Thanks A LOT, Doug!

I cannot think of something more piercingly irritating and insulting than hearing the Premier announce that, in this time of Crisis, he will reduce our electricity by TWENTY DOLLARS. Well , thanks a lot, Doug! Some of us thought that his government would do things differently - like getting rid of the larcenous feed-in renewables contracts that make us all pay HUNDREDS every month more than we should in return for..,. nothing. (We have the same rate of renewable energy (2.5%!) that other comparable jurisdictions in the continent like Ohio have but pay much more for our electricity.)  But, no. 

Even in a once in a lifetime emergency like COVID, these people who are supposed to be our representatives could not bring themselves to kill those contracts with the ultimate emergency tool of Queen's Park - force majeur laws. Instead, we are offered the equivalent of less than we would pay on one trip to McDonald's per month. What is more, killing these Hydro Rip Off Schemes would have cost us nothing and saved us all billions when we all could use a little more money in our pockets, business or individual.

The only people hurt would have been the Green Profiteers that rook us with these infamous "deals". There is no better proof here that our elected leadership neither care about us nor represent or protect our interests. They only care about themselves and their donors (many of which hold these contracts and no doubt have made contributions to all the political parties) even in a crisis like this.

It's an "Emergency"?

The President has only announced a national emergency to target a disease twice since 1960 - both by Clinton in 2000 to deal with the spread of the West Nile Virus in New York and New Jersey. Remember West Nile? In other words, I was wrong.

It looks like Obama did not even declare a national emergency to combat the Swine Flu, which actually killed 18000 Americans, not 16000 as I suggested before. This is a dangerous double standard and I can only believe that it is because of hatred of Trump. Finally, shutting down anything at this time simply feeds the false narrative that Wall Street is crashing over. It becomes then a stupidly self-fulfilling prophecy.

I believe that all of these things, except for isolating New Rochelle and the Washington nursing home, like China did Wuhan, have been for nought. Worse, they will have been self inflicted wounds at best, an indication of human folly at worst. I do not believe that almost any of these steps save for the border shutdowns and the proper "behaviours" that doctors recommend anyways during flu season, have been the result of medical advice or even business advice but political advice.

Exponential - something that the "spread" has stubbornly not been (why, for instance did it not take even a bare foothold in Hong Kong, Canton, Shanghai or Beijing?) in the infection or the killing. This is especially in North America where steps were taken early to stop flights from China. What has been exponential in its spread has been panic and fear spread by the media shamelessly and negligently and, above all, stupidity. It reminds one quite chillingly of the constant, willfully reckless and dishonest coverage of the Russian Collusion story. And therein you find the answer to why the coverage has that tone - both have one other type of disease in common - Trump Derangement Syndrome.

BTW, if CNN, Wall Street, NYT, Congress and others really believe that this is any where near as bad as they propagandize, why don't THEY work at home?

70000 out of 130000 infected by COVID-19 are now recovered. Sadly, the 6 billion infected by being dumb may never recover.

Math Apocalypse

Glenn Beck joins Angela Merkel (who said 70% of Germans would get C19 - Gee, I wonder why The Potus cancelled European flights?) the NP, Brian Williams, Biden, the NYT and countless "experts" in failing at Math. Today the Doomster (he still sells Gold and Food Can Packs for the Apocalypse) declared that "We're all going to get it." Well, it just put its ugliest foot forward in China and they have about 100000 cases out of 1 billion plus people, out of 15 million Wuhaner's.  It's death rate has been 3% at worst, infection .01%.

If the death rate is really 1 %, then Beck would be predicting effectively (affectively?) that 3 million Americans will die from this! Less than 4000 have died from this worldwide. I understand that maybe the idea is to prepare us mentally for the worst case scenario Ben Franklin style. But, when the facts get in the way, how about thinking before you talk for a change? How about NOT making people feel and think worse than they are when you hold in your hands the responsibility of such an enormous megaphone as a nationally syndicated radio show? Oh and BTW, get some remedial math studies done.

Beck suggested, no doubt, jokingly in the same bizarre riff that there would be zombies after this is over. Well, if Glenn Beck and the others who needlessly and recklessly stir the flame of panic over this relatively un-deadly virus outbreak were zombies, they'd only eat their own or each other's brains. Then Heroic zombie-fighters would not have to kill them because they'd just starve to death.

