Category: Politics/Conservatives

Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory, who failed to win a seat in the last Ontario provincial election, was to tell reporters this morning of his intention to seek a seat to get into the legislature. Many thought that when Stephen Harper let it be known that he was about to appoint 18 senators, including two from Ontario, one might be a sitting Ontario MPP — Bob Runciman was the most likely suspect — freeing up a spot for Tory to run.

True to his word, Tory did issue a statement about this issue this morning — saying he'll wait until the new year to figure it all out. In the meantime, the working theory here in Ottawa is that Harper will unveil his new senators on Monday around lunchtime.

From Tory today:

STATEMENT FROM JOHN TORY (Toronto, ON) – “As you know, I have been working to determine a course of action by the end of the year pursuant to which I could seek election to the Legislature. Details of that course of action will be finalized between now and the end of the year. Since I am out of the province until early in the New Year, and since the proposed resolution of this matter also involves others, we have fixed a specific date on which I will outline my plans and answer your questions. Accordingly I will hold a media availability on Friday, January 9. Precise details regarding timing will be confirmed that week. .”

Want to get into the Senate? This is the guy (left) you've got to get by first. His name is Dave Penner, an energetic, no-nonsense guy, not yet 40, just over 40, with a young family who hails from Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont. Penner is best known to journalists as the 'wagon-master' during the last few election campaigns. It's Penner's job to keep Harper's buses and planes moving and on schedule and he is ruthless about that. Once, during the 2005-06 campaign, we woke up at a downtown hotel in Vancouver and he ordered the buses to leave even though I and Senator Marjory LeBreton had not yet boarded. We had been chatting about something on the curb outside the hotel and had not noticed that it was departure time. Too bad for us, the buses left for the morning's campaign event in Burnaby.

The Senator and I hailed a cab and beat Penner and the buses to the campaign event but we had learned our lesson. I'm proud to say I'm now one of first to report to the buses every morning (and I think Senator LeBreton is pretty punctual about that now, too!) I snapped this picture of Penner during the 2008 Leaders' Tour while we were stopped for a campaign event in Farnham, Que.

When Harper took office in 2006, he named Penner his Director of Appointments, the same job that Senator LeBreton had, as it turns out, when Brian Mulroney was prime minister. Penner's title nowadays is slightly different — Director, Personnel, Administration and Appointments — but the function is still largely the same: Finding, vetting, and nominating the right people for the nearly 500 appointments the PMO has made this year alone.

The federal budget will be tabled before the end of the year, the parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper told CBC News.

“In just over 30 days [Finance Minister Jim Flaherty] has got a budget that will come out that will include yet more [economic] stimulus,” Poilievre, said Saturday. By my reckoning, that means we're ready for a budget just after Christmas but before New Year's. That, of course, would be the plain, everyday meaning of “just over 30 days) from Nov. 29.

Of course, if the finance minister plans to table his budget in the House of Commons, some extraordinary measures will be required for MPs last week agreed that the first sitting day of the new year would be Jan. 26 and that is certainly not, as Poilievre said, “just over 30 days” away. That would be “just over 60 days away”. Budgets are normally delivered in mid-February which would be, as I write this “just over 90 days” away.

The date of the budget, all politicians may find it hard to believe, is something that many Canadians are interested in because they are looking to Ottawa for little help in these nervous economic times. I personally know people who lost their job last week and have other friends who were laid off last month. Those folks were counting on the PM when he told reporters in Peru last week that he stood ready with “unprecedented fiscal action.” A week later, his finance minister promised no new initiatives and, in fact, cut spending. To the newly jobless, a budget “just over 30 days” away is about 30 days too late.

“When they play chicken, they wind up looking up like chickens.”

– Conservative Defence Minister Peter MacKay, quoted in The Chronicle-Herald, Nov. 28, 2008

At the risk of sounding cheeky, some chickens have come home to roost …

[Conservative] Government House Leader Jay Hill announced the following changes in the business of the House of Commons for next week:

– The Liberal Supply Day that was designated for Monday, December 1, 2008 will be rescheduled for Monday, December 8, 2008.

– The Government will not schedule any confidence votes prior to December 8, 2008.

Technorati Tags: conservatives, house of commons

[Versions of this story appeared in today's Vancouver Sun , Victoria Times-Colonist, the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, Edmonton Journal, the Nanaimo Daily News, and online at National Post]]

LIMA, Peru – On February 24, 1998, Paul Martin, then the country's finance minister, rose triumphantly in the House of Commons to deliver the budget speech.

“What I am about to say is something no Canadian government has been able to say for almost 50 years,” he said. “We will balance the budget next year. We will balance the budget the year after that. And, Mr. Speaker, we will balance the budget this year.”

