This week: Good news, bad news

By macleans.ca - Friday, April 15, 2011 at 10:40 AM - 0 Comments

Good news

Andy Clark/Reuters

Vive la France!

France played a crucial role this week in the surrender and arrest of the Ivory Coast’s defeated president Laurent Gbagbo and his militiamen. With its troops on the ground, France has publicly pledged to help the troubled nation in its reconstruction. Along with its recent calls for greater NATO involvement in Libya, France has suddenly become a robust player on the international stage, flexing its muscle in the name of democracy and global stability. It’s just too bad that same spirit isn’t on display back home, where French police arrested two women under the ban on wearing face-concealing veils in public.

In the classroom

The organization that regulates Ontario’s 230,000 teachers issued a new rule this week: no more connecting with students on social media. Teachers have been warned not to “friend” their pupils on Facebook, subscribe to their Twitter accounts, or use Flickr, LinkedIn or MySpace to interact online. Give the College of Teachers an A+ on this. The student-teacher relationship belongs in a classroom, not a chat room.

Continue…

The Ontario accord

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, April 15, 2011 at 9:46 AM - 3 Comments

David Peterson and Bob Rae talk to The Mark about the Liberal-NDP accord in Ontario

Hey look: Which one was Reuben Kincaid?

By Paul Wells - Friday, April 15, 2011 at 9:32 AM - 10 Comments

From the magazine, my written-on-deadline column about Tuesday’s English-language leaders’ debate. It ends more seriously than it begins:

As for the set: corrugated metal, beige ’70s colours—at last I realized why it all looked so familiar. The broadcasters had stationed the leaders of Canada’s political parties in front of the tour bus from The Partridge Family.

Voter engagement

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, April 15, 2011 at 8:43 AM - 121 Comments

The Conservatives are challenging ballots collected at a University of Guelph polling station, this after a member of the local Conservative campaign allegedly tried to seize a ballot box.

Several University of Guelph students claim Michael Sona, the communications director for Guelph Conservative candidate Marty Burke, attempted to put a stop to voting at the special ballot held Wednesday. The students say Sona approached the Elections Canada balloting site claiming that the process unfolding at the location was illegal and at one point reached for but never took possession of a container with ballots.

“He tried to grab for the ballot box. I’m not sure he got his hand on the box, but he definitely grabbed for it,” said Brenna Anstett, a student, who at the time of the reported incident was sealing her second of two envelopes containing her vote. Student Claire Whalen was just about to receive her ballot just before 5 p.m. when the episode unfolded. “That’s when a guy came up and said it was an illegal polling station and that he was confiscating the ballots. And then he tried to take (the ballot box),” Whalen said.

Guergis works the comeback trail

By Charlie Gillis - Friday, April 15, 2011 at 6:10 AM - 76 Comments

Photograph by Colin OConnor

The familiar war colours still grace her signs—white block letters and crimson ribbons, on a background of Tory blue. But the word “Independent” lies spray-stencilled beneath Helena Guergis’s name, while blots of paint covering the Conservative party logo summon to mind a bandage on an open wound. “It’s Conservative against conservative around here,” says Guergis, summing up one of the most bitter constituency battles of the federal election. Not only is she fighting for her political life, says the former junior cabinet minister, she’s doing so against the full might of the Tory electoral machine.

No surprise. Since the uproar surrounding the arrest and lobbying activities of her husband, Rahim Jaffer, Guergis has been one of Stephen Harper’s biggest headaches, demanding that the Prime Minister reveal his reasons for punting her from caucus while insisting she remains a big-C Conservative—in spirit if not on paper. Harper’s office cited unspecified allegations of misconduct on Guergis’s part when it expelled her in April 2010, but a subsequent review by RCMP found no evidence of wrongdoing. Still, the Conservatives refused to re-admit her to the party fold, and last month her old constituency association held a nomination meeting to replace her.

Judging by the campaign muscle they’ve sent the new candidate, a pediatric surgeon named Kellie Leitch, the party brain trust would dearly love to see Guergis gone. At least six Tory heavyweights have swung through the farm country of Simcoe-Grey in recent days, including Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Minister of State for Seniors Julian Fantino. Tory icon Hugh Segal has also dropped by for photo ops. So has Pamela Wallin, the Conservative senator and former broadcaster.

