Who's invisible?

Ignatieff had this to say today about his alleged invisibility  over the past couple of months:

"I'm surprised to see you all -- you disappeared on me this summer."

Election speculation: Act 1

Well, here we are in scenic Sudbury and in about 20 minutes we'll be talking to Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. I guess this marks the official beginning of fall-election-speculation season; apologies in advance to readers. The drive here from Ottawa was gorgeous and so far, it's smiles and good cheer all around at the Holiday Inn.  I'll be updating frequently here through the week; though not so frequently that I spend all my time in the media room. 

Doer -- not just another Frank McKenna

Many comparisons have been made between the new U.S. ambassador-designate and one of his predecessors, Frank McKenna. Why, I believe I made the comparison   in today's paper.

Both were popular, pragmatic  premiers, who knew when to leave office, and both picked their departure dates around their 10th anniversary in office.

But the situations aren't exactly parallel. First of all, Frank McKenna spent considerable time in the private sector (7 years) in the gap between being premier and ambassador. And, more pointedly today, Doer seemed determined to avoid McKenna's mistake of speaking too soon about Canada-U.S. policy issues, at that time (2005)  ballistic missile defence (BMD).  If you need reminding, here's a good overview -- specifically this part.

Canada’s incoming ambassador to the US, Frank McKenna, let the cat out of the bag when he told the House of Commons Foreign Relations Committee that Canada is for all intents and purposes already participating in BMD. In support of his claim, McKenna pointed to the agreement Ottawa reached with Washington last summer under which NORAD, the joint Canadian-US North American aerospace command, is sharing information with the US missile defence program. The monitoring of North America’s airspace is one of NORAD’s principal responsibilities.

Most of the press has treated McKenna’s remarks as a faux pas, since they came just 48 hours before the Liberal government publicly announced that it would not be joining BMD.

Ms. Campbell regrets

 Ever wondered if Kim Campbell, knowing what she knows now, would ever relive her brief experience as Canada's first woman prime minister in 1993?Or would she have preferred that Brian Mulroney lead the party into its devastating, two-seat showing in that election?

Here, thanks to a BBC interview, in the form of advice to Gordon Brown, is the answer:

Despite her initial popularity, Miss Campbell says she did not have long enough before the general election to overcome the unpopularity of Mr Mulroney and the party.

She thinks a leadership change this close to a general election in Britain would be a mistake.

"A party can have a devastating defeat that then enables them to rebuild and to choose new leadership credibly, as opposed to a kind of desperate pass at the end of the game.

"You've already changed leaders once because you thought Tony Blair wasn't going to get you elected and Gordon Brown came in," she added.

"And now you're at the end of the game, maybe you could find a Kim Campbell but it's not really fair because you're really not giving him or her the chance to demonstrate change.

"And that's the problem - better for the unpopular leader to take the hit to enable a new leader to start afresh."

Ambassador Doer?

It looks like Gary Doer is the next ambassador to the U.S. .. or at least the strong rumours lead in that direction.

I'm headed up to the announcement at 9:30 this morning; stay tuned.

Media Advisory



Date:   Friday, August 28, 2009



For immediate release





PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER



PUBLIC EVENT





OTTAWA - Public event for Prime Minister Stephen Harper for Friday, August 28th is:





Ottawa



9:30 a.m. - Prime Minister Stephen Harper will meet with the new Ambassador-designate of Canada to the United States of America.


Office of the Prime Minister

Centre Block



*Photo opportunity only (cameras and photographers only)

Senate Reform: Bert Brown apologizes/explains

Bert Brown spent a large part of the 1980s and 1990s, ploughing Es into his field to advocate for Senate reform. Now he's a bona fide senator and he's finding, hey, Senate reform isn't as easy as you think!

Minutes ago, Senator Brown issued the statement below to explain why his benefactor, Prime Minister Harper, has had to, uh, reverse himself on all that Senate-reform  talk of old. Put simply, it's the fault of a) the provinces b) the Liberals c) the opposition as a whole d) that damn coalition last year.

The important thing to know, though, is that it's not Harper's fault. Well done, Bert! You've earned your salary today.

Statement from Hon. BERT BROWN, Senator (AB)

OTTAWA - In lieu of speculation in recent media about upcoming Senate appointments, Canada's only elected Senator, Bert Brown,  today issued the following statement:

Having spent over 26 years fighting for Senate reform and having had many frank discussions with Prime Minister Harper on the subject, I wish to clarify a few misconceptions about why Senate seats are being filled.

You will recall that Prime Minister Harper began his mandate by working for two years on reform of the Senate without making any patronage appointments. From 2006 to 2008 he gave the Provinces & Territories a time-limited opportunity to introduce legislation (or so called Senatorial Selection Acts) to elect their Senators democratically.

In 2008, I travelled on behalf of the Prime Minister to deliver that message personally to every Premier`s office  in every Province and Territory in Canada. This was my third national trip related to Senate reform but my first on behalf of a Prime Minister who was serious about and committed to real reform.

