Month: July 2008

Kenney on political ethnic outreach

My colleague Andrew Mayeda reports that Conservative Jason Kenney, his party's point man in Canada's immigrant communities, accuses the Liberals of playing dirty pool when it comes to ethnic politics:

Kenney slams Liberal ethnic outreach

Tory accuses Grits of funneling grants to 'community godfathers'

Published: Thursday, July 31, 2008

LEVIS, Que. – The man charged with spearheading the Harper government's “ethnic-outreach” efforts has accused former Liberal governments of running “Tammany Hall”-style operations that funneled grants to local immigrant “godfathers.”

“Typically, I think, the Liberals pursued what some people have called an ethnic-brokerage model of outreach, where they would identify leaders of certain groups who somehow magically would become the recipients of substantial grants and subsidies for their community organizations,” Jason Kenney, secretary of state for multiculturalism, said when asked how his government's approach differs from that of the Liberals.

Sifting through the press releases issued by Kenney's government in the 41 days since Parliament recessed we find some similar “grants and subsidies” for community organizations. No doubt, many Canadians, of all political stripes, might find some of this perfectly worthy of taxpayer support:

  • Canada Helps New Canadians Get Jobs (July 28) Senator Hugh Segal makes $800,000 announcement in Toronto
  • Canada Supports Mississauga Chinese Arts Festival (July 9). MP Wajid Khan announces $20,000 in support.
  • Canada Supports 2008 Taste of Asia Festival (June 28) MP Colin Carrie announces $25,000 for Markham, Ont. event.
  • Minister MacKay Announces Support for Newcomers to Settle and Integrate in Halifax (June 27) MP Peter MacKay announces $10.3 million in funding.
  • Canada Provides Funding to Ethiopian Association to Help Newcomers in Toronto (June 23) MP Mike Wallace announces $2.2 million in funding.
  • Canada helps immigrants and members of visible minorities get job (June 23) MP Betty Hinton announces $244,599
  • Air India memorial re-dedicated in Ottawa on National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism (June 23) MP Jason Kenney announces $70,000 for program.
  • Canada Supports the Ottawa Dragon Boat Race Festival (June 21) MP Royal Galipeau announces $12,500 in funding

As an aside, to update a story I did a couple of weeks ago in which I noted that number of spending announcements the government is making this summer, there have now been more than 213 spending announcements since June 21 which carry a combined price tag of $11.3-billion.

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Read my lips

…. said George H.W. BusH: “No new taxes”.

Speaking in French in Québec tonight, Prime Minister Harper said pretty much the same thing:

AUSSI LONGTEMPS QUE JE SERAI PREMIER MINISTRE

– AUSSI LONGTEMPS QUE JE POURRAI COMPTER SUR DES DÉPUTÉS COMME JACQUES GOURDE

– IL N’Y AURA PAS DE NOUVELLES TAXES !

Harper dares Dion: Let's go to the polls, pal!

The Prime Minister, in a speech tonight at a BBQ in Québec lays down his most explicit challenge yet to the Leader of the Official Opposition:

FRIENDS, I SEE MR. DION IS CHALLENGING ME TO DEBATE HIS CARBON TAX.

SI M. DION VEUT UN VRAI DÉBAT,

– PAS SEULEMENT PARMI LES POLITICIENS, MAIS UN DÉBAT OUVERT À TOUS,

– TOUT CE QU’IL A À FAIRE EST DE RÉALISER SA TOUTE DERNIÈRE MENACE DE DÉCLENCHER DES ÉLECTIONS.

UNE FOIS DE PLUS, M. DION MENACE DE FAIRE TOMBER LE GOUVERNEMENT.

MAIS NOUS ENTENDONS CETTE CHANSON DEPUIS BIENTÔT DEUX ANS.

FOR TWO YEARS, MR. DION HAS BEEN THREATENING TO BRING DOWN THE GOVERNMENT.

AND HE DOES EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER TO SLOW THE BUSINESS OF PARLIAMENT – OBSTRUCTION AFTER OBSTRUCTION, DELAY AFTER DELAY.

BUT – WHEN THE TIME COMES TO STAND AND BE COUNTED – HE ALWAYS BACKS DOWN.

CANADIANS DESERVE TO HAVE A PARLIAMENT THAT WORKS.

THEY WANT THE GOVERNMENT TO KEEP GOVERNING,

TO ADDRESS ISSUES THAT MATTER TO THEM,

TO KEEP THE COUNTRY MOVING FORWARD.

SO MR. DION MUST DECIDE TO FISH OR CUT BAIT.

EITHER LET THE CURRENT PARLIAMENT WORK AND LET US GET ON WITH OUR MANDATE

– OR THE VOTERS THEMSELVES WILL DECIDE.

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Brison kicks off Liberal campaign in Guelph

Liberal MP and former cabinet minister Scott Brison was in Guelph this afternoon where he kicked off the campaign for candidate Frank Valeriote.

Here's the blurb from the Liberal campaign:

Mr. Valeriote and Mr. Brison took specific aim at Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who earlier this year told a business audience that Ontario is “the last place” to invest.

