’s proposals include a request the province start covering the day-to-day operating costs of churches. The Assembly of Bishops says that, barring government help, catholic churches in province are liable to be sold to developers, who’ll transform them into condominiums or music venues.

Le Soleil

North and South Korea hold talks

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 4:30 PM - 0 Comments

Representatives from North and South Korea met for preliminary discussions on Tuesday morning—the first since an exchange of artillery in November that led to the deaths of four South Koreans. The intent of the meeting is to pave the way for substantive discussions about the attack, the sinking in March of a South Korean warship, and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. However, according to a Seoul defense official, North Korea fell short of two of the South’s demands: officials refused to admit involvement in the sinking of the ship, and did not apologize for the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island. At the request of the North, another meeting will take place on Wednesday.

New York Times

Rob Ford: Canada's most quotable mayor

By Nicholas Köhler - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 3:42 PM - 3 Comments

In publishing parlance, the acronym CIP stands for “cataloguing in publication,” and refers to the numbered items printed on a book’s copyright page outlining subject matter and used by librarians for—what else?—cataloguing. As it happens, the CIP data in The Little Book of Rob Ford, a House of Anansi Press title due for release late this month, makes for a handy synopsis of last year’s Toronto mayoralty race and its victor: “1. Ford, Rob, 1969—Humour. 2. Ford, Rob, 1969—Quotations. 3. Toronto (Ont.)—Politics and Government—21st century—Humour.” A little later: “5. Malapropisms.”

The book, which runs to 160 pages (including bibliography), is a compendium of Ford bon mots gathered into categories by an anonymous editor whose nom de plume is The Unknown Torontonian. Under “On City Hall”: “It’s time to stop the gravy train.” Under “Ford on Ford”: “I’m just digesting my food. That’s a lot I ate.” Under “On Drugs and Alcohol”: “They pulled me over. I was with my wife. They found one joint in my back pocket.”

This isn’t the first time Toronto-based Anansi, known for publishing some of the best fiction and poetry produced in Canada in the last 45 years, has ventured into the political. In 1970, it published both a Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to Canada and Law, law, law: A down-to-earth citizen’s manual on the laws you most frequently encounter—driving, apartment living, drinking, drugs (the latter by Clayton Ruby and Paul Copeland). The small-format Little Book will retail for $8.99 and will be available on bookstore counters—”an impulse item,” says Anansi publisher Sarah MacLachlan. A concept surely familiar to Toronto voters.

Cindor Reeves and the Globe and Mail

By Michael Petrou - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 3:29 PM - 17 Comments

The Globe has published an editorial calling on Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to allow Cindor Reeves to stay in Canada.

The Globe’s editorial is based entirely on my articles and blog posts, although they don’t acknowledge as much. I admit I find this bothersome, but am pleased other media are now following the story.

The CBC’s interview with Reeves and with Alan White, former chief of investigations for the Special Court, meanwhile, is now available online.

Andrew Ference Maverick Watch

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 1:13 PM - 7 Comments

The NHL defenceman who addressed the NDP convention last year criticizes a teammate’s hit and is duly chastized like a dissenting backbencher.

“You stand by what you say. I’m not here to BS anyone or to get ratings,” said Ference. “We have an issue with the league with headshots, with those kinds of hits, and there’s a big push, not only by us but by the NFL, to look out for the safety of players, and getting rid of those hits is one of those things. Getting rid of it is getting rid of it.”

Meanwhile, NDP MP Glenn Thibeault tabled legislation today to deal with concussions at the amateur and youth levels.

RCMP deputy commissioner tells of Elliott's "abuse"

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 1:02 PM - 15 Comments

Raf Souccar, the RCMP deputy commissioner who complained to federal authorities about Commissioner William Elliott, testified today to a standing committee on public safety about his boss’s abusive behaviour. Elliott, the RCMP’s first civilian appointed to commissioner, announced last Friday that he would step down at the end of this summer, after numerous complaints about his management style and treatment of officers. Among the deputy commissioner’s grievances was Elliott’s tendency to criticize officers publicly, while Souccar tried to deal with internal issues privately. Souccar said there was little doubt that the next RCMP commissioner should be a police officer, not a civilian, and “will have to be a strong leader who can rally the troops, someone everyone can believe in and support.” He also called for changes to the RCMP Act that would allow a swifter discipline process.

