Author: Stephen Taylor
Andrew Ference heads to the Edmonton Oilers
The former unrestricted free agent and former Boston Bruin Andrew Ference has signed with the Edmonton Oilers.
Ference has been a prominent celebrity voice that has spoken out against the Alberta oilsands located north of Edmonton.
On the eve of President Obama’s first foreign visit to Canada, a group of over 50 prominent Canadians have signed an open letter telling Obama that the tar sands don’t fit in the new energy economy.
“In your discussions with the Canadian government, we encourage you to raise concerns over the environmental and social problems associated with tar sands production and make no exemption for the tar sands in any binational agreement addressing climate change” says the open letter.
Actress Neve Campbell, authors Ann-Marie MacDonald and Farley Mowat, musicians Anton Kuerti and Jim Creeggan of the Barenaked Ladies, athletes Adam Kreek (Olympic Gold Medalist) and Andrew Ference (Boston Bruins defenceman), and political leaders Jack Layton of the NDP and Elizabeth May of the Green Party, are just a few of the many prominent Canadians to sign the letter.
It is unclear if Mr. Ference’s views on Alberta’s resource sector will change now that Oiler ticket holders — many who work in oil and gas — will be paying his salary.
Or will Ference insist he plays for the Edmonton Tarsanders?
HuffPo shows its cards
Here’s the latest leftwing click-bait from the Huffington Post on offer today,
Stephen Harper’s Wireless Petition Probably Just Trolling For Your Personal Data
Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants you to know he’s on your side in the epic battle of consumers against Big Telecom’s big wireless bills.
Or maybe it’s the Conservative Party trying to get your name and email address, so they can spam you with political ads.
Either way, a post appeared on Harper’s Facebook page Wednesday linking to a Conservative Party petition called “Standing Up For Wireless Consumers.”
The Facebook post urges people to “sign the petition if you believe Canadians will benefit from more choice and greater competition among wireless providers.”
Oh, is that so? Here’s Marc Garneau’s Liberal Party data-collection petition on Usage Based Billing. Huffington Post stories about the Liberal Party’s creepy data collection efforts? 0.
And here’s an NDP petition (data collection website) against extra fees on cellphone bills. Huffington Post cynicism about political outreach by the NDP? Non-existent.
I tried to find a Green Party petition on wireless usage, but my wifi signal gave out.
Here, Huffington Post writes about Avaaz’s data-collection website for collecting the email addresses of Sun News haters. As a cynical news story about the political process of issue identification and data collection? No! It was written as a news story about the critiques of Sun News.
There is a trend among Ottawa journalists to write about the political processes as if they were recently unearthed from some dank pit from behind Karl Rove’s creepy house (the one with the unhinged screen door that has the tear). These tried-and-true political tactics are repackaged to ignorant readers in an alarm-raising tone.
BREAKING NEWS! Did you know that Conservatives do GOTV?
BREAKING NEWS! Did you know that Conservatives keep a database of their supporters?
BREAKING NEWS! Did you know that Conservatives call people to identify their levels of support?
BREAKING NEWS! Conservatives use American-style robocalls!
BREAKING NEWS! Did you know that Conservatives use social advertising on segments to test messaging?
BREAKING NEWS! Did you know that Conservatives use petitions to do issue identification?
BREAKING NEWS! Any political party that hopes to win an election in the modern era will do all of the above.
BREAKING NEWS! Obama does it too? Well, nevermind then. He’s doing the best he can.