Book launch at the Albany Club

Last night I attended the book launch of Adam Daifallah and Tasha Kheiriddin’s new book, Rescuing Canada’s Right at the Albany Club in downtown Toronto.

The event was hosted by Mike Harris and was attended by more than a few notable guests. One of which, of course, was Conrad Black (we always seem to show up at the same parties…). Humour aside, his appearance was apparently a surprise (it would be reported as such) to the horde of cameras that was camped out in the lobby of the club. As he arrived, the cameras flanked him as he made his way about the room. He stopped only to congratulate the authors and to chat with Gerry Nicholls of the NCC. The mess of cameras and reporters left the club and the party continued on as usual with a few people left stunned. CTV later that evening would gleefully report that Conrad Black had appeared at a launch event for a book on rescuing Canada’s conservative movement.

Fellow Blogging Tories Greg Staples, Bob Tarantino, Steve Janke and Eli Schuster were also in attendance and were talking politics and election predictions for most of the night.

I also finally met Warren Kinsella, who it turns out was as impressed with me as I was with him. Seriously though, Warren was a good sport for climbing into the proverbial lion’s den of conservatism that evening to support some mutual friends.

The other Liberal that showed up that evening was Jason Cherniak. Later in the evening, Jason and I smoked a couple of cigars and talked about (what else?) blogging and politics.

A couple of my favourite MSM scribes were also taking in the festive atmosphere of the evening. Rondi Adamson and Michael Taube stayed to chat through most of the evening, while Andrew Coyne, after passing on some faux-guilt for my recent penchant for heckling and after receiving some of my faux-guilt for his lack of blogging, left to do the National‘s “At Issues” panel.

Unfortunately I missed Mike Harris and Tony Clement as the two common sense revolutionaries left the party early. Tony and I are scheduled to do a podcast one day but his life is incredibly busy right now as he fighting hard to win the riding of Perry Sound Muskoka for the blue team.

All in all, the event was wildly successful and a good time for those that attended. Adam and Tasha are set to start their tour, so check the dates and pick up your copy. I’ll be posting my review of the book soon.

Allan Cutler to run as candidate for the CPC (see update)

Stephen Harper will be announcing in 10 minutes time that Adscam whistleblower Allan Cutler will be running for the Conservative Party in the next federal election.

This is good news. Earlier this year, Kate and I were trying to lobby the party to nominate Cutler to the Order of Canada. Pierre Polievre did a few weeks ago but Cutler will have to put off the honour as he’ll be a great MP for Ottawa South.

Special Announcement to caucus:
Room 253-D Centre Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
10:00am

Details to follow…

UPDATE (10:32am): Just got the press release. It appears that he’ll be seeking the nomination like all other good Conservative candidate hopefuls. But I imagine that he’ll run uncontested since the tories didn’t have a candidate in Ottawa South up until now.