DOUBLE-DIGIT TORY LEAD: “THIS IS NOT A BLIP”
details below.
Only between 5-11% are buying into the hysteria or fearmongering by the media and opposition parties. Anyone shocked the highest rate of disinformation is in Quebec?
Liberal MPs apologize for offensive flyer
By Christina Spencer, SUN MEDIA Liberal MPs apologized Wednesday for distributing a household flyer that attacks the government’s handling of H1N1 among aboriginals with the slogan “No vaccines, just body bags.”
The flyer, mailed as a message from Liberal health critic Dr. Carolyn Bennett, features a picture of body bags in a lab and a sick aboriginal child.
Grand Chief Ron Evans of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs told a parliamentary committee the flyer was “very disturbing...it’s really troubling to our people.”
The pamphlet arrived on doorsteps after an investigation into an incident in which an official ordered 100 body bags for a First Nations community in Manitoba struggling with an H1N1 outbreak. The investigation concluded there was no ill will and the number was a miscalculation.
Evans said the fact the flyer was apparently sent after the incident was resolved suggested the affair is now being politicized.
Bennett apologized
Fall out:
The Lib-CBC Mutual Admiration Society
The first ethical lapse was Sakamoto's: He should have told the reporter who he was and declined to do the interview. When I worked in Ottawa -- for the Liberals -- we refused all the time. We weren't impartial players and it would have been dishonest to affect the public debate by pretending we were, so we were instructed to refuse participation even in opinion polls.
Then there is the lapse at the CBC. It seems hard to believe that no one in the production cycle recognized Sakamoto as a former network lawyer and insisted his brief appearance be snipped out. Maybe no one did, but if someone did and did not insist on editing him out, then this is an ethical lapse on par with Sakamoto's.
This incident adds to the impression that the Liberals and the CBC are too cozy with one another, even if it was entirely accidental.
Read more: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/11/04/the-lib-cbc-mutual-admiration-society.aspx#ixzz0VtL4hkPt
Your Constitution and the flu - Ottawa is responsible for supply while the provinces control the delivery By L. IAN MACDONALD, The Gazette November 4, 2009
This is a grown-up moment we're living in, one in which the Liberals are in need of adult supervision.
In Ottawa, the political class doesn't seem to be checking much of anything, except checking its common sense at the door.
For example, the production line at GlaxoSmithKline was stopped and restarted to enable the production of unadjuvanted vaccine for pregnant women, understandably concerned about the effects of the higher doses of the adjuvanted version on their unborn children.
But the World Health Organization, which had advised pregnant women to get the unadjuvanted shot, especially in the first term, reversed itself on Monday and declared there was no risk from the higher dosage.
No time to play politics - or jump queues
A crisis brings out the best in people, and the worst in people. So far the H1N1 swine flu seems to be bringing out mainly the less admirable side of some Canadians, starting with queue-jumpers and including those politicians who are stretching common sense badly out of shape in an effort to profit from public concern.
Votes don't spring from misery - John Ivison
But those Liberals who think votes may spring from misery would do well to watch NDP leader Jack Layton, whose tone has been much more measured. Yesterday in Question Period, he suggested Ottawa should commit to picking up the tab for 90% of costs incurred fighting H1N1, as it would in the event of natural disasters. Mr. Layton learned the hard way that trying to profit from the misfortune of others doesn't work -- during the 2004 election, he was roasted for blaming then-prime minister Paul Martin for the deaths of homeless people because of lack of funding for affordable housing.Working together, that’s leadership
Yes, there are legitimate political questions to be asked. But the rehearsed question period variety, soaked in a combustible mix of faux fury and disingenuous indignation is irresponsible. Instead, questions rooted in fact and posed with a measured tonality are needed.
For example, what is the real story with the “alleged” shortage of vaccine? Last Friday I tweeted and asked: With almost 6 million doses of H1N1 vaccine — as per the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) website — distributed, have 6 million doses been administered?
A national tally today would likely indicate less than 2 million injections, at best, so what is the status of the other 4 million doses? This is where provincial and territorial health ministers must step up and demand answers and assurances from their respective medical officers of health.
They need to explain how they are estimating demand in concert with cities and towns and their logistics approach to regional distribution, security, refrigeration, etc. And if these public health officials are having problems, then reach out to the military or any national grocer for best practices in supply chain management, specifically, the flow of date limited product.
