THE CONSERVATIVE HIPSTERS

Don't believe me?

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

An I'm sorry, but THIS is friggin' hilarious.

Trying to have fun here. Below, I have posted the American Film Institute's Top 100 mvie quotes of all time. I have erased the film from which the quote was taken from.

What I'd like from CH readers is for you to assign any of the quotes to a politician OR a celebrity (put politician is better). For example:

"I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse"--Belinda Stronach.

I'm looking for creativity, originality and obviously, wit. Post your sumbissions in my comments section. You CAN substitute something minor (a name, or a gender), but the quote needs to stay in its original form as much as possible.

The winner will get a 1-year subscription to CH and (of more value) my undying respect and admiration. Go to it!

1. "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"
2. "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse"
3. "You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am"
4. "Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore"
5. "Here's looking at you, kid"
6. "Go ahead, make my day"
7. "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up"
8. "May the Force be with you"
9. "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night"
10. "You talking to me?"
11. "What we've got here is failure to communicate"
12. "I love the smell of napalm in the morning"
13. "Love means never having to say you're sorry"
14. "The stuff that dreams are made of"
15. "E.T. phone home"
16. "They call me Mister Tibbs!"
17. "Rosebud,"
18. "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!"
19. "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
20. "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,"
21. "A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti"
22. "Bond. James Bond"
23. "There's no place like home"
24. "I am big! It's the pictures that got small"
25. "Show me the money!"
26. "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?"
27. "I'm walking here! I'm walking here!"
28. "Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By"
29. "You can't handle the truth!"
30. "I want to be alone"
31. "After all, tomorrow is another day!"
32. "Round up the usual suspects"
33. "I'll have what she's having"
34. "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow"
35. "You're gonna need a bigger boat"
36. "Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"
37. "I'll be back"
38. "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth"
39. "If you build it, he will come"
40. "Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get"
41. "We rob banks"
42. "Plastics"
43. "We'll always have Paris"
44. "I see dead people"
45. "Stella! Hey, Stella!"
46. "Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars"
47. "Shane. Shane. Come back!"
48. "Well, nobody's perfect"
49. "It's alive! It's alive!"
50. "Houston, we have a problem"
51. "You've got to ask yourself one question: `Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"
52. "You had me at `hello,"'
53. "One morning I shot an elephant in my pyjamas. How he got in my pyjamas, I don't know"
54. "There's no crying in baseball!"
55. "La-dee-da, la-dee-da"
56. "A boy's best friend is his mother"
57. "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good"
58. "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer"
59. "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again"
60. "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!"
61. "Say `hello' to my little friend!"
62. "What a dump"
63. "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?"
64. "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"
65. "Elementary, my dear Watson"
66. "Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape"
67. "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine"
68. "Here's Johnny!"
69. "They're here!"
70. "Is it safe?"
71. "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet!"
72. "No wire hangers, ever!"
73. "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?"
74. "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown"
75. "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers"
76. "Hasta la vista, baby"
77. "Soylent Green is people!"
78. "Open the pod bay doors, HAL"
79. Striker: "Surely you can't be serious." Rumack: "I am serious ... and don't call me Shirley"
80. "Yo, Adrian!"
81. "Hello, gorgeous"
82. "Toga! Toga!"
83. "Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make"
84. "Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast"
85. "My precious"
86. "Attica! Attica!"
87. "Sawyer, you're going out a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!"
88. "Listen to me, mister. You're my knight in shining armour. Don't you forget it. You're going to get back on that horse, and I'm going to be right behind you, holding on tight, and away we're gonna go, go, go!"
89. "Tell 'em to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper"
90. "A martini. Shaken, not stirred"
91. "Who's on first"
92. "Cinderella story. Outta nowhere. A former greenskeeper, now, about to become the Masters champion. It looks like a mirac ... It's in the hole! It's in the hole! It's in the hole!"
93. "Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!"
94. "I feel the need — the need for speed!"
95. "Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary"
96. "Snap out of it!"
97. "My mother thanks you. My father thanks you. My sister thanks you. And I thank you"
98. "Nobody puts Baby in a corner"
99. "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!"
100. "I'm king of the world!"

