Stephen Taylor

This joke came to me today by email. Pass it on!

The steps at the Parliament Hill building needed some repairs so bids are taken from contractors from across the country.

First a contractor from Toronto looks it over. After a session of measuring and figuring he presents his bid. I can do it for $19,000, he says. I’d need $9,000 for materials, $9,000 for my crew, and $1,000 profit for me.

Next a contractor from Calgary does his measuring and calculating then says, I’ll do it for $17,000. $8,000 for materials, $8,000 for my crew, and $1,000 profit for me.

Last a Liberal-friendly advertising firm from Montreal steps up. Without even looking at the job site he says, I’ll do it for $57,000. Surprised at how high it is, the man taking the bids asks him to explain it. It’s simple, he says. $20,000 for me, $20,000 for you, and we hire the guy from Calgary.

Here’s what the new Liberal lawn signs are going to look like

(Thanks Warren!)

Now, of course, an election is only a “rumour”. However, Richard Mahoney, the Liberal candidate featured on the lawn sign above, is set to run in the Ottawa-Centre by-election on November 29th. The election date for Ottawa-Centre has been declared, so this allows us a sneak peek at the Liberal lawn signs.

First Impressions? The Liberal strategists, as I’ve said before, are pushing “Team Martin”.

Liberal? No! It’s Team Martin!

Has “Liberal” become such a bad word in the mouths of Canadians that even the Liberals are ashamed to identify themselves as such? Will the Liberal/Team Martin candidates be running on the Liberal record or the Paul Martin record or aren’t the two one and the same?

Sadly, I feel that this election is going be about the ‘cult of the leader’; It’s Paul Martin vs. the Harper-MacKay ticket vs. Jack “the shin bruiser” Layton. Personalities over policies… how sad.

Paul Martin will be saying “Look at me, I’m cleaning up Ottawa”. Stephen Harper will, at least, be attacking the Liberal team for making the mess and Jack Layton will be figuring out clever and catchy ways of articulating his classic rhetoric.

The Conservatives will do well to campaign as a team instead of solely as Stephen Harper. The leadership bids of Tony Clement and Belinda Stronach were able to cast a larger net over the minds of Canadians. If we push our team as the unified party, we will capture the interest of more Canadians. This strategy will stand in stark comparison to “Team Martin”, which is an ironic term in itself; if the Liberals were a team, they would be referred to as the Liberal party.

I came accross this funny video clip today and it comes from the Late Show with David Letterman. In the clip, U.S. President George W. Bush gives a speech at a Florida rally. However, as most political speeches are orchestrated at rallies, a crowd of supporters is usually herded behind the speaker applauding and/or nodding at remarks made during the speech. The support crowd is all about the image of support and agreement with the speech, of course. However, in a lapse in image awareness on behalf of the American president’s staff, a 14 year old boy stood behind the president during the entire speech and yawned, fidgeted, checked his watch and even appeared to have fallen asleep at one point.

Politics can’t be thrilling all of the time after all. However, it was a rally…

Here’s the video clip

(Link courtesy of MetaFilter)