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 khori_wan_kenobi
Joined: 02 Jan 2003 Total posts: 6819 Location: The Land of Tomorrow! Gender: Unknown
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 Posted: 05/ 12/ 06 10:23 am Post subject: CBC.ca: "Bob Rae would make a Great PM" |
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Bob Rae would make a great prime minister
CBC News Viewpoint | May 9, 2006 | More from Larry Zolf
I have never been so influenced politically as I have been by the Rae family.
The first Rae I met was Bob Rae's beautiful older sister Jennifer, who is the most beautiful woman of my generation. I met Jennifer Rae at Allan King Associates in London, England, in 1965. She was my field producer and participated in all my crazy Rick Mercer-style stuff for This Hour Has 7 Days.
In fact, Jennifer was there for my funniest item ever. One day she directed me to the Bank of England on Threadneedle Street, where the Bank of England bankers were famous for their derby hats and umbrellas.
The doors to the Bank of England opened up and out stepped a banker with a derby hat and an umbrella. For this banker I had only one question.
Zolf: "Are you terribly disappointed that the right honourable Lester B. Pearson was not chosen Time magazine's man of the year this year?"
Banker: "Yes, I was terribly disappointed. He's an American senator and opposed to the war in Vietnam. So am I."
Zolf: "But, sir, Mr. Pearson is not an American senator."
Banker: "Then who is he?"
Zolf: "The right honourable Lester B. Pearson is the prime minister of Canada!"
Banker: "Really? I thought it was William Lyon Mackenzie King."
Zolf: "No, sir. Mr. King has been dead for years."
Banker: "Really? I didn't even know he was sick!"
Later Jennifer and I got a call from Pearson, thanking us for our satirical item.
When I was stationed in Ottawa I followed Jennifer's torrid affair with Pierre Trudeau. Jennifer was very much in love with Trudeau. Later in my home in Ottawa I had many interesting conversations with Jennifer about Trudeau.
I met John Rae when he was executive assistant to Jean Chretien, then minister of Indian Affairs. I had done a one-hour special called To be An Indian in Winnipeg. The special was all about the North End, my birthplace, now being the home of very poor aboriginals.
Chretien called me to tell me how much he loved the program. He wanted to talk to me about urban natives and their problems. I agreed to meet the minister at a Toronto restaurant.
At the designated table sat a very young man, a teenager really. I wondered who he was.
Chretien arrived and introduced me to his 21-year-old executive assistant, John Rae, who led the discussion, and was brilliant.
I met Bob Rae through his sister Jennifer. I met the whole Rae family at the Rae summer cottage. The Zolfs were the special guests of the family. The father was Saul Rae, a Liberal mandarin and a senior civil servant in Laos.
At the cottage, Bob Rae and I, as socialists, would tackle John Rae and Saul Rae, who were Liberals. They made mincemeat out of us.
Bob Rae and I remained close friends when he became premier of Ontario. His reign was a disaster.
The best book on the subject is Rae Days by Thomas Walkom of the Toronto Star. Walkom accuses Rae of sucking up to big business and to the multinational pharmaceutical companies.
Rae became so obsessed with his million-dollar deficit he was prepared to subject welfare people to a means test. Then Rae opened up signed labour contracts to fight the deficit.
Rae gave civil servants days off without pay to cut the deficit. The days off, he explained, were better than mass layoffs and job losses.
Walkom paints a grizzly picture of Rae in action, but does not deal with Rae's positive actions, including an anti-scabbing law and laws to make it easier for unions to organize in the service industry.
The labour laws were the real Bob Rae in action, but right-leaning folks went bananas.
The National Citizens Coalition put up billboards with Rae and Stalin side by side, and rich stockbrokers led a protest parade to Queen's Park and shouted for Rae's head.
He never had a chance. Bay Street and big business shunned him and his government like they were lepers. Still, Rae managed to save the jobs of the Algoma Steel Workers in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and the jobs of the workers in the De Havilland plant in Toronto.
The media was hostile to Rae's government. Today the media keeps talking about his NDP government, but never mention that he presided over the worst Ontario recession since the Great Depression.
It's clear that Rae's move to the Liberal party is a very real and natural step for him to take. He has learned from his Ontario NDP experience and admits to having made mistakes.
It's time to forgive and forget Bob Rae's NDP past. Bob Rae wants that and so does the entire influential and wonderful Rae family.
He is one of the most seasoned politicians in the land and will make a great Liberal leader and a great prime minister who will position the party a bit left of centre.
Bob Rae will not frighten the business community this time because he can now play Bay Street politics with the best of them.
Rae's campaign includes all of Chretien's top people and he has Paul Webster, a leading Paul Martin figure, at his side.
Bob Rae is too good of a man to be done in by his NDP indiscretions. With the help of the formidable Rae family, Bob will be number one or number two.
