But would he meet with the new Premier of French Columbia, Heywood Jablomi?

So Fred Thompson finally took part in a Republican Canadiates debate and it didn't make much a difference It was all very ho-hum, though Mitt Romney and Rudy Gulliani took a few shots at each other. But what caught my eye was this bit from the CNN story on the debate:

"The former Tennessee senator survived a gotcha question, correctly identifying the prime minister of Canada as Stephen Harper."

A gotcha question? He wants to be president and asking him the name of the leader of one of the G-8 nations, the U.S. partner in Norad and NATO, the country's northern neighbour is a gotcha question? Talk about lowering the bar. What's next? Will they ask John McCain to name the three branches of government? or Gulliani how many states there are? May they'll ask Mitt Romney if he can find Utah on a map.

And another thing: This is typical of the double standard of the So-Called Liberal Media. Hillary Clinton is expected to put forth a universal health care system that will ensure absolute and total coverage for any and all ailments for every single American without it costing more than a couple of Big Macs a year and the plan must be handed in to the media in triplicate, double spaced and footnoted or she's failed to live up to expectations and is considered unworthy to lead. Barrack Obama, by virtue of the fact that he is half-African, is expected to solve or at least explain any and all issues connected to race in the United States or he is dodging the issue - oh and he has to be "black enough" to win over African-American voters without being "too black" and scaring off white suburbanites. John Edwards has mentioned poverty, but he's a wealthy self made man, so unless he has a ironclad plan approved by a panel of Republican economists to make everyone millionaires by the Thursday after election day, he's just a pretty boy who pays too much for haircuts. And since they all oppose the war in Iraq, they better all have a surefire plan to win the war, bring peace and prosperity to Baghdad and release terrorist-eating unicorns that shit gold bars throughout the Middle East otherwise they are siding with Osama Bin Laden.

Fred Thompson on the other hand drives a shiny red truck, can talk tough as a crime-fightin' lawyer on TV, knows the name of the country's next door neighbor and looks like every Middle American's dad. Now that's presidential!

On the other hand...life is good
Given the tenor of the previous post, you might think I'm depressed, pissed off, and annoyed with life in general. Nothing could be further from the truth, because I have finally realized my life-long goals of:

A) playing hockey (at least fictionally) for Team Canada

B)Being immortalized as a superhero in a comic book.

One of teachers at my son's after-school day care center has created a series of short comics featuring my kids and their friends. My son Nicholas has been portrayed as every hero from Spiderman to Zorro, but the latest edition features me.


More as soon as I get a chance to scan the whole thing in and get it translated, but the main title reads: "Nicholas's Family Battle" (sic) with the smaller text panels reading : "Canadian Ice Hockey" and "Whoops!!!"

Stay tuned!

Why we drink
This purpose of this post is partly to vent (isn't it always?) partly to inform, partly to show off my behind the scenes knowledge of big media, and partly to provide Dave (no, not that Dave, the other Dave) of photographic evidence of the fact that if it is drinkable (and sometimes even if it isn't) you can buy it in a can in Japan.

I had one of those "What the fuck am I doing here?" kind of days at the office today. What it comes down to is that I'm just plain getting tired of watching reality and the truth get slapped around the office like a pair of red-headed stepchildren who went on to become cheap crack whores. (oh yeah, one more purpose -- to see if my boss is spying on me)

We had a lengthy piece in the paper about the activities of the Japanese Navy, I mean the Maritime Self Defense Force (article 9 of the constitution says Japan can't have a navy, so all those AEGIS destroyers and the new pocket carrier are part of the Self Defense Forces, NOT the navy). Concerns are being raised by various peacenik NPOs and other "obvious troublemakers" intent on disturbing the national wa, that the MSDF may have broken the law that authorizes them to take part in Operation Enduring Freedom.

