Signs point to copyright reform announcement

Several weeks ago, aboard the Prime Minister's plane headed to New Orleans for the "three amigos" summit, the affable and impressive Industry Minister Jim Prentice came back to chat to reporters.

He was asked about the long-awaited copyright-reform legislation, which has been rumoured to be making an appearance since last December. This is an issue of particular interest to the United States and its ambassador to Canada, David Wilkins.

Here's an interview from last December, in which Wilkins talks briefly about it.

It's also a huge issue in cyberspace and the reigning expert is Michael Geist, who columnizes in the Star. Geist reported on his blog yesterday that Government House Leader Peter Van Loan has been ordering folks to direct all correspondence on copyright reform to Prentice's office.

Obviously, something's on the way. And sure enough, one of my eagle-eyed colleagues was walking through 240 Sparks Street this morning, where the minister's office is located, and spotted people eyeing some big white signs that proclaim "Made in Canada Copyright Reform." So it seems an announcement is imminent.

And, just to further speculate, is it possible that Prentice wants to get this out of the way before he's shuffled to a more demanding portfolio? It's rumoured that Prentice is headed to something big, such as Finance or Foreign Affairs.

Sex and the Cities Minister...

Infrastucture funding for city roads and the gas tax transfer to municipalities may not be the sexiest of topics, but transport minister Lawrence Cannon, the Conservative government's Quebec point man, does indeed have a wild side.

The high profile cabinet minister, who is among those rumoured to be up for a promotion in a coming shuffle, was spotted Friday night in a Gatineau-area movie theatre to see the newly released chick flick, Sex and the City.

He may be Mr. Big in la belle province, but we couldn't help but wonder: Does he most identify with Carrie Bradshaw, the neurotic writer, Samantha Jones, the oversexed publicist, Miranda Hobbes, the cynical lawyer, or the idealistic Charlotte York-Goldenblatt?

We also couldn't help but wonder, given the government's troubles attracting female voters, whether any of the S 'n C gals would cast a ballot for the Tories.

Stubborn is as stubborn does

North and south of the Canada-U.S. border, we're getting some object lessons these days on the whole issue of stubbornness and its place in politics. I'm not sure how or why it happened -- the media no doubt plays its part as enforcer -- but somehow, being doggedly stubborn has come to be seen as a political virtue; synonymous with resolve or determination.

Hillary Clinton is presenting the most glaring example, obviously. Clinton refuses to admit she's sunk as a presidential candidate -- her stubbornness may exact a cost in party unity and ultimately, perhaps, in Obama's chances for success in November. The Democrats' symbol may be a donkey, but does that mean that stubbornness goes with the territory?

Here in Canada, we saw Prime Minister Stephen Harper stubbornly sticking to the nobody's-business line about his former foreign affairs minister, even as the PMO was setting events in motion to oust Bernier from cabinet a week ago. Chantal Hebert's column in today's Star reflects a little on the damage Harper did to himself by being stubborn last week. Jim Travers, meanwhile, also wrote on the folly of stonewalling over the weekend saying that on this score, Harper is no Jean Chrétien. It may well be that Chrétien helped turn stubbornness into a Canadian political virtue during his time in office, but there were plenty of us, at the time, who didn't really see that headstrong nature of his as an asset.

Liberal leader Stéphane Dion has a stubborn streak too, we're told, that makes it difficult for people to give him advice. That's reportedly how the carbon-tax proposal landed in front of the public before the party was ready to explain it fully -- a stubborn Dion wanted it out there.

It all may mean it's time for politicians and their advisers to rethink the whole concept of stubbornness -- or at least blind stubbornness. It's not that attractive a trait in a boss, a colleague or a friend or family member -- why should it work any better in politics?

1-on-1 with Harper

Prime Minister Stephen Harper doesn't give one-on-one interviews very often, so it's worth having a look when he does.

And Angelo Persichilli, political editor of the Corriere Canadese, an Italian-language daily, is the reporter who did the one-on-one. It appears he was travelling with Harper, because the interview is datelined "London" and appears in this week's Hill Times.

Harper doesn't talk in this friendly interview about the Bernier affair, which overshadowed his European trip last week, or the mixup about whether Italy was getting rid of the so-called "caveats" on its troop commitments in Afghanistan.

Harper does talk about Kyoto and climate change, saying that some of the nations who signed on to Kyoto are now having "a wave of realism" because of high oil prices.

"I think now they're starting to ask hard questions about how they will actually meet their targets, about how much it will cost ... I've always said this to Canadians. There's going to be some pain in tackling greenhouse gas emissions. And that pain is a lot less if everybody gets on board."

Persichilli also doesn't seem to have asked the PM about the controversy over how Canada blundered into the U.S. presidential election a few months back -- the subject of an investigation and rather inconclusive report ten days ago from Privy Council Clerk Kevin Lynch.

But there is a bit of talk in the interview about the U.S. election.

Q: Election time in the States. Are you watching the campaign?
PM: Very closely.

Q: Do you expect a change in their politics?
PM: I think there will be changes. It's been an administration for eight years. They're going to have a new president. I think they're going to want some change.... I've said all along that whoever wins in the United States, whoever is the president, whichever party controls Congress, the government of Canada will always work with our great friends and neighbours and in protecting Canadian interests and ensuring the best relationships that we can have, while protecting those interests. And I know there's been some consternation in Canada about the positions taken by some American politicians, but I have seen nothing to suggest to me that Canada would have anything other than a very good relationship with the future president or future Congress."

