Author: Stephen Taylor

Ralph Goodale is one of those cabinet ministers from the West that Paul Martin believes that by mere appointment will do much to mitigate western alienation.

Appointing Ralph Goodale also keeps the Liberal light flickering in Saskatchewan. Remember that Goodale was the Leader of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party from 1981-1988 and during this time he was the only Liberal MLA elected (in 1986).

Would you be surprised to find out that almost all federal judges appointed from Saskatchewan are Liberal Party donors?

I’d say I was, but I’m coming to understand Liberal methodology.

Click image of table to enlarge

While the Liberal Party has been largely shut out of provincial and federal politics, one has to wonder why the federal judges appointed from Saskatchewan do not necessarily reflect the voting patterns of the people from that province.

Here are breakdowns of the donations by party from the federally appointed judges in Saskatchewan since 1993.

The Hon. Mr. Justice R. Dennis Maher

The Hon. Mr. Justice Dennis P. Ball

The Hon. Mr. Justice Frederick John Kovach

The Hon. Mr. Justice Gerald M. Kraus

The Hon. Mr. Justice Noel S. Sandomirsky

The Hon. Madam Justice Donna L. Wilson

The Hon. Mr. Justice Ted C. Zarzeczny

The Hon. Mr. Justice Guy A.J. Chicoine

The Hon. Madam Justice Lynn B. MacDonald

The Hon. Mr. Justice Gerald Norman Allbright

The Hon. Mr. Justice Grant M. Currie

The Hon. Madam Justice Mona Lynn Dovell

The Hon. Mr. Justice Peter Foley

The Hon. Mr. Justice J. Duane Koch

The Hon. Madam Justice Jacelyn Ann Ryan-Froslie

The Hon. Madam Justice Gene Anne Smith

The Hon. Mr. Justice R. Shawn Smith

The Hon. Madam Justice Ysanne G.K. Wilkinson

The Hon. Madam Justice Mary Ellen Rose Wright

The Hon. Madam Justice Jennifer Louise Garvey Pritchard

I don’t know if I find it odd or maddening when I hear Canadian Liberal friends complain about how the “balance” on the US supreme court is in jeopardy because of George W. Bush’s appointments.

In Canada we have no such balance (even to upset by one judge). In Canada, we haven’t anything close to balance. Do Conservatives even apply to law school when faced with such job advancement statistics?

In Canada, most of us celebrate diversity. I hope that one day we can celebrate diversity of thought.

By now, most of us have heard that the RCMP is investigating Ralph Goodale’s income trust announcement.

Here’s the letter that set off the news-storm addressed to NDP finace critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis from the RCMP.

I just received an email from a concerned conservative in Ralph Goodale’s riding and he details suspicious behaviour from the state-run broadcaster:

CBC National News with Peter Mansbridge gets introduced on the broadcast originating in Regina tonight at 10 pm. Mansbridge begins his intro of the lead story – the Ralph Goodale RCMP Investigation.

No sooner has Mansbridge begun, but commercials start running instead. This goes on for several minutes, returning to the feed only when reporter Caroline Dunn is wrapping up her report.

Mansbridge moves to an interview with Goodale. Less than a minute into the interview, commercials start running again, returning to the feed only at the very end of the interview.

After this, there are no other broadcast problems.

Now, occasionally, we do get the Winnipeg or Calgary feed accidentally, so something might have happened accidentally. However, any CBC feed in Winnipeg would have been showing the same thing as Regina (CBC National News), and any CBC feed from Calgary would not be broadcasting commercials from 2 minutes until 6 or 7 minutes after the top of the hour. That’s when you run compellling content to grab viewers.

The obvious conclusion is that it was a deliberate move by someone inside the CBC Broadcast Centre in Regina (where Ralph has friends) to ensure the biggest story of Ralph Goodale’s political career was not broadcast into his own riding.

I smell a rat…

UPDATE: In a followup email:

the 11 pm broadcast is on right now. So far, it’s been OK. But the bulk of the audience is at 10 pm.

One year ago today, Craig Smith and I put our resources and know-how together and started Blogging Tories, the original partisan blogroll community in the Canadian blogosphere. Since then, our model has been ported over to other sections of the political blogosphere as other partisan groups formed blogging communities to catch-up, and to respond.

It’s been an interesting year as Blogging Tories has become the hub for many whom have felt disenfranchised by traditional forms of news media and wished to fight back against an MSM where many say bias exists. In fact, the Blogging Tories community has broken news stories of their own and have influenced the proceedings of Parliament and the current election.

The website is popular among the political class in Ottawa and among the grassroots members of the conservative movement. I believe that blogging will help bridge the gap between constituent and member as technology continuously affects our democratic processes.

Back in late April of this year I remarked:

The Conservative Party of Canada is synonymous with the Grassroots. It is indeed the Grassroots Party of Canada. Therefore, blogging and Conservative make the perfect marriage of activism and desire for change.

Conservatives gather around blogs for warmth in a cold and hostile media environment. From this small hopeful light in the darkness, conservatives spread the message to others open to positive change and re-establishment of our country’s pride. This is the grassroots and this is our time.

I believe in this country in which there is so much potential. Blogging has been an outlet for my activism and Blogging Tories brings like-minded Canadians activists together to help make the grassroots heard. In the coming year, I hope that Blogging Tories continues to grow as more and more blogging activists step to the fore and continue to contribute their voices to the national debate.

Happy Birthday, Blogging Tories!