Fight Ovarian Cancer - Support A Real Live Hero

Everyone has a hero. Some people of have list of heroes. For the past 2 years, Lise Jolicoeur has topped my list of heroes. She's the real deal. She's a survivor and a fighter. She's asking for our help. And, our help she deserves.

With permission from Lise, I am posting her most recent email to help fight ovarian cancer. Please help support this cause and help support a real live hero.

HELP - need you on the front line - A l'aide!


Hello everyone!

As you already know, I join the Winners walk of Hope for ovarian cancer every year. Well, that is, since I was diagnosed and, by default, made awared of the fatal disease.

Please donate via this link or by sending a check (to the order of Ovarian Cancer Canada) to 1608-25 Carlton Street, Toronto, Ontario M5B 1L4.

Please also feel free to pass this message along to friends, family and colleagues.

Times are tough economically. Unfortunately, ovarian cancer doesn’t give respite for those 2,500 Canadian women who have and will be diagnosed this year. It also won’t stop from killing 1,700 women this year. That's 70% of women diagnosed!!!

I have been disease-free since April 2007 (knock on wood!). I consider myself lucky to be alive today given ovarian cancer is the most serious of all gynecological cancers. My dear friends Wenda McKenzie and Susan Van Iterson and Wendy McBride who fought along my side have all passed away. My good friend Kristina Pliskevicius, a young woman diagnosed at the age of 25, has just finished fighting a recurrence. It is my duty to help her and every woman diagnosed in any way that I can so they can overcome this disease.

Ovarian cancer doesn’t discriminate against age, race, socio-economic status – any woman could be Kristina. It could be someone you currently love or will love in the future – your grandmother, your mother, your sister, your daughter, your grand-daughter, your future great grand-daughter, a colleague, a friend, it could be anyone.

It's not ALL doom and gloom - there is hope! Ovarian Cancer Canada is a remarkable charitable organization and the only national charity that is dedicated to overcoming ovarian cancer. The organization supports women and their families, creates awareness and educates the public on the signs and symptom, and funds medical research.

That's why on September 13th, the Winners Walk of Hope is held in 14 cities across Canada and I hope you can either donate or join me in the walk. This year I will be walking in Winnipeg - where I grew up. If there isn’t a walk location in your area, you can become a virtual walker by fundraising online and being recognized in the walk location nearest you. You can register at www.winnerswalkofhope.ca

Last year, with unanimous support, the House of Commons declared September as Ovarian Cancer awareness month. Let’s keep the momentum and continue to raise awareness about this disease!

Thank you!

Lise Jolicoeur

Teddy Kennedy, You Will be Missed

It's no small secret that I have a great deal of time for the Kennedy clan. A year ago to the date of his death he gave what I would call his best speech ever. America has lost it's voice of reason in the Senate.

The Devil's

Compliments of Ask.com. It's Deep. It's Dark. It's Devil's Food Cake


Cook Time: 30 minutes


Ingredients:


3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups milk, scalded
2 cups cake flour, sifted or stirred before measuring
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening
3 eggs
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract


Preparation:

Grease two 9-inch layer cake pans and line bottoms with wax paper. Grease wax paper. Sift the cocoa with 1/3 cup sugar; pour into the milk gradually; stir until well blended. Set aside to cool. Sift together flour, remaining 1 cup sugar, soda, and salt. Add shortening and half of the cooled cocoa and milk mixture. Beat at medium speed of an electric hand-held mixer. Add eggs, vanilla, and remaining cocoa and milk mixture. continue beating for about 2 minutes, scraping bowl with a spatula occasionally. Pour into prepared pans. Bake at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes; turn out on racks and peel off paper. Cool and frost devil's food cake as desired

Deep Dish

It's time to share some recipes.

Deep Dish Pizza

(compliments of that's my home)



Dough:

2 C. warm water (110° - 115°)

5 t. yeast

1 T. sugar

1/3 C. oil

2 t. salt

3 T. semolina flour

1 C. all purpose flour

5 to 6 C. bread flour

Add 1/4 C. of the water to the yeast and sugar. Let set 5 minutes; the yeast should start to bubble.

Add flours, salt, oil and yeast mixture to a large bowl and mix well. Place dough onto a floured board and knead until the dough is smooth and satiny. (about 10 minutes) Let rise until doubled in a covered, greased bowl.

