Rose's Cantina

#463047935 / gettyimages.com Watching W5 on Saturday, and its fawning hour-long profile of Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, I was brought back to a time in the 1980s when Tom Hayden was running for state legislature in California. Hayden was a famous 60s radical, then married to Jane Fonda, who was trying to rehabilitate his image, to make himself seem more palatable to voters. Getting him elected wouldn't be easy -- Tom was a bad guy in his youth -- so a gaggle of Democratic political consultants were enlisted to undertake a renovation of sorts, putting putty in the cracks of the foundation, giving him a new high gloss coat of paint. The media campaign included television ads, and a glossy brochure entitled Tom Hayden, Growing Up in America. The brochure featured sad images of racism, segregation, shootings of presidents and preachers. It was meant to explain how Tom Hayden and his politics had been shaped by events in America. Not his fault...

  CTV really hates the Hole in the Wall Gang. For months now, Bob Fife has been out for blue blood and now he's got his Christmas present early -- Tory platelets spilled all over the Parliamentary Precinct. As evidence of a CTV vendetta against the Harperites, I present Power Play yarn spinner Don Martin. Remember this? At most places, spewing this kind of venom would have been a firing offence. The piece was quickly yanked, no doubt, because it was lawyered but not before Don eviscerated Mike Duffy, the little nugget who was expelled from his mother's womb in PEI nearly seven decades ago only to make a recent return to claim an unlawful Senate seat. Thanks to the Power of Youtube, CTV couldn't make Don's diatribe go away. All it could do was take away Don's podium and add a seven second delay. Bell Media must be awfully happy with Fife and the gang not to mention with Mayor Rob Ford who has added to our viewing pleasure with tales of fine dining and l...

Good morning, boys and girls. Stephen Harper, here. That's right, Stephen Harper, your prime minister Skyping in from Madison Square Garden where I just woke up in a beer-laden haze from the defeat of my beloved Ottawa Senators. How pleased you must be that I took time out of my busy travel schedule to be with you today. You're welcome! As you know, hockey embodies all the basic core values of this great nation: guts, bravado, trash-talking and above all, fighting. That's why Canadians embrace the national game -- because every good fight can be settled with a solid right hook. When the ref isn't looking. I apply all those principles to governing this great land. I love to tell my caucus about how I sandbagged the Governor-General awhile back just to stay in power. It was a piece of cake! She was a girl, after all. And an immigrant. And a journalist. What did she know? My, how we had a good laugh at caucus over that one. A real knee slapper! I digress. I...

I was wondering whether ET Canada would be covering the NDP leadership convention. After all, politics is show business for ugly people. I didn't see many celebs among the balding academics and the wildhaired socialists. Only Shirley Douglas, and she's looking a might scary these days. Jack Layton may indeed have been the last sharp dressed man in the NDP. He and Olivia certainly had style, he in his tiny perfect Harry Rosen suits, she in her lovely linens. Even yesterday, Olivia looked perfectly enchanting in her cable knit yellow sweater. Nathan Cullen seemed to be the only one, amongst the new guard, who had been to a dress for success seminar. I had hoped that would count for something. Alas, Nathan won't be cleaning out his Confed office anytime soon. It was a sad fashion spectacle at the Metro Convention Centre, full of men dressed in ill-fitting suits and women with bed head. Even the commentators looked like they'd been up all night drinking Fire and Ice...