Been there, got the T-shirt

Here's what a Star colleague spotted this morning over at the Commons this morning....

A few minutes before Ukaranian President Viktor Yushchenko was to address Parliament, one formerly troubled politician was spotted in deep conversation with a currently troubled colleague.

The former, was National Revenue Minister Gordon O'Connor. He started off in Stephen Harper's Cabinet as Defence Minister, but was shuffled into the no-profile portfolio last summer thanks to his brash communications style and poor handling of the defence portfolio, which includes the sensitive Afghan mission.

Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier was the one receiving O'Connor's counsel. He looked agitated, threw his hands in the air and shook his head vigorously several times.

What could they have been talking about on the floor of the House of Commons?

-The tell-all interview of Mad Max's ex-biker babe, Julie Couillard, to be broadcast Monday night on French network TVA?

-Dispatching Canada's C-17 transport plane to Burma when none were available, forcing Defence to rush into a $900,000 rental agreement?

-Bernier's various missteps on Afghan diplomacy, including calling for the Kandahar governor's ouster?

Or maybe Bernier was seeking advice on how to make a soft landing when a cabinet shuffle doesn't work out in your favour. The high-profile Quebec Tory is rumoured to be on the way out as early as this summer.

How's it playing in Pe-Tory-ia?

We still don't have the official confirmation, but it's interesting to note how the expected departure of Ian Brodie from the PMO is being greeted with relief by some in Conservative quarters, such as here and here.

And here's some Conservative criticism of the juvenile attack ad on the party's website, noted on this blog and others yesterday.

It is kind of refreshing, actually, to see this independence of thought in a realm that often seems to thrive on recycling talking points from central Conservative command.

And incidentally, there's another theory why Brodie is leaving - Harper thinks people in politics should mind their own business. Nobody likes a gossipy busybody.

Waiting for the new Guy

As we're reporting today in the Star, it's all but official - Ian Brodie is out as chief of staff to the Prime Minister and Guy Giorno, a former chief of staff to Mike Harris, is in. Though there's no news release yet, we heard last night that celebrations were already under way at a pub on Elgin Street in Ottawa.

Many people inside the Ottawa bubble will be looking to see whether Giorno's appointment will usher in any changes in tone or style or substance in the capital. Perhaps the most interested people will be lobbyists, since Giorno has, since leaving Harris's office, become an expert in lobbying law.  Not so long ago, he was issuing criticism of the Harper government for failing to crack down on the lobbying that occurs after work hours - like, say, in pubs on Elgin Street.

"The public is actually probably more interested in what happens at a bar or restaurant at nine at night than what happens in a boardroom at nine in the morning," Giorno was quoted as saying in a Canadian Press report in January.

Here's a lengthy description of Giorno's credentials on the lobbying front.

Giorno, it seems, doesn't do much lobbying himself. Here's what comes up when you search his name in the federal Lobby Register.

Maybe someone's looking for their 22 Minutes

Well, agree or disagree with Aaron Wherry's excellent blog postings at Macleans, I still think it was very nice of the Conservatives to allow elementary-school children to use the computers at party headquarters.

The new campaign battleground: 'Society' vs. 'state'

This column by the New York Times' David Brooks (also reprinted in today's National Post) doesn't mention Canada, but it is required reading for anyone who's trying to figure out the underlying politics of our next election campaign.

It revolves around how Conservatives are on the rise in Britain because they've changed - not just their strategy or tactics but their entire thinking.

The role-of-government debate is over; "quality of life" is the new discussion. Raw individualism is out; "society" is in.

"They want voters to think of the Tories as the party of society while Labor is the party of the state. They want the country to see the Tories as the party of decentralized organic networks and the Laborites as the party of top-down mechanistic control," Brooks writes.

It doesn't take too much thinking to see the parallels here in Canada. The child-care debate leaps to mind as a good example of society versus the state.

While the Liberals weren't looking the last few years, Canada's own Conservatives have roughly tacked their policies along the same path, modelling their tax and social platforms around society and neighbourhood and communities. Liberals will try to pitch this simply as the Conservatives' lack of faith in government and institutions - and some of that characterization is well-founded - but they will risk looking anachronistic if they allow themselves to be cast as the advocates of big government. The same is true for the New Democrats. The Greens, interestingly, probably do more talking about society than they do the state, which may explain why they're on the upswing here too in recent years.

We do know that Conservative strategists have been borrowing from the playbook of their counterparts in the U.K. - the high-tech "war room" in Ottawa's suburbs is a direct imitation, according to senior campaign planners.

So it's probably a good idea to look closely at what the U.K. Conservatives are teaching Canadians, and vice versa, about the nature of the political debate in the 21st century.

The Great Communicator

After a long hiatus, Bob Rae is back to blogging - in the voice of Stephen Harper. Seriously. This morning, deadpan, Rae posted a letter he says he got through Access to Information - from the PM to the president of Tim Horton's.

The letter praises the decision to fire an employee for giving away a Timbit, because "it's really just the beginning of the end."

It also contains some communication advice for any negative fallout: "Stick by your original plan. The bad publicity will come and go. Don't answer questions. Attack the questioner. Challenge their credibility. Smear Coffee Time."

UPDATE: The blog entry has been "disappeared." Apparently Rae's sense of humour isn't universally shared and he voluntarily took it down after someone didn't find his fake letter funny. It's one thing, I guess, to call Tim Horton's cruel and heartless for firing an employee, but it's just going too far to compare the doughnut empire to the Harper regime.