CBC

Young People and Cop Shows

By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 12:51 PM - 3 Comments

I enjoyed the pilot of “The Chicago Code,” which reminded me a bit of the new Hawaii 5-0, but with more edge (which would not be hard to achieve) plus a bit of a Stephen J. Cannell vibe in some of the situations and dialogue. During a commercial, while idly wondering how the show was going to do in the ratings, I thought that this seems like the type of show that will “skew old.” And sure enough, it did: the pilot attracted 9 and a half million viewers, not great but not bad, but its Coveted Demographic rating was 2.4, not a great start for a pilot that follows the very high Coveted Demographic rating of House. Compare that to How I Met Your Mother, which didn’t get that many more viewers but got a much higher 18-49 rating, as it always does; more of its viewers are in that magical age range.

This is not a prediction about how the show will do in the future, how long it will last, and so on. (The Fox scheduling executive who tweets as “Masked Scheduler,” and has won fan affection by clearly loving many of his network’s shows and pulling for them to succeed, wrote only that they will need to have “patience” with the show.) It’s just that it’s become surprisingly easy to predict that a cop show will have trouble getting the big numbers in the 18-49 range. Hawaii 5-0 is the highest-rated new cop show of the year and yet it rarely manages to get to a 3.0 in 18-49; Castle keeps going and deserves to, but has always been a show with an older audience despite its attractive Canadian leads. Lawyer shows have an even bigger struggle; Harry’s Law gets pretty good viewership numbers (by NBC standards) yet is down to an 18-49 rating that’s identical to Chuck, and the Good Wife problem — lots of viewers, few young viewers — has been dealt with before. One of the few cop shows that gets consistently high 18-49 ratings now is NCIS, and that’s a famously old-skewing show that merely happens to be so popular that it’s guaranteed a high rating in every demographic.

Medical shows, oddly, seem immune from this problem, or maybe this is an inaccurate perception based on the fact that there are at least two medical shows that are really popular with young viewers: House (still) and Grey’s Anatomy (still!). I’m not going to jump from that to any generalizations about medical shows skewing younger than cop shows; I don’t know if they really do. But it’s not surprising that CBS is desperate to find a successful doctor show.

Cop and law shows have always had the problem — if you consider it a problem; I don’t, but advertisers do, and that’s what counts — of attracting an older audience. That’s why we’ve gotten decades of cop and law shows trying to find ways to “young up” the audience, whether it’s adding a sexy young cop (male or female) to the team, or using the Mod Squad/21 Jump Street method of doing a show about cute young cops. You’ve got to assume that the networks are even now considering adding more young people to the on-the-bubble procedurals; I don’t know if it actually helps, but it’s the method that’s been used as long as I can remember. That’s one of the reasons ABC, which has been so successful with young and pretty doctors, seems to be on the lookout for young and pretty cops (with Rookie Blue as one of their most successful recent attempts). This is also why networks rarely do crime shows starring older actors — no Matlocks or Barnaby Joneses around here. They’re trying, as much as possible, to cast against the natural tendency of the crime show to skew old.

In any case, when I was talking about the effectiveness of “doctor, lawyer, cop” as templates for a TV series, this is the downside of that: at least two of those things have shown some problems in attracting the viewers who make money for the network. The shows that are most efficient at attracting 18-49 viewers at the moment tend to be your Modern Familys, your Glees, your Two and Half or possibly One and a Half Mens, your Houses.

That doesn’t mean crime shows won’t make a comeback on the networks; they did before. (Let’s remember that in the early ’00s, CSI used to routinely get more total viewers than NCIS now gets on its best week. You can bet enough of those 25-30 million viewers were 18-49 to make the advertisers happy.) The ones that are on now tend to de-emphasize action to a certain extent — even Chicago Code, which is aware of the problem and made sure to throw in a car chase in during the cold opening — and their stories aren’t always as immediately relatable as the guest characters’ problems on House or the romance arcs on Grey’s Anatomy. Maybe networks will finally succeed in bringing back the action-adventure show, and that’ll revitalize the genre. Or maybe something else will revitalize it. I just wanted to call attention to the strange problem: crime shows are incredibly reliable and the backbone of the television drama, but they do have a rather predictable tendency to bring in the viewers networks don’t really want.

