NAUGHTY VIDEO: Canuck Conservative riffs on Liberal promises

Speaking at an event in Toronto yesterday, the Hon. Pierre Poilievre, leader of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition (the Conservative Party of Canada) told a little joke about why a bride was still a virgin in spite of three previous marriages.

If rumors that the Natural Governing Party plan to call a snap election after dropping a record deficit budget next Tuesday prove true, `ti-Pierre will have plenty of opportunities to hone his stand-up shtick on stumps from coast to coast to coast of Canuckistan. But can he make the frostbacks laugh hard enough to actually get up off their chesterfields [American readers can look that up. Ed.] and vote the rascals out?

"Canada's Trump" squeaks back into House of Commons

Battle River - Crowfoot is a riding (electoral district) in the southeast part of the Canadian province of Alberta, so ["half-vast"? Ed.] that it takes an entire day to drive through it. But that's what the Honourable Pierre Poilievre, erstwhile leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, has been doing (along with over 200 other candidates) for the last six weeks, to win a seat in Caanuckistan's House of Commons, having lost his Ottawa seat in the last general election.

After losing his seat in an upset, M Poilievre parachuted into one of Canada’s safest conservative districts -- despite not living there -- to win the by-election called when the Conservative who won the riding (with nearly 80% of the vote) graciously stepped aside to give  his place to his leader. Greater love hath no man. Here's Lucky Pierre on the campaign trail, explaining the horrible mistake Canuck voters made in last April's general election. 

Conservatives were watching closely to see if their leader could ease the worries of voters in the rural heartland [Hey, I've seen that series! Ed.] about how he'll handle the trade war fallout, connect with their economic struggles and bring Canadians together. Said the Mayor of Wainwright AB, "If he isn’t elected, we’d better get down on our knees and start praying, because the end of the world is coming."

It took until the wee hours of this morning, but Walt is pleased to report that M Poilievre led the polls right from the get-go, and beat 212 other candidates [This is not a joke. But it is another story. Ed.] garnering over 80% of the vote. Walt sez: Good for him! And good luck to him!

Election 2025: Are the Liberals going to fool Canadians a fourth time?

By the time you read this, Walt will be in Canada. [Too bad he didn't make it for last night's beyond-thrilling game between Washington and the Habs! Ed.] His mission is to find out whether the Canucks can really be so dumb as to re-elect the Trudeau Liberals, now fronted by Mark Carney, the member of the Laurentian elite who is already being called the Manchurian candidate.

Today's Toronto Sun editorial endorsing the opposition Conservatives, catalogues the many instances of Liberal corruption, incompetence, negligence and plain studity, including these.

* Out-of-control spending has massively increased the size and cost of the federal bureaucracy.  * Government spending on outside consultants skyrocketed to more than $15 billion in the 2022-23 fiscal year. 

* Sustainable Developoment Technology Canada, the jolly green slush fund, violated its conflict of interest policies 90 times, and awarded $59 million to 10 projects that were not eligible and frequently overstated the environmental benefits of its projects. 

* Meanwhile, Canada's armed forces were shamefully nickel-and-dimed, and defence spending became an international embarrassment. 

There's more, lots more misgovernment, but we only have so much space. The point is that the leader of the Liberal government may be different, but his cabinet isn’t. As the Tories' TV commercials say, it's the same old Toronto-Ottawa-Montréal liberal elites, with a new(ish) puppet out front.

Some might also say their branding is new. How do you like "Canada strong" for a persuasive election slogan? Eh? Agent 3 guesses that the Gliberals think Canuck voters have forgotten "The land is strong", a slogan coined by the late Rainmaker, Senator Keith Davey (L) for the 1972 federal election which resulted in a very slim victory for the Libereals, led by... wait for it... Trudeau -- Pierre that is, not Justin.

Maybe that's the problem, a kind of collective amnesia which has caused Canadians to forget, in less than three months, the endless stream of scandals, boondoggles and incompetent decisions inflicted on them for nearly ten years by the government of Trudeau the Son. 

Mr Carney is being hailed as a miracle worker who will single-handedly sweep aside all the problems faced by the Great No-longer-white North. But his cabinet cabinet is populated with the same people, reappointed by him when he assumed office, who brought us such examples of misrule as:

* The ArriveCAN scandal, which in 2020 saw almost $60 million spent on a sole-sourced contract for an app that's now not used and which a private developer said could have been developed over a weekend for a fraction of the price. 

* A massive increase of immigration, legal or illegal, by millions of foreigners who cannot or will not assimilate into Canadian culture, with no plan to house or otherwise accommodate them, other than to put them up in hotels at taxpayers' expense.

Until just this week, when the Liberals' lead in the opinion polls narrowed somewhat, all predictions have been that the man with the widow's hump would storm to victory, in spite of his total lack of charisma or ability to tell the truth about anything.

Mr Carnage's lead in the polls is slowly shrinking. Some models now suggest that a hung parliament is a strong possibility. But it could be worse than that for the poster boy for the WEF. His political inexperience, arrogant behaviour, massive ego, aloofness and reportedly "volcanic temper" have been on full display during the campaign. 

Don’t be surprised, then, if Monday's election result resembles the narrow victory of Emperor Trudeau the First in 1972, or... many Canadians hope and pray... a win, however narrow, for the Conservatives, whom Walt endorses. 

Canadians have had a chance to get to know the white knight who has entered the lists to save the Liberals from electoral disaster, and find that the more they know him, the less they like him. He did poorly in the two leaders' debates. He has swiped ideas from the Conservatives, kept most of Junior's Trudeau’s loony social and economic policies, and has suggested almost nothing new. 

Surely Canucks, distracted though they may be by Trump's trolling and the hockey playoffs, aren't going to be fooled a fourth time! Stay tuned!

Comment posted by "Linda1000" on Blazing Cat Fur: It's like the alzhiemer crowd is just walking in a trance to mark their X for Carney. Dear readers, you can post your comments on WWW, subject to moderation by Ed. of course. Just click on the headline, and this post will open in a new tab, with the comments window open.

Canadian political leaders debate -- what they REALLY said

We don't like to interrupt the Easter Triduum with worldly affairs, but since the Liberal government of Canuckistan has chosen to schedule the only face-to-face election debates with its opponents for the middle of Holy Week, we must devote today's post to the correction of misinformation, disinformation and false impressions created by the version of the English-language debate broadcast by the lickspittle, bought-and-paid-for "mainstream media".

Dear Canadian readers, what you saw on Thursday evening was not the real verbal exchange between Prime Minister pro tem Mark Carnage, Cuckservative leader Pierre "Pipi" Poilievre, and pinko socialist Sikh leader Jugmeat Singh. The "debate" you saw was generated by AI to make it appear as if Canada's "leaders" have at least the first clue about how to fix the No-longer-great No-longer-white North. Here's a summary of what they really said. 

Dear Canadian voters, the advance polls are open today and (sadly) on Easter Sunday. Get out there and vote for the least of the three evils. [He means Poilievre. Ed.]

Canadian election: Whose side is Trump on?

