I wrote last week about the goings on at the Finance Committee. Just to refresh your memory, the Liberals were reduced to wholesale member swapping in order to ram through their report on the new airline tax. A bunch of the regular Liberal members had gone all wobbly, or more accurately, some had started to show signs of being vertebrates after all. So a game of musical chairs was commenced by the Liberal traffic cops and the 'proper' report was produced. At that time, three weeks after the meeting in question, the minutes were not posted. The transcript of the meeting is still not available but the minutes (finally posted) do reveal the extent of the traffic in and out of that meeting.

Members of the Committee present: Sue Barnes, Carolyn Bennett, Scott Brison, Roy Cullen, Ken Epp, Albina Guarnieri, Jason Kenney, Yvan Loubier, Shawn Murphy, Lorne Nystrom, Pauline Picard, Monte Solberg, Bryon Wilfert.

Acting Members present: Mac Harb for Maurizio Bevilacqua, John O’Reilly for Roy Cullen, Dominic LeBlanc for Nick Discepola, John O’Reilly for Sophia Leung, Tony Valeri for Gary Pillitteri, James Moore for Rahim Jaffer, Joe McGuire for Shawn Murphy, John O’Reilly for Maurizio Bevilacqua, Joe McGuire for Shawn Murphy, Larry Bagnell for Sophia Leung, Stan Dromisky for Nick Discepola, Steve Mahoney for Maurizio Bevilacqua, John O’Reilly for Shawn Murphy, Reg Alcock for Shawn Murphy, Reg Alcock for Gary Pillitteri, Mac Harb for Gary Pillitteri, Joe McGuire for Nick Discepola, Raymonde Folco for Sophia Leung, Joe Fontana for Nick Discepola, Robert Bertrand for Sophia Leung, Gérard Binet for Shawn Murphy, Jim Peterson for Carolyn Bennett, Mac Harb for Nick Discepola, André Harvey for Maurizio Bevilacqua, Tony Valeri for Gary Pillitteri, Gérard Binet for Nick Discepola, Jim Peterson for Maurizio Bevilacqua, Jim Pankiw for Scott Brison, Charlie Penson for Rahim Jaffer, Jim Peterson for Maurizio Bevilacqua, Serge Marcil for Carolyn Bennett, James Moore for Rahim Jaffer.

I wonder if they had a traffic cop.

I've been neglecting this space recently due to any number of reasons. But the continuing farce that's going on with Harper/Levant is driving me to distraction and a rant from me is long overdue.

Listen Up, Canadian Alliance IDIOTS

Is there no one in that gawd-forsaken organization who can recognize an ENORMOUS opportunity when it is pounding on your door, screeching through a bullhorn, "QUIT YOUR BLOODY SQUABBLING AND ANSWER THE DOOR!!!"

The voters of this country, including the voters in Ontario, are dancing around with their knees crossed and bladders bursting, saying, "please, please, please!! give us something to vote for, some tiny little sign that you people are interested in forming an opposition party instead of pointing fingers like a bunch of hyperactive Wal-Mart Greeters. Are you all so desperate for the media's attention that a mere glance will get you all performing somersaults, back flips, and back stabbings in order to get some validation seeing your names in the paper? Of course the media is going to ask you about conflicts - that's what sells - but you idiots are under no obligation to keep up the Three Stooges eye-gouging and face-slapping in order to keep them entertained.

I'm one of your Ontario supporters and I think I speak for a lot of us when I say "Grow Up or Fu*k Off." I've never seen any group more stubbornly self-destructive in my life. Get this thing settled quickly and PRIVATELY and get on with it.

Spin Cycle

Mulroney the Younger, writing in the Toronto Sun today, says that the Alliance is just a regional party again;

Having been rejected by voters east of Manitoba, the Alliance will return to its grassroots -- at least temporarily.

This premise is put forth so often and so confidently that it's often accepted as true. A person could be forgiven for thinking that the Alliance was in decline in Ontario while the PC's were gaining (or at least maintaining strength). But let's go to the tale of the tape;

The Reform/Alliance party took 19.1% of the Ontario vote in 1997 and 23.6% of the Ontario vote in 2000.
The PC's took 18.8% of Ontario votes in 97 and 14.4% in 2000.

So the Alliance is in decline ? The Alliance has been 'shut out' east of Manitoba? Hell, the Alliance beat the PC's in total votes cast in Quebec in 2000! Where is the PC stronghold? The Atlantic provinces gave the PC's 9 of their 12 seats in the last election. Who's a regional party again?