Sorry about that.... weak bladder.

Has anyone been following this creepy Cruise/Holmes set-up romance? I'm sure you've heard about it, but it seems there are more angles to the story.

What about this?

And this is interesting. At least there's no sex. We wouldn't want to make it uncomfortable for Tom--you know homey don't play that!

I gotta tell you, this takes PR to a whole new level. How long is it going to be before celebs are just going to have riders in their movie contracts:

"Through the execution of the contract, Mr. Pitt is hereby entitled to a minimum of one (1) publicity marriage with an individual to be named by both parties, to be funded entirely by Paramount Pictures Investment Group Inc. for a period of three (3) years commencing at the end of production, or April 2006, whichever earlier"

Or something to that effect.

Just checked out Stephen Taylor's web interview with our 2nd youngest MP, Andrew Scheer.

And who is Mr. Scheer's favorite blog?

Why, CH of course!

Thanks for the shout out!

...over at A Chick Named Marzi.

... by Ontario PC Leader John Tory's quote in the Toronto Star on Saturday about the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision on health care reform?

"I think that while we'll have the discussion, because we're having a discussion about lots of things inside the party, if you ask me my prediction, I will say there will be lots of ways in which our health-care policy will attempt to challenge the status quo, but I'm not sure it'll be heading off in that direction (two tiers). I'm pretty certain it won't. Again, we have a process that's got a year yet to unfold. We're listening to all kinds of people, but I don't think we're heading there."

Obviously, as the Leader (and more importantly as a member of the Party), Mr. Tory is entitled to his views and should obviously espouse where he thinks the Party should go.

But on an issue of fundamental importance, such as health care, I'm suprised (and somewhat concerned) that he's effectively ruling out an option--before its even debated by Party members!

This "option" that Mr. Tory is referring to has the support of 70% of the electorate in Canada. I think the public is ahead of the political leadership in this country. This could be a way to capture that sentiment and be an agent of (positive) change. And Tory is not someone that the FIBs will easily be able to paint as a foaming, right wing zealot. Who better to lead that charge?

I truly hope this is not a sign of things to come.

At least Jim Carrey admits he's a fool

As a public service, I wanted to print--in its entirety--the 50 broken promises of the McGuinty government--so far. These 50 (that's one every 12 days) appeared in Toronto Sun columnist Christina Blizzard's piece yesterday. I've left her commentary in. This is from a press release the Progressive Conservatives did on Friday.

Feel free to reproduce and distribute this list as you see fit. In fact, I encourage all of you to remind Ontarians how little the FIBs in this province value their word.

1. "I won't raise your taxes."
Who would ever forget this key pledge in the Oct. 2003 vote? McGuinty said he could deliver on all his pledges with no new tax hikes. In June 2004, Finance Minister Greg Sorbara delivered the biggest tax hike in the province's history -- a whopping $2.4 billion so-called "health levy."

2 and 3 (2) Balance the budget every year (election platform).
This morphed into balance the budget by 2007 in the 2004 budget. This year's budget predicted the books would be balanced by 2009 -- depending on the contingency fund.

4. Roll back tolls on the Hwy 407.
Right now, the Libs are hung up in court trying to renegotiate the deal. Meanwhile 407 tolls have gone up -- and the likelihood of the government winning this case is zero.

5. Fund medically necessary healthcare services
They delisted eye exams, physiotherapy and chiropractic.

6. Not add to the province's debt.
The debt is going up $75 a second. By 2007, the Libs will have added $15 billion.

7. Stop building 6,600 homes on the Oak Ridges Moraine.
An abysmal failure -- 6,000 are going ahead.

8. Abide by the balanced budget law.
They broke this in their first budget.

9. Cap hydro rates at 4.3 cents a kilowatt hour until 2006.
Check your bills. The second real piece of legislation -- introduced a month after taking office -- was a bill to hike hydro rates.

