Russian premier comes bearing honours

Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov will visit Parliament Hill Thursday as part of a longer visit to Canada.

His day starts with a Senate chamber where he will be met by Senate Speaker Noël Kinsella. During his visit he will present Senator Marcel Prud'homme, of La Salle, Que., with the Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation. The award is presented to Russian residents as well as foreign citizens "who have made significant contributions to strengthening peace and mutual understanding." Prud'homme is the founding Chairman of Canada Russia Interparliamentary Group. It is the highest award given by the Russian government to a non-citizen. Only one other Canadian has received this Order - former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson.

Zubkov will also present Leslie Forrest, a Canadian veteran, with a commemorative medal to honour his role in the dangerous convoys that delivered vital wartime supplies to Russia. Forrest was just 15 when he sailed on the S.S. Empire Selwyn. On Thursday, he will be presented with the medal "the victory in the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945." The medal is awarded to "citizens of foreign states who made significant contribution to the Russian battle," according to a news release from the Senate. The medal has been awarded to Canadian veterans who sailed on the ships that delivered supplies through the Barents Sea to the Russian port of Murmansk. More than 300 Canadian veterans have already received this medal.

Godfrey to leave politics

Toronto Liberal John Godfrey is quitting federal politics to return to his academics roots.

The MP for Don Valley West was expected to formally announce his decision Monday afternoon but party sources confirmed the news.

Sources say that Godfrey will leave politics in July to join the Toronto French School, a bilingual institution with more than 1,000 students.

Godfrey, 64, was first elected in 1993 and under former prime minister Paul Martin, served as cities minister, helping bring in a deal that saw municipalities get a share of federal gas tax revenues.

He ran briefly in the leadership race to replace Martin but dropped out after worries about his health. Before entering politics, Godfrey served 10 years as president of King’s College and a stint as editor of the Financial Post.

 

Recognize this

It seemed like an innocuous remark. During Question Period on Wednesday, Environment Minister John Baird gave a little shout-out to an aboriginal delegation in the spectators’ gallery, who had been on hand earlier in the day at the announcement of a big conservation project in Canada’s North.

But that’s a big no-no in parliamentary practice. Only the Commons Speaker can recognize visitors in the gallery, and MPs who have done the same in the past have been banned from speaking in Question Period for 30 days. Baird got off with a warning, though.

Even more extraordinary, though, was how that remark provoked Stephane Dion. The Liberal leader started wildly waving to the aboriginal delegation and then pointing to his own chest with both hands, arguing that Baird was trying to take credit for something he himself had done when he was environment minister. “It was me,” he shouted upward to the aboriginal leaders, who looked a bit perplexed by all the gesturing. Then Dion started barking at Baird, saying all the work on the conservation project had been done before Conservatives came to office and “you only had to sign your name.” Observers on both sides of the House averted their eyes at the outburst.

The lesson of all this? Recognition is apparently a sensitive subject in politics. It can even make you lose your dignity.

First impressions

Prime Minister Stephen Harper made an impression of sorts when he landed in Uganda on Thursday to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. Wearing a two-tone grey suit, he was pictured in the New Vision newspaper in Uganda bending over shaking a little girl’s hand. Great visuals, but unfortunately, Harper was described in the newspaper only as a Canadian official.

 

Stepping aside

Deborah Coyne, who faced off for the Liberals against NDP leader Jack Layton in the riding of Toronto-Danforth during the last election, has decided not to run again. In a letter sent out earlier this month, Coyne says: “While I am keen to serve my country in Parliament some day, I am faced with significant personal and financial constraints that make my candidacy in Toronto-Danforth impossible at this time.” Coyne is most noted for her constitutional expertise during the raucous debates of the 1980s and 1990s and yes, also for being the mother of Pierre Trudeau’s youngest child, Sarah, born in 1991. No word yet on who will replace her as the Liberal candidate.

 

A date with Harper

Loyal Conservative supporters received a little gift in the mail this month – a 2008 calendar, filled with photos of the Prime Minister and a nice letter from the Harper himself. Yes, he is now a pinup man. Every month, a different shot – reviewing the troops in April, all decked out in pink (yes, pink) with daughter Rachel at the Calgary Stampede in July, more reviewing of RCMP officers in August and shot of him with soldiers in October; soldiers’ gravestones in November. Is there a theme here, somewhere? Harper explains in the letter that the party needs money to hold back the “vested interests” of Liberals and “vocal interests” of the New Democrats. He likes those phrases so much, in fact, that he uses them twice in the two-page letter.

