Conservative campaign staffer resigns
So are you happy, Mr. Rae? Did that make your day?
Now can we please get back to somewhat more important issues, like the economy for example?
Check out the comments from the Star link. Looks like folks are fed up with ‘Gotcha’ politics. Why do you suppose this came out now? - It was a 2003 speech!
Grow up, people! Save it for Question Period when Parliament begins.
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Update: More from the Post - Tory staffer resigns after admitting to plagiarizing 2003 speech.
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And here’s some real news that MSM should be focusing on:
Star - Duncan sounds Ontario economic warning.
VOLVO CLOSING - 104.9 the Beach.
Leaders ask for full hour on economy in debate - CTV.
Jim Coyle - Industrial jobs gone forever, McGuinty concedes:
…"There are parts of this economy which I am absolutely convinced are not coming back,” McGuinty told reporters.
When asked what parts, he said: "There’s no doubt that there’s some of our traditional manufacturing is being challenged.”
The premier said it was time for a great deal of humility. But he sounded positively chastened.
He said Ontario manufacturers, sheltering behind the low Canadian dollar, "hid from global economic realities” longer than did the U.S.
"We didn’t make the necessary productivity gains that we should have made. We weren’t necessarily as innovative as we could have been and should have been…’
Do I actually detect a tone of responsibility and partial ownership of this mess? Maybe there’s hope for Dalton yet.
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Wednesday Update : Plagiarism charge is a low blow - L. Ian MacDonald.:
…So the big story in the campaign yesterday was whether Harper, as leader of a party that no longer exists, plagiarized a speech five and half years ago from a leader who is no longer in office.
And Bob Rae, who has spent more than a decade rebuilding his own reputation after his disastrous term as premier of Ontario, spent a morning trying to destroy the reputation of someone who has never treated him as anything other than an honourable opponent …
September 30th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Will dion resign for stealing the entire David Suzuki green plan?
September 30th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Exactly.
And for stealing the ‘Green Shift’ name?
September 30th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
I’m not sure if any other party wouldnt do the same JJ…really…it would be nice to think that way but, I’m just not sure. The Libs have now gone in desperate mode…its up to the Cons now….do they go with the pro-Iraq War Iggy commercials…do they go with the Detroit billboards thanking Mr Rae for making all those business’s move out of Ontario when he was Premier?? I dont blame the Libs…its just part of an ugly game…but…with millions left in the bank and 2 full weeks left…I sure hope I dont hear alot of Liberal whining when the real negative commercials start to run every hour!!
September 30th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Great move by Harper re: debate focus on the economy. My town needs exactly that! Any other party that balks can kiss any sort of respect good-bye.
Things pretty much came to a standstill in Goderich today.
However, I have heard that the provincial liberals are also partaking in gutter politics and laying the blame of the Volvo move to the US on Harper. OH, NO YOU DON’T DALTON. This province was warned to get itself in a better position to compete when you took office and what did you do to help exactly??
The reason Volvo gives for the pullout is “to improve competitiveness and profitability”.
The blame sir lays entirely at your feet and anyone else who wants to blame everyone else but the most obvious. Step up and be half the leader Stephen Harper is, because I’m telling you that this community needs Harper more with some solid economic vision in his back pocket than he needs any more blame-game politics from the provincial government!
First I’m casting my vote to get my currently held Liberal riding Blue and then you’re next to be voted out, because excuses come easy, accepting some of the blame for this will get us further.
I see now at least the Dwight Duncan is at least sounding a somewhat belated alarm…perhaps he’s after your job Dalton?
September 30th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Just watched interview with Rae on with Newman.I am STUNNED by the absolute arrogance,the smarmy,smug,used-car-salesman attitude of this idiot.He overtook the whole thing..talking over and around Newman,to the point Don said..”it’s not Politics with Bob Rae” I give Don credit as he did push Rae on the whole speech being written by someone else,and Rae faked outrage..said”I’m surprised you aren’t more indignant Don!” then gave his ridiculous chuckle that makes my skin crawl! Watch for repeat performance on Duff!
September 30th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
For Dalton to take any responsibility for what’s happening in Ontario would be blatantly unLiberal.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
We are entering a global recession and the journalists are talking about this tabloid bullshit? Are you serious?
In politics imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and common practice:
Dion stole the name of a company and plagiarized the entire platform of David Suzuki word for word. (As Roy mentioned)
Layton plagiarizes Obama in his speeches (which I don’t think is a bad thing because this is politics; I’m just pointing it out.)
Why is Bob Rae talking? Isn’t Dion the leader?
Congratulations Bob Rae for picking on a lowly conservative staffer.
