Wednesday, April 14, 2010

As I was saying...


On Sunday, when I wrote in this space about the remote and horrifying possibility that one of the worst mayors in Vancouver's shoddy history of bad mayors might be considered for the "job" of Governor General, Bill Tieleman gave me advance warning thar he would have a piece on the same subject this week.

He has and it's a juicy little humdinger.

He spells out in considerable detail exactly why this is a truly dreadful and inappropriate idea.

Read it here.

Out of Order


The New Democrats sought yesterday to use Question Period to ask Premier Gordon Campbell whether he was aware of the “smear campaign” at the time, but their questions were ruled out of order because of the current RCMP investigation into the affair.

That may be strictly correct.

But what is truly out of order is the entire stench emanating from a pile of truly ugly election pamphlets that SOMEONE was sending to Chinese voters before the last provincial election.

Kash Heed, who was elected by a narrow margin, in the targeted district, has stepped down pending the outcome of the RCMP investigation.

But if this happened on his watch and on his behalf - even without his knowledge - he may have to step down permanently.

And what about the grease balls who created this slime?

And who sanctioned the whole operation?

And who knew about it?

Access Denied


The federal Information Commissioner has rated a raft of agencies (Justice, Citizenship, Revenue, Corrections and the like) on their transparency.

Their willingness to open their little hearts and minds and share the basic info.

Needles to say most of these public services failed miserably.

Secrecy and obfuscation are their mantras and their middle names.

We don't even know why the Happy Sociopaths are in the news every day this week. What did she actually do? What did he do? Sure, they're creepy, but what did they actually do? Harper won't tell us and the Ethics Commissioner won't investigate. Why? (Collective shrug.) Who knows?

Welcome to (sshhhhh...) Canada.

Meanwhile the Supreme Court has been secretly arguing amongst its very perfect self on the whole issue of government access.

Hey, what's 16 months between friends?

Gulag, anyone?

GO, GO, GO...


Not a good review, but a RAVE from Julie MacLellan in the New Westminster Record/Burnaby Now for Royal City's "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat."

This follows Peter Birnie's RAVE review in the Vancouver Sun.

They are both spot on.

It's been ages since any of us have seen a show here with such energy and fun. The voices, the dancing and the staging are all wonderful.

This is the second time I've mentioned "Joseph" in these pages.

I have a personal stake in the success of the show as I bought and planned much of the advertising and marketing.

But I am also a miserable critic and don't like much of what I see on local stages.

This thing blew me away.

It's fab.

Go, go, go...
http://www.masseytheatre.com/ or call 604-521-5050 for tickets

Take kids with you...there are 60 about 60 kids on the stage and they are wonderful.