Congrats to Nancy Leblanc, the acclaimed Ontario Liberal candidate in Parkdale-High Park

I read this good news online this morning on Scott Tribe's site , as well as Big City Liberal, that my friend Nancy Leblanc will be acclaimed as the Ontario Liberal candidate in the Parkdale-High Park riding for the next provincial election.  

Nancy is a terrific candidate.  She's a lawyer and a blogger who has been focusing in recent years on governance consulting and she will bring that excellent experience as a candidate on the hustings and hopefully into Queen's Park after the election.  I'll be volunteering more on her campaign, that's for sure.  I think I know where I'll be pulling votes on election day, whenever it happens (and please expect a posting very soon about the overall Ontario election and my current predictions, which should bolster Liberal hearts.)

Congrats to Nancy! 

Adam Vaughan's 'game changer' candidacy in Trinity-Spadina puts the downtown Toronto riding into Liberal reach...

The announcement yesterday that popular downtown city councillor Adam Vaughan is seeking the federal Liberal nomination in Trinity-Spadina is a "game changer" that puts the Grits back into major contention in the upcoming by-election.

In fact, I might even suggest if Vaughan does secure the Liberal nomination (which seems very likely), he becomes the likely frontrunner in the by-election race due to his amazing name recognition, his solid policy chops, his message promoting urban issues in Ottawa, and his street cred as a councillor who won his ward in 2010 with almost 75% of the vote.  Against NDP insider and largely unknown Joe Cressy, Vaughan will have a great chance of winning over voters in the riding.

We've seen this movie before.  In 2006, Olivia Chow relinquished her former seat at city council to win the federal riding.  In the subsequent municipal vote, the local NDP nominated her largely unknown executive assistant, Helen Kennedy, to run for Chow's city seat.  At the time, Adam Vaughan refused to play by the NDP rules and launched his own independent campaign.  Despite the NDP throwing everything it could at him, he bested Kennedy easily.  Now it looks like history could repeat itself with Vaughan, now in the federal Liberal camp, taking on Cressy.  

Before yesterday, Vaughan didn't seem like the type to join a political party, although his progressive credentials are beyond reproach.  So this news has brought a major smile to my face.   It will make volunteering for the Liberals in the by-election all the more satisfying as we'll be fighting to put an outspoken advocate for cities in Ottawa who isn't afraid to speak his mind.  He might end up being a bit of a maverick in the federal Liberal caucus, but that would be to the benefit of Toronto and the voters he represents, which is why he'll have massive appeal to voters in this by-election.  

Vaughan's candidacy also puts the whole Christine Innes mess into perspective.  I have not shed any tears over the latest developments which saw Innes banned from seeking the nomination now or anywhere in 2015 over allegations of bullying and intimidation.  Her lawsuit launched this week against Justin Trudeau and David MacNaughton strikes me as a very deliberate attempt to save public face.  We'll see how far that lawsuit really goes in the end.  

But the Innes story is inside baseball.  The general public in Trinity-Spadina passed judgment on Innes twice, with her losing by over 20,000 votes in 2011.  None of this will impact on Vaughan's likely Liberal candidacy, whose skills, passion and massive credibility will draw voters and volunteers to his campaign from all over Toronto.

As a friend commented on my Facebook page yesterday, Vaughan's attacks on our pathetic excuse of a mayor in Toronto have been music to our ears the last four years.  It will be wonderful to listen to him take this anti-city Harper government to task in Ottawa should he win the seat.  It will also be great to have Vaughan on the Trudeau team as they forge an agenda to fix this country, help strengthen the middle class and build stronger local communities. 

Kick attention-seeking, mischief-making American bigot Peter LaBarbera out of the country, please!

It seems hatemonger Peter LaBarbera's temporary detention by Canada Customs at Regina's airport last week was quite justified, considering what the bigoted troublemaker got himself into on the University of Regina's campus today. 

LaBarbera, along with infamous hate propagandist Bill Whatcott (whose guilt promoting hatred against gays and lesbians was upheld last year by the Supreme Court of Canada), tried to force their drug-inspired hatred against LGBT people onto the University of Regina today (religion being one of several legal drugs, of course.)  They were refused the ability to set up a table to promote their illogical hatred, but they proceeded to set one up anyway.  In the end, Regina police arrested them both and charged them with mischief. 

No one has the right to enter a university campus to commit crimes or promote hatred.  No one even has a right to set up a table on a public sidewalk to promote anything without a city permit.  As Whatcott rightly should know, there are limits to freedom of expression, which doesn't include the right to distribute pamphlets which read, "Kill The Homosexuals!", as he did about ten years ago.  These two merely wanted some more attention for their pathetic cause and sadly they got it.

Whatcott is a loser who deserves to be forgotten along with his drug-inspired nonsense.

And LaBarbera has shown his contempt for Canada by engaging in this kind of behaviour so soon after last week's warning at the Regina airport.  You'd think a good Christian man might be inspired to behave himself in a foreign country after that.  But no.

Charged with mischief, LaBarbera should be put on a plane and flown back to the U.S. as soon as possible.  Good riddance, you jerk! 

Ding dong, the wicked Rob Anders is politically dead!

What joyous news this Sunday morning!  The insanity in Calgary West / Signal Hill is finally over! 

Rob Anders - the longtime homophobe, social conservative dork, with a penchant for falling asleep in Parliament (see pic on the right) or veterans' committee meetings, the idiot who somehow imagined that Tom Mulcair sped up Jack Layton's death by cancer, and believed that Nelson Mandela was a terrorist - has been vanquished. 

The man who was born on April 1st and went on to become a massive Conservative April fools' joke, will not be on the ballot in 2015 in Calgary Signal Hill after his challenger, former Alberta PC cabinet minister Ron Liepert, won the Conservative nomination last night.

Hurray! 

Blue conservatives who value a modicum of intelligence, red Tories, blue Liberals, pink Liberals, orange Dippers and green Dippers and everyone else should applaud the decision to remove the biggest boob from the Conservative ticket.  It will make our next Canadian Parliament stronger not to have such an individual tainting it with his presence. 

Anders was elected as a Reform MP back in 1997 when nobody of significance wanted such nominations.  He stayed in power for so long because his party protected him from serious challenges until now, despite his dreadful record of service and clear incompetence.  I have to congratulate the Conservative Party for having the guts to open up their nominations this time and allowing this justice to unfold.

In conclusion, I'll second winner Ron Liepert's comment against Anders' supporter Jason Kenney, the ambitious little Conservative MP and alleged Harper replacement frontrunner - who I still think may be a closeted homosexual - and, up until a couple years ago, still claimed to be a virgin: "Mind your own business!" 

Sweet justice!  Suck it, so-cons!