The passing out of the torch

My colleague, present at the ceremony today, sends this dispatch:

Update 2, 11:49 a.m. - The band wasn't even playing the national anthem when a young clarinet player in the back row took a knee, becoming the ninth member of Canada's military to give way under the 1-hour, 45-minute change of command ceremony. Alas, it is now finished and the good men and women of the Canadian military can go have a long drink of water and a comfy seat.

Update 1, 11:41 a.m. - Natynczyk's first order as CDS. Was to place the honour guard at ease, for which he received a round of applause. He's indeed a "Gentleman Soldier" as the government insisted upon his nomination.

So what shape are the Canadian Forces in as Gen. Walter Natynczyk takes over as Chief of Defence Staff from Gen. Rick Hillier?

Two hours into an elaborate military ceremony with speeches, music, flybys and a 21-gun salute, no fewer than eight CF members standing at attention on the tarmac of an Ottawa airbase have collapsed.

The first two - male and female respectively - were from the air force. But the fallen have spanned the armed services. Army and Navy have also succumbed to the conditions.

It's not the heat - there's clouds and a cool breeze - but the length of the ceremony. Several journalists have remarked that the last CDS handover took place in a drill hall in downtown Ottawa with so little pomp that most didn't bother to attend.

But Gen. Hillier has made it his duty to promote the Canadian Forces brand and one suspects this was his last effort in a three-and-a-half year campaign.

Yes, there was a little blue

Last year on Canada Day, a local Ottawa radio station, Hot 89.9, called for a boycott of the festivities because of how Conservative blue had elbowed out traditional red-and-white in the colour theme of the Parliament Hill stage. Canada Day blue

As I recall, no one actually ever explained what the blue emphasis was all about. But this year, it was a little more subtle. So where was the blue in yesterday's festivities?

1. In the sky, fortunately. It was near-perfect weather for Canada Day.

2. In the light bathing the Parliament Hill buildings after dark. Yes, as night fell, all those lovely limestone buildings were immersed in a vivid blue hue.

3. On stage - Blue Rodeo was the marquee act, after all, and lead singer Jim Cuddy's brother, Loftus, was a Conservative candidate in Toronto-Danforth in the 2004 election.

It should be noted, however, that Cuddy has said he didn't vote for his brother and that, if memory serves, Jim Cuddy is more likely to be found at events in support of NDP leader Jack Layton (who holds the Toronto-Danforth seat.) Cuddy's politics

The signs of Canada Day

Here's how to tell it's the day before Canada Day:

• Half of Ottawa is off work; the rest of us are in our offices listening to the rehearsals of the Canada Day stage show.  I'm actually looking forward to Blue Rodeo's rehearsal, if the rain holds off.
• It's time for the annual reflection on "what is a Canadian?"

The Dominion Institute has some ideas, based on a survey it released today and discussed yesterday on CBC Radio's Cross-Country Checkup program.

And south of the border, the Washington Times has its own quirky answer to "what is a Canadian?" 

Answer: Barack Obama.

"What kind of "change" does Barack Obama want? He seeks to transform America into Canada. Mr. Obama is not proposing "new politics," but is a champion of the well-known, already enacted policies in the Great White North. His proposals are more reflective of Canadian values than American national ideals," The Times writes.

 

The new guard

Yesterday, the Liberal Party of Canada issued a statement on this whole business of Jean Chretien winning his case against Justice John Gomery.

The statement makes very clear that this version of the Liberal party has very little to do with a certain prime minister named Paul Martin. Note the first part of the first sentence.

"The Liberal Party of Canada has always held that the judicial process should be allowed to take its course with regards to the sponsorship program, and we are extremely pleased that former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and his former Chief of Staff Jean Pelletier have been completely cleared by the Federal Court."

For the record, it was Chretien's Liberal party who believed that "letting the judicial process take its course" was enough to deal with the sponsorship program. It was Martin's Liberal party, circa 2003-05, which believed that position wasn't sufficient -- that a full-fledged inquiry was needed.

Liberals at large are still deeply divided on whether the Gomery inquiry was a good idea. But I read that statement yesterday to be saying that the current occupants of the party office -- the people who wrote those words -- are not divided at all in thinking it was a bad idea. Yes, Paul Martin has left the building.

Best and worst of the year in politics

Before tonight's big "At Issue" panel on CBC's The National - the season-ender, which is always great TV for political junkies - I'm wondering if readers out there have their own ideas for most overrated and underrated politician, or the best/worst moments of the past year in politics.

My vote for best moment was the Conservative-Liberal agreement on extending the mission in Afghanistan, including that press conference by the Manley panel.

The worst moment is harder to choose. There were just so many bad moments in Question Period.

Strange new respect

Green Party leader Elizabeth May is quickest off the mark on the no-women angle of today's cabinet shuffle. She issued a release moments ago, condemning how "Harper missed the opportunity to promote some of the very few strong women in his caucus when he shuffled his cabinet."

"Women Members of Parliament are scarce in the Conservative Party, but Diane Ablonczy and Josée Verner are two who display competence without the attack - dog qualities of so many of others in Mr. Harper’s Conservative caucus," May's statement says. "But the Prime Minister has instead chosen to continue relegating women to minor portfolios and the backbenches. It is no wonder that Mr. Harper’s Conservatives are so unpopular with Canadian women."

May also speaks in defence of Rona Ambrose - remember her?

“While I condemned the disastrous climate policies of Ms. Ambrose when she served as Environment Minister, it was always clear the fault lay with the Prime Minister and not Ms. Ambrose. The appalling performance of current Minister John Baird confirms that a change of minister changed nothing for the environment. Surely it is time to give her a decent portfolio.”

