Author: Stephen Taylor

Liberal Party senior official Mike Klander made a huge mistake with arguably racist and certainly rude remarks that he made in public on his blog. If you didn’t think that blogs would have an effect on the election, witness the following abhorrent remarks by Klander.

This disgusting artwork (h/t: Wells) is courtesy of Mr. Klander who describes himself from his website as a

…senior political organizer Mike played a significant role in building Paul Martin’s Leadership organization in Ontario. Prior to joining Martin’s team, Mike helped build a national organization for Brian Tobin and also served as his Campaign Manager in Ontario.

Mike continues his autobiography in the third person:

As Executive Director of the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario) Mike was responsible for managing the day to day affairs of the Federal Liberal Party in Ontario. In that capacity he served as Ontario Campaign Director during the 2000 Federal Election Campaign. In his eight years with the organization he held several other positions including Field Organizer, and Director of Field Operations.

If parents were outraged at Scott Reid’s suggestion that they would be so irresponsible to “blow money on beer and popcorn”, then the collective Canadian community will find the Executive Director of the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario), the Executive Vice-President of the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario) and Paul Martin leadership organizer’s comments quite disgusting.

Chow’s husband, NDP leader Jack Layton is also not immune from Klander’s freshman foulmouth as he describes him as “an asshole”. Paul Martin’s close friend only provides the following as justification for his assessment of Layton:

Jack Layton is an asshole… for no reason other than it makes me feel good to say it…and because he is.

Klander not only slams his NDP opponents slams members of his own team including Michael Ignatieff and Dalton McGuinty as he compares the two to Anthony Perkins.

In a post titled “This campaign will piss me off”, Klander makes a misogynistic comment about the “sexy Rona Ambrose” and a Parizeau-esque comment about the “ethnic Rahim Jaffir”.

The Executive Vice-President of the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario) also uses sexual orientation as a derogatory insult when describing politicians (Stephen Harper and John Manley) in cowboy hats. (Klander contrasts “tough and rugged” with “gay”)

On why the Executive Director of the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario) would never run for office, Klander explains:

I say NO…not because I don’t think it’s noble profession or because I think the commitment is too great…and NO not even because you have to be nice to really stupid people.

I say NO because at any moment, at any place, in any pose or any situation, your picture can be taken and broadcast to the world…if you don’t think that’s a good enough reason, than look at this roster of winners.

In a post titled “Bed Buddies?”, Paul Martin’s close confidant uses the Stephen Harper / Gilles Duceppe Holocaust memorial photo (right click on the broken image and select view image or show picture). He offers more of his lame juvenile wit:

Yes indeed, politics does make for strange bedfellows…but is there more to it?

I would bet that his wife couldn’t make his eyes roll back into his head like that.

Again, Klander uses homosexuality as an insult and this is both derogatory to gay people and to Mr. Harper and Mr. Duceppe.

After losing the pseudo-confidence vote back in May, Klander complained about missing members and why they were absent:

Okay, if Irvin Cotler wasn’t at a funeral, John Efford didn’t have a medical procedure in St. John’s and Chuck Cadman would have better scheduled his chemotherapy there MIGHT have been tie

Klander continues his disgusting assault when he focused upon Conservative MP Steven Fletcher in a May 3rd post titled “Furious Fletcher and the Stiff”:

Quadriplegic Conservative MP invites health minister to “take this outside”

I don’t know how I missed this earlier in April.

This is funny so stop pretending that its not…stop being so politically correct will you? Even funnier than the headline is the Yahoo/Canada Press link itself: it appears that story is internally referred to as “Furious Fletcher”

After Paul Martin’s emergency address to the nation, Paul Martin’s leadership organizer in Ontario offers this preview of Liberal strategy and we learn that it was all manipulation:

He looked sincere, he looked prime ministerial and his apology seemed genuine. The promise to call an election within 30 days of the realease of Gomery’s report was brilliant. Why? Not because it will stop the Conservatives from defeating the goverment (because I don’t think it will) but because it gives the Liberals ammunition during a campaign. They will have credibility when they say that this election is unecesarry and that the Conservatives brought us to the polls because of pure political ambition. They know that Canadians don’t want to go the polls and they know that Canadians will think that Martin’s request to hold off on an election is reasonable. In the end, if the Conservatives defeat the government now, it will only reinforce what Canadians already think of them and all political parties for that matter – they are all the same…they will do anything to get elected and they are all crooked.

This was less of a plea and more of a strategy. In the end if Harper actually does hold off then the public will have 7 more months of Gomery…just enough time to get bored of it and more time to move on to important issues.

Remember, many observers speculated that this was the case. However, as a senior Liberal party executive and as a close confidant of Paul Martin, this does much more to confirm Martin’s duplicity.

All of these remarks by Mike Klander are offensive and disgusting to all Canadians and what is scary is that they were made by a senior Liberal official with the closest of ties to Paul Martin.

