For this Sunday, the big story is the resignation of Nigel Wright, Chief of Staff at the PMO. That was always going to happen, given the headlines surrounding Mr. Wright’s gift of $90,000+ to Mike Duffy. You can bet Duffy now has zero chance of re-entering the Conservative caucus and pressure will be huge on him to resign from the senate. Possibly ditto Pamela Wallin and I suspect Patrick Brazeau. The Liberals have their own issues with Mac Harb.
We’ll cover out of the gate with NDP ethics critic and member of parliament Charlie Angus and Michelle Simson who returns to the show. Michelle is the one who had the ethics to post all her expense spending online and you know from what she’s told us that she was punished by the Liberal Party and shunned by many (most/all) other MPs for informing Canadians openly of her expense spending.

There’s only one way for the Conservatives, or for that matter other parties to reassure Canadians this expense spending mess will be properly addressed and that is to introduce and pass legislation which makes it mandatory all expense spending is available online. MPs and Senators. Works for the Alberta government Gregory Thomas of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation told us on air yesterday.

interest continues of course in the Rob Ford story. His brother and Toronto city councillor Doug Ford told us yesterday that he will be speaking to the Mayor’s issue on Tuesday and informed us he has never seen his brother around cocaine.
Now as far as Gawker trying to raise $200,000 by crowdfunding online is concerned, many media are reporting what they seem to suggest is succes by Gawker to be up to $55,000 or so. I would consider that to be a failure. If you’ve been trying to raise that $200,000 for two days and with huge international coverage and you only manage a quarter of that, it speaks to something. Maybe young parents with worries about their kids being exposed to drugs can’t see themselves directing money which would go into the pockets of illegal drug dealers in order to obtain a video reported to be of Mayor Ford maybe smoking crack cocaine. Anyway, $55,000 or so after two days online with huge coverage is not a success story for Gawker.

1.8 million views…and 640,000 in one day! That’s the tally for Texas high school student Jeff Bliss’ video of his verbal challenge of his high school teacher and the education system. Last Sunday we played the clip of Jeff Bliss’ rant in-class and heard your reaction. It was mixed. Later in the show we caught up with Jeff and I spoke to him about what he did and why. To me Jeff came across as a very intelligent, well spoken, passionate about education young man. I liked him and I liked that he cared about not only he, but also his generation receiving a proper education. Much of what he said also applies to what we’ve talked about on air re Canadian public school education. So, today I’ll play back the interview with Jeff Bliss, talk to Manitoba high school teacher Michael Zwaagstra (MichaelZwaagstra.com) who heard the original interview and take your calls.

Barack Obama is facing scandals in Washington, but it’s not affecting his poll numbers it appears, although Bob Woodward says the scandals are “not yet” Obama’s Watergate moment, but could they become that? Jonathan Easley of The Hill in Washington joins us.

Domestic violence. Today though it’s domestic violence involving women being violent toward their male partners or husbands. Barbara Kay of the National Post joins us, as will Hamilton criminal lawyer Jeff Manishen. Do police and does Canada’s justice system treat men who are victims of domestic violence from their female partners indifferently? A few weeks ago Earl Silverman who ran Canada’s only shelter for male victims of domestic violence committed suicide. He had never received any funding for his shelter (his own home) and in his suicide note Earl Silverman lamented the indifference he felt he encountered from the justice system.

And finally, it’s going to be movie reviews with Chris Bumbray (Joblo.com). Today Chris shares his thoughts on Star Trek Into Darkness and The Great Gatsby.

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What a week in Canadian politics and what a week for taxpayer dollar spending accountibility. Senators Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin quit the Conservative Party caucus over expense claims issues, although Duffy’s situation is clearly more complex, given the involvement of the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff. We can only imagine how animated things were at the PMO this week.

Is there now any acceptable reason for members of parliament and senators to continue to refuse to fully and publicly disclose their expense speending? Former Liberal MP Michelle Simson is seething over the issue and she joins the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation Gregory Thomas. Michelle Simson, as many know, was punished by the Liberal party and became something of a parian in parliament because she posted all her expense spending on her website. Shouldn’t they all be required to do so now? Isn’t that the quickest way for MPs and senators to come out from under a cloud of national public suspicion? We’ll certainly be including your calls.

In the U.K. several MPs went to prison following fraudulent expense spending revelations in ’08 and ’09. This week British member of parliament Tom Harris lashed out in a column in the London Telegraph, the newspaper which broke the British political spending scandal. Mr. Harris’ column is titled “Corrupt? No. So why are we MPs victims of such outrageous public abuse?” Mr. Harris will join us from Britain and I’ll take your calls.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s latest challenge is the reported (and viewed by Toronto Star reporters) video supposedly filmed by drug dealers showing the Mayor doing what appears to be smoking crack cocaine. I spoke yesterday with Ford ally and deputy Mayor of Toronto Doug Holyday. We’ll play back the interview and hear what the deputy Mayor has to say to Mayor Ford and his attackers. We’ll open the lines here too.

And all of the above, as well as being pursued unfairly by a collection agency in our Beauties and the Beast hour with Linda Leatherdale, independent business journalist (lindaleatherdale.com), Catherine Swift, Chair, Canadian Federation of Independent Business (cfib.ca) and me. Linda has a current story to relate about unfounded collection agency pursuit of her husband. Has to do with their former insurance company.

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This morning we all heard from Hamilton police that Tim Bosma, 32 year old husband, father and son is dead. Police found his body burned. A young man really just entering the prime of his life was trying to sell a pickup truck online and now a child will grow up without a Daddy, a young wife is a widow and a mother who pleaded for her son’s return on Mother’s Day can only grieve. This is so absolutely senseless.
Yesterday we sold an 1880′s pump organ to someone we didn’t know. A man who asked if I could deliver the organ with my truck. His address was very rural and I was to deliver to his barn. I’ll admit I gave this some thought, but agreed and checked out the surroundings very carefully. Turned out the buyer was entirely legitimate, but I think we’ve all learned a lesson through Tim’s death.

Sunday I spoke with Texas high school student Jeff Bliss about his in-class, high volume challenge to his teacher to be more passionate and more engaged in her teaching. While there was some level of disagreement with Jeff’s approach, the majority view was the public education systems in both Canada and the U.S. are in a state of disrepair with students graduating functionally illiterate in some cases and woefully short on secondary school education in far too many. Later in the program Jeff Bliss joined us and I found him to be a very eloquent and thoughtful young man who clearly deeply cares about receiving a positive education and wants the same for his peers. You can listen back to the conversation on this blog in the podcast section. We’ll revisit the issue this Sunday.

Still no replies from any federal political party leaders to our invitation to take your calls on our CUT (Cut Unfair Taxes) initiative with Catherine Swift and Linda Leatherdale. I have heard from many listeners though, including copies of emails you sent to your MPs requesting (demanding?) they pass on the CUT issue to their leaders. Clearly, not one federal political party leader has the interest to speak to Canadians on the show which covers the most populous areas of Canada in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. I have one guess (educated) why that is. Talk radio callers make them uncomfortable. You speak your minds.
Roy
(follow me on Twitter: @theroygreenshow)