Don't panic, SVP

SPECIAL EMERGENCY BLOG -

SARS - (China) 8000 infected - 774 dead (10% mortality)

MERS - (Middle East) 2000 - 720 (36%)

Ebola - (West Africa) 28646 - 11323 (25-90%) ("Emergency")

H1N1 (Mexico-Asia) 100's of millions INCLUDING 60 million Americans - 151-575000 (0.1-0.8%) ("Pandemic" - WHO, June, 2009 - Obama declares "National Emergency" in October

(ALSO - did not discriminate as to age) Almost certainly, this means AT LEAST 60000 Americans were killed by it!

COVID-19 - (China) 130000+ - 5000 (3.2%, 1% for those younger than 60 AND there are only 14000 left infected out of 80000 in China, with only 18 NEW CASES!)

As of now the Americans have suffered 1380 infections with 79 "new" cases,38 deaths, TEN "serious or critical" cases!

THUS, perspective and insight and, yes, some caution, too, is desperately needed. COVID-19 is less deadly and more discriminating, and apprently less infectious than nearly all the previous threats, especially, SWINE FLU AKA H1N1. Meanwhile, I promise that I will NEVER use so many capital letters for emphasis in my writing again!

Moral Turpitude of the Highest Order - Parts 1 and 2

Part 1 -

What's worse than breaking the Rule of Law and then using your state powers to cover it up? Using people dedicated to breaking up your country to continue the coverup. Introducing the new Liberal-Bloc Coalition (not as seen on TV or advertised as such in our last election campaign). The Bloc just helped the Liberals block even "studying" the SNC matter any further. And you can be darn sure that the Bloc mob will use their perfect blackmail position (as if Quebec's position in Confederation in that regard was not already "perfect" enough) to halt any further action on Bill 21, to halter any projects that add even one iota to our carbon emissions UNLESS it benefits Quebec and to extort whatever other pork they deem fit. Every time these Liberal moral defectives sermonize to us about anything, they should be reminded just who they take their orders from: crooked companies like SNC and racist separatist thugs like the Bloc. 

Part 2 - (With no apologies to Edmund Burke)

And then the scene of legal, political, fiscal and moral vandalism takes us to...well, Ottawa again. Wherein the City of Ottawa's Council approved a multi billion dollar project, the so-called "Phase 2" of the LRT, last year without key documents that would have shown that the bid approved was grossly inadequate. The Mayor was the only councillor to know the truth and still voted for it. We are told then that the rest of the Council then "had" to vote for it. Well, apparently words of command and imperative like that are not even available when dealing with people coming into this country who were exposed to COVID-19, so there was no "had to" about it. 

Indeed, three councillors out of the 23 voted against because they "had" the quaint feeling that, because they were denied access to these key documents by the City's staff, they would not be doing their own due diligence before voting at all. The other 20 voted for it despite being kept in the dark. The Mayor voted for it one can only surmise for his own greater glory. The Corporation of the City of Ottawa should be renamed the "Bureaucracy of Ottawa" where the democratically appointed agents of the People of Ottawa are not even given the same powers as the Queen in its administration.

What does any of this have to do with Burke? Back in Law School, we were taught his Address to the Electors of Bristol in which the politician and philosopher extolled the virtues of MP Independence. It seemed laudable enough an idea, even at at time when almost no one in Bristol was allowed to vote and Burke, operating in the 1700's, would never have been bothered with his electors from day to day and probably spent little time there as he was too busy being, well, Edmund Burke. We all want our MP's to think independently from time to time, in our best interests, and even vote against our interests if they feel it is in the National interest.

But we all know that's not what's happening now. At best, this moral has been used by scoundrels, who can hardly ignore or be "away" from their constituents in some splendid isolation in this day and age of the Tweet and the Like, to commit all sorts of political and electoral fraud. As for "thinking", one can hardly use that term now to describe the meanderings of most of our MPP's, MP's or Municipal agents. They are, for the most part, glorified pension clerks and trained seals who do as their Leader tells them or, as the Sainted Jack Layton once put it, "Messenger Boys".

It's clear that, in both of the Ottawa cases cited above, the "message" from the Leader was, "Shut the @#$% up and vote for my favourite project!" In the case of the Mayor, that was his LRT Legend Embiggening project. In the case of the PM, it was...the PM, of course. For, the Bloc could not have Bloc'd the SNC study without the help of his Liberal Digits. The question is, where does this leave Responsible Government? The answer is, in a very bad place indeed. For there is no evidence (except that evinced by the three councillors who voted against) that any major party or politician cares about this, unless it is of political benefit to them.