This is kind of a big deal in Japan, because despite their military alliance with the U.S. the government's interpretation of Article 9 is that while Japan has the right to collective self-defense (as all nations do under the UN charter) the constitution forbids the nation to exercise that right, just as it forbids the nation from maintaining armed forces.


let look at that pesky section of Japan's basic law:

ARTICLE 9. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.
第九条　日本国民は、正義と秩序を基調とする国際平和を誠実に希求し、国権の発動た 戦争と、武力による威嚇又は武力の行使は、国際紛争を解決する手段としては、永久にこ を放棄する。
In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.
二　前項の目的を達するため、陸海空軍その他の戦力は、これを保持しない。国の交戦権 、これを認めない。

Here's the short version: Japan's Anti-Terrorism Law, passed in the wake of 9/11, empowers the SDF to provide logistical non-combatant support to Operation Enduring Freedom AKA the anti-terrorism efforts in Afghanistan. They are doing so by providing fuel to the multi-national naval flotilla that is engaged in an interdiction mission near the landlocked nation to ensure that Osama Bin Laden doesn't sneak out of the subcontinent in a zodiac or something like that.

The MSDF has pumped a lot of gas, much of it into supply ships belonging to other nations, which then went on to refuel combat ships belonging to those other nations. Japan is so scrupulous in observing the constitution that it will not permit the fighting ships of other nation to guard its tanker while it refuels other ships, which is why Japan has also sent a destroyer as part of the flotilla, which is only allowed to guard the other Japanese ships from the non-existent naval threat from landlocked Afghanistan. The thing is, one of the US supply ships "may have" gone on to refuel the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk which then went on to engage in the early stages of the War in Iraq.

Ooops.

Forget for a moment that Japan sent non-combat troops to Iraq for a couple of years to show its loyalty to the United States to provide reconstruction aid in Southern Iraq under the (one-way) protection of the Dutch and later Australians and British. Apparently pumping gas for war is a no-no.

Now, I know what you are saying to yourself: "Aren't the MSDF pumpng gas for war in Afghanistan?" After all, Canada is part of that multinational naval flotilla in addition to having ground troops fighting and dying in Afghanistan--isn't there a war on there? Isn't Operation Enduring Freedom the Pentagon's name for the the War on Terror in Afghanistan? Isn't the civilized world at war with Al-Qaida and the Taliban?

Not according to the people I work for. As it was explained to me, the MSDF cannot take part in a war and since the MSDF is taking part in the international action against terrorism in Afghanistan, it cannot be a war.

Which bring us back to our title and the reason for my two little travelling companions on the train ride home.

It takes a noble man to win a Nobel Prize
Al Gore and Canada's own Sheila Watt-Cloutier are being touted as possible winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, but if it were up to me, it would go to Pete Seeger. Click here to sign the petition.

Ontario poised to embrace lack of democracy
According to the latest polling, the effort to improve Ontario's electoral system by adding proportional representation appears doomed:
The most recent SES/Sun Media poll indicates that the support to change Ontario's electoral system to MMP is unlikely to pass the 60% threshold needed for change.

Asked about their intentions related to the upcoming referendum, Ontarians generally preferred to keep the current system (47%), followed by voting for MMP (26%) and finally not casting a vote in the referendum (5%). Twenty-one percent were unsure.

At the same time, Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty appears to be headed to a slim majority with 43% of the vote as compared to 33% for the Conservatives, 17% for the NDP and 6% for the Greeens. So for all you Tories out that who intend to vote against MMP just remember you had your chance to fix the system so that when the Liberals don't get the majority of votes, they don't get to form a majority government.The next time the government does something you don't like, you are not allowed to complain that almost 60% of people voted against the government, because if you had used your head and voted for MMP, such a situation would be impossible.

Pass the salt...and the fire extinguisher
I can see the advertising campaign now "Our food is so spicy, they had to call out the fire brigade and evacuate the building." or "Our peppers are for eating, not spraying". I guess some in the land of bangers and mash just aren't ready for spicy Thai food. I've cooked some spicy chili over the years, but I've never had anyone call out the firefighters - the health department maybe, but not the fire department.