For our readers who don't live in the People's Republic of Canuckistan, here's a quick guide to what's happening in the general election, set for April 28th.

On the left in the photos below -- but not so hard left as his loony colleagues Steven Guilbeault and Chrystia Freeland -- is Mark Carney, leader of the Gliberal Party of Canada.Unlike the other two, Mr Carnage has never been elected to anything. But was Governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England. He is a banker, and a member of the WEF liberal elite.

On the right -- but not so hard right as his former colleague Maxime Bernier, now leader of the People's Party of Canada -- is Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. Mr Poilievre is a much-elected politician and former member of the cabinet of the much-unloved Steven Harpoon. This is his first test as leader of the Cuckservatives.

M Poilievre dislikes being referred to as "Pipi" (American readers note: it's pronounced "pee-pee".) He enjoyed being called "Canada's Donald Trump"... until recently.

For you see, gentle reader, the vast [or at least half-vast. Ed.] majority of Canucks dislike President Donald J. Trump. Intensely. Their fear and loathing of the Donald [That would make a good book title. If only HST were still alive. Ed.] has intensified since January 20th, owing to Mr Trump's straight-faced suggestions that Canada shoujld become the 51st of the Excited States of Canada, and his nonsensical campaign of tariffs to make it so.

The Liberal propagandists who run the state-owned CB C (Canadian Broadcorping Castration) as well and other lickspittle media (CBC) have put together a surprisingly effective TV commerical in which they juxtapose quotes from President Trump with quotes from Pipi, which shows them to be saying basically the same things. 

They're painting M Poilievre as "just like Trump", and it seems to be working. The Tories have plummeted in the polls while the Liberals have risen, and now lead by around five points. Having a new leader to replace the hated Emperor Trudeau has helped the Grits, but it's the comparison with POTUS that bites the Cuckservatives in the ass.

A few days before the election was called, President Trump made public out his unflattering opinion of M Poilievre, saying he is "not a MAGA guy." Pouncing on the chance to distance himself from Mr Trump, Pipi responded on X, "Mr President, it is true. I am not MAGA. I am for Canada First. Always. Canada has always been America’s best friend & ally. But we will NEVER be the 51st state."

President Trump attacked M Poilievre during a nearly hour-long interview with Ben Domenech, editor-at-large at the British magazine The Spectator. He warned Pipi not to make the mistake of thinking he will "be the tough guy"” and "knock out Trump. They all make that mistake… They end up getting the hell beat out of them."

Will saying that President Trump doesn't like him help the Cuckservative leader at the polls in which Canada's relations with the US of A be the chief issue? Was Mr Trump trying to give M Poilievre a boost by putting daylight between them? Is a puzzlement, especially given his Big Friendly Phone Call with the new Liberal leader yesterday..

Prime Minister Carnage and President Trump held their first-ever conversation on Friday, after which the former announced that they had agreed to comprehensive negotiations... after the upcoming federal election. Presumably if M Poilievre wins all bets are off.

"The spirit of the call was both cordial and focused on making progress," Mr Carney told the assembled lapdogs at a campaign event in  Montréal later in the day. You could almost hear the smirk on his face as he said, "The president respected Canada’s sovereignty today, both in his private and public comments."

Until yesterday, Mr Trump repeatedly trolled former PM Blackie McBlackiface, calling him "Governor Trudeau" of the hypothetical 51st state. But after the call, POTUS repeatedly referred to Mr Carnage as "prime minister".

And there was more (comparative) sweetness and light. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, President Trump said he will "absolutely" follow through on his threat of large-scale tariffs if Canada take actions against the American economy. Yet he also toned down his language toward Canada, who he has previously accused of ripping off and "cheating" the US of A on trade but declined to say so again. 

"I'm not referring to Canada," he said pointedly, "but many other countries have been taking advantage of us... We had a very good talk, the prime minister and myself, and I think things are going to work out very well between Canada and the United States."

What's going on? Why the sudden change of tone? Are yesterday's statements meant to help Mr Carnage by showing that Mr Trump can get along with him? Or to hurt Mr Carnage by showing that Mr Trump can get along with him? How would I know? President Trump's logic is too deep for me. I need my hip-waders.

VIDEO: Dr Jordan Peterson interviews Canadian PM-in-waiting

This video was recorded on 21 December 2024, and would have been nominated for a Wally Award, had we only known about Instead, we've already placed it on the list of possibilities for Most Important Polical Interview of 2025. 

Dr Jordan Peterson sits down with the Hon. Pierre Poilievre, Canadian member of Parliament (and Prime Minister-in-waiting. They discuss his role as Leader of the Opposition, the untapped energy sector, the real reason Canadians cannot afford homes, how Chief Walking Goose (aka Justin Trudeau) has walked the country off a cliff, and what will likely happen in the run-up to the much-anticipated 2025 election. 

This video has received nearly a 1.4 million views so far, and is well worth watching in full, but if you can't handle it all at once, there's a chapter index on the YouTube page.

 

This video has nothing to do with hockey or the weather, but we hope our Canadian readers and friends will be sufficiently motivated to get involved, and not make the same mistake they made three times already!

Canada's House of Death

The world leader pictured at lower right [should be left, no? Ed.] is Blackie McBlackface, Prime Minister of Canuckistan, with the dog who doubles as his deputy and Finance Minister. 

The lovely and talented dwarf [Which one is that? Ed.] will have her work cut out for her to find the $6.2 billion ($4.4 billion in real money) needed to pay for M Trudeau's latest attempt to bribe Canadians with their own money, but we'll come to that in a minute.

Her master returned to the House of Commons -- the lower house of Canada's Parliament -- on Wednesday, after a week of swanning around South America telling the Latinx not to worry about Trump, Canada will save the world. 

M Trudeau found things much as he left them, except that his bloated cabine has been reduced to 37 ministers, down from 38 at the beginning of the week. For stats freaks, 37 is 24% of the 153 Liberal Members of Parliament eligible for the extra salary and perqs that go with a cabinete position. How does the US of A manage to get along with a cabinet of only 7 or 8?

Canada's misgovernment will have to get along without the services of the Honourable Randy Boissonnault, who was the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages -- the title tells you all you need to know about Canada -- until he got caught in a web of lies about his racial status.

M Boissonnault has been under the microscope for months, from the House Ethics Committee's scrutiny of his former medical supply business partner's texts and subsequent probing around "the real Randy", to "revisions" of his past claims to indigenous identity. The Notional Pest revealed this week that the honourable minister is not a First Nations (read: Indian -- feathers, not turbans) person, but only a Pretendian. His previous claim that his great-grandmother was Cree was untrue, as was his claim that he had been adopted by a Cree family. That family turned out to be Métis, and in Canada that's a hyuge difference.

M Boissonnault has also previously said that upon re-election, he cut ties with the company he co-founded -- an assertion that’s been in question since last spring -- but faced new scrutiny recently after it came to light that the company claimed to be "Indigenous-owned", thus entitled under Liberal DEI rules to preferential treatment when bidding on federal contracts.  