 Where are the Press in all this - defenders of our liberties and turn-er out-er of our governments? The stories are there, God knows. But the follow up and pick up is absent. One is tempted to feel that it would be different if the culprits in these stories were conservatives, but, I am not convinced. Until our political system is reformed from top to bottom, we will be hostage to the character of our governors and thus, too often, suffer under the despotism of Civil Service tyranny and its accomplice corrupt, craven and ignorant politicians.

THERE ARE NOW 96 DAYS LEFT FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA TO DISALLOW BILL 21

True Believer

NP's wilfully naive coverage of Climate Change policy continues. They want you to know that believing in it (as they editorially claim they do) does not mean "just any policy" to combat it. No, on the contrary, if you really believe, as the likes of AOC, Thunberg or Gore and so many others, that we're all going to die in 12 years (is it now 11?) because of this, you must believe just any policy will do. The question is, is the NP insane or an intellectual fraud? I will explain.

If you don't believe that just any policy will do, you are either a psychopath (who would willingly not do anything to save themselves and their loved ones if not the Planet?) or...you don't really believe we are all going to die in 11-12 years or when ever the UN tells us is the latest ETD. That is the whole scam behind the hoax - making people agree to compulsion, coercion and intrusion in their everyday lives that they normally would not tolerate by making it a mortal threat. The obvious example is all the rationing and other restrictions on our freedoms we endured to defeat fascism (although notice we defeated Soviet communism without even a military draft). 

Bottom line - if you do not really believe that this is going to kill us and/or the Planet any time soon, why would you agree to any socialist measures? Why not let the best environmental cleaning force ever invented by man - the free markets - deal with it? If you do, the howling and screaming from the socialist fearmongers will tell you that the environment was never their first care (any more than it is in the dirtiest nations of the World who also happen to be the most socialist). It was controlling you.

Being There: the Presidential Edition

The Dude is a-Biden and he is a sometime Slick Demagogue. What just happened? Joe Biden is going to be the Democratic nominee for President in 2020. Something a lot of people who are smarter than me would have told me I needed my head examined for even hinting at only one day ago. So we are at full circle. The "Front Runner" turns out to be the Winner after an incredible journey that was arguably the story of as many as 6 frontrunners at one time or other in this benighted campaign. And it came on the end of what is almost certainly figuratively and literally the biggest comeback in US presidential primary history.

What one is reminded of when Joe has been up against pretty well ANY of the candidates he has encountered these past 8 months is the famous SNL scene of the 1988 "Debate" between Bush and Dukakis when Jon Lovitz as Mike says, after a typically moronic rant by Garvey's Bush, "How am I losing to this guy?" He has been more than a "gaffe machine". One can no longer keep track of all the times and ways Joe has got it wrong (chillingly, one journalist had his Twitter account suspended for referring to one of them!) often hilariously sometimes just poignantly. I have said before and finally people like Lounsberry or Beck have started alleging it openly - that these are the first symptoms of dementia. It is downright cruel therefore that he is here.

Then there is his corrupt cynical culture. He has denounced all of his major achievements except to take the credit for the Obama presidency and to stand by his friendships with the KKK (conveniently forgotten apparently by Black Dem voters). He has used his public office to brazenly make money for himself and his family for generations. He literally can be expected, in what moments of lucidity he has left, to express almost the opposite of what he has said just yesterday depending on what he thinks either the WAPO or NYT editiorial boards say or a focus group dictates or maybe the last person tells him (a lot in common in that way with Beto). He is a bully who kisses up and kicks down (witness his bizarre abusive behaviour with reporters and even supporters). As to his "moderation", his record is one of almost lockstep Democratic votes. The only reason he looks moderate to anyone is his bumptious avuncularity and how extreme his rivals look. 

But, he triumphed nevertheless. There are several theories. One, is already alluded to: his opponents are all deeply flawed and extreme. Better, when there were at least 7 of them, he could disappear into the weeds in a debate and make like wallpaper, thus not receiving hits nor making booboos (although he still managed to make errors unforced). His Claudius-like act of fecklessness left many of his opponents to conclude that it was mean and useless to bother with him. After all, he was pathetic, stupid and had no chance to win, right? The big guns, mainly in the guise of Warren, were then focussed on Bloomberg and Sanders. Remember when Biden complained about not getting a chance to talk in the debates? He should have thanked his lucky stars ( and maybe he did) for the absurdly generous relative anonymity and immunity it gave him while his rivals mashed each other.

