How low will the Liberals stoop?

[Montgomery Burns]

The Liberals insulted Canadian parents by claiming that they will spend Harper's childcare cash on beer and popcorn; they whined about US ambassador Wilkins interfering in a Canadian election (but when Michael Moore did it in 2004, it was A-OK), and now they have stooped to a new low:

Which blood vessels would Susan Murray and John Duffy be popping if they'd discovered a Conservative moron comparing an Asian-Canadian candidate to a dog?

Fortunately it wasn't a Conservative at all. And until just now I didn't think the guy in question was a moron. It was Mike Klander, a senior executive in the Liberal Party of Canada; Paul Martin's senior leadership organizer in Ontario; the muscle the Grits sent in to roll over Sheila Copps in Hamilton in '04; and riding-association president to Tony Ianno, who's running against Olivia Chow, whom Klander smears here.

Klander immediately killed his entire blog, but the cache survives, as does the offending photo mosaic, screen-captured by an alert blogger (Damn those evil bloggers!--MB). And what fun the Klander blog is! Note the top-ranked Liberal's touching concern over which fashion accessories make candidates "look gay" and his paradoxical observations that Stephen Harper "creeps people out" and Jack Layton "is a weasel" and "is an asshole."

[...]

So now we get to find out whether anything is a firing offence to Paul Martin...

Well, we know that when a member of your party stomps on a George Bush doll with their boot, then stabs it in the eye like a psychotic meth addict on the state-run taxpayer-funded CBC, that is not a fireable offence...

As you have probably noticed, I loathe the socialist NDP and their attempts to lower Canada's standard of living. However I would never refer to Olivia Chow (Layton's wife) as a Chow Chow dog and post a pic comparing the two.

The pic is here and if you want to read what Klander wrote before he killed his blog, the cache is here.

This was not some "Joe Blow" who started up a blog, it is a senior executive in the Liberal Party.

[newbie]

This was not some "Joe Blow" who started up a blog, it is a senior executive in the Liberal Party.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I can't seem to find a reference to this person being a senior executive in the current Liberal party. Could you help me with a link or two?

[Biblio Bibuli]

The Liberals insulted Canadian parents by claiming that they will spend Harper's childcare cash on beer and popcorn; they whined about US ambassador Wilkins interfering in a Canadian election (but when Michael Moore did it in 2004, it was A-OK), and now they have stooped to a new low:

Which blood vessels would Susan Murray and John Duffy be popping if they'd discovered a Conservative moron comparing an Asian-Canadian candidate to a dog?

Fortunately it wasn't a Conservative at all. And until just now I didn't think the guy in question was a moron. It was Mike Klander, a senior executive in the Liberal Party of Canada; Paul Martin's senior leadership organizer in Ontario; the muscle the Grits sent in to roll over Sheila Copps in Hamilton in '04; and riding-association president to Tony Ianno, who's running against Olivia Chow, whom Klander smears here.

Klander immediately killed his entire blog, but the cache survives, as does the offending photo mosaic, screen-captured by an alert blogger (Damn those evil bloggers!--MB). And what fun the Klander blog is! Note the top-ranked Liberal's touching concern over which fashion accessories make candidates "look gay" and his paradoxical observations that Stephen Harper "creeps people out" and Jack Layton "is a weasel" and "is an asshole."

[...]

So now we get to find out whether anything is a firing offence to Paul Martin...

Well, we know that when a member of your party stomps on a George Bush doll with their boot, then stabs it in the eye like a psychotic meth addict on the state-run taxpayer-funded CBC, that is not a fireable offence...

As you have probably noticed, I loathe the socialist NDP and their attempts to lower Canada's standard of living. However I would never refer to Olivia Chow (Layton's wife) as a Chow Chow dog and post a pic comparing the two.

The pic is here and if you want to read what Klander wrote before he killed his blog, the cache is here.