Sauce:

2 T. garlic

2 T. olive oil

1 28 oz. can plum tomatoes

3 T. tomato paste

1/2 C. onion minced

1 1/2 t. basil

1 t. oregano

1/2 t. salt

1 t. sugar

2 t. red wine (optional)

Saute garlic in oil to soften. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pan and and simmer until sauce thickens. (about 20 minutes)

Filling:

1 lb. Italian Sausage

1/2 lb. mushrooms

12 oz. pepperoni

1/2 C. sliced green peppers

1/2 C. sliced thin onion

1 1/2 lbs. mozzarella cheese

1/3 C. parmesan cheese freshly grated

3 t. cornmeal

Assembly:

Lightly oil a 12 inch deep dish pizza pan with oil. Sprinkle lightly with cornmeal.

Deflate dough and roll out 2/3 of it into a 16 inch large circle. Place in dish letting it overhang the edges. Spoon in 1/2 of sauce. Add the Italian sausage, mushrooms, green peppers and onions. Top with half of the cheese.

Roll out remaining dough and place on top of the filling. Crimp edges together, including the overlapped crust.

Bake 25 minutes at 400°F. Add remaining sauce and cheeses to the top of the pizza. Cook another 10 minutes until golden and sizzling. Let set 10 minutes before cutting.

Are Tim Hudak and the Toronto Star Losing Their Minds?

...And, again, who are these anonymous Liberals?

This article by Robert Benzie of The Star is fiction at its best. I don't care how many gay, Jewish journalists are running for the Conservatives, they just can't make up 10,000 votes overnight.

2007 Election Results

Bryant 21,280

Goldstein 11,910

Heller 7,061

D'Sousa 3,744


Now.....back to the real world.

Bye Bye Chalk River...We Hardly Knew Ya

Seems some people believe the reactor at Chalk River may never reopen. And what does the Minister of Natural Disasters, Lisa Raitt have to say about it? Nada!

Memories of 2006...

No. Not a new dipping sauce from President's Choice, but rather, the fairy tale.

There once was this leadership campaign way back in 2006. It had bravado. It had the best talent in the country. It could raise money in a single email drop. It had ideas. It couldn't lose.

Then, during the summer months, the candidate disappeared. The media became annoyed -irritated even - that this candidate would just void himself from the playing field amidst world crisis and such. MANY a good blogger tried to keep the momentum up. But they weren't the MSM. The candidate's team sent mixed messages daily to the MSM. There was no real messaging. The candidate was rather silent.

THEN BOOM!!! Outta nowhere, in the fall, comes the campaign relaunch! THE NATION version. All wrapped up in a cosy little novel-like red book. A party was held in downtown Toronto to much fanfare and media coverage. Shortly afterward, at a cosy get together at HY's sounds of "we won", "we won", "it's in the bag" could be heard over some fairly expensive wine and scotch.

In the end though, we all remember the screams of despair on that winter day in Montreal December '06. Heard over breakfast the next day: "how is it possible?", "what went wrong?", "this is like a bad dream".

Fast forward to 2009. Same players. Same strategy. We'll release our platform (maybe) in September. We'll have some ideas then. As though to say "history has no bearing on the future", and, "we got this one covered". The similarities are quite shocking to those studying the game really closely.

But even when Liberal friendly journalists are pointing out the obvious, will anyone in Ottawa be savvy enough to listen?

I leave you with Adam Radwanski. Somebody should REALLY LISTEN to his message.

"Then you make the mistake of thinking that your average voter - who doesn't have the same vested interest, and isn't immersed in the government's day-to-day foibles - feels the same way."

Is it the Same Advisor that Dion had from Quebec Perhaps?

Seems to me this story has been told before. Different leader. Same result. Anonymous gutter sniping from "Senior Liberals, Sources close to the leader, Liberal Advisors, Liberal Insiders, etc. etc. etc"

I agree, going to an election on a 9 week EI reform is not a winner. Never will be. Hardworking Canadians just don't want to hear about it. Sorry, that's the way it is.

The Green Shift wasn't a winner. This EI thing ain't a winner. But, what's really not a winner is when they start comparing you to Dion.


Ignatieff earns same rating as Dion pre-election
Advisers fear Liberal Leader hasn't offer voters sense of who he is, how he diverges from Harper

Campbell Clark

Ottawa — From Wednesday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 09:56PM EDT

Look where Michael Ignatieff is now – right where Stéphane Dion was just over a year ago.

Two points behind the Tories in the polls, perhaps just a few months from an election, and so far unable to convert the groups of potential supporters – young, female, and urban – that Liberals typically need to win.

Mr. Dion's election debacle was followed by a further slide in the polls, to 24 per cent.

Mr. Ignatieff, as the new opposition leader, took the Liberals up to 35 per cent in May, and has drifted slightly down since.

His party now trails Stephen Harper's Conservatives by two percentage points, 32 to 34, according to a Strategic Counsel poll published in The Globe and Mail Tuesday .

But in June, 2008, the same pollster found Mr. Dion only two points behind .