“The manufacturing sector has been especially hard hit by a high Canadian dollar, soaring energy prices, and a downturn in the US,” said Mr. Brison. “Even though the Canadian economy shrank in the first quarter of the year, the Conservatives ignore the problems and refuse to take action.”

“ We need immediate action on the manufacturing front and a help with a move towards diversifying the Guelph Economy” stated Mr. Valeriote. Mr. Valeriote also praised the Liberal Green Shift plan, which cuts income taxes and provides other tax credits while putting a price on carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.

“The new global economy will be driven by innovation in renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies – a green and diverse economy,” said Mr. Valeriote. “The University of Guelph and industries throughout WellingtonCounty have always been innovators in green technologies. The Green Shift will be good for the economy and for the environment.”

Voters in the Ontario riding of Guelph, along with those in the Quebec ridings of Westmount-Ville Marie and Saint-Lambert, will go to the polls in 40 days to replace the retiring Brenda Chamberlain (Lib.), Lucienne Robillard (Lib.) and Maka Kotto (BQ) respectively.

All three are shaping up as interesting races. Though a cautious gambler would bet on the incumbent parties to hold each seat, there's a reasonable chance of an upset in all three.

Valeriote, whose dad Mico was a long-time city council member and enjoys some cachet from his family's political longevity in Guelph — will face a tough fight.

He's up against NDP candidate Tom King — he of CBC's Dead Dog Café fame — as well as city councillor and Conservative candidate Gloria Kovach and the Green Party's environment critic Mike Nagy. Nagy is unlikely to win but he could draw off enough support from disaffected mainstream voters that his candidacy could significantly affect the final outcome and may even unseat the Liberals.

Kovach has been winning municipal elections for a long time in Guelph but the Conservatives put themselves behind the eight-ball when the national party stepped in earlier this year to fire the locally-chosen candidate Brett Barr. Barr carried the Conservative can in the 2006 general election but, for some reason, was not liked by the national folks. Many local Conservatives were and still are upset with the party for this and, as a result, Kovach has to do some healing within her own ranks while fending off other parties.

King has some name recognition and should easily connect with people he meets on the campaign trail. His problem in Guelph is that Guelph, a fairly affluent, urban riding with a lefty-university, has never come close to electing a New Democrat. It's been Liberal for 15 years; had a Progressive Conservative during Mulroney's premiership, was mostly Liberal during Trudeau's time and was represented by PC MP Alf Hales in the late 60s and early 70s. Hales, incidentally, is pitching in to help Kovach.

UPDATE: Guelph Mercury reporter Magda Konieczna blogs a good point: Until the 2006 election when Liberal Brenda Chamberlain was elected to sit on the opposition benches, the MP from Guelph has sat on the government side since 1972. Prior to Chamberlain, the last Guelph to sit in opposition? Why, that would be the aforementioned Mr. Hales.

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Conservative Party appoints communications officials

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Just as there is a new top dog in the communications shop at Conservative PMO, there is a new communications top dog at the Conservative Party. Ryan Sparrow, I learned this afternoon, officially assumed the role of Director of Communications for the party on July 1. If there was a director of communications for the party before Ryan, I didn't know about it. In fact, I'll bet in his new job Ryan will be doing pretty much what he's been doing for the last year, i.e. dealing with us media types (that's him on the left in the picture “dealing” with the CBC's Keith Boag), but now he has a a decent title and (I hope) a decent salary.

Ryan's new job was announced in a message sent around by Doug Finley, the party's director of political operations and national campaign director. In that note, Finley also named Geoff Donald to be deputy director of political operations, effective August 1.

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New Canadian service to connect journalists with sources

In the pre-Internet days, one of the standby reference books on the desks of most Canadian journalists was a book called Sources. In it, you got a listing, indexed by subject, of, well, sources. It was a great reference if you needed to find someone who could speak intelligently about rail safety or arctic wildlife or tax law. Sources is still published but I suspect most newsrooms and most journalists might use the electronic version.

Then in the early Internet days, there was a neat service called ProfNet. A journalist would e-mail a query to ProfNet and then the query would get circulated to the PR shops at universities and colleges across the continent (but mostly in the U.S.). If you were lucky, someone would call you back and, presto, you just found a new source. Somewhere along the way, ProfNet was incorporated into/bought by PR Newswire. I haven't used it in a while but it's still there.

Now there's a new service, Bob LeDrew let me know the other day, that does something similar to ProfNet. It's called JournalistSource and it's looking for journalists who want to use it and sources who might be valuable, erm, sources (!) for journalists. I encourage you to check it out.

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Byelection spending limits set

Elections Canada today announced the “Preliminary Candidate Election Expenses” limit for the three byelections that will take place Sept. 8.

This is the first of two spending limits that Elections Canada will establish for the byelections to take place in the ridings of Westmount-Ville-Marie and Saint-Lambert (both in Québec) and in Guelph (Ontario). This first limit applies to candidates. As they begin distributing lawn signs, printing flyers and buying ad space, this would be their budget.