This was not some "Joe Blow" who started up a blog, it is a senior executive in the Liberal Party.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Jesus Murphy, the Conservatives in the US have Ann Coulter & Mark Steyn. We get Mr. Serious & Offended ... Paul Wells.

I checked the site ... it was funny. Besides comparing Olivia to a Chow (rather childish as she doesn't resemble one & she knows it ... it's just a kid's name calling thing), he put up the quadruplets ... with their star Liberal candidate as one of the quads ... and that one is true!

The ones with the best sense of humor will win ... lighten up. Stephen Harper should NOT be a model of personality to follow for Torys.

[shoop]

Mike Klander is Executive Vice-President of the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario)

Here is a link for you ... as requested.

http://www.lpco.ca/en/?ID=1

I can't seem to find a reference to this person being a senior executive in the current Liberal party. Could you help me with a link or two?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Montgomery Burns]

This was not some "Joe Blow" who started up a blog, it is a senior executive in the Liberal Party.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I can't seem to find a reference to this person being a senior executive in the current Liberal party. Could you help me with a link or two?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sure. From the Liberal Party newsletter:

Acclaimed to their positions were: Executive Vice-President Mike Klander

Typing Mike Klander in Google's search engine works...

[Montgomery Burns]

The Liberals insulted Canadian parents by claiming that they will spend Harper's childcare cash on beer and popcorn; they whined about US ambassador Wilkins interfering in a Canadian election (but when Michael Moore did it in 2004, it was A-OK), and now they have stooped to a new low:

Which blood vessels would Susan Murray and John Duffy be popping if they'd discovered a Conservative moron comparing an Asian-Canadian candidate to a dog?

Fortunately it wasn't a Conservative at all. And until just now I didn't think the guy in question was a moron. It was Mike Klander, a senior executive in the Liberal Party of Canada; Paul Martin's senior leadership organizer in Ontario; the muscle the Grits sent in to roll over Sheila Copps in Hamilton in '04; and riding-association president to Tony Ianno, who's running against Olivia Chow, whom Klander smears here.

Klander immediately killed his entire blog, but the cache survives, as does the offending photo mosaic, screen-captured by an alert blogger (Damn those evil bloggers!--MB). And what fun the Klander blog is! Note the top-ranked Liberal's touching concern over which fashion accessories make candidates "look gay" and his paradoxical observations that Stephen Harper "creeps people out" and Jack Layton "is a weasel" and "is an asshole."

[...]

So now we get to find out whether anything is a firing offence to Paul Martin...

Well, we know that when a member of your party stomps on a George Bush doll with their boot, then stabs it in the eye like a psychotic meth addict on the state-run taxpayer-funded CBC, that is not a fireable offence...

As you have probably noticed, I loathe the socialist NDP and their attempts to lower Canada's standard of living. However I would never refer to Olivia Chow (Layton's wife) as a Chow Chow dog and post a pic comparing the two.

The pic is here and if you want to read what Klander wrote before he killed his blog, the cache is here.

This was not some "Joe Blow" who started up a blog, it is a senior executive in the Liberal Party.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Jesus Murphy, the Conservatives in the US have Ann Coulter & Mark Steyn. We get Mr. Serious & Offended ... Paul Wells.

I checked the site ... it was funny. Besides comparing Olivia to a Chow (rather childish as she doesn't resemble one & she knows it ... it's just a kid's name calling thing), he put up the quadruplets ... with their star Liberal candidate as one of the quads ... and that one is true!

The ones with the best sense of humor will win ... lighten up. Stephen Harper should NOT be a model of personality to follow for Torys.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'll admit that Ann Coulter is over-the-top sometimes (and also dead-on most of the time), but I like her because she is as vicious as the Democrats are, plus I know the mention of her name drives the left into a rage.

Please don't lump her with Mark Steyn, who can be a wise-ass sometimes, but is one of the best rightwing writers around. Even the left has difficulty finding dirt on him (a search of the George Soros-funded partisan Media Matters only brings up Steyn once). He can't be that bad, because the left rarely complains about him, like they always do about Coulter.

