The Black Rod

  Something is happening---and we don't know what it is, yet. It's like a change in the weather; your knees ache, the temperature drops suddenly, or the wind picks up and you don't know what's happening, but you know something is. There's been a change in the political weather in Manitoba. For the past two-and-a-half weeks the NDP's biggest allies at the Winnipeg Free Press have pumped out a barrage of commentary attacking the government, which individually and collectively are so flimsy they only indicate that the writers are grasping at straws. Columnist Niigaanwewidam Sinclair went full Tasmanian Devil on Education Minister Wayne Ewasko for calling Opposition leader Wab Kinew a ham. In the Legislature Ewasko said that Kinew "seems to stand in this house on a day-to-day basis pretending to be some kind of actor. He's no Adam Beach, Madam Speaker." Sinclair, who belongs to the Aboriginal Church of Perpetural Outrage, thundered that "Minister ...

For a brief, shining moment two years ago a cheap two-bit car thief was a hero in Winnipeg media circles. His achievement? He was, declared the news media in the city, the victim of a police beating which had been CAUGHT ON TAPE. The media mob was unanimous. There was no doubt. Hadn't the Crown attorney dropped a raft of charges against poor Cody Bousquet because of the savage beating? Hadn't the judge convicted the police in the court of public opinion by declaring in open court that he had seen the beating with his own eyes? There, there, you could see the video for yourself posted as a public service on the news websites. Uh, oh. Along came Easter, 2012. Instead of hefty servings of turkey and stuffing, the reporters, columnists, pundits and sundry found themselves eating crow, bitter crow, sour crow and more crow with Matzah. A formal RCMP investigation that was universally expected to lead to criminal charges against the Winnipeg City poli...

Ten days into the Manitoba election campaign, neither party can claim to have momentum. But Conservative Party leader Hugh McFadyen has drawn first blood. Or, more accurately, Winnipeg Sun columnist Tom Brodbeck drew first blood and McFadyen is riding piggyback on Brodbeck's work. Still, when even NDP apologist Dan Lett has to admit, grudgingly and reluctantly, in the Winnipeg Free Press that he was wrong, and Brodbeck and McFadyen were right, it's time to call in the cut man. http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/muddying-the-waters-on-budgets-129865583.html It's too early to say if this is the game changer, but the NDP's phony deficit figures could turn into just the integrity issue that tips the election. Unelected Premier Greg Selinger thought he was being clever when he delayed officially calling the provincial election until after his government released the final accounting of the 2010-11 budget on Friday, Sept. 2. The public ac...