Debatable

I think Obama’s still slightly favoured, even now.

But it’s still also lots of fun watching Andrew Sullivan melt down.

#Trudeaupia

So yeah, Justin Trudeau is running.

I think it’s great. Why? The media attention is hilarious.

Paul Wells had some fun:

Colleagues at the sprawling Maclean’s nerve centre in downtown Ottawa note that we are sometimes asked why Maclean’s carries such a torch for Justin Trudeau. I hotly dispute the claim: that’s no torch, it’s more like a lighter, of the kind fans hold aloft whenever REO Speedwagon breaks into Can’t Fight This Feeling. Herewith, the greatest hits of our decade-long thing for Justin.

We can’t fight this feeling any more. We’ve forgotten what we started fighting for. It’s time to bring this ship into the shore.

And throw away the oars.

Forever.

It’s going to be so much fun.

That being said, I wouldn’t dismiss him out of hand. He thrives on being underestimated. Misunderestimated, you might even say…

Of course, there’s this.

We’ll see how he is on the trail.

Le Quebec aux Quebecois!

So yeah, 28%?

Le Parti québécois est aux portes du pouvoir, mais le courant souverainiste est clairement en perte de vitesse. Seulement 28% des gens voteraient Oui à un référendum proposant que le Québec devienne un pays souverain, un recul de huit points depuis le début de la campagne électorale. …

Dans son coup de sonde, CROP constate que le camp du Non ne gagne pas autant de terrain toutefois. On est passé de 60 à 62% depuis le début août, révèlent les données brutes. Ce sont les indécis qui ont pris du poids – ils étaient 4% au début du mois d’août, on en retrouve désormais 10% sur la question référendaire.

I hesitate to post something from Frum, but here’s why:

If Quebec breaks the fiscal union with Canada, it must for its own sake exit the currency union too. Which means that Quebeckers will awake the next day to huge depreciations of their salaries, benefits, and savings.

Quebecers know that, or anyway intuit it. The old promises of an easy separatism have been discredited. Separatism is now a hard path, involving great sacrifices, reduced standards of living, more work, and fewer social benefits — all at a time when PQ supporters yearn to hear a message of no sacrifices, improved standards of living, less work, and more social benefits. Which is precisely why Quebec separatism is effectively dead.

So what is offered instead is an elaborate pretense. PQ leader Pauline Marois has promised to form of committee to work on a project to develop a plan for a new strategy for independence. The committee will begin by studying past studies of Quebec independence, and then — once the studies are complete — proceed to propose action plans. A new diplomatic initiative will seek to gain international approval of the independence that Quebecers themselves do not want.

In tough economic times, these studies at least offer make-work jobs for under-utilized economists, sociologists, and party functionaries. But they impose a tough challenge on the rest of Canada: how to keep a straight face through the prolonged hemming and hawing. “Okay, you just let us know when you finish talking to yourselves. Take your time. We’ll wait. Four years? Eight? Twenty-seven? Fine. No rush.”

Fun times.

Attack ad day!

Quebec provincial.

See this and this.

Canada federal.

See this and this.

Fun times.

So, snap summer election?

Bring it on.

Ontario could be on the brink of a July election after the opposition New Democrats and Progressive Conservatives ambushed the minority Liberals by ganging up to amend the budget in a legislative committee.

In a hastily released statement late Thursday, Premier Dalton McGuinty warned the two parties to work with his administration or he would have to pull the plug next Wednesday.

That would plunge Ontario into a second election just nine months after the Oct. 6 vote.

“If (PC Leader) Tim Hudak and his caucus want to support the budget, we’d welcome their support to avoid an election Ontarians don’t want,” said McGuinty.

“If any member of either opposition party wants to put the provincial interest ahead of their party’s own interest, we’d be happy to work with them,” he said.

“Otherwise, (NDP Leader) Andrea Horwath breaking her word a second time at this late stage has left us with absolutely no choice — we will be forced to take this to the people.”

McGuinty issued his statement after NDP and Tory MPPs used their majority on the finance committee to remove key provisions from the spending document that could limit any future privatization of public services.

Fun times.

Update: Statement from the Premier.

Lamentations of our adversaries

My guilty pleasure is to watch MSNBC on successful election nights.

It apparently is James Taranto’s, too:

Last night we got home from a dinner and discovered something wonderful when we switched on the television. There’s an entire cable network called MSNBC devoted to the entertainment of conservatives. Apparently all they have on this station is disconsolate lefties 24/7. We assume it’s part of the Fox empire. Roger Ailes is a genius, isn’t he?

