Category: Other

I came accross this funny video clip today and it comes from the Late Show with David Letterman. In the clip, U.S. President George W. Bush gives a speech at a Florida rally. However, as most political speeches are orchestrated at rallies, a crowd of supporters is usually herded behind the speaker applauding and/or nodding at remarks made during the speech. The support crowd is all about the image of support and agreement with the speech, of course. However, in a lapse in image awareness on behalf of the American president’s staff, a 14 year old boy stood behind the president during the entire speech and yawned, fidgeted, checked his watch and even appeared to have fallen asleep at one point.

Politics can’t be thrilling all of the time after all. However, it was a rally…

Here’s the video clip

(Link courtesy of MetaFilter)

We’ve been hearing little bits and pieces of information surrounding Denmark’s audacious aggression in claiming sovereignty on Canadian soil. After all, at first it sounds like a joke: Petite, aggressive European Nation dares fly its flag over Hans Island. Alas, it appears to be true (yes, this story has me questioning the veracity of the Canadian print media — more than usual that is).

Has our proud nation really slipped this far whereas a small country such as Denmark (of all places) asks itself, “Why not? What’s Canada going to do about it?” Sure, this territorial dispute may be seen as some as two squabbling kids in the backseat of the world with Denmark saying, “Look at what I’m doing, I’m on your side.” However, as limited as this dispute actually is, Denmark has blatantly, and with impunity, infringed upon our sovereignty. Would they even think of doing this on American territory?

Why is American sovereignty seen as impregnable while the redefinition of Canadian sovereignty need not require a second thought?

And where is our ambassador to Denmark throughout all of this mess? While the Liberals thought that it might be a good idea to tuck him away in some European country, he’s now back and at the centre of the Sponsorship Scandal. Ironic is that the money that the Liberals siphoned away could have been used on our military to deter challenges to our sovereignty. Meanwhile, we do not, at present, have an ambassador to Denmark.

Therefore, I do submit my services to the Prime Minister and to the people of Canada to immediately serve as Canada’s ambassador to Denmark. An abridged resume is posted below.

1) I don’t steal
2) I read the newspapers so I do know something about this and that

Now, the above two items should better qualify me for this post than Mr. Gagliano. Sadly however, these qualifications may actually disqualify me.

To remove myself from federal politics for a minute, I thought that I should mention that I met a one Mr. John Tory today in Kingston. The former Toronto mayoral candidate was visiting Kingston today on a listening tour to set his ‘potential’ plans in motion for a run at the Ontario PC leadership.

At a small meeting of about 20 people at Aunt Lucy’s restaurant, Mr. Tory addressed our group and fielded our questions and concerns for regaining provincial conservative grassroots support and for citing lessons learned during the last provincial loss to the Ontario Liberals. John Tory asserted that campaigns cannot be based upon personal attacks and that such attacks reflect upon the lack of confidence in one’s own policies. Tory reminded us that the mayoral campaign was free from such attacks by all candidates. The campaign debt incurred by the provincial PC was cited as one of the principle hurdles facing the party in the future. In his professional career, Tory raised hundreds of millions of dollars for various organizations such as the United Way and St. Michael’s Hospital. He also mentioned that his mayoral campaign was debt free and that he helped/is helping two other mayoral contenders clear their debts.

I spoke with John and asked him what his “issue” was going to be should he become leader. Tory noted that if McGuinty’s liberals keep breaking their promises, it’ll be government accountability. However, he noted that the leadership race is far enough into the future and that a provincial election is even further and that Ontario may face a myriad of issues by then. After learning about my federal Conservative nomination bid for Kingston and the Islands, John told me that I should run provincially for the PC.

What does one say to that?

I think that I blurted out “Give me a call, let me know” Then we exchanged business cards.

And that was my encounter with a one Mr. John Tory. Seems like a nice guy.