Yesterday’s Calgary Herald carried more flatulence from the pen of the editor of the editorial page, Ms. Licia Corbella. Money must be awfully tight at that failing broadsheet these days. There seems to be precious little of it available for talented writers to ply their skills on the editorial page. Why else would Corbella’s turgid Conservative flim-flam appear so frequently?
As might be expected, she takes full advantage of her lofty position in the hierarchy of that soon-to-be relic of a bygone kinder and gentler era – her pieces usually appear smack-dab in the middle of the editorial page. Thus, try as one may, there is just no way to avoid them short of skipping the page or cancelling one’s subscription. Understandably, both of those options are increasingly being taken up by Herald readers.
The title of her piece is “Is Ignatieff the Conservatives’s Grinch?” It can be read here: http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/theeditorialpage/story.html?id=ff88108e-2741-4dc4-aeee-8c8c717f6f10&p=2
Her introduction centered around a comment made by her eleven year-old son. According to her, the young lad said to her, “Doesn’t this guy look like the Grinch?” The guy the little fellow was referring to was new Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. For one of her kids to make that observation speaks volumes about daily conversation around her family dinner table. Corbella's predictable reaction was, “Ha! How perceptive!,” no doubt believing that the kid, like his mother, was just a chip off the old Black. See: Sunday, March 09, 2008
LICIA CORBELLA: ON BEING DEAF, DUMB AND ARROGANT AND A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLACK
Warming to her Yuletide analogy, Corbella continued with the tiresome pejorative blather she always reserves for Liberals. She remarked that with Iggy’s “bushy eyebrows and sly grin [he] looked like he had stolen something . . . ” and that in fact “he had just snatched the leadership” from his rivals and “the Liberal grassroots as well.” She called the move “furtive” and took the opportunity to remark that no “heavy hitters” were interested in the job and that his only rival Bob Rae had been a “disaster” as Premier of Ontario.
Well, to set the record straight – once again in response to one of Corbella's gross columns – Iggy does not look like a Grinch and neither did he steal anything from anybody. The leadership was bestowed upon him by the party and only a handful of Grits across Canada were critical of the move.
The leadership process was sped up as a result of a justifiable lack of trust among all Liberals in Stephen Harper. They were rightly convinced that if Harper tried to kill off the opposition by shutting down its source of funds, he would call an election during their leadership campaign. Thus they had to act fast, and that is exactly what they did. As a result of the party's decision to quickly confer the leadership upon Ignatieff, the Liberals are now more united than at any other time in this decade.
As for there being no heavyweights who pursued the Liberal crown, that too is false. Both Ignatieff and Rae make each and every Conservative party jackal who will feed on Harper’s carcass at his next misstep look like, well, the lightweight jackals that they are. Both Ignatieff and Rae are great Canadians whose positive contributions to this country and society generally make Harper and his likely successors look like freeloaders.
Being the Conservative flak that she is, Corbella then commented extensively on perceived inconsistencies in Ignatieff’s messaging during the 2006 leadership race. She ignores the fact that Harper’s past utterances, apart from being scary, makes Ignatieff look and sound like the model of consistency. See: Wednesday, November 12, 2008
MORE TWADDLE FROM THE CALGARY HERALD: HARPER, OBAMA TWO PEAS IN A POD!!!!????
Altogether another sorry contribution from the editorial pages of a once proud newspaper. CanWest Global common stock closed yesterday at $ 0.507 Cents.
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10 comments:
Uh, no.
The Liberal leadership process was sped up in a desperate attempt to keep their coalition with socialists and separatists together.
Whether you're honest enough to admit to it or not, Michael Ignatieff's ascension to the Liberal party leadership has very much taken the question of leadership out of the hands of the Liberal party grassroots. More and more Liberals seem unsatisfied with that.
The truth is that neither Ignatieff nor Rae are very threatening. Each poses his own particular set of challenges, but each is burdened by his own weaknesses.
Ignatieff takes away the Liberal advantage of being able to crow about the Iraq war. After all, Ignatieff was a fervent supporter of that war.
Bob Rae's time in Ontario was nothing short of an economic disaster. Even the party that he governed hates him in Ontario.
