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A few political notes today.
The speculation about which "star candidate" might be parachuted into Carolyn Parrish's Mississauga-Erindale riding is gaining momentum.
In an interesting column in The Globe and Mail today, Jeffrey Simpson (who spoke recently in Mississauga on the Unholy Alliance of Politicians and the Press) speculates about the chances of expatriate, intellectual, Trudeau-style, potential Grit superstar Michael Ignatieff being dropped into the seat.
The names of both Ignatieff and former Premier Bob Rae have already been bandied about in the post-Parrish sweepstakes.
Finding desirable GTA seats will be a problem, notes Simpson, because there aren't many unoccupied. They are a precious commodity for the locals when they do become available.
Having been outside Canada for 30 years teaching in England and at Harvard, writing books on numerous subjects and articles and reviews for the New York Times and serving on the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty makes for a hell of a CV, but how does that play in Erindale Village? Does Ignatieff who Tommy Adamson was?
Perhaps the most telling deficiency Simpson points out is that Ignatieff's support for the war in Iraq wouldn't fly in a riding where Parrish recruited big membership in the Muslim community (flip-flopping on same sex marriage in the process) to beat back Steve Mahoney and keep the nomination last time around.
Ignatieff's latest book is titled The Lesser Evil: Political Ethnics in an Age of Terror. Maybe he does have some insight into Mississauga politics. Sounds like he might have attended a couple of previous Liberal nomination fiascos.
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Brad Butt, who has become Mississauga's resident political expert for Rogers Television, is still considering the possibility of taking another shot at a municipal council seat.
Those chances dropped, of course, when Parrish all but announced that she's going to run in ward 6.
Butt is much more likely to be a candidate for the Conservative Party in the provincial election in Mississauga South next time around, taking on Tim Peterson.
He's run several times before for the Tories, and managed to pick the wrong round to sit out in 1995. A big John Tory fan, Butt will be running provincially in his home riding for the first time, although he's run there federally before.
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Mississauga East MPP Peter Fonseca promised a while ago to try to get a gym put in the basement of Queen's Park so MPPs can work out and set an example to corporations and the public about the value of exercise.
It's not going to happen. Building too old, process too complicated, he told me this week.
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Health Promotion Minister is a fitness freak and isn't giving up. The former top Canadian marathoner, who finished 21st at the Atlantic Olympics, is doing the next best thing. He's organizing a running club for MPPs and staff that will take off from Queen's Park one day and one evening a week. One question: Is the press invited or are they in-camera runs?
By the way, Fonseca and his wife Christina, who is seven months' pregnant with twins, got an up-close and personal look at the health care system yesterday when they did the pre-checkup ultrasound thing. Wonder if the athletic or the political genes will be stronger?