Bloc blocks recess, Liberals burn carbon

The Bloc Quebecois, true to its name, has stood in the way of an attempt to shut down Parliament today for the summer through unanimous consent of all parties. Reportedly, Bloc staffers were being booed behind the curtains in the opposition lobby, by MPs and staffers keen to see this session end.

This means that the Commons will sit until Friday (unless some other way is found to get around the Bloc block) -- and that it will be sitting when Liberal leader Stéphane Dion unveils his carbon-tax proposal tomorrow.

Questions were being asked today about why neither Bob Rae nor Michael Ignatieff have been in the House either on the eve of this big Liberal announcement. Are they voting with their feet? Conspicuous with their absence?

Actually, both men have issued statements in recent days, explaining why they are no-shows this week -- at least so far.

Ignatieff is in Amsterdam. He'll be back tonight and presumably around for the big carbon-tax unveiling.

Rae is in Israel. According to a media advisory sent out Friday, he planned to "deliver the keynote address to a conference commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Halbert Centre for Canadian Studies at Hebrew University. Mr. Rae, who was honoured in 2002 with the Scopus Award by the Friends of Hebrew University, will speak on June 16th and spend several days in the country and the region."

Wonder if Rae and Ignatieff bought carbon off-sets?

Take me out to the ballgame

Politicos of different partisan stripes don't work all that well together in this Parliament (and yes, that's new), but they still can, on rare occasions,  play together.

There's a softball league on the Hill, made up of aides from all different parties, and the names they've chosen for their teams reveals a little of their political leanings. Well, I'm not sure the "Ballsheviks" would mirror anything in the major party platforms.

Guess which ones are the Conservatives amid this team lineup (bonus points for anyone who can come up with a team cheer for "Ritz's Barley Freedom Fighters" -- a reference to the Conservative efforts to break some  commodity marketing boards and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz):

The 'A' Team 
Heroes
Harper's Hot Shots
Ballsheviks
Monte's Pythons
Adult Fun Superstore Swingers   
roCSTars
Flaherty's Fighting Irish
The Pitch Slappers
Here-4-Beer
Ritz's Barley Freedom Fighters
The Naturals
Argentina
Dougouts 
The Masterbatters

Tory ad freebies

I'm with Paul Wells on this one, actually, in that we in the media should be a little bit vigilant about watching where the new Conservative ad campaign is paid or "earned" media, as they call it in the PR biz.

In plain language, that latter one is  called "free advertising" — what you get when the news media does repeated stories about your ads. You get all kinds of air time on the national airwaves and in major newspapers, i.e., the Sun, without having to pay a dime.

That said, I'd be remiss if I didn't paint the scene of lunch hour today in sweltering Ottawa. (And, to be fair, it's in line with the young Liberals' Cadman-tape stunt of a  couple of months ago.)

Young Conservatives, clad in bright yellow T-shirts are all over the streets around Parliament, handing out yellow postcards with the hapless picture of Liberal leader Stéphane Dion and the blaring words: "Dion's Tax on Everything... Will You Be Tricked into Paying More?"

Some observations:

1. It's not the most environmentally friendly campaign — an hour into it and I saw the little cards littered all over the ground like cigarette butts.
2. It's a tough crowd out there. I saw one young Conservative press the card into the palm of a former adviser to Dion. This Liberal fellow stared at the card and then barked: "How unbelievably crass!"
3. Part of the campaign included sending out mass emails yesterday from someone called "Stéphane." I got one myself, as did my colleagues here. It says:

Hi Susan,

Stéphane wanted to tell you...

Having trouble setting priorities? Friends don't know what they speak about? Billions of dollars of spending promises got you in a big debt hole? Well don't worry. If you answered yes to any of these questions, there is an answer. A permanent new tax on everything!

I'm just wondering — can someone complain about tape doctoring one day and then put out emails in someone else's name the next?

Family group gets its knitting in a knot

Never offend people with sharp pointed objects. That's the lesson Judy Wasylycia-Leis learned today in the Commons, when she tried to pay tribute to the departing Alexa McDonough. Judy threw in a little barb at the end that only political junkies might get -- those who remember that Peter MacKay once got in trouble for telling McDonough to "stick to her knitting."

"She endured criticism with grace, accepted praise with humility. We know her work is not done. Her struggle will carry on, we hope on the world stage," Wasylycia-Leis said. "One thing we know for sure is that she will not just stick to her knitting."

Well, that got some folks in knots. In slightly less time than it took the Terrible Knitters of Dent to whip up some wooly socks, the National Family Childcare Association pronounced itself offended.

"While the NFCA wishes Alexa McDonough a happy retirement as well, we do wish the NDP women caucus would stop slamming women who knit and prefer a life of childcare rather than in the house of Parliament," the association said in its release.

Unfortunately, the group didn't exactly hear the quotation properly, slamming the NDP MP for saying: "What we do know is she didn’t just stay home and knit!"

This, said the NFCA, amounts to a domestic incident.

"The National Family Childcare Association who represent men and women across Canada and the USA is demanding the NDP member Judy Wasylycia-Leis stop discriminating against women who choose traditional roles of being at home, knitting, cooking, baking cookies, etc.," the release says.

"We are very tired of other Parliamentary women putting down our roles in our family life, just so they can make themselves feel powerful. Her words are degrading and hurtful against every women in Canada whether they knit or not. Stop making us feel belittled just because we don’t make a 6 figure salary."

The pro-knitting lobby, naturally, is demanding an apology.