Another moment of trying to keep from putting the car in the ditch this morning as Open Line Show host Randy Simms chatted with talk show maven Sue about her new blog.
That would make four at last count, two of which are deader than 286 processors. The rant-fest that seems to have lasted the longest of the lot features heavily-censored comments as part of the great dialogue. Of course no comments get through that criticize her conclusions or point out the wild inaccuracies of some of her claims.
But I digress.
Randy called Sue to talk about her blog which will supposedly focus on the upcoming federal election. Sue claimed one of the big issues will be the so-called fiscal imbalance. As she built her argument, Sue claimed that Stephen Harper was busily trying to placate Ontario and Quebec.
Now that's where things got hilarious and your humbler e-scribbler had to wipe the tears of laughter from his eyes all the while keeping the car on the road.
During the last federal election, Sue was shilling for the Connies, especially Loyola Hearn. She even turned up on Harper's advance bus at one point, but she spent most of her spare time calling every open line show available.
Part of her great rationale for loving Steve Harper was that the Conservatives would not have the bulk of their seats in Ontario and Quebec and therefore provinces like Newfoundland and Labrador would have greater sway.
Here at Bond Papers, we pointed out that this was nonsense.
We also pointed out that Loyola Hearn - currently the federal fish minister - had a nasty habit of saying one thing in order to get elected but would sing a completely different song once he was safely sworn to the Privy Council.
We stand by our observations.
On a completely different note, Simms' latest ratings numbers are worth checking out. His show is solid and he suffers no fools gladly, all of which goes to explain to the high numbers Open Line has been pulling. Liberals claim he's a Tory; Tories claim he's a Liberal.
People who listen to Randy Simms know that he is both knowledgeable and fair.
The fact he pisses everyone off equally is testament to that.
Ultimately, though, who cares since Randy's numbers are such that Harry Steele would be nuts to change the show one bit.
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Update: Keeping track of Sue blogs would be like trying to keep track of which political parties she's supported over the years.
Let's see:
There's Sue's Rant which still raves on. There's the new election blog which may or may not last until the writ is dropped. Since most political commentary happens on established blogs, it would be kinda strange for everyone to suddenly switch to yet another site to discuss things already being discussed somewhere else.
Then there's Sue's News which looked like it was supposed to replace the Rant. That struggled through August, September and October before it finally expired. You can still find it listed on the NL Blogroll.
Shortly after the last election, after she figured out her political prognostication was piffle, Sue tried a recall Harper blog. That died much like the entire recall campaign since, in Canadian politics, there is no recall mechanism for politicians at the federal level. Of course outside, Newfoundland and Labrador, no one had heard of Sue so there was no particular reason for the nonsense to get any traction.
Before that, there was a Lower Churchill blog that died after one extremely long meandering post dated in September 2005. It too still sits out there on the blogroll, collecting comments, mostly anonymous or automated ads. Suitably enough the first comment it received was a spam about gastric bypass.
That would make five, if we have accounted for all the incarnations that have been out there.
That doesn't include the odd anony-blog that looked suspiciously like Sue's style. Like say the Pink, White and Green which has been dead since last September after only a couple of month's of Sue-esque potshots.