kimmy

Yeah, plus I think there was an intergovernmental conference that he attended, and I think he was at a big National Research Council funding announcement. So that's about once per term. Almost twice per term if you include times he tourstopped in Alberta for Landslide Annie campaign rallies! I only mentioned recent onces because it hurts Jack's feelings if anybody mentions Trudeau. -k

This is wrong. As recently as a few years ago Edmonton had two Liberal MPs. There's an NDP MP there now. Both Edmonton and Calgary have left-leaning mayors. People point to the dominance of the provincial Progressive Conservatives, but the provincial PCs in Alberta are about as "conservative" as the BC Liberals are "liberal". Alberta is not an ideological monolith. There are many urban seats that would be up for grabs fpr politically centrist candidates. It's not an issue of ideologiy, it's about branding. Maybe the Liberals should look at themselves in wondering why they're not that big of a hit in Alberta. A quick recap of the men they've offered as leaders: Jean Chretien: -was openly belligerent to Alberta and Albertans. -treated the province as "fly-over territory". The only time he was in Alberta was when his flights to Whistler crossed Alberta airspace. Michael Ignatieff has visited Alberta more times as Opposition Leader than Chretien did in the whole time he was PM. -was obsessed with the Quebec "national unity crisis" politics that just makes Albertans physically ill. -had ministers like Stephane Dion and Diane Marleau pick little mini-fights with their Albertan counterparts and with Ralph Klein just because it looked good for their supporters in other regions. -the Kyoto implementation plan, where western energy producers were going to pick up the tab while central Canadian manufacturing jobs were promised exemption. -basically decided that being a tough-guy in respect to Alberta was a vote-winner in other parts of the country. Paul Martin: -said all the right things, like "I won't consider my time as Prime Minister a success unless I'm able to address western alienation." -up until election time, that is, when he went around cautioning Maritime voters that Stephen Harper was a Calgarian and his advisors were Calgarians, and stood on a stage with Buzz Hargrove applauding while Hargrove accused the Conservatives of having "Albertan values, not Canadian values". Stephane Dion: -was a born loser, obviously, and every region of Canada felt that way. -was especially unelectable in Alberta because of his history with the Quebec "national unity crisis" politics that make Albertans physically ill. -his biggest accomplishment in life was stealing Preston Manning's ideas and calling it "the Clarity Act". -was one of Chretien's little minions. -"de Green Shit" was a platform that seemed almost deliberately designed to repel Liberal votes in Alberta. Michael Ignatieff, so far, has avoided any blunders in dealing with Alberta. He's visited. He's made pro-energy and pro-business comments that seem to have been generally well received. He's not linked with Chretien or "national unity crisis" politics or anything like that. So far so good. Still, I suspect many Albertans are just waiting for the moment when the Liberals decide yet again that throwing Alberta under the bus is a politically expedient move in other parts of the country. If they can go a whole election without disrespecting Albertans, it'll be a positive step that they can build on in the future. -k

Gee, WIP, I didn't have you figured as being an MMA watcher! Did any of you see last night's card? Chan Sung Jung, "The Korean Zombie", pulled off one of the most amazing submission holds I've ever seen in a match. Most referees are pretty educated about the ground game and don't stand up fighters when there's active work being done. Most standups I have seen have come when it's clear the guy on top is just maintaining his position and doing nothing to advance. I think that standing fights up more often in such situations would reduce the dominance of wrestlers. Last night's fight with Rumble Johnson and Dan Hardy was an example of a fight where more standups would have been a good thing, because Johnson was really doing very little other than holding Hardy down. I think a big reason that BJJ specialists are no longer as dominant as they once were is that everybody studies it now. In the early days other fighters had no idea how to defend themselves against these techniques or now to avoid getting caught in them. Now all the top fighters spend a lot of time learning how to avoid getting their joints twisted off. The element of surprise is gone. I think that's true of MMA in general. It's in danger of becoming a style of fighting, rather than a contest of different styles. One place where they crossed the line was giving Brock Lesnar a title shot he really hadn't earned. But for the most part I think they do a good job of finding a balance between giving the top fighters their shot and hyping fighters that fans want to see. They may use Bisping's popularity in England to sell tickets there, but he's never been in a title matchup because he hasn't earned one. Other fighters that sell tickets are used similarly. That said, Bisping has some very credible wins on his resume. His only losses have been against Henderson, Wanderlei, and Rashad Evans, and while the Henderson fight was a devastating KO, the other two of those fights were nailbitingly close decisions that could have gone the other way on the scorecards. He's not a contender, but he's very legit. He's also a real jerkwad. His conduct in and after the Jorge Rivera fight was disgraceful. I imagine he will get what's coming to him soon, as Chael Sonnen is interested in a match: :lol: -k