Friday's announcement that Boissonnault had walked the plank came less than 24 hours after M McBlackface insisted that his only Alberta minister still had a place on the Liberal front benches. During Question Period, Cuckservative Leader Pierre Poilievre snarked, "Up until a minute ago, had a minister with a double identity. The prime minister knew the former minister was directing his business illegally from inside cabinet. He knew the former minister had claimed there was another Randy when there was no other Randy. He knew the former minister had falsely claimed to be Indigenous… yet he stood by him up until yesterday."

Little Potato (that's what the Chinese call him) responded by restating, "the member for Edmonton Centre has stepped down from cabinet to focus on clearing these allegations." So that's all right then.

To take Canucks' minds off this latest scandal, M Trudeau and his dog announced on Thursday a gigantic Christmas Winter Holiday gift to the shivering frostbacks, in the form of a two-month "tax holiday" from the hated GST on numerous items, such as Christmas Winter Holiday trees, to take effect on December 14th. Who buys a Christmas Winter Holiday tree in the middle of December?

But wait (the Gliberals said), there's going to more. Every Canadian who worked in 2023 but made less than C$150,000 will get a cheque for $250. How about that?! Those who were unemployed, and senior Canucks living on their pensions get squat, but that too is all right.

But there's a fly in the ointment. [Isn't there always? Ed.] To be able to cut the cheques, the Gliberals will need to get a supply (American readers, read: appropriations) bill through Parliament, which means the House of Commons since the Canadian Senate is only a rubber stamp. Unfortunately, the House has effectively shut down. 

On Monday, the House will mark two months in which it hasn’t actually done anything. MPs are showing up to work, petitions are being tabled and quips and japes are being hurled across, the floor, but bills aren't getting passed, votes aren't being held and legislation isn't being debated. In other words, the MPs, although collecting their pay, aren't doing anything to earn it.

With no routine supply bills being approved, parts of the federal government could start running out of money as early as December 10th, according to the President of the Treasury Board, who last week tabled a $21.6 billion supply bill, which is simply mouldering on the order paper with everything else. Adding another $6.2 billion won't make life any easier for the Natural Governing Party.

In fact, the Trudeaunians can't do anything at all, owing to the current gridlock, which was caused by a demand by the opposition parties, for access to unredacted copies of documents, including e-mails, related to alleged [LMAO. Ed.] corruption at Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), a foundation that funds and supports "clean technoloy innovation" (read: greenscam). 

The SDTC is also known as the Green Slush Fund. Back in September, the House (in which the Liberals do not have a majority) passed a motion requiring every scrap of paper related to the SDTC to be handed "forthwith" to the Mounties for "investigation". So far, most of the documents the Liberals have turned over have been severely redacted. Whole passages have been blacked out, and hundreds of pages withheld. 

On September 26th, Speaker Greg Fungus told the Trudeau government that this was against the rules, and that the House of Commons was owed unredacted documents. When the Liberals continued to refuse, the Conservatives responded by seizing the wheel of the House, by tabling a motion to refer the issue to a committee, where the matter has been debated ever since.

Since the debate is on an issue of Parliamentary privilege, it takes precedence over absolutely everything else, including more than a dozen pending bills that haven't been touched in two months. The Bloc Québécois or the NDP could table a motion to end the debate, but they haven’t. Whether the proposal to declare a "tax holiday" will dynamite the log jam remains to be seen.

Canadians are itching to get rid of Chief Walking Goose, and would dearly love him to call a snap election ASAP. It seems more likely that he will hang on until the last minute, which would be 20 October 2025, according to the fixed-date provisions of the Canada Elections Act. Among the Liberal proposals languishing on the Order Paper is one which would postpone the date to 27 October 27, to avoid conflicting with Diwali. Surprised? 

The one-week delay would ensure that dozens of MPs, of all parties, would "serve" (as they call it) long enough to qualify for generous pensions, even if they are defeated in the next go-round. If you're still suprised, you don't understand Trudeau's Canada. But so what. The only things that matter to Canadians are hockey and beer. Watching a game of shinny while slurping up a bucket of suds and whining about the government... that's Canada.

Happy Canada Day? Errr, maybe not

Well, it's Canada Day again, the 157th anniversay of Confederation, which brought together four British colonies -- more were added later -- into what was called the Dominion of Canada. Now Canada is not a "dominion", according to Prime Minister Blackie McBlackface, but a "post-national state" which "old stock" (read: of European descent) Canadians have started to call "Canuckistan".

According to a poll published last week, 70% of Canadians aren't happy with the Canada that the Trudeaus, père et fils, have reshaped according to their vision. The poll, conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Global News between the 12th and 14th of June, revealed that 70% agree with Cuckservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre that Canada is broken! 

When asked "Compared to five years ago, are you more or less likely to do the following?", they responded:

Just over one-third (35%) say they are less likely to feel proud to be Canadian, while only 16% say they are more likely. Roughly three in ten say they are less likely to attend a Canada Day event or display a Canadian flag around the holiday. Similar proportions say they are more (27%) and less (27%) likely to speak positively about Canada to those not from Canada, but negative sentiment is on the rise. On Indigenous issues specifically, 33% say they're more likely to learn about Indigenous history compared to five years ago, but even this figure is waning, down six points since last year.

Compared to June 2023, the portion of Canadians who say they are less likely now to do any of these things has grown, especially when it comes to pride in being Canadian and speaking positively about Canada, while the portions of those more likely has fallen. When asked if they agree or disagree with Pierre Poilievre that Canada is “broken,” 70% say they agree – with 32% saying they strongly agree.

What is the source of this increasing dissatisfaction? Ipsos didn't ask that, but other polls suggest that true Canadian hosers are fed up with DEI, wokeism in general, and, first and foremost, the person named in this year's best-selling Canada Day flag.

Further reading: Speaking of polls, and why old stock Canadians (in French, pure laine or canadiens de souche) are so pissed off, see: "Canadians' concerns about immigration levels on the rise", Western Standard, 30/6/24. Trudeau's "Diversity is our strength" mantra is the veriest bullshit!

VIDEO: Remarkable speech: politician calls for humility and free will

It's very unusual for a politician to utter anything than vaguely religious platitudes when speaking to an audience of Christians. Indeed, many would not even attend such a gathering for fear of offending the non-believers and anti-Christians who dominate the polity in today's secular humanist society. 

Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada (and, please God, Prime Minister in waiting) is not that type of mealy-mouthed politician. On May 7th, he addressed the National Prayer Breakfast, an annual event held in Ottawa under the authority of the speakers of the Senate and the House of Commons on behalf of the Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast Group. 

M Poilievre had the temerity to bring up some important points that most pols would prefer not to discuss. For instance... "Minister" means "servant", as in servant of the people, someone who ministers to the needs of those who elect them. Being a good minister means being humble and listening to the people.

And another... God told people what's right and what's wrong, and gave them free will to choose beetween the two. He did not try to force His will on the people, but told them what He wanted, and the consequences of doing otherwise.