Chechen warlord admits to Moscow bombing

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 12:34 PM - 0 Comments

Doku Umarov, a Chechen warlord and one of the most wanted men in Russia, has admitted to ordering the suicide bomb attack at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport that killed 36 people and left 180 wounded. “I am showing the Putin regime one more time that we can carry out these operations wherever and whenever we want,” said Umarov in a video posted online, who also claimed that the bombing was a response to “Russian crimes in the Caucasus.” Umarov is one of the few remaining Chechen rebels still active, and has previously claimed responsibility for the March 2010 Moscow Metro bombing that killed 39 people, and a November 2009 train bombing in which 26 died. The identity of the Domodedovo suicide bomber is still unconfirmed, but investigators believe that the perpetrator is Magomed Yevloyev, a 20-year old man from the North Caucasus.

BBC

How to talk to the new Congress about trade

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 12:27 PM - 2 Comments

That’s the subject of an interesting new report out of the Conference Board of Canada which looks at how the election results will shape trade policy in the U.S. Usually when Republicans take over, it’s a boost for free trade. Not this time.

The report sets the stage by noting that:

[The] so-called Tea Party Republicans, who make up the vast majority of the 112th Congress’ freshman class, are wholly unlike their Republican brethren in that they are as protectionist as their Democratic foes…

By a margin of 63 per cent to 24 per cent, Americans who sympathize with the Tea Party oppose trade pacts such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), whereas unaligned Republicans split 42 per cent to 42 per cent.

But, the report also finds:

Support for free trade on both sides of the aisle is highly sensitive to the identity of the partner.

An astonishing 81 percent of Americans see trade with Canada as being “fair, up slightly from 79 per cent in 2002.

Ameagre 29 per cent of Americans describe trade with China as being fair)

The report’s bottom line advice to Ottawa:

1)  Understand that trade is not a priority going forward, and,

2)  Ottawa should avoid using the word “NAFTA” in Washington. Americans see trade with Canada much as they do trade between their home state and North Dakota. NAFTA has other connotations:

The simple truth is that in Washington, NAFTA means trade with Mexico, and this comes with a lot of baggage, ranging from anxieties about outsourcing to labour and environmental standards, and even immigration. To avoid getting bogged down by these wider concerns about globalization, Ottawa should keep NAFTA out of the public discussion of Canada–U.S. trade.

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CRTC may ease ban on broadcasting false news

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 12:24 PM - 27 Comments

On January 10, the CRTC announced it was seeking comments on a proposal to alter the wording of a regulation that prohibits the broadcasting of false or misleading news. The alteration would make the regulation apply only in cases in which broadcasters knew the information was false or misleading, and that reporting it may endanger the lives, health or safety of the public. This proposal came by way of a little-watched committee of Parliament—the joint committee for the scrutiny of regulations—who have pressed for changes to the ban for over a decade. According to government officials, problems with the ban began with a 1992 ruling in the case of Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel, which said the right to freedom of expression meant a person could not be charged for disseminating false information. In 2000, the regulations committee pointed out to the CRTC that its regulation seemed to contradict the ruling. Following the CRTC’s January announcement, the proposal has been met with confusion and criticism. Peter Murdoch, vice-president for the Communication, Energy, and Paperworkers Union called the proposal “totally bizarre,” noting that no one in the industry has called for it. NDP MP Charlie Angus noted to reporters that the proposed change precedes the start of Sun TV. The deadline for public input is February 9.

Globe and Mail

Canada lags in food production

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 11:51 AM - 15 Comments

A new report by the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute concludes that Canada is in need of a significant overhaul of its agricultural policy in order to compete in global markets and keep Canadians fed. Canada was once the third largest exporter of food, but has fallen behind countries like Brazil and China after exports fell by 9 per cent and imports rose by 2 percent in 2009. CAPI recommends that Canada double agricultural exports to $75-billion and produce 75 per cent of its own food by 2025. Gaëtan Lussier, former agriculture minister and CAPI’s chair, said “if Canada does not change the way we look at agri-food development, we will be losers for a long time.” Canada’s agriculture industry is a core sector of the economy that generates two million jobs and accounts for 8.2 per cent of GDP.

