Update on Klandergate

According to a few scattered, unlinkable comments in various conservative blogs, Sun columnist Charles Adler seems to have reported via his radio show Adler On Line that Mike Klander has resigned. This was confirmed by CBC Radio in their hourly news report moments ago, by CFRA News Talk Radio, and by this Canadian Press article. The CBC referred to Klander as "this election's first blogging casualty."

[Update: Paul Wells on the CP article: "CP is quoting a long-suffering Liberal spokesman to the effect that Klander was "a volunteer" who had no official role in the current campaign. This rather understates the guy's significance. He delivered Tony Dionisio to the Martin camp in '02, and together, they delivered Ontario. When Sheila Copps got uppity, Klander was dispatched to take proper care of her in Hamilton in '04. I fondly recall the first place I ever saw the guy: in the union-hall basement where Paul Martin announced to a breathless world in 2002 that he wasn't sure he could work with Jean Chrétien any more. That whole event was a Klander/Dionisio special. But they were just volunteers, you understand."]

[Sundate: The Sun newspapers are now reporting the story in their online edition as well.]

[Stardate: The Toronto Star has the story now, as well.]

[Macdate: Macleans is also reporting it.]

[CBCupdate: The CBC has their own story online now, rather than just recycling the Canadian Press story as all the other online media have done so far. It's also arguably a better story, quoting more of the blog rather than just paraphrasing, and it doesn't repeat that ridiculous quote from Stephen Heckbert about how Klander wasn't really all that important anyway. Good for them.]

[Sinister update: Greg from Sinister Thoughts lets us in on the fact that Klander's Liberal Party buddy and fellow blogger of questionable taste Chris Wakelin has also taken down his blog. Wakelin's google cache is here. Apart from a bunch of swearing, some nasty words about the CBC, and a likening of the sentiments in fuckthesouth.com to how he feels about the rest of Canada, though, there isn't anything too heinous there. But if you scroll down to the post he made on April 21st, you see the following: Decided to take down my last post. Even though it was in no way a criticism of anybody in Ottawa, I fear it may have been taken in different contexts than the satire of a speech. I sincerely, do not want to be seen as piling on. So I will self censor. While I admit to being extremely curious what, exactly, he took down, I have to applaud him for his prudence. Too bad a little of that didn't rub off on his friend Klander; he might not be out of work now.]

[CanWest udpate: CanWest has offered up its own story now, which has been reprinted in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, the Edmonton Journal, and the Vancouver Sun. Each paper writes its own headlines, though, and these are telling. The StarPhoenix opts for the benign "Grit resigns over Chow blog," the Journal says "Offensive blog costs Liberal organizer his job," and the Vancouver Sun story reads "Liberal organizer leaves over anti-Chinese remarks".]

[Globe update: The Globe and Mail wrote its own piece on the story, which differs from the others by quoting a lot more than just the Chow and Layton remarks. It also mentions that "a snapshot of the site is now being circulated on the Internet."]

[Citizendate: The Ottawa Citizen also wrote its own piece, and that piece also delved further into the nastier quotes from Klander's blog than the wire service stories did.]

[OttawaSundate: Columnist Michael Harris starts out his piece on the Klander story by saying "According to the latest CPAC-SES nightly tracking poll, the Liberals have a 10-point lead over the Conservatives. There is mystery in this."]

[Coppsdate: Former Liberal MP Sheila Copps writes a fairly damning column about Klander in the Toronto Sun.]