Blog Sugar

My humblest apologies to the legions (and by that I mean dozens) of people who have noticed I’ve been blogging Iggy-style these days. But fear not, my hiatus is coming to an end! I’ve got renewed energy, purpose, and commitment to excellence in blogging thanks to some seriously inspiring Young Lib caucuses.

As for my inaugural return, I’d like to do a few quick shout-outs to some kick-ass blog postings that remind of why I suck at blogging.

Froglady has done a ”Where’s Iggy” contest looking for best explanation as to his disappearance. Even though I’m not into candidate bashing, and I completely think that all the candidates are overworked and in serious danger of exhaustion, you’ve still got to admit that there’s some pretty good one-liners.

GK youth have a funny travel blog that chronicles the exploits of Atlantic caucus. Because of the theme of our hospitality suite, I again want to remind you all that Stéphane Dion does not endorse pirates or their renegade, vigilante justice ways. Nor does he endorse the ways of Turkish Crusaders, Pike.

CG has a brilliant online competition for Best Prime Minister We Never Had . Although there's one glaring oversight in the contest, I'm still going to participate. Maybe I'm blinded by my love for him, but I know that if we offered him the job of PM, Rick Springfield would CLEARLY move to Canada. I'm just saying. It's not like his music career is keeping him all that busy...

The ever-hilarious Kelly Nestruck stands up on behalf of all central and Atlantic Canada for their right to access Old Dutch Potato Chips. Looks like for once the East wants in.

And July 26th saw one of the best fuggings of all time. Although it’s hard to see the direct link between Kim Cattrall’s orange newsboy cap and the regular Fuddly-duddly diatribes, I think I’ve found a way to justify linking to this COMPLETELY self-indulgent internet addiction I have for GoFugYourself.com.

At FuddleDuddle we blog about Canadian politics >> Kim Cattrall is Canadian >> Kim Cattrall has probably voted in some Canadian election sometime >> Kim Cattrall is a part of the Canadian political system.

Voilà

Special K

I see my friend James Bowie has replaced Joe Volpe on his list of candidates with Jim Karygiannis. Although we will have to make sure to tell Albina Guarnieri to hide, that little tidbit of information has put a smile on my face when it definitely was in dire need of one.

Thanks Bowie

International Law

International law is like jaywalking, everybody violates it, it is only punished when police want to send a message, and it is always the innocent bystander who gets screwed.

My International Law prof said he gave me an A only because of that comment. He now uses the quote in his class.

I am writing my long-awaited opinion on why I am not a big Israel fan. My jewish friends tell me what I am about to say violates Israeli law...I better be careful, they are known to disobey international law...HAHAHA

Ken Dryden et Jimmy Jim Karygiannis : une équipe de l'enfer???

Du moins, au Scrabble... Ils ont chacun deux lettres qui valent 10 points... Le K et le Y. Il est clair que les deux font la paire. Ils disent : qui se ressemble, s'assemble. Qui connaissez-vous qui a deux lettres dans leur nom qui valent chacune 10 points au Scrabble ?

Comme ces deux lettres sont KY, gageons qu'il n'y aura pas de frictions entre les deux...

Alex

Lebanese Evacuation Fallout has Potential to Explode

Lebanese Evacuation Fallout has Potential to Explode

I was away for part of the week so I didn’t catch the fact that Garth Turner made the most discriminatory comment since January 23rd. This is absolutely abhorrent. He said some Lebanese permanent residents should pay their own repatriation because they aren’t fully Canadian. WHAT! I nearly fell off my chair. That would be the equivalent of making some snowbirds pay for their own evacuation in the event a major hurricane would hit Florida while they were there.

The beauty of Canadian citizenship is that it is an equal citizenship. With Turner’s comments and the misstatement of Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn, who said permanent residents with close family in Canada are eligible to be evacuated, these Tories are taking something very small and allowing it to come back and bite them. Both should resign.

Word coming in from Beirut keeps shedding light on how bad this is being handled. Firstly, it is being handled from Ottawa, and the embassy officials have to run everything by Ottawa. This is confirmed by a Lebanese evacuee who has returned home to Montreal. My friend Tarek Assaf is still in Lebanon and is still furious that Harper takes less than 1% of Canadians in Lebanon on his private jet and claims success. The photo op was a success. Lebanese Canadians are furious.

Then there was the ferry ride from Beirut to Lonika. While every other country had covered boats that took 5 to 6 hours to cross the Mediterranean to Cyprus, the Canadan-rented ship took 15 hours to cross without covering its passengers leaving all passengers outside in the glaring heat. Furthermore, there were no medical supplies or water on board. My nonna tells me that reminds her of crossing the Atlantic in the 1961. However, SUCCESS is still the buzz word among Tories.

The story only keeps getting more “successful.” 90%+ of the evacuees are still in Lebanon.

Harper Survives First Crisis with Battle Scars

Now that over 1000 Canadians have managed to get out of Lebanon, the Conservative government is claiming complete success.