A guy named Lawrence O’Donnell hosts a show called “The Last Word,” a misleading name, since here we are getting in a latter word. Even so, the show is awesome. O’Donnell cracked us up when he opened yesterday’s show: “Tonight, the really big winner in Wisconsin’s recall election is–President Obama.” Later he had one of his fellow hosts, Rachel Maddow, on as a guest, and she agreed: “It’s going to be hard to see this as a bad night for Obama,” she declared, citing the president’s “11-point margin of theoretical victory . . . over Mitt Romney.” (Charlie Spiering has a video montage.)  …

Even the sad clowns of MSNBC couldn’t deny the election was a big loss for the man who was standing nowhere near Obama. Milwaukee’s Mayor Tom Barrett received just 46% of the vote to Walker’s 53%, slightly widening Walker’s margin of victory over Barrett in 2010, the year that Middle America gave Republicans their biggest landslide perhaps in living memory.

Fun times.

Even better is the video available here.

Game over, man. “Democracy is dead.”

No, sir. Democracy is alive and well. It spoke on Tuesday.

[Oh, and it wasn't a 7-1 spending advantage, either. The unions spent 21 million on the recall campaign. And this was a union operation at its base.]

I didn’t realize how apt it was…

Remember how the Liberals were using “Jumpstart” in the last campaign?

Well:

Broke.
Ain’t got no money,
dont know where to go.
Just sittin’ staring at the stereo.
I think we better turn it UP, turn it UP, turn it UP

That’s actually a pretty good summary of their campaign, now that I think of it…

***

As for right now, the NDP continues to poll well.

OTTAWA – A new poll suggests the New Democrats are widening their support across the country.
The Canadian Press Harris Decima survey indicates that the NDP have 34 per cent of popular support, compared to 30 per cent for the Conservatives.

With a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points, support for the two parties could be equally split.
Still, the poll indicates that the New Democrats have become competitive in traditional Tory areas.
Among rural Canadians, the poll suggests the New Democrats have 31 per cent support, compared to 35 per cent for the Tories.
The NDP appear to have the support of 36 per cent of urban and suburban men, a number that has risen steadily since February.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives are seeing their support in that demographic appear to hover around 29 per cent, down from close to 40 per cent four months ago. …

Overall, the Liberals continue to hold steady at 20 per cent support, the poll suggests.
Just over 2,000 Canadians were polled for the survey in the last week of April and first week of May.

Well, as long as the Tories continue to lead in Ontario, I continue to believe they’re doing fine, and the national polls will rebound over the next years.

The big worry for Team Blue, however, is BC, which very well could go NDP next election. In fact, I rather expect it to — the conservative side has won BC in seven straight elections, after the NDP won it in 1988 in the Free Trade Election. It’s time for them to do something different — it isn’t a true blue province like Alberta.

Anyway. Liberals are still dead, NDP is riding high, and the Tories watch and wait vis-a-vis the Mulcair juggernaut.

#PartyofBureaucracy

The Liberals have struck a committee to make a procedural decision about their next leadership race.

All I can say is, “Go Bob go!”

Relearning how to drive

Yes, one can drive in such a way as to maximize fuel efficiency on a hybrid.

Prius-owning conservative

So the time came for me to buy a car for my commute to class and to help family and friends with chores.

I decided to go with… a 2004 Toyota Prius.

Why? Well, Toronto traffic is dreadful, and gas prices would kill me. And it was reasonably priced (under $8k before taxes, which was my self-imposed limit). And I want to do mini-road-trips when the feeling strikes me, and the limiting factor on those trips would be, well, gasoline prices.

The image of Prius owners gives people like me hives. But you know what? I’m a cheapskate.

Buying a new hybrid is silly — you pay more than you save on gasoline. Buying a used hybrid (less than 1/3 of original price) that still has many years and kilometres of use left to it? That makes lots of sense.

And the car is rather striking.

***

But it does have an image problem.

So what do I need to do? Well, first I’m going to order a “Harper Leadership” bumper sticker.

Then, I’m going to have to find the funniest American conservative/Republican bumper sticker available on my next trip Stateside.

Finally, I may have to get an OFAH license plate. (They did good work on the gun registry.)

At that point, I will have decontaminated the Prius brand.

And what the heck, the car’s already scratched up, so a keying or two won’t matter.