Danielle Smith Wildrose Alliance leadership bid is very likely

Danielle Smith is the former Alberta director of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and is a regular commentator on Canadian politics. She resigned her position at the CFIB because it suddenly presented a “conflict” for other opportunities, namely seeking the leadership of the Wildrose Alliance now that Paul Hinman has stepped down. I asked her about Alberta politics, refreshing conservatism and her very likely bid.

Larry Summers nods off

US President Barack Obama’s economic adviser Larry Summers is seen here dozing off during a press conference with reporters while his boss explains what he learned about interest payments on borrowed money from the credit card companies.

Michael Ignatieff is said to have met with Summers later on for a private dinner.

If the most exciting political leader of our generation™ put an economist into snooze-mode, I can’t imagine what sort of responsive state Summers is in today after his meeting with Dr. Michael life-of-the-party Ignatieff.

The Liberal leader’s new book is titled True Patriot Love wherein Ignatieff recounts four generations of his family. One wonders if Ignatieff presented Summers with a copy for bedtime reading. Early reviews indicate that it’s no Dreams from My Father. But, who knows, it still could be a sleeper hit.

Press Gallery off message

Sun Media’s Elizabeth Thompson:

When Prime Minister Stephen Harper described last Fall’s stock market dive as “a great buying opportunity,” it was seen by many as a bit insensitive, given the number of Canadians who had just seen a good chunk of their retirement savings melt away.

On Feb.10, when the S&P/TSX hit 8,817.89 – one of the lower points since Harper’s comments – an anonymous tech savvy individual registered the web address and created the Harperdex, which set out to track how much the $1,000 invested the day after Harper’s comments would be worth.
But stock markets are like public opinion polls and what goes down eventually goes up again. At noon today, the Harperdex shows that $1,000 is now worth $1,003 – probably not what the creator of the Harperdex had in mind.

Oh, Liz… you presume too much!

We learn from Canwest’s David Akin,

Ottawa Citizen reporter Glen McGregor quickly put up HarperDex.ca (mostly, he says, as a fun exercise in some Web programming techniques). The idea was simple: If you had invested $1,000 in the S&P/TSX Composite Index the day after Harper said “Buy”, the HarperDex will tell you what that $1,000 is worth.

It’s good to see that the Liberals are getting some help creating anti-Harper mini-sites. Now, if only we could find out which journalist is moonlighting as Perez Hudak?