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We return now to Toronto Centre, and the courageous bid by former Winnipeg Mayor Glen Murray to capture a seat in the Ontario Legislature in a provincial by-election. Murray was nominated last month to carry the Liberal colours in a seat that has long been held by Liberal MPPs. I commented on Murray’s candidacy in a dead-tree column, and followed up in The Sausage Factory when some former Winnipeggers weighed in on his candidacy.

It was remarkable that Murray was barely up and running when rumours circulated that the confidently confident former mayor had negotiated a direct line into Premier Dalton McGuinty’s cabinet if successful in the by-election. It was shades of 2004 all over again – when Murray asked for and received the star candidate treatment from then Prime Minister Paul Martin but failed to win a seat in the House of Commons.

View Full Post | 3/02/2010 1:53 PM | 3
Winners, losers and the victim of short-term memory

We, the chattering media classes, love to pick winners and losers in cabinet shuffles. But when Manitoba's regional minister and senior government MP, Vic Toews, was shuffled from Treasury Board to Public Safety, it was hard to figure out exactly what happened. In a rare moment of sober reflection, Prime Minister Stephen Harper seems to have tried to move people into jobs where he thinks they will do the best job and not a place where they will inflict the greatest harm.

Moving from TB to PS is a lateral move to be sure; it's not a demotion and it's hard to see where it's a promotion. Both are A-list cabinet jobs and given the trouble Toews has been through in the past couple of years, it's a testament to his internal political acumen that he's been able to keep a good job in cabinet. This is a prime minister who's not afraid to knee-cap underperforming or incompetent ministers. You'll find the latest evidence of this on Ontario MP and former Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt's haunches.

View Full Post | 20/01/2010 10:37 AM | 6
More on Glen Murray; random notes

The commentary continues to flow fast and furiously since former Winnipeg Mayor Glen Murray vaulted back into mainstream politics. As you might have read in my dead-tree column last week, Murray is the Liberal candidate in a provincial by-election in Ontario centre. He has been heralded by Premier Dalton McGuinty as a star candidate and there has been speculation Murray may have a direct line into cabinet should he win. It all sounds so eerily similar to the storyline that accompanied Murray’s 2004 bid to win a seat for the Liberals in the House of Commons. History will show he fell short on that bid, but in Toronto, it’s a much different battleground.

Toronto Centre encompasses many storied downtown neighbourhoods including Rosedale and Regent Park. It also encompasses the country’s largest gay village, which means an openly gay politician like Murray is of particular interest to that city’s gay and lesbian community. Not surprisingly, there has been a lot of buzz in the gay and lesbian media, particular in xtra.ca, a prominent print/on-line publication.

View Full Post | 11/01/2010 12:01 PM | 2
Chopper process puzzles

The helicopter debate gets a bit more interesting....

I had quite a bit of reaction to a column on the city's plans to buy a police helicopter. Simply put, there has been a complete lack of attention to process here. The city is committed to buying the copter, and finding the money, even though council has not voted to support the project or seen arguments from the Winnipeg Police Service about what a helicopter would do for public safety.

View Full Post | 3/12/2009 3:33 PM | 7
Reservoir Dogs - Harper style

One of my most favorite parts of one of my most favorite movies - Reservoir Dogs - comes when almost all of the major characters gun each other down at the end. There is a Shakespearean flare to the mutual assured self-destruction that unfolds. In a way, it helps make a complex story all neat and tidy at the end when all of the major characters are dead. Perhaps it's just me.

I had opportunity to recall the ending of Reservoir Dogs while reading this morning about how Prime Minister Stephen Harper has decided to introduce legislation enabling the Harmonized Sales Tax in Ontario and British Columbia. The HST has become the elephant in the room, a federal initiative that has so far manifested in significant provincial political controversy.

View Full Post | 27/11/2009 10:02 AM | 4
More thoughts on torture and politics

There are many times when, after filing a column, I find I have additional thoughts on the subject I just tackled. You would think that 700 words would be enough to convey just about everything one person thinks on a particular subject. Unfortunately, if you suffer from chronic verbosity, you just never seem to be able to get everything you want to say said.

