The first political event of the new year here in the Parliamentary precinct is underway — a caucus meeting and a government caucus at that!
Aside from being the first gathering of Conservatives in 2009, this particular meeting is notable in that it is the first one for my former colleague and now senator Mike Duffy as well as the other 17 newbie senators including Pamela Wallin and Nancy Greene Raine. Senator Marjory LeBreton, who Government House Leader in the Senate, held a meeting of the Senate Conservative caucus this morning prior to the main event which got underway around 0930 today. LeBreton noted that her caucus has now almost doubled from 20 senators to 38 (that's if you count the three Progressive Conservative senators as Conservatives.). The Liberals have 58, it says here, but party discipline in the senate is not what it is in the House of Commons. Liberal Senate whip Jim Munson (another former colleague!) can probably only count on about 50 from his side. In any event, 18 new Senators will not likely tip the balance when it comes to any power play in the Senate itself but it will give LeBreton more manpower on Senate committees, a forum the Liberals have been using to some good effect to create a little mischief for the government.
As for the national caucus meeting itself, MPs and Senators spent the first half hour or so milling about the Commonwealth Room in the Centre Block enjoying a pasty and a coffee and exchanging holiday pleasantries. Reporters are not allowed in to this room, as you might expect, and are even discouraged from milling about its entrance. (If you know your Centre Block layout, television news camera crews may shoot in the Hall of Honour when there is a caucus meeting, but may not shoot there without permission at any other time, and may shoot in the House of Commons and Senate foyers at any time without permission. And that's it for camera crews.)
Shortly before 10, those of us milling about the Hall of Honour could hear loud applause coming from The Reading Room, otherwise known as Committee Room 237-C. We assume the applause was either the prime minister entering the room or they were giving a cheer to their new caucus colleagues.
In any event, time to wrap up this note and head back up to Centre Block for “caucus outs”, the scrums of MPs and senators as they leave their meeting at around noon today. Among other things, we are told that Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon (on crutches, by the way, after breaking his ankle over the holidays) will make some statements on the siutation in the Middle East.