:lol: :lol: -k

(is this the part where C-R arrives to explain that advanced human cultures existed in North America while humans in the rest of the world were still somewhere between lemurs and sloths on the evolutionary ladder?) -k

Bingo -k

Nostradamus, silly. Reference to a famous Hedy Fry outburst. People don't get upset about burning crosses because they think there's a fire hazard. Likewise, I think it unlikely that the cops and the reeve are concerned about this because they're worried about the insurance or liquor licenses. -k

I had to. "N" predicted it. So, srsly: when people get upset about "burning crosses (in Prince George, as we speak!)" is it the fire hazard that has them upset? -k

Not since I burned his very very small effigy. -k

I'm sure you're used to it. -k

I came across this issue last year when I was burning effigies in the yard. The trick is, you just use small effigies. -k {or, burn full-sized effigies of very small people.}

I believe the Maritime provinces have similar agreements with the feds, although I'm not sure if those provinces receive a full 100% of the royalties from offshore oil. If anything it's surprising that Quebec didn't get a similar agreement sooner. Nonetheless, it's entirely reasonable, as I see no reason why offshore oil be treated differently from oil that's under dry land. I don't think that oil rights were what they had in mind when they made the oceans a federal jurisdiction. -k

So, long story short, the BQ is taking credit for Quebec having more political clout than Newfoundland? Always a treat to hear from William. Hi, William! Go eat your pine nuts. -k

Silly me. Maybe we should get the OPP here in BC. They probably kick less people in the face than the RCMP. Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly what the county reeve and the cops are referring to. Liability insurance and liquor licenses. -k

Why? -k

I am pretty much in the same boat, except that for me Harper has already reached the point where I'm willing to seriously consider alternatives. For me the spending is the issue. I want somebody to convince me that they're willing to take good care of public money. I'm not convinced that Harper is the best guy anymore. I'm more than willing to listen to Michael Ignatieff and see what he has to say. There's some things that he could do to lose my interest between now and the election, but at the moment I'm all ears, and I am hoping he can articulate a plan that makes more sense to me than what the Conservatives have been doing for the past year. -k

Really?! Can you elaborate on that? (I'm betting you can't. You've done an admirable job of proving that you don't have a clue what is going on here.) -k

Any article where you can use language like "White supremacist" or "Nazi" or "Ku Klux Klan" is going to get some attention. County Reeve Barb Reid seems very interested in the story. I'd be interested to know if QMI went to her asking for a statement about an event she wasn't aware of, or if it was something she had already decided was a concern before they spoke to her. If this is a private event on private property (is it?) then I can't see what business it is of the county reeve, and I'm curious as to the justification for talking to the RCMP about the event. I'm curious as to what reason the RCMP has for having the event "under investigation". -k

Why would that even matter? I can imagine that there are some jobs where having a criminal record might disqualify you, but why would working as a political advisor be among them? It sounds more like work-experience to me. -k

I think the judges are generally too eager to reward a guy for having top-control even if he doesn't actually accomplish anything. It can be a problem. Then again, I think some of the MMA judges are gigantic idiots regardless. How could anybody have thought Leonard Garcia beat Nam Phan, for example? Judging in MMA can be pretty debatable, to say the least. I'm surprised that you guys are picking GSP over Anderson Silva. I'm as big a GSP fan as anybody, and I'd love it if he did win, but that would be the most epic achievement in fighting since Hercules defeated the Lernean Hydra. I definitely agree that Georges could get Silva off his feet, because GSP's takedowns are almost unstoppable and Anderson's takedown defense is terrible. But what's he going to do with him once he's on the ground? Being on top of Anderson Silva is as dangerous as standing right in front of him. He has lethal ground skills, and he has a HUGE size advantage over GSP. Georges probably doesn't get to more than 185 pounds at any time between fights. Anderson cuts a HUGE amount of weight to make weight at 185. Anderson had to cut weight when he fought at 205! Between fights, he gets up to 215 to 220 pounds. Even if GSP bulks up to fight Silva, Anderson could have as much as a 20 pound weight advantage on fight night! I can't imagine Georges being able to do much with him if he did get him on his back. He'd probably end up in Silva's patented body-triangle and slowly get worn out and finally submitted. I would love to see GSP beat Silva, though. It would cement him as a legend. -k

