The new Tammany Hall

No matter how one feels about the Memorial Stadium issue, one must surely be repulsed by the blatant manner in which Marie White and St. John's local appeals board deceived the local committee who attempted to appeal the recent council decision to rezone the stadium site.

Everyone should be absolutely clear: the council decision was gazetted on 19 August 2005, before the appeal was filed with White's committee. At that point, the appellants should have been advised of what White now says was clear - the board had no power to overturn the council decision.

Instead, the board strung along the process, keeping the appellants tied up with busy-work, holding meetings, preparing briefs and otherwise staying out of the municipal election in which the stadium rezoning has been a major issue.

By the time White summarily shut down the appeal hearing, the election was virtually over. Ballots were mailed to residents on Friday, 09 September 2005 and, if past practice is a guide, fully 80% of the total likely to be received has already been returned.

One cannot help but feel that there has been some corrupt practice here. The timing of the ballots and the past voting experience was well-known to all concerned on the board. The board's lack of power was also well-known. If there was no corruption here - no deliberate rigging of the process - the only reason for the three week charade to which the appellants were exposed would be gross incompetence.

Marie White, the members of the board and their official advisors are not incompetent.

Marie White is, however, well known to be a political ally of the mayor, Andy Wells.

For his part Wells chose to make the stadium the centrepiece of his recent political action. It cannot be called a campaign since Wells withdrew from active campaigning on his own behalf some days ago. Instead the mayor's agents have taken out newspaper advertisements encouraging residents to vote against the five councillors who opposed the stadium redevelopment. Wells has played with numbers, making preposterous claims of the cost of reversing the rezoning decision and at times contradicting himself in the matter of a few days on his own estimates of the cost.

On the same day that White ended the appeal fraud, Wells delivered letters to voters in Ward Two attacking incumbent Frank Galgay (who opposed the stadium project) and pushing instead for Bob Crocker, a last minute entry to the race who does not even live in the Ward in which he seeks election. One, again, cannot help but wonder if Wells and Crocker are in collusion.

Wells may not be campaigning for himself, but he is surely campaigning for his allies. The cost of the letters will not be reported on Crocker's expense statement, should he win. One may wonder as well what, if any, other aid Wells' campaign has given to other candidates he favours.

The centrepiece of the now-evident corruption at city hall is the mail-in ballot process itself. This farce has been well-dissected on the Bond Papers before, in the Telegram, and more recently on radio call-in shows with reports of ballots being mailed to the dead and those otherwise long departed the city.

As noted here on other occasions, there is no system to detect vote fraud. Indeed, city officials have professed themselves unable to do even the simplest things to prevent a fraud worthy of Tammany Hall. This is nonsense: officials simply do not wish to prevent fraud. In the process they are clearly in violation of the Municipal Elections Act, including the provisions which allow the city to use an alternative voting system to the one prescribed in the act.

The very timing of the election and the use of mail-in ballots alone favours Wells and the incumbents. Most residents did not begin to pay attention to the election until after Labour Day. Ballots were mailed the following Friday, a mere five days later. As city officials and the incumbent councillors well knew, fully 80% of ballots were returned within three days of being received.

As a result, the election effectively ended on Wednesday, despite the official voting day of 27 September 2005. The strongest of Wells' likely critics having been kept silent until the votes were in, Wells managed to ensure that his only political competition remained a man whose sanity has come into serious question. Even had Wells' other challenger not been forced to withdraw from the campaign due to a family tragedy, there was hardly a chance that the aloof and unpalatable Vince Withers would have posed a serious threat to Wells and his machine.

In the end, residents of St. John's have re-elected the bully boy of municipal politics as their mayor. Another of his political cronies will likely take the deputy's chair by a landslide. Dennis "Doc" O'Keefe will be contented to talk of things he can do nothing about, like gas prices, or spend tax dollars chasing cruise ships, which, as a matter of fact produce the economic benefit of two decently located Tim Hortons coffee shops. Wells can count on O'Keefe's support, come what may.

