Ottawa social calendar update

This ought to be interesting.

Republican presidential nominee John McCain, in Ottawa next week. The audience will be as interesting as the guest of honour, no doubt. It's happening just in time to prod memories about the controversy over whether Canada interfered in the U.S. presidential race - a question at the heart of some provocative Jim Travers' columns in recent weeks.

Comments

[Riley Hennessey]

Why does the media think this is all going to bring up Obama-gate, etc and look bad for the current government?

Canadians are always whining that bigshot Americans pay no attention to us. So finally, someone RUNNING for president comes to Canada and the media starts to act like "oh, this should be interesting" in a snarky way.

I think it's great he is coming and I hope Obama comes too. The more the better.

[bob ward]

What no "behind the scenes" dribble about how great it was for Harper to apologize re: residential schools issue.

I wonder did former PM Martin cringe when the young well spoken leader congratulated Harper for something "no other PM had the courage to do"??

just askin
Now its on to the next "non scandal" your friends in the LPC are developing
what a joke

[Vid Ingelevics]

Riley: are you serious? The Harper government intentionally leaked damaging information to the Republican Party in order to undermine Obama's presidential bid. Do you not find this incredible yourself? If something that serious does not, then I'm not sure what would!

I am not in the media but, as a news event goes, this made me shake my head and wonder what is going on in the PMO's office to prompt them to do something so short-sighted and stupidly partisan.

[wascally wabbit]

Yawn...so the Republican "revived Mummy" is heading up here...
I'll just wait for Oabama to visit Canada
But - with putative President Harper in 24 Sussex - I'm not holding my breath....

[Gabby in QC]

"The Harper government intentionally leaked damaging information to the Republican Party ..."
And of course you have absolute proof that the "leak" actually happened based on the word of ... Mark Holland? Or other great investigative minds in the Liberal party?

[bob]

Don't you mean how Akin, his j-prof skills and CTV screwed Obama, screwed the story up, and interfered in the election there Susan?

He did get fired, did he not?

[Sandi]

I just hate what has become of Canada since Harper's been at the helm.

Look at the pitiful partisan nastiness. It's horrible.

Worse, people obviously don't even know what they're talking about - just attack and attack.

It feels bad. It's destructive and it's useless.

I hate the feeling of what Canada has become.

PS: Harper was put under pressure to do this apology thing. Like it or lump it. This is a process that has been going on since "2005"....and to use it for politican attacks like this Hennessy person takes away from the whole meaning.

Oh, and Gabby QC - it was the "NDP" that started the Naftagate issue. Again, you people are so filled with hate you don't get your facts straight.

SHAME on you. Hate comes before truth - this is so sick.

[Robin]

For those who didn't grasp Susan's subtly, she was referring to the NAFTA-gate leak that came directly from the PMO into the awaiting ears of the Republicans. It should be interesting, to say the least, to see how the Harperoid reacts to McCain's visit and whether he will attempt to distance himself from him. Our relations with the US will likely cool when Obama is elected President. McCain can’t even remember what year it is.

[Gabby in QC]

&full“Oh, and Gabby QC - it was the "NDP" that started the Naftagate issue. Again, you people are so filled with hate you don't get your facts straight.
SHAME on you. Hate comes before truth - this is so sick.”

Dear Sandi, yes it’s true, it was Mr. Layton who first broached the subject in the HoC, and Navdeep Bains was the first Liberal to pick up that ball and run with it, primarily because the Liberals were obsessing over the Cadman “revelations.”

But for your reading pleasure, I recommend this: http://www.slate.com/id/2185739/
“There's something outdated and Kabuki-like about the whole NAFTA drama, which was manufactured largely for consumption in Ohio and probably won't be going on a national tour. …

Clinton has charged Obama with making calculated remarks in front of one audience while sending equally calculated signals to a broader constituency—which is a triangulator calling a three-sided figure a triangle. Goolsbee denies whispering sweet nothings about trade into Canadian ears. But even if he did, what's the big deal? It could be hypocrisy—or posturing. But there's another name for it: campaigning. And this is how mainstream Democrats practice politics these days. (On trade, Obama and Clinton are actually probably a little right of center.) They tell aggrieved members of the base (blue-collar workers) that they understand their pain, and they tell the more-satisfied members of their base (globalists, Wall Street types) that they're not going to upset the manzana cart. …

Don't expect talk about NAFTA to disappear. The Pennsylvania primary is coming up, after all. But Canadian policymakers—and American voters—shouldn't need Austan Goolsbee or anybody else to tell us that viable Democratic candidates for national office will 1) make negative comments about free-trade deals while campaigning in a state where hundreds of thousands of blue-collar manufacturing jobs have been lost and yet 2) be committed to free trade should they happen to win.”

P.S. May I send you a box of Kleenex to help you recover from the anguish occasioned by Mr. Obama’s suffering at the hands of the evil Conservatives?
P.P.S. Mr. Holland, known in some circles as Nancy Drew, has also weighed in on this matter, as well as many others where his superb investigative powers are required:
http://www.embassymag.ca/html/index.php?display=story_path=/2008/may/28/naftagate/
Mark Holland, Liberal public works critic

"I'm not really satisfied. I mean I don't really think that we got any real answers out of the process. We don't really know what happened. I think it was more an effort to push it under the carpet and move on, so I think all the questions that were there before are still outstanding."

[Vid Ingelevics]

[edited for length]

http://www.thestar.com/News/USElection/article/431367

Here is an interesting account of the intentional PMO leak to Republicans from James Travers. After having seen the Harper Tories in action for two years this is completely believable.

BTW, I am sympathetic to Sandi's lament. I don't think Canadians have ever seen a more partisan or paranoid seeming government since Harper came to power. The poisoning of Parliamentary discourse can be laid squarely at Harper's door. His recent apology to First Nations people only makes the contrast with the usual low order of things even more pronounced.