Weekend reading

*Experts slam fertility board for ignoring other voices: More fallout from the Conservatives’ decision before Christmas to quietly stack the board appointed to oversee Assisted Human Reproduction Canada with ideological loyalists and social conservatives, and apparently NO stem-cell scientists or fertility experts.

*Fly me to the moon: The Canadian Space Agency wants to participate in NASA’s mission to the moon. Given that the Harper Conservatives refused a budget-neutral request to build a Mars rover and have left the CSA leaderless for over a year, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

*Rafe’s predictions: West Coast pundit and radio talk show host Rafe Mair weighs-in with his predictions for 2007. On the federal scene:

In April, Stephane Dion will become Prime Minister of Canada, surprising all the pundits and driving the Conservatives back to their customary practice of eating their young.

Non-separatists in Quebec will support Dion. So will Ontario as long as Bob Rae stays away. B.C. will give him 15 seats. Dion’s lack of charisma will itself be charismatic as he presents himself to voters.

Prime Minister Dion will re-construct Fisheries and Oceans Canada, taking back all its power over salmon, and listening to those who fight to save our fisheries.

Jack Layton will, after the NDP takes a thumping in the April election, resign. God alone knows who might be his replacement. Can the now invisible and eerily silent Svend Robinson be the man?

*2006 in quotes: The Vancouver Sun compiles a fun list of quotes from the year that will soon have been 2006. My favourite:

"If you ask Ken Dryden the time, he'll build you a watch." Former Philadelphia Flyers' GM Bobby Clarke on his long-winded former foe.

And the lowlight, but it reminds us why he’s an asshole and should not be taken seriously by any legitimate news organization as any kind of commenter or pundit:

"I think she's a bitch. I mean it's as simple as that, and I think that 90 per cent of men would probably say she's a bitch for the way she's broken up Tie Domi's home and the way she dumped [Foreign Affairs Minister] Peter MacKay. She is a bitch." Norman Spector talking about Liberal MP Belinda Stronach on CKNW.

*Tories deny Kingsley quit over political donations row: And if you believe them I’ve got a lovely bridge for sale I’m willing to let you have cheap. Serious inquires only, please.

*Critical flaw in Senate plan: One of the Sun’s quotes was from Harper saying with the last election the West is now in. One wonders then why he is set to screw the West with his Senate “reform” plan. As this editorial in the Nanaimo News Bulletin puts it:

But there is a critical flaw in Harper’s announcement – it does nothing to solve western Canada’s long-standing displeasure with the disproportionate nature of the Senate, one of the fundamental reasons behind the call for Senate reform. The four western provinces have 24 Senate seats. Ontario and Quebec have 24 seats each.

Any elections only lend a false air of legitimacy and fairness to a body that utterly fails to represent its largest geographical constituent base – everything west of Ontario. This would reaffirm the West as being largely irrelevant to the rest of Canada.

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