The Liberals are riding the largest corruption scandal in Canadian history and now we learn that there is bigotry at the highest levels of the party.

All of this suggests that it is time for the broken Liberal party to spend some time in the wilderness, as other parties have done.

The types of comments written down for public consumption on Mike Klander’s blog are unacceptable and should not go unpunished. Canadians demanded a higher standard of their politicians in the past.

We still do.

UPDATE: Before Mike Klander took down his blog he posted on December 22nd, apologizing for his offensive comments:

It would appear that more people viewed my blog than the small circle of friends it was intented (sic) for. I apologize if anyone was offended by my comments…they were meant to be in jest. Anyway, I have removed my previous posts…

I’m not sure if an off-hand (and now unaccessible) apology will cut it for Mike. What I find particularly surprising is the lack of professional respect that is usually shared among politicos. One may disagree with the ideology of another, however, crass ad hominem attacks are baseless with respect to debate and they debase politicians (and political staffers) professionally. What results is a blanket condemnation of the entire political class by Canadians.

UPDATE: Mike Klander has resigned.

UPDATE: NDP spokesman Ian Capstick comments on Klander:

“We were shocked, disappointed and offended … This has become indicative of the way Liberals are seeing this election. They couldn’t find basis for attack on Ms. Chow’s community record, her activism, so they chose instead to focus on one thing. … He needs to take a good long hard look at some of the postings he made on that website and realize the impact that they had on a variety of different communities.” — Ian Capstick, NDP spokesman

UPDATE: Stephen Harper gives the Conservative reaction:

“The Liberal party is coming into this election with a corruption report from a judge. I don’t think it helps itself by running a campaign of personal attack and slur, which is what it has been doing — comparing political opponents to animals … I think this has gotten a bit out of hand. … There is quite a campaign of slur and personal attack going on here and one can only hope that the Liberal Party will get a bit of a public backlash over it” — Stephen Harper in Calgary

UPDATE: Liberal party spokesman Stephen Heckbert offers the official explanation:

“It’s certainly our view as a party that there are lines that should not be crossed and unfortunately this was a tasteless posting and Mike recognizes that and has therefore submitted his resignation … If anyone was offended by it, we certainly apologize as a party — Stephen Heckbert, Liberal Party of Canada

but yet, Heckbert tries to mitigate the damage with some self-contradiction:

Heckbert stressed that Klander’s blog was a personal one, appearing on his own webpage rather than the Liberal website

Here’s another interesting contradiction:

Klander said that he has also apologized informally to Chow, the wife of NDP leader Jack Layton. She is running a tight race in the Toronto riding of Trinity-Spadina.

but yet NDP spokesman Ian Capstick explains that no apology has been offered.

“He realizes what he has done is offensive … Ms. Chow is looking forward to his direct apology.”

Sun scribe Michael Harris echoes a thought on many minds:

“Imagine for a moment if that picture and those words had been found on the website of [Conservative national campaign co-chair] John Reynolds, for example, or [conservative] Rick Anderson?”

Double standard?

UPDATE: On the lighter side, Angry has a solution for all high level Liberal bloggers.

UPDATE: Sheila Copps weighs in:

“The nature of the blog didn’t surprise me because that’s how the Martin guys operate … They put everyone else down to raise themselves up.” — Sheila Copps, former Liberal leadership opponent of Paul Martin

UPDATE: Olivia Chow opponent, Tony Ianno also comments:

It’s wrong and there’s no room for that kind of behaviour by anyone in the political process … There’s no excuse for it.” — Tony Ianno, Liberal candidate for Trinity-Spadina

I’d like to wish a Merry Christmas to everyone that enjoys reading the blogs and to the entire Blogging Tory community.

A special Christmas wish goes out there to those lefty bloggers too!

In an email to select officials in the Conservative Party obtained indirectly by yours truly, an apparent leak has come from the Liberal war-room in the form of some photocopied documents mailed in a brown envelope.

The Liberal attack “storyboards” criticize Stephen Harper on a variety of issues while suggesting that Jack Layton is abandoning his principles and that Stephen Harper and Gilles Duceppe will form a “government”.

In the first few storyboards, the Liberals attack Stephen Harper’s GST plan suggesting that it will only benefit the rich “While ignoring working Canadians”. They Liberals imply that the GST cut is regressive and suggest that it will only benefit the rich as they buy luxury items.

Liberals underestimate the intelligence of Canadians because the GST cut is a 2% cut on everything that is bought in stores. While it is true that a 5% GST would benefit the purchaser of a new Ferrari, the GST is applied to everything that is bought (including clothes, furniture, and Christmas toys). In fact, a consumption tax cut, such as Harper’s proposed GST cut, is the only type of tax cut that benefits the poorest of the poor including those that are below the personal amount on their income tax returns. A regressive tax cut it is not. The Liberals provide two quotes, the first criticizes a GST cut rather than an income tax cut. I’m sure that Stephen Harper’s cuts to income tax (via the childcare and sports benefits) make the Fraser Institute smile and I’m certain that we haven’t seen the last of Stephen Harper’s income tax cut announcements.