It's only a matter of time before the media will cease its unrelenting focus on Bob Rae and "Rae days."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_zolf/20060509.html
_________________
| Quote: | | "Listen to me very carefully, my community is the Canadian community; I am not the ambassador of some country to Canada; I am an MP representing Canadians and my primary interest is Canada''s welfare. I am not in politics to represent some overseas group or government. Yes, I am a Muslim, but I cannot be held hostage by self-appointed community leaders who have their own hidden agendas." |
- Wajid Khan
Last edited by khori_wan_kenobi on 05/ 12/ 06 1:10 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| Dacre Joined: 17 Dec 2003 Total posts: 10022 Location: Niagara Peninsula Gender: Unknown
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| Posted: 05/ 12/ 06 10:30 am Post subject: |
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| A wave of nausea is overcoming me. Would this article have any noticable bias? |
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Angleland
Joined: 23 Feb 2005 Total posts: 4909 Location: Ireland Gender: Male
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| Posted: 05/ 12/ 06 10:41 am Post subject: |
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"Bob Rae will not frighten the business community this time because he can now play Bay Street politics with the best of them."
That's just the problem. Rae has his little hat and tin cup and dances obediently whenever his PowerCorp Paymasters fire up the ol' Organgrinder for another round of 'Role Out The Barril'.
I wounder if Rae has recruited his talented former assistant Dave Agnew for this pathetic act. Or did Agnew have the wits to stay away from this pathetic farce?
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Mo Strong, Mo Problems.
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| jckirlan Joined: 09 Sep 2005 Total posts: 623 Gender: Male
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| Posted: 05/ 12/ 06 10:42 am Post subject: |
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"It's time to forgive and forget Bob Rae's NDP past. Bob Rae wants that and so does the entire influential and wonderful Rae family."
Strange how the forgive and forget attitude extends only to socilists and Liberals (one in the same), however, the media pilloried Harper unrelentingly for years and continues to do so.
"Today the media keeps talking about his NDP government, but never mention that he presided over the worst Ontario recession since the Great Depression."
I think I would substitute the verb "presided" with "exacerbated" or "caused" |
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reformthesystem
Joined: 26 Feb 2006 Total posts: 3818 Location: Tory's Red Ontario Gender: Male
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| Posted: 05/ 12/ 06 11:38 am Post subject: |
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Keep proping up RAE that is what we want...
Notice the fantasy world this guy is talking about... hanging with the big cheese of the world doing wonderful and nice things... living large... yeah life is good at the top or near the top I guess.
Their world is not the same world that most others live in.
_________________
"All which a man without authority can give, -- his unbiased opinion, his honest advice, and his best reasons." Edmund Burke
I support multiculturalism and massive third world immigration to Israel.
Did you know that anybody or everybody in the world is a potential Canadian within 3 months time? |
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| cdntaxpayer Joined: 30 Jan 2006 Total posts: 89 Location: In the soon to be a Have-Not province Age: 31 Gender: Female
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| Posted: 05/ 12/ 06 12:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Dacre wrote: | | Would this article have any noticable bias? |
ummmmmmmmmmm... considering it's a "viewpoint" article... |
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| Ipberg2 Gender: Male
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| Posted: 05/ 12/ 06 12:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Bob Rae and I remained close friends when he became premier of Ontario. His reign was a disaster. |
Therefore he'd make a great prime minister?
Zolfie, lay off the weed, man. |
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| Mike1984 Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Total posts: 468 Location: GTA Gender: Male
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| Posted: 05/ 12/ 06 12:26 pm Post subject: cbc |
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Time to email these bastards once again.
I know it's a viewpoint, but I don't want crap like that coming off the national network-no matter what the view. |
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homeandnativeland
Joined: 02 Feb 2006 Total posts: 3829 Location: Ontario Age: 40 Gender: Male
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| Posted: 05/ 12/ 06 12:28 pm Post subject: |
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More Boeurgeois socialists, lovely! 
It's so easily to take a hit off the ol' utopian pipe when you're wealthy, or poor (in an "I'm a victim" sort of way) and want a piece of a pie that's not yours.
Looks like Jennifer Rae has relationship problems. Ol' Turdeau did to her what he did to Canada, but we love him still  (not in my neck of the woods.
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| Quote: | Wow reading many posts here i think this sight is full of looney's and many posters could use a bit of re education.
Man oh man. What a hateful, lying, intolerant site.... |
Karl Marx 02/ 26/ 09 8:22 am |
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homeandnativeland
Joined: 02 Feb 2006 Total posts: 3829 Location: Ontario Age: 40 Gender: Male
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| Posted: 05/ 12/ 06 12:29 pm Post subject: Re: cbc |
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| Mike1984 wrote: | Time to email these bastards once again.
I know it's a viewpoint, but I don't want crap like that coming off the national network-no matter what the view. |
I wonder if they'll publish a little view point FD style |
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| Enn Location: Ottawa Gender: Male
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| Posted: 05/ 12/ 06 12:32 pm Post subject: |
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cdntaxpayer wrote:
| Quote: | Dacre wrote:
| Quote: | | Would this article have any noticable bias? |
ummmmmmmmmmm... considering it's a "viewpoint" article... |
True, but when did the CBC last publish a "viewpoint" article extolling the meritorious performance of Stephen Harper's government?