That being said, Coulter and Steyn are rightwing columnists. They are not members of Bush's administration. Mike Klander is a (senior) member of the Liberal Party.

Why do you think it is funny for a senior member of the Liberal Party to post a pic of a national leaders wife comparing her to a dog?

[Biblio Bibuli]

Why do you think it is funny for a senior member of the Liberal Party to post a pic of a national leaders wife comparing her to a dog?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

To be honest I think it was a bit insulting to the dog. But that's just one guy's opinion.

[Montgomery Burns]

More Klander Klass.

Second entry (May 20). Recognize that pic? The same pic that the Liberals are using in their ads to portray Harper and Duceppe as scheming to break up the country (they're actually at a Holocaust Memorial Service).

See Klander's caption for the pic? "Bed Buddies?" Underneath Klander writes, "Yes indeed, politics does make for strange bedfellows...but is there more to it? I would bet that his wife couldn't make his eyes roll back into his head like that."

More gay "jokes". Ha ha.

And on the link in my OP, you can see where he refers to Rahim Jaffer as "the ethnic Rahim Jaffer." Bigot.

But I'm not surprised. The left loves to tear apart gays. Who could ever forget them gleefully posting pics of Jeff Gannon (the nobody who worked for an online news service that no one had ever heard of in "The Scandal of the Year") all over the internet from back when he was a gay male escort?

And we all know what they think of "ethnics". They do everything they can to keep blacks down (more welfare is the solution!), and if you dare to leave the Democrat Plantation, you are subjected to having oreo cookies thrown at you, or being called an Uncle Tom, or an Aunt Jemima (and their cohorts in the MSM will do everything they can to cover it up).

And of course, the Dems filibustering the Civil Rights Act. And having a terrorist group (KKK) as an arm of their party. And even today, we see exactly what they think of those "ethnic" Iraqis.

[Canuck E Stan]

More about the blog inputs from

Mike Klander-

Executive Director of the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario)

Executive Vice-President of the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario)

and Paul Martin leadership organizer

Bigger than beer and popcorn? You bet. This should sink the Liberals

[Montgomery Burns]

Update: Mike Klander resigns

A high-ranking official within the Liberal Party of Canada has stepped down after he made disparaging comments on his blog about NDP Leader Jack Layton and his wife, NDP candidate Olivia Chow.

Mike Klander, executive vice-president of the federal Liberal party’s Ontario wing, resigned today after he compared Chow to a dog and called Layton an “asshole.”

The postings have been taken down.

Stephen Heckbert, a Liberal spokesman, says Klander’s blog was personal and did not reflect the Liberal party as a whole.

Heckbert says Klander has apologized to Chow.

Buh bye Mike. Go drown your sorrows in beer and popcorn.

[Canuck E Stan]

Liberal exec resigns after blog comment

Mike Klander, executive vice-president of the federal Liberal party's Ontario wing, resigned today after he compared Chow to a dog and called Layton an "asshole."

Heckbert says Klander was a volunteer and did not play an official role for the Liberals during this election campaign.

Executive Vice-President of the Federal Liberal(Ontario wing) was only a volunteer and did not play an official role for the Liberals during this election campaign. Huh?

[August1991]

I think this "scandal" is irrelevant. Many (if not most) voters do not use the Internet for information and for them, "blogs" (if they know the term at all) have a vaguely unsavoury allure. Not reliable.

The Liberal Party is impervious to this kind of story.

The Liberals are holding up in the polls, and they have not even gone on the attack against Harper yet.

In the last week or so of the campaign, the Liberals will run anti-Harper ads in Ontario and Montreal that will essentially say that "a vote for Harper is just too risky now" and "a vote for the Liberal Party is the only way to save Canada".

[betsy]

The Liberals insulted Canadian parents by claiming that they will spend Harper's childcare cash on beer and popcorn; they whined about US ambassador Wilkins interfering in a Canadian election (but when Michael Moore did it in 2004, it was A-OK), and now they have stooped to a new low:

Which blood vessels would Susan Murray and John Duffy be popping if they'd discovered a Conservative moron comparing an Asian-Canadian candidate to a dog?