Continue…

What the party leaders just won’t say

By Andrew Coyne - Friday, April 15, 2011 at 6:00 AM - 64 Comments

Sean Kilpatrick/CP

Back and forth rolls the popular wisdom. There are no real differences between the Liberals and Conservatives! It’s an empty, issueless election that will change nothing! No, the differences between them are stark! It’s a clash between two fundamentally different visions!

Perhaps, when the waters have settled, we will conclude: there are small but significant differences between the parties. There are policy issues in this campaign, even if we in the media are doing our traditional stellar job of ignoring them. True, the government of Canada would continue to do almost all of the same things it does now, at much the same cost, no matter which party is elected—at least for the next few years. But where the parties do disagree, there are clear differences in direction signalled, and over time these could grow to be large indeed.

And there’s a wild card—with a minority government looking increasingly probable, the policies of the other parties, notably the NDP, take on rather greater significance than they might otherwise, as potential bargaining chips in any post-election haggling over power. So the main parties’ platforms must be assessed in light of the gravitational pull likely to be exercised upon them by these lesser stars.

Continue…

Come on, get angry

By Paul Wells - Friday, April 15, 2011 at 6:00 AM - 62 Comments

Fred Greenslade/Reuters

It was selfless of Canada’s broadcasters to showcase the political party leaders with an English-language debate that couldn’t possibly be mistaken as a showcase of the broadcasters’ own abilities. The show could not have been less impressively produced if the leaders had skyped their jabs and parries in from an Internet café. I spent the first three minutes of the debate frantically switching channels because I couldn’t believe the cavernous echo-chamber sound was the official audio feed from the floor.

As for the set: corrugated metal, beige ’70s colours—at last I realized why it all looked so familiar. The broadcasters had stationed the leaders of Canada’s political parties in front of the tour bus from The Partridge Family. A subliminal message, perhaps. The old TV comedy’s theme song—Come On Get Happy—was an extended warning against fratricidal bickering. “We have a dream, we’ll go travelling together / We’ll spread a little loving and we’ll keep moving on / Something always happens whenever we’re together / We get a happy feeling when we’re singing a song.”

Yeah, not so much. These four couldn’t bear the thought of travelling together much further than they’ve come so far. The tone was set in the first exchange by Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe, in the pesky teenager role originally played by Danny Bonaduce. Stephen Harper answered one of the pre-recorded questions from an ordinary voter that have come to characterize these debates. “I would like to congratulate Mr. Harper for answering a question from a citizen,” Duceppe said, “for the first time in this campaign.”

Continue…

Week in Pictures: April 11th – 17th 2011

By macleans.ca - Friday, April 15, 2011 at 6:00 AM - 0 Comments

Farid just doesn’t seem to get it

By Rick Mercer - Friday, April 15, 2011 at 6:00 AM - 22 Comments

Sean Kilpatrick/CP

My friend Farid is from Iran. This will be the first federal election in which he is eligible to vote.

Being somewhat of a sap, and knowing what a hard-working new Canadian he is, I was immediately moved by this notion. I could only imagine that after a lifetime of persecution in Iran, after making his way to Canada with nothing, after receiving his Canadian citizenship, he would be overwhelmed with the notion of exercising his democratic right to a vote.

No dice. He is entirely underwhelmed by his choices. “Rick, if it was a choice between PC or Mac, that I could understand, but this election it seems the choice is one lousy PC and another lousy PC—why does it matter?”

