The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK "I'm a war president." Ð George Bush, his polls falling, ending his ban on appearing on major U.S media shows, to Tim Russert on NBC's Meet the Press. X x x We have now defined the battleground for the next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. It will be, to no surprise in the hinterlands, Toronto. Allan Rock, off in New York, no doubt will take note of it and stiffen his spine Ð if not the hairs on the back of his neck. The news comes with the not-unexpected revelation that Frank McKenna, former premier of New Brunswick, will be running in the expected spring election and, as expected, will immediately vault into the cabinet of Paul Martin (who needs all the help he can get in this embattled week.) McKenna, noodling up to the announcement, has been preparing for it for some time, ever since stepping down as premier in 1998. He has been commuting while working as a lawyer (lobbyist, Ottawa contact man?) with a prestigious Bay Street law firm. A Maritimes boy has gotta have those Toronto connections. Even more interesting, he has recently taken on the rather strange role as chairman of the Asper family's CanWest TV empire in Winnipeg. Nothing like playing into that Western Canada gene pool for the Grit delegate selection when P. Martin expires five years hence, of exhaustion from picking judges to investigate scandals that he of course knew nothing about. Just by coincidence, naturally, one Brian Tobin, another former Atlantic premier, has purchased Ð in Toronto's Rosedale, home of everyone in Canada who counts Ð a $2.5 million residence. How does someone who started out as a disc jockey in Newfoundland afford a $2.5 million pad? Who knows? Who would ask? All we know is that Captain Canada, who tried to take on the Spanish Armada over those little vanishing turbots, is now safely ensconced on national TV out of Toronto, a regular with the lovely Amanda Lang on ROB TV each night. See 'Mark' P.# Con't from P.# Which, when you think of it, is a rival with CanWest. All of this must come with some interest to the East River in Manhattan, where Mister Rock sits as Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations. He undoubtedly thought he had landed a safe nest for his next run at 24 Sussex Drive, John Manley apparently taking himself out of the race, lacking a profile five years from now (and a personality.) Mark my word. You read it here last. When the pensioner Martin falls (into his wife's thankful arms), the finalists for the Natural Governing Party will be Ð with a token Quebec contender Ð McKenna, Tobin and Rock. X x x Speaking of Toronto, the self-advertised "world-class city" that is not world-class, surely its most embarrassing moment must have come this week when at 12 o'clock noon on its main tawdry thoroughfare, Yonge Street, there was a two-block line-up of fools trying to get into a show featuring an American late-night comic that wasn't going to be filmed until 12 hours later. The four-day taping in Tranta of Conan O'Brien, surely never seen by the 90 per cent of Canadians who go to bed before midnight, brought forth a juvenile paroxysm of coverage by the supposedly-sophisticated four newspapers in Canada's "leading" city. They displayed all the gee-whiz gushing that could be expected Ð and allowed Ð if Madonna had dropped into Moose Jaw. As could be expected, the amiable O'Brien Ð who seemed amused at all the fawning attention from the hicks up north Ð had as his guests "typical Canadians" called Mike Myers, Michael J. Fox and Jim Carrey, all of who of course live as millionaires in Hollywood and must have been as embarrassed at the fawning Ð the usual igloo and beaver jokes Ð as the host. Will this country, including Toronto, ever grow up? No hope. X X X AND ANOTHER THING 1. Don Cherry is a jerk. We all know that. 2. He appeals to the beer parlour vote Ð which the CBC knows draws those fans to the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast Ð and its advertisers. 3. The hypocrisy is either fire him, or put up with his rants. As someone has pointed out, Archie Bunker was satire. Cherry is serious. A seven-minute delay (i.e. censorship)? In this case, Mother Corp looks more ridiculous than Cherry does.