Can the journalists actually publish NEWS? Oh no of course not that would mean they’d have to act like professional people.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Well said, May!!
September 30th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Sammy, I agree with you about BOB Rae. He takes himself far too seriously and is usually not challenged. Don Newman did try and was put firmly in his place. I feel a chill just watching him on television. He slithers in and out of political parties on his ultimate quest for power.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Now they are brining up the appointments PMSH made to various boards etc. Anyone got the records for appointments to the senate/boards/crown corporations that were made by liberals prior to elections. Didn’t Brian conquer his opposition with You could have said no. Didn’t the opposition defeat the candidate for overseeing all these appointments. I think they figured they could get one of their own in the position. Didn’t work. I guess PMSH has done a fantastic job since 2003, if libs have to go back that far to try and find a smear or goof. Funny they missed it in 2004 and 2006. Waiting for speeches of Iggy supporting Iraq.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Waiting for speeches of Iggy supporting Iraq.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/mar/24/iraq.world
September 30th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Perhaps Rae is more concerned that the country is being run by someone who is a clone of a failed Australian PM?
September 30th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
I feel a chill just watching him on television. He slithers in and out of political parties on his ultimate quest for power.
I got a chill just reading that!
September 30th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
This is kill the Tories with Sh*t….unfortunately with the media we have in this country willing to jump on board and print all this slime; I fear it will work.
Liz May was right.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Well, I think Canadians are more concerned with hanging onto their jobs right now. I doubt that a speech that Harper made 5 years ago, and written by his staffer will have much resonance. I could be wrong.
I guess we’ll find out on election day.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Perhaps Rae is more concerned that the country is being run by someone who is a clone of a failed Australian PM?
Back to reality…do any politicians give speeches that they write themselves? Are you incredibly naive?
Were’nt you worried when the country was being run by kleptomaniacs?
September 30th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Bob Rae on Duffy; same arrogance and phony indignation (as Sammy 5:17 reports re: Rae on Newman). Mike played it about right. Rae was allowed enough rope and he eventually overplayed his hand and he wound up sounding ridiculous and repetitive. Mouth in gear, and they can’t help themselves: “George Bush…right wing of the American conservative movement…”
That theme is becoming so tired and so tiresome. I wonder how well it’s working for them, really.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Aaron has a scathing post on this topic. Good for him.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Rae should never be allowed to speak around voting age Ontarians.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
To malign Stephen Harper for having delivered a speech that, without his knowledge, was borrowed from another politician is loathsome, to say the least.
I have never seen a more despicable performance by that reptilian Bob Rae. On Politics, Don Newman had to ask him to stop talking, so that he (Newman) could finish his question.
I’m old enough to have heard John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address back in 1961. It was only after JFK’s assassination that it became widely known that most of his speeches were written by Ted Sorensen.
Was Jean Chretien the writer of his own speeches? Was Paul Martin? Did Bob Rae write all of his own speeches?
September 30th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Was Jean Chretien the writer of his own speeches? Was Paul Martin? Did Bob Rae write all of his own speeches?
Nope. Basically they instruct a staff of writers about what they wish to speak. Broad topics, and important points to make. The speech is then written. Mild plagiarism is not particularly uncommon.
Wish I could do that, but I have to write my own.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
I have never seen a more despicable performance by that reptilian Bob Rae.
I like that one too! You guys are very creative tonight!
September 30th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
I just received a phone poll from Ekos, who always shows the race tighter than everybody else, with Conservative support lower and Liberal higher than others.
Here is the poll.
Question #1
If the election were held today would you vote Con, Lib, NDP, Green? I answer Conservative.
Question #2
You chose Conservative. Would you switch your vote to stop a Conservative majority?
For the hell of it I answer yes.
Question #3
Would you vote Liberal, NDP, or Green?
I answer Liberal to see where it takes me.
Question #4
How likely are you to switch your vote, with a few choices. I answer won’t change my vote.
So have they recorded my vote as a vote for the Conservative’s, or Liberal’s?
September 30th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Paul, that’s hilarious!!
My guess would be, ‘if in doubt pick Liberal option.’
September 30th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Did anyone else see L. Ian Macdonald on MD primetime?
In essence he was saying that this whole Liberal plan was to wreak havoc on the Conservatives the day before the French debate in hopes that Quebecers would shore up the Bloc vote, and that would help the Liberals at the end of the night.
So one could say then that the Liberals are attempting to convince Quebecers to vote for the separatists, right?
September 30th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
“You guys are very creative tonight!”
