A Little Skepticsism for the Liberal Bus Tour

Jeff Jedras,Liberal blogger seems a  little skeptical as far as the Liberal leader and the annual summer get to know ya tour goes.

This week, the (latest) make or break summer BBQ tour kicks off for a Liberal leader, where (once again) their future, and that off all Liberal-kind, will depend (again) on how well they do kissing babies, flipping burgers and, what do you do with corn, turn it? Turning corn?
Frankly though, I think in the four or so summers I’ve been a blogger, I’ve written at least that many blogs about how the leader really needs to have a really strong performance working hard on the BBQ circuit this summer to finally connect with Canadians, build momentum, develop a positive, substantive persona, and whatnot.
Rather than writing that blog again, I figured I’d just post links to the same blog when I wrote it every other summer and let you read those ones instead:
May 8, 2007: OK, now how do we grow?
June 25, 2007 : The quest for the holy BBQ tongs
May 5, 2008 : Summer tour a good idea
June 22, 2009 : We need to put some meat on the BBQ this summer

With the gaffes that his leader has made so far, the party tanking in the polls, I kinda see where he would be a little leery.
Joanne at BLY has a great summation of the gaffes so far in her post update.

 Update

It might not be a bad idea to start keeping track of Iggy’s gaffes on the Liberal “Off-the-Cuff”  Express.

Just from Shawn Logan’s Calgary Sun report alone there is a goldmine:

1. First of all there is the now infamous, “You know you smell the whiff of sulfur coming off the guy (Harper) — we know how right wing these guys really are.”

(So is he also saying that all Canadians on the right are like the devil?)

2. And Ignatieff took time to show off his Boulet cowboy boots to the crowd, saying, “These are the best cowboy boots in Canada and they’re made in Quebec.” – said in Calgary!!!

3. “I am much reproached for spending time outside of Canada — naughty me,” he said. “I don’t know what to do with my shame about that.” Well I do, but it isn’t fit for a family blog.

4. “Starting today we’re going to get on a bus and go to every province and territory between July and September, if it doesn’t kill me first.    Please Iggy, try to curb your enthusiasm at the prospect of meeting The Canadians.

Iffy sure hasn't started his tour well with his off the cuff remarks but maybe he'll catch on a bit after hand shaking, baby kissing and hanging with "the Canadians" in Tim Hortons across the country. Maybe we should give him a little slack, he's not used to cavorting with the peasants, you know.  Will it end up as a successful venture?  Time will tell.
Meanwhile we'll be mining gold in gaffes etc. for future reference to use in truth ads and blog topics.

Canada's Job Rate Down

Good news on the jobs front.  Our unemployment rate fell from 8.1 to 7.9 percent.  Canada added 93,000 new jobs last month.

The Canadian jobs machine kept powering ahead in June, as the economy created 93,000 new positions and unexpectedly pushed the unemployment rate below 8 per cent for the first time since January of 2009.

 Meanwhile, our friends and neighbors to the south's job rate hovers around 9.5 percent.  

Total nonfarm payroll employment declined by 125,000 in June, and the unemployment rate edged down to 9.5 percent.

 Some are even suggesting job seekers come to Canada to look for work.

 A popular U.S. website has a unique suggestion for Americans desperately seeking work.

The advice? Move to Canada.

There's a fluttering Maple Leaf on the homepage today of the Huffington Post, a site popular for its news and celebrity blogs.

The accompanying headline says: Need A Job? Try Canada, Where Hiring Is Booming And Home Prices Are Rising.

It indeed is good news.  Let's hope it will only get better from here.

Iffy's Magical Bus Tour

Mr. Iffy is about to embark on his magical bus tour to change his image in hopes that it will boost his and his party's fortunes. 

Get ready for Iggy unplugged. The bus tour to beat all bus tours. Or what one of Michael Ignatieff’s strategists is calling – we’re not kidding – “the biggest summer undertaking of any opposition leader ever!”
Starting next week, the Opposition Leader, tanking in the polls, will climb aboard the Liberal Express (as it’s being called) for a summer-long national tour featuring seven or eight events a day: town halls, round tables, barbecues, interviews, picnics, carnivals – everything, in fact, except trampoline acts.

This should be good.   Can't wait for all the gaffes.  Seeing how the latest numbers for the Iffy Liberals are real bad,  I don't see that this getting down and dirty with us "the Canadian people" is going to help him much.  He's a flip flopper and a gaffe machine much like US VP Joe Biden.  It will provide us conservative bloggers a treasure trove of stuff to post about though.  I got a feeling that by time this magical bus tour is over, instead of riding inside the bus, Iffy will be thrown under the bus. At least the party brass will feel like it.

Meanwhile, here are some tips from Patricia Dawn Robertson, Globe and Mail.  that she has for laying out the welcome mat for the visiting professor.  Hey,how about laying out that welcome mat when Iffy's bus pulls into a community near you.  Cheers!

What is Wrong with the GG's Husband?

Where does he get the nerve?  Governor General Michaelle Jean's husband 
Jean-Daniel Lafond had the audacity to suggest that the Queen shouldn't stay at Rideau Hall but should instead stay at hotel.  Was she supposed to find a room at the Travelodge or Super 8?

OTTAWA – Jean-Daniel Lafond didn’t want the Queen to bunk at Rideau Hall when the monarch visited the nation’s capital last week, QMI Agency has learned

 Her Majesty has stayed at Rideau Hall every time she has visited Ottawa ever since before she was Queen when she was still a princess.  

The Queen has bedded down at Rideau Hall any other time she’s ever visited Ottawa, beginning in 1951 when she was then Princess Elizabeth.

Mr. Lafond should have been honored to have the Queen stay at the residence that he was living at temporarily.  The residence does not belong to him. Obviously, he's not very gracious.
I'm glad Ms. Jean didn't have anything to do with this.

 Jean apparently had nothing to do with Lafond’s odd request.

 The arrogance of this man, who does he think he is?   The current GG's gig is up at the end of the summer. He'll have to find other digs.  I'll be sorry to see Michaelle Jean leave but not him.  She has done an excellent job in her term as GG and I thank her for her service.   Her husband, he seems to be a jerk!

Mr. Iffy the Apologist

Ezra calls out Iffy on his trip to China on the human rights issue.  Iffy was once  director of the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard University.

Ignatieff heaps false praise on China, saying its newfound prosperity -- for at least part of the country -- "has been one of the most significant advances in human rights for mankind ever." A higher standard of living is indeed a good thing. But what does that have to do with human rights like the freedom to criticize the government, or to organize a political rally, or to believe in a religion that doesn't have the Communist Party's approval? Is Ignatieff really comparing China's material wealth -- at $10/day, their per capita GDP is still quite modest by international levels -- to the freedoms protected in the Magna Carta or the American Revolution or the Enlightenment?
Ignatieff falsely disparaged Canada's human rights achievements. He falsely lauded China's human rights achievements. And then he falsely implied a moral equivalence between our two countries -- that we are moral equals, and can learn from each other about matters like justice.

The National Post talks about how Iffy is Bejing's Canadian Apologist.

If what we've seen so far -- simpering apologies and moral equivalence in the face of China's dictatorship--is indicative, we say, "No, thank you."

Iffy goes on to slam Canada. 

He even took some time out to slam Canada on foreign soil, declaring that a "gap" exists between Canada's ideals and "reality for some of my fellow citizens." Beijing propagandists were no doubt busily taking notes

Iffy  should know better but clearly is to cow towing to China.  Why?  Could it be Maurice Strong?

Btw. Having problems with comment moderation today.  Bear with me.  Hope it will be resolved in short order. Thanks for your patience!