Let’s Recap:
Closing the embassy to Canadians and keeping them in the dark for 6 days is success…

Evacuating Canadians only from Beirut, forcing some to travel on highways that are being bombed by Israel is a success…

Standing side by side with George W. Bush saying Israel is justified to blow up Canadian civilians then flying to Cyprus for a photo op is a success…

Evacuating permanent residents only if they have close family in Canada, turning other permanent residents away at the Port of Beirut is a success…

In the meantime, thousands of other Canadians are still trapped in Lebanon. If that is success, I can hardly wait to see them fail.

Bob’s Wood Problem

Bob’s Wood Problem

I ran Bob Rae’s proposed idea of holding an election on the softwood deal by my mother…once again, it is worth reprinting

Me: Ma, would you accept the Liberals overthrowing the government on the bad softwood lumber deal?
Rosie: The only “soft wood” there is right now is the Liberal Party. They have no leader.
Me: (slightly perturbed my mother used the word wood in a non-kosher way) Ma, we are electing a leader in December.
Rosie: So until then don’t talk about elections. Who is the guy who came up with this?
Me: Bob Rae.
Rosie: Who?
Me: the former Premier of Ontario
Rosie: I thought that guy’s name was Peterson.
Me: No Ma, the NDP Premier of Ontario.
Rosie: Ah. Once a complainer, always a complainer, didn’t you say that?
Me: Ma we have to choose the best leader. We have to support whoever wins.
Rosie: Well Anthony, then tell someone to go hit him over the head with a piece of softwood before he throws the Liberal Party off a cliff.

Cassé

Dion Gender-Equality Plan is Political Bull-Shit

I call BULLSHIT on Stephane Dion’s gender equality plan. Am I against women? Of course not. I would love to see 154 women candidates or more on our next electoral slate. However, I strongly believe that democracy should prevail over affirmative action.

Last election, Quebec lost three fantastic women MPs who were doing a great job and were very active in the Liberal caucus: Eleni Bakopanos, Liza Frulla, and Francoise Boivin. I worked on Eleni’s campaign and I will fight extremely hard for her if she is challenged in her nomination meeting because I believe she is the best person suited to represent the constituents of Ahuntsic. She loved what she was doing and was so darn good at doing it. Having Maria Mourani there is simply a waste.

Why do I defend Eleni? Certainly not because of what she has between her legs. I defend her because I believe in her. I also believe we can find more women like her to run for us in the next general election. My only problem with this scenario is that there are only a certain amount of ridings where people can win in Quebec at this time, about 15-25. If somebody runs a great local campaign and sells membership cards and wins the nomination meeting, is Stephane Dion seriously prepared to boot out the legitimate winner because of their reproductive organ? Now I won’t talk nomination meetings because Dion never had one, and we all know how “fun” Ignatieff’s nomination was, I just think that this is all fluff and not the Stephane Dion that I have known for years.

Some of you expect Denise to throw something large and heavy in my direction as well. But I know as much as she does that merit should always trump gender, plain and simple. The party can throw their weight behind a female candidate in a nomination race, but should never subvert democracy just to meet a certain statistic to put in their electoral platform. It is utterly ridiculous. If the female candidate is better qualified and better organized, she will likely win. Besides, is it a step forward for women’s rights if the only reason a woman got the nomination was because she is a woman. I would argue it is a step backwards.

There is another group severely under-represented in caucus, young people. It is harder for us to run for office because we have to raise money, which is harder for young people than it is for women. Ask Brigitte Legault, who herself, is running for VP francophone of the Liberal Party. She wants to work hard to get women involved in the party, as well as young professionals. She will tell you that forcing nominations is hardly a solution. I support Brigitte’s plan far more than I would stand behind Dion’s. We need to bring more women into politics, which in turn, will have more women seeking to run for office. Stephane Dion, grand-master of principle, is suggesting suspending democracy for political correctness. What have his handlers DONE to him?

What differentiates the Liberals from the NDP is that we are about equality of opportunity and not equality of result. Next election, I want the 308 best possible Canadians. Stephane Dion should want the 308 best Canadians too.

Complete and Utter Mayhem

Complete and Utter Mayhem

Yesterday was complete and utter mayhem. Apparently, depending who you talk to, yesterday was the last ever day you could sign up to join the Liberal Party…

But if you were anywhere near St. Laurent Blvd, Jean-Talon Boulevard, Jarry Blvd, and Maurice-Duplessis Blvd, yesterday was the day to fête Fabio Grosso, yes the guy who “tripped” over the Australian guy last week, who won Italy the game in the 119th minute.

That’s right FOUR PARADES yesterday. Usually, the Little Italy one and the Saint Leonard one suffice but not yesterday as Italians took to the streets in the pouring rain to celebrate the Azzurri. Watching the game at my aunt’s house was like watching 20 people go to war on a soccer field. Germany played hard, but Italy outclassed them early.

Italy has 11 goals from 10 different players…you knew yesterday was special because in overtime, we took off a midfielder and put on a (GASP!) forward.

Italy scored at the last minute, well the second last minute of over-time. Arms went in the air. Joy erupted. We even caught my uncle crying. We were 15 but you would have thought we were 50. (me loud? NO. Imagine my family)

The parading lasted well into the evening.

If we win Sunday, who knows when the party will stop

Forza Azzurri