The Prime Minister’s Office has named columnist Angelo Persichilli as its new director of communications, or as I
like to call them, wives of Henry VIII, since they don’t seem to last very long. Many
people are taking the opportunity to say that Persichilli was basically acting as
a Harper-government shill in his columns anyway, so the PMO might as well pay
him for it now. Meanwhile, people are going over some of his previous columns
and statements – like his fictionalized tale about a Liberal meeting where a group
supposedly was planning a coup against Michael Ignatieff on Bob Rae’s behalf, his complaints that there are too many francophones in Ottawa, and his statement to
a Senate committee on “truth” in journalism, to name a few.
Jack Layton’s opponent in the last two
elections, Andrew Lang – brother of CBC journalist Amanda Lang, says he’s
ready to run again, and with Layton gone and the changing demographics of the
riding, he feels he has a shot at winning.
Meanwhile, another NDP MP feels that
Brian Topp should recuse himself from the party’s national council while
leadership rules are being discussed.
Bob Rae went on the offensive yesterday
about his economic record as the premier of Ontario, preempting any criticism
from detractors who wonder how he can speak with any economic credibility as an
opposition leader.
Some of those talking heads you see on
political shows may be in conflicts of interest if they’re lobbyists who’ve been asked to speak on behalf of the parties.
Philippe Lagassé reminds us why the Canadian Forces are indeed Royal from a constitutional and legal
perspective, even if it was crass politics on Harper’s part to rename them as
such.
And Kady O’Malley offers a fact-check of that private member’s motion of Libby Davies that put Sun Media into such a tizzy.
Davies, incidentally, gave a public mea culpa and said it was all a big
mistake.
Why you can trust Xtra