It surely cannot be the money. Bloomberg spent 500 million and won not a single state and almost no delegates while Biden launched a Skype fundraising video with his wife from the backstage of his SC rally. It surely is not charisma - Bernie's people would go through fire to support him while Joe's supporters might be arsed to piss on him if he was on fire. It's not about the ideas. Does anyone know just what Biden would do if he were POTUS that would not involve simply going back to Obama, cynically rubberstamping anything Trump did that works or doing what Pelosi and Schumer tell him to do? In other words, perhaps the real reason for his triumph sums up what he is all about - nothing. At least Chauncey the Gardener had pithy things to say about the weather or the rose bushes that made him charming enough for the gullible to believe he could be president. What does Biden have to tell us about anything of any charm or value except more of the manure he has been assiduously spreading in his political garden these past 50 years?

One is mightily tempted to say it was because he was the "Unity" candidate. All those last minute endorsements, like that of Clyburn, Reid, Buttigieg and Klobuchar, must have told. Yet, how can someone who was polling barely 15% in the national polls just last week so easily have donned that mantle? Maybe it's what NYT called his "avuncular vernacular". Above all, even if he was not all there, he was "there". He is, for at least 2/3 of Dem voters, the best available weapon for disposing of the hated Trump.

The simple fact is Creepy Joe crept up on everyone while aping being "Sleepy Joe" and he deserves the sort of credit you get in the Bank of Hell for thankless and generally unsought after victories. It is a thankless task to "save" a party that many thought did not deserve saving. However, that did not make it any less desirable that at least the nominal nominee of that party not be a Marxist. Unsought after as I cannot help but believe that no one really wants someone so mentally incapacitated and hardbitten in his cynicism ("the most corrupt VP in history" and "the Senator for Visa") to be president. Still, What we are seeing is no doubt unprecedented -  the man won four states decisively that he never visited, spent money on or presented ads in. Who is more cynical then - candidate or voter?

E.G.: all those no doubt "clean, articulate" Black Dems voted for a man, who wanted to "put them in chains" in the 90's, did nothing else of any note for them in 50 years and was best buddies with segregationists, and thus catapulted his previously supposedly dead political carcass over the Dem POTUS parapets. So, who knows? I will still comfort myself that it really does not matter who they send, America will win as Trump earns another term. I am confident that Biden's record will speak for itself once he is candidate and sink him. But, if there's anything that this Topsy Turvy Tuesday has taught us it is the saying of another American who seemed to be hapless in his malapropism and hilarious misstatements - "It's not over 'til it's over."

(This blog was written almost entirely before Bloomberg dropped out.)

First Black VP

Biden must be the first Man to help "Fight the Man". If you think that Joe Biden gives a blank about Blacks just because John L. Lewis told you so, you are a disgrace to your race, man! The only chains he will remove from you are those on your wallet. Meanwhile, Trump's done more for you these past 3 years than Biden ever did in 50 and Trump did it without working with and befriending KKK Grand Masters...I wonder if Biden's old Boss will finally publicly endorse him by praising how clean a white guy he is!

Soft choices

Both sides of the US political divide seem to think or purport that a Sanders/Trump matchup would be a clear choice for Americans. Moderate Democrats and Never Trumpers alike say it will be a choice between "Freedom or Capitalism" and "Socialism" or between (as Bloomberg suggested rather obtusely) "Evolution" and "Revolution". Even some conservatives have asserted that Sanders is "like Trump" because he wants to be an "outsider" who will come to DC to "shake things up".

I am not convinced. One, Bernie's been in Congress in DC for THIRTY YEARS! Second, anything that is "Swamplike" about the US Govt. will be deepened, broadened and widened by Bernie. He does not want to change DC, he wants to change the US. He does not want to shrink DC's budget, staff or powers (except may be in the Pentagon), he wants to enlarge all of them and shrink the truly private apolitical American life. His priorities are the priorities of almost all Democratic congressmen and some GOP, he just wants them implemented quicker.

