Elizabeth May brings on Kicking Ass in Canadian Politics author Warren Kinsella to help Green war room

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      This morning, the Twittersphere is erupting over news that a former Jean Chrétien speechwriter and punk-rock enthusiast has gone Green.

      Lawyer, blogger, and Kicking Ass in Canadian Politics author Warren Kinsella will assist May and the Canadian Greens in their "war room".

      That's where political parties fire off rapid responses and counterattacks and conduct research on the opposition during political campaigns. 

      The next federal election is just 100 days away.

      Kinsella is sometimes known as the Prince of Darkness for his love of hardball tactics against the right.

      He ran for the Chrétien Liberals in North Vancouver in 1997, losing to Reform Party of Canada incumbent Ted White.

      Kinsella has written seven other books, including Fight the Right: A Manual for Surviving the Coming Conservative Apocalypse and Web of Hate: Inside Canada's Far Right Network.

      He occasionally appears as a guest on CKNW Radio on Charles Adler Tonight, where he invariably rips into Justin Trudeau. Kinsella also writes columns in the Toronto Sun.

      In an open letter to Vancouver Granville MP Jody Wilson-Raybould following revelations about Trudeau's role in the SNC-Lavalin scandal, Kinsella referred to the prime minister as the "coward in chief".

      Watch Warren Kinsella speak about the SNC-Lavalin affair, which he has called a "coverup".

      One of Kinsella's greatest political accomplishments was destroying the campaign of new Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day in 2000, shortly after Day became leader.

      He did that in a TV panel discussion by holding up a toy dinosaur and mocking Day, a Christian fundamentalist. Then Kinsella claimed that Day believed human beings lived on the planet at the same time as Barney the Dinosaur.

      In May of this year, the Greens won the Nanaimo-Ladysmith by-election by attracting a large number of votes from former Liberal voters.

      Meanwhile, the Green candidate in Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke, lawyer David Merner, is a former high-profile Liberal. And he was among the first in that party to call for the legalization of marijuana and a national carbon tax.

      In an interview with the Straight in 2012, Merner openly questioned whether Trudeau "has the depth required to transform the party".

      "That will be the key question—if Justin is ready or not," Merner said.

      The decision of Merner and Kinsella to switch to the Greens demonstrates that both of them concluded that a Liberal party under Trudeau didn't warrant their continued support.

      Should the Greens win more seats in the upcoming federal election, they could conceivably end up holding the balance of power in a minority government, which could decide Trudeau's political future.

      Update

      After Warren Kinsella retweeted this article, Elizabeth May declared that the Greens do not have a "war room" because her party does things differently.

      Instead, the Green leader suggested the terms "Peace Room", "Situation Room", and "Room of Zen".

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