The Globe and Mail

Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute

Are all these people soft on crime?

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 11:47 AM - 31 Comments

Two weeks ago, a group representing 11 religious denominations expressed its objections to the government’s justice program. Now, it’s a group of 500 health professionals that is registering its concern.

“We, the undersigned, are concerned that the federal government is pursuing significant amendments to federal drug legislation, through Bill S-10, which are not scientifically grounded and which research demonstrates may actually contribute to health and social harms in our communities,” the health professionals say in the letter.

They say there is no evidence that mandatory minimum sentences will reduce drug use or deter crime, that the sentences would have a disproportionately negative impact on young people and members of Canada’s aboriginal communities, and that they would have a negative impact on public health and HIV rates.

Meanwhile, the New York Times looks at Insite, the safe injection site in Vancouver that the Harper government opposes.

Max, Max, Max…

By Martin Patriquin - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 11:17 AM - 1 Comment

Yes, Max is in a real pickle on his Bill 101 musings. The outrage—real, feigned, canned—has been as loud as it is predictable; one wonders whether it is time for some brave federal politicians to take parliament’s temperature on this matter of great national importance.

But I digress. Coincidentally, we here at Maclean’s wrote about the PQ and Bill 101 just before Max’s bon mots. At a time when everyone’s favourite freewheeling libertarian MP from the Beauce is musing about the necessity of Bill 101, the PQ is doubling down with a plan to apply the law to Quebec’s small- and medium-sized businesses. (Currently, the law as it applies to la langue du travail only concerns businesses with more than 50 employees.)

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The End: Kenneth John Coulter | 1974 – 2010

By Jen Cutts - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 10:50 AM - 0 Comments

Illustration by Julia Minamata

Kenneth John Coulter was born on June 16, 1974, in Kitchener, Ont., to Kenneth, a factory worker, and Karen, who worked at an insurance company. Ken’s parents separated about a year after he was born, and he and Karen moved into an apartment in Waterloo, Ont. A big boy from birth, Ken was nonetheless “constantly on the go,” says Karen, forever outside hitting a ball with a blue plastic bat. When Ken was four, he and Karen were in a car accident, and Ken began having seizures—18 in 2½ months, says Karen. Teachers later noticed that Ken had difficulty with reading and comprehension, and recommended he be transferred to a school that offered special education.

When Ken was seven, Karen signed him up for T-ball. During one game, after hitting a ball so hard it nearly hit a church quite a ways from the diamond, the other kids started calling him “Slugger.” When sister Kim came along in 1984, it wasn’t long before Ken was teaching her to catch a ball and standing in as her protector (Kim’s father wasn’t in the picture). “Ken was the one to give the third degree to my first boyfriend,” she says.

Seeing Ken’s enthusiasm for sports, a high school teacher suggested he look into the Special Olympics program. At 17, he began playing on a floor hockey team, and when Karen picked him up from his first out-of-town tournament, it was clear that Ken was hooked. He informed her he’d be travelling to P.E.I. the following summer to compete in the national championships. It was Ken’s first plane trip, and he later confessed to Kim that he’d been afraid to walk the aisles for fear he’d tip the plane with his size.

Continue…

The failed Conservative-Bloc coalition

By Martin Patriquin - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 10:44 AM - 30 Comments

So, the Conservatives and the Bloc coalesce on a bill to ixnay ridiculously generous parole terms for non-violent criminals à la Vincent Lacroix and Earl Jones, proving to the Conservatives how fun and fruitful it can be to govern with the evil separatists. The Great [sic] Conservative-Bloc Coalition of 2011 may not be, however, thanks to the late game jab from the NDP and the Liberals, who say they are considering voting against it—even though they’ve been for it in the past. Translation: two thirds of Harper’s dreaded separatist-coalition government—yes, the same one the Conservatives been warning about in the ‘we-don’t-want-an-election-but-what-the-hell’ attack ads—is against Harper’s own coalition with the separatists.

I forget now. Are we at war with Eurasia or Eastasia?