Continue…

Cannes welcomes Brad, Sean, Johnny, Mel, Ryan, Kiefer and Rachel—but no Canadian movies

By Brian D. Johnson - Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 6:30 PM - 1 Comment

Ryan Gosling in Cannes competition entry Drive

The Cannes Film Festival unveiled its official selection today, and it looks like there will be no shortage of star power on the red carpet. But with no Canadian features in the program (short films have yet to be announced), those looking for Canuck contenders at world cinema’s annual Olympics will have to content themselves with a trio of actors: Keifer Sutherland plus ex-sweethearts Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling. McAdams stars in the opening night gala, Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, which will play out of competition. Gosling co-stars with Carey Mulligan (An Education) in Drive, an indie feature by Danish director Nicolas Winding (Bronson, Valhalla Rising). Brad Pitt, meanwhile, appears with Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain in Terence Malick’s long-awaited The Tree of Life, a picture that combines red-carpet heat with auteur mystique to create the perfect Cannes pedigree, at least on paper. Like Gosling, Penn will also feature in a European film, playing a former rock star in Paul Sorrentino’s This Must Be the Place.  Director Jodie Foster will finesse the second coming of Mel Gibson in The Beaver, which will play safely out of competition. And Johnny Depp will no doubt find a yacht to his liking to help launch Rob Marshall’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, also out of competition.

The competition includes a beefy presence  of A-list Cannes alumni. The Dardenne brothers, who already have a pair of Palme d’Ors between them, will tap childhood themes once again with A Boy and His Bike, starring  Cécile De France (Hereafter) and Jérémie Renier. Master provocateur Lars Von Trier will debut Melancholia, starring Kristin Dunst and Keifer Sutherland. The strong European contingent also includes Spain’s Pedro Almodovar, who offers a revenge tale called The Skin That I Inhabit—starring Antonio Banderas as a surgeon  hunting for the men who killed his daughter—along with Finland’s Aki Kaurismaki (Le Havre), and Italy’s Nanni Moretti (Habemus Papum). Gus Van Sant, who won the Palme d’Or for Elephant, has been oddly relegated to an opening gala slot in the sidebar program, Un Certain Regard, with Restless, which stars Mia Wasikowska, who—after Alice in Wonderland and Jane Eyre—is now officially the Hottest Actress of Her Generation (pace Saoirse Ronan).

Potential Canadian premieres missing in action include new movies by Sarah Polley (Take This Waltz) and David Cronenberg (A Dangerous Method). At this point, I’m not sure if either was submitted to Cannes. I know that Cronenberg’s film has been competed for months now, but from what I’ve heard it will likely premiere at the Venice festival, followed closely by TIFF, a one-two punch that’s become the favoured launch strategy for fall releases with Oscar ambitions.

Cannes runs from May 11 to 22. Robert De Niro will head main jury. For the complete program announced today go to: Cannes program .

The Commons: Home improvement

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 6:15 PM - 42 Comments

The morning after the night before, Michael Ignatieff went for a stroll down the adhesives aisle of a Rona in suburban Gatineau. A Liberal candidate stood on each side of him. A semi-circle of photographers and cameramen shuffled backwards in front of him as he went.

Turning the corner he happened upon a shower door that caught his interest. Opening the door, he stepped behind the glass and looked out at the cameramen who clicked away happily. Further on he spotted a tub and signalled for his wife to come have a look. After some consideration, both appeared to be impressed with the bath’s craftsmanship and design.

He continued on between the giant shelves of this high-ceilinged retailer. Turning another corner he came upon an assortment of French doors where, coincidentally enough, someone had set up a podium to which was affixed a red Liberal sign. A row of television cameras had been set up in anticipation of his arrival. Continue…

Bossypants

By John Intini - Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 5:56 PM - 1 Comment

The closest fans ever came to getting inside Jerry Seinfeld’s head was in his 1993 book Seinlanguage, which, at 192 pages, was full of pithy everyday observations (most of which appeared in one form or another on his show) but was terribly thin on anything biographical. Tina Fey, thankfully, takes a different approach in her much-anticipated memoir. In the self-deprecating style that has made her famous, the brain behind 30 Rock pretty much starts at the beginning: she writes about developing breasts when she was nine (“so weird and high, it’s possible they were above my collarbone”) and getting her first period at 10 (“I knew from commercials that one’s menstrual period was a blue liquid that you poured like laundry detergent onto maxi-pads to test their absorbency. This wasn’t blue, so I ignored it for a few hours.”).

