Newsmakers: Apr. 12-19, 2012

By Ken MacQueen - Monday, April 23, 2012 at 4:10 AM - 0 Comments

Joel Ryan/AP

Good eye, regular guy!

Somewhere in east Vancouver, the host of a recent garage sale weeps bitter tears. Two paintings he sold for a combined $100 were a tad undervalued. One is a watercolour by Group of Seven member Frederick Varley. The other appears to be an oil-on-plywood landscape by Tom Thomson. Kate Bellringer of Maynard’s Auctions told the Vancouver Sun the paintings were purchased on “impulse” by a “regular guy” who wants anonymity. Perhaps it was the barely discernible Thomson signature that caused him to haul both works to the auction house for appraisal. Smart move: Bellringer said expert consensus is the Thomson is authentic. The Varley has an estimated value of up to $6,000, while the Thomson may fetch as much as $250,000 at a May 16 auction.

The Flames’ blame game

Darryl Sutter has turned around the Los Angeles Kings since taking over coaching duties mid-season. His Kings have the Vancouver Canucks on the ropes in the first round of the NHL playoffs. Puck luck hasn’t been as kind to his brother Brent Sutter. The Calgary Flames announced last week that Brent has left as head coach by “mutual agreement” after the team missed the playoffs yet again. Darryl had kind words for his bro: “I think he’s a top coach in the National Hockey League and it may very well be that he’ll be coaching somewhere else soon, too.” Darryl speaks from experience. He, too, was punted from the flickering Flames in late 2010. He was GM there when Brent was hired in 2009.

Continue…

Mitchel Raphael on MPs scarf skills and the G8 star who wanted to walk everywhere

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 10:30 AM - 0 Comments

Hillary Clinton’s personal makeup shield
For the G8 foreign ministers’ conference, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stayed in the Karsh suite of the Fairmont Château Laurier, where famous Ottawa photographer Yousuf Karsh lived for 18 years with his wife, Estrellita Karsh. Famous Karsh photos in the apartment include ones of Pablo Picasso and George Bernard Shaw. The suite also has what Mrs. Karsh describes as “the sexy shower”—it’s lined with marble and has three tiers of water jets. CTV’s Tom Clark went to the Château to interview Clinton for his show Power Play. Before the interview, Clinton pulled out her makeup kit for a touch-up. Seamlessly her security detail moved in front of the cameras. When the freshening up was done they moved back into position. One G8 attendee, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, was very low maintenance, according to staff at the British High Commission who said his only demand was that he be able to walk everywhere. “He has lots of energy,” noted the staffer. While Miliband (who has been touted as a future leader of Britain’s Labour Party) was in the foyer of the House being interviewed by the CBC, a rare hush descended. People seemed star-struck by the politician—well, except for Industry Minister Tony Clement, who walked down the stairs loudly snapping his fingers, even doing it behind Miliband as he was being interviewed. “I am a snap-happy kind of guy,” he later joked when he realized what was going on.

MPs flaunt accessory chic
All parties were united in wearing blue to show their support for NDP Leader Jack Layton and his battle with prostate cancer. The men were given ties and the women scarves by Prostate Cancer Canada. Liberal MPs Martha Hall Findlay and Justin Trudeau traded. Trudeau made the scarf an ascot and wore it as the mandatory-tie-for-men in the House of Commons. “A tie is a tie is a tie,” he said. “I did the research.” Trudeau noted the ascot was also a way to remember his father Pierre Trudeau with “a bit of flamboyance.” The former PM died from prostate cancer and other medical complications. Other MPs also tried adding some panache to their blue made-in-Canada, 100 per cent Italian-silk accessories. NDP MP Megan Leslie tied hers around her neck, evoking airline stewardess chic, while Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose wrapped her scarf around her waist. All the parties paid tribute to Layton in their member’s statements before question period, an unusual departure. Normally, the statement made right before QP is by a Conservative trying to drag Michael Ignatieff through the mud. But this time Conservative MP Jim Abbott spoke about prostate cancer and said he told Layton he looked good in a blue tie. The NDP leader replied that his father (a Tory in Brian Mulroney’s cabinet) would have been proud. Prostate Cancer Canada president and CEO Steve Jones said the event was a milestone for his organization and that they could not have hoped for better awareness for the condition, one that he says one in six men will be diagnosed with in their lifetime. At a reception after QP, Layton, who has been on a health diet, joked he has never eaten more broccoli in his life. “No cheese,” his MP wife Olivia Chow reminded him. Chow herself was spotted grabbing greasy spring rolls. “I am eating them on Jack’s behalf,” she joked.

Why those reporters are  yelling at Michael Ignatieff
One CBC reporter has noted that Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff chooses to take the loudest questions during scrums, which is annoying, they say, for those journalists who tend not to yell. NDP Leader Jack Layton, the reporter added, is much better at spreading the wealth—or being smart and picking the people he prefers to answer.

Didn’t we used to be friends?

By Paul Wells - Friday, April 2, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 156 Comments

Sean Kilpatrick / CP

Nobody remembers the act that appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show after Elvis Presley. After the kid with the guitar, nothing else could leave much of an impression.

Similarly, whatever history records about Derek Burney, it will pay scant heed to the speech he gave at the big Liberal thinkers’ conference in Montreal over the weekend. Burney used to run the Prime Minister’s Office for Brian Mulroney. He was Canada’s ambassador to Washington from 1989 to 1993. He led Stephen Harper’s transition to power in 2006. But on Sunday he drew the short straw and spoke after a barnburning speech by Bob Fowler, the retired former ambassador who accused both Harper and the Liberals of selling out the country’s best diplomatic traditions. Coming after that broadside, Burney was all but ignored.

Too bad. Burney had useful things to say about Canada-U.S. relations. He devoted nearly half his remarks to the dangers of passivity and timidity, urging leaders not to “hestitate to lead,” calling for “confidence” over “reticence,” preferring a “vigorous, creative and active approach” over “risk-averse, correct stewardship” in a bilateral relationship that “should be stimulated and led by the prime minister.”

Continue…

And you all laughed

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 4:48 PM - 35 Comments

Jack Layton, Sept. 1, 2006. “A comprehensive peace process has to bring all the combatants to the table.”

New York Times, today. Afghanistan’s president declared Thursday that reaching out to the Taliban’s leaders should be a centerpiece of efforts to end the eight-year-old war there, setting in motion a delicate diplomatic process that will carry great risks for both Afghanistan and the United States.

Ahem. Continue…

BTC: This matters

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 12:26 PM - 0 Comments

Don’t see this paragraph in Tom Flanagan’s referencing of the Punic Wars today. Maybe the copy desk cut it for the sake of sensationalism. In fairness then, we’ll print it here. (Officially, it’s from Hilary Clinton’s speech on Tuesday night.)

“Tonight I ask you to remember what a presidential election is really about. When the polls have closed and the ads are finally off the air, it comes down to you, the American people, and your lives and your children’s futures.”

Those are, obviously, a profoundly earnest couple of sentences. But that doesn’t make the sentiment contained therein any less true. And that Mrs. Clinton would have to make a point of reminding everyone of that says much in itself.