I'm a kidnapper and my partner's a thief - stop persecuting me!!!

Another good reason to support gun control.

Myriam Bedard has access to firearms and custody of a child.

And she is a freaky lunatic who believes that her partner convinced Jean Chretien not to enter the war in Iraq.

Oh yeah, and she faces charges that she violated a custody agreement with her ex-husband Jean Paquet by taking their 12-year-old daughter Maude to the United States in early October.

Her partner Mazhari is scheduled to appear in a Quebec court in May on charges that he stole 20 paintings by Montreal artist Ghitta Caiserman worth C$100,000.

And her defense lawyer claims she is being persecuted here.

Jean Pelletier knew exactly what he was talking about when he made the comments about this "pitiful" single mother who was trying to draw attention to herself. This is the same woman who testified before a Parliamentary Committee that racing car driver Jacques Villeneuve was paid US$12 million to wear the Canada logo on his uniform and that the Groupaction advertising agency trafficked in drugs -claims that have been denied by the driver and the firm.

I'm glad her daughter was able to spend Christmas with her Dad.

And Jean Pelletier was fired because he felt sorry for her

The certifiable former gold medalist will spend Christmas in the slammer and for Christmas Mr. Pelletier will rightfully be vindicated and win his wrongful dismissal suit.

Christmas patronage king

PM Steve decided to spread the holiday cheer a little early this year. In a move of which Brian Mulroney would certainly approve, Steve appointed a truckload of cronies to patronage appointments, some on the same day as his much talked about FAA comes into force.

As Mulroney famously said to John Turner, "you had an option sir", but this move reminds me that he also said "There's no whore, like an old whore".

Merry Christmas Steve from the rest of us - we'll remember this.

Yes, Virginia

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

Editorial Page, New York Sun, 1897

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O'Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus?Thank God he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!

After this, the b-level appointments

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion today appointed Nancy Girard and Mark Marrissen to co-chair the election campaign. In other news, LPC National Director George Young has received some real bench strength with the appointment of Marc Lavigne as Deputy Director of LPC. While it is too bad to see Kim Doran go, Marc is extremely capable, hard-working, efficient and knows Quebec. Good luck Marc.

After this it will mostly be mopping up with second tier appointments.

Pumpernickel Recipe #11 - Hungarian Sausage and Lentil Soup

Hungarian Sausage and Lentil Soup

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 pounds csabai sausage, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 portobello mushrooms, chopped
1 cup carrots, shredded
1 cup lentils
1 large potato, peeled and chopped
Salt and pepper
2 teaspoons hungarian paprika (I use 1 tsp sweet and 1 tsp hot paprika. Feel free to adjust to taste.)
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
6 cups chicken stock
4 cups chard, chopped

Crusty pumpernickel bread
Butter, for bread

Heat a medium soup pot over medium high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil, then add sausage to pot and brown it. Then add garlic, onions and mushrooms. Cook a 3-4 minutes. Add carrots, lentils, potato, salt and pepper, paprika. Stir well.

Add tomatoes and chicken broth. Cover pot and bring to a boil. Partially uncover pot and simmer soup for 30 minutes until lentils and potatoes are tender. Wilt in greens in small bunches. Let stand 5 minutes. Serve in shallow bowls with bread and butter to mop up stoup.

A lump of coal for Johnny

For this nose-stretcher, Justice John Gommery will no doubt receive a lump of coal in his stocking this year:

As long as I remain a judge, I will not get into issues that are more political than related to the judiciary.

This from a judge who promised the greatest show on earth and selectively accepted testimony, while allowing his staff to write a book about the inquiry at taxpayers expense and hiring his daughter's firm. Rumour has it that Judge Johnny may be having lunch with Zack...

The Habs have won 5 in a row

New study shows that poverty among seniors is falling

A new study from the Caledon Institute of Social Policy by Ed Tamagno is out. It shows that our retirement income system is performing well under the strain of an ageing population. For example, in 1980, 21.3 percent of all seniors in Canada – more than one in five – had low incomes as measured by the low-income cut-offs after tax. By 2004, this had decreased to only 5.6 percent – about one in 18.