Please don't hit me with this olive branch

As regards the recent flame war that took place (mostly over at the Galloping Beaver) over my offhand use of a term (the fourth in George Carlin's infamous seven) sometimes used to describe the female genitalia and sometimes used to describe people who are dim, annoying and unpleasant, I would like to present this song by the brilliant Nellie McKay as a peace offering. Please, please, please listen to it in the tongue-in-cheek manner in which it is intended.

Getting a leg-up on Hallowe'en
This sounds like a script suggestion for the Trailer Park Boys, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was a trailer park involved somewhere along the line. You can almost hear the banjo music in the background (not that there is anything wrong with banjo music)

from the BBC:

North Carolina pair feud over leg
The leg was stored in a smoker after Mr Wood lost his homeA US man who stored his amputated leg in a barbecue smoker that was later auctioned off is locked in a custody dispute with the man who bought it.

but it gets weirder:

After buying the smoker last Tuesday, Mr Whisnant looked inside and found a man's leg wrapped in a wire screen. He initially gave the leg to the police, who concluded it had not been removed as a result of a crime and sent it to a funeral home until Mr Wood could pick it up. But after making money by charging adults $3 (£1.47) and children $1 (49p) to look inside the empty smoker, Mr Whisnant asked for it back. His request was refused by the funeral home, so he decided to try to persuade Mr Wood to share custody and profits.

"I told him I'd share custody of it..." Mr Whisnant said.
"It's a strange incident and Halloween's just around the corner. The price will go up if I get the leg."

Expect to see these people throwing chairs at each other on Jerry Springer very, very soon.

Sometimes you can't even make a joke



And it isn't just the mangled utterences of the preznit, it is also stuff like the lifework of comic evangelistic nutjob Jack Chick that can also offer "found" comedy.

High School of the Americas
In case you don't read Jesus' General (and if not, why not? Are you some sort of pinko subversive?) you may have missed his letter in response to this this article. Both are must reads. I can't even take credit for the title of this post, it belongs to the General, whom you should get down on your lousy stinking knees and thank (in a purely manly, heterosexual way, of course) --I am but his vessel.

A tale of two elections
With only 11 days to go until the Ontario election, John Tory seems to have been hoisted by his own petard. He tried to go the Karl Rove route and "energize the base" by pandering to religious fundamentalists and promising to fund their schools. He managed to chase away the remaining Bill Davis Tories and non-ideologues, most of whom will now either stay home on election day, or worse (for Tory) hold their collective nose and vote for the Liberals.

Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty, who entered the campaign more or less even with John Tory, has done the smart thing and A)Connected Tory to Mike Harris whenever possible, B) Pointed and laughed at Tory over the religious school funding question and C) otherwise kept his mouth shut. It has been a winning strategy, as far as it goes.

If Howard Hampton can convince blue-collar industrial workers worried about job losses to vote in their own interest and back him instead of a corporate shill, the NDP could pick up some seats in the 905 zone around Toronto.

As the campaign come into the home stretch, the Liberals are widening the gap in their lead over the Tories and it looks like another Liberal government, perhaps even a majority.

On the electoral reform front, according to the Star, people are at least becoming more aware that there is a referendum and what it is about. According to the linked article from last week's paper, 6 in 10 voters now at least know about the referendum, up from a paltry 8 percent in June. What's more, 40% of them claim to understand the MMP system (a feat no more difficult than counting to ten with your hands behind your back) compared to the 54% who claim to understand our current system (a feat that ranks with counting to ten on your fingers and getting it right the second time.)

Accord to an Angus Reid poll taken two weeks ago, support for the MMP was at 26%, with 33% backing the current system and 38% undecided. Since MMP needs 60% to pass, things are not looking good.

A more recent poll published in the Mop&Pail reveals that while only a little more than half of voters claim to know anything about Mixed Member Proportional representation, those that do know something about it are slightly more likely to vote in favour of it than vote against it. Which is nice, but the bar to pass the change to MMP requires a 60% supermajority, with at least half the votes in 60% of the ridings. I am not optimistic that good sense will win out and we will have a change, but its never too late to shill, so all you Ontario readers get out there and vote early and often for MMP.