As for the other councillors, those results will have to wait another two weeks. Irrespective of the outcome - whether all incumbents are returned or a few of Well's political foes are defeated - the Boss of the new Tammany Hall will weigh heavily on residents of the city and their wallets for another four years.

Andy Wells IS campaigning

Contrary to his own claim that he had stopped campaigning, St. John's mayor Andy Wells is spending cash and campaigning actively.

He's just not campaigning to get elected.

He is campaigning to have his own allies elected and defeat his political enemies.

Like Bob Crocker in Ward Two. Crocker who only made the decision to enter the race at the last minute is getting help from Wells. The gag-loving mayor is sending letters to every voter in Ward Two attacking incumbent Frank Galgay.

If Wells is even partially successful, he can change the shape of council and control most seats in the chamber.

The city is moving towards Third World status very quickly. First, there's the dodgy electoral system. Now there's a mayor who is trying to get his own pals elected to council.

Your tax dollars in action

Let's hope the Williams Family Foundation is footing the bill for this little bit of foolishness.

If the premier is feeling the need to find things to occupy his time, if he is a little bit under-worked, maybe he could try getting involved in a few files in his government.

Like say Abitibi.

If he's got wanderlust, he could try visiting Goose bay, Stephenville, Englee, Harbour Breton, Marystown, Ottawa (on behalf of Hr. Breton as he promised)... the list goes on.

What's next, I wonder?

Could it be a visit to the Price is Right set so he can hear Bob yell "Danny Williams! Come on Down!"

Maybe we can convert provincial elections to a game of Survivor so we can see who gets voted off the island.

Truthfully?

This is something Brian Tobin would have done.

St. John's voting follies - the continuing saga

St. John's city clerk Neil Martin continues to follow the fashion and is blaming Ottawa (Elections Canada) for some of the problems turning up with the city's electoral system.

martin shouldn't bear personal responsibility for this. His problem is compounded by having a mayor and council who either have no idea how elections are run, don't care how to run them properly, or don't want them run properly. There's no other excuse for the fiasco that's unfolding.

Stories continue to float to the surface of ballots mailed to people who don't even live in the country anymore. In addition to the stuff on VOCM in the past 24 hours, I have collected stories of another eight ballots sent out erroneously to people who don't love at the addresses on the list or who don't even live in the city anymore.

Some of the people have been out of town for more than eight years.

Is it Elections Canada's fault?

Nope.

EC estimates that the voter list varies by about 17% each year. That comprises 13% due to address changes, two percent from people reaching voting age, one percent who died and another one percent who are new immigrants.

EC updates its voter list using federal, provincial and municipal databases. Obviously, the City of St. John's has some problems with its own databases. Either that or they got stuck with an old voters list.

In the worst case scenario, the current city election is being run with a list that out of whack by about 17%. That supposes there was no effort made to correct the federal list or that whatever city officials did was ineffective - like not being able to search and find that there was a guy named Gus and a guy named Augustus living at the same address in Ward Five.

City Hall claims there are approximately 79, 000 eligible voters in St. John's this year. We don't know if that represents the likely variance in the list (accounting for the dead and new voters) or if it just is a wild guess. There should be about 2,400 new voters, taking into account the number of deaths.

Taken altogether, we can reasonably conclude that the city voting list is out of whack by about 10%, give or take a percentage point or two. That puts about 8,000 ballots in play that will be sent to people at the wrong address, people who no longer live in the city or people who are dead.

In some races in the city, only a fraction of those 8, 000 potentially fraudulent ballots will be enough to tip the election in favour of one candidate over another.

Stand by for the legal challenges.

City clerk on vote problems: missing the point

St. John's city clerk Neil Martin is missing the point when he addresses concerns about the mail-in balloting system being used by the City for this month's municipal election.

Martin told VOCM that the problem stems from the voter list supplied by Elections Canada.

