Mulroney + baloney = blarney. Funny piece.

Funny? This is the most UNfunny piece I've read in a long time. Thump-you-on-the-head humour just ain't my bag, I guess.

You got to have money, lots of it. Money to throw around or to invest in airplanes for profit. Or savings in Swiss Banks to save for a fund for a son's career. Let me see how many shares does Mulroney have in CTV? or Rogers, or other media spin companies? Once you got the spin...you can fix the chin.

Great piece!! You mirrored my thoughts exactly. I thought we'd got rid of the S.O.B and there's his spawn on the TV. He's even got the smooth oily skin of the ole man and the chin!!!!!!

Funny you should mention tunagate...tonight at dinner I mentioned to my significant other that after having some tuna from cans that I thought was iffy, followed by the subsequent revelations of tunagate, I didn't think I'd had a can of tuna in 15 years. Now if only that same bad smell theory would work for the politicos...

Great start, nice build-up, then the falter at the finish line... ya shoulda smoked the dork because he's ba-a-a-ack, just like Jack. But hey, leave his spawn out of it -- he's no more banal or useless than any other media talking head.

Come on! That kid is one of the most annoyingly spoiled, stupid, self concerned little dorks I have ever had the displeasure to come upon repeatedly on the TV screen. I feel seriously sorry for some of the actually talented young people I have watched work with the little prince. I once saw him on some kind of talkish show where people were discussing George W. Bush having just blitheringly referred, in some kind of international speech context, to people from Pakistan as "Paki's." Ben completely defended him, and didn't even laugh. There may be others as banal and useless, but, given that we know where little Ben came from, and cannot separate that fact from the irritation we feel when watching him so clueless and full of himself in his Daddy bought job, his brand is particularly annoying. How did we ever allow the stupids and their offspring to have all the power in our world? We seem to have allowed the chimps to prevail. (Sorry to insult chimps.They at least don't pretend to be educated and superior to their peers). Proof of the Mulroney's economic power to make anything happen is the story of Michael Buble, their wedding singer. All Mulroney senior apparently had to do was call his Canadian pals in the U.S., David Foster and Paul Anka, and tell them to get the star maker machinery going, and the kid is now huge, while many others with a lot more talent live the starving artist life. Sad, crazy, unfair world we live in.

My sentiments exactly, jsinger. How did we allow this to happen? When we allowed the media to be corporatized all those years ago. Both Little BM and Big BM are just pitchmen for the american way. I've learned to change the channel or, when thoroughly disgusted, turn the stupid box off.

Yes I echo both of you above, jsinger and RLM. That kid, well, at first I felt sorry for him. But then my hormones balanced out again for another couple of weeks.

The youngster must be not-so-bright if he actually defended Bush. Even defenders of Bush know better than to defend Bush. God, he must be dull or something. He does that that mother, poor kid.

And jsinger, what you say about the media is so scarily accutate. I contemplate that problem alot as it is one of the aspects of a project I am currently working on. It depresses me. Both the effects of the hyper-real media AND the project. I can't even laugh at dorks anymore because I know how insidious they and their ilk are. Viral dorks.

Good article Tom. If you haven't had your fill of the chin yet, I predict he will be front and centre in the federal election trying to prop up Harper and McKay who both certainly could use a little spin to keep an audience awake. But I think BM's real work will be doing the dirty work that Harper has to try to keep a measured distance from. This guy is a master at the bloody stuff and has absolutely no shame. McKay may have proven he can lie just as well, but he he's cut from too soft a cloth to go the distance in a no-holds barred event. The only federal Liberal with as much street smarts is Crouton and I just can't see him rushing out to keep the captain of Canada Steamship Lines afloat.