10. Respect MPPs and democracy.
Opposition amendments are rarely accepted. If you saw MPPs fleeing the House for the same sex vote, you'd know it's business as usual.

11. Allow non-cabinet MPPs to vote against government legislation.
I can only recall one vote where that's happened.

12. Provide autism treatment beyond age 6.
A cynical pledge and a complete betrayal of these most vulnerable families.

13. Reduce auto insurance rates by 10% within 90 days.
It took a lot longer than three months to see any reduction in their rates -- and most people are still waiting.

14. Reduce private consultants.
So far, they've hired former Liberal MP Elinor Caplan, former Toronto Mayor Barbara Hall, long-time Jean Chretien loyalists John Manley and Peter Donolo. Need I go on?

15. Cancel P-3 hospitals in Brampton and Ottawa.
They've simply changed the deals from mortgages to leases. And the recent infrastructure announcement said more private public deals are on the way.

16. Public inquiry into meat inspection.
They conducted an "internal review."

17. Withdraw government appeal on Richmond landfill.
A controversial issue in Environment Minister Leona Dombrowsky's Hastings-Frontenac-Lennox Addington riding. It's still not done.

18. Make Ontario's chief medical officer an independent officer of the legislature.
They fired Dr. Colin D'Cunha, then appointed Dr. Sheela Basrur -- then they passed the bill.

19. Govern with honesty and integrity
Well, you decide.

20. We will ensure that all developers play by the rules.
Cabinet ministers, including McGuinty, attended a $10,000 a pop private fundraising dinner with developers.

21. Better mental health care.
They closed three regional centres for the developmentally handicapped.

22. Value and support the public service.
Ask D'Cunha about that.

23. Divert 60% of municipal garbage to recycling by 2005.
We're actually trucking more trash to Michigan. Meanwhile, McGuinty's pondering taking the Americans to court over pollution?

24. Close private MRI and CT clinics.
Some haven't closed. Others are changed to not-for-profit.

25. Stop school closings.
In its 2005 report on school closings, the activist group People For Education estimates 14,000 students are in schools that will close in the next two years. Schools are closing at double the rate they did 10 years ago.

26. Provide adequate, multi-year funding for hospitals.
It was almost the end of the last fiscal year before hospitals knew what their budget would be.

27. Hire more than 1,000 teachers a year.
So far, under their plan to cap class size, they have hired about 1,200 total. They need to hire 4,000 over the mandate and they're nowhere close.

28. Hire 1,000 new police officers.
Funding was announced recently for 1,000 -- but the province provided funding for barely half of that. Municipalities must pick up at least half the cost for each officer.

29. Close the province's coal-fired plants by 2007.
Libs announced this week that the massive Nanticoke plant on Lake Erie -- the biggest polluter in the province -- will not close until 2009.

30. Hire 100 new parole and probation officers.
None sighted.

31. Double the number of apprentices.
There were 19,000 in 2003. The 2004 budget said by 2007, they'd get to 26,000 -- 12,000 short of their goal.

32. Create tens of thousands of new childcare spaces.
Only new money is from feds. Few spaces actually opened.

33. End the clawback of the federal child tax credit.
Still waiting.

34. Build 20,000 new affordable housing units.
So far, only 2,300 in the 2004 budget speech.

35. Spend "every penny" of new health tax on healthcare.
According to 2004 budget, some is going to sewers, water treatment plants and tourism.

36. Cut ministers' pay for running a deficit.
While Libs say they took a cut, government estimates don't show the necessary $9,000 reduction in ministers' pay.

37. Eliminate barriers to foreign-trained professionals within one year.
Still waiting.

38. Require trades professions to accept qualified immigrants within one year.
Still waiting.

39. Repeal Tenant Protection Act within one year.
Still waiting for rent controls. Why? Because it's a dumb idea.

40. Establish a standing committee on education to hold yearly hearings.
No such committee exists.

41. Liberal promises would cost $5.9 billion.
Ministerial documents show their platform was costed at $11 bilion. They'v already raised taxes by $7 billion.

