Cancon Can Can

THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED:

Enough on what the Liberal leadership contenders say -- or don't say -- about the Middle East! What are their positions on culture and broadcasting?

The Friends of Canadian Broadcasting lobby group broadcast watchdog asked the 11 candidates duking it out for the chiefdom to pronounce themselves on such issues as the foreign ownership of domestic broadcasters, the production of homegrown drama and the future of CBC.

Eight of the candidates responded. (No shows were Ken Dryden, Hedy Fry and Stephane Dion.) Most say straight out they would increase CBC's funding -- although most tie that to  reinvesting in regional television. All but Bob Rae come out against patronage appointments for CBC's board -- although, in fairness, Martha Hall Findlay did not respond to the question. As for the rest, motherhood.

Read the answers for yourself. The candidates' email addresses and websites are also listed in case you get the urge to drop them a line.

D'UHPDATE: Bailey in the comments below notes that I blogged this a month ago. This is my brain on heat and humidity.

Blogjam

Woo-hoo! The mainstream media and the Liberal party leadership contendahs discover blogs. First, the Star's Susan Delacourt had this on Saturday:

The Liberal leadership race, like no other political contest before it, is being waged in the "blogosphere" — the rollicking, unpredictable world of online diarists and self-made political pundits.

Would-be Liberal leaders are seeking interviews with bloggers; there are blog endorsements, campaign blogs and bloggers who are doing double duty as leadership organizers.

The development signals several important political shifts: the rising credibility of the online dialogues, the parties' increasing use of the Internet, as well as the need for this Liberal race to be waged in creative new ways because of limited money and a large field of candidates.

The bloggers haven't replaced the mainstream media — or MSM as it's called on the blogs — but they are gaining a currency in the political market that they haven't had to date.

Today, the Globe and Mail's Campbell Clark weighs in with this:

Should dissident Liberals start a new party if Joe Volpe wins the leadership? Should Ottawa impose a carbon tax? Are Scott Brison and Homer Simpson's neighbour, Ned Flanders, twins separated at birth? These are some of the questions floating through the Liberal blogosphere.

But many of the 11 Liberal leadership campaigns have their own question about the legion of Internet blogs dealing with party matters: Can they win delegates there?

The exploding phenomenon of individuals creating weblogs, more commonly called blogs, has echoed in Liberal Party politics. There are more than 150 blogs devoted in whole or part to things Liberal, about 50 of them updated regularly.

Among the blogs named are, of course, Cerberus, Calgary Grit and Jason Cherniak, the biggest and best -- in my book, anyway -- Liberal bloggers. There are more Liberal bloggers here.

As for the candidates, only two of them -- Dr. Carolyn Bennett and Ken Dryden -- have blogs on their campaign websites.

The revolution has yet to be blogged.

Culture vultures

Considering that it was the long-reigning Liberal government that eviscerated CBC, all these lofty words from the Liberal leadership hopefuls are hard to take. But, since the lobby group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting took the trouble of polling all 11 contenders on matters of Canadian culture amd programming, the least I could do is link to their answers.

Oh, and by the way, only eight of the 11 responded.

Stop signs

Now this promises to get nasty: A website called Stop Iggy. (Emphasis theirs.) 

We are Liberals who are deeply concerned by Michael Ignatieff’s candidacy for leadership of the Liberal Party.  His campaign has already mobilized all across the country, and there is a very real possibility that he could become the next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.  Should that happen, Mr. Ignatieff might actually have a shot at becoming Prime Minister.  But it is not too late!  If each and every one of us commits to work together, we can STOP IGGY!  Please take a moment to view our website to find out how, and to discover some disturbing things you may not have known about the Man Who Could Be Prime Minister.

The web site references all sorts of ''nasty'' pronouncements by Ignatieff on war and torture and American imperialism.

The domain name's registrar is Tucows Inc. (har, har) in Calgary and the registrant is Thunderline Internet Solutions in Thunder Bay.

