Oh the tears and lamentations .... Not at the headquarters of the also-rans in the Fort Whyte by-election, but in the offices of the media pundits who were joyously anticipating a humiliating loss for the Conservatives. Their pre-vote month-long campaign of villification of Conservative Party leader Heather Stefanson had bombed. Big time. On election night she was the one popping champagne as her press attackers were choking on bitter ashes. The Winnipeg Free Press was sitting on a Probe "survey" predicting the Conservatives were doomed in the next general election. It was to run on the front page of the Saturday newspaper to rub the loss in Stefanson's face--- until the Fort Whyte by-election shattered Probe's crystal ball. The Probe survey story by fake news specialist Carol Sanders was shunted to Page 3 and replaced by a front page story on a 1981 high school basketball team. The "experts" had to scramble to fund a new narrative. CBC's Bar
The origin of the Usher of the Black Rod goes back to early fourteenth century England . Today, with no royal duties to perform, the Usher knocks on the doors of the House of Commons with the Black Rod at the start of Parliament to summon the members. The rod is a symbol for the authority of debate in the upper house. We of The Black Rod adopted the symbol to knock some sense and the right questions into the heads of Legislators, pundits, and other opinion makers.