Unfortunately, there is nothing in the calendar that indicates when the next election will be held.

He walks alone - indoors

Harper no longer walks down the main stairs into the Commons foyer very often, preferring to use back corridors that wind past the spectators’ and media seats on the upper level. And now, just to make sure the PM has no accidental encounters with people on the route, Commons security has been ordered to keep doors closed and media and visitors out of the hallway when he’s passing through. It’s basically a partial parliamentary lockdown – strange, when considering that no one orders the streets or sidewalks cleared when Harper takes occasional walks around the neighbourhood near his residence at 24 Sussex Drive.

Well, not yet, anyway.

And the winner is...

Macleans magazine held a glitzy gala last night at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa to unveil the winners of its second annual Parliamentarian of the Year survey. Bill Blaikie, the longest-serving MP in the Commons, a United Church minister who's been representing the riding of Elmwood-Transcona for the New Democrats since 1979, was the overall winner. (Last year, it was former Liberal finance minister Ralph Goodale, another long-serving MP from Saskatchewan.)

The other big winners were Deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, named as best orator; Windsor NDP MP Joe Comartin, named as most knowledgeable; Nova Scotia NDP MP Peter Stoffer, most collegial, and Northern Ontario NDP MP Charlie Angus, judged the best at serving his constituency.

Notice anything? There's not a Conservative MP in the mix -- and you can't blame the media or the Ottawa establishment for that one. The winners are chosen through a survey of MPs and Conservatives, though in a minority position, should be able to muster the numbers to secure at least one winner among the lot.

Here's the explanation Macleans magazine offers in its little editor's note of the latest issue: "We are not surprised by the absence of government representatives among the winners (although two Conservative MPs were among the finalists for MP of the year.) It's in opposition, where the perks of power are few, that the selflessness of an MP's work is most obvious."

NDP member goes 'full bore'

Meetings of the House of Commons’ committees are normally staid, quiet proceedings that often have observers looking for a more interesting way to pass the time, like a root canal.

But not the Commons’ committee on access to information, privacy and ethics. It’s got enough finger-pointing, political tensions and outright cursing that it might need a restricted rating.

And when this committee meets Thursday, it will have all the makings of a grudge match.

The meeting on Tuesday disintegrated into chaos after Paul Szabo, the Liberal chair, adjourned it over the objections of other opposition MPs.

“You son of a bitch!” NDP MP Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre) shouted twice. He charged around the committee table and wagged his finger at Szabo, according to a Canadian Press account.

“You’re a disgrace!” Martin said. “That’s it. You’re done!”

Martin had proposed a motion to have former prime minister Brian Mulroney and German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber come before the committee to testify about their joint business dealings.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has appointed a third-party advisor to write the terms of reference for a public inquiry on the same topic. But Martin wanted the committee to call Schreiber immediately, before his possible deportation back to Germany within the coming weeks.

However, Szabo ended the meeting before Martin’s proposal could be dealt with, sparking the angry reaction. Szabo later brushed off Martin’s cursing.

“I understand his, his fervour on this and I forgive him for the comment. I think it was done in the heat of the moment. It’s inappropriate but I, it’s not an issue with me,” he told reporters later.

Martin’s enthusiasm at the committee reveals a broader strategy by the federal New Democrats to keep the Mulroney-Schreiber issue in the spotlight – and hope that it costs the Tories and Liberals alike.

New Democrats are using this controversy to remind voters about the Liberal sponsorship scandal and paint their party as the only one untouched by scandal.

The NDP website even has a banner that says, “Conservative and Liberal scandals leave working families behind.”

A party official is promising to go “full bore” on the issue.

“If we want to be perceived as the effective opposition, we not only need to be in the game, we need to be better at it,” the official said.

“We’re not going to let a pitch go by without a swing,” he said.

 

Cat got your tongue?

Government House Leader Peter Van Loan has gone from political firefighter to wall flower.

Earlier this month, the York-Simcoe MP served as the government’s "answer" man for all manner of questions in the Commons.

On topics such as election financing, the economy and even Canada’s Afghanistan mission, it seemed you could hardly keep Van Loan off his feet as he turned question period into a virtual one-man show for the Conservative side day-after-day.

But not this week. Like a starring actor bumped to a bit part, Van Loan has spent most of this week sitting in silence in daily Commons question period. A check of the records reveals that Van Loan hasn’t uttered a single response to opposition questions.