It's not a crime to be a convicted criminal. It's not a crime to hire a convicted criminal, either. It's not a crime for an executive to take a commission of the gross proceeds of a transaction, or for a private company to disburse the proceeds of a sale as they see fit. That's the entirety of the allegations against Bruce Carson: he may have breached lobbying rules by meeting with DIA employees before the "cooling off period" had expired. The rest of it-- the escort, the 1980s-- is irrelevant. What does it matter that he's a convicted felon? We can't keep people in jail forever, and we often don't put them in jail at all when they're convicted. Are people who've been convicted of crimes supposed to become pariahs that should not be hired afterward? I thought lefties were big on rehabilitation and forgiveness. There is no jail time for breaking lobbying rules, so you're out of luck on that front. By the way, the rule Carson is accused of breaking-- working as a lobbyist within 5 years of leaving the government-- is a rule that the Conservatives introduced in 2006. Before the Conservatives were in office, what Bruce Carson is accused of wouldn't have been against the rules. -k

Good work, Michael! This seems like almost a re-run of a thread that me and Da Shwa had a while back about "Employment Equity/Affirmative Action" where the numbers, at first glance, seemed to support the impression that there was a colour barrier, but after a little digging the picture became a lot cloudier and the existence of a "colour barrier" became pretty dubious. Someone crunches a few numbers and observes: Gee, visible minorities aren't doing as well as whitey... and invites the assumption that there's a "colour barrier", that it's racism that's holding visible minorities back. There seem to be some people that *want* to believe it's true. But then you look at the numbers and observe that Canadian-born visible minorities and those who have been here for long periods of time are doing just as well (or even better!) than whitey. Which refutes the premise that it's "colour" that's holding people back and invites us to look at other reasons why recently-arrived visible minorities aren't doing as well as visible minorities who have been here longer. Some possibilities include: -language barrier -lack of employable skills -difficulty in evaluating or verifying foreign credentials and work experience -culture shock But none of that is as juicy a headline as "colour barrier". -k

ORLY? Why don't you articulate the substance of the case, as you understand it? And for bonus points, explain what you think has happened that could lead to jail time. -k

So, I haven't got to the part of the book that explains how the Ignatieffs went from English millionaires in the early 1920s to broke-ass Canadians in the late 1920s. Any predictions? Anybody want to ruin the surprise for me? Calling somebody an American isn't really an insult as far as most people likely to vote Conservative are concerned. A lot of people who might be considering voting Liberal, on the other hand, seem to think Americans are Terrible People. Who knows, it might scare some votes in Action Jack's direction. Personally, I find this sort of politicking unappealing. But, if he does want to wrap himself in the flag, then it's fair for his opponents to point out that he's compared that flag to a beer label in the past, if they can prove he did so. Wait, what? Which party just released an ad called "My Family" explaining how his family's history makes him sensitive to immigrants and working class Canadians and so-on? Why is it that a few days ago the Liberal crowd here at the forum wanted to talk about Ignatieff's terrific family background but now it's "we should stick to the issues, harumph!" -k

I assume we can take Michael Ignatieff's word for it? "It would have been natural for the family to have remained in Paris. It was the capital of the Russian emigre community. The headquarters of the Russian Red CCross in exile, of which Paul was president, had been established there. French was Paul's second language. Yet he was determined to get to England. He knew that a Liverpool broker owed him money for a transation involving cotton deliveries to Paul's factories near Moscow. If he could find the broker and get him to honour the debt, the family's destitution could be remedied." -Michael Ignatieff, The Russian Album (chapter 8, Savage Lands Afar.) "They were penniless when they arrived in England, but there was the matter of the Liverpool cotton broker who owed him something like 25,000 pounds for Egyptian cotton for which Paul had paid for but which the war had prevented from being delivered to his factories. The money Paul had paid for the cotton had been deposited in an English bank. A month or so after their arrival, Paul saw a notice in The Times to the effect that Count Ignatieff should get in touch with the Midland Bank, where he would find information to his benefit. Paul had no papers, no proof of his identity, but as luck would have it, he ran into his Moscow lawyer on his way into the bank and together they managed to prove that the money was his." -Michael Ignatieff, The Russian Album (chapter 8, Savage Lands Afar.) While it may be true that they left Russia with nothing, they weren't destitute for long. 25000 British pounds was an enormous sum of money at the time. 1 pound in 1920 is equal to 26.75 pounds in 2009, so shortly after they arrived in England, the Ignatieffs collected the equivalent of 668000 current-day pounds, or over 1 million present-day Canadian dollars. Not exactly "hardscrabble" by most peoples' standards. -k {Yeah, I bought the book. I'll read it, too.}