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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

FYI: Tombits... Iggy's no Tiger but that's Canada for you

Posted: 12/5/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

TIGER WOODS may or not have been, as the American tabloids claim, unfaithful to his wife with one or even more women. The greatest golfer who ever lived, or so we are told, may or may not have been wonked in the face with a golf club -- some say it was a nine-iron -- by an angry wife who was feeling betrayed.

We may never know, and in truth, it isn't really any of our business. The affair, if you'll pardon the expression, of Tiger's untimely departure from his home at 2:30 a.m. (Florida time) and the crashing of his car into both a tree and fire hydrant may never be resolved. What we have been told is that Mrs. Woods only used the golf club to smash the back window, enabling her husband to escape from the wreck. A $164 US fine and four demerit points on his driver's licence is all that it took to get Tiger out of the woods.

Be that as it may, here in Canada we just don't get those kind of scandals. The Americans are so much better at behaving badly than we are. They get Tiger Woods bleeding in his driveway and we have to settle for the continuing perils of Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. There's no comparison, although Ignatieff's perpetually plummeting fortunes do have a certain morbid fascination to them, kind of like watching a fly caught in a spider's web -- you just know how this story is going to work out.

The Liberal leader's latest misfortune involves the Conservative government's proposal for legislation to facilitate a Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) for the provinces -- particularly Ontario and British Columbia, although you can expect Manitoba to be hard on their heels if it comes to pass.

Ignatieff is torn between two lovers. The premiers of B.C. and Ontario are anxious to implement the HST but the federal Liberal caucus is considerably less keen on it. Although the Liberal leader has said that he will put the whips on his caucus when it comes to a vote, Liberal MPs are threatening to be unfaithful to him in the event. Let's hope that they are. It is not exactly as intriguing as Tiger Woods and a nine-iron in the middle of the night, but Canadian taxpayers know full well who will get shafted by this bill.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 5, 2009 H2

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