But this isn’t just about Fey’s awkward youth. In addressing sexism in comedy, Fey strikes back at the critics, namely Christopher Hitchens and Jerry Lewis, who claim women aren’t funny. “It is an impressively arrogant move to conclude that because you don’t like something, it is empirically not good. I don’t like Chinese food, but I don’t write articles trying to prove it doesn’t exist.”

Fey, whose killer impersonation of Sarah Palin some claim altered the 2008 election, also details her rise through the comedy ranks, from Chicago’s Second City to head writer at Saturday Night Live, and, finally, to creator and star of 30 Rock. Fans will enjoy the many peeks behind the curtain, especially during the six weeks she spent channelling the Republican VP candidate on SNL.

The book has all kinds of laugh-out-loud moments, but the effortlessness of Fey’s writing is what’s most impressive. It reads like a series of funny letters from a close friend. The friend just happens to be an Emmy Award-winning comedian.

The documents detained

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 5:38 PM - 37 Comments

A few weeks after some degree of confusion on this matter was noted, the two judges reviewing documents related to the detention and transfer of detainees in Afghanistan to determine how information will be publicly disclosed have apparently decided that nothing can be released until Parliament reconvenes. The judges wrote to the Conservative, Liberal and Bloc leaders today to explain their current dilemma and that letter can be viewed here.

Mr. Ignatieff’s office has issued a statement calling on the judges’ report to be released and seeking, if necessary, an amendment to the memorandum of understanding to allow for public disclosure as soon as possible. The Conservatives have followed with a statement from Laurie Hawn, the Conservative representative on the committee, encouraging disclosure.

Full statements after the jump.

Continue…

FBI carries out cyber sting

By macleans.ca - Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 4:39 PM - 1 Comment

The FBI has zeroed in on some 2.3 million computers that made up a ‘botnet’—a network of infected or ‘zombie’ computers. Using never-before-used methods, investigators took control of the network to shut down malware—malicious software—logged IP addresses of compromised PCs, and then reported those addresses to Internet service providers (ISPs). That means that if your PC was used by this network, your ISP has been made aware and should notify you. The botnet was infected with malware which can record keystrokes, allowing criminals to take over computers and steal passwords, banking, and credit card information. The U.S. Justice Department had to seek court permission to carry out this method, as privacy experts had questioned its legality.

BBC News

ABC Cancels Soap Operas, Hates Us All

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 4:08 PM - 12 Comments

Okay, the news that ABC is canceling One Life To Live and All My Children is not a stunning surprise. It’s been a nearly-confirmed rumour for a few weeks. But look what they’re replacing them with:

ABC will debut two new daytime programs this fall and winter: “The Chew,” a program about food news and trends, and “The Revolution,” about health and lifestyle transformations.

That’s just cold. (And as others have pointed out, why do networks think that every lifestyle show in the daytime has to start with “The?” These are not Seinfeld episodes.) Removing two soap operas, among the most immersive and personally involving forms of broadcasting, and replacing them with the type of show that represents disposable, “watch when you’re home, forget it when you’re not” television. If they were bringing back game shows, I’d be jumping for joy, but this… well, there’s a place for this kind of show too, but it’s not all that exciting.

There will now be only four daytime soaps left on TV, and I wouldn’t bet on any of them lasting very long. The soap opera form couldn’t survive for reasons that have already been discussed: the decreasing number of housewives, the popularity of reality shows which are cheaper to make, the failure of Soapnet to catch on as a way of transferring the form to cable. But as I’ve also said many times, soaps have historically been in the forefront of TV, taking on issues that prime-time doesn’t get around to for years if not decades. And they do have a power to pull you in that a show can’t match with only 13 episodes a year (or even 22). So it’ll be a shame to see it go from North America, at least in English — telenovelas and téléromans seem to be a bit more robust.

Budget bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives

By macleans.ca - Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 3:55 PM - 0 Comments

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation to maintain government funding and avert a shutdown. But though the legislation was based on a deal worked out between President Obama and the Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, Boehner was not able to round up enough members of his own party to pass the bill. Fifty-nine members of his caucus voted against the bill, and it passed only with the help of the 81 Democrats who voted for it. Boehner had come under heavy criticism from conservative publications like National Review, which claimed that the budget deal used accounting tricks to make it look like it had more drastic spending cuts than it actually did, and urged Republican Congressmen to vote against it. The bill is expected to pass the Senate, but the Republican defections may force Boehner to take an even harder line in future negotiations with Obama.