Tamagno also looks at trends in coverage betond OAS and CPP to private plans and compares defined benefit and defined contribution coverage in Canada. Surely not gossipy stuff, but important public policy work as we plan for retirement, individually and societally.

The study is available here. Probably some good suggested reading for Messrs. Rae and Brison as they prepare the new Red Book.

The new leader has been inclusive and decisive

New Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has reached out to all corners: Liberal Leadership candidates, prominant people from the previous regime, as well as former PM Jean Chrétien who is reported to giving advice to Marcel Massé, head of the Dion transition team.

The Globe is reporting that Mr. Massé may be principal secretary in the OLO and effectively run the Leader's office. Certain folks will want to joke about a need for adult supervision. Personally, I see this as a huge catch for Dion from both a
policy and symbolic perspective.

Now he needs to add a few more qualified women to his team.

Wasting away again...

The bottom-feeders at the Humane Society of the United States have struck again - this time ridiculously having Jimmy Buffet's chain threaten to ban Canadian Seafood.

Canada has a huge problem with its seal herd. Its size has exploded and natural predation of seals is down. We actually need a seal hunt. And not just for the $30-40 million dollars that it brings to the local economies of outports in Newfoundland and the Magdallen Islands where the average person can really use the bump up from $12k annually to $15 or $16k per year. And not for the $75 to $100 million that the hunt provides to environmental groups for their fundraising activities - based on dated photos of baby seals which Canada has stopped hunting some 20 years ago. These are the same groups who were busted last year for creating a fake horror story about the seal hunt and the visuals of blood stained snow, except for the fact that the start of the hunt had been delayed for weather reasons.

We need a cull on the east coast to help nudge the ecosystem - which has significantly gotten out of kilter - with the explosion of the seal population.

There are also potentially exciting new markets for Omega 3 fish oils, seal meat, not to mention the pelts. The environmentalists love the images of the hunt with the stark contrast of the blood on the snow - but this is not so different from the killing of any other animal for food as anyone who has ever visited an abattoir can attest to.

The Americans and Europeans don't like the Hakapik, arguably the most humane method to execute the hunt and would prefer that guns were used. Having seen how heated the discussions can be on the ice flows, I would strongly discourage expanding the firearm hunt beyond the area know as "The Front".

I hope Jimmy Buffet reads this, but I fear that he's just wasting away again in Margaritaville. Let's unite and BOYCOTT JIMMY BUFFETT!!!

Some elves have been naughty

Some elves have been naughty, but this one sure can dance.

Holiday oddity

And I thought all the weird news lately was coming out of Ukraine and 24 Sussex. Two stories from India:

Some articles speak for themselves, while others leave room for interpretation.

Harper's "Nation"alist grazing not working in Quebec

New polls in today's National Post shows that despite intense efforts to court the Quebec vote, the Conservatives have fallen out of favour in La Belle province.

The Saturday Ipsos Reid poll put the Conservatives at just 13% in Quebec, well behind the Liberals at 31% and the Bloc at 44%. Last week's Decima poll had the BQ at 45%, the Liberals at 27% and the Conservatives at 12%.

Clearly, the Conservatives did not get the bounce they expected from the Nov. 22 vote on the Quebecois nation in the House of Commons.

The reason for this is simple:

Why would the nationalists Harper hopes to win over support nationalism light, when they can have the real thing with the Bloc. He also disappointed them by informing them that it was a hollow, symbolic gesture.

The end result is that Steve's Conservatives have been relegated in Quebec by Stephane Dion's Liberals, to rump status. That was one pandorra's box you should have kept closed.

If the rumour is true, this is good news for Dion

The latest word is that Marcel Masse will be Stephane Dion's Principal Sectretary. If true, this is a huge catch for Dion...stay tuned.

Yanukovich must answer for disturbing news from Hospital Number 6

The BBC has reported that Kharkiv's hospital number 6 may have been involved in a Kuchma Era scheme involving the harvesting of stem cells from healthy babies. The then and current Prime Minister of Ukraine was none other than Yushchenko poisoner Viktor Yanukovich.