In terms of a possible federal election Stephane Dion, having not exactly proven himself a firebrand thus far, might be well advised to follow McGuinty lead: point out all the thing that the Harper government promised, but has not delivered (start here: Remember those 125,000 day care spaces he promised by 2010? so far zero progress); Link Steverino to his buddy George W. Bush as often as possible and point out all the egregious overreaches that have pissed non-conservatives off (the softwood sellout, sidelining Status of Women Canada, trying to back out of Kyoto, failure to set a date to leave Afghanistan, undermining of democracy through appointment of unelected cabinet ministers and 'local go-to people" etc etc etc) and sit back and let Stephen and Doris and Petey shoot themselves in the foot with every new promise and otherwise keep his mouth shut.
The Liberals and the Cons are neck and neck now. Harper thinks he can out campaign Dion, but I think a little campaign judo will allow Dion to eke out a minority government. Harper can't run as an untested opposition leader now,　he's an unlikeable incumbent stuck defending his woeful record to an unimpressed populace. Plus there's that whole baby eating thing.

Game on!

Ontario is already going to the polls in October, but it looks like we may be facing a winter election in the Great White North. I guess Steverino thinks that its time to strike while the iron is hot in Quebec.

Clowns for all seasons
St. Thomas More, the man for all seasons, was entirely correct when he said "The devil, that proud spirit, cannot endure to be mocked"
Not bad for a bunch of clowns. As there may be a problem with the link, here's the whole thing from Neatorama

Here’s an excellent example of pwnage: when the white supremacist group VNN Vanguard Nazi/KKK tried to host a hate rally in Knoxville, Tennessee, they were foiled by … clowns!

Unfortunately for [VNN] the 100th ARA (Anti Racist Action) clown block came and handed them their asses by making them appear like the asses they were.

Alex Linder the founder of VNN and the lead organizer of the rally kicked off events by rushing the clowns in a fit of rage, and was promptly arrested by 4 Knoxville police officers who dropped him to the ground when he resisted and dragged him off past the red shiny shoes of the clowns. http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/7704982.html

“White Power!” the Nazi’s shouted, “White Flour?” the clowns yelled back running in circles throwing flour in the air and raising separate letters which spelt “White Flour”.

“White Power!” the Nazi’s angrily shouted once more, “White flowers?” the clowns cheers and threw white flowers in the air and danced about merrily.

“White Power!” the Nazi’s tried once again in a doomed and somewhat funny attempt to clarify their message, “ohhhhhh!” the clowns yelled “Tight Shower!” and held a solar shower in the air and all tried to crowd under to get clean as per the Klan’s directions.

At this point several of the Nazi’s and Klan members began clutching their hearts as if they were about to have a heart attack. Their beady eyes bulged, and the veins in their tiny narrow foreheads beat in rage. One last time they screamed “White Power!”

The clown women thought they finally understood what the Klan was trying to say. “Ohhhhh…” the women clowns said. “Now we understand…”, “WIFE POWER!” they lifted the letters up in the air, grabbed the nearest male clowns and lifted them in their arms and ran about merrily chanting “WIFE POWER! WIFE POWER! WIFE POWER!”

A hat tip to Cowboys for Social Responsibility, second home of the Ponoka police blotter.

Death to all violent extremists!
I agree with Pete King, but not in the way he might think.
He says:There are too many mosques. Imagine the shitstorm that would ensue if one were to replace "mosques" and "muslims" in his remarks with "churches" and "christians" or "synagouges" and "jews." Personally, I think we have too many of all three, especially of the fundementalist sorts, who refuse to cooperate with the state, send their children to public schools or abide by the law of the land regarding tolerance for those whose lifestyles or beliefs they disapprove of. Freedom of religion includes freedom from religion so quit knocking on my door to try to get me to take a copy of the Watchtower when I'm too hungover sleepy to argue with you. And stop trying to get the secular state to teach your addled, scientifically comic notions of where we come from alongside accepted, rational, emperical science. Believe what you like at home, but keep it to yourself, 'nuff said?
If there is one thing I can't stand, it is intolerance.