As to Trump, that he has shrunk the Government of Rules and Taxes, there can be no doubt and that is one of the reasons, if not the only cogent reason, why almost the entire DC establishment hates him. He has started to move the US govt out of not only the private economy but out of many other fields of American life to its great advantage. That he is a mortal threat to the Deep State surely is proven by the fact that its minions have spent four years and committed legal and constitutional crimes to fell him. (and the appointment of over 200+ constructionist judges will no doubt constitute a brake on state expansion for generations to come in ways we cannot calculate)

But the Federal Govt. still takes up 20% of the economy, entitlements remain untouchable and Trump's Administration with Congress has turned in yearly trillion dollar deficits despite having complete control of congress for two of those years. Trump's withdrawal from overseas conflicts is a good thing in this regard, but, overall, the State is still too big. In that sense, the clear choice that Trump represents becomes more of a morally relative one. 

But, that it is subtle does not make it any less urgent. Trump's second term may be the last incremental chance for America to reverse the ratchet of 90 years of Federal social and constitutional imagineering, with cooperation from the judiciary, that has left the US at this dangerous pass. Trump may be the last chance to break the New Deal/Great Society/Obamacare political consensus that has so damaged the country politically, morally, socially, fiscally and economically for so long. (for e.g.: US regulation since 1950 robs Americans yearly of at least $30000.00 per capita NET of Trump's deregulations)

The choice between Trump and Sanders is the choice between an historically large and still pervasive, obiquitous, omniscient and omnipotent Federal Executive being slowly Deli-sliced down to size (at least for another four years) and one that will be still larger than it is now or was under Obama and but quick. The only difference between Sanders and Biden in this regard will not be the cruising speed to complete socialism in America but that, if Sanders wins, he will be POTUS. If Biden wins, Sanders and his type will be POTUS in all but name.

Demportrait, the Last: Whither Bernie?

I've thought of a great idea for a short story - what if an American Socialist (maybe he's even a politician) wakes up one day in the USSR/China/Cuba? He finds out, too, that he is now a Russian/Chinese/Cuban citizen, not American any more, and has no recourse to go back to the US. In this story, the really morbidly fun thing would be to see how long it would take him to become rather disillusioned with the whole social experiment he dedicated his life to. Think Twilight Zone:"Picture a Socialist..."

Bernie Sanders makes you think thoughts like that. Then, he makes you wonder how the Democratic Party got to be so bad, after some 28 years of being a wholly owned subsidiary of the Clintons, that it would even contemplate, let alone vote for, a nominee such as him. Then he makes you pray harder for the US than you ever did before.

Where does one start in assessing this phenomenon? His blank hypocrisy is a good start. Only a few election cycles ago, he was decrying Identity politics as divisive and illegal immigration as hurting the working person's employment and wages to get cheap labour for big companies. Now, he is as dedicated as any to free everything for illegals and sanctuaries. He only wishes he could use race and sex to draw people to him as well as a Biden and a Clinton do.

Of course, he routinely advocates policies like opposing school choice that ruin the very people he claims to care for and backs things like the Export Development Bank that help the big companies and rich people he claims to hate. He has achieved nothing in his 30 years as a Congressman and Senator except to promote himself and his quixotic dystopian vision of America. At its worst, the US was never as bad or in need of reform as he claims. At its best, it is tiresomely great in a way that agitators like him cannot afford to admit.

He is corrupt. He has funnelled millions of dollars of his Campaigns' contributions to his family. After being a mayor, a congressman and a senator, he has gone from being a part time carpenter with a Poli Sci degree to being a multi millionaire with three homes. Paraphrasing Bloomberg, the US must be a great country if you can pull that off and not go to jail.

Yet, once upon a time, good left wing pols, like David Lewis, Bernie's hero, Eugene Debs, and Aneurin Bevan, would have horsewhipped him for ever seeing public office as an ATM.

He is a liar. He claims he has denounced Cuba as authoritarian "8 million times". We know that a quick look at the record will find no such instance of his denouncing any leftwing totalitarians. He coddles and apologizes for them because he admires them. He wanted to meet Castro. Imagine if it was found that Trump tried to meet with Pinochet? Worse, he aids and abets, as the most useful idiot and dupe in history, the most vile regimes in the World, all of which carry as their motif and standard hatred of America. He professes not to see how his wondrous nation has managed to deliver literacy, health care and an unmatched standard of living in spite of the State and without whips, chains, guns or gulags. Yet, one who has so benefited from its bounty must know his whole life's work is a lie. But he still peddles the Big Lie of American Evil and Communist Good to his adoring young fans.

