Rose's Cantina

You won't see many pictures of Peter Fleming. That's because Pete was more of a "behind the scenes" guy. He was like that character Red in Shawshank Redemption , who could get things for you from time to time. Pete was a force around the National Press Club for years. He'd often be seen at a back table with Gus Cloutier, the House of Commons' Sergeant-at-Arms, and many of the honchos who worked on the Hill. Charlie Lynch would be at the table, along with Shirley and Tom Van Dusen Sr., and Art Lamarche. On a Friday afternoon, they'd be holding court, downing bottles of wine, slurping pea soup and chowing down on roast beef. The gang was there every Friday for decades. It was always a fun table, and they were gracious enough to let stragglers like me join them. I learn a lot. I laughed a lot, too. Unlike myriad other tables in the joint, when you sat down, you parked your ego -- and shop talk -- at the door. This was story time. A lot of people...

Embed from Getty Images I ambushed my son Nick and took him to the Ottawa Hospital to see Jennette who was recovering from oral cancer surgery, the result of 40 years on the weed. Nick has been smoking since he was in his early teens, and I have been trying to get him to quit since he began that journey. When I got an inkling he was smoking, I plastered all the screensavers in the house with horrible images of smokers' past. There were pictures of people languishing in hospital beds drooling, others with big gaping maws, others sporting gnarly teeth and nails the color of Cheezies. Nothing seemed to work. Then the other two kids started smoking. It drove me bananas. I have been a rabid anti-smoker since my childhood, since I was forced against my will to live with five smokers, the bad kind, the roll-your-own kind. I remember getting out of the shower and taking the first breath which smelled like I was mainlining an ashtray. Whenever there was a f...

The federal NDP deputy leader, Megan Leslie, says she's shocked at the "casual sexism" on Parliament Hill. “The first day I came to Parliament Hill in 2008, an MP told me I had a ‘fine body.’ I was startled and offended,” she wrote in the June 3 edition of Blacklock’s Reporter , an Ottawa-based subscription news outlet which reports on Parliament Hill. Thanks, Megan, for the trip down memory lane. Things seem to have gotten better on Hill, if the worst she gets is a compliment on her bod. Good thing she wasn't there when John Turner was patting bums and the Deputy Streaker was prancing down the halls in Centre Block with a square of towel pasted to his genitals. The Hill has always been an "if I have a nice body will you hold it against me" kind of place. Especially during holiday season. Or after the Parliamentary Press Gallery dinner. Or during voting at leadership conventions. A big part of the issue is the acceptance of public drunkedness as ...