Listen and repeat: Karma's a bitch, ain't it?

Branch closings dim Nova's future
The Yomiuri Shimbun
English-conversation school operator Nova Corp.'s planned closure of about 50 branches at the end of this month is indicative of the severe business climate the company faces, following a number of student contract cancellations and an order from the government in June to partially suspend its operations.
The firm, the largest of its kind in the nation, has delayed paying some foreign teachers' salaries.
Nova plans to reduce costs by cutting personnel after the branch closures are completed. However, Nova's prospects remain uncertain.
According to the company, Nova had 418,000 students as of March 31, a more than 10 percent drop from the same time last year, due to former students filing a series of high-profile suits demanding the firm refund their tuition fees after they canceled lesson contracts.
Nova has also been hampered by a decline in the number of new students, following the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry's order in June to partially suspend its operations.
Nova listed revenues of 9.2 billion yen from April to June in fiscal
2007, a 31.9 percent drop from the same period last year. The firm had an after-tax deficit during the same period of 2.4 billion yen.
The firm's delay in salary payments to some foreign teachers has caused a great deal of anxiety. "I'm worried about what's going on," a foreign Nova teacher in Osaka said.

Lesson plan for level four advanced students
Target Language: Use of tags for emphasis and as interogatives.
Intro: Discuss students' past experience with renewing lesson packages and using all point before contract expiration. (Alternative: Speculation "What would you do if this school closed?" "What would you do if your company failed to pay your salary?"
Drills: Listen and repeat - Nova has had some problems lately, haven't they?
Nova has been cheating its students, haven't they?
Nova hasn't paid its teachers this month, have they?
Substitution drill: This school is in a fiery tailspin/up shit creek without a paddle/ neck deep in the big muddy, isn't it? (explain idioms as needed, get students to speculate on possible meanings or supply own metaphors)
This was only a matter of time/bound to happen/simple karma wasn't it?
This school is run by thieves/wankers/the yakuza, isn' t it?
Role play: A Nova teacher has not been paid and has no money. They are complaining to a Nova manager and demanding their money. The manager must come up with excuses not to pay (ie: the ministry of consumer affairs ate our account books, didn't they? The corporate jet needed repairs, didn't it?) and the teacher must come up with examples of what will happen to them or to the manager if they aren't paid. (ie: I'll be thrown out of my apartment, won't I? You don't think you'll get away with this, do you?)

(see if you can guess where I used to work and how I liked it)

Offensisensitivity
Many have tried over the years to craft the perfect response to the stunned cunts who complain about bad language and incivil invective on the interweb tubes. This magnificent bastard has at last succeeded.

I hate offended people. They come in two flavours - huffy and whiny - and
it's hard to know which is worst. The huffy ones are self-important,narcissistic authoritarians in love with the sound of their own booming disapproval, while the whiny, sparrowlike ones are so annoying and sickly and ill-equipped for life on Earth you just want to smack them round the head until they stop crying and grow up. Combined, they're the very worst people on the planet - 20 times worse than child molesters, and I say that not because it's true (it isn't), but because it'll upset them unnecessarily, and these readers deserve to be upset unnecessarily, morning, noon and night, every sodding day, for the rest of their wheedling lives.

