Month: April 2007

The first time I met Ron Cannan (left), the rookie MP from Kelowna-Lake Country, he was running as fast as he could at me trying to steal the soccer ball I was trying to advance up the field. Cannan was on the ‘Conservative’ team and I was on the Press Gallery team in a match the PMO organized last June on the front lawn of Parliament Hill.

We’ve since met often under slightly less arduous circumstances.

And while there are a few in his caucus who try to avoid the media, I don’t get the sense that Cannan is one of those for the simple reason he goes out of his way to say hi when you pass him in a hallway and, when you ask him a question, he does his best to provide an honest and forthright answer. I e-mailed him the other day about the “Scott Ross” video taken at an open house his electoral district association (EDA) organized back in Kelowna. Cannan, who looks and runs too young to be a new grandfather (his first grandson is just six weeks old), sent along this reply:

My Riding Association held an Open House for my constituents on Saturday, March 31 from 1-4 pm.  I spoke with several constituents for about an hour about all kinds of budget and political issues.

I gave a brief address to the group, thanked the volunteers for organizing the open house and indicated I looked forward to continue meeting with the people that had come out on a beautiful Saturday afternoon to ask questions.

Shortly after I finished speaking one individual stood and demanded to make a political statement to the participants, he was reminded that it was an Open House. 

Another individual, Mr. Scott Ross, brought a camcorder to the meeting.  The footage was posted on YouTube. 

I am always available to my constituents to discuss any matter they wish and have made myself available to Mr. Ross.

Also, I look forward to the opportunity for political debate in a forum designed for that purpose.

A few constituents made appointments so we can discuss their specific cases further. 

I want to thank my EDA for hosting the function and for those who came to meet and speak with me.  

 

A little off the topic of federal politics here but, in a comment to an earlier post here, the question was asked why didn’t the Germans of the Second World War destroy the monument Canada unveiled at Vimy in 1936. CTV PoliticsBlog reader Ray writes in with the following:

 “…Adolf Hitler was a decorated veteran of the Great War and winner of the Iron Cross (if I'm not mistaken). There is a somewhat famous photo of Hitler posing in front of the Vimy monument in c.1940 (left). He seemed to appreciate great works of architecture, which may explain why he ordered that Paris remain intact during its capture. As well, Hitler would not authorize the use of gas by his troops against enemy combatants during the second world war, as he was injured by a gas attack during WWI, & felt that in combat, gas was too 'cruel and inhuman'. Obviously, this courtesy was not extended to everyone, but he did seem to posses a very real respect for  combat soldiers German, Canadian, American, British, or otherwise, past and present.
Perhaps even a butcher like Hitler realized the enormous cost in lives, on both sides, and opted to leave these monuments and cemeteries remain intact to honor those lost..”

Now, as it turns out, in preparation for a story on tonight’s newscast dealing with Vimy, I was over at the Canadian War Museum and talked to Tim Cook, who is the museum’s expert on all things World War I. He confirmed that Hitler had, indeed, visited the memorial and that Ray’s account is, by and large, correct.

Interestingly, though, during the Second World War, the rumour got around to Canadian troops serving in Europe that Hitler had destroyed the Vimy memorial. Needless to say, it helped whip the troops up against the Germans. And, even though Canadian pilots would have flown over it countless times during the war and would have been able to see it standing perfectly intact, the myth persisted.

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Who says the mainstream media have a monopology on great video? Ron Cannan, the rookie Conservative MP from Kelowna-Lake Country held what looks to be an “Open House” in his riding. But when some disgruntled constituents showed up with a video camera to ask him why his government lied about taxing income trusts, the rules changed mighty quickly. Apparently it was an “open house” only for members of the federal Conservative party . ..

UPDATE: Stephen Taylor, founder (I think) of The Blogging Tories has some interesting thoughts on this.

This time next week, I expect to be standing somewhere on Hill 145, Vimy Ridge, France — the site of the Canadian Vimy Memorial (right) — as Prime Minister Harper and tens of thousands of other Canadians mark the 90th anniversary of what is, for many Canadian historians, the battle that forged the nation of Canada. I will be attending this ceremony in my professional capacity, as a journalist travelling with Harper reporting on his activities and the ceremony for CTV National News. (Here in Ottawa, incidentally, the Ottawa Citizen has been running an excellent series in the leadup to this event about Vimy and its significance for 21st century Canadians.)

The reporters at CTV’s Parliamentary bureau take turns accompanying the Prime Minister abroad and I am extra-fortunate that my number has come up for this trip for I was with the PM and his wife last year when they travelled to Europe for the G8 summit. That trip included a visit to the Vimy Memorial and to a small cemetery a few kilometres from Vimy where Mrs. Harper’s great-uncle is buried.

On our visit last year, the giant Vimy Memorial was still undergoing significant renovations. On this visit, of course, the Memorial, now rebuilt, will be “re-dedicated”.

The travel notice from the Prime Minister’s Office arrived this weekend. We depart from Ottawa on Saturday April 7 at 9 am on the Canadian Forces Polaris.  (That’s me, left, about to board the Polaris for the first time back in 2005 when I accompanied Prime Minister Martin to a NATO meeting Brussels). It’s not clear in the PMO advisory where we will be landing but when we visited last year, we landed in Lille, in the northwest corner of France near the Belgium border. Wherever it is we land, the PMO says we will be staying in Arras, a city to the west of Vimy. (What Canadians call the Battle of Vimy Ridge was actually one action in what the histories of other countries call the Battle of Arras.)

The main ceremony occurs on Sunday, April 8. The Prime Minister participates in an additional ceremony on Monday April 9 and then we all get back on his plane and return to Ottawa late Monday night.

The long-range weather forecast for Lille, France, sadly, is much warmer than it was 90 years ago — Low of 7C, high of 15 C, compared to temperatures around freezing on the same weekend in 1917 — but it appears to be about as grey: showers and rain are in the forecast.

I’ve just finished reading Pierre Berton’s Vimy, in preparation for this trip, and am making way through Ted Barris’ Victory at Vimy. I studied history at university and, in doing so, have read a great deal about life on the home front during the First World War; the great diplomatic struggles of the era that Canada was involved in; and the domestic political dramas that played out at the time. But both these books are excellent popular histories that focus almost entirely on the experience of about 100,000 Canadians at Vimy during and in the weeks prior to Easter weekend, 1917.