When Jean Chretien's government delivered its first budget in 1994, the deficit had swelled to $45-billion. And it would not be until Chretien's second mandate, in Martin's 1998-1999 budget, that the deficit would be eliminated.

“Never again will we allow the spectre of overspending to haunt this land,” Martin said in that speech. “Canadians have paid to see the movie ‘The Deficit'. They don't want to pay to see the sequel.”

Now, just over a decade later, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is bracing Canadians to watch that sequel.

It's a remarkable turn for Harper who has fought against deficits and in favour of balanced budgets his entire political life. Indeed, he and other former Progressive Conservatives left the the party of Brian Mulroney in the early 1990s partly because of their disgust in his inability to rein in government spending and tackle the deficit.

“The government of Canada today is in surplus,” Harper said Sunday, at the conclusion of the summit. “The goverment of Canada today is not planning a deficit. But if the government of Canada decides … that we do have to engage in fiscal stimulus, that government spending is essential not just to shore up economic activity but investment markets, that would be the occasion we would go into what would be called a cyclical or a short-term deficit.

“But we would only do that if we can assure ourselves that we can do that while preserving a structural surplus, that any return to a normal level of economic growth will immediately take us out of deficit. And that's the only condition under which we would consider that set of actions.”

Still, explaining the fine points of structural deficits and structural surpluses to an electorate presents a considerable political challenge. Just six weeks ago, during the recent election campaign, Harper was promising he would never go into deficit.

“In terms of the education job, I think we've done a good job at educating the public to the view that deficits are generally bad,” Harper said Sunday. “We now may be in a period where we have to educate the public to a somewhat less simplistic view. There are occasions where deficits are not only not necessarily bad, they are essential.”

Throughout his political career — as Preston Manning's chief policy advisor, to the political battles he fought to unite the right and win the leadership of the new Conservative Party of Canada, and finally in three federal elections he has fought as his party's leader — maintaining a balanced budget has been a core, bedrock commitment. It has never come with an asterisk beside it, denoting that there would be some conditions under which the Stephen Harper of five or 10 years ago — or even six weeks ago — would countenance a deficit.

“I began my political career, about 20 years ago now, in a fledgling new political party, in part to campaign for the necessity of fixing that structural deficit,” Harper acknowledged in a speech here Saturday.

But Harper is now the steward of a Canadian economy facing a crisis potentially as dangerous as Progressive Conservative prime minister R.B. Bennett did when he won office on July 28, 1930, just at the beginning of the long, painful decade of the Great Depression.

“We are talking here about the development of economic conditions around the world that we have not seen in over 70 years. We have not seen this kind of quick slowing of economic growth with widespread deflationary pressures … any time in the post-war period,” Harper said Sunday. “We have to be pragmatic and not ideological when we find ourselves in situations that are unusual.”

Bennett, who coincidentally represented a Calgary riding just as Harper does, at first raised tariffs on imports in order to protect Canadian jobs and then would later raise taxes to protect the Canadian treasury.

Harper said those sorts of measures were precisely the wrong initiatives, deepening and lengthening the depression.

APEC, on the weekend, agreed not to bring in any new trade barriers for at least 12 months, a key goal for Harper when he left Ottawa Friday.

The Depression was well underway before Bennett realized he, too, would have to engage in massive public spending. Harper will begin a spending program sooner, so long as he is convinced he will not run what he and other economists call structural deficits.

“In colloquial terms, it means you would not run long-term or repeated deficits,” Harper said Sunday. “What it means technically is that you wouldn't experience a deficit at a normal level of economic growth.”

In Harper's view, the deficits of the Trudeau and Mulroney years should have been avoided because, by and large, those were years of normal and occasionally rapid economic growth.

“It's my view as an economist, that you should run a structural surplus at a normal level of economic growth,” Harper said.

Harper, who has a post-graduate degree in economics and planned to be a professor in the field before entering politics, said that it was even more vital for governments to ramp up spending in times of deflationary pressure. Canada and most developed economies continue to see low to moderate levels of inflation but there is a danger that rapidly declining commodity prices and rapidly rising unemployment could bring about negative inflation or deflation. Most economists believe deflation to be one of the most dangerous threats to any economy.

“And we have to clear about the current situation,” Harper said. “We're not sure we're quite there.”

From today's Vancouver Sun “Harper wrestles with deficit optics”:

Just six weeks ago, during the election, Harper was promising he would never go into deficit.

“In terms of the education job, I think we've done a good job at educating the public to the view that deficits are generally bad,” Harper said Sunday. “We now may be in a period where we have to educate the public to a somewhat less simplistic view. There are occasions where deficits are not only not necessarily bad, they are essential.”

