They *are* everywhere

 You know how the Prime Minister complains that the bureaucracy, the courts etc. are riddled with Liberals? Turns out the foreign service is infected too. Look who Lawrence Cannon is sending to New Zealand.

(From this afternoon's announcement of diplomatic postings... And yes, her old boss was her Uncle Jean.)  

Caroline Chrétien becomes High Commissioner to New Zealand, with concurrent accreditation to the Kingdom of Tonga, the Independent State of Samoa, the Republic of Kiribati, and the Republic of the Fiji Islands.

 

 

Caroline Chrétien (LLB, Université de Montréal, 1989) served as policy analyst, Quebec and constitutional affairs, with the National Liberal Caucus Research Bureau of the House of Commons; as special assistant to the leader, Quebec and constitutional affairs, with the Office of the Leader of the Official Opposition; and as senior special assistant to the Prime Minister prior to joining the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 2001. Since joining, she has served as deputy chief of protocol and director, Diplomatic Corps Services; director, Korea and Oceania Division; and director, East Asia Division II. She is currently high commissioner to Nigeria. Ms. Chrétien succeeds Penny Reedie.

Citizen Black

I just hope that Conrad Black doesn't have any long-term plans to become prime minister if he wins his appeal, is released from Florida prison and gets his Canadian citizenship back.

As we know,  some people here in Canada take a dim view of people who've spent time out of the country in foreign institutions.

Unmuzzled

In further evidence that Conservatives become more forthcoming when they become ex-MPs, we see this in the new edition of The Hill Times (subscription required, or go to link at National News Watch)

It's  former Edmonton MP and caucus chair, Rahim Jaffer, talking about morale in Harper's Ottawa and the question of whether a shakeup is needed of PMO staff.

Mr. Jaffer, whose is married to Minister of State for Status of Women Helena Guergis (Simcoe-Grey, Ont.), said there are "caucus morale" issues in the Conservative caucus and he questioned whether there is enough of a "culture of dissent" within the party for Mr. Harper to be made fully aware of the political situation inside and outside of caucus.

"I often challenged certain things because I wanted to be sure he got the best information; whether he liked it or not was another thing," said Mr. Jaffer. "But that's always a challenge and the Prime Minister has to take a step back and ask himself that; is he being served in the best possibly way from the people who are currently around him? If he thinks that he's not, and, in particular, if he doesn't have that culture, if it's become more of a 'yes' culture than a culture of dissent, then he has to ask that question and maybe he has to make some changes, but only he can really be able to do that."

Dollars versus defamation

Scott Reid, former communications chief to Paul Martin, has some thoughts on how the Liberals should counter the Conservatives' negative-ad campaign, including this rather novel proposal:

Why doesn't Mr. Ignatieff make a public declaration that for every new Conservative ad that attacks him personally — that offers no mention of differences over public policy or the economy writ large — the Liberal Party will make a contribution of $1,000 to the United Way (without claiming the tax deduction, all you cynics). Given the current schedule of six ads, that would mean $6,000 to those hurting most in this time of economic hardship. .

Just GO

  Okay, now maybe CBC is just going a bit too far with trying to appease the federal Conservative government. First we're hearing rumours that Politics may be gone from Newsworld, and  now we're hearing that tomorrow's GO show on CBC Radio revolves around a "Canadian Citizenship Test."  If they start by quizzing Michael Ignatieff, it's probably safe to assume that the takeover is complete.

For fun, I'd welcome other suggestions of ways that CBC could try to shape its programming to make it Conservative-friendly. All ideas (except rude or ill-tempered ones) will be printed here over the weekend.

Trapped in Toronto

If you are wondering why we haven't had that 11 a.m. announcement yet today from Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, here's the Star's Rob Benzie, reporting from the scene:

I'm trapped inside the TTC's Hillcrest Yards awaiting Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Dalton McGuinty for an announcement on funding for the Sheppard Ave. LRT. They're already 50 minutes late and because security won't let the TV reporters leave to do live hits outside there's a lot of grumbling. You could say it's amateur hour, but that's unfair to taxpayers who are paying the freight for the phalanx of federal, provincial and municipal hangers-on in attendance.

