Did CBC lie about whereabouts of Mansbridge’s chair?

I originally thought that Brian Lilley had gone a little too far in trying to uncover waste and secrecy at the CBC with his article on the disappearance of the National’s Peter Mansbridge’s chair which was used on set prior to the recent make-over. The format now has everyone standing.

Lilley was told by CBC that the chair in question was of so little value that they don’t track it. End of “story” right?

Well, Lilley maybe knew a little more about where that chair was when he first inquired as it turns out that it had been donated as an auction item to support a political insider-type magazine, the Walrus. This was confirmed on a Tweet from Mansbridge’s producer Leslie Stojsic:

“Investigation reveals chair was donated for a silent auction in January”

A question remains though. Was the CBC trying to hide that it was giving away taxpayer-funded inventory to support this private company? (see here)

Idiotic MP “up-and-comers” list

Generally, I detest year-end lists which the media produce to fill space but this one by Postmedia’s Meagan Fitzpatrick of “up-and-comer” MPs is the most ridiculous one I’ve run across so far.

It includes:

- Liberal Justin Trudeau who, no matter how much the fawning Ottawa media pushes will remain vapid unless of course one is in need a good laugh

- Liberal Mark Holland who likes to play fast and loose with the truth and will more than likely get smoked in the next election by Con candidate Chris Alexander

- Liberal Siobhan Coady gets on the list for her questioning of Rahim Jaffer. No way anyone who actively participated on that committee should be considered a rising star.

- And how exactly does Bloc MP Diane Bourgeois who has been an MP for 10 years be considered at all? (see here)

Sky is falling on Cons according to Globe’s Ibbitson

Wow, and I thought all the pollsters had the Conservatives well out front and even approaching majority territory until I read John Ibbitson’s freak-out column on their demise:

- “For many Conservative supporters, the fiasco at the UN reflected the worrisome performance of the Harper government in 2010. “

- “Prorogation went down badly with the public, dropping the government’s popularity in the polls.”

- “Mr. Harper disappeared. The result was chaos.”

- “the planes were needed because Russian bombers were threatening Canadian airspace – was greeted with derision.”

- “The alarms continued into the autumn. Though Mr. Harper was back on the job, he was often overseas.”

- “Instead of projecting an agenda and controlling events, a rudderless government grappled with one flare-up after another”

- “And the Tories’ shaky reputation for competence firmed up as temperatures dropped below freezing.”

- “And he brought Bay Street executive Nigel Wright in as chief of staff, a tacit acknowledgement of the need for more discipline in his own office.” (see here)

Chicken Little couldn’t have been more alarming…

Nutbar Liberal Sen gives another reason to abolish Senate

The kooky Liberal Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette is at it again…this time she’s behind a bill that would force publicly traded companies to have women make up 50% of their boards.

“The fine rhetoric and the good intentions of many people to promote gender parity on boards of directors are no longer enough. The need for the involvement of Canada’s Parliament is more acute than ever, given the slowness of the progress toward parity.” (see here)

See also Alberta Ardvark asking Justin to defend the Charter against this loon here and my earlier post on Hervieux-Payette’s other nutty proposals here

Postmedia’s resident climate alarmist

Postmedia Mike De Souza’s piece features a trip to northern Manitoba by some corporate PR flacks sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund.

Here are some nauseating quotes from it:

- David Moran, director of public affairs and communications for Coca-Cola Canada “It’s such a heart-wrenching way to learn a very hard lesson about climate change. We’ve used the polar bear in our marketing material for over 80 years. So for us, the polar bear has a particularly warm place in our hearts. You know that they (polar bears) are virtually starving because they need the ice to hunt”

- Andreas Souvaliotis, chief impact officer and general manager of Air Miles for Social Change, a division of the company that focuses on promoting greener lifestyle choices. “It kind of felt like a little bit of a punch.You are just seeing such a dramatic degradation in terms of what these poor bears have to live with.”

- “One executive from LoyaltyOne, the parent company of the Air Miles reward program, said he was also left speechless by what he saw, even after being trained by former U.S. vice-president Al Gore to raise public awareness about climate change”

- “An insurance industry executive said he’s hoping that images and stories he brought back about the trip will also inspire employees and customers to start changing their habits and prepare for more changes in the climate that are already affecting his sector”

After reading this stunningly one-sided article, I clicked on De Souza’s Twitter page linked at the bottom of the article and lo and behold, 20 out of his last 20 Tweets had to do with the “climate” (see here) and a quick Google search confirmed this reporting forte.

De Souza’s title is listed as “National Affairs Reporter for Postmedia News”… I’m curious if anyone can tell me if Postmedia has another “National Reporter” employed whose sole job is to discredit the global alarmist movement?