It’s a good thing I pound out my anger on the keyboard … otherwise there would be some serious bruising going on around here.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
I’m very happy to provide an outlet for your anger, Gabby.
September 30th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
J. Bellevance from La Press on MDL Prime Time, thinks this whole thing is a one day wonder especially in Quebec. Tomorrow he said nobody will be talking about it. He said that instead everyone there is interested in Julie’s book coming out.
September 30th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
If that was the plan before the French debate, then every blog should have something showing Iggy’s support for the Iraq war. Convince Quebec liberals to vote Bloc.
September 30th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
He said that instead everyone there is interested in Julie’s book coming out.
Ah yes. That should be interesting.
I don’t think people care much about 5 year old speeches.
September 30th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Hey Saskboy, is this really your idea of a failed Australian PM?
“John Winston Howard AC (born 26 July 1939) was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He is the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies”
Served for 11 years, about as long as the Shawinigan Strangler, 9 years longer than Paul Martin, and ,well, 11 years longer than Stephane Dion ever will.
By the way, see the economic numbers for July? Thats really what Rae and the Liberals are concerned with, hoping Canadians pay more attention to their sleaze politics than the fact our economy is actually doing quite well.
But hey, keep spinning buddy.
September 30th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Looks like those BOOB Rae and IRAQI IGGY photo-ops aren’t giving Libs the desired effect:
Liberal support lowest since Dion took leadership
Updated Tue. Sep. 30 2008 10:05 PM ET
CTV.ca News
Liberal support has fallen to its lowest point since Stephane Dion took leadership of the party, while 39 per cent of Canadians would vote Conservative if an election were held today, according to a new nation-wide poll conducted by The Strategic Counsel for CTV and the Globe and Mail.
The Liberals are now at 24 per cent support, a distant 15 points behind the Tories. In the 2006 election, the Liberals won 30 per cent of the popular vote.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives have a three-point increase in support since the 2006 election, when they won their minority government with 36 per cent of the vote.
With two weeks to go until election day, and on the eve of the first televised debate, here are the full national results:
Conservatives: 39 per cent
Liberals: 24 per cent
NDP: 19 per cent
Bloc Quebecois: 10 per cent
Green Party: 9 per cent
September 30th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Oh, that’s sweet! Thanks Paul. Link here.
Now I will have good dreams.
September 30th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Are people beginning to realize just how completely bankrupt the LIberals are?
Ideas - none
Ethics - none
Morals - none
Intelligence - none
This didn’t just start happening since the election was called. This is what has been going on since before Chretien gave it up.
Now all that is left to ponder is just WHY anyone would have been supporting them in the first place.
Oh BTW - don’t let yourself get suckered by polls.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
No Joanne, folks my town that lost Volvo and 500 employees today don’t care a rat’s ass about what the Liberals dig up.
This area is prime for Harper and a Tory win like never before if he continues to do what he’s been doing and speaks to Canadians and tries to ignore Dion all together.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
sorry forgot something.
If Bob Rae really believes that in dredging up an old speech indicates that Harper’s the same man with the same ideas now as he was then, then perhaps we need to turn this right back on Bobby and suggest that it means that he’s still very much the same guy he was when he deep sixed Ontario….very much an NDP in Liberl lemming clothing.
Keep it up bare-assed Bob…..you’re doing wonders for the Liberal poll numbers.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Bob Rae is an unlikeable, arrogant man. I thoroughly can’t stand him.
There are so many similarities between the MSM here and in the states, with regard to elections. You can sure tell who they’re backing. It’s so obvious.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Oh - I forgot to add swarmy, sleazy and sarcastic when describing Mr. Rae. And smug.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
At the end of the day, who cares whether it’s a minority again or a majority for Harper… Either way he wins. Lib’s are broke, in need of a new leader, and they’ll be falling all over themselves to keep the Tories in power to avoid another election.
$5 bucks says Rae jumps to the NDP after the election.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
My 5.00 says Layton wont take him.
Sol-sorry about the Volvo plant, are you or family affected by this, as employees? I know the whole town will be affected in one way or another, workers will move, sales will be slower, and so many other unseen problems. And Christmas will see a lot of wishes unfullfilled.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
The reason the Liberals are revisiting the question of Iraq by bringing out that 2003 speech is because they CAVED on Afghanistan, they who are SO principled, who were hell bent on leaving Afghanistan in 2009, but didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to vote NO on a Conservative motion.
Of course, they don’t publicize the fact that Liberal Defence Minister Bill Graham had planned to increase the military presence of the Canadian Forces.
