1THEY’RE MAKING IT UP AS THEY GO ALONG (THURSDAY EDITION PART 1) The Sask. Party government once said they would provide a list of all the interprovincial barriers to trade. Well, the guy who runs the Owls and Roosters blog says that Brad Wall now won’t do that. Wonder if that list actually exists.
2 THEY’RE MAKING IT UP AS THEY GO ALONG (THURSDAY EDITION PART DUH) Stockwell Day says the mandatory long form census is intrusive, accumulates out of date information, and can’t be trusted. (Winnipeg Free Press) Then he quotes six-year-old StatsCan figures about crime reporting (when the people voluntarily report crimes to the police) as evidence that there’s a lot more crime out there than police are reporting. (BCer in Toronto) And that’s why the federal and provincial governments have to spend billions of dollars to build jails – to jail criminals of imaginary crimes. Yeah, we would expect these leaps in logic from somebody who thinks The Flintstones is a documentary (Big City Liberal) … but from a senior minister of the Crown? Globe and Mail) Well, compared to Day, Stephen Harper looks prime ministerial …
3 OR NOT The Tories’ census wedge strategy has appeared to have backfired (The Globe and Mail) – they’ve blown a 10-plus point lead in the latest public opinion polls. Which should make today’s caucus meeting very interesting … (Toronto Star)
4 THE REAL PROBLEM WITH THE MINIMUM WAGE Many service industries in Saskatchewan oil country are closing because they can’t find anybody who wants to work for $10 an hour, when they can get a job with the rigs that pays $35 an hour to start. (Carlyle Observer)
5 BIKES ARE A EURO-COMMIE SOCIALIST PLOT, SAYS COLORADO REPUBLICAN POLITICIAN Nope, this isn’t The Onion but the Denver Post. The scary part is – he’s leading the Republican primary for the governor’s job. (Talking Points Memo via Bob Cesca).
6 SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS PICUTRE: It’s nice to see that the United States government is going to go to bat for Blackberry with its potential blacklisting by the United Arab Emirates (CBC). But Blackberry is a Canadian company … where’s Stephen Harper? Doesn’t he care about the fate of one of Canada’s biggest and most important flagship technological companies? (CBC) Doesn’t he understand the new economy at all? Nope.