Golfing before the storm: A Ralph and Sam moment

I grew up watching Merry Melodies cartoons and my favourite bits included the battle between Sam, the sheepdog and Ralph, the coyote (a coyote that looked a lot like Wile E. Coyote). You remember the opening scene? Sheepdog with lunchpail shows up to punch the clock; sees Coyote with lunchpail. Sheepdog: “Morning, Ralph.” Coyote: “Morning, Sam”. It was a friendly exchange common among a couple of co-workers. They would then proceed to the day's work of Coyote trying to steal the sheep and being caught each time by the sheepdog who would then proceed to beat the heck out of Coyote. At the end of the day, whistle would blow, and the pair would punch out for the day. “Night, Sam”. “Night Ralph”.

These were professional opponents, sworn enemies that literally tried to kill each other during the workday but could exhibit some congeniality outside the work day.

Something like that happens everyday here in Ottawa between the “dirty tricks gang” of both the Conservatives and the Liberals. These folks, officially known as the Conservative Research Group (CRG) and the Liberal Caucus Research Bureau (LRB), are sworn enemies of each other and yet, every day, they show up for work in the same building — a brand new office tower just a block off the Parliament Hill — use the same coffee stand, share the same elevator and then, after polite small talk, head into their offices two floors apart to start figuring out what ways to metaphorically bash the other guy's political leaders.

Today, a CRG staffer came to work and instead of saying “Hi Sam” to his LRB counterpart, ran to grab his digital camera (standard outfit issue for the dirty tricks gang) to take some pictures of the LRB folks. The Liberals were sitting in the lobby with golf gear and golf bags at the ready, about to head off for a day on the links. Apparently, it was a pre-planned tournament type-of-thing involving most members of the LRB and they were determined to proceed even though, just hours earlier, the PMO had ordered the Governor General to cancel a planned trip to China which most inside the bubble here in Ottawa took as virtual confirmation that the Prime Minister will call a general election next Thursday or Friday. “We think its prudent the GG stay at home,” PMO spokesperson Dimitri Soudas said with a straight face when asked about it.

A Conservative who will remain unidentified sent along this picture of the LRB folks ready for golf this morning. “The Liberal grassroots is out there fighting byelections or getting ready for a fall election, and these guys, who are responsible for election readiness, are going golfing?”

I am also informed by another source that there were at least two, and may have been more, last-minute cancellations by Liberal staffers who stayed in the office.

So there you go. Make of this what you will. Will grassroots Liberals be outraged? Will any Conservatives be allowed to golf before Stephen Harper is returned to Parliament with a majority? Stay tuned. In the meantime, Sam and Ralph will soon take their bash-each-other show on the road for a national audience.