President Yushchenko must call an immediate investigation of these alleged heinous activities. I support tem cell research but have a problem with the infanticide of healthy babies.

Best wishes on a speedy recovery

Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota was showing weakness on his right side on Friday after surgery to relieve bleeding in his brain, his office said. He will remain in the hospital until the swelling in his brain goes down. “The surgery was considered a success,” the office said in a statement.

Surgeons removed the blood during a procedure Wednesday and stabilized the bleeding, relieving the pressure on the brain. Senator Johnson, 59, remains in intensive care at George Washington University Hospital in critical but stable condition.

“Considering his initial presentation, his progress is encouraging,” Dr. Anthony Caputy, the chairman of the hospital’s department of neurosurgery, said that Mr. Johnson continues to show “signs of responsiveness” to hospital staff and his family.

Mr. Johnson, a Democrat, began to stutter Wednesday while on a conference call with reporters, then walked back to his office, aides said. After being examined by the Capitol physician, he was admitted to George Washington University Hospital with what his office called “the symptoms of a stroke.”

His illness raised the possibility that the Democrats might lose the 51-to-49 majority they are expecting to assume in the Senate that convenes in early January. Should Senator Johnson no longer be able to perform his duties, South Dakota's Republican Governor would be asked to appoint a replacement.

Congratulations to Ed Stelmach

The voters in the Alberta PC party recently rejected the "establishment candidate" in Jim Dinning and the right wing nutjob - Hello Ted Morton and picked Ed Stelmach.

Here's some salt and braided bread Eddie. and may you never have to demolish a brand new hospital like your predecessor did.

I actually believe that Stelmach will be a good, pragmatic leader in the tradition of Lougheed and hope he concentrates on building and preparing Alberta for the future. Congratulations
Eddie!

I hope that solid ministers such as Clint Dunford remain in his new, smaller Cabinet when it is sworn in tomorrow.

Is that Senator Lord or candidate Lord?

So Shawn Graham kicks Bernie Lord's tush in the New Brunswick provincial election in September, and Bernie takes 3 months to quit his job.

Whaddaya bet Steve's got a nice juicie patronage job waiting for Bernie...?

News from the Liberal Caucus Christmas Party

The last time the Liberal Party was in Opposition for the annual Caucus Christmas Party was in 1992. If I remember correctly, the Christmas Party was held in the Hall of Honour of the House of Commonswith barely 4-500 people in attendance. In 1990 or 1991 it was even smaller and held buffet-style in Room 200 of the West Block.

Using those examples as a barometer, and given the fact that 10,000 Liberals converged on Montreal 2 weeks ago - it was pleasantly surprising to arrive at a nearly full Ottawa Congress Centre for a Christmas Party with 1500-1800 people.

The mood was upbeat. Everyone that I spoke with was coalescing around the new leader. He spoke well - although there was a problem with the audio that made it very difficult to hear him well. Technical glitches aside, the scuttlebutt was all about transition, with Mr. Dion joking that he wished that it were all completed by now. Mr. Dion is to be given full marks for calling and personally thanking the people who volunteered for him and worked on his campaign. We will see how well he does at the merit principle versus the reward principle in staffing the office and assigning critic responsibilities - but that is for another day.

There was another positive piece of news tonight, to follow-up on the appointments of George Young as LPC Natioanl Director (George says it is like the movie Ground Hogs Day) and Andrew Bevan as Deputy Chief of Staff: Eleni Bakopanos is being appointed as Caucus Liaison. Eleni is a bright, hard-working, multilingual allophone woman from Montreal who was an effective MP for the last decade and will do very well in that role. It remains to be seen whether she will be running again in teh Ahuntsic riding in the next election - personally, I think that she can win in a cakewalk under Stephane's leadership.

Another interesting tidbit is that the new leader will be hitting the hustings for the next couple of weeks to fundraise some cash to help the leadership contestants pay off their campaign debts.

