Angry in the Great White North
Warren Kinsella pulling our collective leg (and sending a message) [Updated]
Thursday, March 16, 2006 at 08:42 AM

Read other posts by Steve Janke published by the National Post
Leader

Warren Kinsella as prime minister?

Since 1990, one true Liberal has stood above the rest. He has fought for the real values of the Party. He served under Jean Chretien, and as special assistant helped deliver huge political wins again and again for Canada's most popular Prime Minister ever.

One true Liberal stood up to Paul Martin and the business Liberals. During the 2004 and 2006 campaigns he used the internet to bring down "L'Equipe Martin Team."

And now, this ass kicking Liberal who testifies to the true meaning of Liberal Party is helping to rebuild the Party he loves. Now that he has defeated the evil "Board" that has mangled the inner workings of LPC, he is taking it upon himself to shape the bright future of the Party he loves.

This gushing piece appears on the blog confidently, if prematurely, called "PrimeMinisterKinsella" at Blogspot. It refers to Warren Kinsella, who has repeatedly said he is not interested in running, or helping a potential candidate.

He is busy helping the Ontario Liberal Party right now, as well as raising his family, and pursuing his legal and writing work.

Kinsella is the obvious choice for Canada's next great Liberal Prime Minister. A well experienced Party man, he has shown his unwillingness to compromise his true beliefs during his period of exile from the Party.

Maybe. Certainly he is a man of his convictions. I like him personally. The Liberal Party could do worse. It probably will, judging from the current crop of potential candidates.

Then the blog seems to take a different direction, and I'm not sure which direction it's going. Is it seriously disconnected from reality, or is it cleverly sending a message that Kinsella is not leadership material?

If I knew who was behind the blog, I'd know if the person was clever enough to pull it off. I suspect in fact the person is smart enough to do just that.

But first some examples:

Kinsella's criticism of Harper has been severe. During the campaign, he called Mr. Harper "Too sexy." With such criticism, I am surprised that Mr. Harper even managed to keep his seat in Calgary.

The "sexy" comment came from a December 10 posting:

I cannot believe I actually said Stephen Harper's haircut is "too sexy." Mary Vallis at the Post, who is doing a weekly campaign panel sort of thing, regularly gets me to say things I will live to regret. Ipso facto, she is an excellent journalist.

Too sexy. Sheesh.

Hardly crushing criticism. Actually one of those endearing posts that makes me come back often to read Kinsella's blog -- he knows how to poke fun at himself.

The next part of the post tells me the person behind this is playing a big joke on us all:

To further help the strength of the Party, Kinsella has supported other strong progressive candidates who are considering leadership bids. He helped Mr. Brison, for instance, by posting private blackberry messages that exonerate Mr. Brison from any wrongdoing in the I.T. story.

OK, here is what Kinsella said to help Brison:

What does the below exchange mean, captured this morning on front page of the National Post? It means someone's done like dinner, I think. (Hell, CTV's David Akin is reporting the email may have been sent from a cabinet meeting.). And this IT thing is just getting started, remember: that's why I have taken the position, since January 23, that this government's lifespan is measured in years, not months:

[emails from Brison]

Helping Brison? He follows up with an example of how Kinsella has forgiven David Herle, Paul Martin's right-hand man, which of course is an example of quite the opposite.

To me this is clearly Kinsella. I think he's sending a message to all the potential Kinsella recruiters that they are not paying attention if they think Kinsella is about to help Brison or David Herle or any of the former Martinites continue to hold power. If the Liberal Party picks another Martinite as leader, they can forget about Kinsella's help.

Moreover, he's playing a big joke on those people who will read this piece (very well written, by the way -- another Kinsella trademark) without actually checking the facts, and who will then jump on the faux bandwagon.

In fact, I expect Kinsella will post a gotcha follow-up, with the best of the "recruit Kinsella" emails he'll be getting:

Please send your letters of encouragement and support to [email address deleted]. The time has come to get Stephen Harper's strongest opponent into the right position. The tims [sic] has come to get a true Liberal who is supporting our Party during our period of transition into the right position. The time has come to get someone fair and just and respected by all into the right position. The time has come to elect a real leader who can see beyond personalities and work towards the strong progressive Canada the Liberal Party envisions.

This last paragaph is the important one. If you read this and you're paying attention, you'll realize that if it is "tims [sic] has come to get a true Liberal who is supporting our Party during our period of transition into the right position", then you need to find true Liberals, who are not going to be found in the Martin camp. He says that the "time has come to elect a real leader who can see beyond personalities". A message to look beyond the caucus itself?

I think Kinsella is having one over on us, but at the same time sending a carefully constructed message.

If that's true, good one, Warren! But maybe a bit too subtle for most people.

Update:

It appears that it isn't Kinsella:

March 16, 2006 - Funny. Glad to see some members of the Board are making creative use of their severance period, as well.

Still, I can't help but think that the message I described is in that post. Otherwise, the person who wrote it completely misunderstood just about everything Kinsella said about Brison and so forth. Or possibly something else -- the person who wrote it does not expect people to check the details and figures that he can get away with what seems to be an endorsement by Warren Kinsella for the current membership of the Liberal Party.

Main Story

Search for more opinions from Canadian bloggers on these related keywords