What Schwarzenegger will not tell Montrealers tomorrow

By Mike Cohen

It is too bad that St. Laurent native Ian Halperin is not writing former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s speech tomorrow when the one-time movie star and bodybuilder addresses a Montreal Board of Trade luncheon at the Centre Sheraton. We are told that the Terminator “will make everyone’s day” by talking about his many accomplishments, include sweeping political reforms, historic investments in California’s crumbling infrastructure, and the most comprehensive greenhouse gas policy in the world. 

Halperin, the celebrated investigative journalist and author whose controversial books on Michael Jackson, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Guy Laliberté, Kurt Cobain and others have landed him worldwide headlines, recently released the unauthorized biography called The Governator: From Muscle Beach to His Quest for the White House, the Improbable Rise of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Reached at his base in New York City last week, Halperin provided me with tidbits he promises Arnold will not share with his Montreal audience. “I predict Arnold will stage a run for the 2016 United States presidency, with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg as his vice-presidential candidate,” says Halperin. “It will be the dream card; the richest team ever to run for office. As he’ll say in his speech, he credits Ben and Joe Weider for launching his career. Without them, he admits, he would have never succeeded. My sources say he’s already positioned his presidential run for 2016, with the Kennedys very influential in his bid. He needs to have the Constitution amended to allow someone not born in the USA to run. That is the reason for the wait.”

Harrison Ford In Montreal: Will the man who portrayed Indiana Jones in the four motion pictures visit Montreal anytime between April 28 and September 18? As the Montreal Science Centre prepares for Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology: The Exhibition on those dates there is no confirmation that the great Harrison Ford will come to town. Perhaps they should enlist the services of local financial advisor Sam Kloda. He met Ford personally and posed for a photo with him recently at the Aero Club of Washington’s National Aeronautical Association Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy Awards Dinner. After reading an item about this meeting on my blog, former federal cabinet minister Gerry Weiner asked for Kloda’s coordinates. Weiner, the chairman of the board of the Old Port of Montreal Corporation, hopes Kloda can help make the connection.

Delmar at Night: Bravo to CJAD for returning local programming to evening broadcasts and giving a young voice like Dan Delmar the chance to follow in the footsteps of mid-afternoon guy Dan Laxer. Delmar at Night debuted last Wednesday, featuring  debate, music, entertainment, top-notch contributors and breaking news. Delmar has performed a number of duties for CJAD since 2005 and contributed to The Suburban.

Another great piece of news is more airtime for Patrick Charles, who does a much too short bit on entertainment with Andrew Carter each morning. He now co-hosts with Delmar a 7 to 8 p.m. talking tech and Web 2.0 show on Friday nights.

COHEN CHATTER: CBC TV News has seen some gains in its nightly newscast ratings and certainly star weather forecaster Frank Cavallaro has been one reason for that. Frank’s contract is reportedly up next week and rumour has it that both SUN TV and City TV in Toronto are interested in his services…. 

Item of interest? E-mail mcohen@thesuburban.com, call 514-484-1107, ext. 307 or fax 514-483-7213. Follow me at www.twitter.com/mikecohencsl