Conservative rogues are left to look leftward. A Strong Canada, an advocacy group seemingly inspired by Maclean’s columnist Scott Gilmore touring the country to encourage Tories to see red again, is now in full flight—and it's confusing loyalists reared by Stephen Harper. After all, its first campaign encouraged people to join another party:

Justin Trudeau's sidekick sticks up for topping up his diplomat pal. Rana Sarkar, a former Liberal candidate, is the new consul general to San Francisco. But his mid-$200K salary scale has led to accusations of cronyism, because it's twice the typical pay for these jobs. PMO senior adviser Gerald Butts got on Twitter to argue that his friend was taking a pay cut from the private sector—even though the gig comes with a house.

A rush of blood to Jordan Peterson’s head. Ryerson was supposed to host a panel discussion tonight on the stifling of free speech on campuses, but the inclusion of now-former Rebel correspondent Faith Goldy seemed to exacerbate the "safety concerns" that led to the event's cancellation—a decision that most academics would agree sets a terrible precedent. Meanwhile, one of the disinvited panelists revealed the kind of invitation that tends to turn up after you become globally known:

Globe and Mail public editor’s advice about “alt-right” was widely ignored by the newsroom. Based on feedback, Sylvia Stead advised senior Globe editors to issue a November memo suggesting that the paper avoid using "alt-right" to describe racist, fascist or white supremacist ideologies. After noticing the term's latest headline appearance, Stead went back to count how often it had turned up in articles. She discovered that "alt-right" had been published 90 times since her edict.

Bill Cosby hired Michael Jackson’s lawyer for a November rematch with Andrea Constand. Tom Mesereau, who helped Jackson prevail over child molestation charges in 2005, has joined Cosby's defence after other lawyers quit. Cosby's Toronto-based accuser continued her pattern of seemingly acknowledging every twist with a cryptic tweet:

Bad tweets giveth and bad tweets taketh away. BNN’s Michael Kane got dragged a bunch two weeks ago for taking note of women in “religious headgear” shopping at Victoria’s Secret. (He then deleted his Twitter.) But uncouth observations can also provide promotional content for Bell Media: Kelsey McEwen, the meteorologist on CTV’s Your Morning, responded on air to a cranky handyman watching in Plattsburgh, New York, who tweeted that her 34-week baby bump was “disgusting.” And so, eternal clickbait was made out of yet another moment in serendipitous social media stupidity:

Boris Spremo dead at 81. The retired Toronto Star photographer, compiled his first 20 years of work in a 1983 book. Spremo’s obituary highlights his silhouette of John Diefenbaker in a lounge chair and Pierre Trudeau playing with a rubber band.