1. Another day, another crisis. That's just the kind of bus tour of small-town Canada that it's been, where the material writes itself for Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's political enemies.
Mr. Ignatieff's "Liberal Express" tour – in Ontario right now – got off to a rough start this week with a bus breakdown and then an ill-timed visit to a lovely restaurant named Chez Piggy in Kingston, which of course is like political cat nip for opponents like the New Democrats in their quest to re-tar and feather the Official Opposition for its scandal plagued past and weak record on budget votes.
Now, fresh off the summer grill is a story about how Mr. Ignatieff is being offered a soft landing back in academia if his foray into politics doesn't pan out. One option is to succeed Janice Gross Stein at the University of Toronto's prestigious Munk School of Global Affairs.
Again, bad timing for the Liberal Leader, who is trying to persuade Canadians – and the journalists on his bus tour – that he's really the government in waiting.
"[Sources] in both political and academic circles say overtures were informal, made through Ignatieff’s Munk connections and that any exit strategy is contingent on campaign results," the Toronto Star says.
Senior Liberals, meanwhile, are vehemently denying that Mr. Ignatieff is in talks to head to academia and rejecting the suggestion these discussions ever took place.
The Conservative political machine, meanwhile is attacking Mr. Ignatieff in new dispatches to supporters as being, surprisingly, un-Trudeau like. Pierre Trudeau, as you will recall, famously said the state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation when he sought to decriminalize homosexual acts in 1967.
The Tories, feeling the heat for their decision to dump the mandatory long-form census questionnaire normally sent to 20 per cent of Canadian households, are trying to paint Mr. Ignatieff as an intrusive nanny-statist for opposing the move. (Mr. Ignatieff and a bevy of other critics say the decision will impoverish census efforts to gather rich data on Canadians that is needed by social scientists, researchers, businesses and policymakers).
In a missive titled: "Michael Ignatieff: The State DOES Belong in the Bedrooms of the Nation," the Conservatives are attacking the Liberal Leader for backing the mandatory long-form questionnaire and its "intrusive" survey queries. (Whether you take the Tory political bait or not apparently has something to do with how secretive you feel about the bathroom count in your household.)
"And what questions do the Ignatieff Liberals want to force you to answer?" the Tories say. These include: "How many bedrooms do you have in your house? What time do you leave for work in the morning? Does the plumbing or wiring in your house need to be fixed?"
Oh, and there's a wry postscript to the unfortunate troubles that fell Mr. Ignatieff's bus this week. On Day 1 of the tour, the coach carrying the Liberal Leader and journalists broke down near Hawkesbury, Ont. The final ignominy? According to Globe parliamentary bureau chief John Ibbitson, the vehicle had to be fixed at a garage in Cornwall, Ont. named "Harper Diesel."
2. Coming clean. Even if you don't have a secret offshore account where you've stashed a tidy nest egg, isn't it nice to know things would go easier for you if you have a crisis of consciences and tell the taxman?
On the other hand, would you really trust a tax collector who tells you that?
Be that as it may, The Globe and Mail's intrepid Greg McArthur has good news for those covert investors who want to believe in a world where tax departments have a heart of gold.
