06 February 2007

News du Jour

Garth Turner has joined the Liberals. Will he run in a by-election? Or is this going to be another instance of the move being based on "principle"? My guess is the latter. On the upside, it'll save the taxpayers a few million bucks. Although, given the time lapse between him going independent and joining the Liberals, there may even be some heretofore unseen "escape clause" that'll let him bypass it all together.

The Liberals, the NDP, and the separatists teamed up to pass a resolution affirming Canada's commitment to the Kyoto Protocol. Like just about anything associated with the Liberals and Kyoto, it's not binding and carries no actual force.

Sergei Samsonov has been put on waivers by the Habs. Hopefully someone will take him off the team's hands. It's safe to say that he's been a major disappointment this season. Best of luck to him wherever he ends up.

Telus has made mobile phone porn available. It's going to be a multi-billion dollar industry in the coming years, and the Telus folks figure that "it's only offering what's now universally available," and decided they may as well get a slice of the market. One more reason to not do any business with Telus.

It's been twenty minutes since I last saw a news story creating more hysteria around the impending environmental apocalypse. I'm sure that a new public service announcement will be coming along in very short order.

I finished the Granatstein book last night. As I said a week or so ago, it's a very realist, pragmatic, book that advocates for a closer reading and explanation of Canadian national interests in terms of our relationship with the United States, strengthening the Canadian Forces, and getting seriously engaged with the rest of the world. I found very little disagreeable with the book (though I do agree with Radwanski's assessment that the doomsday first chapter is really good melodramatic fiction), and I think that anybody who even dances around calling themselves a foreign policy hawk would enjoy reading it. Granatstein is moving away from pure historical works into commentaries on contemporary issues facing Canada, and the politico world is better off for it.

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