By David Akin, Canwest News Service Liberal party president Alfred Apps suggested Monday that the H1N1 crisis is Prime Minister Stephen Harper's "hurricane Katrina," a metaphor that outraged many Conservatives — and also had some Liberals suggesting Apps may have hurt his side with an overheated analogy.Liberal launches political storm by comparing H1N1 response to hurricane Katrina
In an e-mail circulated to dozens of Liberals — including the party's public health critic Carolyn Bennett, other MPs, and members of Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's inner circle of advisers — Apps also lambasted Harper for gambling with the health of Canadians and for failing to act quickly enough to make sure any Canadian who wanted a vaccine for H1N1 had access to one.
Dear Liberal boss: You're an idiot
By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN, TORONTO SUNYou're an idiot. What's worse, you're a partisan idiot who doesn't appear to have an original idea in your head.
The problem isn't Conservative or Liberal government. The problem is what government has become thanks in part to partisans like you and your Conservative counterparts, who lie awake nights figuring out not how you can help Canadians, but how you can blame the other guys for everything.
Canadians are sick of it. Want to know why barely half of them bother to vote anymore? Look in the mirror.
One reason Canada is ill-prepared to deal with a pandemic, as my July column noted, is that hundreds of thousands of Canadians don't have a family doctor.
Maybe you should talk to Liberal MP Bob Rae, smugly blaming the Conservatives for HIN1 deaths now, about how, when he was the NDP premier of Ontario, he was instrumental in cutting back medical school enrolments -- as did politicians of all stripes across the country -- in a knee-jerk, disastrous attempt to save money.
Why? Because it led to today's doctor shortage and the fact that far too many Canadians don't have a family doctor -- one of the things you need to fight a pandemic effectively.
On Sept 3, 2009 Bob Rae had no problem, would not change how he conducts himself including if that includes having a campaign during H1N1 pandemic. What has led to the change of his perspective? His comments are around the thirty minute mark of this clip linked below.How serious does he take this issue?
Prop cheques don't violate guidelines, bureaucrats say
Presentations on minister' behalf would be covered
By Kathryn May, The Ottawa Citizen November 4, 2009Two of Canada's most senior bureaucrats said the Conservatives broke no federal rules or guidelines when MPs handed out prop cheques plastered with the party logo or political signatures at funding announcements.
Treasury Board Secretary Michele d'Auray told MPs on the Commons government operations committees Tuesday that MPs who used "ceremonial cheques" as props at such funding events weren't covered by the federal communications and wordmark policies, so they were free to use them the way they did.
Opposition MPs shook their heads in disbelief. Liberal MP Martha Hall-Findlay said she was "astounded" because the Conservatives advertising campaign had the "look and feel" of party advertising, which only confused the image of party and government in the eyes of Canadians "to benefit the party."
Hudson's Bay Co.'s 2010 Olympic uniforms prompt political, military comparisons -Thursday October 1st, 2009 James Keller, THE CANADIAN PRESS
"Here is another embarrassing example of crass politics," Liberal MP Hedy Fry said during question period shortly after the uniforms and their retail counterparts were released on Thursday.
"Can the prime minister at least stop trying to politicize the Canadian Winter Olympics?"
The suggestion was promptly dismissed by Conservatives - and was met with laughter from the woman who oversaw the designing of the uniforms.
"That was a first for me," said Suzanne Timmins, the Hudson Bay Co.'s fashion director, who chuckled when asked about the comparison with the Conservatives. "Certainly, that wasn't any intention on our part, not at all."
As for the air force logo, Timmins acknowledged the Olympic graphic is similar.
She insisted it was strictly a coincidence, but they were close enough that lawyers for the company and the air force sat down to talk about the resemblance. In the end, they decided the Olympic uniform logo was different enough that it could be used.
What is next on the Liberals list of priorities, is the letter "C" safe anymore in a Liberal world?
Nik Nanos Graph may demostrate the results of foot and mouth behaviour by some in the Liberal Party.
DOUBLE-DIGIT TORY LEAD: “THIS IS NOT A BLIP”
Potential damage from foot and mouth Only 55% of confirmed Liberal voters think Michael Ignatieff should stay 26% think he should be replaced as soon as possible.
In comparison Prime Minister Stephen Harper enjoys 85% support of confirmed Conservatives and 10% are unsatisfied and think he should be leave.
Jack Layton leader of the NDP enjoys more support from his base with 72% thinking he should stay with only 17% thinking he should find another job.
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