As someone who has worked on campaigns for over 20 years and studied them for as long or longer, I can assure Martin the problems are somewhere else.

1. All voter lists contain inaccuracies.

2. Properly functioning voting systems take measures to catch those errors and correct them, all with an eye to prevent fraudulent voting either by:

- someone voting who is not qualified to vote; or,
- someone submitting more than one vote.

3. The Municipal Elections Act contains specific provisions to deal with both those issues. See particularly s. 40 and s. 41 which allow for a challenge of a voter's qualifications to take place at the time a person votes.

4. The City of St. John's mail-in voting by-law is supposed to conform to the spirit and intent of the provincial government's legislation. In other words, the St. John's system has to contain measures to address concerns about fraudulent voting.

5. The municipal by-law contains no provisions at all which prevent, limit or discourage fraudulent voting.

6. The St. John's system does not even contain measures to allow city officials to detect a potentially fraudulent vote.

7. City officials assume that all votes received are legitimate.

8. The ballot forms merely require a signature. There is no specimen signature on file to compare it to in order to determine if the signature is legitimate.

9. The on-line voter list system checks for name and birth-date. Simply adding birthdate to the form returned with the ballot would frustrate anyone who submits a fraudulent ballot.

10. The City of St. John's is ignoring vote fraud. Indeed, by deciding against any measures to prevent fraud, the city's position is tantamount to encouraging electoral wrongdoing.

Nothing will change as long as city officials ignore the problem and their responsibilities to run a legitimate election.

Here are some previous Bond Papers on the problem. Try here and here.

Setting Mulroney straight

Brian Mulroney has reared his head again, via Peter Newman's latest book, to blast all his old enemies in the profane way only Brian Mulroney can.

You can find a lengthy piece on Newman's new book here and by picking up Macleans this week.

The one part I wish to deal with is Mulroney's absurd characterisation of Clyde Wells during the Meech Lake debacle.

This is from the Globe's piece on the book:

As for Mr. Wells, [Mulroney] held the [roll of the] dice story [in the Globe and Mail] as proof that he and others had been manipulated, and so began the long, agonizing march toward June 22, 1990, when both Newfoundland and Manitoba backed off on their votes, thereby killing the accord. Mr. Newman writes that Mr. Mulroney flew into a blind rage over Mr. Wells's decision. "You know all politicians take liberties," Mr. Mulroney later told Mr. Newman, "That's the nature of the beast, getting kicked around and trying to get things done in an imperfect system. But nothing has ever compared to the lack of principle of this son of a bitch. Lookit, on the night before the vote I was standing in the rain on the doorstep of his house and asked him what the odds were. He told me that after my speech, they were good -- at least 50-50. This was after he had already made up his mind to cancel the vote."

For the record, I served as special assistant to then-Premier Wells from 1989 until 1996. I lived through the hell of Meech Lake at somewhat of a distance, although in the incident of which Mr. Mulroney speaks, namely the vote on the Accord in the Newfoundland legislature, I experienced it directly.

By "roll of the dice", Mr. Mulroney is referring to an interview he gave to Susan Delacourt, who at the time wrote for the Globe, as well as Jeffrey Simpson and Graham Fraser of the Globe. The interview was conducted in June 11, and appeared on the front page of Toronto's national newspaper the following morning.

"In it, Mulroney made it clear that he had deliberately timed the first ministers' meeting to ensure a crisis atmosphere, to maximize pressure on the hold-out provinces, and to include the holding of a referendum in Newfoundland." [Deborah Coyne, Roll of the dice, (Toronto: James Lorimer and Co., 1992)]

Mulroney admitted that what had previously been characterised as being the result of a need for finding common ground among Accord opponents was in fact the result of a strategy meeting held at the Prime Minister's residence a full month before the meeting. The Prime Minister was attempting to manipulate the situation. Mulroney described the process for fixing the date of the meeting, or as he put it, "the day we're going to roll the dice."