***** Update ***** they finally arrived 53 minutes late. By streetcar. Commuters can empathize!

Finley exits contest

If readers  will permit   a personal indulgence here, I'd like to dedicate this post to my Glasgow-born father (who tells me he reads this blog from time to time.) I guess I should clarify that  he's not running for prime minister either.

It is a note I received this morning from Ryan Sparrow, the  Conservative party's director of communication.

Susan, I noticed your blog posted yesterday attacking Doug Finley for being a Scottish immigrant. Doug Finley is a Canadian citizen and has lived in Canada for over 40 years. Doug Finley is not running to be Prime Minister of Canada, Michael Ignatieff is.



Canadians who chose to work outside the country wear the maple leaf as a badge of honour. They don't say that the Canadian flag looks like "a passing imitation of a beer label" as Mr. Ignatieff said.



Canadians who chose to work outside the country DON'T pretend that Canada is not their country.



This is not about Mr. Ignatieff being out of the country for 34 years, it has to do with the fact that he came back only to become Prime Minister and openly says he will leave again if he doesn't get his way.


Ryan also sent me some Ignatieff quotes and material to back up his note, but I think I'd have to charge him for running ads here, so I'll direct you to paid media buys for that information.  

Don't try this at home: Five things

Canadians have received ample evidence this week that politics bears only scant resemblance to real life. One way, or should I say five ways,  to see this would be through some excuses/explanations we've heard from political people for bad/questionable behaviour.

 Here are my favourites from the week and by the way,  the warning in the headline is real.  Do not, under any circumstances, try these with your spouse, parents, boss, friends, whatever.

1. Nobody asked. (How Brian Mulroney explains why he didn't tell anyone about the cash he received from Karl-Heinz Schreiber.)

2. My nannies are part of a conspiracy to destroy me. See here. (How Ruby Dhalla explains the complaints of ex-employees about working conditions in her home.)

3.. Someone stole emails from my computer during a real-estate open house.  See here. (How former mayoral candidate Terry Kilrea explains how his personal correspondence ended up in the hands of an Ottawa Citizen reporter.)

4. We're on a one-day leave from our jobs. See here. (How employees of Prime Minister Stephen Harper explain how they're able to do partisan, Conservative business in the National Press theatre.)

5. We're gluttons for attention. See here. (How Commons immigration committee chair David Tilson explains the decision to focus parliamentary energy and resources on  one domestic dispute.)

Watch who you're calling unpatriotic.

  I couldn't agree more with Aaron Wherry, over at Macleans, who's issued a most welcome clarification about the patriotic credentials of Doug Finley, the Conservatives' former campaign chief.  Imagine thinking that anyone schooled abroad has questionable attachment to this country. 

Why, that would be like saying that people who   import  U.S. campaign techniques to this country -- say, like negative ads, Bush-like attempts to control  the media -- are not really Canadian.

Over to Dhalla

Today wasn't so hot a day for Ruby Dhalla at the Commons immigration committee.  I put a story up on the web, found here, about some of the stuff said by Agatha Mason, an advocate for caregivers with the Intercede non-profit group.

It was outside the committee room, with reporters, that Mason went into some more details about what she saw as "hair-raising"  conditions of life in the Dhalla household. Caregivers weren't lying around on the couch watching TV with anyone, said Mason -- Tongson had been told to sit on the floor!

In about an hour, Dhalla's lawyer, Howard Levitt, is due to hold a press conference in his Toronto law office. From what I've been hearing today, the idea is to discredit all this testimony. But the only way to do that, it seems,  is to discredit the caregivers who have been making these allegations. That is one risky communications  strategy... attacking those who say they've been attacked by your client.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, incidentally, is now getting dragged into this. At least a couple of Conservative MPs said at today's meeting that Ignatieff has already taken Dhalla's side in her dispute with the caregivers. That was a reference to this story, from earlier in the week.