Life after politics

Apologies for the gap in postings.  Now, a few items of note, to catch up:

* It's not official yet, but former Liberal cabinet minister and leadership candidate Allan Rock looks like he's headed back to the capital to become president of the University of Ottawa. The news has been filtering out all week, here and here.

* Liberal leader Stephane Dion sat down yesterday with former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair, to talk about climate change. They might have also discussed how Blair's successor is living through what seems to a repeat of recent Canadian political history -  the parallels between Gordon Brown's fate and that of Paul Martin are truly approaching on eerie coincidence.

* Belinda Stronach also met with Blair yesterday, to talk about his newly announced faith foundation, as well as the situation in Africa. Stronach is just back from a visit to Liberia, part of her Spread the Net work in fighting malaria.  Blair is reportedly hoping that his new foundation, intended to bridge religious differences in tackling poverty and war, can also be useful in the anti-malaria cause.

Joe Clark still a class act

CHRIS WATTIE/REUTERS

Former Prime Minister Joe Clark stands next to his official portrait following an unveiling ceremony on Parliament Hill in Ottawa May 27.

Former prime minister Joe Clark always gave beautiful speeches, especially in his time as Canada's constitutional affairs minister. I followed Clark in those years, across the country through 1991-92, and wrote a book on the whole adventure of the Charlottetown Accord. I never got tired of listening to Clark's speeches. And that's saying something. Most political speeches – then and now – are horribly dull.

Today, at his official portrait unveiling, Clark didn't disappoint. He spoke of the importance of respect in politics and I'm sure there were many in the room, like me, who got choked up at the end – when Clark also seemed to overcome with the emotion of it all. It was made all the more poignant by the presence of his wife, Maureen McTeer, his daughter, Catherine, son-in-law Chad Schella and – the scene-stealer, two-year-old granddaughter Alexandra.

Clark's portrait, by the way, is quite lovely – a simple, elegant depiction of a younger Clark in the House of Commons, making a familiar gesture of emphasis with his outstretched hand.

There have already been media stories about Prime Minister Stephen Harper's absence from this event (he's in Europe).

But important members of his cabinet were there – notably Senate leader Marjory LeBreton, who delivered official, and warm remarks, and Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

Justin Trudeau, son of the late prime minister, was in the crowd – no doubt in part to represent Clark's old adversary of the 1970s and early 1980s. LeBreton took friendly note of his presence, apologizing to him for having to note that Joe Clark is the only Conservative politician who ever delivered a defeat to Trudeau.

The crowd was a who's who of Ottawa, past and present, all evoking a more civil time in the nation's politics, befitting Clark's legacy. People from different parties sat shoulder to shoulder; old friends from across party lines warmly hugged one another as they crowded into the seats.

Former prime minister Paul Martin was in the front row, along with Liberal leader Stéphane Dion. Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe and Green Party leader Elizabeth May also showed up. Throughout the room were former Conservative cabinet ministers, a healthy dose of Liberals, and of course those who've been in both camps – MPs Scott Brison and Garth Turner, for instance. 

It's too bad there aren't more events like this in Ottawa. Everyone walked away from that event feeling very good.

 

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.

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.

The truth is waaay out there

What do Paul Hellyer and Denis Coderre have in common?

Hellyer is a former Liberal defence minister (circa 1963), Coderre is a former Liberal defence critic (circa 2007).

Both were early achievers in politics -- Hellyer as the youngest MP to be elected back in 1949; Coderre as a young student activist getting involved in the Chretien-Turner wars in the Liberal party in the 1980s.

And what they both share, apparently, is a belief in extraterrestrial life.

Coderre was a mere child when he appeared at a science fair and talked about life on other planets.

Hellyer, however, was talking about visitors from outer space just a month ago at a conference in Maryland.

Here's part of Hellyer's presentation.

"Decades ago visitors from other planets warned us about where we were headed, and offered to help. But instead, we, or at least some of us, interpreted their visits as a threat, and decided to shoot first and ask questions afterward. The inevitable result was that some of our planes were lost; but how many were due to retaliation, and how many were a result of our own stupidity is a moot point."

