None of the Above?

Who do you think would make the best U.S. president from Canada's point of view?

That's the question the Canadian Centre for Policy Studies is asking on its online poll.

So far, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are neck and neck.

Law and Order

In a recent Canwest news article I was quoted as saying Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to no longer seek clemency for Canadian citizens on death row in the United States was good politics.

It was good politics, I argued, because "law and order" issues play well to Harper's base. I remember the reporter who interviewed me was skeptical about this because, after all, Canada is such a liberal country.

Well lo and behold a recent poll shows that 53 percent of Canadians support the government's position on this.

What's more, support for revoking clemency is highest in British Columbia (61 per cent) and Alberta (58 per cent) which just happen to be the two provinces where a large chunk of the Conservative base resides.

So maybe the lesson from all this is that Harper should play to his base a little more.

Clintons vs. Obama

Thomas Sowell has some interesting comments on the sleazy tactics Hillary and Bill Clinton are employing against Senator Barack Obama.

The Clintons, says Sowell, are seeking to reduce Obama to "just a black candidate."

"It is not that the Clintons are racists," Sowell writes. "It is just that they will use whatever they want, in order to get whatever they want — and the effect on the country does not bother them. That was the hallmark of the first Clinton administration. There is no reason to doubt that this will be the hallmark of the next Clinton administration, if there is one."

Of course, this explains why Bill and our very own Jean Chretien were such good buddies: they both employed the same cynical tactics.

The Harper Gallery

About a month ago I wrote a column satirizing the federal Conservative Party's seeming desire to create a "personality cult" around the person of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

It was a supposed to be a joke. (Although a lot of Tories didn't find it funny)

But maybe I was closer to the mark than I figured.

Turns out the government has actually created a special gallery in the House of Commons that features nothing but pictures of the Prime Minister.

According to Green Party Leader Elizabeth May who toured the gallery:

"When you walk in the door, all you see are pictures of Stephen Harper. I'd say between every window, in every available space of the wall, at eye level, every available space has a photo of Stephen Harper."

And she adds, "You've got photos of Stephen Harper, but not of previous prime ministers. Photos of Stephen Harper in different costumes, in different settings, dressed as a fireman, in Hudson Bay looking for polar bears, meeting the Dalai Lama, even the portrait of the Queen had to have Stephen Harper, but in a candid, behind her."

No doubt plans for the giant Stephen Harper statue are in the works.

H/T Janet

Hillary Vs. Bill

Seems Bill Clinton is doing his wife Hillary more harm than good in her quest to become the Democratic nominee for president.

Thwarting Hillary's political ambitions is probably a worse sin in her mind than marital infidelity.

So Bill better watch out.

On the other hand, Victor Davis Hanson wonders why Bill wants America to embrace Hillary when he spent 30 years running away from her.

Medium is the Message

Parliament resumes today.

I can't wait to see what issues the Liberals raise on behalf of the CBC.

Harper and Capital Punishment

I provide some political analysis in this Canwest News story on what kind of message Prime Minister Harper is sending on the issue of capital punishment.

Hint: He is trying to keep his base happy.

Political Metaphor

Check out this Japanese game show; it's obviously a metaphor for what's happening to the Conservatives, Liberals and NDP: lots of running, but not getting anywhere.

Terrible Twos

The Harper government recently celebrated its second birthday.

Wow, two years old.

But, of course, that means the government is now entering that dreaded phase known to all parents as the "terrible twos", an age marked by temper tantrums and aggression.

Hmmm, come to think of it, that's pretty much what we have had for the past two years anyway.

Boycotting the Racists

Dysfunctional, corrupt, wasteful, undemocratic --- these are the words which best describe the United Nations.

Yet strangely, Canadians generally hold this institution in high esteem.

That's why it took something akin to courage for the Harper government to boycott the UN's "anti-racism" conference scheduled to take place next year.

Of course, the government is doing the right thing.

As the Canadian Coalition for Democracies put it, "the last UN anti-racism conference held in Durban in 2001 degenerated into a hate-fest of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel vitriol, while the most egregious human rights violators escaped criticism."

Conservatism That Can Win

Attended a reception last night to celebrate the release of David Frum's latest book, Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again.

It was a great event; just about anybody who is anybody in the conservative movement was there: journalists, activists, politicians.

And I am definitely looking forward to reading David's book as it's a topic of particular interest to me.

Me in Different Languages

ΓΕΡΡΥ ΝΙΨΗΟΛΛΣ -- That is supposedly what my name looks like in Greek.

This is how my name looks in Arabic: لثققغ ىهؤاخممس

And here is what it looks like in Hebrew: עקררט מןביםךךד

Got all this info from this nifty site.

Newt's Afraid

Here's Newt Gingrich's take on how we are doing in the "War on Terror". (Spoiler - he is not optimistic).

Health-Care Study

It looks like Canadians aren't getting a bang for their buck when it comes to health-care.

Or at least that's the conclusion of a study put out jointly by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and the European-based Health Consumer Powerhouse.

This study shows that out of 30 countries surveyed, Canada ranks at the absolute bottom when it comes to getting value for money spent.

I guess that's no surprise to all those sick and injured Canadians languishing on health-care waiting lists.

Now we need to a study to figure out why some people still think socialized health-care is a good idea.

Dion: Canada's Secret Weapon

Liberal leader Stephane Dion will help us win the war in Afghanistan.

Once the Taliban learn about his foreign policy ideas they will undoubtedly laugh themselves to death.

Media Alert

I am going to be on the Michael Coren Show tonight, 8:00 PM CTS.

Topic: federal politics.

Sorry Mao

Citroen is apologizing for poking fun at the late Chinese dictator Mao Zedong.

The French carmaker's sin was running ran ads which featured a smirking Mao and the tagline: "It's true, we are leaders, but at Cirtoen the revolution never stops."

Seems this offended somebody in China, so Cirtoen, no doubt fearing the Alberta Human Rights Commission might get involved, said it was sorry.

Just goes to show that you can't even mock mass murderers anymore.

We Need More Ezras

Why are we losing our freedoms in this country, slowly but surely?

Because all too often we don't fight hard enough to protect them. We passively let the bureaucrats and politicians take away our rights.

That's why it's so heartening to see Ezra Levant stand up and challenge the state.

As is well known by now, the Alberta Human Rights Commission is after Ezra because his old magazine published controversial cartoons.

The easy thing to do would have been to grovel and apologize.

But Ezra won't do it.

Instead he is mounting a spirited defence of free expression and in the process putting a spotlight on the injustice that is the Human Rights Commission.

If more Canadians followed Ezra's lead and stood up for what's right, this would be a freer country.

Baseball's Tribal Warfare

Came across this old-time radio broadcast featuring game 5 of the 1948 World Series that pitted the Cleveland Indians against the Boston Braves.

What's really interesting about this broadcast is that it really shows how our sensibilities have changed over the past 60 years.

The legendary sports broadcaster, Mel Allen, begins the game suggesting the Indians and Braves are engaged in "tribal warfare" and that if Cleveland kept the Braves "penned up on the reservation" the two teams would soon be "smoking the peace pipe."

Allen also notes that Boston's "chief medicine man" hopes to come up with a potion to ensure the series goes back to his "own wigwam."

Just couldn't imagine Joe Buck talking like that.

Rudy, Rudy, Rudy

Rudy Giuliani is the forgotten man in the Republican presidential nomination race.

But Patrick Basham, the director of the Democracy Institute, argues it's too early to count Rudy out.

Check out his analysis.