I posted a comment on another blog to that effect last March, when the motion on Afghanistan was being worked on. Here’s part of it:
What most pundits fail to acknowledge is that the Liberals and the Conservatives had the SAME Afghanistan policy ever since Canadian troops were sent there in 2001 by the then Liberal government.
Former Defence Minister Bill Graham, in a speech entitled “The Canadian Forces Mission in Afghanistan - Canadian Policy and Values in Action” delivered in Ottawa on September 29, 2005 (just a couple of months prior to the fall of the Liberal government) said:
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/Newsroom/view_news_e.asp?id=1770
“That is why the Government ***has decided to increase Canada’s military commitment to Afghanistan over the next several months.*** In fact, by early next year, our military presence and role in Afghanistan will be greater and more varied than it has been to date, notwithstanding significant contributions over the past three years.”
That is, the Liberal government planned an increased and continued presence in Afghanistan, very similar to the Conservatives’ position when they became the government in January 2006. The differences between the two parties only began to arise once the Conservatives won the election in January 2006. That’s when the Liberals began to use it as a wedge issue.
But seeing that their support among the electorate did not grow, despite going so far as to accuse the Canadian Forces of being enablers in the torture of Afghan detainees, the Liberals removed the issue as a possible trigger for an election, agreeing to support the “Canadian” motion on Afghanistan.
And now, because they can’t use Afghanistan, they’ve reverted to Iraq.
Bob Rae and his colleagues are as principled as a rattlesnake ready to bite.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
cbc did it again, used the word truthiness without crediting it to Colbert. Is that plagerism.
October 1st, 2008 at 1:11 am
BTW, Bob Rae said the news of this “plagiarism” had circulated around the world.
Liar Liar, Pants on Fire, Bob Rae!
I went to several online European newspapers and found ZIP on the story:
The Independent
The Telegraph
The Guardian
The Times Online
Le Monde
Le Figaro
Libération
Il Corriere della Sera
Il Tempo
La Repubblica
La Stampa
Spiegel Online International
These two Australian newspapers did carry the news:
The Herald Sun
The Australian
October 1st, 2008 at 7:11 am
No one, including WK should get away with calling anyone, including Owen, a “dirty rotten Conservative”. Just read his Musings this morning and was furious.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:24 am
I wonder if Dalton ever thinks that maybe Jim was right and wishes he had taken that advice - probably not, but it is nice to see that Dalton was wrong.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:25 am
I should quantify that that statement was not meant against Ontario - but against Dalton’s war with Ottawa and the I will do it my way - you don’t tell me what to do attitude.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:48 am
AG - I understand what you were saying and I agree 100%.
October 1st, 2008 at 12:34 pm
If anything at all it proves the Jim Flaherty was dead-on in his warnings.
In speaking to some of the workers from Volvo over the last few hours and from other folks in town the feeling is that in the back of everyone’s mind they saw it coming but local and provincial politicians simply crossed their fingers and hoped closure wouldn’t happen.
I recall watching QP going back two years or more and seeing not just the Tories by Howie Hampton on their feet drilling McGuinty about job losses and the
predictions of tough times ahead. His response was nothing short of a - don’t worry be happy that the Liberals are here, or blamed the Harris gov’t for it.
That attitude seems to have filtered down to some municipal politicians too except when reality hits them in the face as it did here yesterday.
Folks are asking where our economic development plans are both municipally and provincially. Don’t we have a plan for this all going wrong?
Exactly what the provincial oppositions have been asking McGuinty for the last, what is it 6 years?
October 1st, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Sol, I seem to recall reading something about the Volvo workers having had to choose between the union or their jobs… Is that right, or am I hallucinating?
October 1st, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Joanne - it’s not all of the reason but it’s sure part of it. One fellow I spoke to told me that the move to Shippenbsburg Pennsylvania and Brazil simply saves them money. He told me that in the Pennsylvania facility the union workers are not even earning almost $10 an hour compared with the much higher cost of employing a worker here. Volvo has been known to be very generous to its workers then he said something about gift horse.
Looking at the press release the closure is to happen at the latest by 2010. The current contract expires in June 2009 I think and I’m assuming that that’s when the workers will get their 90 days notice.
It’s not the whole problem but if we’re factoring the cost of doing business these days the union needs to take some of the responsibility.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Joanne and anyone else following the fate of the 500 jobs lost in my town. I learned tonight that the plant in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania where their moving the operation is non-unionized.
So, I do believe we have narrowed the reasons for the closure down considerably,no?
October 1st, 2008 at 10:59 pm
So, I do believe we have narrowed the reasons for the closure down considerably,no?
Sounds like, Sol.
I would say that this is evidence of how unions are killing Canadian jobs. I wonder how those workers feel now about the union?