Love the main piece and some of the comments but I would like to point out a few other relative points re the attempt by the Apsers and the Globe & Mail to resurrect Ly'in Brians reputation. First, to follow up on someones comment about Stevie Cameron, cut the Globe and Mail a bit of(but not much) slack. They did print a 4 edition series about the facts that had come out - that Karl Hienza Schreiber had paid Mulroney $300,000 within weeks of the old chin leaving office - but they chose to focus on Cameron herself and puffed up all this crap about her being a confidential informant, rather than, for example, digging down and seeing how many other "retainers" Mulroney had been given after he was sent packing by the electorate. The Globe series did point out that if the prosecutors who had Mulroney on the stand had only asked the question "Did you ever recieve money from Schrieber" they could have nailed him, but suriously they didn't ask that question. It was also very interesting to me that although the Globe ran a 4 day sequence, the National Post (who had the story 3 years ago but spiked it) and the Asper organs completely ignored is. Not to mention all TV and Radio stations that play out here in Vancouver, and much to my surprise and disappointment, the CBC also stayed mum on this. Seemed to me that the pit bull tactics of Mulroneys response to the Airbus dealings had put a chill on all but the Globe, but even they waffled and set up the story so it was more about Stevie Cameron than the proven facts - that Mulroney got $300k to supposedly help Scrieber set up a Pasta chain. Give me a break. But lets not think too highly of the Globe, even with their obviously slanted coverage of the Scrieber payoff, they did print the facts for anyone to consider for themselves. Look at how the Canadian media handled the Hollinger story. Although the Globe did print most of the details as they emerged - that Black and Radler etc had been raping other shareholders by selling papers to themselves, with non-compete payments no less, never mind te other queer non-coppmete ddeal they cooked up, the Globe chose to publish, shortly before dear old Connie got whacked upside the head in the Delaware courts, a quote from ( I think - I could look it up) Eddie Greenspon saying "what is an American court doing meddling in a deal between a Canadian and 2 Brits - the twins who live on their little fortress in the English Channel - their names escape me right now, but you know who I mean). I would have at least expected the Globe to point out that Mr. Black had revoked his Canadian citizenship in order to move from "Lord Almost" to become "Lord Black of Cross Harbour". Again, the Aspers and nearly all other Canadian media spiked these stories - I read 4 paper a day but all I saw Aspers rags was that the value of Blacks holdings in Hollinger had doubled as the story unfolded. They didn't make the point that the market was happy to upgrade Hollingers value if he was going to be shown the door. I mention this to those who might be interested in exploring the pattern that our highly concentrated Canadian media is following - keep the plebes in line by telling them only the points of view the owners want us to consider. But let me move on to what I think is the most corrupt aspect of Mulroney's actions and legacy. When he ran for and won the Prime Ministers office, he was uniquivocal - "there will be no free trade negoatiations with the USA under my government. Two months later he was in Vancouver to meet with forest industry big-wigs, including Peter Bently from Canfor and other COFI (Council of Forest Indutries - of Council of Fucking Idiots depending on your perspective). In the first round on the softwood countervail, Reagan had been riding high, and he and Brian had sung Irish Eyes in Quebec City. Buddy Ron had been able to get the US Commerce Department to bury the case, but now the Americans were back, with new lawyers and a much stronger and well researched case. Their positiion was very clear - if the Canadian public or their governments don't want to collect their own stumpage (fees for harvested timber that are meant to cover the cost of reproducing a new forest) we will be happy to collect it ourselves. Following the Vancouver meeting with the timber big-wigs (guys H.R Mcmilland called "fixers with a penthouse viewpoint who never having had rain in their lunchbuckets will abuse the forest and destroy the vigourous citizen business that is the key to competion and free enterprise) Mr. Mulroney did an astonishing about face - and got away with it. He announced that he had asked his buddy Ron to initiate a fast-track free trade agreement with Canada. It is important to understand that a fast-track deal means that the Administration negotiates the agreement with the foreign goevernment then submits a done deal to the US Congress and Senate. They have to accept or reject the entire package - they have no opportunity to tinker with the contents. Ron's problem ( and Brian's ) was that he was no longer a popular President - with Ollie North and Contragate blowing up in his face, poor old Ron had little influence. And the American lumber producers case was very cldear this time round. At the time I was writing the Timber Column for Equity magazine. My editor, Harvey Southam, had more that a passing interest in this issue. As the heir to the Southam empire, part of his grooming was to cover the BC Legislature for he Vancouver Sun. Harvey was also the heir to the McMillan fortune (his mother was H.R.'s daughter), and knew what was at stake and what was going on behind the scenes. He had revolted against the families control of public knowledge when Bill Bennets government, under the pen of then Forest Minister Tom Waterland, reneged on the promise to the people of BC, that given the huge amount of public input to the Pierce Royal Commision on Forest Policy, would table a bill and then allow at least 3 months of public discussion before calling for a vote on the new legislation. Instead they rammed a new Forest Act through first aqnd second reading and were going to put it up for third reading the next day. Harvey, as legislative reporter for the Sun, wrote a scathing piece on how the government had gone back on their work and instead of incorporating the wishes and hopes of those who had presented to the Pierce commision, were ramming though legislation that completely ignore that citizen feedback in favour of a a few large foriegn companies who were going to be able to consolidate their sweetheart deals into a permanent oligopsony. Harvey sent me to Washington to cover the Senate Finance Committe's vote on Reagans' request for fast track authority to negotiate a free trade deal with Canada. With my press credentials I found myself sitting in the front row of the Senate chamber. Next to me was a guy who was litterally bouncing on his chair - who I recognized to be former Liberal Cabinet Minister and now Mulroney propoent for free- trade, Donald McDonald (also known for some reason as "Thumper". He almost became the lead of my story - so assured that we (Canada) would get the go-ahead for a free trade deal, and then so deflated when the committe rendered their decision. That with all due respect, they could not authorize the President to proceed with a fast track negotiation if he insisted that the softwood lumber issue be rolled into the agreement. More specifially, that the softwood problem was an outstanding issue that was going to have to be dealt with outside of any FTA negotiations. Thumper was completely deflated and literally stagger out of the hearing room. In the corridor I had a chance for a quick interview with Clayton Yueter, the man set to undrtake the negotiations for the Administration. I asked him point blank that if Canadian's provincial and federal goverments undertook to increase stumpage to reasonable levels ( at the time Canadian companies were paying 1/10th of the fees US companies were charger for harvesting comparable timber from public lands ) would this dispute go away. Yeuter, representing REagan was pissed at the question and walked away. I came home and wrote my column, and that was the only item in any Canadian media, to my knwoledge, that ever detailed what had occurred. So now what is Mulroney to do, he had, at the request of the timber barons, reversed his election promise not to go for free trade, rolled the dice and lost the gamble. He couldn't now turn around to the Canadian public and say "I know I promised you I'd never try to negotiate a free trade agreement with the USA, but then turned 180 degrees and did just that (to try and prop up a bunch of lumbering behemoths) but am now again dead set agianst free trade". No way he could do that so he went ahead, with the whole point of the excercise dead in the delivery room but no way out. With Reagan toast, their negotiatiors had a feild day. And our government could never tell us what was going on. I had a call from Simon Riesman, the cheif negotiator for Canada in this perverted deal (also the guy who had been working for years to get a fresh water sale deal going with the US) asking me what the hell I was doing interfering with these negotiations - my take is Yueter had asked some questions - and the heat started to really come down on me. So I think I know how Stevie Cameron might feel. And warn you to keep your eyes wide open - with Weyerhauser and International Paper now lobbying for Canada to cut a deal with the US on softwood, while a window is still open ( while George Bush still has a hold of the White House ) there is a significant shift in this saga. American companies who are not benefitting from sweetheart deals with provincial governments have been complaining that those deals allow compaies doing business in Canada to ship wood into the US at prices that they cannot meet, given the US market pricing system. Watch out and stand up before our governments make the last mistake, which will be to sell of the forest lands to the forest companies and then claim that there is now a level playing field. The timber itself has far less value gthan the land below that can grow those trees, from no until at least the next ice age. And keep in mind that Mulroney got us into this mess, not for some revalation of how his reversal on free trade was for the greater good, but how he was conned by a bunch of ruthless, greedy penthouse fixers into protecting their sweetheart deals. And that it failed then, but under guys like Paul Martin and Gordon Campbell, these dinasaurs of the forests are very likely to to get their way. Cheers Griff