[Read the rest of the story]

Conservative blogger Stephen Taylor is trying to live a precarious double or triple life. First, it seems pretty clear that he is a political partisan doing his bit to make sure that Conservatives continue to govern the country. Second, he draws a salary as an advisor/communicator for the Manning Institute for Democracy, a conservative initiative founded by Preston Manning to train politicians and organizer. And, finally, he's often tried to present news and information with the sort of independent, non-partisan bent that is more frequently associated with those who self-identify as journalists. I, for one, wish him luck. Many academics and journalism theorists would call some of what he's trying to do civic journalism or participatory journalism and I'm all for those kind of bottom-up experiments even though I may or may not agree with his politics.

I say this all with a tinge of professional jealousy , for Taylor, whether it be by dint of his connections or persistence, has what it is, so far as I know, the first one-on-one interview (left) with our new Industry Minister Tony Clement. (It matters little to the viewer/reader, incidently, who gets the scoop or how the scoop is acquired, so long as it is, in fact, a scoop.) CTV's Question Period got him for their broadcast of Nov. 16 but Taylor got him on Nov. 15 at the party's policy convention in Winnipeg.

In the interview, Clement notes that he's been “drinking from the firehose”, so to speak, in terms of bringing himself up to speed on issues within his portfolio. The first days of his tenure, of course, have been dominated by questions about support for the auto sector. But, as Clement tells Taylor, autos isn't the only sectoral interest he has. He's also concerned, for example, about aerospace and forestry.

“My job is to make sure that Canadian markets work in such a way as to promote competitiveness and productivity … We've got some short-term issues with the world economic meltdown. My department is working hand-in-glove with the Department of Finance on issues like access to credit, issues like liquidity in the marketplace, those kinds of things. So I'm the marketplace guy. I'm there to ensure our marketplace is working, that we continue to look for ways that Canadians are competitive and productive for the future.”

Taylor is the first (again, so far as I know) to ask if Clement's approach to the thorny issue of copyright will be different from his predecessors. Clement gives the stock answer – he's looking at the file and talking about it — but then Taylor asks him if the fact that the new Heritage Minister is not from Quebec will make a difference. The copyright file has been jointly managed by Industry and Heritage. The new Heritage Minister is James Moore, a BC MP, who, at age 32, has already won four general elections. “I'm part of the iPod generation,” said the 47-year-old Clement, “but [James] is really part of the iPod generation.” (Tip of the toque to the perfesser for this …)

And, given tomorrow's exciting race for Speaker of the House of Commons, Taylor also has videotaped interviews with four of the challengers to Speaker Peter Milliken. Three of them, certainly, are Taylor' s fellow travellers politically but one, Joe Comartin, is a New Democrat. The incumbent, Milliken, didn't want to play with Taylor. Taylor notes he's “not doing press”. Presumably, not agreeing to be interviewed by Taylor means not doing “press.” Fair enough. Taylor's trying to walk the walk so he's entitled to talk the talk. Other challengers were not available. Still, I'll bet this is about as good a response rate you'd get if you were a chase producer at any broadcast network.

The Conservative Party of Canada holds its second ever policy convention this week in Winnipeg and, after quickly glancing over the social calendar, there's no denying the Conservatives know how to put the party back into Conservative Party!

In addition to a National Caucus Meeting (Thursday afternoon), a speech by the One, the Only, the Right Honourable Prime Minister Stephen J. Harper (Thursday night), and lots of policy discussions, there will also be lots of social or semi-social things to do for the 700 or so delegates who will attend. For one thing, I've heard a certain Environment Minister has a hospitality suite if you care to pop by and discuss the future of the Conservative Party of Canada when the One, the Only has moved along. Members of the national executive council, I'm told, may also be organizing their own hospitality suites. And don't forget: At every gathering of Conservatives or Progressive Conservatives for what seems like the last two decades, you can always count on Peter Van Loan – recently put in charge of the country's police forces and spies, I might add — to put on his own hospitality suite.

In addition the to the hospitality suites, there's lots of events, such as:

