Ottawa

Whatever floats your boat

This is apparently what I miss by not going to more garden parties.

In the middle of Liberal Leader Michel Ignatieff’s yard was a blue plastic children’s wading pool. A cardboard plaque proclaimed it to be “Fake Lake Harper” and warned “No Diving.” Another sign declared the pond to be a project funded by the federal economic action plan, “supporting Canada’s fake lake industry.”

Reporters were invited to lounge on vinyl Muskoka chairs and watch plastic ducks and tiny boats bobbing in the pond, while recorded loon calls played in the background. Life jackets were available for anyone who wanted to venture into the three-inch deep waters.

One boat—carrying muppet Ernie and his rubber duckie—was dubbed the “Captain Tony,” after Industry Minister Tony Clement, whose Muskoka riding has been flooded with cash in advance of the G-8 summit.

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