Talking Points Memo

Donald Trump "frightened" by Obama's popularity among African-Americans

By macleans.ca - Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 3:52 PM - 13 Comments

Reality show host and Presidential candidate Donald Trump appeared on a radio show today and was asked about the overwhelming support of African-Americans for President Obama. Trump called it “frightening” that Obama is so popular with these voters, but not before explaining that his opinion counts because “I have a great relationship with the blacks.” Trump doesn’t usually talk about racial matters, being concerned with proving that Obama isn’t really a citizen; Joseph Farah, whose World Net Daily is the leading organ of so-called “birtherism,” told Politico that he and Trump have “been speaking quite a bit” and praised Trump for bringing the issue of Obama’s birth certificate into the mainstream.

Politico

Muguette Paille's vote

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 3:33 PM - 61 Comments

One of the average voters called on last night to ask a question of the leaders offers her verdict.

She later said she was pleased with the response she saw from NDP leader Jack Layton and Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, but gave a thumbs-down to Conservative leader Stephen Harper, concluding that he had not addressed her concerns. ”I didn’t like him (Harper) at all,” Paille told a Montreal daily, le Journal de Montreal, after the debate. “But I liked Mr. Layton and Mr. Ignatieff, who answered well.”

She also noted that Ignatieff was able to identify with her situation when he spoke about offering support to help her take care of her parents. ”Mr. Ignatieff was very realistic in his answer,” Paille said. “He spoke about my own reality. When he spoke about my parents, I was wondering whether he had looked into my background. My parents are healthy. They are 84 and 86 years old. It’s true that I worry about them.”

Conservative staffer sought ethnic people in costume for photo-op

By macleans.ca - Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 2:28 PM - 49 Comments

A campaign staffer for a Conservative MP in Etobicoke Centre sent out an email seeking people in “national folklore costume” to appear for a photo-op during a campaign stop by Stephen Harper on Thursday. The email, written by campaign staffer Zeljko Zidaric, asked for representation from the Canadian Arab Federation at a rally for Tory MP Ted Opitz. “Do you have any cultural groups that would like to participate by having someone at the event in an ethnic costume?” the email read, and went on to say that 20 people in “national folklore costumes” were being sought for a photo-op. Canadian Arab Federation president Khaled Mouamar compared the photo-op to “a Halloween Party” and called out the Conservative party for cutting more than $1-million in funding to the Federation. “So suddenly now we exist as props for a photo op?” Opitz denied knowing about the email, saying did not “support its characterization or intent.”

CBC News

Jack Layton knows where he stands, even when he's sitting

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 2:11 PM - 16 Comments

A new advert from the New Democrats.

A companion piece is here.

The Bull Meter: Michael Ignatieff on youth unemployment

By Erica Alini - Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 2:06 PM - 23 Comments

"Young Canadians face other challenges – including the worst level of joblessness in a generation"

- Michael Ignatieff
April 11, 2011

Michael Ignatieff is exaggerating here. The unemployment rate among 15 to 24 year-olds has been hovering around 14.4 per cent for the first three months of this year. It’s by no means a rosy picture, but the figure is significantly down from where it stood at the peak of the recession in 2009: an annualized rate of 15.2 per cent. Even that, though, was not extraordinarily bad by historical standards: youth unemployment hit 16.3 per cent in 1997, and reached an annualized rate of 17.2 per cent during the early 1990s economic crisis. Joblessness among the young was also considerably worse during the economic downturn of the early 1980s, when it hit 19.2 per cent in 1983.

Heard something that doesn’t sound quite right? Send quotes from the campaign trail to macbullmeter@gmail.com and we’ll tell you just how much bull they contain.