Fortunately it wasn't a Conservative at all. And until just now I didn't think the guy in question was a moron. It was Mike Klander, a senior executive in the Liberal Party of Canada; Paul Martin's senior leadership organizer in Ontario; the muscle the Grits sent in to roll over Sheila Copps in Hamilton in '04; and riding-association president to Tony Ianno, who's running against Olivia Chow, whom Klander smears here.

Klander immediately killed his entire blog, but the cache survives, as does the offending photo mosaic, screen-captured by an alert blogger (Damn those evil bloggers!--MB). And what fun the Klander blog is! Note the top-ranked Liberal's touching concern over which fashion accessories make candidates "look gay" and his paradoxical observations that Stephen Harper "creeps people out" and Jack Layton "is a weasel" and "is an asshole."

[...]

So now we get to find out whether anything is a firing offence to Paul Martin...

Well, we know that when a member of your party stomps on a George Bush doll with their boot, then stabs it in the eye like a psychotic meth addict on the state-run taxpayer-funded CBC, that is not a fireable offence...

As you have probably noticed, I loathe the socialist NDP and their attempts to lower Canada's standard of living.  However I would never refer to Olivia Chow (Layton's wife) as a Chow Chow dog and post a pic comparing the two.

The pic is here and if you want to read what Klander wrote before he killed his blog, the cache is here.

This was not some "Joe Blow" who started up a blog, it is a senior executive in the Liberal Party.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh, that racist bigot!

[Argus]

Jesus Murphy, the Conservatives in the US have Ann Coulter & Mark Steyn. We get Mr. Serious & Offended ... Paul Wells.

I checked the site ... it was funny. Besides comparing Olivia to a Chow (rather childish as she doesn't resemble one & she knows it ... it's just a kid's name calling thing)

I agree completely. BUT... I think his point is well-taken. If a high level Conservative had done this it would be leading every major newscast, partly because those who are paid to be offended are almost all lefties and would be highly offended by the comparison of Chow to dogs (and why is he comparing them if she doesn't look like a dog... because of her funny ethnic name of course!, which is racist! Ha, ha! What a wierd, funny name Chow is! It's like a dog's name! Didn't you see that! Oh those chinese people and their wierd doggie names! Ha ha!)

Duh.

Yes, it was silly and childish, but can easily be spun as racially insensitive if not racist. Not to mention calling Layton an asshole and weasel. So if this guy had been a tory it would have been big news. But I'm betting I see and hear nothing about it except on out of the way websites like this.

[Cameron]

Well, the Liberals are great at covering things up arn't they...

[kimmy]

It's quite amusing, isn't it? The party that had Joe Volpe stampeding around branding people Klu Klux Klansmen over the "Librano$" joke, seems to have suddenly developed a sense of humor.

-k

[Montgomery Burns]

August1991:

I think this "scandal" is irrelevant.  Many (if not most) voters do not use the Internet for information and for them, "blogs" (if they know the term at all) have a vaguely unsavoury allure.  Not reliable.

For reliability, I would take a respected blog over the "mainstream" media any day. Indeed, this story came from a blog. Remember Rathergate? The blogosphere breaking the story of Air America stealing $875,000 from a Brooklyn charity for inner-city children? We would have never heard of the Swift Boat Veterans who came out against Kery if not for the blogosphere (and the Fox News Channel). The big blogs attract a large audience and have to worry about people factchecking their ass if they are posting unreliable information.

The Liberal Party is impervious to this kind of story.

Because the "mainstream" media will likely ignore it.

The Liberals are holding up in the polls, and they have not even gone on the attack against Harper yet.

Yes the Liberals have a 1 point lead nationally in the latest Ipsos-Reid poll and have a 2 point lead in Ontario. Source: National Post.

