When Con­ser­v­a­tives un­der Stephen Harper took of­fice in 2006, I was dis­ap­pointed at how much they re­sem­bled their pre­de­ces­sors when it came to their pen­chant for in­creas­ing the size of gov­ern­ment.

More: Russ Campbell’s Blog: Fiscal Conservatism Seems Alive and Well in Ottawa: 8,900 Public Service Jobs to Be Cut

Justin Trudeau has talked him­self into a defama­tion law­suit that is likely to leave his party quite a bit lighter in the wal­let. The shoot-from-the-lip Lib­eral leader and his On­tario cam­paign co-chair David Mac­Naughton are named in a $1.5-mil­lion li­bel suit filed on be­half of Chris­tine Innes, a can­di­date who was barred from run­ning for the Lib­eral party.

Innes had wanted to con­test the Lib­eral nom­i­na­tion for the pend­ing by-elec­tion in Trin­ity-Spad­ina, the seat va­cated when New De­mo­c­rat MP Olivia Chow re­signed to run for mayor of Toronto. Trin­ity-Spad­ina and Toronto Cen­tre rid­ings will cease to ex­ist in 2015 when re­dis­tri­b­u­tion comes into ef­fect. As a re­sult, three new Toronto rid­ings will be cre­ated from the two cur­rent ones.

More: Russ Campbell’s Blog: Will Trudeau’s Party Pay for His Ill-Chosen Words?

Youtube Video

One could view Rosendale’s ad as just part of a larger trend of political candidates, seemingly all Republican, releasing ads in which they literally use a gun to make a political point. But it’s almost certainly the first camapign [sic] ad to literally target a drone. - Yahoo News, 04-15-2014

Because in the land of the upstanding white rural militia and tinfoil hats, teh drones be spying on you. //

Back in 2012, the BLM announced using drones to fly over sparsely populated areas in Idaho.

Some people have expressed concern about eyes in the sky keeping a close watch on American homes. Congressional representatives have even brought forward bills to outlaw drone use without a warrant. But the BLM said its plan to put flying drones in Idaho skies won’t run afoul of privacy issues.

“We’re only flying over BLM-managed land,” said Brady. “We’re not flying over private land or state land or any other ownership other than BLM property.”

But we all know how evil the BLM is. Just ask Cliven Bundy. It may have been drones (caution: wingnut link) that documented more than 900 cattle grazing for free on public land designated to graze only 150.

Pres­i­dent Theodore Roo­sevelt fa­mously said: “speak softly, and carry a big stick.” His idea was to ne­go­ti­ate peace­fully, but with the ever-pre­sent threat of the “big stick,” mil­i­tary ac­tion. Per­haps in this proverb lies is a valu­able les­son for lead­ers of the West­ern democ­ra­cies, and es­pe­cially for Pres­i­dent Obama.

On the week­end, well co­or­di­nated and armed mil­i­tants at­tacked gov­ern­ment build­ings in six cities in east­ern Ukraine. Echo­ing the Russ­ian takeover of Crimea last month, many at­tack­ers re­port­edly car­ried Russ­ian-ori­gin weapons and were out­fit­ted in bul­let­proof vests and cam­ou­flage uni­forms with in­signia re­moved.

More: Russ Campbell’s Blog: Military Threat Is Essential to Effective Diplomacy

This is the sec­ond time in less than a month I’ve writ­ten about The Ho­n­ourable Jim Fla­herty. Back on March 19, I wrote about his then re­cent res­ig­na­tion as Canada’s fi­nance min­is­ter, a post he had held since he was elected to the fed­eral rid­ing of Whitby-Os­hawa in 2006. It is so hard to be­lieve that, less than a month later, I would be writ­ing about his death.

Any­one who reads this blog reg­u­larly knows that I was not al­ways a fan of Jim Fla­herty’s poli­cies. I have never doubted, how­ever, his ded­i­cated ser­vice, his de­vo­tion and his com­mit­ment to Canada, or that he was do­ing what he be­lieved was best for our coun­try.

More: Russ Campbell’s Blog: Jim Flaherty

The sneaky Dip­pers are ap­par­ently, once again, try­ing to put one over on us. Read­ers may re­mem­ber that, fol­low­ing Jack Lay­ton’s death, the New De­moc­rats dreamed up a scheme to is­sue po­lit­i­cal tax re­ceipts for do­na­tions in­tended for the Broad­bent In­sti­tute. This time, they’re us­ing tax­payer money to fund staff in “satel­lite” of­fices in Que­bec and Saskatchewan.

For both schemes, NDP spokesper­sons pub­licly as­sured Cana­di­ans they had cleared their plans in ad­vance. And both times their clever plans were shut down once they came un­der pub­lic scrutiny.

Af­ter for­mer NDP leader Jack Lay­ton died in 2011, his fam­ily asked that, in lieu of flow­ers, do­na­tions be made to the Broad­bent In­sti­tute, a left-wing think tank named af­ter for­mer NDP leader Ed Broad­bent. Since the Broad­bent In­sti­tute lacked tax-sta­tus as a char­ity, how­ever, the do­na­tions went through the NDP and were later to be trans­ferred to the think tank.

More: Russ Campbell’s Blog: Dippers at It Again?

Lets also get rid of the minimum wage and mandatory lunch breaks as well. Workers have the right to starve to death.

Wikimedia Commons

Wisconites tired of relaxing on weekends and staying home on federal holidays are in luck: On Thursday, GOP state Sen. Glenn Grothman announced his challenge to 18*-term moderate Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.). In a conservative district that went to Mitt Romney by seven points in 2012, Grothman hopes to channel dissatisfaction with Republicans in Congress whom he believes haven’t done enough to slow down the Obama administration’s policy agenda. But he comes with some baggage of his own.

In January, Grothman introduced legislation to eliminate a state requirement that workers get at least one day off per week. “Right now in Wisconsin, you’re not supposed to work seven days in a row, which is a little ridiculous because all sorts of people want to work seven days a week,” he told the Huffington Post. Eliminating days off is a long-running campaign from Grothman. Three years earlier, he argued that public employees should have to work on Martin Luther King Day.

Read more at Political Mojo

The gen­eral elec­tion in Que­bec seems to be slip­ping away from the Parti Québécois, which had en­tered the con­test in first place and was hop­ing for—per­haps count­ing on—a ma­jor­ity vic­tory on Apr. 7, 2014.

More: Russ Campbell’s Blog: Has the PQ Lost Its Chance for a Win on Apr. 7?

Youtube Video

I’ve seen some surreal moments in our nation’s capitol, but few can compare to watching Republican members of Congress lecture John Holdren last week on the meaning of “science.” Here are some highlights.

Holdren, the president’s science advisor, was the lone witness at a hearing held by the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology to review the White House’s fiscal year 2015 budget request for science agencies.

You can watch the two-hour video here —or better yet, don’t. We’ve watched it for you. Plus, you don’t want to be more embarrassed than you already are about a science committee that includes a congressman who describes evolution as a “lie from the pit of Hell” and another who claims that climate change is a liberal plot to “create global government to control our lives.”

Read more at Io9