On that note, I offer a few additional thoughts on my column in today’s dead-tree Free Press on the politics of torture. As many of you know, the opposition and the national media are all over the Conservative government after allegations senior military officials were aware that prisoners captured by Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan were being tortured after being handed over to Afghan authorities. If the allegations are true, Canada would have violated international humanitarian law.

View Full Post | 23/11/2009 11:24 AM | 12
The first step is admitting you have a problem

So there I was Wednesday morning at the Salvation Army breakfast to kick off kettle collection season and I bump into David Northcott of Winnipeg Harvest food bank and Zaz Bajon, general manager of the Manitoba Theatre Centre. The two prominent Winnipeggers are having a fascinating conversation about how both of their organizations are having trouble getting support from a constituency that was always money in the bank: seniors.

With the decline in stock markets, incomes for senior citizens have taken a bath. Less disposable income means fewer season subscriptions to MTC, and fewer donations to Winnipeg Harvest. It’s a sign of the times.

View Full Post | 19/11/2009 11:07 AM | 8
The WRHA: a study in mass communications

As a further follow-up to yesterday's high drama at the flu vaccination clinic, I’ve done some additional thinking about what happened and why. One loyal reader who commented on my blogs yesterday suggested that I get over the minor inconvenience of a three-hour delay in getting H1N1 vaccine for my children and get on with my life. Unfortunately, this comment is from someone who didn’t read my blog all the way to the end.

This is NOT a story about a few lost hours at the clinic. I agree with the reader that it was a minor inconvenience. The big issue here is why the WRHA didn’t get information out to the public in a more timely fashion and why their spokespeople are taking liberties with the truth of what actually happened.

View Full Post | 17/11/2009 9:45 AM | 7
Update from H1N1 land: good news

Shrek II is over, Finding Nemo has just begun AND THE ADJUVANTED VACCINE IS HERE!

We're just heading in and remarkably the adjuvanted vaccine has arrived more or less on time. Clinic staff have done a good job of organizing us to fast-track through the system.

View Full Post | 16/11/2009 1:23 PM | 2
Report from the H1N1 front lines

10:18 a.m.

I thought I had beaten the system when I arrived at the Grant Park shopping centre flu vaccination clinic with my kids and wife at 8AM and found there were only a dozen people in line. My joy turned to disappointment when we were told just prior to the 9:30 AM opening that there was no adjuvanted vaccine for kids under 10 or for seniors over 65.

View Full Post | 16/11/2009 10:31 AM | 2
Our capacity for absurdity

Why is it that society’s most absurd qualities come to the fore at those times when we can least afford to be absurd?

Like now, as we’re all battling the H1N1 flu virus.

View Full Post | 30/10/2009 10:58 AM | 6
Short-snappers for Sept. 21

With all the low-hanging fruit for political journalists these days, it’s hard to know where to take a bite first. Here is a short list of stories and issues that comprise the burrs under my saddle.

Days when you just love being a journalist
This story in the Globe and Mail is a fantastic bit of journalism. Anytime you catch a government in a conflict like that, it’s been a good day.

View Full Post | 21/09/2009 12:26 PM | 2
Premature Gesticulation?

WINNIPEG — NDP leadership hopeful Steve Ashton spiced things up on Monday for countless journalists when he issued a news release that pretty much settled the matter of who was going to win the race to succeed Gary Doer.

“Ashton in lead for Delegates: Possible win on first ballot”

View Full Post | 14/09/2009 5:25 PM | 0
Caldwell coy on leadership rumour

Will he or won’t he? He apparently won’t. Maybe.

The blogosphere and my email account were abuzz today about the rumor that Brandon East MLA Drew Caldwell was considering a late run for the NDP leadership. The buzz was created by a story in the Wheat City Journal that had Caldwell, the only man ever fired from a Gary Doer cabinet, getting lots of calls urging him to run.