Finally... At the end of the day, God is in His Heaven, and He will reign, unto the end of time, no matter what mere mortals do. As the psalmist wrote (45:11 DRV): "Be still and see that I am God; I will be exalted amont the nations, and I will be exalted in the earth."

VIDEO: Attn Americans: Canada's housing hell

I always LMAO when I hear Hollywood celebs like Cher, Barbra Streisand and Robber Reiner threaten to move to Canada when -- notice, "when", not "if" -- President Trump is re-elected. I'd like to see them try it!

Suppose one of them has a house valued at a million dollars in Malibu and is tired of having illegal alien migrants sleep and shitting on the beach in front of them. Xe has a house worth a million dollars. That should be about 1.35 million beaverbucks, right? That should get you a decent house in Canada, right? Wrong! That's about the average price of a modest single-family house in Toronto, such as this.

I'm exaggerating a bit. You wouldn't get that much land with the bungalow in Toronto. Maybe out in Dundalk ON, but not in Toronto, where 30-foot lots are the norm and "laneway houses" are starting to appear. Yeah, you might get a laneway house for $1,000,000.

The fact is, as Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre explains in this video, that affordable housing is beyond the reach of the vast majority of the subjects of Justin Trudeau, Emperor of All Canuckistan. Young Canucks starting out today have abandoned all hope of ever owning a house, and a great many can't even afford to rent, so they wind up couch-surfing or living with mom and dad. Canada really is "housing hell".

  

 

Tom Mulcair, the former leader of Canada's socialist NDP, now a talking head for the liberal CTV network, calls this video "just about the best piece of political communication Canadians have ever been treated to, and...devastating for Trudeau." 

As I explained in yesterday's post, it may be years yet before hapless Canucks get the chance to turf out the master narcissist. But our American readers are less than year away from their opportunity to give the boot to Demented Joe Biden, whose "Bidenomics" are having the same effect on the US of A. If you don't believe me, just take a walk (if you dare) around any American city. You won't have to go far to see "homeless encampments" -- remember "Hoovervilles"? -- even worse than than those in Trudeau's Canada.

Both the USA and Canada are broken. The lot of the average Canadian or American is worse than at any time since the Great Depression. The blame lies squarely at the doors of the liberal governments of Corrupt Joe Brandon and Blackie McBlackface. Resist them in any and every way you can!

Further viewing: "Advice on moving to Canada (if Trump wins)", VIDEO by Gavin McInnes, WWW 27/4/16. Poor Len Canayen and Walt himself approve Gavin's toque!

Whither the People's Party of Canada?

As reported here last Sunday, the self-styled Conservative Party of Canada, having failed under two "moderate" leaders -- Andrew Scheep and Erin O'Tool -- to distinguish itself from the ruling Liberals, has now chosen a new and (they hope) better leader, Pierre Poilievre.

The lickspittle media long ago labelled M Poilievre as a "right wing populist" and "the Canuck version of to Donald Trump". Hardly. Populist he may be, but, as I told you way back in April in "The problem with Poilievre", he is no social conservative, let alone a turn-back-the-clock right-winger. He reminds me not so much of The Donald as of a nasty, bilingual version of Ronald Reagan.

Earlier this week, the new Tory leader [Canadians have stopped using that word. Ed.] announced his new leadership team on Tuesday. Left on the outside looking in was Leslyn Lewis, MP, seen here at the Freedom Rally in Ottawa last February.

Dr Lewis, who has a perfect rating on issues pertaining to life and family. Despite presenting a strong pro-life, pro-faith message, she finished third in the CPC leadership race. 

But there's no room in Pierre Poilievre's coterie for such as she. The press release included an image of "My inflation-busting leadership team", standing together in front of those same Parliament buildings.

One of PP's team is Melissa Lantsman, a proud lesbian Member of Parliament. Another is Ontario MP Eric Duncan, an openly homosexual man, who was appointed to party-caucus liaison,

Another notable absent from the team was former party leader Erin O'Tool, who was ousted quickly after he took a squishy stance on February's Freedom Convoy. M Poilievre's choice of MPs with anti-life and pro-LGBT voting records are not surprising, considering he himself has been given a failing grade by Campaign Life Coalition due to his pro-abortion voting record.

Where will the Conservative Party's more traditionalist and libertarian members, like Andrew Scheer, go now? Will they sit on the back bench, behind PP (on the left, wearing the pink tie) or will they join Canada's only truly conservative party, the People's Party of Canada, led by Maxime Bernier, on the right. (Geddit?)

The choice will be difficult, if not impossible, even for Dr Lewis, for the simple reason that the PPC seems destined for the ashheap of Canadian political history. They have been languishing at 4-5 per cent in public opinion polls, which is remarkable for a party founded only recently. 

But they have no seats in Parliament -- "Mad Max" failed for the second time to win his own riding of Beauce -- and are in grave danger of being crushed by the stampede of conservatives hurrying to get aboard the CPC bandwagon, since M Poilievre looks certain to beat the socks of Just In Trudeau whenever the latter dares to call an election.

Walt's headline question, then, might better be: Wither the People's Party of Canada? It's sad.

Worth watching: "Individuality and Autonomy: Maxime Bernier and the PPC", recorded by Dr Jordan B. Peterson on The JBP Podcast, exactly a year ago.

Further reading (added 17/9/22): "The Trudeau factor in Pierre Poilievre's big win", by good ole Rex Murphy in the National Post. Subhead: "Conservative chief's leadership campaign was greatly helped by the Liberals' increasingly embarrassing feats of incompetence"

Everything happened at once, Part 2

Pierre Poilievre, the new Conservative (?) leader

Over four months ago, I told you that Pierre Poilievre, was the front-runner in the race to become the third leader of the so-called Conservative Party of Canada since the defeat of Steve Harpoon in 2015.

Last night, in the greatest non-event shown on Canadian TV since the Toronto Maple Leafs bowed out of the first round of last spring's Stanley Cup playoffs, M Poilievre won the leadership on the first ballot, garnering 68% of the points available. Jean Charest, the ex-Liberal still-liberal candidate, finished a distant second, with 16%.

 M Poilievre urged Canucks to Ètake back control of your life!" Now that he has won the party, and has a good chance of winning the country, M Charest's supporters, the liberals, the leftists and the lickspittle media of Canuckistan are quaking in their boots that he will do what he promised.

The meme above was published during the leadership campaign and was (I supposed) meant to scare people into voting for a "less extreme" candidate. If I had been voting, I would have taken the likening of Pierre Poilievre to Dr Jordan Peterson as a ringing endorsement. 

After two leaders who apparently stood for nothing, Canada's Conservatives desperately need a leader who espouses and will fight for conservative values. Alas, I told you in "The problem with Poilievre" (WWW 30/4/22), M Poilievre is not that man. He is pro-abortion, pro-immigration, and pro-queer. The real conservative candidate was Leslyn Lewis, who finished third.  

So when the inevitable Rosie Tuchhus, covering the proceedings on CBC-TV, said Lucky Pierre would have to move to the centre and adopt a more moderate, conciliatory tone, in order to win the country, she was wrong. The attack dog won't change, because he doesn't need to.

