The Sausage Factory

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with Dan Lett

Tory nomination update

The chances of a provincial election this year are pretty slim, but that hasn't stopped the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives from getting serious about nominations. This is a particularly important story, given Tory Leader Hugh McFadyen's pledge to take a more direct role in candidate nominations. The Tories have been active all over southeast Winnipeg, where the Doer-era NDP captured seats that have given them a stranglehold on what some Tories have referred to as "Fortress Winnipeg."

View Full Post | 12/03/2010 3:24 PM | 4
Things could be worse

Having grown up in Toronto, and frequently visiting my family who still reside there, I’ve always found it instructive to compare the relative state of my birth city and my adopted city, Winnipeg.

View Full Post | 16/02/2010 12:23 PM | 2
With friends like this

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

10:18 a.m.

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?

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.

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.
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.

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.

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

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

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.
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."
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.
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.

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.....
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.
View Full Post | 27/04/2009 11:27 AM | 3