However, there are many undecided voters. It will come down to which side can motivate their base to come out and vote. As Michael Moore's hatemongering motivated the Republican base to come out and vote, "beer and popcorn" remarks, an executive VP of the Liberal Party comparing the wife of a national party leader to a dog, calling Layton an asshole and a weasel, mocking a quadrapalegic (sp?), saying that he wouldn't run for office because he'd have to be nice to "really stupid people"--might hurt that soft NDP support that the Liberals are counting on, and motivate the CP base to make sure they come out and vote.

As for the claim that the Liberals haven't gone on the attack against Harper, we must be watching a different campaign. Even the Ipsos-Reid president mentions this in the above NP article:

By comparison, Martin has run a low-key campaign releasing few new policy proposals and focusing instead on the Liberals' economic record, while also criticizing Harper and Duceppe.

[PocketRocket]

No question the man's comment's were in extremely bad taste, but the upside????

He's gone now!!!

[August1991]

August1991:

I think this "scandal" is irrelevant.  Many (if not most) voters do not use the Internet for information and for them, "blogs" (if they know the term at all) have a vaguely unsavoury allure.  Not reliable.

For reliability, I would take a respected blog over the "mainstream" media any day. Indeed, this story came from a blog. Remember Rathergate? The blogosphere breaking the story of Air America stealing $875,000 from a Brooklyn charity for inner-city children? We would have never heard of the Swift Boat Veterans who came out against Kery if not for the blogosphere (and the Fox News Channel). The big blogs attract a large audience and have to worry about people factchecking their ass if they are posting unreliable information.

The Liberal Party is impervious to this kind of story.

Because the "mainstream" media will likely ignore it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I believe this story first broke in a print-only article in The Toronto Star, some two or so weeks after the offending material was posted in the blog. Until then, no one had noticed it.

MB, you are welcome to take a respected blog over the mainstream media but you'll notice that Canadian blogs/forums depend almost entirely on media reports for their hard news. In any case, my point was different. Most Canadian voters don't know about blogs, and those who do, generally don't trust them.

We can debate Canadians, Americans and blogs if you want but I'm inclined to believe that good journalists don't work for free. Unless someone figures out a way to make money from blogs, they will be a passing fad that people in the future will remember with nostalgia. Let me correct that. People have been writing graffiti on walls for millenia.

The Liberals are holding up in the polls, and they have not even gone on the attack against Harper yet.

Yes the Liberals have a 1 point lead nationally in the latest Ipsos-Reid poll and have a 2 point lead in Ontario. Source: National Post.

However, there are many undecided voters. It will come down to which side can motivate their base to come out and vote. As Michael Moore's hatemongering motivated the Republican base to come out and vote, "beer and popcorn" remarks, an executive VP of the Liberal Party comparing the wife of a national party leader to a dog, calling Layton an asshole and a weasel, mocking a quadrapalegic (sp?), saying that he wouldn't run for office because he'd have to be nice to "really stupid people"--might hurt that soft NDP support that the Liberals are counting on, and motivate the CP base to make sure they come out and vote.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

MB, you are gravely mistaken to pick the polls you like (it is called data-mining) - and even the one you refer to shows a Liberal lead.

For me, the key polling fact is that the Tories, despite having run a good, tight campaign campaign, are unable to break consistently 30% (that is, go beyond the margin of error). Three out of ten Canadian voters appear ready to vote Conservative, but no more.

You can deny what the polls say, or invent stories about undecided voters, but as another poster once famously said here, denial is also a river in Egypt.

As for the claim that the Liberals haven't gone on the attack against Harper, we must be watching a different campaign.  Even the Ipsos-Reid president mentions this in the above NP article:

By comparison, Martin has run a low-key campaign releasing few new policy proposals and focusing instead on the Liberals' economic record, while also criticizing Harper and Duceppe.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The Liberals have not played the "scary" card yet; and they won't until the last few days of the campaign when it will be difficult for the Tories to respond, and when many voters (particularly in Ontario, and particularly female) will confirm their minds.