M Poilievre has identified and tapped into the anger most Canadians feel about inflation, the lack of affordable housing, and the endless "mandates" (e.g. the ArriveCAN app) which take away their freedom. Thus he has created a populist groundswell similar to that which propelled President Trump into the Oval Office, all without straying from the path of political correctness on the issues which count for true conservatives.

He preaches classic conservatism -- smaller government; getting natural resources to market; less government interference in people's personal and professional lives; ending the Liberals' efforts to censor the Internet; defunding the CBC and ending media bailouts; and fiscal restraint, after a long period without it. 

All those policies find favour not just with hard-right conservatives, but the average Canuck. The chattering classes spent hours trying to figure out M Poilievre's appeal to young Canadians, who turned out in 1000s at his rallies. It wasn't hard to understand. They are looking, hoping... and will be voting... for at least a partial return to the lifestyle their parents and grandparents enjoyed. Or just some help paying the bills. Or just to be left alone. 

That's why Pierre Poilievre will knock the socks off Blackie McBlackface in the next election, whenever it comes. You read it here first!

VIDEO: Pierre Poilievre talks about old wood (???) - a message for freedom-loving conservatives everywhere

For those readers, especially Americans, who don't follow Canadian politics [Why would they? Ed.], let me bring you up to speed. By comparison with the Excited States, Canada is a pretty laid-back... or just plain dull... country. And Canucks like it that way. They generally elect governments which are either slightly to the left or (occasionally) slightly to the right of centre. There hasn't been a really conservative Conservative federal government since Adam was a little boy.

It has therefore come as a shock to the liberal Laurentian establishment that someone who sounds like a conservaative-cum-populist, in the mould of Donald Trump, looks like becoming the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, and, quite possibly, the next prime minister of Canuckistan.

That someone is Pierre Poilievre, about whom I've written before. Mr Poilievre is not truly a social conservative like Leslyn Lewis, the dark horse on the right. He has refused to grasp the nettles of the abortion, gay "marriage" and critical race theory issues. See "More on Poilievre and Lewis + Brown", WWW 2/5/22.

He has, however, championed the cause of freedom from Big Government, associating himself with the leaders of last winter's Freedom Convoy, and condemning Emperor Justin's use of emergency powers to impose vaccine and other mandates on the Canadian sheeple.

In so doing, he distances himself from Jean Charest -- the last of the Red Tories -- and Patrick Brown, the puppet of the World Sikh Organization of Canada. [The link is for those who think Walt is making this up. Ed.] This week the CPC disqualified Mr Brown for violating was campaign rules and (possibly) the Elections Act. 

That leaves John James Charest (his real name) as the only serious (?) candidate of the old "Conservative" establishment, with the likely outcome of September's vote being the coronation of Lucky Pierre. But M Poilievre isn't taking a landslide win for granted. His team has just released a clever and skillfully made video, in which he waxes poetic over some old planks. What does this have to do with conservative values? Check it out.  

 

For those who didn't or couldn't watch the video, here's a synopsis. Mr Poilievre at home in Ottawa admiring a wooden post he recovered from an old barn and used in a DIY project. Early lumberjacks hewed it from logs, he says, leaving the scars of their axes as evidence of their labour. Then he turns to the planks on the wall. He bought them from a farmer, and spent hours cleaning and restoring them. 

Why? Because they tell a story about the people who fashioned them and the elements that weathered them. All he did, he says, was to reclaim what was already there in the wood. And reclaiming Canadians' lost freedom is what his campaign is about. That's his message.

Liberals, he explains, have been trying to build a kind of utopia, knocking down statues, sweeping away history and banning words as they go. This is nothing but a pretext to give themselves "vast new powers," which they've been trying to do all through the past seven years of Liberal government.

"Reclaim your life," he concludes. "Reclaim your freedom!" That's a powerful message -- a challenge which ought to resonate with not just the sheeplike Canucks, but with Americans, Britons and lovers of freedom throughout the western world. Walt says, "Right on!"

Pragmatism trumps progressivism in Ontario election

Ed. here. Walt has sent us this report from somewhere north of the longer of America's undefended borders. 

As Ed. told you yesterday, the politics of the Canadian province4 of Ontario has been dominated for most of the post-WWII 20th century by a party with the oxymoronical name of "Progressive Conservative". A 42-year dynasty began just three days after Walt was born, ending only in June of 1985. 

The Liberals had their longest run from 2003 until 2018, when the government of proudly lesbian Kathleen Wynne was defeated by a political novice named Doug Ford, the little big [hardly! Ed.] brother of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford. The Liberals finished third, losing official party status. 

The question to be answered in yesterday's provincial election was: could Doug Ford, in spite of struggles with a faltering economy and the Covid "crisis", hang onto power? Here's the answer.

The "Ontario PCs" (the monker preferred by Mr Ford) won a second majority government, with twice as many seats as all the other parties combined! But wait, there's more.... The crushing victory forced the resignation of the leaders of the parties of the left and more-left. The Greens' Mike Schreiner held onto his own seat, and his position as "leader" of a party of one.

Andrea Horwath, leader of the socialistic "New" Democratic Party, was re-elected, but is stepping down as leader despite the party regaining Official Opposition status. Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca failed to regain the Vaughan-Woodbridge riding, and announced his immediate retirement. Although the Liberals won one (1) more seat than last time, they didn't meet the threshold for official party status in the Onterio legislature.

So what happened to the "progressive" parties who were touted by the lickspittle media as likely to reduce the Ford "Conservatives" to a minority? Goodness knows they pulled out all the stops in their efforts to bribe Ontario taxpayers with their own  money.

The Liberals, who occupy a place on the political spectrum roughly equivalent to that of the American Dumbocrats, offered a lengthy shopping list, free of any concern about cost, because of course the rich would pay "their fair share", and "efficiencies" would make up any shortfall. Their promises included: 

- a "buck-a-ride" for mass transit anywhere in the million-square-km province

- billions for "affordable" housing (especially for Indigenous people, to make reparations for the misdeeds of the evil colonizers)

- more billions for "assisted-living" and "social and community" housing (like council flats in the UK or "projects" in the USA)

- and still more for elder care, home care and hospital care.

But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's even more! Rent controls for anyone not covered by all the new housing; cheaper food; cheaper gasoline; cheaper daycare; new and better schools; a "dementia care" network to help people like Sleepy Joe Biden (if he moves to Canada after his long overdue retirement); more nurses, more surgeries, more mental health workers; more money for seniors, a possible four-day work week and "living wage" for all. All this would be paid for by, errr, someone else.

The NDP offered similar slices of pie in the sky, while saying that they thought of it first, and that they were the only party with a chance of defeating the "Conservatives". (Ms Horwath didn't specify the odds of that happening, which were about 100-1.)

For his part, Doug Ford, simply promised to get things done:

- build a new superhighway to make it easier to go around rather than through Toronto (a pretty good idea!)

