Month: November 2009

With lightning speed, it spread from Blackberry to Blackberry among the 2,000 or so Conservatives in black-tie this evening at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre for the first ever True Patriot Love Tribute Dinner: Thatcher has died.

Those three words are daggers in the heart of many in the Canadian conservative movement who put former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and former U.S. president Ronald Reagan at the centre of the pantheon of their political universe. Indeed, during Stephen Harper's first visit overseas (not only his first visit overseas as PM but his first visit overseas – period) to the United Kingdom, Harper, with Jason Kenney at his wing, scored an audience with the Iron Lady. Trust me: Conservatives in Canada like her a lot. I swear Kenney was walking on air post-Thatcher meeting.

So back to the dinner in Toronto. From one BlackBerry to another — the messsage spread: “Thatcher is dead!” “Thatcher has died” “Did you hear about Thatcher? Dead!” Politicians and their advisors huddled. Should they acknowledge this passing of a legend from the dais? It was a non-partisan event, after all, with none other than LIberal Leader Michael Ignatieff in attendance. Should they grieve? Would this take the focus off of the purpose of the evening which is to honour Canadian military families?

None of those questions, it turns out, needed to be answered for Thatcher was not Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 but was in fact Thatcher, John Baird's cat. That's right. Transport Minister John Baird, at home in his riding in Nepean, Ont. was mourning the passing of his cat Thatcher and sent a message to that effect to someone at the dinner in Toronto.

To Minister Baird, we send our condolences and sympathy for cats are special beings and can be great friends. (Your correspondent's household has three such friends. )

Of course, the big real news of the night was the announcement that the Government of Canada donated $250,000 to the Military Families Fund.

Lawrence Leduc is a professor in the political science department at the University of Toronto. He was one of several I called up today to get their observations about Monday's byelection results.

Here's an excerpt of the note he was generous enough to send my way:

Three things seem to stand out. Given that by-elections are generally bad news for governing parties, the Conservatives did rather well. That may not say much of anything about a future general election, but it does run against the most common by-election pattern.
Second, the slippage of the Bloc in a riding that has been fairly reliable in the past may signal something. I have been expecting Bloc voting strength to erode for a long time now. But it never has. This could be an indication that the Bloc may have difficulty holding on to some of its long standing sources of support. However, the same caution applies. By-elections are not all that realiabe as indicators of longer term trends.
Finally, I am a bit surprised that other parties didn't seem to make any impact in these elections. By-elections are a natural stalking ground for Green parties, for example. But they seemed to be almost invisible this time. Wonder why. Didn't look like they even made an effort. Where was Elizabeth May over the past few weeks?

A sampling of the reaction on Twitter to tonight's byelection wins. Your new MPs are Conservatives Scott Armstrong in Nova Scotia and Bernard Genereux in Quebec; New Democrat Finn Donnelly in New Westminster, B.C., and Pequiste Daniel Paille in Hochelaga:

Siksay: “…congratulations Fin Donnelly, NDP Member of Parliament, New Westminster-Coquitlam http://bit.ly/4ndBN”

PaulCalandra “Congratulations to newly elected MP's!”

mpjamesmoore: “Very excited to have 2 new Conservative MPs. Congratulations to Fin Donnelly on a successful campaign. See you on a flight soon Fin!”

Martin_Dumont: “tres content des résultats a Rivière-du-Loup et en NE!!!”

brownbarrie: “glad Conservative Government has two new members. congrats to teams in Montmagny and Cumberland Colchester”

KeviNDP: “A solid night for the New Democrats: Strong hold on #NWCO and 2nd place showings in Nova Scotia and Montreal. Awesome!”

oliviachow: “Congratulations to new NDP MP Fin Donnelly – 51.1% in 50 polls #NWOC #cdnpoli”

KeviNDP: “#HOCH: 5% of the vote “Team Dion” got just walked from “Team Ignatieff' to the New Democrats … on the island of Montreal. #ndp”

rodbruinooge: “Congrats to the crew in Montmagny!”

liberalrocco: “@stephen_taylor If trend holds #MKR will elect pro-Kyoto progressive Conservative trapped in a Conservative frame. Wonder how long? #cdnpoli”

Paying attention to other things, we have:

Carolyn_Bennett: “Do we need greatness in politics ????? Terrific show tonight on www.tvo.org ….Wallen Newell, Janice Stein, Jeffrey Simpson, Andrew Coyne..”

Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews is the key guest on this week's edition of Focus Ontario, the Global Ontario television show hosted by Queen's Park bureau chief Sean Mallen. (Airs 6:30 pm on Saturday nights)

Mallen taped the interview with Matthews today and reports that, for the first time, she was openly critical of the way the federal government is handling the H1N1 crisis. She told Mallen that she’s spoken to her federal counterpart, Leona Aglukkaq, on more than one occasion but is not happy with the information flow regarding supplies.

“I've stressed to her how important it is that we at the provincial level know how much vaccine we're getting and when we're going to get it, so we can plan. So far we're not seeing that cooperation that we need. I hope that it will be better as time goes on.” Matthews said.

Matthews also tells Mallen that suggestions about vaccine doses sitting in warehouses is not the case in Ontario. She says they’re pumping it out as fast as they get it.

I can report that some of my family members in Thunder Bay, Ont. called to day to say that clinics there have been thrown open to the general public. They are innoculating anyone now on a first-come, first-served basis.