Now that it's been said, it had better happen for Iggy's sake:

 Ignatieff organizer and Liberal MP Denis Coderre (Bourassa) said there are "dozens" more officials who will announce they are switching allegiances in the coming days.

Nothing kills the mojo like no one showing up.

With that said, it is an interesting development and may offer some insight as to the direction the Liberal Leadership is heading. In the dirty world of politics it is much better to back a winner than a loser and if the tea leaves...or the ex officio votes ...  are reading Ignatieff, the earlier you jump to that ship the better.

Dear Belinda,

Grow up.

Yours truly,

Little Tobacco

Chantel Hebert reports on the upcoming spring election and the moribound Parliament:

It may not look that way from a distance, but the minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper is moribund. While the Conservatives have not formally lost the confidence of the House of Commons, they can no longer muster enough opposition support to pass their agenda into law.

As a result, this Parliament is now basically killing time until another election. That does not mean the Prime Minister can't govern, at least up to a point. Harper can continue to make nominations; he can speak on behalf of Canada on the international stage; he can tour the country to unveil various policies as he did over the recent parliamentary break.

Except that every initiative he announced that week is unlikely to become law in the current Parliament. Neither is the bulk of the Conservative agenda.

The Star continues with Susan Delacourt:

OTTAWA—The script for the next election campaign was begun in earnest this week on Parliament Hill, and it's an angry one.

Though an election is likely months away, politicians seem to be spoiling for the battle.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives have begun laying down the planks for their battle against the Liberal-dominated Senate.

The work of Parliament, meanwhile, is getting caught up in delay tactics and opposition efforts to gut Tory initiatives on everything from law and order to the environment.

The Conservative honeymoon is now officially over, it appears, and the ground is starting to be prepared for an election that could come early in 2007, after the Liberals have a new leader and the Tories have delivered another budget.

Conservatives are expected to blame Liberal senators for anything they aren't able to accomplish in their minority government. Yesterday, the Liberal Senate was under attack for holding up the Tories' clean-up-government bill, the legislation known as the accountability act.

A Senate committee has recommended a raft of changes to the massive bill, which means it has to go back to the Commons for more review, possibly weeks of it, before it becomes law.

Harper said yesterday: "The behaviour of the Liberal party is arrogant and anti-democratic. And that's really the problem: They haven't accepted the decision of the electorate."

In the Globe and Mail:

OTTAWA -- Canada's political parties began road-testing potential election attack and defence strategies yesterday in the wake of a legislative slowdown that has hit Parliament just nine months after the election of the Conservative minority government.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper painted the opposition as obstructing his party's legislative agenda, while the Liberals tried to portray the Prime Minister as weak and unable to force through his agenda. They leaned on the Tories to compromise on key legislation such as the Accountability Act, justice measures and new environmental rules.

At a news conference yesterday, Mr. Harper castigated the Liberal-dominated Senate for proposing amendments to the Accountability Act. "The behaviour of the Liberal Party is arrogant and anti-democratic," Mr. Harper told reporters after a meeting with Mexican president-elect Felipe Calderon. "That's really the problem. They haven't accepted the decision of the electorate."

The Tories hope to win a majority government by demonstrating that the Liberals won't allow the passage of legislation that Canadians want.

And this CP story in the Globe & Mail online:

Oakville, Ont. — Prime Minister Stephen Harper says opposition parties should stop dragging their feet on an accountability bill and stop trying to water down legislation the Conservatives introduced to get tough on crime.

Speaking to the Oakville Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Harper said Friday if the opposition parties don't like his government's measures, “they can force an election any time.”

“If the opposition disagrees with us, they should do it in the open, not in some committee meeting, not in the unelected senate, not by endlessly stalling a democratic vote,” he said.

Mr. Harper said the three opposition parties supported cracking down on crime during the election, yet are now back pedalling and stalling a bill, introduced in May, designed to do away with house arrest for serious crimes and impose mandatory prison sentences for gun crimes.

The spring election seems ineveitable and i would not bet against it, but in political time, the spring is so far in the future as to be science fiction.

There is little that is more juvenille than faux offence. The big stories in the Globe and Mail today:

 1. Canada complains to White House about ad

Canadian Press

OTTAWA — The Canadian government has lodged a complaint with the Bush administration over a Republican election ad that belittles Canada as a global freeloader.

You can read the comments by the highly offended Canadians here. What a tribe.

2. MacKay's fresh denials escalate 'dog' uproar

Speaker reluctantly launches new probe as Liberals continue to demand apology

This is the heights of ridiculous. Clearly no-one watched the ad which is more a version of Talking to Americans than anything that is serious. Here is a link for those of you who want to actually watch it (via Instapundit). We run shows insulting Americans, our elected representatives call the Yanks to the dirt. Jack Layton has turned the name George Bush into both a full political argument and an insult of massive proportion. It is like the Monty Python Skit: I can think of nothing more insulting than Belgian.