That was before his Green Shift policy and a weak performance, exploited by Conservative ads, led 800,000 Liberal supporters to stay at home on voting day.

Mr. Ignatieff has returned the party's traditional core support levels – and revived it in Quebec – but the Strategic Counsel poll found they have lost the traditional edge among women, younger voters, and Canadians who live in cities and large towns, crucial to their hopes of victory. The NDP vote has remained firm.

“The Liberals have plateaued,” said The Strategic Counsel's Peter Donolo.

“The constituency that Ignatieff needs to rebuild is primarily more female, more urban, younger, centre and NDP voters.”

But those who don't back Liberals by reflex just haven't seen a reason to yet.

Some of Mr. Ignatieff's own advisers admit he has yet to offer a clear, defined political identity to grab them.

“They don't know who this guy is, and what he stands for,” said one, who only spoke on the condition that he not be named.

Most Liberals are wary of filling the gap by putting out detailed policy platforms, fearing it will make the same kind of target that Mr. Dion's Green Shift plan did, when it was released months before the campaign.

But they also fear Mr. Ignatieff hasn't given tentative voters any sense of his identity, and how it differs from Mr. Harper's.

One Liberal strategist noted that Jean Chrétien's winning 1993 campaign included policy details, but what mattered was the core message that he stood for jobs and growth.

“It was, ‘Buy me, and this is what you get. Jobs and growth,' ” the strategist said. “If you buy Liberal now, what do you get?”

Mr. Harper's Conservatives, under minority-Parliament pressure, have unveiled massive stimulus-spending packages, at the Liberals' insistence.

It has left Liberals searching for something to differentiate them.

The Liberals could view this as a reason to shift left, but most believe the perception that Mr. Dion's move left had opened them to Conservative attacks for the centre.

“Tacking left is almost too simplistic an approach,” Mr. Donolo said.

“You can represent values without being either right or left. You can polarize the vote over Stephen Harper without being doctrinaire.”

One chance that he and others cited as a lost opportunity for Mr. Ignatieff was the United States debate on health-care reforms.

When U.S. conservatives criticized Canadian medicare to attack President Barack Obama's plan, Mr. Ignatieff could have leapt to its defence to portray himself as champion of the Canadian institution.

Mr. Ignatieff's call on the government to review the sale of Nortel assets to a foreign buyer was cited by one adviser as that kind of values-defining sortie – a “Captain Canada” position – though Liberal critics say he should have done it sooner, and stronger.

His most noted stand, Mr. Ignatieff's call for national, lower qualifications for employment insurance, has some of his MPs fearing it will backfire.

“Eight per cent of my constituents are unemployed, but 92 per cent are working,” said one MP. “And they don't think that warmly of employment insurance.”

More Contested Nomination News

h/t to our reader in the great north.

I haven't heard the results of this one yet:

Thunder Bay-Superior North is holding candidate nomination meetings Aug 11 in Longlac and Schreiber and Aug 12 in Thunder Bay. We have three candidates vying for the position--Don McArthur, Candidate-of-Record (http://www.donmcarthur.ca/), Joe Virdiramo, City Councillor who worked with Joe Comuzzi for years (http://www.joevirdiramo.ca/) and Yves Fricot, a lawyer with Buchanan Forest Products for the past 25 years.

The other two northwestern Ontario riding candidates were acclaimed--Roger Valley for Kenora and Ken Boshcoff for Thunder Bay-Rainy River.

Turns Out There Was a Greenlighted Candidate in Halton

Gary Zemlak, who ran for the provincial Liberals in the last Ontario election says he was greenlighted to fight an open nomination in Halton. Then the party decided to appoint someone after the fact.

Here's today's Burlington post.

I like the part where they mention Stephane Dion appointed 5 people to run in the last election. Paul Martin had a few appointments back in the day. Chretien too! Who f*c#ing cares? It ain't right.

Face it Halton You're Just not Capable of Picking Your own Candidate

I know at least two other potential candidates that would have preferred a democratic nomination. But hey, we need candidates in place damn it, and the party knows best who is suited for certain ridings. And it's obvious that there are simply no capable women that live in Halton that can mount a fight against the Minister of Natural Disasters, Lisa Raitt.

Besides, when fighting a Nova Scotian, best to fight back with a fellow Nova Scotian. Especially one that is not afraid to take on the big boys, as she did in 2003.

Jen has more on the feelings in Halton.

Nicholson and the Cons Couldn't Wait to get Rid of Him

So long Karlheinz. Thanks for the memories. One things for sure... there'll be no airports named after Mulroney any time soon.

RIP Brian Innes

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Christine Innes, her hubby Tony Ianno and their entire family.

Only the good die young.