Tuesday, August 15, 2006

In The News

1. Vic Toews is proposing to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 10. I'm surprised he hasn't proposed raising it to 55 so that he can get that nasty charge for breaking provincial Election Finance Laws off his record.

As for the proposal itself, I'm willing to bet Joe Volpe sends out a press release decrying the move - it certainly couldn't hurt his fundraising efforts.


2. You may have noticed I don't often delve into astronomy much here but this article really cracked me up:


Astronomers from around the world are gathering in Prague over the next two weeks to come up with the first official definition of the word planet — and puny Pluto might be considered too small to make the grade.

“We have been living with Pluto as a member of the solar system for 76 years, and school children just love Pluto and we can't take it away from them or they will be broken-hearted,” conceded Owen Gingerich, who chaired an International Astronomical Union committee on the matter.

Personally, I think if we're going to refer to Kim Campbell as "a former Prime Minister", I don't have any problem calling Pluto a planet.


3. Andre Boisclair finally has a seat.


4. The above comment is the first time I have ever mentioned Andre Boisclair without making a cocaine joke and this fact alone deserves it's own numbered point.


5. If I was drawn to support a life long right of centre Liberal who represented generational change in the party, I'm not sure how likely I would be to follow him to Bob Rae. The optics of Maurizio's support are great for Rae and it's hard to imagine a better endorsement Rae could pick up. But I really have a hard time believing it will lead to a noticeable shift on the ground.

On the same topic, Any Idiot has a good post up on this, including some great quotes from Maurizio. Among the highlights:

"There's a sense out there that the Liberals are ready for a generational change with experience and also they want somebody who's been a long-standing Liberal member"


"I take no lessons from the NDP on how to govern and how to grow the economy."


That last comment is odd, when you consider what John Ibbitson quotes Maurizio as having said yesterday:


Mr. Bevilacqua replied that, when Mr. Rae left office, "the Ontario economy was the best economy in the G7."

If that's true, maybe we should be taking lessons from the NDP on how to govern the economy.


6. Thanks to a late surge in support for Preston Manning from SDA, the final four are now set in the Greatest PM We Never Had contest:

(1) Stanfield vs. (4) Cartier
(2) Manning vs. (11) McKenna

The next poll will be up on Thursday.


7. 11 Universities opt out of the Maclean's annual rankings.

16 Comments:

  • Oh, you know I only kid Joe because I enjoye hearing Toronto Liberal's reponses...

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 5:04 p.m.  

  • barf. i guess its cartier all the way now.

    and contrary to the perception, yes it is true that the NDP's fiscal record in Ontario wasn't that bad. the economy was firing on all cylinders due to strong manufacturing demand from the states by the 1994-1995 period and was leading the country in economic growth at the time.

    By Blogger bza, at 5:12 p.m.  

  • Dude, this is your BEST, funniest post yet - total treat to read.

    I'm with bza - gotta go Cartier. Voted for Manning a lot against others, but best best best? Nah. Excellent never-was-Premier, high profile Cabinet Minister, ambassador, but PM? Great ideas but lacks Stephen Harper's knowledge of and respect for the whole nation.

    By Blogger Jacques Beau Vert, at 5:21 p.m.  

  • Oh, but I should add - I think the current Manning is a much better and wiser man than the past Manning. I'd give him a LOT of consideration if was he on the ballot today.

    By Blogger Jacques Beau Vert, at 5:23 p.m.  

  • Well if ten year olds can go to jail, they can certainly donate to political campaigns. Right?

    By Blogger S.K., at 5:29 p.m.  

  • On 1; I think 'they' should bring back the cane and whip and when the little buggers step out of line, give them a good caning or whipping for more the serious trouble making and .... it should be mandatory every year for 4 years after they retire from the conservative party.

    By Blogger foottothefire, at 5:41 p.m.  

  • Re: the universities thing -- apparently Maclean's is going to ignore their wishes and compile the data on their own (previously the 15 m/d universities submitted/compiled specific information for Maclean's):

    Being a student at Dalhousie, which normally ranks in the bottom third of the medical/doctoral category, I was pleased that Canada's major universities decided the general ranking was a bit bunk. I did not go to Dal because it ranked 13/15 -- I went because its graduate political science program was exactly what I was looking for. The universities point out this 'averaging' problem as being a major flaw in the ranking system.

    Here's the news piece on the 'Maclean's ranks anyway'.

    By Blogger C. LaRoche, at 5:50 p.m.  

  • lol.. good point S.B.

    I think a lot of people are making a bigger deal of the age decrease than it really should be. I mean, we are sending them through the Young Offenders Act. Its not like we'll be tossing them in the same place as hardened 40 year old criminals?

    By Blogger Eric, at 6:48 p.m.  

  • If you want good rankings that deal with specific departments (though more relevant for grad school), phds.org has a good record for American universities, based on national research council data.

    I agree fully that MacLean's survey is not only bunk, but extremely pernicious in its effects. People should in undergrad in particular should go for the program they want, not the school's overall reputation. Though, it does help to have backups if your dream of being a geographer doesn't pan out of course.

    By Blogger french wedding cat, at 7:45 p.m.  

  • 11 universities opt out of Mcleans annual rankings -

    From the Globe and Mail article linked,

    "The letter was signed by the presidents of the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, the University of Lethbridge, the University of Manitoba, the University of Toronto, McMaster University, the University of Ottawa, the University of Montreal and Dalhousie University."

    Quite an impressive list of universities that rank very well (U of T, U of A) and very poorly (U of C, U of M).

    I wonder what next years will look like? A bunch of mediocre universities ranking extremely well compared to other universities that are similar in mediocrety.

    By Blogger D, at 8:28 p.m.  

  • On 2, I had a laugh reading the NY Times today (usually do, but that's another story) because apparently there's also talks to raise the number of planets to a dozen! http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/16/us/16pluto.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

    By Blogger RGM, at 8:40 a.m.  

  • I'm glad about the Macleans news.

    1. I don't care for the magazine; Whyte has done a number on it. Mark Steyn columns? Greeeat.

    2. The rankings were very flawed, for the reasons specified, and had a distorting effect on the perception of universities' quality.

    3. My alma mater got sandbagged by the rankings on a regular basis for reasons quite mysterious to me. Way to go, Dal.

    By Blogger Jason Townsend, at 12:08 p.m.  

  • Kudos CG

    Even I have only mentioned Boisclair once or twice without a cocaine or pedophile joke, and thats out of like 50 mentions

    its soooo hard

    cheers

    By Blogger Anthony, at 12:40 p.m.  

  • Vic Toews is proposing to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 10.

    Finally, some funding for child care...

    By Blogger Scott Piatkowski, at 10:29 p.m.  

  • By Blogger Unknown, at 2:08 a.m.  

  • By Blogger 5689, at 9:37 p.m.  

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