Many of the Provinces and Territories were interested in our proposal and in bringing democratic choice to Canadians. Alberta already had legislation, Saskatchewan has now passed legislation, and Manitoba is on the verge of publishing the results of their Special Committee into holding elections in Manitoba. I was pleased to report back that many of the Provinces we spoke with were conditionally in favour of holding elections. Our work in this area is ongoing and I am in regular contact with Premiers offices.

When the Prime Minister appointed eighteen Senators last year, he did so for two main reasons. The first is the Senate had become dysfunctional as a result of the political imbalance in the chamber. With 58 Liberal Senators and only 20 Conservatives (that`s close to three-to-one) the functions of the Senate and its various committees was becoming logistically impossible.

The second reason was the threat of the coalition. The notion that the opposition could have continued to stack the Senate with its own loyalists pushing the ratio of Liberals to Conservatives to four-to-one was unacceptable, not to mention the prospect of having Separatists sitting in the Senate. If the coalition had succeeded, we knew that the opposition would have quickly filled the existing vacancies.

Its important to point out that in a minority government scenario, the support of two opposition parties is required to pass legislation. The NDP is against any progressive reform of the Senate  and wishes it abolished, the Bloq does not believe in reform, and the Liberals consider the Senate a place of sinecure and reward for their loyalists in other words, the other parties do not support change. This is all to say that the Prime Minister simply cannot pass real reform measures through the House of Commons: he simply doesnt have the votes there to make it happen.

This brings me to my final, perhaps most important point. Within less than a year Canadians will finally see a Conservative majority in the Senate.  This will be the first real opportunity, in over 140 years, for elected Senate legislation to be introduced in our Parliament and passed. Since all new Senators are required to support our reform measures, and  with a majority who believe in and support real reform, we will finally have the votes to make it happen.

PMO news @DavidAkin

While all of us are eagerly anticipating Senate appointments, David Akin is busily recording, via Twitter, all the staff changes going on in the PMO. Quite impressive, David.

For those keeping score, we now know:

* The new director of communications is John Williamson, formerly of the National Post and the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation.

* Jennifer  Byrne leaves PMO,  becoming director of political operations for Conservative Party; Jasmine Igniewski is the new Director of Issues Management, replacing Byrne

* Andrew Wallace is the new director  of Stakeholder Relations, replacing  Mark Cameron who leaves PMO

Gary Doer: A story

Gary Doer, class act to the end, is stepping down on his own terms and I'll be writing about him in our paper tomorrow.

But in the meantime, I thought I'd give you a bit more of a personal glimpse into this remarkable politician, who never forget he was a real person.

I met him back in 1989, right after he'd taken over the leadership of the Manitoba NDP and the party had been reduced to third-party status in the Legislature. He'd breezed into town for a meeting of the federal NDP -- the same weekend as the Parliamentary Press Gallery dinner. My date for the dinner (Senator Al Graham, I think) had cancelled at the last minute and Doer wanted to attend. So it was kind of like a political blind date. He was charming -- he knew  more people there than I did,  and had friends from every political party. He was even on good terms with the Mulroneys. 

Throughout the Meech Lake constitutional drama of the subsequent year, Manitoba figured largely in the negotiations, and Doer was a big part of the action because of the minority government situation. I think for a couple of months there, I talked to him every day.

 Over the next decade, he  eventually became premier, while  I left The Globe and Mail and spent a couple of years in freelance obscurity. In October, 2000, though, I ran into him at Pierre Trudeau's funeral in Montreal and told him I was planning to be in Winnipeg later that month (for what, I can't remember.) Doer told me: "You'll call when you're in town, eh?" I laughed, said sure, I always call premiers when I'm travelling and filed it away as an amusing courtesy.

But sure enough, when I landed in Winnipeg on a Friday afternoon a few weeks later, I turned on my cell phone and had a message. It was from the premier's assistant, and she said Doer wanted to know: wasn't I supposed to be in town? And wasn't I supposed to call? (Keep in mind, I was not working for any newspaper at this time, had no reason to write about Manitoba, and there was nothing in the way of positive coverage I could offer Doer.)

I got to my hotel and within a few minutes, Doer himself called and chided me for not checking in with him when I got to town. He said he'd be at the hotel lobby within the half hour, and sure enough, he strolled in and spent an hour or so with me and my husband, just chatting and catching up before he attended a Blue Bombers' game.

I've since learned that Doer is like this with all sorts of  people; he never forgets his old friends (or their travel plans, it seems) and he never let his ego get all puffed up with power. That's pretty rare in politics and explains why you're seeing adjectives such as "well-liked" and "long-serving" next to his legacy.

Williamson's first job

Apparently no one told Jacques Demers that he wasn't allowed to talk about his appointment until it was official. Here he is, explaining that he first got the invitation  from the PMO on July 13.

PMO's new communications director

John Williamson, formerly with the National Post, is the Harper's new communications director, according to this report from CBC.
Two observations:

1. I wonder if the number of *former* Harper communications people is roughly similar to the number of senators he's appointing?

2. I wish I'd known  Williamson was going to the PMO. I never got a chance to  say goodbye to him. Because, as we know, once you start doing communications for this PMO, well, you stop speaking to us.

Kidding aside, good luck to Mr. Williamson, and best wishes. It's a tough job.