And that's another thing - he can't stand America. He is like every radical socialist (read communist) I have ever known. He despises America because it stands as the only comprehensive living, breathing incarnation of the complete disproof of all he stands for. What is more, it destroyed the USSR, his "worker's paradise". That is the most important thing to know about him if you are an American voter, whose views generally he severely disagrees with on nearly every matter of importance and therefore is the subject of his contempt. He is the Undertaker for the New Deal liberal and the DLC, both types he despises along with all other vestiges of moderation and patriotism. And like all wannabe authoritarians, he despises history and its truth that extremism and oppression and utopianism always fails murderously.

So why is he the frontrunner so far? Probably because his opponents are politically dead. They have no charisma, imagination or connection with people. God knows Bernie has all three features in spades. But his connection is a very personal and intimate one with about a solid third of the Democratic Party and not many more. There are about 10-15% more who will tag along because of their ignorance both of the consequences of the "free" goods he proposes in the form of a program, whose cost is still not remotely costed by him, and of the movement he represents. He is an extremist dressed in the Santa's clothing of "Medicare for All" who will never ever leave your living room if he ever becomes POTUS. The later you were born after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the more likely you are to support him.

He represents the logical, although still terrifying, culmination of an almost 100 year Bolshie Dream Project to take over the Democratic Party of the United States. Whether the Project reaches fruition will be decided by a few thousand Democratic voters or a few hundred of their delegates. Until now, the conspirators were careful to follow their Guru, Alinsky's, advice to work on the Project from the inside. Sanders is the first one who never pretended to be a Member of the Party. That they are emboldened to cast away all pretence to moderation now is a warning about how much damage politically correct ignorance and envy can do and may yet do. The most disturbing truth is: if Hilary is right that no one in the Party likes him, it is not because they dislike any of the flaws I have listed above, it is because they think he is going to lose.

For, however much we all hope that he will be more McGovern than FDR, it will still be a death defying stunt for the American Republic to dodge the bullet of his candidacy. But one of the only two parties available to the American People may already be mortally wounded. In the end, the real Twilight Zone episode might start with this intro: "Picture the People of the United States...seemingly happy and contented, minding their own business...then, by dint of the Black Swan of a virus, a few shady donors and the promise of Utopia..."

Drill Down

As I have learned from Doug Ford, Max Bernier and Andrew Scheer, it is not enough that a candidate for leadership be resume'd (Scheer), "look like a real man" (Ford) or have the right ideological stuff (Bernier). All of these qualities are good in a Leader, especially, the ideas, the policies, for that is why I am in politics. However, having one or even two of these qualities is not enough. 

Scheer had an impressive background for his age and some good instincts on policy. But he never had the connection you need with real people and, in the end, he was afraid of following what were his natural conservative beliefs and standing for them. This made him an awful leader, indeed.

Doug was my love. I literally hugged him I was so enamoured with him. I also felt that, based on his brother's record, he would be reliable ideologically. I have been proven so far pretty wrong about that I am afraid. It had nothing to do with his CV, which I believe to be the weakest of the three areas I am discussing. But, it certainly had to do with character.

Then there was Bernier. He has character, that is, the courage of his convictions, to beat the band. He even has a nice resume. His ideas are spot on and beautifully dissertated in his little PCP memos issue by issue. He certainly seems man enough but a tad exotic for the average voter,  I must say! The real problem with Max and that of the others was an inability to articulate ideas in a way that is persuasive for voters. All the conviction and passion in the World is no good if you cannot find a way to present these ideas in a way that captures a real person's imagination. For e.g.: PCP's billboard focussed on the Border when it should have focussed on the Wallet.

At first face, O'Toole appears to have the "Real Guy" thing downpat. As well, he is no roughneck, well educated and resume'd quite uniquely and interestingly. Finally, at least lately, he makes good ideological noises (although, perhaps tellingly, he endorsed Elliott in the PCO Leader race in 2018). But there needs to be more done to be sure of what he really is.

The process of drilling down for O'Toole then is not just finding out what his convictions really are and his understanding of the mechanics to deliver them, but also his plan to persuade people to follow him to do these significant even bold reforms. The rumour is (which I am desperate to confirm) that, aside from Law and Order, muscular foreign policy and the Pipeline Debate (that is, any debate should only be over when the pipeline gets built not whether), O'Toole seems to have guessed correctly that the really big issue to build a dream on is the Cost of Living. 

