Shootout rattles tourist zone in Mazatlan, Mexico

Under control?

When authorities in Mazatlan, Mexico, heard last Saturday that armed men were holed up in an upscale house only a few meters off of Avenida Camarón Sábalo, near the Pacific resort town’s tourist zone, they sprang into action, with the city’s municipal cops attending the scene.

However, the occupants, who allegedly formed part of a car theft ring, weren’t about to leave peacefully. They opened fire on the local officers – it was about 2:30 in the afternoon – resulting in a  brief gunfight.

Paul Martin calls new Trudeau supporters “brave”

A brave young Liberal jumpin for Justin?

In a recent fundraising email from the Liberal Party of Canada, former Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin references “6,309 Liberals – including 1,619 brave first time contributors.”

Why is a first time contributor to the Liberal Party “brave”? Apparently, it requires courage to give money to support Justin Trudeau, though La politica would suggest the better term would be “reckless”.

Trudeau dodges healthcare question in Dinner With Justin

Dorothy loves Justin

It is not often that a political party gets so drunk on its own Kool-Aid that it produces a promotional video of its candidate ducking questions. Yet, as a testament of sorts to how bizarre the Justin Trudeau phenomenon has become, that is exactly what the Liberal Party of Canada has just done.

In the most recent Dinner With Justin video the winner, Dorothy, is a retired registered nurse. She says she is “passionate about healthcare”.

Cue guitar...

The Liberal Party of Canada’s frightening Borg video

Not the Liberal logo

The Liberal Party of Canada has come out with a disturbing new English-language video titled “Our Priorities for 2014.”

Hosted by Katie Telford, the Liberal’s National Campaign Co-Chair, the eight minute video claims to provide an in-depth look at the priorities that are driving the Liberal Party’s strategy for 2014. 

Telford specifically says that the Liberals have been thinking about what is required to “build for success” and to “build for a better Canada.” She mentions the importance of a great team, as well as next year’s policy platform and convention but then defers, saying “that is what we usually talk about”. (In fact, policy is the last thing Justin Trudeau talks about, but that is perhaps because he better than anyone knows the Liberal Party’s real priorities as spelled out by Telford).

Canadian Bruce Vigfusson’s year in a Mexican jail

Bruce Vigfusson

Canada’s central role in the global mining boom has meant that more Canadians are working in countries where they are at high risk of getting dragged into some serious trouble. That seems to be the case with Canadian Bruce Vigfusson, 43, who has been in jail in northern Mexico since September, 2012.

Vigfusson, who has worked as a surface driller for the Canadian firms G4 Drilling and Teck, as well as a local Mexican company, Itzcoaltl Drilling and Services, is now serving a four and a half year sentence in Mexico for assault.

“Bruce Vigfusson was already in Mexico when he started to work for us,” Robert Daigle, director of G4 Drilling Mexico, tells La politica. “He worked for us from April 27, 2011, until April 13, 2012.”

According to Mr. Daigle, after that Mr. Vigfusson went to work for Teck, where he didn’t last very long, and then to Itzcoaltl Drilling and Services.

Note to Trudeau and Freeland: China and India are not backing Canada’s middle class

Weiwei after the police assault:
The life of an artist in a "basic dictatorship" 

The Canadian Press recently reported that, as head of Reuters Digital in New York, Chrystia Freeland, who is running as the Liberal candidate in Toronto Centre, “moved the digital newsroom to New York and shipped the bulk of its work to the Bangalore operation”.

That in itself is hardly news. Many news organizations, including the Toronto Star, outsource some of their operations. However, most outsource call centres, classified, and design, while keeping editorial close to their chests. This, in fact, is what the Star does. It can then defend the action because it is able to allocate newsroom resources to its core business: journalism. And in fact the Star can argue it has been successful at this, breaking the Ornge scandal and bringing us the sordid truth about Toronto’s sordid mayor, Rob Ford.

With Chantal Hébert turning on Trudeau, odds now in favour of having hit Peak Justin

Freeland and Justin: hand-picked and parachuted

The media are often misunderstood. If they are perceived as not being objective, they are criticized as “biased”. The truth is that the media function more like a pack of jackals or, worse, vultures. They descend when they observe weakness, and fawn when they believe they are in the presence of success, confidence, and power.

Which is to say that the media do not behave like individuals, but like craven pack animals. Though they can have ideological slants, which can hasten or delay their arrival at a “story”, once a belly is revealed they will turn and dine on the carcass.