Harsh truths, one supposes. What do you really want to suggest here: only Liberal partisan hacks should be allowed to be published?
Patrick
Let me try to be kind. If you want to comment, make it substantive. You are trite and banal and your comments have no readable value. Then again, maybe you have the skills to be an editorial columnist with the Calgary Herald along with the rest of those lunatic neocons.
It's funny you should say that, Darryl. Your blog has no readable value.
Cripes, Patrick Ross is getting creepy. No recognition or acknowledgement whatsoever of the sh&t Harper is doing...and now spouting Harper's own lies about socialists and separatists, even though Harper himself sought to form the same type of coalition.
Do these Con have no conscience? Or maybe Ross is just a pathetic little puppy who needs to "win" and can't let go. Or worse, maybe he's a troll attempting to harass and stifle viewpoints not beneficial to his beloved "leader".
Every government has made mistakes. Politicians are only human and not perfect. We can acknowledge the past, learn from it, and strive to do better now and in the future. Harper isn't doing that. He is only making things worse with his now well-recognized character flaws. At a time when we need a diplomatic statesman and noble leader, all we get for a PM is a petty antagonist. We Canadians deserve better than that. Hopefully Mr. Iggy can contain Harper's sickness and nurture us all in a better direction. Patrick Ross, you would do well for yourself to rise above Harper's example.
Right again Jimbo. There's no doubt about it, that Ross is a big time creep. He's a loony neocon zealot just like his hero.
His idea of winning is getting the last word in. And he is not above just being an annoying pain in the ass.
Don't look for Harper for tact or diplomacy, unless he is among his pals like Newt Gingrich or Dick Cheney.
And as far as nobility in leadership is concerned, any guy who uses destitute artists as a political whipping boy or who tries to destroy an opposition through funding legislation, does not have an ounce of honor or nobility in his soul.
Sooner or later young Ross will wake up and see the light - hopefully before his boss carts him off to jail for some trumped up treason accusation or thought violation. But he's too young young to consider those possibilities because he hasn't heard or read any history.
Ho, please, boys.
Take a look at the garbage rhetoric you spout at this site, take a look in the mirror, then physician heal thyself.
First off Harper's "lies about socialists and separatists" would meet a suspiciously partisan definition of a "lie", because it happens to be true.
And I would point out to you that there is a huge difference between talking about a Coalition with the Bloc and actually doing it. Harper talked about it. He was wrong to do so (and unlike yourselves, I can bring myself to criticize the parties I support) but all he did was talk about it.
Stephane Dion and the Liberal party -- once proud separatist fighters -- actually went ahead and did it. There's a big step between the two.
So my question for you, JimBobby -- and I doubt you have the intellectual courage to answer this challenge, but I'll pose it regardless -- is this: how do you expect a government dependent on the Bloc as a Coalition partner to act on its responsibilities regarding national unity?
Don't spout the lie about the Bloc not being a part of the Coalition -- they pledged their support to the Liberal/NDP Coalition in the very same agreement that formalized the coalition. They are part of it, and they are party to it.
How do you honestly expect any Canadians who understand the sheer magnitude of this act to believe that Gilles Duceppe isn't going to demand a legislative repeal of the Clarity Act in exchange for supporting this government?
How do you honestly expect any Canadians to believe Dion won't cave in to that demand?
I know you like to think you have all the answers. I know you're going to claim that Duceppe has taken Quebec sovereignty off the agenda for a year.
But then, there is this: Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc Quebecois posed an intentionally deceptive question to the people of Quebec during the 1995 sovereignty referendum. They lied to their own people in order to attain a oui vote to sovereignty.
You want us to believe that Duceppe isn't simply lying to us when he says that he'll take Quebec sovereignty off the agenda? We've seen how he conducts his sovereignty-related business with his own people. Do you honestly expect Canadians to believe he's suddenly being honest with the rest of us -- the people to whom he proudly admits that he feels no loyalty, and no bond?
Considering that Parliament has no means to enforce the Coalition agreement that Duceppe has signed, you would have to be tremendously disingenuous to pretend that our concerns about this Coalition of socialists and separatists -- and stop lying because you know that's the truth -- should simply be dismissed. You have to ignore Canadian history -- very recent Canadian history -- in order to justify what you people are doing.