View Full Post | 10/09/2009 4:54 PM | 0
Apparently, it was so.

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B.C. Liberal leader Gordon Campbell celebrates his election win in May 2009. Campbell and most of his Liberal cabinet were re-elected, giving Campbell a rare third mandate. (HTTP://WWW.WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM/CANADA/BC-GRITS-GET-THIRD-MANDATE-44869267.HTML)

After weeks of concern that B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell was seriously considering cuts to health care and education to battle the province’s growing budget deficit, the most conservative Liberal in Canada fulfilled everyone’s worst fears with a Speech from the Throne that calls for — you guessed it — cuts to health and education.

I recently offered the opinion that it was lunacy to cut health care and education to battle deficits because we did that in the 1990s, and it has made the public health care system much more expensive now than it needed to be.

View Full Post | 26/08/2009 11:04 AM | 5
Lunacy repeating itself?

Say it ain’t so, Gordon. Say it ain’t so.

Word out of B.C. is that the conservative Liberal government of Gordon Campbell is considering cuts to health care services to help it deal with the economic downturn. B.C. New Democrats produced a briefing note from the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority outlining plans to eliminate thousands of elective surgeries, close emergency rooms and hospital beds.

View Full Post | 14/08/2009 10:46 AM | 25
An admission and a startling revelation

It’s difficult to admit this, but recently I fell into the habit of reading more of my news online than in print.

I know what you’re thinking. Columnist for a large metropolitan newsPAPER and he doesn’t even pick up a copy of the actual paper. I’m guilty, with an explanation.

View Full Post | 10/08/2009 9:49 AM | 8
Further to my excellent downtown adventure...

It has occurred to me after reading some of the comments here, and those
emailed directly to me, that one of the problems we have here is a dislike
of "downtown lifestyle." People who grew up in larger, more dense cities
have learned to live with/appreciate living in residences with less square
footage, public transit, shopping at smaller stores instead of big boxes,
and co-existing with the grittier issues that come with downtown
(panhandlers, street crime, traffic, noise and lack of greenspace.) When as a
young man living in Toronto was all about public transit, or cycling to and
from work/social engagements, eating and shopping downtown, and craving the
bustling, smelly, sometimes messy, eccentric culture of Toronto's downtown.

In my formative days, Queen Street West was just coming into its own, and
you could still barhop along Queen from University to Spadina and beyond in
the original beverage rooms that occupied what was once a working class
neighborhood. On return visits to Toronto from Ottawa, where I went to
school, or the west, where I worked after school, I would take the Subway to
Bloor and Yonge, and walk down Yonge all the way to Queen just to see all
the trashy storefronts, the colorful locals and the grime. I think the point
here is that if you love downtowns, I mean really love them, then you tend
to crave the grit and Toronto continues to have lots of that.

I'm thinking about Little Brazil along Dundas west of Bathurst, Parkdale,
and the Lakeshore Village west from the 427 are just a few of the ones that
come to mind. And by gritty, I don't mean trashy and unsafe; these are
neighborhoods that haven't been renovated and revitalized into the
gentrified Toronto that the rest of the country images. But these are places
where lower-income housing still rules, where there are way more strip clubs
and massage parlors than Starbucks, and some very colourful local characters
rule the streets.

My mother lived her last days out in a fantastic waterfront condo in the
Lakeshore Village. The building itself was very upscale, yuppie Toronto but
the surrounding neighborhood was wonderfully un-gentrified. In fact, there
isn't a Starbucks on Lakeshore from the South Kingsway exit off the Gardiner
Expressway all the way out to Port Credit (old Mississauga). Can you imagine
it?

The fact is, we've never had a large population of people living "downtown"
and thus we've never really created a generation of people who can
appreciate or at least navigate the good, the bad and the ugly of downtown
lifestyle. No downtown is perfect, and even in those cities where there are
tons of people living downtown; you still have to deal with drunks,
panhandlers and street crime. Toronto must have one of the largest downtown
residential communities of any city in Canada, and yet a quick review of the
pages of Toronto newspapers will tell you that crime does not disappear with
luxury condominiums or student residences.