Sources:

Statistics Canada: The Daily, Feb. 4, 2011

Statistics Canada: The Daily, Mar. 11, 2011

Statistics Canada: Labour Force Survey (March 2011)

Foreign aid accountability: Poland vs. Canada

By Michael Petrou - Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 12:59 PM - 18 Comments

Researching this story on Polish support for the democratic opposition in Belarus, I called up a contact at the Polish embassy in Ottawa. Within a couple of hours, he sent me personal cell phone numbers for the relevant deputy ministers working on the file. The Polish ambassador invited me to come by for a chat. Did I want to interview Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski? No problem.

You might find this unremarkable. Surely most ministries want to publicize the work they do. You would be wrong — at least if we’re talking about Canada and its current government. In the past five years, I’ve spoken on the record with precisely one person at Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs who wasn’t a spokesperson reciting usually banal and evasive talking points that someone else had written.

As it happens, Canada also says it is supporting democracy in Belarus. It pledged $400,000 to the cause in February. Of this, $100,000 was pegged to support Belsat, a Belarusian language television station based in Warsaw and broadcasting into Belarus. I contacted Belsat in March and was told they hadn’t received the money. Continue…

Terra NovaFreude

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 12:58 PM - 1 Comment

Here’s latest entry in a beloved genre, a look at a show that hasn’t aired (or even quite finished its first episodes) yet, but is clearly running into some trouble. This is Fox’s huge-budget “Terra Nova,” the story of a family from the future going back to prehistoric times and forward again in order to save the world; yes, it’s the biggest and expensive-est of the many attempts to create a new Lost. The production delays on the show, as detailed in this story, stem from two things, though the two are actually related: they went through untold numbers of writers and producers, and the shooting of what was supposed to be a two-hour launch didn’t produce two hours (meaning 80 minutes in TV terms) of usable material.

I was glad to see some pushback, in the piece, against the attempt to blame the pilot director, Alex Graves, for the problems; as one insider notes, these things start with the producer and the script, and they started shooting without really having worked out the bugs in the script.

I’ll avoid harping too much on this issue, for two reasons:

a) I burned myself out on wondering “is [name of Fox project] in trouble?” when Dollhouse was in pre-production, and even with that show, the problems really were much more fundamental than the ultimately minor stuff that was being hashed out in the press. (Yes, they substituted a new episode for the original pilot, and so on, but the premise and the lead actress were the big problems from beginning to end.) If Terra Nova fails, it probably won’t have much to do with the cost overruns or the weather in Australia.

b) Terra Nova might wind up being a hit, and then everything I or anyone else might say about it will look silly in retrospect – not that that would stop me. But it is lucky in the sense that it will come along when all the other Lost clones are gone and forgotten, and having a more interesting premise than those other shows (most of which spent too much time in dull cities as opposed to Lost‘s lush island), it has a shot.

The lack of any particular creative voice on the show, a major warning sign as well as something that might actually contribute to failure (if it fails, I mean) does seem to be part of an overall trend away from God-like creators. Terra Nova is described as a “feature idea,” and it’s being put together like a feature: the idea is developed and assigned to many different writers, as many as are needed to pull it together. It’s a network project, or a studio project, not really any one creator’s project. AMC has more shows like this (starting with Rubicon, a show where the original creator was expendable) and HBO’s Game of Thrones is a pre-sold idea where we’re not hearing much about the creator/writers of the series itself, as opposed to the creator of the books. These are projects where the network is the auteur, as opposed to your Sopranos or Mad Men or type shows where the creator of the show is the star.

And yes, I know, this show does sound a lot like a remake of this one. But this one came in under budget.

How bout now?

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 12:47 PM - 29 Comments

After this and this comes this new attempt to pin Canadians down on what they will and will not accept from their Parliament.

The party with the most seats forms the government and seeks support from other parties on a case-by-case basis. Acceptable 72% Unacceptable 12%

The party with the most seats enters into a coalition with another party in order to form a government. Acceptable 57% Unacceptable 27%

Two or more parties, none of which have the most seats individually, enter into a coalition in order to form a majority government. Acceptable 48% Unacceptable 33%

Of course, none of those options appear on anyone’s ballot. And these options don’t fully cover the options available to the parties in Parliament.