For A Monday

This could have been used last night.

She wouldn't dare:

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is challenging Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak to either back up his “false” and “defamatory” allegations that she oversaw the purging of government documents or face legal action.

Ms. Wynne has said that her predecessor’s chief of staff – the individual at the centre of a criminal case into the alleged destruction of government records – never worked in her office. Nor did she instruct anyone to destroy information.

The Tories have seized on information contained in police documents describing Dalton McGuinty’s final days in office. The documents, unsealed by an Ottawa judge last week, show that Mr. McGuinty’s former chief of staff, David Livingston, had obtained extraordinary access to computers in the premier’s office for a six-week period that extended into Ms. Wynne’s time in office.

There is nothing in the documents that suggests any records were deleted after Ms. Wynne was sworn into office on Feb. 11, 2013. Mr. Livingston resigned the same day she took power, according to the documents, which have not been tested in court.

Fact: under former Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga were cancelled, costing taxpayers at least $828 million.

Fact: Premier Kathleen Wynne denied knowing the full cost of the cancelled gas plants. She would later apologise for something she said she knew nothing about.

Fact: after being "misinformed" that certain e-mails could not be recovered, two e-mails from then chief of staff Craig MacLennan were recovered. Privacy Commissioner Dr. Ann Cavoukian found the deliberate deletion of e-mails violated Archives and Recordkeeping Act.

Fact: the (alleged) computer hack who (allegedly) wiped computers clean of evidence has been in the employ of the Liberal Party until this past week-end.

E-mails don't just delete themselves and nothing goes on without even the peripheral knowledge of the boss. If Premier Wynne thinks Tim Hudak is out-of-line with his accusations, then she can air out the truth in open court.

If she dares.

Is she confident there is nothing left on which to hang her?


Stay classy, Fils:

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau used some decidedly un-prime ministerial language when speaking publicly at the Fight for the Cure charity boxing match in Gatineau, Que. on Saturday night.

Invited by the ring announcer at the Hilton Lac Leamy, Trudeau climb through the ropes and took the microphone to say a few words about the event at which, two years ago, he thrashed a much larger Sen. Patrick Brazeau. (The two mens’ career trajectories since the fight are documented in a Citizen piece this weekend.)

“I’m going tell you, there is no experience like stepping into this ring and measuring yourself,” he said.

“All the — your name, your fortune, your intelligence, your beauty — none of that fucking matters.”

The f-bomb drew some cries from the high-spirited crowd.

While it’s unusual to hear someone who hopes to be prime minister swearing into an open microphone — at a cancer fundraiser, no less — stranger still might the words that  preceeded it.

It sound as if Trudeau is referring to himself and not some abstract pugilist when he said ”your” name, fortune, intelligence and beauty — three or possibly four qualities that Trudeau inherited at birth.

People would actually vote for this guy.

North Korea threatens a nuclear test after firing missiles in the Korean Peninsula:

On Monday, North Korea began live-fire drills off the western coast of the peninsula after declaring a no-fly, no-sail zone in the area, according to South Korean media.

The move comes just hours after North Korea’s state media warned on Sunday that the country “would not rule out a new form of nuclear test for bolstering up its nuclear deterrence.”

That warning, issued by the country’s Foreign Ministry through the state-controlled Korea Central News Agency, helps keep fears alive that North Korea has mastered making uranium bombs – a second route to nuclear weapons alongside its existing plutonium-based program.

In the past few weeks, North Korea has also launched a series of short- and mid-range ballistic missiles off its east coast, which the United Nations Security Council condemned in a statement last Thursday as having violated multiple Security Council resolutions. North Korea’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday said the U.N. response was an “illegal action.”

It is becoming more and more important for South Korea, Japan and other Asian nations to arm themselves and form alliances. Even if Obama wasn't a completely useless eater, the time for the US to step back and let nations it has advertently or inadvertently declawed take responsibility for their own defense would come eventually. Taking matters into their own hands is an inevitable step.

Case in point:

The Philippine government vessel made a dash for shallow waters around the disputed reef in the South China Sea, evading two Chinese coastguard ships trying to block its path to deliver food, water and fresh troops to a military outpost on the shoal.

This cat represents the Philippines.

And now, kids are smarter than we give them credit for:

The litany of frighteningly stupid Common Core math worksheets never ends. Perhaps now, though, kids are starting to fight back in satisfyingly creative ways.

An alert reader sent The Daily Caller this image of her seven-year-old son’s perfectly reasonable homework answer. The boy attends a public elementary school in San Jose, Calif. He is in the second grade. ...