Take Off! My Life and Times in Toronto

Canada Skeptical About U.S. Intelligence

An article in The Globe and Mail states that Candian intelligence agencies were skeptical about the U.S. claims of Iraq weapons of mass destruction and other threats to the U.S. last year. They asked the U.S. intelligence community to provide the raw intelligence to back the claims, and the Bush Administration refused. Instead, they offered to send what amounted to a "PowerPoint presentation". The article points out that traditionally, the U.S. and Canada's intelligence communities freely shared high level intelligence information and this break with the tradition hinted that the U.S. simply didn't have anything to back up it's claims. Of course, we now know that the Canadians were correct and that the Bush Administration was cooking the intelligence to fit their political goals.

Praying for Spring

There are number of scandals rocking Canada this week, and this political cartoon from the The Globe and Mail sums up the current lot.

Copps is a local Liberal candidate who lost in a bitter, close election in a Toronto suburb to another Liberal candidate. She's contesting the election, which was Bush vs. Gore close, and its claiming all kinds of nasty tricks were in play in her election. It's refreshing to see that Liberals can be as nasty as Conservatives.

I don't fully understand the Sponsorship Scandal, but it also involves the Liberal government and is (literally) riding the back of the current administration.

Stronach is Canada's female Ross Perot. She's the wealthy daughter of a magnate who is running for the Conservative party's ticket. She's beating more established Conservative candidates in very, very close elections. As a result, the other Conservatives are screaming mad. Stronach herself apparently is no more adept at leading than GWB was when he started running for Gov. of Texas. She resembles Ann Coulter in both apperance and demeanor.

I think the little "Free Martha" dog barking is a cute way of showing how Canadians perceive the whole stupid affair.

Winter, of course, always sits at the table up here. No need to elaborate.

Missing from this circle of misery is the whole Bertuzzi scandal (the Vancouver hockey player who nearly killed a Colorado Avalanche player two days ago). Canada is really roiled up over this. It's been the headline on the normally staid The Globe and Mail for the last three days.

Finally, the hapless Canadian looks wistfully to little Spring, perched on the branch. Man, I relate!