I suffered an aftershock early in the evening when an elderly client quaked. Most impressively, she kept a straight face for the long, loud duration. I think she confused “set those puppies free” with “let it rip.” She would have made Benjamin Franklin proud.
That wasn’t Mike Duffy stepping down from the senate ?
I don’t like Rob Ford, but I do imagine it’d be easy for someone who wants to damage his reputation and/or make a buck to get someone who looks like Rob Ford to be in a video, smoking (or pretending to smoke) crack. So I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt for now.
I like the idea of checks and balances on the House of Commons, but this Senate doesn’t seem to be very effective.
Groan.
Jim was just reminding me of Adrienne Clarkson, the Governor General who was a former journalist who seemed to think that being Governor General was a blank cheque. What is it with the journalists getting assigned to these positions and acting so badly?
I turned on the TV last night and it happened to be on CTV with the National news. The guy anchoring (Scott Laurie looked positively gleeful to be taking over for Sandie Rinaldo last night, as the series of headlines seemed to just get juicier and juicier (or simply purely interesting), especially the segments on Wallin and Duffy.
I once had to call a supplier for an issue a client was having. I got put on hold. For three hours. I finally hung up when it was time for me to leave. I had the phone volume to minimum and kept working while listening to the same cheesy music and message over and over again the whole time. I didn’t manage to get through to them until my third attempt the next day.
I’m just glad the client wasn’t AOG.
No such luck. He resigned from the Tory caucus but is still at the Senate trough.
The sky over Calgary this afternoon.
Typical scene from a May long weekend. 
I hope you guys don’t mind being my picture guinea pigs. 
You’re fortunate. I’m stuck with cold rain this weekend – so much that a flood warning has been issued. I expect that it will take away the last of the snow from my yard.
And now Nigel Wright has resigned. I wonder if Harper will appoint him to the Senate?
If PMs could appoint themselves, Harper would.
Is this the Conservative Party of Canada’s song today? Also does anyone else think that the CBC is actually being kind of snide and showing a lot of schadenfreude with this story? I love the CBC and loathe the Harper Government so it doesn’t bother me at all, but maybe they might want to tone down the cackling glee just a bit.
I really don’t find this funny at all. We lost a very valuable and accomplished public servant in Nigel Wright who still has a lot more going for himself than a senate appointment could provide.
Win. 
The nice thing is that, under our constiituion, Harper cannot. Nor can he appoint himself Generalissimo-for-Life, Dictator-at-Large, or similar. Constitutionally, the fact that Stephen Harper, of Alberta, is the current PM; only means that he, or somebody else from any province, can be PM at some future time, after an election.
Seriously. Let’s realize that this Confederation, under its constitution (for all that we may consider it has faults), has endured for 146 years. Under all governments, Liberal and Conservative, it has endured. I would suggest that while we may not like what the current Government (and PM) is doing, the federation that we, and others internationally, know as “Canada” will somehow muddy along.
If you want change, make your wishes known through the ballot box at the next election. If you want change sooner, then lobby for a constitutional change. But I’d suggest that bitching, moaning, and complaining about Stephen Harper and his government on internet message boards won’t effect the change you want.
I have no doubt that if an election was called tomorrow, and Justin Trudeau was called to form a government, that we’d be having the same debate over “How do we form governments constitutionally?” and “Trudeau will form re-education camps so we follow the Liberal mantra.”
I think healthy political debate in this country is a good thing. But not when both points of view are swimming in ignorance. If we’re going to debate, let’s do it from informed points of view, rather than going off scare stories promulgated by Sun Media and the Toronto Star.
You mean Harper can’t appoint himself to the Senate? Well, I’m shocked . . . shocked.
While there’s nothing that I know of that forbids a former Prime Minister being appointed to the Senate by a standing Prime Minister, I don’t think it has ever been done in any country with a Westminster parliamentary system in place.
On a less controversial note, what’s everyone up to for Victoria Day? I’m practicing as much as I can, with a friend’s party coming up this afternoon that I can’t get out of. (I have two more recording sessions booked, and I’m trying to finish an album before allergy season hits, hence the desperate woodshedding.)
For Victoria Day I went for a morning wade in the back yard. We had a lot of rain last night (minor flooding in the region), so I wanted to see if it melted away the last of the snow. It did – Victoria Day 2013 was the last day of snow on the property.
I love the CBC and hate the government too, but gee, if the CBC is going to have that tone, maybe the government will hate them more, and want to control them more?
Dear me.
Muffin from what I am reading “minor flooding in the (Thunder Bay and surrounding) area” is an understatement. Of course your post was hours ago. Roads washed out, the highway around Hurkett closed, Arundel Street flooded, Fort William First Nation calling a state of emergency. It looks like you could go white water rafting in McVicars Creek.
Since my house was at the bottom of a hill, I am very glad my house is sold. I was lucky enough to escape flooding last year, I wouldn’t want to keep pushing my luck.
In happier news my child tax benfit was readjusted and my family has had a nice “stay-cation” this weekend. We have done a bunch of touristy things this weekend. We even bought a family membership to Science World and yesterday my son and I tandem biked around Stanley park. Every day so far has been cool and cloudy until late afternoon then ending up sunny and warm.