Van Loan had been the point man condemning the Liberals demands for what he called “politically inspired inquiries” into the Mulroney-Schreiber affair. But then Van Loan was upstaged himself on Tuesday when Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced, wait for it, a public inquiry into the Mulroney-Schreiber affairs.

Perhaps it’s best Van Loan take a breather on the sidelines.

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Russian Prime Minister Victor Zubkov is scheduled to visit Ottawa later this month, a source tells the Star.

It would be be one of the first foreign trip for Zubkov, who was handpicked by President Vladimir Putin for the post just a few month ago. A foreign affairs official in Ottawa on Thursday denied any knowledge of the visit. However, under the federal Conservatives it’s been practice for the government to confirm the visits of foreign dignitaries just a few days before they arrive. Putin himself visited Ottawa in 2000.

 

Bucking tradition

Sandra Buckler, the director of communications for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, got a little ahead of herself and her position at Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa this week. Buckler, along with her husband Navy Capt. Richard Gravel, rather boldly jumped the queue of dignitaries at the National War Memorial in Ottawa and laid a wreath even before Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and others took their turn to pay their respects to fallen Canadian soldiers. Observers were stunned to see a PMO staffer so blatantly detour around long-held traditions and protocol.

It hasn't been Buckler's week, clearly. Perhaps the communications director was distracted by the fact that she's had to reverse herself on what the PMO knew about letters from Karlheinz Schreiber regarding his ongoing dispute with former prime minister Brian Mulroney. After initially insisting to reporters the PMO had never seen any of Schreiber's letters to Harper, Buckler subsequently had to acknowledge that the PMO correspondence unit had in fact seen the letters and acknowledged their receipt to Schreiber.

Play it again

 

 

Play it again

The Airbus scandal is back in the House of Commons and former prime minister Brian Mulroney's name is being hurled back and forth across the aisle.  Over in the Senate, they're reintroducing bills to reform the red chamber -- an idea that has been rattling around for a couple of decades too. 

Yes, Ottawa politics has gone into reruns. Who knew that the Hollywood writers' strike would have such far-reaching implications?

Going Dutch

Deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff wasn't in the Commons when it resumed  on Tuesday, but conspiracy theorists can stand down. Fresh back from a trip to Israel, Ignatieff is crossing the Atlantic again -- this time to get an honourary degree at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, celebrating its 80th anniversary. According to the university, Ignatieff, a former Harvard professor is being recognized  for his work "on topics that lie at the core of the research and teaching at Tilburg Law Faculty" (which nominated him for the doctorate),  such as "the tension between security and human rights, the fight against modern terrorism and the philosophy of freedom."

One man's democracy

It takes a certain amount of chutzpah to hold a news conference on democracy and accountability and then tell reporters how many questions they can ask and dictate the acceptable topics. But that's exactly what Government House leader Peter Van Loan did when he appeared at a news conference with Senate leader Marjory LeBreton, to reintroduce Senate-reform legislation that died in the last Parliament.

The news conference was a huge draw -- not because of Senate reform, but because of LeBreton. The long-time confidante of  Brian Mulroney, who is known for her regular chats with her old boss, was appearing for the first time before reporters since Prime Minister Stephen Harper banned all members of his government from any dealings with  the former PM.

Van Loan did most of the talking, allowing LeBreton to make brief remarks at the end, then warned reporters that he'd only take four questions -- on the subject of Senate reform only. Happily, we can report that the warning was ignored and democracy was celebrated with more than four free-ranging questions and even some remarks from LeBreton.

 

 

 

 

Play it again

The Airbus scandal is back in the House of Commons and former prime minister Brian Mulroney's name is being hurled back and forth across the aisle. Over in the Senate, they're reintroducing bills to reform the red chamber - an idea that has been rattling around for a couple of decades too.

Yes, Ottawa politics has gone into reruns. Who knew that the Hollywood writers' strike would have such far-reaching implications?

Going Dutch

Deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff wasn't in the Commons when it resumed on Tuesday, but conspiracy theorists can stand down. Fresh back from a trip to Israel, Ignatieff is crossing the Atlantic again - this time to get an honourary degree at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, celebrating its 80th anniversary.

According to the university, Ignatieff, a former Harvard professor, is being recognized for his work "on topics that lie at the core of the research and teaching at Tilburg Law Faculty" (which nominated him for the doctorate), such as "the tension between security and human rights, the fight against modern terrorism and the philosophy of freedom."