Iggy Pops

If I didn't know better, I would think Bob Rae has read my blog and saw the light. What other reason could he have for backing out of the leadership race. No doubt promises were made and favors owed, but that is the nature of politics.

Now, Ignatieff will become the next leader of the Liberal Party. He should have been the leader last time around, but in a surprising turnaround at the last convention, Dion outpaced Iggy and the other candidates. Could it be that Dion is from Quebec? The Liberals do have a habit of altnerating between French-Canadian and English-Canadian leaders. Unfortunately, they also have a habit of choosing the wrong man like John Turner, Paul Martin, and now Stephan Dion. Only time will tell if Iggy will have the chutzpa to lead the Grits to victory, or become another lame duck.

Mike

A Confederacy of Dunces and What About Bob?

That's how I'm thinking of this coalition between the Liberals, New Democrats, and Bloc, a Confederacy of Dunces.

Wednesday will show if the Grits have the Grit to realize the mistake they've made. Dion claims he will step down as party leader as early as Wednesday. Noble hero, or puppy with tail between his legs, only history will tell. Either way good riddance to bad rubbish. In the wings is Michael Ignatieff, chosen by the party mucky-mucks to take over the reigns until the party holds a convention to vote him in officially. The question is will he back out of the coalition. As a new party leader he can rescue the Liberals with honor, or such honor as a politician might have.

Yes, I can hear the national anthem playing in the background, the maple leaf waving in glorious splendor as---screeeeeccch! (record scratching sound)

What About Bob?

Bob Rae was one time leader of the Ontario Provincial New Democratic Party who in his tenure as Premier in the early 90's nearly destroyed the province. Some still remember Rae Days, government imposed unpaid days off for all civil servants. To this day the party is still trying to recover from the damage he'd done.

But since then he's written books, dipped his toes in whatever social concern made him look good so that history is remembering him as a noble hero. And, as is well-known in almost any political arena in the world, constituent memories are short. No one remembers the lying cheating Peterson Liberals, of which a certain Dalton McGuinty was a member, and yet here he is serving a second term as a mediocre Premier. And no one seems to remember Bob Rae, who has reinvented himself as a contender for the Federal Liberal Crown and my-freakin-God Prime Minister of Canada!

But old Bob is still a socialist at heart, and a closed door caucus deciding the next Liberal leader does not sit well with his political aspirations. Leadership should be decided by the liberal rank and file who rarely have a say in such affairs. The same political soldiers who, given the chance, just might vote for him instead of an elitist like Ignatieff. To that end, he is beginning his own campaign, and leadership might not be so cut and dried.

In a time when the Liberals need to show solidarity, they are proving to be less than stable. And these are the guys who want to lead a coalition?

Meanwhile, trying to wring the blood from his hands is Jack Layton, who rifled a letter off to the the Liberals 'reminding' them of agreements put into place for the coalition. In other words, the man can read a newspaper. Polls suggest either Ingatieff or Rae will easily defeat Harper in a real election. Why bother with an unpopular coalition? And what would it hurt to leave Jack hanging in the wind?

And the Bloc? Still laughing at all of us.

Mike

Ad Astra 2009

Received and accepted an invitation to return as a panelist to Ad Astra, Toronto's Science Fiction/Comic convention. It's always nice to be wanted :)

Mike

Christmas Comes Early and Politcal Grinches

First the good news. My story, "From the Files of the E.F.P.D." has been accepted by editors of a future anthology retelling old fairy tales. Needless to say, this makes me very happy.

Now, for the bad news. I'm going to rant about politics again, namely the suck-hole whiners calling themselves leaders of the Canadian political parties.

Not two months ago Canada had gone to the polls and cast their votes, and as I predicted, that Liberal weeny, Stephan Dion got his butt handed to him on silver platter. So, he's on his way out, again as I predicted.

BUT WAIT!!!!

He and that other sore loser Jack Layton have got one more trick up their sleeve. They want to form a coalition government with the Bloc Quebecois forming Canada's very own Axis of Evil. To top it off, Dion has positioned himself to lead these menaces to democracy.

I mean, my God, the Bloc is dedicated to breaking up this nation. Politics does make strange bedfellows, but are Dion and Layton so pathetic, so power hungry, so caught up in the Grand Game they don't realize they've become political whores?

The Bloc has to be laughing their heads off over this. THEY, a legitimate political party whose only goal is to break up Canada, yet are happy to take the lifetime pension the government offers public servants, have allied themselves with one of their sworn enemies, the Liberals. Now they just have to sit back and wait for the PC's to offer them a deal to swing the tide of power to their side, then wait again till Dion and Layton make a counteroffer. I have little doubt Layton is doing the exact thing, but he is too two-faced to trust in my opinion.

And all this during a major world economic crisis. So, typically Canadian.

This is what I hope will happen. I hope the PC's tell these fools to go stick it. I hope they force another election, and I HOPE every Liberal and NDP gets voted out of office. I hope both parties come to near extinction, and both Dion and Layton go down in history as the men who brought about their respective Party's destruction in the same way Brian Mulrooney is attributed to the demise of the old school Progressive Conservatives.

Why don't I hope the same for the Bloc? Because in all this, they are the only guys who are honest. They want one thing, are up front about their goals and will do what is needed to achieve them. If I trust anyone in this, it's the Bloc Quebecois.

By the way, did I mention my story "From the Files of the E.F.P.D." got accepted. More details on that one to follow as they come along.

Mike