and let's not forget the OTHER son-of-an-icon waiting impatiently in the wings, wriggling and squirming as if needing to pee in the worst way.. Trudeau's eldest, the saccharine Justin, who is , unfortunately, more like his mother than like the old man, ever anxious for a spotlight, ever ready to try some of the drama lesson techniques, ever shallow and facile... the sad day will come when these two face off for the position of Prime Minister...and if that isn't a scarey thought you're stronger people than I am!!

I'm glad to see the general consensus is that we have too much mulroney in Canada. I've been wondering why Ben is out there so much. He doesn't seem to have any particular talent, but it seems that almost every time I turn on the tv, there he is. Is it possible that this is Brian's revenge on Canadians? And as we gradually get inured to another mulroney, are we going to hear, "guess what, Ben Mulroney is running for parliament?" I see that old Brian is appearing ever more frequently in the company of allianceconservative party members. These events can only be bad, bad omens for Canada. ps. I don't mean to defend Justin Trudeau, since I don't know much about him but, I don't recall seeing him in the media much lately. But I think I do recall AC attacking him once or twice before in these Tyee comment forums. There seems to be some kind of ongoing personal vendetta. Just curious.

Ben hasn't got an ounce of talent but that's not what it's all about anyway. Don't ya watch American Idol?

no

Me either.

its happening again, the only way to shake the baby chin is avoid CTV.