So, here's the next question for all you downtownfiles - will Winnipeg ever
boast a portion of its population that appreciates downtown for all the good
and bad that it implies? Or will we continue to be a city of suburbanites
who don't crave and don't understand downtown?

View Full Post | 5/07/2009 4:48 PM | 11
My most wonderful downtown adventure

This past weekend I was lucky enough to spend most of Saturday and part of Sunday in Winnipeg’s downtown.

As a belated anniversary present, my wife and I stayed overnight (sans enfants) at Inn at the Forks, toured the Forks market and ate at a new downtown restaurant. If not for the horrendous weather, our plans had included trips to some of our favorite Exchange district galleries. Next time.

View Full Post | 29/06/2009 2:41 PM | 7
Reflections on Somali pirates, Canadian warships and rigors of flying

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HMCS Winnipeg at sunset in the Gulf of Aden. (DAN LETT / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

It's been more than a week since I returned from nearly two weeks aboard HMCS Winnipeg, the Canadian warship that had been participating in a NATO-directed counter-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden. Here, in brief, are some of the things I learned:

View Full Post | 18/06/2009 9:52 AM | 2
Guilty with an explanation

Sometime before I had children, I was returning from a jaunt in the Assiniboine Forest with my dogs when I decided to stop at Grant Park Mall to pick up something from Safeway. After my purchase, I tried to exit the mall parking lot on the east side, and proceeded to make a right-hand turn on Wilton Street to make my way to Taylor Avenue.

However, as soon as I made the turn, a police officer walked out of a lane across from the mall and waved me down. He informed me that there was a prohibition on right-hand turns and that he was going to give me a ticket. I was furious.

View Full Post | 8/05/2009 11:38 AM | 5
Buffoons make it easy

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VANCOUVER, B.C..: FEBRUARY 5, 2009 -- Solicitor General John van Dongen unveiled a newly redesigned, high-tech driver's licences and identification cards that will help curb identity theft, fraud and driving while prohibited. Vancouver, B. C. on February 5, 2009. (CP ARCHIVE)

Journalism is a great job. I’ve always felt that what I do beats working for a living. Some of my detractors may agree with that comment, although they may apply a completely different connotation. Anyway, the days I love being a journalist usually involve stories like this.....

Out in British Columbia, a provincial election is being waged amidst a wave of candidate resignations. First, it was NDP candidate Ray Lam who withdrew after risqué photos of him were found on his Facebook page. The NDP campaign headquarters said the photos were not posted on his networking site when he put his name forward to be a candidate. Apparently, in an act of unadulterated political stupidity, Lam went out and posted the grin-and-grope shots AFTER his name was put on the ballot.

View Full Post | 4/05/2009 1:59 PM | 0
Good, bad and downright ugly

A quick perusal of the morning headlines will produce a wide range of ideas – good ones, bad ones and ideas that should be shot, buried and never talked about again.

Good – although a little late

View Full Post | 27/04/2009 11:27 AM | 3
The Jack Bauer syndrome

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President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush stand for the closing prayer on Jan. 20, after Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. (JAE C. HONG / HE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

In the category of guilty pleasures, I have to admit to being a loyal follower of the television show 24.

I know it abuses stereotypes. I know it is silly and over the top. I know the plot line is more appropriate for comic books than prime time television.

View Full Post | 23/04/2009 1:06 PM | 0
Truth in advertising?

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The pamphlet Dan Lett received in the mail. (JAE C. HONG / HE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

I really have to send a special shout out to the marketing department of the Conservative Party of Canada for their latest pamphlet, which arrived at my house about two weeks ago.

Tory MP James Bezan, who many of you may know represents the good people of Selkirk-Interlake, sponsored the pamphlet. I live in the comfy confines of Winnipeg South Centre, which is represented by lonely Liberal MP Anita Neville.

View Full Post | 21/04/2009 2:19 PM | 3