Month: September 2008

Blog admin note: I'm over at the Post's site, too

I was a National Post “day oner” — still have the leather jacket we all got when our first paper rolled off the presses on Oct. 26, 1998. My editor, then, was one Mr. John Ivison, who now sits kiddie corner to me here in Ottawa where he's famous for writing a column on national politics.

I'm pleased to point out that some or most of what you'll read here is also being cross-posted to the Post's most excellent “Full Comment” section. If you haven't seen the space, check it out. That's the online hangout of Jonathan Kay and most of the Post's editorial board as well as stars of the Post's commentariat including David Frum and Conrad Black.

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Meet yer Quebec candidates

On his first full day of campaigning in 2005, Stephen Harper was at the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City with several of his Quebec City area candidates behind him. Asked to introduce some of his candidates — which included future cabinet ministers Josée Verner and Maxime Bernier — Harper told us to get that information from his staff. That event did not go well.

Harper is in Quebec City again, to start this campaign. But this time, he introduced each candidate, which now includes several MPs from the Quebec City region.

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Family men

Liberal leader Stéphane Dion made his campaign-opening statement in the House of Commons foyer, the same spot that then-opposition leader Stephen Harper opened the last general election campaign.

For his statement, Dion was accompanied by his wife Janine Krieber. Krieber did not say anything but she and Dion grabbed hands and smiled at each other when I asked Dion about the “family man” ads the Conservatives have been airing in the last week. The Conservatives seemed to stress Harper's status as a family man and I asked both men this morning about that: For Harper, why he thought it was important for voters to consider his “family man” status as they cast their votes and, for Dion, if he thought that voters ought to consider that as they cast a ballot.

Harper said his advisors suggested that Canadians had not seen him in that light and so they decided to present that particular view of him. Dion said he believed that there ought to be separation, so far as media attention goes, between someone's private life and public life but that, he, too, is a family man. Harper has a wife, two children and lots of cats. Dion has a wife, a child, and a dog.

Political strategists say that the Conservatives initially positioned Harper's softer side in order to being winning over female voters. That's a demographic that has historically been lukewarm to Harper and the Conservatives.

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Harper lights up his war room

Prime Minister Stephen Harper paid a visit to his war room after leaving his meeting with Governor General Michaëlle Jean this morning at Rideau Hall and before his arrival at Ottawa's airport for a flight to Quebec City. The Conservative war room — dubbed the 'fear factory' by some wags in Ottawa — sprawls across the entire second floor of an office building in an industrial park in Ottawa's east end. About 100 people go to work there every day. The facility is a high-tech affair with IP-based telephones and a fully-functioning TV studio.

Harper paid a visit to these folks to pump his troops up as he and they head into battle for the Oct 14 vote.

The Conservatives plan to use its war room as their national communication hub. I'll be out there at 6 am Ottawa time Monday morning for a press conference with two (as yet unnamed) ministers. We've been told to expect a lot of bright-and-early pressers from their war room as the Conservatives try to set the day's agenda by being first with the news. Harper is spending the night in Vancouver and, as a result, he will show up a little later in the day in the eastern Canadian mediascape.

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Buckler's back

Sandra Buckler is back in the public eye. Buckler retired as the prime minister's director of communications in midsummer and has kept a pretty low profile ever since. But today she's back in the thick of things as part of the “spinner” team for the Conservatives. Buckler was a panelist on CTV Newsnet. She was appearing from Ottawa next to former Liberal cabinet minister Brian Tobin.

Buckler got her job as the top communications advisor to the prime minister shortly Stephen Harper took office back in 2006. Many in Ottawa believe she was tapped for that position because of her effectiveness as a spinner in the 2005-06 campaign. Buckler's style during that campaign was to refuse to rise to the bait — often offered up rather aggressively by Liberal Susan Murray -and maintain a pleasant demeanour while focusing like a laser beam on the day's message.