The one piece of grumbling that I heard tonight, which is becoming louder is the lack of Francophones and women in key positions in the operation, this despite today's commitment to 1/3 of candidates to be women in the coming election. This will need to be addressed before it becomes the same problem that saddled Paul Martin's PMO.

A key battleground to test the one-third policy in operation will be in winnable seats like Ottawa-Centre, where Penny Collennette should have the best shot.

Finally, it will be interesting to see who is asked to run the Liberal Research Bureau...hopefully someone with good people skills...stay tuned.

1 Smart Move and one so-so move

New Liberal Leader Stephane Dion announced today that he will be protecting incumbent MPs who are seeking re-election and not forcing them to fight nomination battles. This move makes sense and has been the de facto policy of Liberal Leaders for as long as I can remember with the exception of Paul Martin (in some cases) during the run-up to the 2004 campaign. I applaud Dion for this move - it allows incumbents to worry about their work and not allow hostile riding takeovers such as the one that Joe Volpe launched on Roy Cullen during the leadership campaign result in incumbents getting kneecapped.

His second announcement was to name a women's candidate search director - in theory another good move. Unfortunately, where the rubber hits the road on this one is the less than stellar quality of his appointment, Linda Julien. A three-time defeated former Liberal candidate and patronage appointee. Hopefully, Nicole Foster-Woollatt and Belinda Stronach will bring some dynamism to the process.

OLO and LPC Staffing

This seems to be going very slowly, although George Young has been confirmed as National Director of the Liberal Party which is a good thing and Andrew Bevan is Deputy Chief of Staff in OLO. This leads me to believe that there will be a woman and a Francophone heading up heading up OLO and the research bureau.

I would assume that Don Boudria, Geoffroi Montpetit, Dahlia Stein and Marth Hall Finley should stay close to their phones.

Obama Announces

Barack Obama announces...

It's Official - Part I

Congratulations to George Young, the new National Director of the Liberal Party of Canada. George's appointment will ensure that the Liberal Party is battle ready whenever PM Stevie drops the writ. Isn't that transition team almost finished its work...hmmn...

Why visit Cleveland?

Finally, in this morning's New York Times an answer to that age old question, why would anyone want to visit Cleveland. I can see the new tourism campaign: "Come for the smelly brown water, stay for the surfing."

A prayer for the Gainey family

Montreal Canadiens GM Bob Gainey's daughter was swept off the deck of a
tall ship travelling from Nova Scotia to Grenada. Our prayers for a safe rescue are with the Gainey family.

A little Vermont Chrsitmas Spirit

It's no wonder that Vermont is one of my favorite states: Bernie Sanders, cheese, beer, Patrick Leahy, Phish, Ben and Jerry's, Stowe and great spirit as evidenced by this story from the Rutland Herald here. Oh and did I mention the Hood and Cabot sour cream and dairy products...awesome.

Lindsay, Paris and Britney

I have often wondered how much traffic a blog can generate by talking about the recent paparazzi escapades of Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton and their recent penchant for having their pictures taken while going commando...

Studio 60 renewed

Despite low ratings, NBC has renewed WestWing creator Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip". To date the quality of the storylines has been uneven and certainly not up to par with his West Wing efforts, however, I think that the show could be a success if it let up on the Christian bashing. If the word Christian in many of the episodes were replaced with black (see Michael Richards), or Jew or muslim or whatever, people would be up in arms.

Like the addict jonesing for some good stuff, I will keep watching in hopes of a better tomorrow or next week's show, whatever.

Unsure how to feel

The House of Commons rejected a painfully obvious checkmark on Stephen Harper's election promise list tonight.

First, Harper's motion was transparent and by having a free vote, he ensured that the motion would not succeed, thereby trying to take-away the "He will try to remove rights, just imagine if he had a majority" argument in the next campaign.

I should be pleased that his motion was defeated, but I am somewhat depressed that there are about the same number of members of the Liberal Caucus who were duped and/or are knuckle-draggers as there are "progressives" in the Government Caucus.

