Dean Esmay has a post on black holes and recent scientific confirmation of “a star being torn apart and partly swallowed”.
Popular media continues to present the “black hole” as rare phenomenon… like hungry sharks roaming the universe, looking for hapless victims to suck into the cold comfort of their nothingness…
| Think again. Ever notice that galaxies resemble a swirl of water going down the drain? |
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Well, congratulations to the Canadian Conservative Party national nominating committee. Poised at only a couple of points off the Liberals in the polls, these six individuals have decided that the right of citizens to fully participate in the democratic process is optional in Western Canada.
Four candidates were on the slate for the nomination to run for the Conservatives in the riding of Souris-Moose Mountain. One of them was former provincial premier Grant Devine.
This morning it was announced that he would not be allowed to stand for nomination. Tom Jarmin was interviewed by telephone on John Gormley Live:
“This is a final process, there is no appeal to this decision”.
Despite heavy prodding by Gormley, there were no further explanations offered. Ken Sutherland, president of the local party board, indicated that he has not recieved an explanation either, and that the association had no input into the national committee decision. The local board has a special meeting called for tomorrow evening, and may consider setting aside the nomination meeting to await the Conservatives selection of a new national leader.
That Devine oversaw a contraversial administration is an understatement. They governed the province through some of the most devasting years of the 1980’s – deficits created mostly by low grain, oil and potash prices, drought and astronomical interest rates placed the province at the brink of bankruptcy. After their defeat, a scandal unfoided that involved the conviction of several provincial MLA’s for improper spending – some were egregious abuses of public funds, but some were blatantly political witchhunts by the NDP.
Some of the MLA’s charged were acquitted on the same evidence that others were convicted on. Some of the charges stemmed from the problems caused by lists of approved expenses that were vague and obsolete. Purchases of computer software for a constituancy office could be considered a breach of the guidellines, for example.
But there is no question as to the continuing popularity and reputation of Grant Devine in his home riding of Souris-Moose Mountain. I grew up in the region and our family still farms there. In the extreme southeast of the province, the oil rich rural riding represents one of the most loyal small “c” conservative regions in the country.
No wrongdoing was ever alleged or charged against Devine himself. An eloquent and sincere advocate of provincial interests, he holds two Phd’s and is highly knowledgable about agriculture and the issues that concern the province. For this, he still recieves widespread respect and support.
All I can say to the Conservatives… bad move. In what may be a tightly fought election, you shot yourselves in the foot twice – by turning your back on what would have been a secure seat, and by throwing fuel on the growing fire of western alienation.
Update: This ain’t over just yet.
Prime Minister Paul Martin is appearing on the Saskatoon based John Gormley show tomorrow morning. He will be live in studio with the talk radio host and former Conservative MP for an hour – taking calls from listeners.
Let that sink in for a moment, and you may get an inkling of how much trouble this PM thinks he’s in.
When Auditor General Sheila Fraser released her scathing report on the mishandling of funds in the Sponsorship Program scandal, it set into motion a political runaway train.
John Chretien had a reason for vacating the office of Prime Minister a few months early.
According to Julie Hebert, media relations manager in the AG’s office, deputy ministers of all of the departments mentioned in Sheila Fraser’s blistering report, were handed draft copies of the report in October, to give them an opportunity to reply, which is standard procedure.
Chretien clearly read the report and as such, read the writing on the wall.
So, instead of taking the heat from the fallout of the report and breaking for Christmas in December, and instead of coming back in the New Year to celebrate his 70th birthday in the House of Commons on Jan. 11 as he long planned, Chretien pulled a fast one on Parliament, his party and most of all, his enemy, Paul Martin.
After all, what’s one more broken promise in a career filled with them?
Martin, who was visibly pleased by Chretien’s early departure, was either too blinded by ambition or too stupid to recognize Chretien’s last act as PM was to stick a long knife in his back.
Originally uncovered two years ago, the jist of the scheme involved the illegal transfer of federal funds through a handful of advertising agencies in Quebec owned by Liberal party supporters. These agencies then moved the money on to various agencies and Crown Corporations, after taking hefty commissions. The odds on speculation is that those funds found their way back to Liberal party coffers. $100 million of the $250 million spent on the program (intended for feel-good-about-Canada PR events prior to the 1995 Quebec sovereignty referendum) was diverted in this manner.
Cited in the illegal transfers are several Crown Corporations headed by Chretien appointees, including Canada Post, Via Rail and the RCMP. Especially embarrassing for the Mounties, they have had to call in the Quebec Provincial Police to conduct the investigation. Irregularities cited by the Auditor General include lack of any indication as to how the program was initiated, or by whom.
And the shoes keep dropping. Although the scandal surfaced two years ago, news that one of the firms involved has recieved further government contracts surfaced yesterday. In December the Martin government awarded $500,000 in contracts to a Groupe Everest subsidiary.
Today Sheila Fraser will be naming names at the Commons public accounts committee.
And what has private citizen Chretien have to say for himself?
“We should be skiing today, it would be better,” he told reporters outside his Ottawa law office.
“I don’t think anymore,” he said. “I was the government, I replied to all your questions � a lot of them. Now if you have questions ask the government.
Update: More meaty details from Andrew Coyne
Frustration is an understatement for what has transpired in the past three weeks. It all began when there was a router problem at the datacenter the original host resides at. This was complicated by other factors beyond my control…
As mentioned below, I don’t know if the original server will be back online anytime soon, so it’s best to just bite the bullet and start fresh, I guess. On one hand, it’s hard to accept the loss of so much writing, but on the other, most of it was already dated and of limited relevance.
But what a three weeks to be blogless! .. the sponsorship scandal of the federal Liberals, Conan O’Brien, Don Cherry, the projection of the Gun Registry costs ballooning to 2 billion, and of course, the AWOL vs AFFAIR media coverage contraversy south of the border. Missed some weather snob posts and the opportunity to post wild photos of the blizzards.
What else to do but go sledding?
Remember these guys?
They’ve done a little growing while we were gone.
Learning to swim …
And today! 5 weeks old.
Mom spends a lot of time trying to escape.
This will be brief, as I have a lot of work to do to reconstruct this baby. For now, maybe forever, my old host is unavailable and so too are my previous entries.
Thanks to Kevin for his tech help.