But the ''Stop Iggy'' symbols were first seen in Drummondville, Quebec in April -- when this site was registered. Here's the top of a Montreal Gazette story published April 30.

Standing in the crowded lobby of a local hotel, Marsha Akman was like a kid on a shopping spree.

"We have a meeting right now with Stephane Dion, then we're meeting Carolyn Bennett at 12, then we're going to be meeting (Ken) Dryden afterwards," said Akman, a Liberal activist in the riding of Mount Royal and a member of the party's women's commission. "We're going to start talking issues and get a feel for how they are and go from there."

Like many members of the federal party's Quebec wing, Akman does not yet know who will get her vote when Liberals meet in early December in Montreal to choose their next leader.

However, she has already scratched one candidate off her list. "It's anybody but Ignatieff," said Akman, sporting two "Stop Iggy" stickers on her shirt to protest what she sees as Michael Ignatieff's right-wing views.

Could there be a connection?

I doubt that any card-carry Liberal would be so self-destructive. (Oh wait ...!)

According to conservative blogger Steve Janke:

The person behind this (the registration information says only to contact Thunderline, which is a company run by a fellow named David James) doesn't care who wins, as long as it is not Michael Ignatieff. Even Joe Volpe would be better. Here's the insightful analysis that explains why:

Although we at STOP IGGY know very little about this guy, we are happy he is running because he is NOT IGGY!

Against intellectual titans like these, what chance does Ignatieff have?

I can't handicap this race but it looks like it may be a fun ride for political observers.

Failing grade

Semi-anonymous comment contributor Mel asks elsewhere on this blog why I missed the Globe and Mail's colossal weekend gaffe on the ability of federal Liberal party candidates to speak both official languages. I didn't miss it. I just forgot it. Although why I forgot it is inexplicable. Better late than never...

On Saturday, the paper played the front page story big, complete with a cutesy graphic inside showing that both Maurizio Bevilacqua and Gerard Kennedy would not pass a test for a bilingualism certificate. I can no longer find the original wrong-o story online. You can bet it was yanked fast, although CTV still has a version of it, with some adjustments.

Liberals may view themselves as protectors of Canada's national unity, but just over half of the party's leadership candidates are bilingual, according to a fluency test by The Globe and Mail and a University of Ottawa professor.

"The others were varying degrees of catastrophes," Prof. Helene Knoerr told the newspaper.

Ranked among the ''catastrophes'' were Kennedy and Bevilacqua, as well as Scott Brison, Carolyn Bennett, Hedy Fry and, inexplicably (at least to me), former Montreal Canadiens star goalie, Ken Dryden.

Ooooooooooooooooops.

Today, also on page one, below the fold and smaller than the offending story, a correction. A front-page correction is unusual, and it was no doubt prompted by an outcry from the Kennedy headquarters which issued a news release on Sunday.

The Kennedy Campaign views the Globe's error as serious, disappointing and requiring a prominent correction. While the Kennedy Campaign acknowledges the timeliness with which the Globe moved on its website to correct its own findings about the language skills of Liberal leadership candidates, Campaign representatives have respectfully requested that the Globe demonstrate its journalistic integrity by publishing a retraction in its next print edition on Monday, May 15, comparable in size and placement to the front-page story in which the error was made.

Wonder what a lousy weekend senior Globe editors had. Although they don't say so, you can bet they ''regret the error.''

UPPITY DATE: Here's the original Globe story in Google's cache.

Get your game on

It's only been a week -- not even -- and I am already sick of the media speculation over the next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.

The blogosphere is all over it too. The latest excitement is over Frank McKenna dis-tossing the hat he never actually tossed into the ring. Catch some of the noise here and here and here.

I'm thinking of starting a pool. No entry fee. The prize is the glory. But the trick is not to  guess the new leader, it's to name the pundit who made the biggest idiot of himself or herself over this.

Dive right in.