Wajid Khan is a Shaman

So it seems the Wajid Khan-Garth Turner trade has gone the way of the Liberal Party, with the Conservatives actually having received damaged goods in the deal. Now we know what Kevin Lowe feels like when he looks at Sheldon Souray.

Before Jason Cherniak had the chance to picket the dealership, it seems Wajid made quite a bit of money and apparently it isn’t all accounted for.

So the man the Tories expected to hurl bolts of lightning in the 416 could barely muster up a static charge.

We all know what Stephen Harper was thinking when he heard this news…

I Know How This One Ends

1) A guy facing criminal charges makes a bunch of wild accusations during a public inquiry which make the government look really really bad.

2) The government says let’s wait til the final report when the blame is laid.

3) The government tries to pass a bunch of popular measures to try and get people’s minds off the corruption.

4) The opposition says this is a travesty and the government is corrupt.

5) Gilles Duceppe thinks Canada is a failure because a Prime Minister took money more than 10 years ago...time to get Quebec angry again (maybe the immigrants too!)

6) The NDP’s need to make Parliament work runs out.

7) We are going into an election two weeks after Schreiber takes the stand…

All because Jean Chretien gave Mulroney 2 million dollars…

This and That

First off, having a review as to whether we should have an inquiry seems a copout to me. I hope they look into it. A year-long circus with Jean Pelletier as chief prosecutor is unlikely, because Stephen Harper seems to have some form of intelligence.

The whole “this thing that happened 14 years ago needs to be investigated now” line wont work, no matter how hard the NDP and the Liberals try to force that line on the public.

Another thing I enjoy is the sudden approach by the NDP and the Tories that we should listen to what the people have to say and see how credible they are in order to avoid sensational comments. Hopefully everybody is as reliable as Miriam Bedard and Jean Brault…

On Saskatchewan, I wonder if anybody will look into the effect that Jack Layton had on the NDP’s fortunes and Stephen Harper had on the Sask Party’s results. Liberals lost a third of their vote as well. I am not saying it has everything to do with the results…but maybe someone should look into that.

The Liberal track record on tackling poverty isn’t stellar but it is not terrible. (it should be noted poverty rates did go down in the last 10 years, but some would say not enough)

At a minimum, many social programs were decimated as a result of the transfers being slashed in the mid-90s by Paul Martin. I think if the Liberals want to gain any traction on the plan they recently announced, they need to explain their role is helping create some of the poverty, why that was not good, and how they will work to fix some of the mess they created. All they need to say is "we tried the Conservative policy, we know it doesnt work". The deathbed green conversion didn't work. Why do people think a deathbed poverty conversion will?

Dion needs to answer the simple question: why didn’t the Liberals fix this in 2000 with 4 years in power ahead of them and a 17 billion dollar surplus…did they not know it was a problem, or are they only taking it seriously now that they are in opposition?

It’s a valid question…

Congratulations are in Order

Congratulations to Scott Pickup on his recent appointment to the Young Liberals of Canada executive as Constitutional/Legal Affairs Rep of the YLC.

I hear you are going to Quebec City voluntarily Scott. You are a brave man. Any anglos headed to Quebec City are going to have a rude awakening pretty quick.

On a side note, it was refreshing to see that YLC wunderkind and former Fuddle Duddle editor Denise Brunsdon and her puppet president Pike are no longer able to swing any form of vote in the YLC, especially since the departure of Jamie Carroll.

Imagine the candidate backed by the president and the most powerful executive member not even making it to the final two candidates due to an extreme lack of support.

One National Executive member, who spoke anonymously, stated “Denise no longer has anything going for her. In fact, it is quite pathetic.” I guess the lesson learned here is what goes around…comes around. How ironic!

As the executive member put quite aptly..."Cory Pike is NOT a leader"

I guess he is just doing his best Stephane Dion impression.

Apparently it isn’t Easy to Make Priorities

I saw the Tory ads this weekend and I couldn’t help but laugh.

You see, last summer, when Stephane Dion uttered the infamous “you do not know of what you speak about” and “do you think it’s EEEasy to make priorities?” some of us at Iggy HQ in Quebec thought his goose was cooked.

How can one get away with making two such ridiculous statements? Dion was applauded for stating that he hadn’t got the job done because it took so long (12 years?) to make the right priorities in regards to fixing the environment, which, as we all know, didn’t really happen.

Dion has been leader for almost a year. We do not really know his priorities. He wants to make Canada richer, fairer and greener. That is fantastic, but the average Joe doesn’t really care about rhetoric. These ads will resonate because they are specific. Openly musing about controversial policy decisions in front of open microphone is not usually a good idea. Last summer, we called it a “rookie mistake”.

I have some advice to my former colleagues in the Liberal Party. Christmas is coming up soon, and Parliament will be out of session. Come up with three solid tangible priorities and call it the Liberal Christmas list or whatever. Spend six weeks hammering that into the minds of the population. Make it clear and make people understand.

Do not do what Paul Martin did and invade provincial jurisdiction. That GST cut, if claimed by the provincial governments, is more than enough to pay for child care in their respective provinces. Why isn’t any province doing that? Ask the premiers!

A real opposition shows an alternative, which is why the NDP will never be taken seriously as a real opposition or potential government. A real opposition will have people thinking that there is a competent alternative to Stephen Harper and will throw them into the undecided column, which means the Liberals’ job is almost half done.

So to Stephane Dion, this Christmas, have one priority, to come up with priorities.