42. Provide legal rights to victims of crime.
They closed the victims of crime office.

43. Hire 8,000 nurses by the end of 2007.
In January, the Grits announced they were cutting 757 nurses. Now they're rehiring, but are nowhere near that pledge.

44. Make the Ministry of Agriculture a lead ministry.
Can you name the Ag minister? Farmers have marched on Queen's Park because they feel betrayed.

45. Invest in rural roads and bridges.
All the money in their infrastructure announcement went to 400 series highways. The gas tax goes only to cities.

46. Support the province's cities.
They cut $47 million from funding to municipalities. Mayor David Miller claims there's a $1.1 billion fiscal gap in what the province gives to the city.

47. Make sure health dollars are spent wisely.
The goverment is spending $170 million to close district health councils and replace them with a new bureaucracy -- the Local Health Networks.

48. Stop the waste of taxpayers' dollars.
Where to start? You choose.

49. Guarantee stable, long-term funding for rural communities.
In fact, rural communities have been cut most.

50. We will make sure Ontario stays at the forefront of world innovation in agricultural research and that this research works to help Ontario farmers.
The 2005-06 estimates show that the Agriculture, Research and Technology Transfer Program has been cut by $30 million since 2003-04.

Wow.

Yesterday, people were enthrawled with an MP's stab at playing spy, now apparently all hell is breaking loose.

I have read a number of loooooooooooong scribes on the recent Supreme Court ruling, and I have a number of observations, vaccum sealed for freshness and delivered in easy-to-scan points:

• Where the H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks is Stephen Harper?
• If PM Dithers' early reaction of "yeah, whatever--this doesn't mean anything" is a sign of things to come, he's in deep trouble.
• If FIB Premo Dalton McGuinty's early reaction of "yeah, whatever--this doesn't mean anything" is a sign of things to come, he's in deep trouble.
• If Ontario Oppo leader John Tory's early reaction of "Hmm.... this might just mean something" is a sign of things to come, he's in deep trouble.
• Why is Mike Harris the only Conservative coming out swinging?
• Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?
• Apparently, judicial activism is only bad when the ruling isn't in your favour.
• I wonder what shops like the Frasier Insititute will have to say about judicial activism now?
• Is this decision really counter to Canadian values, considering 50% of Canadians support the idea of a parallel private health system?
• Am I the only one that sees a great (albeit risky) opportunity for the Conservatives?
• Can Harper now change the channel and talk about something Canadians care about, or will it still be "All Grewal, All the Time"?

They called it fear mongering.

They said that the claims were unfounded.

They told religious organizations not to worry.

When the architect of a same sex bill tells you that you were right all along, you know you're in trouble.

Why are we moving at breakneck speed to open up this Pandora's Box?

Are we seeing the beginning of the end of public health care?

I was going to write about the fact that no one seems to be covering this important issue that's making its way through a Supreme Court hearing, but we'll see what happens now.

From CBC:

"The Supreme Court of Canada ruled Thursday that the Quebec government cannot prevent people from paying for private insurance for health-care procedures covered under medicare."

If you don't understand what this means to Canada, you should read it again. The Supreme Court was hearing the case of George Zeliotis, whose lawyer was arguing that the 1-year delay for a hip replacement violates his guaranteed rights of "life liberty and security".

Now, the Court split on whether the Charter of Rights and Freedoms were violated, which means there is no immediate national impact, but medical stakeholders are not so sure:

"Sharon Sholzberg-Gray, president of the Canadian Healthcare Association., said although the decision applies to the Quebec act, it's clearly "a clone of all the other provincial acts, and they're all clones of the Canada Health Act."

This ruling essentially paves the way for Canadians to sue insurance to pay for medical services as a result of delays.

It will be fascinating to see how the federal government, legal experts, provincial governments, the media and of course, the public respond to this new development.

I think the public will welcome this new ruling, but that remains to be seen.

More to come.....

UPDATE: The Canadian Medical Association has issued a release calling the decison a "historic ruling that could substantially changes the very foundations of medicare as we know it today."