I damn near peed my pants

Things are not just bad for the Liberals ... they're bleeding out. Income trust. Klanger. And now this blogger link found on Bourque.

What I needed was a bit of humour and I found it at bouquets of gray. Although I don't think old buckets meant to be funny, I swear I damn near peed my pants. In what looks for all the world like a desperate need for a Conservative scandal to kind of even things out he finds a commenter at Free Dominion who says a lot of Conservatives in Alberta will be working on their last federal election if the Liberals win. He fleshes out his second Alberta separatists in the CPC? post here.

Much of this, of course, sounds of the barroom pontificator. Except, again, that this poster claims to be an activist within the Conservative Party, claims to know all the CPC candidates, and (most troubling) claims to have admitted his separatist views in front of CPC functionaries and an MP.

What's most troubling to me, when I stop laughing long enough to think about it, is that buckets has no idea at all how many conservatives in eastern Ontario are working their last Federal campaign if the Liberals win this election. Their bags are packed and their ready to go. Alberta is looking very good these days ...

Housebreaking the Puppy

Yes, we have a puppy. This is Bella at about nine weeks. She's now 3 1/2 months old and very clever. Because housebreaking has its challenges in the winter I went looking for some new training techniques.

A rolled up newspaper can be an effective training tool when used properly. For instance, use the rolled-up newspaper if your dog chews up something inappropriate or has a housebreaking accident. Bring the dog over to the destroyed object (or mess), then take the rolled-up newspaper... and hit yourself over the head as you repeat the phrase,"I FORGOT TO WATCH MY DOG, I FORGOT TO WATCH MY DOG!"

Boxing Day

I ate nuts and bolts for breakfast.

Took the pup for a long walk to the creek.

Now, do I nap? Or take a bath in some fragrant stuff the boys gave me? Mango Mandarin bath pearls or cucumber melon salts?

Life is good.

Merry Christmas

Peace on Earth

One Trick Pony

So, Duceppe has declined to debate Harper on national unity. I though Duceppe had a better command of the English language - a debate being the exchange of ideas.

He says he will meet Martin anywhere in the province to debate "Liberal scandals and envelopes stuffed with dirty money."

Debate scandals? Is there anything Quebecers don't already know about dirty money? I'm not surprised he's taking a week off the campaign trail. He'll need to rethink Bloc strategy. If there ever was any.

I can't imagine many Quebecers risking a Conservative vote that might allow a Liberal candidate to slip in. But the game has just begun and the French media at least looks like it wants to play. If Boisvert and Dumont suit up, this ceases to be just an exhibition game for Harper in Quebec.

Harper in Quebec

Harper shook them up again yesterday with his mocking statement that the Liberals need the separatists.

"It's obvious. I think they can't wait to see a PQ government so they can stand up for federalism and fight the separatists," he told reporters during a stop at an inner-city youth centre in Toronto.

"But frankly, the only thing that can justify the kind of corrupt party that they have been is to have a separatist threat to fight."

The more interesting question is how much the Bloc needs the Liberals. Duceppe who has nothing to run on except "we must punish the Liberals" is crying the blues because Martin will not debate him on French TV.

Harper has offered to stand in for the PM.

"If Paul Martin refuses to stand up for Canada, Stephen Harper will," a Tory strategist told CP.

Party sources told CP that Harper's campaign team would contact TQS to make a formal offer on Wednesday.

Spat with Bush administration all part of the plan?

A lot of folks down here on the farm smelled a rat. When that happens the best thing to do is open the back door and let the dogs out. The Terriers, that would be Kate and Stephen Taylor, went out a hunting and found that the Liberals don't seem to mind souring Canadian-US relations for electoral gain. Taylor recalls the hunt here. All the bloody detail are being discussed in the comments at Kate's. Is Harper such a formidable foe that Martin would rather take on George Bush and the Americans?

No Good Will Come Of This

When Carolyn Parrish appeared to embrace Stephen Harper in the Star last week I thought it an indication of just how much bad blood there was between her and Paul Martin. The problem appears not to be the PM but unrest in her own riding. The Canadian Coalition for Democracy claims that Omar Alghabra, following his Liberal nomination told the crowd at the Coptic Christian Centre of the Church of the Virgin Mary and St. Athanasius in Mississauga that "This is a victory for Islam! Islam won! Islam Won! ... Islamic power is extending into Canadian politics".

Arabian Dissent offers a good selection of links and some tough talk.

Now Alghabra's comments would have been just a tiny bit better had he not spewed his filth in a Coptic Christian Centre! The Copts (Egyptian Christians) being one of the most hard hit victims of "Islamic power" that Alghabra's aims to extend. To have the nerve to speak positively about "Islamic Power" in their community center is almost like praising Nazism in a Synagogue.