Toews, your Honour

Late last week, there was a flurry of stories about the future of federal Treasury Board president Vic Toews -- specifically, whether he was being considered for a judge-ship in his home province of Manitoba.

In Saturday's National Post, columnist Don Martin also let drop another, somewhat delicate angle to this whole line of speculation --  the fact that Toews may be looking to exit the Ottawa hothouse because of a  messy divorce and a child born to a "much younger woman."

This was news to me when I first heard it on Friday night,  but apparently it's the worst-kept secret in Ottawa.

Toews was asked about all of this today. Here's the video, in which he neither confirms nor denies a thing. 

Note the careful, repetitive use of the word "intend to" -- a patented way of avoiding saying what he "will" do. Politicians often use the word "intend" when they haven't finalized their real plans.

 

Welcome, Jack

Last Friday, Leslie Swartman was communications director for Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion.

This morning, she became the mother of Giacomo (Jack) Robert Falco, born at 7:10 a.m.

Jack's dad, Nick Masciantonio, has his office on the same floor as the Star's Ottawa bureau, in the National Press Building.

Nick, through email, reports that mom and son are doing well, but that "Papa is a blubbering mess."

Ignatieff's bragging rights

Just in time for his 61st birthday tomorrow, Deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff (seen at right in April) has made it to Foreign Policy magazine's Top-100 list of public intellectuals.

Ignatieff's not the only Canadian connection  on the prestigious  list -- New Yorker writer and author Malcolm Gladwell's there, as well as Lee Smolin, a physicist at Waterloo's Perimeter Institute.

But he is the only Canadian politician.

Foreign Policy, published out of the U.S. by the Carnegie Endowment, is asking readers to narrow down the Top-100 list to just five leading intellectuals. So technically, Ignatieff is still merely a finalist in a cast that the magazine describes this way:

"They are some of the world’s most introspective philosophers and rabble-rousing clerics. A few write searing works of fiction and uncover the mysteries of the human mind. Others are at the forefront of modern finance, politics, and human rights."

Foreign Policy doesn't say whether Ignatieff made the list because of his introspection or because of his rabble-rousing.

Other international notables on the Foreign Policy list include the Pope, chessmaster Garry Kasparov, France's Jacques Attali and Thomas Friedman, the NY Times columnist and author of the renowned books The World is Flat and The Lexus and the Olive Tree. 

P.S.

A hat tip to Liberal blogger Keith Torrie for noting Ignatieff's presence on the newly released list.

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.

A week ends, none too soon

It's hard to pick just one low point of political rhetoric this week -- though the Prime Minister reviving his old ‘anti-Semite’ smears against Liberal MPs definitely qualifies. For those who missed it, Harper's comments came in a radio interview, in which he talked about how "...anti-Israel sentiment, really [can be] just...a thinly disguised veil for good old fashioned anti-Semitism."

Then Harper said: "I am disturbed that there are some elements in our political system, there are even some members of Parliament...some that were willing to cater to that kind of opinion."

Harper must have felt this worked when he first dragged out the allegation in 2006.

Pulling the smear out again this week, on the occasion of Israel's 60th anniversary as a nation, seems a little much.

But there was one, rare high point in an otherwise below-the-belt week in Canada's bleak political discourse. It came yesterday when Bill Blaikie, the longest-serving MP in the Commons, and the Deputy Speaker, shut down an inane, "in,out" chanting routine that Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre has been using in the Commons with mixed effect. (Actually, here in the office, we've been having some fun watching the trouble he's having getting backbenchers to chant in harmony with him. It's like watching choreography for the unco-ordinated.)

Here's what happened today:

Mr. Pierre Poilievre (Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I have systematically demonstrated that the Liberals participated in a program of in and out. They did this to get around national spending limits and to amplify their taxpayer-funded Elections Canada return.

On July 8, 2004, the Liberal Party transferred to Beth Phinney's local campaign $5,000. On July 9, 2004, Beth Phinney's local campaign transferred to the Liberal Party $5,000.

(ed note: And here the chant begins....) Five thousand in, five thousand out; in, out--

The Deputy Speaker: Order. Any more chanting like that, some people will find themselves just out.

Amen and TGIF.