Mulroney's quote was typical of his arrogant boastfulness and it ultimately was federal arrogance, not the actions of any provincial politician, which robbed Mulroney of his glory. The word Mulroney seeks is not profane, it is hubris, or to be more accurate, the painful end visited upon the exceedingly arrogant as a punishment by the gods of politics.

The House of Assembly debated the Meech Lake Accord motion beginning on June 20. Premier David Peterson of Ontario and Premier Frank McKenna of New Brunswick addressed the legislature on June 20, with Mulroney and Saskatchewan Premier Grant Devine speaking on the 21st. As a side note, my staff duties for these occasions including co-ordinating the visits with the Mulroney and Peterson staffs.

Premier and Mrs. Wells entertained Mulroney at dinner at the Wells' residence on the evening of the 21st. Coyne notes that while Wells did not divulge the substance of the discussion, he did say that Mulroney believed the Accord would be rejected in the legislature.

Coyne also notes that caucus met after the House session closed after 11:00 Pm on the 21st to consider the implications of the vote in Newfoundland and in Manitoba. As I recall, public comments by the Liberal caucus members noted concern about the impact of a rejection by the Newfoundland legislature and, to some tallies such as mine, there appeared to be some waffling by cabinet ministers and backbenchers that may have seen the Accord pass.

It is clear, however that neither Premier Wells nor the caucus had reached a decision on adjourning the Accord vote at that point. Rather, as Coyne recounts, there was concern about the appearance of a rejection and a suggestion that the vote be delayed.

The tipping point came with the decision on Friday June 22 by the Mulroney government to extend the vote deadline for Manitoba if the Newfoundland legislature would approve the Meech Lake Accord. I recall standing in the caucus room as Lowell Murray, Mulroney's point man on the Accord, spoke live on CBC Newsworld outlining the proposal. Those caucus members who had previously signaled they might vote for the Accord immediately expressed their outrage. Even those allied with Brian Tobin, and hence likely to vote for the Accord at jean Chretien's whispered behest, changed their positions.

Views hardened almost immediately and almost unanimously in response to the perceived manipulation. I knew from traveling back and forth between the Premier's office and the legislature that morning that the Premier had been attempting to reach Murray repeatedly throughout the morning, and indeed was on the telephone on hold with Murray's office when the senator stepped in front of the television cameras.

My subsequent conversations with several of the office staff, but not with the Premier, confirmed that Coyne's account of this period is accurate.

Mulroney's comments in the Newman book are part of the ongoing campaign to foist blame for the Accord failure onto Wells. Mulroney never understood Wells from the beginning. The Mulroney government made no attempt to deal with him before June 1990, and I suspect the ever-arrogant John Crosbie likely had a large part in the misjudgment of Wells by the federal government.

The record speaks for itself on any point which Mr. Mulroney wishes to address. Unfortunately, the record does not support his contentions. One cannot be sure if his comments are merely delusions or part of concerted campaign of lies and deceit. There is no question that they are at odds with the facts.

As for the comment on Wells being an unprincipled son of a bitch, I can only say that, leaving aside the despicable comment on Mr. Wells' mother, Mulroney's remark demonstrates that he understood nothing - to call Wells unprincipled is tantamount to calling the Archbishop of Canterbury an atheist.

I have rarely met a more principled, conscentious and decent man in my life.

Would that the same could be said by anyone of the former prime minister, or for that matter, his former gaulieter in this province.

Andy Wells - arrogant wookie mayor

Andy Wells has decided to shut down his re-election campaign, comfortable in the knowledge that he has consistently bettered any of his competitors in public opinion polls.

Andy claims he has led his opponents by 40 to 50 percent.

Two things:

1. In any public polls, Andy has been about 20 percentage points ahead of his nearest competitor.

2. In a democracy, a candidate should be required to tell voters what he or she intends to accomplish in the next term of office.

