Conser...oh wait, Liberal bigwig's racist blog post

[V. Kid]

Scary

Which blood vessels would Susan Murray and John Duffy be popping if they'd discovered a Conservative moron comparing an Asian-Canadian candidate to a dog?

Fortunately it wasn't a Conservative at all. And until just now I didn't think the guy in question was a moron. It was Mike Klander, a senior executive in the Liberal Party of Canada; Paul Martin's senior leadership organizer in Ontario; the muscle the Grits sent in to roll over Sheila Copps in Hamilton in '04; and riding-association president to Tony Ianno, who's running against Olivia Chow, whom Klander smears here.

(Klander immediately killed his entire blog, but the cache survives, as does the offending photo mosaic, screen-captured by an alert blogger. And what fun the Klander blog is! Note the top-ranked Liberal's touching concern over which fashion accessories make candidates "look gay" and his paradoxical observations that Stephen Harper "creeps people out" and Jack Layton "is a weasel" and "is an asshole." Oscar Wilde could hardly have done better. Oh, wait: didn't Oscar Wilde "look gay"?)

http://weblogs.macleans.ca/paulwells/archives/week_2005_12_25-2005_12_31.asp#001993 - source

Look at the google catch source and just google Mike Klander:

http://www.google.ca/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial_s&hl=en&q=%22mike+klander%22&meta=&btnG=Google+Search

[CHIMO]

1. Liberal exec resigns amid blog controversy

A high-ranking official within the Liberal Party of Canada resigned today after he made disparaging comments on his blog about NDP Leader Jack Layton and his wife, NDP candidate Olivia Chow.

Mike Klander, executive vice-president of the federal Liberal party's Ontario wing, stepped down after photographs of Chow, the NDP candidate for the Toronto riding of Trinity-Spadina, and a chow chow dog were posted on his blog dated Dec. 9 under the heading ``Separated at Birth."

The blog also contained an offensive reference to Layton.

"I'm going away for a couple of days so I thought I would find something smart and witty to put up on my blog before I left," the blog said, dated Nov. 23.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&pubid=968163964505&cid=1135637428938&col=968705899037&call_page=TS_News&call_pageid=968332188492&call_pagepath=News/News

[V. Kid]

2. Intresing Liberal spin on this....

...

CP is reporting that Mike Klander stepped down today from his executive position in the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario). That didn't take long at all: only three days after he got busted in the Star, and only a day after traffic on this blog and every blog I link to below started to skyrocket.

And, of course, only two weeks after Klander decided to compare political opponents to animals. I guess sleeping on it wasn't quite good enough; what he really needed was to get caught.

CP is quoting a long-suffering Liberal spokesman to the effect that Klander was "a volunteer" who had no official role in the current campaign. This rather understates the guy's significance. He delivered Tony Dionisio to the Martin camp in '02, and together, they delivered Ontario. When Sheila Copps got uppity, Klander was dispatched to take proper care of her in Hamilton in '04. I fondly recall the first place I ever saw the guy: in the union-hall basement where Paul Martin announced to a breathless world in 2002 that he wasn't sure he could work with Jean Chrétien any more. That whole event was a Klander/Dionisio special. But they were just volunteers, you understand.

http://weblogs.macleans.ca/paulwells/

But Like Wells says, it's just completely ridiculous. He was a key cog in Martin's leadership campaign, Martin needs to diretcly dissavow him otherwise he'd be a hypocrite in the sense that he demonizes the Conservatives for similar behaviour, that has just happened within his own camp (see "Asian Invasion" comment by a former Canadian Alliance candidate in 2000).

[CHIMO]

3. Liberals' seamy side

The sophomoric, insulting comments on the web blog of Mike Klander, the Ontario executive vice-president of the Liberal Party of Canada should have surprised very few people.

Klander's references -- rightly seen, in my view, as racist and sexist -- comparing NDP candidate Olivia Chow to a breed of dog reflect the quality of backroom discussions in the Martin Liberal Party. As with Scott Reid of "beer and popcorn" fame, the public got a glimpse of what current high-level Liberal Party officials actually think of them.

Klander, the son of hard-working immgirant steelworker parents in Hamilton, rose to great heights in the Liberal party by working hard to fit in. In the Martin backrooms, fitting in tends to mean "old boy" and bathroom humour, and ensuring your place is secured by tearing others down.

In today's party machine, non-white voters are viewed as commodities, to be traded for seats which will guarantee a majority. The only difference in the Klander blog is that the public actually found out.

http://torontosun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Copps_Sheila/2005/12/28/1371104.html

What comes to mind is "............excedingly fine" and something about getting the tent wet when one is outside the tent.

[MrPrax]

4. Torys are startin'

to look too good, in direct proportion to how badly the Liberal campaign--in fact, Martin's campaign is so bad, one wonders if they are throwing the election, so the Tories can muddle about in a minority gov't.

[Spazito]

5. LOL, their poll numbers aren't moving at ALL

They are only 'looking good' to their choir, the rest of Canadians see the same old Reform/Alliance/faux Cons as in previous elections. They are losing support in B.C., and static in Ontario, not breaking any ground in Quebec even with their ass kissing with the separatists.

[MrPrax]

6. Hope your right...

but Harper seems to be on Ritalin or something...he isn't nearly as jumpy and nervous as he was 6 months ago, which makes him look better on TV...

Oh the polls...national polls are kinda meaningless...an uptick of 2 or 3 points for these guys in certain regions of the country (like Ontario or the Maritimes) is far more disconcerting given that the real volatility could come from all the Lib/NDP 'strategic' jockeying... For instance, if the Liberals start looking bad and the NDP start looking good to voters that WON'T ever vote Tories in certain types of ridings, then they might end up knocking each other out of the race.

Let's face it...the Goodale thing is last thing the Liberals need--this scandal might start causing 'moral panic'.

[Spazito]

7. No one is really caring right now...

the real fun will start around the middle of Jan till election day. Watch Mr. policy wonk aka Harper reveal his real self again, will be amusing I am sure.