A second limit will soon be announced as well. This limit will apply to national parties. It will be the maximum that registered political parties can spend to support the candidates in these elections.

Both limits could vary from riding to riding as they are based on a number of factors including the number of voters in each riding, the riding's population density and so on. Here's the candidate limits:

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Greens postpone policy convention citing byelection conflict

The Green Party of Canada today said it will postpone its planned national policy convention by two weeks.

The Greens were to meet in New Glasgow, NS from Sept. 5 to Sept. 7 but with the recent announcement that three byelections will be held on Sept. 8, the Greens have decided to move their convention to Sept. 19-21.

From the Green Party news release:

“When we learned that the by-elections would be the day after our national convention, we feared Greens would be forced to choose between the policy convention and campaigning on the last weekend before the by-elections,” said Green Party leader Elizabeth May. “With Deputy Leader Claude William Genest running in Westmount—Ville-Marie and Environment Critic Mike Nagy running in Guelph, moving the convention after the by-elections made sense. We can now ensure that Mr. Genest and Mr. Nagy will be there, along with their campaign teams.

“A strong showing for the Green Party in these by-elections can change everything. Electing Canada’s first Green MP in a by-election would guarantee my inclusion in the televised debates in the next election. Greens across the country will now be able to focus 100 percent of their energy on campaigning in these by-elections.”

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Jean Chrétien: My Years as Prime Minister: Entre Nous (I)

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On holiday, finally getting a chance to read Jean Chrétien's My Years as Prime Minister.

After working on Bay Street, covering technology companies for nearly a decade, I moved to Ottawa to try my hand at political reporting in the winter of 2005, just as Paul Martin's tenure as PM was winding down. As a result, I missed the Chrétien years and, as I start to read his memoirs of his time in power, I'm keen to see what he has to say, particularly in light of what I know about the current incumbent and how he conducts himself in office..

Here are some of sections I would have underlined had I not had a blog to do that for me …

…politics is about wanting power, getting it, exercising it, and keeping it. Helping people comes with it naturally, because you'll never be elected if you treat people badly …

… Politics is a sport in which the desire for victory is everything, because the ultimate reward is the power that lets you do some good for your constituents as a member of Parliament, for the stakeholders as a minister, and for the entire country and maybe even the rest of the world as prime minister … you're in the game to serve, since politics gives you the opportunity to help others. (p. 2-3)

In 1993…

… Canada was in terrible shape — exhausted, demoralized, and fractured. The federal, provincial and municipal governments were virtually bankrupt, and their combined debt was greater than the country's total GDP, its gross domestic product. Unemployment stuck at 11.4 per cent … (p. 3)

… Mulroney might have survived to fight and win a third term if he hadn't also put the country in a constitutional pressure cooker … (p. 4)

In Chrétien's estimation, Mulroney's gambles failed completely …

… his close friend and key lieutenant Lucien Bouchard quit the Tories and launched the Bloc Québecois, which was dedicated to advancing the cause of Quebec independence within the federal House; Preston Manning funneled Western discontent into his populist movement, the Reform Party; and Mulroney himself, with his personal popularity lower than the percentage of people who believed that Elvis Presley was still alive, decided to retreat from the field in February, 1993. (p 4-5)

Then he gloats – and why not? I know many will say he benefited from the fracture of the political right but the guy did win three majorities.

Ten years later, at my retirement … in 2003, Canada was enjoying the longest period of economic expansion since the 1960s, Ottawa was on the verge of announcing its seventh budget surplus in a row, unemployment had fallen to around seven per cent and was still dropping, the Parti Québécois had been defeated …, Western Canada had never been more prosperous, Canada's international reputation as an economic miracle and independent force for peace in the world had never been higher, and the Liberal Party … was .. ready to win its fourth consecutive majority. (p 5)

Prime ministers cannot – must not — get bogged down in the details of government or try to micromanage the business of the nation. Rather, it is their job to establish priorities, develop strategies, supervise crises, handle the toughest problems, communicate the complicated issues in simple ways, and delegate as much as possible to their ministers. (p 7)

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Liesl's new play

I'm just finishing up a two-week holiday on Canada's east coast. Many lobsters suffered a terrible fate and the weather was wonderful. And at the end of it, of course, the electronic inbox has swelled with all sorts of interesting things including a note from Liesl, an old friend who was (and still is I'll bet) a great director back in the days when I thought I'd be an actor. She has a reading in Toronto next week of her new play. You should go. If you can, she'd love a heads-up via e-mail. Here's a slightly edited version of a note she's sending around:

Heads up on a twenty minute private reading of my new play… We are shooting for a 9:00pm on Wednesday 30 July. If you want to come for diner at 7:00pm I would love an RSVP.

Canary

By Liesl Lafferty

with Tasha Lawrence and Kathryn Haggis

Canary is a comedy about Lily, a bright young woman who suffers from a debilitating aversion to artificial light. Her journey into the toxic world of environmental illness brings her to radical resolutions and raises the question, ‘Are you next?’

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