Belinda Stronach? Dog? The question that gave rise to the alleged response or nonresponse had something to do with cleaning up the environment for the sake of the domestic animals or some such nonsense. When asked if he cared about his dog, MacKay allegedly pointed at Stronach's empty chair and replied that the Liberals already had her. That is funny. Sure it shows the MacKay trademark lack of judgement, but it is funny none the less.

Stronach left MacKay's bed on national TV, leaving the poor sap to have to explain his feelings to the nation. He is from Pictou, not Toronto. It had to be tough. Stronch then jumps into bed with a married hockey player and gets named in the no-fault divorce as the home wrecker. Now she is insulted and the Liberals, in typical Liberal fashion, are claiming that all women everywhere are insulted. That may have worked for Sheila Copps, but if you are making a voting decision based on this exchange, you should probably stay home from the polls. Stronach would have gained more support if she had of shrugged it off or had a laugh. No, she is offended. She is some sort of victim. She made reference to Conservative cuts to some status of women's group funding as evidence that the Tories are about to impose restrictions on women's rights. No wonder MacKay called her a dog, (or didn't, or made a funny at her expense, or at the expense of all women or whatever it all stands for) the Conservatives hate women. Or do they hate dogs? It's hard to keep it straight.

In any event, the good women of Canada who were insulted by the dog comment/noncomment  can start leaving their comments here.

The insulted dogs of Canada can also leave their comments here.

My response to you all will be Grow Up.

If you missed the Chretien press conference to announce his bid for judicial review, you missed a classic Chretien performance. Shifting blame, abrasive and defiant, he stuck a shiv through Martin's ribs, attacked Gomery, praised the worst parts of his record as great achievements, insulted his own lawyer and scoffed at his detractors. At the end of the day, he claims it was not his fault at that when he learned of it he called the cops. That is not quite the way I remember it. I recall stories in the press, questions in the House of Commons, a general knowledge throughout the political country of the program and denial after denial. It was only when the cat was out of the bag, and Chretien had shrugged his shoulders at the theft that he called the RCMP. And what difference does that make? The RCMP were up to their eyes with the Chretien corruption, from taking orders from the PMO to pre-emptively arrest people at the APEC Conference to the politically motivated Mulroney investigation to the BDC forgery to the RCMP involvement in taking sponsorship money and hiding it in illegal bank accounts, the Chretien PMO and the RCMP appeared to be walking with their hands in each other's back pocket. So call the cops, there is a biy of immunity in that relationship. Still, Chretien is the most ruthless bastard in the country and if he is going down, do not expect him to go solo.

Labrador went to the Liberals and they went for cheap. No demand that the base stay open. No getting the road paved. The outcome was never in doubt. Todd Russell is the new MP and he will have the job for as long as he wants, whether or not he ever sets foot in the House of Commons. Pending resignation, crossing the floor or death he is permanently employed.

Jean Chretien is no policy wonk, a master politician perhaps, but a policy wonk no. Yet it was this man, when the first smell of the sponsorship scandal hit, who committed Canada to Kyoto to get the bad political story off the front page. Excellent politics, poor policy. But policy be damned! The job of Chretien was politics and it is politics that keeps the Liberal government heading down this economically destructive road. The United States has not signed on, nor India, nor China. The Russians came in late, but they did so only to sell emission credits for good old hard currency. It is estimated that Canada will have to spend billions upon billions purchasing these credits to meet our Kyoto goals. Who will we be buying them from? From every tyranny and Banana Republic on the face of the earth. We are then supposed to delude ourselves into thinking that the governments of these states are going to act in the exact opposite way than they have always acted - that they will use this money to better the lot of their people, to build the institutions and infrastructure that is necessary for prosperity. It is aid without the human rights string attached. The money will be used to line the pockets of the ruling elite and to build up military power. Military power to be used against their own people. I'm sure Mr. Chretien's friend Robert Mugabe wishes he was 20 years younger.

Officials at HRDC were intimidated into the immigration exemption for strippers. You know the one that has Judy Sgro in so much trouble. The National Post is reporting the following:

A senior government official said intimidation by organized crime in the adult entertainment business led HRDC to set up the fast-track program for foreign strippers. …

Human Resources Minister Joe Volpe finally cancelled the special exemption on Dec. 15, but he had to battle his own officials who feared HRDC field officers could face retaliation from organized crime.

Senior HRDC officials informed Mr. Volpe's office the special exemption was given to foreign dancers because they didn't want their front-line officers to deal with strip club owners on a case-by-case basis.

Organized crime may well be better than the arbitrary, unorganized kind. The organized criminal has a tendency to keep to his own crowd and of course they provide the vices that the government does not. Government has the alcohol & gambling rackets, organized crime has the drug & prostitute rackets, the police have the protection racket. The only way to get rid of organized crime is for the government to take over the drug and prostitution rackets or to legalize the same. The government has legalized limited gambling and booze sales, controlling access and content. The mob are pretty well out of that business. One could assume that legalizing limited solicitation and pot would sure put a damper on the business of the mob as well. These activities would become legitimate businesses, paying taxes and the like. All that would be left would be hardcore drugs, but they may well go the way of bookie betting, guns, the unions and the protection racket. I do not think that some police officers will be that happy with the competition.