Andy obviously has no desire to be accountable to voters in any fashion.

There's no surprise there.

Wells is notoriously disdainful of any attempt to question what he is doing. The bully-boy heaps tons of abuse and scorn on anyone who disagrees with him. In one interview he branded all other candidates as cowards.

Anyone who has to tear others down constantly like that is to be pitied since he lacks any measure of self-confidence and self-esteem.

The only thing we can be sure of is that Wells will be abusive of council members, as he has for the 30-odd years he's been a councillor. He'll also vote in favour of any development, any time any where. And Well's will make up any reason he can to justify his position.

With Wells' announcement, I don;t feel bad for having written "None of these" across the mayoral portion of my mail-in ballot.

Municipal election expenses

There's a curious story in this week's Spindy on municipal election expenses in St. John's.

Ron Ellsworth claims to have spent only $18, 000 so far and plans to spend no more than $20, 000.

As someone who has worked on a few political campaigns, I'd challenge Ellsworth to open his election campaign books and those of his company.

Ellsworth has likely spent more than $18,000 on signage alone, if one applies the federal or provincial election expenses regulations. His glossy brochures would surely have set him back the better part of $5,000 including some modest charges for design work. He has a bunch of other printed material too. Now that he has started radio spots, we can add another $3,000 or more to the tally of $18k Ellsworth was willing to admit to the Spindy.

And the busback signage that started to crop up recently?

That's just a sign Ellsworth is spending bags of cash and has run out of places to put up his signs.

Another municipal high-flyer is John Dicks in Ward One. Dicks is spending heavily to unseat Art Puddister.

We'll only know how much he spent if he gets elected.

That's thanks to the Third World election system that we have in St. John's.

Count on having it a while longer since our own low-rent Fidel is going back as mayor largely unopposed.

St. John's mail-in madness

The first mail-ins ballots arrived in St. John's households.

The problems are turning up rapidly.

My parents received three ballots in the mail: one for each of them and the third for a cousin of mine who hasn't lived in St. John's for the better part of 10 years.

He lived with them while he attended Marine Institute, but he finished that program a long time ago. In the meantime he has lived in Hong Kong and a few other places before settling down in his hometown of North Harbour, Placentia Bay.

My parents are checking to see if my deceased grandparents receive ballots.

The ballot for my cousin will be returned to City Hall, unopened.

In addition, at large candidate Simon Lono ran into some confusion at City Hall when he filed his nomination papers. The voters list contained the names of Simon Lono, candidate, Simon Lono, the candidate's father, who passed away four years ago and - get this - Simon Lono, the candidate's 12 year old son.

A caller to one of the open line shows today reported he received two ballots: one in his own name and one for him using his nickname.

All told that makes four errors in the voters list, two of which resulted in ballots being mailed out to people who don't have a right to vote.

How many more are there in a city of about 80, 000 voters?

Danny Williams: read the fine print

Danny Williams thinks its good news that Abitibi Consolidated is selling off its interest in an Asian paper making operation. He thinks the improved debt position will allow Abitibi to change its position in Newfoundland and Labrador.

If one actually reads the Abitibi release on the decision, a different picture emerges.

- The existing closures stand: Abitibi includes the reduction in its paper output from this divestiture with the permanent closures already announced. "Combined with the 350,000 tonnes of permanent capacity closures announced in Q2 and slated for Q4, the new adjusted newsprint capacity will be approximately 4 million tonnes."

- The company's not for turning: The money is being used to reduce long-term debt. Abitibi runs a significant risk by announcing major debt reduction initiatives now if they are considering adding to their debt. Abitibi isn't run by that hideous breed of politician who will say anything to get a good poll, knowing full well he or she may make a totally different decision when required.

- Abitibi plans to convert some of its assets to high-grade paper production. This would mean that in order to avoid the announced closures, the company would be completing re-tooling Stephenville. That actually increases the capital outlay for some its highest-cost operations at a time when the company needs to actually reduce its cost over the long term.

