Layton won’t answer media questions in Edmonton

Jack Layton likes having one set of rules about openness for himself and another for others when it comes to media availability and “bubble” campaigns.

Layton on Harper:

“This is a prime minister who wants to control everything”

But as CTV Edmonton reports, Layton has for the 2nd time refused to talk with the local media (see here) because of his tar sands bashing in other parts of the country.

Now, if anyone can point me toward an article from the Ottawa Press Gallery that has reported on Layton’s bubble-boy act please be so kind and forward it.

Macleans’ Coyne: “I will be voting Liberal on May 2″

There may be a lot of people surprised that Andrew Coyne is voting Liberal, but don’t count me in as one.

Anyone who has followed Coyne’s writings and CBC panel spots should have noticed him sliding into what Preston Manning termed “Ottawashed”. His snarkiness and arrogance stemming maybe from too many tete-a-tetes at cocktail parties with the Nation’s elites, comes through loud and clear.

A good example of Coyne’s snobbery is shown by the Ottawa Citizen’s Michael Taube who calls out Coyne for looking down his nose at Sun News and its viewers:

“Andrew Coyne, Maclean’s national editor, shifted the discussion from clothing to messaging. On April 22, he tweeted, “The thing about Sun TV: it’s not the far right, it’s the lower right. Not the hard right but the dumb right: less ideology than temperament.” In other words, Coyne was attempting to establish a difference between Canada’s intellectual right and, well, the Sun News right. That poisonous dart of a tweet floored many of this country’s right-leaning pundits, including myself.” (see here)

I’m not familiar if Coyne has ever publicly written about who he was supporting before and I have serious doubts whether any journalist doing so has not badly damaged their credentials, but I do know that as Conservatives, we should not be supporting Macleans magazine. (see here)

Iggy: “They [Conservatives] can go to hell”

In his newspaper editorial meeting with the Star, Michael Ignatieff is quoted “slamming his fist on the table” same as he did at the Globe and Mail where he “pounded the table” and gave us all some great lines (see here).

Besides the “go to hell” quote, Iggy had some more gems to leave behind for the Star’s editorial staff:

- “I have spent my whole life dealing with bullies. Some of them had guns”

- “What the crowd is giving me is, they’re fed up. ‘We’re fed up of being manipulated, bullied, intimidated, lied to.’ It’s very strong out there”

- “The Liberal Party is going to show up and vote Liberal on Monday”

- “My firm belief is that my base is back and my base will vote on the 2nd of May”

- “But look at the trouble he’s [Harper] in. It’s not going so well for him either.”

- “is you don’t believe what the American tells you.”

- “You go into a room with the Americans, they have their sources of information and you had better be damn sure you have your own. You better be darn sure you don’t let yourself be persuaded by bad evidence.”

Oh Iggy, you’re gonna be missed…(see here)