Canada's "Prince of Pot" claims a hypocritical Justin Trudeau smoked hashish with him on a number of occasions

"Pierre Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, for better or worse, depending on how you feel, smoked hashish, and his son has smoked with me four or five times, so it really pisses me off when I see Justin Trudeau, who took big gaggers with me, is in parliament, actually voting for Bill C-15."

- Marc Emery

h/t Blazing Cat Fur

Zombie Trudeau Video

Here's a video from the Zombie Trudeau walk that happened outside the Liberal; "showcase" of Prince Joffrey who will undoubtedly be anointed the new party leader

Zombie Trudeau Walk to Liberal "showcase" announced

Something out of the ordinary will be happening at the Liberal "showcase" where a coronation will bestow his father's old crown on Prince Joffrey Justin Trudeau.

A facebook event called Zombie Trudeau Lives has appeared and is described as follows:

Half zombie walk, half political event. Pierre Trudeau has come back from the dead to challenge his own son for the leadership of the Liberal Party. Join us in true Zombie Walk fashion as we lurch through the streets of Toronto to descend on the Metro Convention Centre during the Liberal Party "National Leadership Showcase." Recreate the 1968 Liberal Party Convention—with the undead. See Zombie Trudeau give the most rousing speech possible for someone a decade in the ground.

Zombie Trudeau walk will be this Saturday at 2 pm. Details are on the facebook page.

Why the NDP's effort to create a Trudeau-like Layton cult will ultimately fail

Canada's New Democratic Party is a the manifestation of a political movement mired in obsolete radicalism that the major countries in the developed world have rejected. One needs only to look at their leadership of Libby Davies, Joe Comartin, Brian Topp, Paul Dewar, to see irrelevant middle-aged white people who have clasped on to union-driven, "make the rich pay" vapid sloganeering which has been shunned by a world that continues to embrace "The Third Way."

Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Jean Chretien led a wave of blending liberal social policies with conservative economics that created stability and prosperity for their countries and is an approach that has been embraced by the majority of voters in most of the world's major democratic nations.

The NDP, with its regressive policies, was nonetheless able to score an increase in its vote in part due to the personal popularity of its recently deceased leader, Jack Layton. But the NDP surge was even more due to the inept political skills of Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe, whose party's collapse provided virtually all of the NDP's gains.

With Layton gone, the NDP realizes they have no one comparable to replace him, but to cling on to the momentum that Layton's death has given them, they are being shameless in their attempt to replicate a Canadian phenomenon. 

At the end of his political career, Pierre Elliott Trudeau was intensely unpopular. He resigned his seat rather than face Brian Mulroney in an election he knew he was going to lose. Trudeau had earned the enmity of western Canada for the contempt he showed them and was unpopular in the rest of the country for the poor economic leadership of his government. Indeed, much of Trudeau's political success is due to his having the good fortune to face the least charismatic opponents in Canadian political history in the persons of Bob Stanfield (twice) and Joe Clark.

But a funny thing happened after Trudeau resigned. His popularity increased about a decade later, as some people's nostalgia helped them forget how badly he mismanaged the country. He also benefited from a generation of students who were taught that the multicultural policies he imposed were visionary and about the genuine vision he had in his achievement of patriating Canada's Constitution and creating a Charter of Rights. From this nostalgia emerged a Cult of Trudeau that the Liberal Party had been able to use to its advantage until 2006, and still has adherents.

The NDP, as out of touch as they may be, are not completely absent of observational skills, and seeing the sympathy that has been expressed over Layton's death to cancer, think they can ride that sympathy into the creation of a Layton legend and cult that will continue.

But the NDP brain trust forgot a few things. The sympathy for Layton has a lot to do with him being likable and people being naturally empathetic to a public figure dying, almost literally, before their eyes. Layton was as little like Trudeau as he was like Bobby Kennedy. Sixty-one is early to die, but it can only be considered young if you're a Galapagos tortoise. Layton wasn't martyred for his beliefs, he died of a disease that takes thousands of other Canadians every year in circumstances that are no less tragic for the loved ones of those involved.

Patriation of Canada's Constitution

The major difference between Trudeau and Layton that will prevent the Layton cult the NDP hopes for from sticking is that unlike the NDP leader, Mr. Trudeau had accomplishments.

There is no lasting legacy that the NDP can point to for Layton. Whereas Trudeau did have the Constitution, Charter, and multiculturalism, as well as exhibiting strong, determined leadership during the October Crisis. Trudeau helped maneuver Canada's foreign policy towards being more independent and he fought off the greatest threat to the separation of Quebec when it was led by the independence movement's most dynamic and intelligent leader ever, Rene Levesque.

Not the least notable difference between the two men is that unlike Layton, Trudeau actually earned the title of Right Honourable by being elected Prime Minister.

The NDP may be riding high for the moment on Jack Layton's ashes, but with an election more than four years away, the distant memory of a likable guy who didn't really do much to affect Canada will pale in comparison to the issues of the day in 2016. It's the Liberal Party, with its stronger roster of capable politicians and history of national leadership that stands the most to gain from the NDP's loss of Jack Layton.

A Bad Election Omen for the Liberals

Pathetic fallacy or a fateful sign?

Time for our government to start an open dialogue about Multiculturalism

First Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and now Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron has spoken out against the failure of multiculturalism as a state policy.

As the fractious nature of groups which resist integration into the mainstream has shown, state-sponsored multiculturalism has been a divisive force rather than strengthening for those societies which employ it.

America's Melting Pot does not seek to rub out immigrants' ethnic and cultural identities. As the world's top destination for immigrants, The Unites States has vibrant communities reflecting cultures from all over the world. The difference is that they come to America to be Americans, rather than immigrants who come to Canada to be, for example, Venezuelans in Canada.

Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau made Canada the first country to adopt multiculturalism as official policy. As Liberal member of federal parliament John McKay observed:

"Mr. Trudeau’s vision of official multiculturalism was largely a bi-product of his constant struggle against Quebec separatism...Trudeau .. saw official multiculturalism as a useful tool in his ongoing battle to diminish the threat of Quebec separatism, because in disentangling culture from language, he hoped there would be less emphasis on the notion of Canada being composed of ‘two nations/deux nations’, and more focus on Canadians as individuals whose first languages may be English and French, but had various different ethnic origins. In effect, he used immigration and multiculturalism to further his own political agenda for the country."

Many Canadians now agree that what began as a strategy to diminish separatism has backfired. The Quebec separatist movement is still strong. In some measure, it remains so as a backlash against the idea of Quebecois culture being further diluted by multiculturalism.

For English Canada, what was intended to be a policy to promote inclusiveness has deteriorated into a tyranny imposing minority values on the majority.

Within schools, where history is now a subject barely addressed, multiculturalism is taught as an enshrined characteristic of Canadian identity. In a nation that defines itself by the ways in which "it is not American", multiculturalism, by virtue of not being the American Melting Pot,  has become a religion whose dogma cannot be questioned.

But the apparent failings of multiculturalism have raised questions that cannot be avoided.

It's the responsibility of the government to have an open discussion about policies that affect everyone in this country. If we are on the wrong course, it is our duty to correct it, not continue simply because it's the way things have been done for the last two generations. If, as a nation, we can't adapt to contemporary realities, we will be destined to get swept away by them.

Canadians who want to see our government seriously examine whether we should enact changes to official multiculturalism should let Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca)  and Jason Kenney, the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism  (kennej@parl.gc.ca) know how they feel.

Marc Garneau: The Future of the Canadian Liberal Party?

Marc Garneau and his team do not want this story published.

I know that because his media representative explicitly told me so.

Eye on a Crazy Planet recently ran a poll asking readers who they would like to see as the leader of the Canadian Liberal Party. The poll was unscientific and the response was much lower than the previous poll asking about whether the US should bomb Iran (a resounding 'yes' from a big majority of you on that one).

This poll very intentionally listed only 3 candidates by name. That was because there is a dearth of potential leaders who excite the public among the group who have vied for the top position in the Liberal party since Stephane Dion's unsuccessful term which began in 2006.

Two in the poll were the ones most frequently associated with the current Liberal leadership, Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae, and a third, Quebce MP for the riding of Westmount--Ville-Marie, Quebec, Marc Garneau.

While none polled well, Garneau polled better than either Ignatieff and Rae. And looking to the future, the Liberals need to consider looking past the leadership of Michael Ignatieff.

Ignatieff is an intelligent, honest leader with sound policies. He is also uncharismatic and has failed to excite the Canadian electorate.

Bob Rae is a nice guy. He's a smart guy.His policies are thoughtful and reasonable. Enough time has transpired since his unsuccessful term as Premier of Ontario that a lot of that baggage has been shed, along with his old NDP membership card. But in my assessment, his time to lead the Liberal Party of Canada has passed. That time should have been in 2006 when the Liberals made the incomprehensible choice of Dion. The reactions to Rae nation-wide suggest that he could not win a national election.

So who does the Liberal Party have? None of the leadership contenders from '06 show any real promise. The two strongest of that crop, among those not already mentioned, would be Gerrard Kennedy and Ken Dryden. Kennedy's policy positions have always made him a much better fit for the NDP than the Liberals, but his ambition took him to the party where he felt he could achieve more power. He would be a disastrous Prime Minister.

Ken Dryden's personality as a politician is a lot like that of...well.. a goalie.He is exceptionally bright, but as a speaker is dull and uninspiring. As in his previous life, he's great at preventing the other side from scoring goals against him. But winning a game requires more than just not losing. It requires someone who can score and Ken has never been that guy.

There are some who have mentioned Justin Trudeau. Trudeau the younger has none of his father's adroit political skills. He's basically a name and a good haircut.

Marc Garneau, the Liberals' Critic for Industry, Science and Technology, is someone who may represent the best hope the Liberals have for regaining the national leadership in the foreseeable future.

He has the obvious necessary criteria of intellect, speaking ability and thoughtful policy positions.

But he has a lot more. All the successful Liberal Prime Ministers since Confederation, with the sole exception of William Lyon Mackenzie King, were Quebecois, like Garneau. For the Liberals to be able to get an effective majority, they need to be able to win over a large part of the Quebec electorate and Garneau, who is the chair of the Quebec Liberal Caucus, can do that.

But he also has to be able to win over much of the rest of Canada and as Canada's first astronaut, Garneau is and was a national hero before his entry into politics. He is a popular figure across the country who already has had two schools in Ontario named after him. The Liberals under Garneau would be able to win seats in every province, and could easily take their traditional majorities in both Quebec and Ontario. Something that no Liberal has done since prior to the 1993 election.

It should be clear that Garneau's staff has emphatically denied that they have ambitions or are thinking this way right now. They say they are solely focussed on being part of Michael Ignatieff's team and that they fully support his vision and the way he has put together a team of great parliamentarians who will be able to go out and win the next election.

They also say the think Mr. Ignatieff is doing a "great" job as Liberal Party Leader.

Okay. But for the sake of argument, let's assume the polls are right and the rest of Canada doesn't agree with that assessment of Mr. Ignatieff.

If that's the case, then while Marc Garneau may not be thinking of positioning himself for the Liberal leadership, he should be.