I nominate him for spiritual leader of the month

A bloggy night in Tokyo town
Hola amigos, it's been a while since I rapped at ya, but I've been busier than Rick Allen trying to play Moby Dick (My search for a Def Leppard link turned up this, don't go there unless you feel you deserve to be punished. I don't know who these guys are, which is a good thing, since if I did I would feel morally obligated to hunt them down and kill them in the most painful way available for high crimes against music. And I don't even like Def Leppard)
Anywhoo, Dave over at Jim Dandy Goodness went and said all these nice things about me and so I figured I owed my loyal readership, all nine of you, an explanation. First, its summer and I live in Tokyo. It is now 2 a.m. in mid September and it is still 33 degrees outside - in other words, it is too hot to do anything strenuous like type. Second, I've had the flu for the last week and anything that has gone into my body has exited through one orifice or another at speed and usually from the orifice least appropriate or comfortable at the time. Despite what you've seen on the right-wing blogs, it is tough to blog from the toilet. Third, the typhoon ate my blog post, honest.
It takes a circulation of millions to hold us back
Fourth, and this is the important one and constitutes an announcement of sorts I suppose, the powers that be down at the ministry of truth have decided to crack down on non-work related use of the intertubes. It seems that some doofus has been editing Wikipedia pages from the office, thus leaving the company's IP fingerprints all over his work. My guess is some knob bucking for a promotion has been inserting "alleged" in front of all references to the Nanjing Massacre and the comfort women or some such stupidity and the company has decided to go after the ant sized affront to their dignity and reputation with atomic weapons. Thus, all non-work related computer use is banned, even in non-working hours. So, sadly, no more lunch time blogging for this ink-stained wretch.
In related news, they also appear to be about to get shirty over copyright violations, which means that all my bylined stuff I've archived here for your edification and my reference,( since there is no free online archive of past material at the paper and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay to look up my own work) will soon be removed from this site.
Not that there will be much more bylined stuff to look up anyways -- recent changes at the paper have meant that the CD column has been dropped and the big boss man is pushing for more translations and wire copy in the incredible shrinking shifting feature pages and less original material from the likes of yours truly.
A shame really, as I don't think my posting here of things I wrote for the paper really impinges on their bottom line, in fact I think it is more in the line of free advertising. I think I have a moral right to the use of my own work in this limited way, but moral and legal are two different things in this, and so many other cases. I may think I'm creating journalism and art and literature, but as far the the legal beagles are concerned I might as well be stamping out widgets with "intellectual property" stamped on the side on the assembly line and all widgets are property of The Man. So I may not produce too many more for him. So it goes.
Sick of reading? Blame Dave!
He's the one who said I covered politics, and so let me tug on your coat about a couple of things that are ticking me off that either would have been covered in more detail had I had more time earlier (Jesus, that sounds like the Goldberg variation)
A victory for historical revisionism: How the hell am I supposed to bitch and complain about the historical revisionism of the Yasukuni Shrine whackos who still claim Nanjing was a big misunderstanding and the so-called comfort women were all volunteers when a museum in my own country caves in to a few veterans who don't want to admit that what they did in the war might have been anything less than the apex of human moral perfection? If you don't think Bomber Harris and Curtis LeMay would have been in dock for war crimes if the Allies had lost the war, think again. Just because we were the good guys doesn't mean we didn't do bad things. The important thing is to admit they were bad and not do them again, not pretend they were good and keep doing them.
The law is the law: And the law says you can wear whatever you want- veils, kilts, turbans, you name it - to vote as long as you carry ID, so can we please stop with the ignorant bullshit? I'm looking at you Lukiwski!
Power to the people! Not having lived in Canada for ten years, I don't feel I should get a vote, but I would urge all of you in Ontario to go out and vote in the referendum on changing the electoral system. Proportional representation is used all over the world with the exception of the United Kingdom, where becoming a member of the upper chamber is by aristocratic birth or political patronage appointment, and the United State, where the two party system went to die a slow horrible death from gluttony, patronage and corruption. The system works in Japan, New Zealand and Australia without any problem -- it could work in Ontario. Personally, I'd like to see it replace the current Canadian Senate.
Yes, it would mean the dingbat parties such as Christian Heritage would get a seat or two in the legislature. Once. After the harsh light of reality and public attention shines upon their dumbassery, the number of sensible people turning out to vote to make sure it never happens again will increase exponentially.
Yes, it would mean that voters in small towns far away from Toronto would have a slightly larger voice than the masses in the Golden Horseshoe. I don't see that as a bad thing. Ontario is a huge place - there are many rooms in the mansion- filled with multitudes of people in diverse communties each with a unique point of view united by their loathing of those arrogant bastards in Toronto. A little electoral smackdown for the 416-905 gang might be a good thing.