But let me tell you what is really disgusting about lil' Jimmy and the garbage rhetoric he wants to peddle here:
He keeps insisting, over and over again that "politicians make mistakes". "They're human".
Well, Jim, unlike yourself and Darryl -- as rabid a pair of partisan zealots as one can find in any dark corner of the blogosphere -- most people understand that mistakes should be paid for.
For example, the Liberal party engaged in a criminal scheme that stole hundreds of millions of dollars from Canadian taxpayers. And you call that a "mistake", as opposed to what it really was -- a crime.
And all along you assert that politicians are "not perfect". As such, you argue that the Liberal party should not pay for that crime -- not in a criminal sense, and not in terms of the Canadian people's lost faith in that party.
Yet Stephen Harper, who has committed no such crimes, should be run out of office at any hint of a "mistake".
Jim, you're an incredible hypocrite. I realize you think of yourself as a clever hypocrite, but I don't think I've ever come across anyone who has considered themselves as clever as you, yet was defeated so easily.
At least Darryl seems to make no claim to any such talent -- he settles for slurring anyone who dares disagree with him with labels he doesn't even understand.
And one wonders how it is that Darryl never managed to win elected office...
Ptrick - as to your comments directed to Jim, as to the issue of national unity, obviously if the Bloc endangered national unity during the coalition's time in power, the support of the Bloc would no longer be welcomed by the Coalition. There would be an election or Harper would govern with the Bloc. That is not rocket science.
Secondly, Duceppe can demand all he wants about the repeal of the Clarity Bill, but the Grits - particularly Dion would not ditch his crowning achievement. And if you think Dion would cave, you don't know anything about his life in politics.
Thirdly, if you say that the question on the Referendum of 1995 was one concocted by the Bloc, you know sweet tweet about that issue. The Referendum question and process was an initiative of the Bouchard PQ provincial government. The Bloc had nothing to do with it. Jesus, you should pay me for your education!
Fourthly, I want you to show some courage here Rossco. List all the Liberals who were guilty of a criminal offence pertaining to Adscam. List them. You seem to know who they are - list them all by their full names. I dare you.
And finally, try to be more brief in your diatribes. Your verbal diarhhea is cluttering up cyperspace, you pitiful twit.
"Obviously if the Bloc endangered national unity during the coalition's time in power, the support of the Bloc would no longer be welcomed by the Coalition."
Ah heh.
That is not nearly so obvious to most Canadians as you'd think.
That the Liberals would propose to govern with the Bloc demonstrates that they will do anything -- anything -- in order to govern.
No Canadian with a lick of sense trusts them not to go just a little bit further. If you need proof that Canadians don't trust the Coalition, just look at the polls.
And if you're actually going to try to defend the Bloc's conduct during the 1995 referendum, you are simply beyond arrogant, and are really only showing yourself to be as uncaring about this country as I've suspected you are.
First off, the extent to which the separatists manipulated the process that produced that question is well known.
But evidently, you don't know sweet jack all about this entire issue. For one thing, Lucien Bouchard was the leader of the Bloc Quebecois during the 1995 referendum. Jacques Parizeau was the leader of the Parti Quebecois.
Apparently, you need to reconsider who will be giving history lessons to whom.
After all, Alfonso Gagliano was a Liberal party member at the time that he was helping that party steal from Canadians.
Really, Darryl. You need to stop making all of this so bloody easy.
Darryl,
Having by chance come across your blog, I must say, I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas present this year. Ah, a 'kindred spirit'... and from the 'Pass too.
I will definitely be following your posts (new & old) in the New Year. Merry Christmas and all the Best to you and yours in 2009!
John
Thank you so much for that John. As you know I was born in Blairmore and grew up in Bellevue and had all of my schooling there until I went to university. I have fond memories of the Pass. It is a beautiful part of this great country, and its cultural diversity when I was growing up, was amazing. The Pass was a role model for tolerance in those days and a place that Canadians from the rest of Canada could have learned much from. Best of the Holidays to you.
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