Even former prime minister Brian Mulroney noticed how effective she was. Mulroney, who spent most of the winter campaign at his home in Florida, phoned up the Conservative war room in mid-campaign to personally congratulate Buckler on the job she was doing. For Buckler, who was a big fan of Mulroney, it was one of her personal highlights of the campaign.

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Loyola says that's it

The news that Loyola Hearn would not seek re-election in his St. John's South-Mount Pearl riding broke late last week and was not entirely unexpected. Hearn, who finished his career in Ottawa as Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, is, so far as I can tell, widely admired among his colleagues, the press, and others. He's a good egg and Parliament would be better off with more like him in it.

Hearn has been the point man in his province in fending off the attacks from the nominally Conservative premier there. I reproduce, below, Hearn's farewell statement and you very much get the sense that he'd dearly love to have a crack at Danny Billions:

After two decades of elected service to Newfoundland and Labrador and my country, I will not run in the next federal election.

I want to thank everyone who has supported me over the years, and who gave me the honour of serving as their elected member at both the provincial and federal levels. But most of all, I want to thank Maureen and my children for their tireless support. People often only see the public figure, but family members give up so much to support those in public office. Their love and patience is a real blessing, and I look forward to spending more time with them and my grandchildren.

While it is admittedly tempting to throw my hat in the ring one more time to fight the misinformation campaign underway in our province, I told my family after the 2006 election that it would be my last as a candidate.

I support Prime Minister Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada, and I look forward to helping them win the upcoming election, and then to continuing to serve my province and my country however I can in the future

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The Farmers Market in Halifax: Fresh pork from the Tories

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, as my friend Paul Vieira reports today, concludes that the Conservative federal government went on a spending spree this summer issuing 294 press releases that, when you add up the dollar figure in each one, comes to about $15-billion. And that's just since the end of June when Parliament went on its summer recess.

Now, I've been tracking these very same spending announcements all summer and, if you ask me, our friends at the CTF underestimated the spending announcements rolled out this summer — by perhaps as much as $5-billion. I'll have more to say about that shortly. I should note, however, that earlier this summer, we were reporting that, within 23 days of being let out for summer recess, 62 Conservative MPs had put their names on more than 130 news releases in which they announced, re-announced or otherwise took credit for over nearly $3 billion in spending.

This week alone — as we head to a federal election campaign tomorrow — there's been more than $5-billion in spending announcements.

Now, the CTF and any of the Conservatives' political opponents would agree that much of the spending was appropriate and necessary. Infrastructure Minister Lawrence Cannon, for example, accounted for $10-billion in announcements just by signing deals to give Ontario and Quebec money for infrastructure projects. (One of those — $4-billion for Quebec — was the biggie this week). And that may only be a fraction of the billions required to modernize the roads, bridges, and pipes in those two provinces. (All provinces, by the way, got some part of Ottawa's $34-billion infrastructure pot, the latest being Manitoba on Friday.!)

But there's some other spending announcements that surely must raise an eyebrow or two in the Conservative Party's mostly western base, a base that favoured aggressive spending cuts and once upon a time, frowned on the sorts of things I'll list below — particularly on the eve of an election. These are two announcements, both from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, made on Friday, two days before the election call:

  • The Government of Canada will invest $2 million in a new farmers’ market proposed for the Halifax waterfront.
  • A $50,000 contribution to the Nova Scotia Curling Association in connection with the Sobeys Slam 2008 international curling tournament in New Glasgow in November. (Sept. 5/08) New Glasgow, incidentally, just happens to be the riding of the minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency — one Peter MacKay.

Once upon a time, Stephen Harper called this sort of thing pork. Now he says, “This is demonstrating what the government has been doing and will continue to do for Canadians. This is the kind of thing we're going to do if we get re-elected.”

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Bloc goes Green

The Bloc Québécois is first out of the gate to announce that they will be trying to run a carbon-neutral campaign. Just as it did during the last general election, the Bloc will pay a third-party firm to offset each tonne of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the BQ's campaign tour.

Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe uses the occasion of making this announcement to point out how difficult it can be to actually calculate his campaign's carbon footprint because there are no clear benchmarks for emissions produced by the manufacturers of the three buses that will carry BQ types around la belle province for the next 38 days.

“Ceci réaffirme la nécessité d’imposer, comme nous le proposons dans notre plateforme, des normes d’étiquetage écoénergétique pour les véhicules neufs et usagers vendus au Canada,” Duceppe said.

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Election 2008 begins

Just out from the PMO:
—– Original Message —–
From: Gallery-Tribune <pressres2@parl.gc.ca>
Sent: Fri Sep 05 16:23:46 2008
Subject: OTTAWA – ONTARIO / SEPT. 07 / 07 SEPT. / 8:05

Media Advisory

For immediate release

Date: Friday, September 5, 2008

PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER

PUBLIC EVENTS

OTTAWA – Public event for Prime Minister Stephen Harper for Sunday, September 7th is:

Ottawa

8:05 a.m. – Prime Minister Stephen Harper will leave 24 Sussex en route to Rideau Hall to meet with Governor General Michaëlle Jean to ask her to dissolve the 39th Parliament for an election call October 14th, 2008.

24 Sussex

Ottawa, Ontario

* Open to Media *

– 30 –

PMO Press Office: (613) 957-5555

This document is also available at http://pm.gc.ca <http://pm.gc.ca/>

Avis aux médias

Pour diffusion immédiate

Date : le vendredi 5 septembre 2008

ACTIVITÉS PUBLIQUES DU

PREMIER MINISTRE STEPHEN HARPER

OTTAWA – L’activité publique du Premier ministre Stephen Harper le dimanche 7 septembre est la suivante :

Ottawa

8 h 5 – Le Premier ministre Stephen Harper quittera le 24, promenade Sussex en direction de Rideau Hall, où il demandera à la Gouverneure générale Michaëlle Jean de dissoudre la 39e législature en prévision d’un scrutin le 14 octobre 2008.

24, promenade Sussex

Ottawa

* Ouvert aux médias *

– 30 –

Service de presse du CPM : 613-957-5555

Ce document se trouve également à l’adresse : http://pm.gc.ca <http://pm.gc.ca/>

Note: Vous avez reçu ce courriel à titre d'information, et parce que vous figurez sur notre liste de distribution. Si vous souhaitez qu'on retire votre nom ou qu'on ajoute un autre nom, faites-le-nous savoir par l'entremise d'un courriel à pressres2@parl.gc.ca <mailto:pressres2@parl.gc.ca?subject=Notices-Avis>

Longest minority governments

We reported today that Stephen Harper will pull the plug on the 39th parliament on Sunday.

When he does, the government he led will go down, by my count, as the second-longest minority government in our history. The 39th parliament will have lasted 888 days, well back of the record.

The Library of Parliament counts from the beginning of the 'term' of the government which it records for Harper's government as April 3, 2006. (The general election was on Jan. 23, 2006 and he and his first cabinet were sworn in at the end of February.)

The record was 1,277 days and it is held by the 14th parliament which began on Dec. 6, 1921 and was led by former Prime Minister William Lyon MacKenzie King.

Until Harper took silver in this interesting category, the second-place spot was held by the 27th parliament which lasted 826 days. That one was co-hosted by prime ministers Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau. It began with the general election of Nov. 8, 1965.

UPDATE: Harper's Conservatives claim that, in fact, the 14th Parliament doesn't deserve the honour but that the 39th Parliament is the longest.

Here's their thinking. First, they count the Harper tenure from the day the election was held. On Sunday, that will be 959 days.

Now, in the election of Dec. 6, 1921, King's Liberals won 117 seats. The opposition won 118. King was in a minority.

But then in December, 1922, the Conservatives tell me, two MPs crossed the floor from the oppposition benches to sit with the government. At that point, King's minority ended and he was running a majority government.

But then in December, 1923, the Liberals lost two byelections and returned to minority status. Then, in November 1924, they won two other byelections and won back majority status.

We're looking for clarification …