Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Sidebar!
Sidebar's been updated. Missing and Presumed Dead Blogs are now in italics, though I confess that the effect's not as striking as I'd hoped. If any of my readers want to tell me how to change the colour of some of my hyperlinks (read: those to blogs that are missing and presumed dead), it'd be appreciated.
I also added a few new blogs, chief among them The Turner Report, the blog of Garth Turner, Conservative MP for Nalton. Readers who stuck with me through my Spring/Summer drought will recall my praise for Mr. Turner on the occasion of his complaints about the appointment of David Emerson and Michael Fortier to cabinet, complaints that by some accounts almost got him thrown out of caucus.
His blog is, to the best of my knowledge, far and away the best of any Canadian MP (a lot of people liked Monte Solberg's blog. I didn't really, because while Solberg wrote with wit, he also consistently toed the party line on pretty much everything). And while Turner's values and mine don't overlap especially (to take but one example, if I were ever an MP my site probably wouldn't be subheaded "Serving Canada's Middle Class Voter Agenda"), I like him because he's independent-minded, willing to do considerably more than mouth platitudes, doesn't buckle to public opinion easily, and yet reaches out to his constituents in a more meaningful fashion than does any other MP of whom I'm aware. He also updates his blog pretty much daily.
Here are some nuggets:
On the environment:
On D'arcy Keene, who was being pushed by televangelist and anti-gay marriage crusader Charles McVety to win the Conservative nomination over Turner:
On alleged efforts by some Arab Canadian groups to unseat him in the next election for his dispariging comments about "Canadian citizens of convenience" in the Lebanon affair:
On winning friends and influencing people:
On his relationship with McVety:
Yeah. If you have any interest in Canadian politics - and if you don't, what the hell are you doing here? - read Garth.
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Sidebar's been updated. Missing and Presumed Dead Blogs are now in italics, though I confess that the effect's not as striking as I'd hoped. If any of my readers want to tell me how to change the colour of some of my hyperlinks (read: those to blogs that are missing and presumed dead), it'd be appreciated.
I also added a few new blogs, chief among them The Turner Report, the blog of Garth Turner, Conservative MP for Nalton. Readers who stuck with me through my Spring/Summer drought will recall my praise for Mr. Turner on the occasion of his complaints about the appointment of David Emerson and Michael Fortier to cabinet, complaints that by some accounts almost got him thrown out of caucus.
His blog is, to the best of my knowledge, far and away the best of any Canadian MP (a lot of people liked Monte Solberg's blog. I didn't really, because while Solberg wrote with wit, he also consistently toed the party line on pretty much everything). And while Turner's values and mine don't overlap especially (to take but one example, if I were ever an MP my site probably wouldn't be subheaded "Serving Canada's Middle Class Voter Agenda"), I like him because he's independent-minded, willing to do considerably more than mouth platitudes, doesn't buckle to public opinion easily, and yet reaches out to his constituents in a more meaningful fashion than does any other MP of whom I'm aware. He also updates his blog pretty much daily.
Here are some nuggets:
On the environment:
The climate is obviously screwed up, and people notice. Forty degree summers, more freak weather, more prairie drought, punctuated by flooding. The Arctic ice cap is melting and polar bears are drowning. Suddenly the power system is balky and Ontario is building new nukes. We are wallowing in garbage and actually exporting trash to the States. Kyoto is toast, and that worries people who have no idea what Kyoto was. Overall, it seems like there is no cohesive plan – and I haven’t even mentioned Al Gore.
- August 28
On D'arcy Keene, who was being pushed by televangelist and anti-gay marriage crusader Charles McVety to win the Conservative nomination over Turner:
The puppet candidate of a televangelist carpetbagging walking definition of intolerance.
- August 21
On alleged efforts by some Arab Canadian groups to unseat him in the next election for his dispariging comments about "Canadian citizens of convenience" in the Lebanon affair:
And I said, basically, they can go to hell. That applies to any group which threatens to vote against me in the hope that I will say something different in order to win their support. I mean, what are they thinking? Do I value being an MP more than I value doing what’s right? Am I afraid of having my ass tossed out of my lovely green chair in the House of Commons because one community or another ganged up and tipped the vote?
- July 31
On winning friends and influencing people:
So, go ahead and make me a target. Just save a little of the bull’s eye for the last guy to say he’d do the same. Does anyone find it ironic that Israel’s biggest ally, the Righteous Right, and its biggest foe, the Arab community, both have it in for me?
It’s quite amazing how much trouble I get into.
- July 31
On his relationship with McVety:
Reverend McVety and I had a long chat tonight. He says he doesn’t mind me calling him a sanctimonious blowhard, but he definitely does not think kindly of my references to the Taliban.
- May 31
Yeah. If you have any interest in Canadian politics - and if you don't, what the hell are you doing here? - read Garth.