The Liberals need only say that the Liberal Party alone can protect Canada and that Harper is far too risky a chance now.

This is what the Liberals successfully did in 2004 and I see no reason not to repeat the move again. Harper's negatives are the highest of all leaders. That's the card the Liberals will play.

[Guest eureka]

Nice to see such good sense, August. Besides, to any from the Toronto area, they will know that Chow has been the butt of the "dog" jokes for many years.

Another tempest in a teapot.

[kimmy]

Of course it's of minor importance. As has been pointed out here, the story isn't the comment itself as much as the way the worm has turned, and the press handling of the story.

-k

[Argus]

Nice to see such good sense, August. Besides, to any from the Toronto area, they will know that Chow has been the butt of the "dog" jokes for many years.

Another tempest in a teapot.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Suuure, and if a high level Tory volunteer had put up pictures and jokes about guys who looked gay in cowboy hats, would that have been ignored and glossed over? I doubt it.

In fact, I can see the eager eyed reporters racing around the newsroom now, preparing for the major story about the high level Tory who was so insensitive to ethnic people he laughs and compares them to dogs becuase of their funny ethnic names, and mocks guys who look gay, and calls Layton crude names.

Then... suddenly, they learn the high profile volunteer is a Liberal.

Oh.

Never mind then.

They drift back to their desks with heavy sighs, wondering what else they can write about.

[shoop]

August,

This story is getting relatively big play from the centre-left of the Canadian MSM.

Links are on the main page of the Star, Globe and Mail, CTV and CBC web sites....

Sadly this story will mostly be lost in the holiday clutter, but when they are writing stories of where the Liberals went wrong in the campaign of 2005-06 this will be another brick in the wall.

Suuure, and if a high level Tory volunteer had put up pictures and jokes about guys who looked gay in cowboy hats, would that have been ignored and glossed over? I doubt it.

In fact, I can see the eager eyed reporters racing around the newsroom now, preparing for the major story about the high level Tory who was so insensitive to ethnic people he laughs and compares them to dogs becuase of their funny ethnic names, and mocks guys who look gay, and calls Layton crude names.

Then... suddenly, they learn the high profile volunteer is a Liberal.

Oh.

Never mind then.

They drift back to their desks with heavy sighs, wondering what else they can write about.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Biblio Bibuli]

Yes, it was silly and childish, but can easily be spun as racially insensitive if not racist.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Comparing Winston Churchill to an English Bulldog wasn't considered racist, calling Benedict XVI a German Shepherd isn't considered racist .... but compare a non-white individual to a dog and ... VOILA ... the race card comes up. Even though the Chow Chow is the cutest of the three & it is blatently obvious that she doesn't resemble the dog ( oops ... I guess it's racist to point out that Chinese don't sport red hair).

Why do we let people take over our minds like that?

[shoop]

There is a lot of other ignorant stuff on that blog.

Harper being flanked by the ethnic Rahim Jaffer at every opportunity

Why does the guy have to refer to Jaffer as an "ethnic"?

I just want to say that I think Jack Layton is an asshole... for no reason other than it makes me feel good to say it...and because he is.

What a professional way to refer to the leader of the NDP? Why exactly is Layton an a**hole? Only helped prop up the Liberal government for 18 months and not the *entire* time the Martinites wanted his help?

Appears the story is starting to be spun of another piece of evidence of the Liberals arrogance and culture of entitlement.

The only thing I agree with Klander`s blog is when he questions the likelihood of a Liberal breakthrough in B.C.

Comparing Winston Churchill to an English Bulldog wasn't considered racist, calling Benedict XVI a German Shepherd isn't considered racist .... but compare a non-white individual to a dog and ... VOILA ... the race card comes up. Even though the Chow Chow is the cutest of the three & it is blatently obvious that she doesn't resemble the dog ( oops ... I guess it's racist to point out that Chinese don't sport red hair).

Why do we let people take over our minds like that?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>