The CBC decides what they publish, and if they publish a blatant endorsement of Rae, the socialist who not only presided over, but helped orchestrate an economic disaster in Ontario with his destructive policies while he was Premier, it indicates bias on the CBC's part.
What does free advertising for Bob Rae have to do with the CBC's mandate to promote Canadian values? Nothing.
Why are Canadians forced to pay some $1,000,000,000 every single year to fund the CBC and its propaganda??
_________________
Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values. Ayn Rand |
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| cdntaxpayer Joined: 30 Jan 2006 Total posts: 89 Location: In the soon to be a Have-Not province Age: 31 Gender: Female
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| Posted: 05/ 12/ 06 12:33 pm Post subject: Re: cbc |
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| homeandnativeland wrote: | | Mike1984 wrote: | Time to email these bastards once again.
I know it's a viewpoint, but I don't want crap like that coming off the national network-no matter what the view. |
I wonder if they'll publish a little view point FD style |
Write one!!!
"ABOUT VIEWPOINT:
Viewpoint is CBC.ca's place for informed opinion and commentary. Our goal is to provide a range of informed perspectives from around the world and here at home on issues of interest to Canadians. All material published in the Viewpoint section is subject to CBC’s journalistic policy, standards and practices.
Writing for Viewpoint
We accept queries from people with significant expertise in their field and previous writing experience. We are interested in domestic and international contributions. We do not accept unsolicited finished pieces.
If you want to contribute to Viewpoint, please send your query to letters@cbc.ca with VIEWPOINT in the subject line and please include three samples of your published work. Columns are typically 800 words in length and focus on timely issues, events or personal stories with wide appeal. Please familiarize yourself with our content before submitting your ideas. Only those accepted will be contacted." |
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Evilgenius
Location: Toronto Gender: Unknown
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| Posted: 05/ 12/ 06 12:40 pm Post subject: |
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Why exactly would anyone here not want Bobby Rae to be the leader of the Liberal Party? They'll be wiped out for the next two decades under him.
If you must write to Zolf, I would suggest congratulating him for a well-written and accurate article, and state that you whole-heartedly agree with his conclusions. Also say that you can think of no better leader for the Liberals, than Bob Rae.
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Support a North American common market. Win the next election.
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| Enn Location: Ottawa Gender: Male
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| Posted: 05/ 12/ 06 1:10 pm Post subject: |
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Evilgenius wrote:
| Quote: | | If you must write to Zolf, I would suggest congratulating him for a well-written and accurate article, and state that you whole-heartedly agree with his conclusions. Also say that you can think of no better leader for the Liberals, than Bob Rae. |
I still think that Ashley MacIsaac would be the best next leader of the hapless Libranos:
From the April 9 2006 Ottawa Citizen:
| Quote: | On March 20, Mr. MacIsaac announced that he has been a lifelong Liberal and intends to run for the leadership of the federal party.
His unofficial platform, which he plans to formally release at a later date, also included decriminalizing marijuana, replacing the fishing industry with fish cloning and eliminating the GST on everything but luxury items.
The at-times hostile online discussion later spilled over into Mr. MacIsaac's personal website.
"I willattempt as calssy and valient an effort possible," wrote Mr. MacIsaac about civility in his political dealings.
But despite the promise of a clean campaign, the musician did engage in some name-calling. Mr. MacIsaac argued that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is no more qualified to run the country than he is, though he sided with Mr. Harper on some issues.
"I bleive the right ssohudl remain mroe in control of the provinces than the feds," he wrote. "Balance can be achieved throguh collective bargianing =not provicnes having to fight off each otehr for the same pile."
And like Mr. Harper in the last federal campaign, Mr. MacIsaac exudes a high level confidence in his candidacy.
"unlke Martin - i KNOW HOW MANY VOTES IT TAKES TO WIN A MAJORITY," he wrote. "...moST OF THEM." |
  
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Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values. Ayn Rand |
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| gimbol Joined: 04 Sep 2003 Total posts: 3948
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| Posted: 05/ 12/ 06 1:25 pm Post subject: |
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On another note.
Regardless of which leadership aspirant gets coronated, unless they already sit in the House, a by-election will have to be occurring for them to be able to sit in the House. Otherwise they have to campaign on experience other than in the HoC.
Suppose that Baw Bray gets the nod and becomes leader of the opposition. Would it be to presumptive that the powers that be in an effort to make a break with the past "encourage" a long-time sitting MP to step down to make way for the new leader? Possibly in a Montreal riding *cough*La Salle-Emard* cough*?
Can you imagine the commotion it would create if Bucky refused to give up his seat?
Even taking this preposition with a grain of salt perhaps its a good idea to remember who Rae has on his team.
You want to see a great blood letting in the liberal party, it'll happen if Rae wins.
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