Blessed it be if it t'were true! But, even if it is, O'Toole better have a clear idea of how he will solve it (broadly by deregulation and free markets) and show why it needs to be done. For e.g.: simple placards showing how much Canadians pay for everything from milk to airline tickets to cars and how much the average American pays could be a good start. But use trusted and respected economists who are experts in the sectors being reformed to back up your numbers.

There are armies of lobbyists out there paid millions to maintain the status quo for their oligopolistic clients, with tons of friends in politics, government, the media and academia, who spend all of their time working on preserving their client's specific little fiefdom of subsidy and regulated non-competition. You need to be ready to fight back against their campaigns to crush you. You must get the best and the brightest who believe in your agenda to advise you.

You must get your Campaign, then the Party membership, then your Caucus then your Shadow Cabinet, and then the People behind you and make them realize that these issues and other conservative economic ideas can win and only need a very small sliver of support beyond the base to win a majority mandate. But it will be above all about communicating and connecting with all Canadians on these matters. Will this drill down find that O'Toole has anything like the stuff to do all of this?

When we chose Mike Harris PCO Leader in 1990, it was obvious that he was not ideal but the best of the rest. No one could have known then the Mess that he would be one day fated to clean up let alone know he would be the One to do it. There was just something about him. The one rather ambivalent advantage O'Toole will have is he knows in real time exactly the Mess he will one day be called on to clean up if he becomes CPC Leader (unless of course he has been in a coma these last few years). The real question for the Tory voter is...what's the alternative if O'Toole does not have the Right Stuff? Easy answer: another 4 years of Trudeau and all that that entails...

What Matters

IF My favourite friend, the Martian observing from 20000 feet, would have relied on the debate last night to tell him what is important to the Democratic Party, he would have been sadly misinformed. After his review of all of the things that the pundits say and write all of the time, he might have concluded that there were three things that were most important to the Dems, especially in the context of this debate: jobs, African Americans and the Corona Virus. 

Jobs, because it is the single most important thing to nearly all of us who are not children or retired and even they depend on or care about someone who has or needs a job or a better job. African Americans, because not only will the crucial SC primary have a 40% black electorate but many millions more minority citizens will vote in the Super Tuesday states. The Corona Virus, because it is the single most deadly of its kind in 15 years and the CDC just announced the same day that its spread in the US was "inevitable".

Let's take each issue in turn. On jobs, the Dems seemed unable or unwilling or too busy attacking eachother to present a plan. If there is a plan, it would appear to be to raise taxes, borrow more money and regulate, regulate, regulate. Perhaps the biggest silent compliment they all pay the President on this issue is that they realize that he's doing such an historically good job that it will profit them nothing to bring it up and they will look silly. But what would it have hurt for them to say:"I know who's responsible for this boom. It's the American People. Now here's my plan to make it easier for them to do the great job they're doing and to bring those still left out in on it!"?

On African Americans, with the possible exception of Gun Violence, there was zip zero nada discussion about how to make Black Lives Better. Certainly, viciously attacking crime-fighting programs like Bloomberg's "Stop and Frisk",  doomed any effort to seriously discuss the roots of said violence - bad schools, bad economies, bad families, etc., etc.... If the Democratic "Debate" about how to help Blacks was a banquet, they'd be serving bread and water. But, our Martian would know that if he was observing their non-discussions about this in the past. A good sign for Trump, who Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) predicts will see his black vote increase 50% because the POTUS actually has delivered results for them.

On the Corona Virus, well, while this was in the hands of the moderators to some extent, it is still a fact that the single biggest medical health threat to the US in many years only merited one question after 80 minutes had passed. That none of the candidates even went out of their way to bring it up (maybe an adlib PSA about the dangers of attending public meetings like this one?) despite having ample chances to do so in the first hour and a half has to be interpreted as yet another vote of confidence in Trump's "This will all be over by April" plan to deal with it. Or maybe, just maybe, this is their backhanded way of acknowledging that not everything is Trump's fault after all.

All in all, again the biggest winner of the "debate" was Trump who looks set to meet the worst candidate for POTUS in US history courtesy of the Democratic Party. If the Martian likely would have figured out from watching this debate what is NOT important to the Democratic Party (CLUE: it sure isn't you), then so will the voters. By contrast, it is simple to figure out what's important to Trump - even if his Twitter Account is magically disabled, his record will speak for itself.