- train more future workers, particularly skilled tradesmen [tradespersons? Ed.]

- make it easier for educated immigrants (with degrees) to practise their professions (there are enough "refugee" Uber drivers already)

- build more hospitals and expand the capacity of the province's health-care system.

The beauty of the PC plan -- if you could call "more of the same" a plan -- was that it consists primarily of things that are already budgeted for and in progress. Mr Ford promised no radical changes in policy or priorities. That's not who he is. He's uninterested in policy, and certainly not ideology. He's a politician of the "extreme centre", a middle-of-the-road guy, the epitome of pragmatism. And that, it seems, is exactly what the people of Ontario want.

There are lessons for both liberals and conservatives in Mr Ford's crushing of the leftist ideologues. Canada's federal Liberals and their NDP hangers-on should learn that large numbers of voters are fed up with ideology-driven tax-and-spend policies that benefit every minority and pressure group in sight, but not the silent majority who (along with their children and grandchildren) must pay the bills.

There are implications for the federal Conservatives too, as they search for a new leader. The current front-runner is Pierre Poilievre, who holds himself out as a real conservative, although "social conservatives" snort when they hear that. Mr Poilievre is the attack dog type, snarling and going for the throats of the feckless liberals, not a folksy retail politician like Doug Ford. 

If Canadian Conservatives are interested in beating the Trudeau Liberals, rather than just scoring debating points, they might look again at Jean Charest, l'homme d'hier. He's the type who would appeal to the mushy middle, and those are the people who gave Mr Ford two massive victories in a row, the second even greater than the first. 

The trouble is that if M Charest were to become prime minister, the people of Canada would be only marginally better off than they are now, through not having endure any more Trudeau virtue-signalling. What should you do if you're a conservative Canuck? Is a dilemma....

Quote of the day: "The premier’s guiding philosophy of Ford Nation combines populist rhetoric and conservative principles. It’s a concoction of lower taxes, reducing government interference, supporting individual rights and freedoms — and giving more power back to the people. These are ideas that many Ontarians, both conservative and non-conservative in ideology, strongly believe in and support." Michael Taube, in the National Post, 3/6/22.

Further reading: "Lessons from the Ontario election", by Warren Kinsella, Toronto Sun, 3/6/22. Subhead: Doug Ford won -- and won for his party and team -- because he is a HOAG: A Hell Of A Guy.

Canada's "Conservatives" bar three SoCons from leadership race

Turns out there are more people who, for some unaccountable reason, want to lead the self-styled "Conservative" Party of Canada than I told you about on Monday. Agent 3, who follows the politics of Canuckistan more closely than I do -- I can't handle the smell up close -- says there are not four, but six candidates who will appear on the ballot when party members vote for a new leader in September.

On Monday, and previously in "The problem with Poilievre", WWW 30/4/22, I gave you the rundown on Pierre Poilievre, Jean Charest, Leslyn Lewis and Patrick Brown, who presently rank in that order in the opinion polls. But who are those other guys, the two in the top row?

Conservative Member of Parliament Scott Aitchison and Independent Ontario MPP Roman Baber have also been accepted by the cuckservatives in charge of organizing the leadership election as "verified" candidates. That means they proved they had at least C$300,000 (about $235,000 in readl money) to get through the toll gate, plus 500 endorsement signatures from members in 30 different ridings. 

Scott Aitchison is the only candidate who could be described as a non-city person. He represents the truly beautiful Ontario riding of Parry Sound-Muskoka and concerns himself with issues relevant to farmers and other real people. In particular, Mr Aitchison wants to see an end to Canada's crazy supply management system, which makes things like milk and eggs cost more than they do across the border. That was the hill Maxime Bernier chose to die on in 2017... and die he did.

(((Roman Baber))) emigrated from the Soviet Union with his family to Israel, thence to Canada. The Jewish lawyer was elected to the Ontario legislature as a Progressive Conservative, representing the Toronto ghetto of York Centre. Whyen he had the temerity to oppose vaccine mandates and lockdowns, he got booted out of the PC caucus and now sits as an Independent. He says he believes in "democratic conservatism", whatever that means.

Today's real news, though, is that the Conservative party elite rejected three putative candidates, even though they had the money and the signatures, because they were "unacceptable" for reasons which were not explained.  According to the party's leadership election rules, the Leadership Candidate Nomination Committee, the group of party stalwarts reviewing applications from leader wannabes, can take into consideration "any other information they see fit to ascertain the suitability of an applicant." They can then recommend to the organizing committee that a particular candidate be barred from running. 

Three candidates have been told "Thanks for coming out. Now bugger off." Joël Étienne, another lawyer from Toronto, and the only genuine French-speaker to put his name forward, told Radio-Canada he personally delivered the required paperwork to CPC HQ Friday afternoon, well before the deadline, but was told that the party wouldn't accept a credit card as payment for some of the necessary fees. M Étienne also said the party rejected some of the signatures he collected as "invalid", withouot saying why.

Joseph Bourgault, a Saskatchewan business owner (Bourgault Tillage Tools, if you need a good hoe), is a social conservative who was strongly endorsed by Campaign Life Coalition. In addition to his anti-abortion credentials, Bourgault was a member of the Freedom Convoy and participated in protests against COVID-related measures like vaccine mandates earlier this year. Obviously such "unacceptable views" (as Mr Socks would say) made him unfit to stand.

Grant Abraham, a consultant [lawyers and consultants, consultants and lawyers -- will it never end? Ed.] also didn't make the cut. In a social media post, his campaign said Mr Abraham was told Sunday he has been "deemed ineligible" by the party. He has criticized Conservative MPs for failing to stop Bill C-4, the Liberal government's ban on conversion therapy. He has also called for a return to a "Judeo-Christian framework" in Canada and an end to secularism. And he's surprised he won't be on the ballot? Really?

That leaves Leslyn Lewis as the only social conservative candidate. (The position of Messrs Aitchison and Baber on abortion and similar issues is unknown.) The Laurentian elites can't touch Ms Lewis because she's too well-known and because... well, you get the picture. She's the "Conservative" answer to the objection that the party is dominated by straight white men.

They have no answer, though, to the charge that the CPC is dominated by the old "Bay Street boys". All of the "acceptable" candidates are from Ontario. Mr Charest pretends to be a Québecer but according to  every poll is reviled by real Québécois. There are no candidates from west of Lake Huron or east of Montréal. Mr Poilievre, born and raised in Calgary, turned his back on the West the minute he arrived in Ottawa at the age of 24, and wouldn't know which end of a straw to put in his mouth. Expect Western alienation to intensify, no matter who wins.

Expect also a flight of real conservative Conservatives to a truly conservative party. No matter who wins, only Max Bernier's People's Party of Canada will be strengthened by the Conservatives' internecine war. Lifetime pct .990.

UPDATED: Roe v. Wade to be overturned? What happens then?

