Anyone Interested In Meeting Ignatieff?

Hey ya'll,

Iggs will be in Vancouver tomorrow. If you are interested in attending, email me at pedrothepolitico@gmail.com

Get This - We're Getting Sued!

The Conservative government is mounting a legal challenge against the Liberal Party of Canada to reclaim some of the money funnelled to the party through the federal sponsorship program, according to La Presse.

The Montreal newspaper reported Thursday that the Tories are preparing to take the Liberals to court to recoup "all the dirty money," according to an unnamed source quoted in the story.
The Liberals have already paid back $1.14 million that the party admits was diverted from the sponsorship program.

According to a La Presse source in Ottawa, however, the Conservatives have directed lawyers to look into launching a civil lawsuit for the money that is still outstanding, "we have not forgotten the $40 million in the sponsorship scandal that's missing,'' an unnamed Tory strategist told La Presse.

*** P.S. I know the picture is sort of unrelated, but I found it today and laughed my ass off. For those of you who don't speak French, it says: "And if only you could do everything that George Bush did in four years" and at the bottome, it says "Steph: All Powerful ("all powerful" is also a nickname for God).

CSIS: A Terrrorist Attack Is 'Now Probable'

Our forces on duty in Afghanistan have come under attack and now the head of Canada's spy agency is waving a yellow flag about a possible attack here... on home soil.

CSIS director Jim Judd says he still believes the strongest threat remains overseas but now he concludes in a report that an attack here is "probable" and maintains in his annual report to the public safety minister, that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's highest priority involved trying to prevent assaults occurring in, or originating from, Canada.

Judd's report says the spy service's counter-proliferation branch, which tries to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, "continued to investigate Shiite and state-sponsored terrorism,'' as well as the activities of certain unnamed foreign governments. The report also stresses the service's involvement in security screening, namely the vetting of visitors to Canada, refugee claimants, immigrants, prospective citizens and employees who work at sensitive government jobs and installations such as nuclear plants and airports.

According to Judd, the increased probability of a terror attack most likely has nothing to do with our military role in Afghanistan. Instead, the prognosis actually comes from an annual report compiled last November.

If only I could be a fly on the wall! But according to Ottawa's acting national security advisor, Stephen Rigby, government officials are tring to anticipate when and how the attacks will unfold and that the government is maintaining "a very high degree of vigilance'' with respect to al-Qaida.

One possibility is on the transit system, like the attacks on commuters in London and Madrid, but Transport Canada's John Forster said in a meeting sponsored by the Conference Board of Canada, that transportation systems have figured in one way or another in almost every major terrorist attack during the last 30 years.

Is Harper An Asshole Or Just An Idiot?

Well kids, this post is brought to you by the letter 'A'.

'A' is for Asshole. Stephen Harper is a good example of an asshole and he may very well be the single most partisan Prime Minister we've seen in a long time.

At a $750-a-plate fundraising dinner, Harper introduced Ontario Conservative Leader John Tory, the man who will try to unseat McGuinty in next year's provincial election. Harper called Tory "the next premier of Ontario" and declared: "Ontario needs John Tory because a strong Canada needs a strong Ontario and because John Tory is a nation builder."

Queen's Park veterans cannot recall a previous Prime Minister attending such a partisan provincial event or at least not having a speaking role in it. To the best of their recollection, Pierre Trudeau, John Turner, Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin did not attend provincial Liberal fundraisers in this province, nor did Joe Clark or Brian Mulroney go to provincial Conservative fundraisers.

So right now, poor McGuinty is trying to do his job of standing up for Ontario in a perceived fiscal imbalance cafuffle; rising dollar and gasoline prices; and while his Province is bleeding jobs.

Great.

So McGuinty tries for 3 months to get an appointment with the Harp-ster to sort some things out and Harper only gives McGuinty 45 minutes of his time. He then proceeds to cross the street and introduce Tory at a fundraising event, his official "fuck you" to McGuinty.

Truly Harper outdid himself. He let personal rivalries and partisan politics affect his ability to properly govern. What an asshole.