Always remember: Danny Williams learned his politics from watching Brian Tobin. What he says and what actually is likely to happen may not always be in the same species, let alone the same thing.

Polling for political hacks

Rather than read yet more coverage about a poll, flip over to Campaign Central and read a truly literate insight into what political types know or ought to know about polling.

Beloit College's Class of 2005 Mindset List®

A few year's ago, this list became popular among those of us who are getting older and older.

The list is handed to university instructor's at Washington state's Beloit College. It helps to keep some perspective when dealing with incoming freshmen (first year university students).

You can find the original list here, along with some for past years and for a couple years to come.

BELOIT COLLEGE'S CLASS OF 2005 MINDSET LIST®

1. Most students starting college this fall were born in 1983.
2. Ricky Nelson, Marvin Gaye and Laura Ashley have always been dead.
3. The New Kids on the Block are over the hill.
4. They want to be PHAT but not fat
5. IBM Selectrics are antiques.
6. Thongs no longer come in pairs and slide between the toes.
7. God has never been a "he" in most churches.
8. Hard copy has nothing to do with a TV show; a browser is not someone relaxing in a bookstore; a virus does not make humans sick; and a mouse is not a rodent (and there is no proper plural for it).
9. Moscow has always been opposed to "star wars."
10. Recording TV programs on VCRs became legal the year they were born.
11. The British Royal family has always behaved badly.
12. There has always been Diet Coke.
13. Artificial hearts have always been ticking.
14. The Social Security system has always been on the brink.
15. There have always been warnings about second-hand smoke.
16. They have never experienced a real recession.
17. A hacker is not just a kid who won't stop fooling around.
18. Grenada has always been safe for democracy.
19. They were born the same year as the PC and the Mac.
20. The U.S. Senate has always had a daycare program.
21. One earring on a man indicates that he is probably pretty conservative.
22. CDs have always been labeled for explicit content.
23. Lethal Weapon in one form or another has always been "at the movies."
24. Boeing has not built the 727 since they were born.
25. Sarajevo was a war zone, not an Olympic host.
26. They don't remember Janet Jackson when she was cute and chubby.
27. Drug testing of athletes has always been routine.
28. There has always been a hole in the ozone layer.
29. They have always had access to email.
30. The Colts have always been in Indianapolis.
31. The precise location of the Titanic has always been known.
32. When they were born, Madonna was still a radiant woman holding a beatific child.
33. Jimmy Hoffa has always been officially dead.
34. Tylenol has always been impossible for children or adults to open.
35. Volkswagen beetles have always had engines in the front.
36. They do not know what the Selective Service is, but men routinely register for it on their financial aid forms.
37. Ron Howard and Rob Reiner have always been balding older film directors.
38. Cal Ripken has always been playing baseball.
39. They have probably never used carbon paper and do not know what cc and bcc mean.
40. Lasers have always been marketed as toys.
41. Major newspapers have always been printed in color.
42. Beta is a preview version of software, not a VCR format..
43. They have never known exactly what to call the rock star formerly and presently known as Prince.
44. They are the first generation to prefer tanning indoors.
45. Survivor is a TV show not a rock group.
46. They have heard "just say no" since they were toddlers.
47. Most of them know someone who was born with the help of a test tube.
48. It has paid to "Discover" since they were four.
49. Oprah has always been a national institution.
50. With a life expectancy of 77 years, they can anticipate living until about 2060.

Supreme Court perspective

For all those who persist in the nonsense about the great national slight that no Newfoundlander (or Labradorian) has been appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada since Confederation, Wally McLean brings this sense of perspective.

In the entire history of the United States, 20 American states have never had a state-resident appointed to the United States Supreme Court. Of that number, two are from the original 13 colonies and four have been states since before 1800.

Here's the list, along with date of entry to the Union.