In any event, Steve will need to wait until another day to attack gay rights, women's rights, the rights of the disabled, support for seniors and the illiterate. On this day when they light the Christmas lights on the Hill, it is nice to know that no matter how badly he wants to, Steve is in charge of a minority government and for the time being has to keep his hands off Canadians' Charter Rights.

Also on the Hill, the Liberals need to get their act together and kill BQ Bill C-257 (An Act to Amend the Labour Code) which would have severe and negative impacts on Northern, remote and Aboriginal Communities.

There's something very weird going on in Ukraine...

If one were to start from the fact that Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko appointed as his PM his rival who was responsible for his poisoning and horrible facial disfigurement, then the following news report will seem less bizarre.

Ukraine's Channel 5 news reports that despite the absence of PM Yanukovych (on trip to US where he is refusing to meet the diaspora community), the Ukrainian Cabinet met and refused to allow the Foreign Minister to attend.

And I was worried about gridlock following the mis-terms in the US - Ukraine has some serious political problems...

Will Cheney's Daughter Move to Indiana?

Congratulations to US VP Dick Cheney and to his daughter Mary Cheney, 37, and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, 45, who are expecting a baby in late spring according to CNN.

According to an official spokesperson "The vice president and Mrs. Cheney are looking forward with eager anticipation" to the arrival of their sixth grandchild.

And yet this goofball sits by as numerous states move to restrict access of women to in vitro and other assisted reproductive technologies here and here.

Did you hear about who is going to OLO?

The Ottawa rumour mill is rampant about who will be Chief of staff in Mr. Dion's OLO, Chair the Liberal Election Campaign, head the Liberal Research Bureau, and be the new National Director of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Names being circulated for any/all of these positions are:

Gerard Kennedy and Don Boudria
Mark Marrissen
Dahlia Stein and Geoffroi Montpetit
Doug Kirkpatrick, George Young or Andrew Bevan

I think that there may be some excellent surprises...

Off to a good start

Stephane Dion is off to a good start in naming Rod Bryden and Marcel Masse to head up his transition team. They met with Bill Graham's folks today and reports have been positive.

On another note, I wish Ezra Levant would uncork his head from his ass. So what if Stephane Dion has French Citizenship. His commitment to Canada is unassailable. This man is the architect of the Clarity Act and was the lead federalist in Jean Chretien's government for a decade. Ezra - not everyone's idea of international exposure is goin down to Montana to pick up some ammo.

Congratulations Mr. Dion!

Back from the Liberal Party Convention in Montreal.

Here are a few general observations:

Stephane Dion ran a clean and relatively flawless campaign. He had as the coasters his campaign was handing out said, "the least baggage" of the main candidates.

He is a bright man whose heart is in the right place and I hope that leadership will allow him to shed his prvious petulance, in the same way that parenting causes most people to grow up.

He has all the tools to rebuild the party and all the goodwill to succeed. Now he must roll up his sleeves and let's hope the 36 members of Caucus who were with Iggy put down their ice picks.

I hope that the talents of all the leadership contenders will be put to good use.

Finally, congratulations to Jason Cherniak and DC Grit for choosing the winner.

PS: This was the most exciting political convention in Canadian history. I and many other (except Belinda and that self-absorbed David McGuinty) are really glad that one-person/one-vote motion was defeated.

He shoots, he scores

well blogging from the convention from Mike Powell Fanclub's base...I think that the best speeches tonight were from Scott Brison, Ken Dryden and Bob Rae.

Stephane Dion went long and was not electrifying...which is too bad. Michael Ignatieff was flat, Joe Volpe bitter and Marta Hall Finlay...whatever.

The biggest surprise was that Kennedy was good, but not great...I think that Bob Rae has the most to gain from the evening.

Off to the hospitality suites...cheers.

PS

Karygiannis, Volpe, Lui Temelkovski, Wajid Khan, Massimo Pacetti, Reg Alcock, Andy Scott and Lorna Milne all endorsed Rae today.

Dion got an endorsemnet from King Midas, Alan Rock...