Next the Liberals attack Jack Layton, pairing him in a coalition with Stephen Harper and Gilles Duceppe. This storyboard targets soft NDP support and suggests that Jack Layton will compromise his base’s principles for coalition power. “[Duceppe] wants to take Canada apart and [Harper] wants to let him”.

“Jack Layton talked a lot about making Parliament work. But he ran over to the Conservatives and the Bloc the moment he saw a chance to score political points. On November 28th he stood right by Stephen Harper’s side to bring down the government and force a holiday election. Now he has given Harper the chance he’s been seeking to remake Canada with his right wing agenda.”

First of all, how can you criticize Jack Layton for working with the majority of Parliamentarians in denouncing the revelations of massive Liberal corruption? In fact, Jack Layton was acting as a responsible parliamentarian in a minority Parliament by pulling the plug on corruption. This agenda was neither right wing, nor left wing. Jack Layton, Gilles Duceppe, Stephen Harper and their respective caucuses (even a couple of elected Liberals) chose right over wrong and ended the Liberal government. The attack also laughably suggests that Jack Layton would enable policies that he is fundamentally against. This is an attack on Layton’s credibility.

The attack continues:

“His other friend, separatist Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc Quebecois are motivated to get their cause back onto centre stage with a new provincial leader in Quebec. Jack Layton, who will win little support in Quebec, has given the separatists the opportunity to resurrect their ambition of leaving Canada.”

Paul, Paul, Paul… this election isn’t a Quebec referendum! And by framing it so, you endanger the unity of our country. The Liberals are giving up on federalist Quebec premier Jean Charest and closing the door on constructive dialogue with Quebeckers. Further, under the Liberal watch, the Bloc is now more powerful than ever before, pumped up by the Sponsorship Scandal. The Bloc’s current popularity is due to Liberal corruption and it is the Liberals that have given the separatists the opportunity to resurrect their ambition of leaving Canada. Stephen Harper the only Prime Ministerial candidate that is standing up for Quebec’s place in a united Canada as he has offered his voice to debate Gilles Duceppe where Martin wouldn’t.

The next storyboard implies that Harper and Duceppe will form a coalition government and rule Canada. First of all, Duceppe and the Bloc are fundamentally against playing any part of any government. They have said that they will only support issues that benefit Quebec. Stephen Harper has also said that he will not form a coalition with any party and will maintain his role as Prime Minister by building consensus with parties (and members) on a case-by-case basis. As for the issues that the attack addresses, it is true that Harper – as a conservative – believes in a smaller federal government and believes that provinces should have more say over matters in which they have the constitutionally mandated jurisdiction (ie. education and healthcare). While it would be false to say that Duceppe believes in this type of ‘redistributed federalism’ as he is certainly not a federalist, Duceppe does believe that Quebec should have more of a voice over its own affairs.

Next, the Liberals take on Mike Harris as a target… again. In the 2004 election, the Liberals took on the former Ontario premier, suggesting a common agenda. As Ontario will likely decide the outcome of the current election, the Liberals are targeting those that disapproved with Mike Harris and those that might be leaning towards Harper. While the Liberals blame Ontario’s fiscal and social woes on the Harris’ common sense revolution, they fail to note that many of Ontario’s problems were caused by the abandonment of the Common Sense Revolution by Eves and then by the election of Dalton McGuinty. Remember Dalton? He lied to Ontario about their taxes by raising them with his health care “premium”.

Finally, the Liberals resort to the old song and dance about Stephen Harper and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They provide an old quote and a goofy picture of Stephen Harper. Harper expresses that “serious flaws exist in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms”. The Charter is a Liberal document with one serious flaw in my opinion: it is wrong that rights can be withheld by the use of the notwithstanding clause. This type of “just kidding” clause in a legal document that defines our rights remains a significant failure of Trudeau’s legacy. Stephen Harper has thankfully promised not to use the notwithstanding clause on the same-sex marriage issue. The truth is, Paul Martin wants to attack Stephen Harper on something the Conservative leader has refused to do. Martin does this while he asserts that anyone who doesn’t stand up for the Charter (read: same-sex marriage) is unfit for office. Meanwhile, 40 Liberal candidates are against same-sex marriage as Paul Martin holds a double standard.

Stephen Harper has been providing a positive vision for Canada with daily policy announcements and a plan that looks forwards instead of backwards. This preview of the Liberal strategy to attack Stephen Harper and the Conservative party shows that the Liberals haven’t got a record to run on and that they can only hope to retain power by providing fear to Canadians.

I suspect that the Liberal attacks will only get uglier.

UPDATE: Mike Duffy and Gloria Galloway have confirmed, from the Liberal warroom, that these ads are indeed real. However, the Liberals are dropping the Stephen Harper “rich get richer” ad and the Layton attack ad.