The Black Rod

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!! What's wrong with all you people? Don't you know that this warm weather is a harbinger of doom? Haven't we been told over and over again for the past 10 years that global warming will bring the end of mankind? That Mother Earth herself is at risk? And here you are, celebrating the early spring, raking your lawns with gusto, taking your dear children for walks when you should be praying for another six weeks of harsh winter to preserve the world for those very offspring. Fie, we say. Fie. Oh well. There's nothing we can do but clear our desks of the clutter that's piled up this gorgeous month and write our annual March Madness issue. Spring Romance The Green Party knows the end is nigh. But its too busy plotting merger with the Liberal Party of Manitoba, or so we were told earlier this month. Talk about madness. Who in the world cares about what the Green Party and the Liberal Party are doing? Zero meet zero. ...

They seek him here, they seek him there Those Frenchies seek him everywhere Is he in heaven or is he in hell? That damned elusive phone scoun-drel. He meddles in elections What cheek, pray tell If you should see him, give a yell! By now the entire Parliamentary Press Gallery have donned their night-vision goggles, reknit their nooses and fired up their torches prior to scouring the hills for Pierre Poutine, the most wanted man in Canada today. The people who snickered when domestic terrorists calling themselves Anonymous threatened the life and family of Public Safety Minister Vic Toew have unanimously decided that a man who made some phone calls nine months ago is Public Enemy No. 1. Why? Because his capture might, finally, lead to the destruction of the Conservative Party and the return of the Liberals to power and all will be well with the world again. The Ottawa press mob has united to pitch the Liberal Party narrative that they only lost the 2011 election b...

If there is such a thing as an NDP hit squad, it's currently tracking down John Harvie, the Green Party candidate in Winnipeg North. Harvie didn't come anywhere close to winning the seat, but he came close enough to deny victory to the NDP's star candidate, Rebecca Blaikie, daughter of NDP heavyweight Bill Blaikie. Winnipeg North was considered a rock-solid safe seat as long as Judy Wasylycia-Leis was the incumbent, but after she retired from Parliament to run a Quixotic campaign for mayor of Winnipeg, the riding fell to Liberal Kevin Lamoureux in a byelection. Lamoureux instantly became Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff's lucky charm, appearing at his side at every public appearance as a sign of the resurgence of the Grits. But the NDP were double-dog-determined to retake their Winnipeg fortress. They spared no resource, from a 'name' candidate, to money, to foot-soldiers. And for much of election night, it looked like the NDP was back in the sad...

The pack journalism of the Parliamentary Press Gallery was on display like never before this past weekend. We got to see the extent to which they're willing to go to inject their personal political biases into the election campaign and to pass off their own opinions as news. But, sadly for them, we also got to see how the days of the mainstream media are numbered. It all began at a Conservative Party election rally in Mississauga where Prime Minister Stephen Harper was answering questions from reporters. Harper-hater Terry Milewski of the CBC got to the microphone with a list of carefully prepared ambush questions which he, himself, confessed were the talking points of Harper's critics. The next day, press gallery reporters for CBC, CTV, CP, the Toronto Star and even Postmedia spread stories across the country that the audience, prompted by Harper aides, drowned out Milewski's questions to protect the Prime Minister. The stories are lies. The reporters...

The Toronto Star tried a drive-by smear of The Black Rod Saturday, but wound up shooting themselves in both feet. The Star has invested a lot of capital in attacking the Conservatives for ejecting nonthreatening, non-partisan students from campaign rallies. The MSM has tagged it a bubble campaign and declared it demonstrates Stephen Harper's over-controlling personality. Imagine the consternation at the Star when The Black Rod broke their bubble and exposed the poster boy of the tossed students, Izzy Hirji, as a lad with a past that would have interested anyone doing security for the Conservative Party leader. http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2011/04/inventing-scandal-what-msm-didnt-tell.html He not only once posted a comment on Facebook that could be construed as a threat to Stephen Harper, saying he was ready to go to Ottawa "an take him down", but he later participated in a protest that harassed people attending a Conservative rally, and he regretted n...

"...stephen harpers plan is ridiculous, 40 years without results, and death to Kyoto!?!?!?! OMGWTF im ready to like go to Ottawa myself an take him down..." http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2212298927&v=wall You're in charge of security for the Prime Minister of Canada during the current election campaign. You read this comment on a Facebook message. What do you do? Maybe 3 months ago, before Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head at a political rally by a schizophrenic gunman, you would see the "lol" at the end of the comment and the date (2006) and put it in the crank file. That was then. Now, you dig deeper into the writer's activities since he wrote that comment. You know his name, Izzy Hirji. March, 2008. Prime Minister Stephen Harper campaigns in Guelph during the last election. About 50 protesters show up. They're mainly opposed to the mission in Afghanistan, although some shout slogans attacking Harper...

As a police officer, Shelly Glover is no stranger to drive-by shootings in Winnipeg, the murder capital of Canada. But this week, as a politician, she found herself the victim of a drive-by smear, aided and abetted by the local press. The scene of the crime was Global News, which carried a short, throwaway interview with Glover about the Conservatives' chances of winning Liberal seats in Manitoba. Taking one line of her answer out of context, "professional" reporters in the city managed to manufacture a controversy based on the false premise that Glover attacked Liberal Anita Neville for being too old to be in Parliament. For the record, here's the entire question and answer with Shelly Glover so you can see for yourself exactly what was said about Neville. Nelly Gonzalez: We know that most, uh, Manitobans here are, uh, usually vote Conservative. What do you think...in many of the ridings....but , I mean, there's a couple that could be up for ...