Pierre Poilievre, front-run in the Conservative Party of Canada's third leadership election in six years, should be glad to be alive. As Walt told you in "The problem with Poilievre" (WWW 30/4/22), his mother was a 16-year-old, unwed, Irish-Canadian Catholic. Although Canada had allowed abortions (with restrictions and mandatory counselling first) since 1969, abortion on demand wasn't permissible until the Supreme Court of Canada decided R. v. Morgenthaler in 1988. Mr Poilievre was born in 1979.

I mention this because Breitbart News reports this morning that what purports to be a draft of an opinion in Case No. 19-1392 in the Supreme Court of the United States, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The opinion, possibly written by Justice Samuel Alioto, would overrule Roe v. Wade, which made abortion on demand legal in the USA.

If the document is genuine, leaking it would be an act of betrayal by one of the 45 people with access to such material, all of them sworn to reveal not a word of any discussions or opinions until an opinion has been signed by at least five justices. The leak of this draft would be one of the greatest scandals to ever hit America's highest court 

A key part of the possible draft reads: "It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives." It makes the case that where the Constitution is silent, the American people govern themselves through elections and elected leaders, not federal judges. 

It quotes the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who said, "The permissibility of abortion, and the limitations upon it, are to be resolved like most important questions in our democracy: by citizens trying to persuade one another and then voting.That is what the Constitution and the rule of law demand."

BN moots the possibility that draft opinion (if it is genuine) is an attempt to intimidate one or more justices to reverse their vote, or to ignite a liberal brushfire to pack the Supreme Court before Democrats lose control of Congress in November's mid-term elections.

The usual Democratic suspects, who all seem to have received copies of the leaked document overnight, issued statements of outrage, disgust, yada yada yada just before sunrise. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck "Charles" Schumer said SCOTUS seemed "poised to inflict the greatest restriction of rights in the past 50 years – not just on women but on all Americans."

Hellery Clinton, former secretary of state, former first lady, and former (and future?) contender for the presidensity, called the opinion "outrageous". (Apparently the adjective "unacceptable", meaning contrary to the liberal orthodoxy, has not been we widely adopted by the Democrats as by the Liberals of Canuckistan.)

Another Dumbocrat, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, said the draft opinion was a "disgraceful attack" on "women's right to choose", and said abortion would "always be safe and accessible" in the Empire State.

Ms Hochul was probably thinking about a recent report from the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion policy and research NGO, on the probable effects of the overthrow of Roe v. Wade. They estimated that the 26 states coloured in red(ish), mostly in the South and Midwest, would ban abortion, and people in those states would need to travel, in some cases for days, to reach a clinic in a state with liberal abortion laws, coloured in blue(ish).

There should be a boom, then, in abortion tourism, and Ms Hochul expects New York to benefit. Visit the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty and have an unwelcome appendage removed at the same time.

Ms Hochul has probably not thought about [or, being American, is unaware of... Ed.] the competition from clinics on the north side of the World's Longest Undefended (and how!) Border. In Vancouver and Toronto, which have huge south Asian communities, sex-selective abortion -- killing unwanted girl babies -- is not just legal but a going concern. How terrible for the USA if the draft opinion is confirmed. More business lost to those crazy-but-progressive Canucks! 

Further reading: "After Chanting Outside SCOTUS All Night, Crowd Of Worshippers Still Can't Get Moloch To Answer Them", Babylon Bee, 3/5/22. Is it satire or not? You be the judge. [Geddit? Ed.]

UPDATE ADDED @ 1330: Further reading: "Supreme Court confirms leaked opinion on Roe v. Wade is 'authentic' but not a 'final position'", LifeSite News, 3/5/22. "Pro-lifers will have to wait a bit longer to find out if Roe v. Wade has really been overturned." If you don't want to wait, sign the petition at the bottom of the LifeSite page.

It is said that SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts has ordered the Marshal of the Court to investigate how the virtually unprecedented leak occurred. Walt's suggestion: Ask the most recent appointee to the bench what she knows!

The problem with Poilievre

 As I was saying... The front-runner in the race to become the third leader of the Conservative Party of Canada since the defeat of Steve Harpoon in 2015 is Pierre Poilievre, who says that he is running not for the Tory leadership, but to become Prime Minister of Canada. 

The Canadian parliamentary system [Is dis a system? Mr Natural] doesn't work quite that way, since Canucks don't elect their prime minister directly, as Americans do their president. But no matter. M Poilievre promises to make Canada "the freest nation on earth" and urges Canucks to "take back control of your life!"

M Poilievre (the one on the left) chooses freedom from the overarching command and control of Emperor Trudeau's nanny state as the hill on which he will die. Or so he says. That's why he supported the Freedom Convoy. But for doing so he has been attacked by the leader wannabe, currently a distant second in the race, the once-and-future liberal Jean Charest.

John James "Jean" Charest is Yesterday's Man. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1984 as a Progressive Conservative, and served in several federal cabinet positions between 1986 and 1993. He became the leader of the PC Party in 1993 and remained in the role until he saw a better opportunity, and jumped into provincial (Québec) politics in 1998, as leader of the Québec Liberal Party. The Liberals formed the government in 2003, and M Charest held the office of Premier until 2012.

Now Jean Charest, or "JC" as his supporters call him, has risen from the political dead, and stalks the land, zombie-like, urging Conservatives to put "Progressive" back in the party's name, and save Canada from the evil conservative PP.

In fact, M Poilievre is no conservative, at least when it comes to social issues. He is pro-choice (read: pro-abortion). He does not propose to close Canada's porous border, or reduce immigration levels to a number which would be acceptable to most Canadians [like zero? Ed.] He does not promise to cut taxes and/or reduce out-of-control government spending. His pitch is "to make Canada the freest nation* on earth" -- sufficiently vague that it can be embraced by everyone from "moderate conservatives" to the rightist hard core.

And that's the problem with Pierre Poilievre. At the end of the day, he's still a professional politician, more interested in power than principle. After graduating from the University of Calgary, he founded (with a partner)  a company called 3D Contact Inc., which focused on providing political communications, polling and research services. He worked on Stockwell "Doris" Day's campaign for the leadership of the Canadian Alliance, a short-lived successor to the PC Party, and after Mr Day's tenure as Leader of the Official Opposition, worked for him as an advisor.

In 2004, at the tender age of 24, Pierre Poilievre was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament for the Ottawa-area riding of Carleton, and  he's been there ever since. He served in Steve Harpoon's cabinet from 2013 until the Tories got the boot in 2015, and now sits on the other side of the House as Bad Cop to the Good Cop of the two Fredos who've held the title of Leader of the Opposition.

One more thing. M Poilievre is not as French-Canadian as his name suggests. In fact he's not French-Canadian at all. The little bastard's biological mother was 16 years old when she gave birth to him, and is of Irish descent. Her father, whom  wee Pierre first met as an adult, was Irish-Canadian. [Sure and what's wrong with that?! Ed.]  

M Poilievre was born in Calgary, and adopted at birth by schoolteachers Marlene and Donald Poilievre. He was raised in Calgary and has never been heard to speak a word of French. *If he were even somewhat bilingual, he'd know better than to use the word "nation" in his campaign slogan, because in French, "nation" means a people, not a nation-state as is the meaning in English. So in multi-cultural Canada, particularly in la Belle Province, "nation" is a loaded word.