Anyway, in the words of Marty DiBergi, enough of my yakking. I promise to blog more soon, really.

Akash Bhairab is my co-pilot

Faith-based aircraft maintenance, an idea whose time has come...and gone. I think I'd rather walk. Go ahead and laugh at the heathens and their goofy religious practices all you enlightened Christians. Then on Sunday when you are finished speaking in tongues, handling snakes, or particpating in ritual cannibalism you can explain to me how this is different from Christians praying for someone to have a good flight or for the cancer to leave someone's body or for the President to save all the little fetuses. The difference between Athiests and Christians is that we disbelieve in one more god than you do.

CPC - Criminal Party of Canada

Remember how Harper and his gang of merry conservatards won the last election by running around calling the Liberals every variation on thief they could come up with over the sponsorship scandal and claiming they would restore integrity to government? The Liberals were justifiably chastised for using tax money to fund their own political campaigning, but apparently they weren't the only ones.

Like Lee Harvey Oswald, he was acting alone
An update to the story about the Conservatives appointing "local representatives" in ridings that had the temerity to elect opposition members of Parliament.
For those of you who haven't been following this, the chair of the CPC's BC caucus, the appropriately monickered Dick Harris, announced earlier in the month that residents of the riding of Skeena-Bulkley Valley, BC, having made the terrible mistake of returning the NDP's Nathan Cullen to Ottawa, were being given a second chance and that if they really wanted to get anything done by Kanada's Gnu Gummint they should go through their newly ordained representative/liason/go-to person Houston mayor and CPC candidate in the next election, Sharon "Northern Exposure" Stone Smith.
Naturally, some people disapproved of Dick's efforts to make government efficient and business-like. Especially, the elected member of parliament, Nathan Cullen, and apparently the CPC itself, which is backing water like a canoeist who hears the rumble of Niagara Falls around the bend in the river:

"He just kind of did that himself,'' government spokesman Ryan Sparrow said of Harris's move.
"(Smith) is the Conservative candidate in the next election. That's her only official capacity.''

Need we point out that this is not a government that has generally allowed its MPs to just kind do stuff by themselves? If there is one consistent thing about the CPC it has been that it is run from the top with an iron hand. MPs are not supposed to so much as comment on the weather or confirm that they think water is wet without checking with the PMO first. This was not just some backwater MP running his mouth, this was the head of the provincial caucus.

From the press release:

Harris said, “As Chairman of the BC Caucus of Conservative MPs, I am pleased that Sharon has accepted this role, and I know the constituents of Skeena-Bulkley Valley will derive a huge benefit from having direct contact with government, something that they have not had since 2004.
I and other BC Conservative MPs will work closely with Sharon Smith as she represents constituents of her riding to the government members. It will be a bonus for people of Skeena-Bulkley Valley to have direct representation to the government on so many issues,” continued Harris
Harris concluded, “Having an MP from the fourth party in the House just doesn’t cut it when it comes to actually getting things done for the folks in Skeena-Bulkley Valley . Sharon Smith with her direct government contact will ensure that things DO get done. The Terrace water infrastructure, Smithers Airport expansion, and Houston event center’s new “green” system are just a few examples of what can be accomplished when you have a direct link to government.

And it isn't the only time its happened from the looks of things either. There is reason to believe the same has been done in ridings in the Arctic and Vancouver Island North Riding.

If Dick Harris has "just kind of did this himself" I'd like to know what the Prime Minister intends to do about it. If not, when will the Prime Minister apologize for trying to make an end run around democracy?

Update: Alison has found another one, this time a failed candidate in the Sea-to-Sky West Vancouver riding who acts like he was the one who was elected.

Go to blogs on this: A creative revolution, Dawg's Blawg, and most of the Canadian Blogroll.