• Rahim and Helena Wedding Social Rahim Jaffer was a surprise loser on election night, going down to defeat in his Edmonton riding to the NDP's Linda Duncan. The big consolation prize came from his fiancé, Conservative MP and Minister of State Helena Guergis who showed up the next day ready to get hitched. Conservatives in Winnipeg can celebrate these celebrity nuptials with the Boogie Nights Band at the Delta on Saturday night. (Question: If the Power Couple at the first ever Conservative Convention in Montreal was Peter and Belinda, are Rahim and Helena the Power Couple for this second-ever convention? Who will it be at the third convention?)
• The Canadian Private Copying Collective Suite The Canadian Private Copying Collective cordially invites Conservative Party of Canada delegates to our hospitality suite to meet some of Canada’s outstanding musicians, performing artists and songwriters. (Thursday all night at the Radisson. Bring your iPod!)
• Canada-Israel Committee Part-ay All night Thursday at the Delta.
• UPDATE: Canada India Foundation and the Canada India Interparliamentary Association does the hospitality suite thing all night Friday. Location unknown, I'm afraid, but if you ask around, shouldn't too hard to find.
• Lunch with Jason Kenney Our new Citizenship and Immigration Minister is the keynote speaker at lunch at the Marlborough on Thursday.
• Eggs over easy with Monte Monte Solberg — you remember him, don't you? — headlines the Conservative Club of Winnipeg's breakfast at the Norwood Hotel. You need tickets for this one on Thursday morning.
• The next premier of Manitoba? Hugh McFadyen is the leader of Manitoba's Progressive Conservatives and the Manning Centre for Democracy is presenting Hugh teamed up on an exciting double bill with Dr. Frank Plummer who will talk about infectious diseases. (Add your own punchline here …). All the action from the Manning Centre is at The Winnipeg Millenium Library. That's right, the library! On Friday, from 4 till 6 pm.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's fiercest and sometimes most effective critic has decided to shut down his campaign against Ottawa's Conservatives in recognition of the severity of the economic and fiscal crisis.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams, who leads his province's Progressive Conservative Party, ran an ABC campaign — Anybody But Conservative — during last month's federal election. Largely because of that, the federal Conservatives lost all three seats they held in the province and were wiped off the provincial electoral map.

But today — just a few weeks later — at their first meeting since the federal election, Williams said that period of acrimonious Ottawa-St. John's relations is over and he even had good things to say about the job Ottawa has been doing to deal with the crisis. This, of course, from a man who would only refer to the Right Honourable Prime Minister Stephen Harper simply as “Steve” for the last couple of years.

“Those days are behind me,” Williams told me after he and other premiers had a behind-closed-doors three-hour “workshop” on the global and Canadian economy. “In times like this, in times of crisis, in times of a serious situation in this country, it's not the time for parochial issues or individual jurisdictional issues. So my message in there was quite strong: It's one of co-operation and it's important to put a united front and solidarity for the people of Canada to be working together to get through this. If we're divided in that room, then that's going to destroy confidence in the Canadian public. I was quite pleased at the meeting. It was a very cordial meeting. It was a constructive meeting because a lot of good ideas came on the table.”

Equalization payments came up once during the session. Quebec brought it up. But though Williams has strong feelings about equalization — indeed, he blew his top and declared war on the Harper Tories over what he perceived to be a broken promise on commitments made to his province he bit his tongue during Monday's session.

“Given our special circumstances, I just didn't feel it was appropriate,” Williams told me.

Here's some of what he said later in a scrum with reporters:

I want to tell you quite frankly there was no tension in the room from my perspective and I want to tell you I didn't sense any tension from the prime minister. I think everybody was there acknowledging that, look, we're trying to find solutions to get through a hard time…

When it comes to working for the Canadian people to get us through this storm, we need to be together. There's also a general sense of comfort in the room, and I specifically expressed this to the prime minister, that I had a comfort in way the Canadian government, our Canadian government, is handling this problem, the fact that they have not been over-reactionary, it's been steady as she goes approach and they're coming up with solutions as they need them as opposed to being in a situation where they're just going to throw money at things and try and appease people.

So I'm comfortable with that. To go off to the G20, I think the prime minister has had a comfort level now knowing that Canadian premiers and leaders are generally with him….

There's nothing to be gained by me going into that room and attacking the prime minister or to bringing up old issues with the prime minister. I'm there today not only as the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador but as a Canadian leader, as one of 14 people in that room who basically are there to find solutions and answer for Canadians and make sure that ordinary Canadians had the confidence in their leadership. For me to go in and rant and rave about issues that are important to my province would not help Canada and quite frankly that was the tone in the room today and I felt quite comfortable when we finished up …

A reporter pointed out that, with no MPs from his province, there are no Newfoundlanders in the federal cabinet. In the last Parliament there were three MPs from Williams' province: Norman Doyle and Loyola Hearn from St. John's and Fabian Manning, also on the Avalon Peninsula. Hearn was the Fisheries Minister. But Hearn and Doyle retired and Manning — the lone Conservative incumbent standing for re-election in Nfld – succumbed to Williams ABC campaign. So Williams was asked if that was a problem:

Peter MacKay has been designated as the minister for Newfoundland and Labrador, but you know, all ministers are Canadian ministers, all ministers of the federal government should represent Newfoundland and Labrador to the best of their abilities. For example, the new minister of fisheries [Gail Shea] from Prince Edward Island, I have no doubt whatsoever that she will represent the interests of Newfoundland and Labrador to the best of her ability. You know, there's been an impression that we would be punished because we don't have a specific person at the cabinet table, that that'll work against us but I see federal ministers as Canadian ministers. I'm a Canadian and people in Newfoundland and Labrador are Canadian and we expect to be treated like Canadians.