Under Mississauga-Erindale at ElectionPrediction.org a submitter says Parrish has implicitly endorsed the Conservative candidate. If CBC Riding Talk is any indication Mr Omar may not recover from this misunderstanding or laspe in judgment of whatever it turns out to be.

I'm not yet ready to buy into the premise that this is an attempt to bring Islamists to Parliament. But it will be very difficult after the New Year for Paul Martin to attack Harper on social conservatism.

More signs the wheel are falling off the Liberal wagon

Well, first we have photographic evidence.

Followed by signs that, in spite of a ban on already banned firearms, at the local level Liberals are shooting themselves in the foot. Elie Betito, campaign director for Liberal candidate Bonnie Brown tells a voter who just happens to be a RCMP forensic firearms technologist and sport shooter to ..... take your NRA, GUN LOVING ASS BACK TO THE U.S. WHERE YOU BELONG.
Update: Elie Betito has resigned.

Then we have evidence that some media have fallen off the back of the Liberal wagon and that the others who are still on board should be reminded not to put their tongues on the shear pin in this kind of weather. It will only get stuck there and everyone will see just how silly you are.

Perhaps the most telling evidence is that Liberal desperation and fear mongering has gone so far as to cause the gentleman of the blogisphere to actually use the F-word in a recent post.

He said what?

I think some of the boys down here on the farm are still shaking their heads over this one. On November 28th, the very day of the non-confidence vote in the House of Commons, Wayne Easter, former cabinet minister and current parliamentary secretary to the federal minister of Agriculture and Agri-food, told farmers here in the far east that it's going to be a long time before the hurting stops. From AgriNews:

Referring to the ongoing World Trade Organization negotiations, which resume next month in Hong Kong, Easter remarked, "I personally maintain that even if we achieve the best deal possible at the WTO, we’ll still have a farm income crisis in 10 to 12 years time."

The MP's insistence that the Liberal government was commited to supply management and the farming industry didn't sit well with Winchester dairy farmer Gerry Westenbroek.

"I don’t believe the Liberal government has supported us.

"The Liberals have not supported supply management in dairy."

When Easter replied that supply management was working well, Westenbroek shot back, "I don’t believe it. There are too many imports coming in."

It certainly set the stage for Liberal candidate Tom Manley who was also at the meeting. Manley, the former agriculture critic and Green Party candidate, has in the past supported supply managment but not international ag trade.

I've yet to find a link to yesterday's agricultural all-candidates debate in Winchester but given that it included cattlemen, dairy farmers, cash croppers, egg and poultry producers and hog farmers I think it's a given that it's going to be hard for all the candidates to serve so many masters.

The fundamentals of fighting an election without stolen money

I've been waiting to see how the Liberals in Quebec were going to run an election campaign without benefit of stolen taxpayer money. According to the Hill Times, something like this I guess. Read the whole story.

The federal Liberals insist they haven't thrown in the towel in Eastern Quebec ridings where the Bloc Quebecois dominated in the last election.

But in the early going, the party's organization in Quebec City is only a shell of what it was in the 2004 and 2000 elections.

Candidates from the seven ridings in the city are sharing a single office with a few dozen volunteers in total.

Hat tip to Calgary Grit who ponders if it's worse to be a Liberal in Alberta or Quebec.

Red Ensign Standard 33

The Red Ensign Standard has been raised at Quotulatiousness.

Medisys Income Trust

Canadian bloggers have been wondering if during this election they would have their own Rathergate.

M.K. Braaten may have accomplished it. His initial post shows the volume of shares from one income trust increased 3400% prior to Minister Goodale's announcement. That high trading would involve Medisys Income Trust.

Its said that Paul Martins personal doctor started a medical company called Medisys Income Trust, a chain of private health care clinics located across Canada.

The day before the Goodale income trust announcement, the volume of Medisys shares traded for the day went from 5,714 on November 21, to 203,953 on November 22. On November 23, the shares traded dropped back down to 6,220.

Additional posts from Braaten here on a vague kind of meeting and here on why this doesn't look like normal market speculation.

Angry in the Great White North adds a bit meat to it all here.

In fact, in 2005, from a peak $15.21 in the summer, Medisys was on a downward trend, dropping 30% of its value until late November, earning another negative report on November 21, just two days before the income trust announcement.

I can only assume no one from Ralph Goodale's office called Jennings Capital Inc.

Whoever decided to ignore that negative report and picked up an astonishing 200,000 shares really picked exactly the right time.

Jessie Gritter offers insight into why Goodale flip-flopped on income trusts.

If you happen to think this is just a fart in a wind storm Kevin Steele at the Shotgun provides do-it-yourself income trust investigation.

And from Stephen Taylor the income trust trades listed as "unusual" on stocktrends.ca. and some homework for those who enjoy that sort of thing.