A good politician -- a professional politician -- is like a good defenceman in hockey. He'll go hard into the corner and do What Must Be Done, and emerge smiling, and occasionally licking drops of blood off his teeth. Winning is the name of the game for Pierre Poilievre. He talks the conservative talk right now, because he wants to win the Conservative leadership. But winning the party is not the same as winning the country, and if M Poilievre has to ditch conservative principles and policies for the sake of appealing to the moderate majority of Canadians, that's what he'll do.

Coming soon-ish: The other contenders for the Conservative leadership, and how I'd play it if I were [Sorry. You're out of space again. Ed.]

Angry Canucks hit the streets again; cowardly Conservatives MIA

Ed. tells me that at least one reader has demanded to know where I've been since Tuesday. He (the reader) accuses Ed. of having me drawn and quartered, then burying me in the backyard, under the blanket of creeping charlie. Terrible stuff that. If you stand still for more than five seconds it'll curl around your shoes and pull you down.

The accusation is baseless, of course. Ed. doesn't have a horse, let alone the four required for a proper quartering. In fact Ed. hates horses, because they're smarter than he is. Smarter, in fact, than most humans and all animals except maybe pigs. And there's some debate about that.

Pigs are very smart. Did you know that pigs can be trained to shit in one corner of their pen and to push, with their snouts, a button which flushes the excreta into a trough? I have seen it with mine own eyes, at the Central Experimental in Ottawa, Canada.

Which brings me to the reason for my absence. I was preparing to be part of the latest iteration of February's Freedom Convoy, which saw 100s of truckers and other fed-up Canadians take to the streets of the world's second-coldest capital to protest against vaccine mandates, Just In Trudeau, censorship, Trudeau, the lickspittle media, Trudeau, Covid lockdowns, Trudeau, inflation, and... You get the picture.

The new rally for freedom, unfolding right now, has been dubbed "Rolling Thunder", and I thought I would fit right in, since Mrs Walt says rolling thunder is the noise I make when we play "Dutch Oven" in bed on cold winter nights. Turns out the new protest is being led, not by truckers but by bikers! So it seemed you needed a motorcycle to participate, and I won't get on one of those things since Dave (an old buddy of Agent 6 and my goodself) got seriously injured when his bike jumped on top of him.

So I didn't go, and spent last night in the company of Poor Len Canayen, watching the final game of the Montréal Canadiens' season, about which he will write later this weekend. While we were crying in our beer (Molson, of curse), Rolling Thunder started rolling. Many of the demonstrators were also part of the Freedom Convoy. 

The protest started relatively calmly on Parliament Hill, but as night fell a line of big rigs, campers and other trucks made their way into the city core. Protesters gathered around the trucks, and police in tactical gear formed a line and faced them down. Police said in a release that seven people were arrested on various charges, including assaulting police, and 24 vehicles were towed. At least one truck also had its windows broken.

Rolling Thunder protest is expected to continue today Saturday) with the convoy of hundreds of motorcycles moves through downtown Ottawa, with a stop at the National War Memorial, before moving to Parliament Hill for another rally.

I'll be waiting to see whether any of the candidates for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada (yes, the "help wanted" sign is in the window again) shows up to support or at least talk with the protesters. When the Freedom Convoy hit Ottawa in February, Prime Minister Blackie McBlackface went to ground at a cottage somewhere in the Laurentians. Then Tory leader Erin O'Tool was said to have met with some of truckers at an undisclosed location out of sight of cameras.

"Mad Max" Bernier, leader of the People's Party of Canada, mingled with the truckers and made supportive noises, but he's just a conservative with a small C. The only big-C Conservative who did likewas was Pierre Poilievre, now the front-runner in the race to succeed Mr O'Tool. [You're out of space. Come back later. Ed.]

"No Liberal bias here, folks" sez Elections Canada. Sez Walt, "Eh?"

Elections Canada is a theoretically independent body which organizes and supervises federal elections in Canuckistan. However, it is funded by the Liberal government of Canada -- Just In Trudeau, Prop. -- which has left churls like Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre, who accused the agency of being a "Liberal lapdog" when he heard about EC's latest brain fart -- an ad campaign to encourage young people (read: potential Liberal voters) to register and vote in October's federal election.

The original idea was to put out two videos, one English and one French, featuring 13 "influencers" -- "famous online personalities" such as Lilly Singh (pictured), music icons, TV stars, and even former Olympians. Besides Ms Singh (talk show host), the list includes: Mitch Hughes (YouTuber), Andre De Grasse (Olympic sprinter of colour), Katherine Levac (alleged comedienne), Elle Mills (another Prideful YouTuber), Maripier Morin (TV host), Alex Nevsky (alleged singer), Penny Oleksiak (Olympienne), Nicolas Ouellet (another TV host unknown in English Canada), Max Parrot (another Olympian), Thanh Phung (blogger, unrelated to Walt), Maayan Ziv (CEO of AccessNow, a human rights, public policy, and advocacy group) and Ashley Callingbull (First Nations activist and model).

What could go wrong? Well, M Poilievre and others have suggested that the 13 "influencers", while as diverse and inclusive as all get out, might be rather exclusive when it comes to political thought, or should we say political bias. Ms Callingbull, for example, said in social media posts before the 2015 election, "we are in desperate need of a new prime minister." And so it came to pass when Mr Socks prevailed over Steve Harpoon.

Articles which appeared in Le Droit and Flash Québec in February of 2018 described Mlle Levac as saying her ideal man is... wait for it... Justin Trudeau. And in December of 2015, Ms Singh posted a photo of Mr Socks, praising his appointment of a gender-balanced cabinet along with the hashtag #mancrushfriday. She has posted nothing between then and now indicating her view of the Prime Minister has changed.

Elections Canada, apparently stung by suggestions that the Gang of 13 were members of the liberal elite, decided to scrap the ad campaign, at a cost to Canadian taxpayers of at least C$325,000 ($246,000 in real money) which had already been spent on shooting the videos, paying the unbiased "influencers", etc. According to Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault, the decision to shut down the initiative was taken to avoid the risk of using "influencers" who might appear to have some partisan bias.

M Perrault refused to name names or say what kind of bias the "influencers" might have. On CBC Radio's The House, he said, "It was clear from the outset that it had to be beyond any reproach, beyond any possible interpretation that, whether for lifestyle choices, or comments, or pictures, that these could be tied to a particular partisan point of view. It's important for Canadians to understand and know that Elections Canada is a completely independent agent of Parliament, that we are non-partisan, that everything we do, including the media campaign, is done with that in mind." This was on radio, not TV, so we couldn't see if he was able to keep a straight face.

Liberal bias is pervasive in the meeja, the civil service, and the schools of not just Canada, but the USA, the UK, and indeed just about every country of the Western world. I'll have more to say about that in my next post, a review and recommendation of Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News, by Bernard Goldberg (Regnery Publishing, 2002).