Delaware (the “First State”, Dec. 7, 1787)
Rhode Island (May 29, 1790)
District of Columbia (July 16, 1790)
Vermont (Mar. 4, 1791)
Arkansas (June 15, 1836)
Florida (Mar. 3, 1845)
Wisconsin (May 29, 1848)
Oregon (Feb. 14, 1859)
West Virginia (June 20, 1863)
Nevada (Oct. 31, 1864)
Nebraska (Mar. 1, 1867)
North Dakota (Nov. 2, 1889)
South Dakota (Nov. 2, 1889)
Montana (Nov. 8, 1889)
Washington (Nov. 11, 1889)
Idaho (July 3, 1890)
Oklahoma (Nov. 16, 1907)
New Mexico (Jan. 6, 1912)
Alaska (Jan. 3, 1959)
Hawaii (Aug. 21, 1959)

Bizarre Municipal Math

This VOCM story on Mile One stadium has the treasurer Robert Bishop claiming that stadium management hopes to break-even or make a slight profit this year on the controversy-laden facility.

That figure includes a $1.0 million subsidy from taxpayers of St. John's.

Apparently people at city hall have trouble with math.

In order for the stadium to break-even, they would have to make $1.0 million more than they are planning to make. In other words, when they are done, Robert Bishop will be posting a $1.0 million shortfall.

He shouldn't be counting the city subsidy into his calculations.

That is, he shouldn't be including the subsidy unless his goal is to mislead people.

Doc O'Keefe - Get a grip

Kevin Breen's municipal election signs have been defaced.

Actually, the crafty vandals cut some of the signs in such a way that they had to be replaced at what will likely be a cost of close to $2, 000 for the Breen campaign.

Meanwhile, in another part of the city, a joker with a spray can painted the lord "lier" across signs for deputy mayoral candidate Dennis "Doc" O'Keefe.

Aside from the obvious spelling problems with the vandalism, Doc called the vandalism a new low in city politics.

Apparently, Doc thinks it's acceptable for his buddy Andy Wells to call the city's municipal candidates "cowards" and for Wells to be berate O'Keefe and his fellow councillors in public and private meetings.

O'Keefe must also think the spate of advertisements the Well's campaign ran last weekend are peachy keen too.

He must.

O'Keefe has said nothing at all about Andy Well's boorish behaviour lately or in the past.

Doc needs to get a grip, or at least a sense of perspective.

Night of the Long Knives - Connie style

Early media reports on Tuesday evening indicate as many as 15 people have been fired from the senior ranks of the Conservative Party of Canada. CTV reported that the number sent packing was at least five.

This is not good news in the wake of a series of firings and resignations over the spring and summer coupled with declining popular support for the fledgling party and its leader.

Despite Harper's brave challenges for the governing Liberals to call an election, he might want to ask Kim Campbell how it feels to be cocky when the polls don't support you. This won't deflect attention away from problems within the Connie party.

Be careful what you wish for, Stevie.

In the meantime, firing staff is a sign of deeper trouble, namely the inability of the party to get a grip on the real problem. That would be leadership.

It's the sad tale of the television spots. Focus on everything but the main issue. The inability to grip the main problem - leadership - is actually confirmation of the leadership deficit the party is currently facing.

Ultimately, the losers are Canadians across the country. Yet again e are denied a clear political choice and a meaningful policy debate on the stuff that matters about the country.

Instead, we get to watch the umpteenth iteration of what the old Tory party did to Bob Stanfield.

It's the Night of the Long Knives - Connie style.

Connie TV spots - another view

To go with this post from last week on the four new Connie TV spots, take this article in Macleans.

Nobody seems to think they are a good idea. We all just have different reasons for our choices.

On another level, note the comment linking staff changes to the pending re-election campaign.

A Telly twosome for Tuesday

Check the online Telegram today which is actually carrying two really worthwhile stories. (They carry lots, but not all are online.)

