Iran attacked a Canadian base, time to deport IRGC members and what does the latest floor crosser mean for Pierre Poilievre...

Plus, honouring the Island of Sanity and Lowell Green.

I’ll be doing a live Ask Me Anything video event on Saturday at 10:30 for paid subscribers.

If you haven’t done one of these before, I set up my camera, talk for about an hour and answer any questions put to me.

I’ll send out the link tomorrow. If you aren’t a paid subsciber yet but want to be, you can sign up before then.

Iran attacked Canada and the Carney government didn’t tell you…

Did you hear that a Canadian military base in Kuwait was hit by Iran in the early hours of the war with Iran?

I certainly didn’t until today.

That’s shameful, Canadian troops were bombed by the Iranians and our government told us nothing about it. It is only due to reporting by La Presse out of Montreal that we know anything about this.

Canadian troops are stationed at Camp Canada on the Ali Al-salem Air Base in Kuwait which Iran hit. Thankfully all CAF personnel are accounted for, no one appears to have been injured but maybe they were and we just don’t know.

The government did not tell Parliament about the attack, not even during the emergency debate on the issue on Monday night, more than a week after it happened. Conservative MP and defence critic James Bezan had some choice words for the government’s lack of transparency.

On floor crossings and Poilievre’s future…

I wrote about Lori Idlout’s decision to cross the floor the morning after it happened. Today, I was writing about what this means for Pierre Poilievre’s future.

Will he stick around?

The column, which you should read, isn’t about trying to get rid of him, it’s whether he decides to stay in the job that he called, “the worst damn job in the country.”

We won’t be having another election until 2029, there is no need for Carney to chance giving up power once he has a real majority.

By the time we go to the polls again, there is a new president, a new vibe and who knows what happens.

I’ll say this about the by-elections and Idlout’s crossing. The Liberals clearly knew this was coming before they called the by-elections.

Now, I’m on the record saying that I think they will win all three, which will give them the majority. But a while back, before all of this was pre-ordained, a Liberal said to me, watch the by-elections.

They meant that if Carney called the by-elections rather than waiting until after Easter and then calling a general election then that meant he had his majority.

It appears he does.

Deport the terrorists to Iran even with a war on…

Back in the day, when we had a bad hombre, we would put them on a plane and find a way to take them back to their home country. Even if there was a war on or things were difficult.

It was shocking to hear an executive with the Canada Border Services Agency say we can’t deport members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp or IRGC, a terrorist group, because of a lack of flights to Iran at the moment.

As I explain in my column Wednesday in the Toronto Sun, we used to be able to do this. We’d fly the deportee to a nearby country, pay some dodgy pilot to fly the bad dude into their home country, land on a remote airstrip, shove the bad guy out and take off again.

There’s nothing to say we need to treat these murderous terrorist thugs to a first class flight back to Tehran and only when bombs aren’t dropping.

If the Iranian women’s soccer team can fly back from Australia to Iran then we can deport terrorists.

Travis Dhanraj coming up on Full Comment Podcast…

I interviewed Travis Dhanraj the former CBC host who appeared before the House of Commons on Tuesday and named names. The podcast episode will be released on Monday morning, and it is good.

For now, here is his opening statement to committee.

Honouring the Island of Sanity…

I’m in Ottawa tonight to honour a friend and mentor in the radio business, Bill Carroll. Bill and I have worked together on and off for more than 20 years, he’s a broadcasting legend and has spent the last 10 years at 580 CFRA in Ottawa.

When I first got to CFRA in early 2002, I was in awe of another broadcasting legend.

Lowell Green.

So I got a little choked up when Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre stood in the House of Commons to read a Member’s Statement about Lowell on Wednesday. For those of you who don’t know, who aren’t obsessed with Parliament like I am, a Member’s Statement is about anything the MP want sto discuss and is often about their riding.

On Wednesday, Poilievre stood up and saluted the legendary Lowell Green a man very central the Ottawa area that Poilievre represented for so long.

If you aren’t from the Ottawa area then you may not know Lowell. He was a powerful voice in talk radio in the nation’s capital from the 1960s until he retired, though not by choice, in 2016.

I thought that I would get Lowell’s 9-12 time slot at CFRA based on how things were going at the time, so did Lowell. I’ll tell the full story on that one day, but not now.

Lowell was a hard nosed, crotchety SOB and also a big softy.

That’s what his critics never understood. He was a teddy bear at heart and if you connected with that side of him, he looked after you.

Also, despite being depicted as a life-long Conservative, he ran for the federal Liberal nomination in Pontiac and lost in 1968. He later tried to run for the Ontario Liberals in Ottawa-Centre in 1984 and also lost.

One day, as a fairly young reporter I went by Lowell’s office to try and pitch him on a story. He didn’t want to see me or hear from me, he was focused and grumpy.

It kinda stung.

Then he went on air and laid out the story he was focussed on. A young child from the Ottawa Valley who needed specialized care that they could only receive in the United States.

The medical care could be looked after but this family couldn’t afford to be near their child while the child underwent surgery. I listened as a teary-eyed Lowell Green went on air and told this story and asked listeners to help the family.

My story, the one that I was trying to pitch to the grumpy old man, suddenly didn’t matter.

By the time he finished his show the needs of the family, as I recall the events, were taken care of.

That is the power of local talk radio. That was the power of Lowell Green and the Island of Sanity as he called his show. Pierre Poilievre noted in his statement that Lowell helped found the Big Brothers of Ottawa, the Help Santa Toy Parade and more.

Lowell, we love you and miss you. Rest in peace.

Yes, but the Irish…

I apparently spent too much time watching Member’s Statements ahead of Question Period because the next video is also from right after Poilievre’s statement. James Maloney is the Liberal MP for Etobicoke-Lakeshore and has been since 2015.

He’s also a really nice guy.

Some readers won’t like that I say that but I have to deal with people from all parties, it’s part of my job. Let me tell you, there are people that you agree with ideologically, along party lines, and people you don’t but also some people who are just jerks regardless of party.

That is how I judge people.

Maloney is big on promoting Irish heritage in Canada.

I know, you are shocked by the name and thought he was Polish or Armenian. Of course, I joke about that but I’m sure some people don’t get the joke - Maloney is Irish.

This Liberal MP from Toronto stood up and talked about March being Irish Heritage Month in Canada. It might have something to do with St. Patrick’s Day being next week.

The contribution of my people to this country is far greater than St. Patrick’s Day which has turned into a day to just get drunk. Did you know, and perhaps I should tell that story soon, that Toronto was more Irish than Boston or New York back in the day?

Thankfully, it’s a significant feast day for me during Lent so maybe I will have some chicken wings, the thing that I was apparently addicted to, gave up for Lent and haven’t really missed.

Anyway, here’s James Maloney celebrating Irish Heritage Month in the House of Commons albeit with a bit of a partisan slant.

Sláinte Seamus!

Yours truly,

Brian Seamus Padraig Lilley (AKA Brian James Patrick Lilley)

Yes, that’s generally how the Irish would spell my name. More on the Lilley part another day.