Please don't forget to read the comments in these posts and over at Kate's place.

It's not going to fly in the counties

The Chesterville Record is reporting (sorry no link) that Alvin Runnalls, Mayor of North Dundas and outgoing Warden of Stormont Dundas and Glengarry is disappointed that Paul Martin, in a swing through Cornwall last week following the closure of the Domtar mill, didn't acknowledge workers at Nestle's in Chesterville. That plant will also close this spring putting about 1000 people out of work. Runnalls was part of a group of community leaders who met with Martin.

"Mainly, he listened ," Runnalls said of the PM, a day after the meeting, adding Domtar is a big issue."

He said, "I managed to raise Nestle's and that the whole area is being affected, not just Cornwall."

We've had a number of devastating plant closures in this riding but no one is really surprised that Martin would focus on Cornwall. The counties are decidedly blue and what little Liberal support remains in this riding can be found in the City of Cornwall.

Like I said. The good economy platform is not going to fly here in SD&G.

It's a joke but I'm not sure how funny it is

I had a couple of headlines and barely two sips of coffee into me this morning and I'm thinking, don't we already have fairly stringent handgun laws in this country? Of course we do. Have had for damn near 70 years and the current laws look pretty much the same as these new proposals. So why the headlines?

Privately, one Liberal insider admitted the move is aimed at creating a wedge issue that will flush out the Conservatives on the issue of gun control.

"It absolutely is a wedge issue. There's no other way to describe it," the insider said.

"It's about making a very clear delineation between what they (the Conservatives) stand for and what we do. . . . We believe in gun control and they clearly don't."

Kateland feels safer already knowing Paul Martin is a student of history.

Bob at Let It Bleed fleshes out just how well this is playing out in the media.

But, apparently the best news is yet to come.LIBERALS TO BAN MURDER

"Unlike the Conservatives, the Liberal party takes murder seriously, which is why we are proposing this ban. Criminals and potential murderers need to know that murder is unacceptable in Canada and this ban on murder will be an emphatic message to Canadians: don't commit murder."

While Martin acknowledged that technically murder is already illegal in Canada he pointed out that it was the message that was important.

Martin's sweeping handgun ban is a joke, but I'm not sure how funny they're finding it in the Jane Finch area.

Now this really is depressing

A friend sent this my way. Do you think the strategists thought much about this?

First they thought an election campaign over the Christmas holidays would be a burden on the people. Now our leaders have gone one further and selected the most depressing day of the year for the federal election.

That's right, Monday, Jan. 23, 2006. This past year the most depressing day was Jan. 24. I assume that in 2006 it will be Jan. 23 because it is a Monday and everybody knows Mondays are the most depressing day of the week.

Dr. Cliff Arnall, a psychologist at the University of Cardiff in Wales who specializes in seasonal disorders, last year devised a formula that resulted in Jan. 24 being designated the worst day of the year. "Following the initial thrill of New Year's celebrations and changing over a new leaf, reality starts to sink in," Arnall said.

Chuck Strahl's Marathon

I saw MP Chuck Strahl for the first time way back when I was carrying both a Progressive Conservative and Alliance membership in my wallet - during the courting stage of what was to be the marriage of the two parties.

I don't remember what his message was that night. But I do remember that night. He impressed me. I was impressed, of course, by his tall, good looks. I was impressed that the former logger not only represented but embodied the smart, honest working man. I was impressed that he mentioned he was going home and that he and his wife (a teenage marriage that stood the test of time?) were having the grandchildren for a sleep-over.

Chuck Strahl has a campaign blog.

I'm not one of those guys who is afraid of getting in touch with my inner feelings. I'll admit to tearing up when I watch ol' Yeller (although that's about a dog, so it doesn't count). I can easily get choked up over acts of heroism, and re-telling stories about the self-sacrifice that my mom and dad went through in the early days, well, let's just say I have to be careful. ...

... I meant to sign off by saying how honored I was to have been their MP for the past dozen years. But just as I said the words I looked out at these soldiers of mine and choked completely up! Here we were on a snowy, frigid night, and these salt-of-the-earth types were there for me AGAIN. So many of them for the 5th time. I love these folks, and they are the backbone of a grassroots democratic system.

I'm impressed.

hat tip Monte Solberg Jack's Newswatch

Eat your sprouts

Ontarians are being warned to avoid sprouts after an outbreak of salmonella. This is not the first time sprouts have been sited as a source of food poisoning.

Hundreds of people have been confirmed with salmonella poisoning from contaminated bean sprouts and health officials are warning the public to avoid eating them.

It's been a while but I have sprouted my own beans. It's not that difficult and provided you have a clean water source and the beans are food grade it should be cheaper and healthier than buying them. Couple of links here and here on how it's done.

A fact sheet on sprouts from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency can be found here.

Hat tip to Bourque