First is this story [click news and look for the "Highrise" story if that link doesn't work] by Terry Roberts on a new development for the downtown proposed by Danny Williams' brother and Danny Williams' former business partner around the end of June this year. You may recall that Premier Danny Williams is the guy who thinks Andy Wells is the right man to head up the province's offshore regulatory board.

Predictably, the city's boorish mayor is all in favour of the deal. The proposal violates the city's zoning in the area which limits buildings to four stories. The exceptions (Atlantic Place, Scotia Centre, Fortis Building and TD Place) all pre-date the revised downtown zoning policy designed to preserve the historic character of the area. [Hint: it's what draws people here.] Of course, as the mayor is fond of saying: "Rules, we dun need no stinking rules."

This council should not be making any substantive decisions since we are in the middle of a municipal election. That some members of council are carrying forward as if the election didn't matter displays a blatant contempt for voters.

Incidentally, take a close look at the design. The architect seems to thing that kitsch is actually something desirable. Google the word, if you need to. This is a design that people would surely come to wish is in the path of a Category Five hurricane.

Second is a column by Telly editor Russell Wangersky. Russell comes back from two weeks vacation and takes a swipe at columnists like A.J. Baker who pander to their audience rather than present accurate information. Bravo, Russell.

Ward 4 sign wars

Courtesy of Greg Locke comes this picture of one of several Kevin Breen signs that have been altered by an unidentified gagster.

Breen is the incumbent city councillor locked in a tough fight to gain re-election in the current municipal election.

Someone has gone through the trouble of printing up labels that have been stuck on Breen's large signs to change his slogan to "a record of lying". The font and colouring are a close enough match to the original sign that it is hard to tell the change on first glance.

Until now the sign war in ward 4 has consisted of the large number of signs. One of Breen's challengers, Ron Ellsworth has spent large amounts of money on signs, bus advertising and print ads. One of his more obnoxious looking signs is evident in this picture as well. They are obnoxious because the design is crude and the large photograph seems to have no purpose.

Why exactly is Ellsworth extending his hand in this way?

Nawlins - a minor correction, planning failures, and other news

The Washington Post issued a correction in its story over the weekend that stated Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco had not declared a state of emergency in New Orleans.

Apparently she did declare a state of emergency on 26 August 2005.

That said, there is certainly more than enough blame to go around for the apparently slow response to Hurricane Katrina.

The primary responsibility still has to fall on the state and municipal officials. It is their responsibility to ensure certain core services, such as law enforcement can survive. It's not like New Orleans hasn't had a recent hurricane emergency.

This link to a 2004 Associated Press story about the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan sounds eerily familiar, except that this time, Mayor Ray Nagin was pretty quick to blame everyone else for his obvious failings.

The SuperDome issue arose in 1998 and again in 2004, just as it did in 2005. The difference this time is that no priority was given to making sure the state-owned facility could actually support 15, 000 with food and water even for a very short period of time.

While it is true that members of the Louisiana National Guard has been largely deployed to Iraq as of October 2004, the United States Department of Defense has other resources available in and around Louisiana that could have filled the role played by the Louisiana Guard. This would have required a bit of co-ordination between Baton Rouge and Washington, but the current political fracas between the Democrats and Republicans over the New Orleans monkey suggests contingency plans were never developed. Spread the blame for that failure around to however it can touch.

There are 3, 700 Louisiana National Guard soldiers in Iraq, according to the Washington Post. They are due to start their normal rotation home this week.

There are currently 58, 000 Active and Guard soldiers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama providing emergency support to residents affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Local angle: The United States Naval Ship Pollux is one of the U.S. Navy ships providing support in the Gulf. It is carrying fuel for military and civilian emergency agencies. A previous ship carrying that name ran aground on the Burin Peninsula, near St. Lawrence, in the early 1940s.

There is now video available on CNN of water rescue efforts including pictures of bloated corpses floating. Here's a link to the video of a piece of Christiane Amanpour's story. If it doesn't work go to CNN.