Speaking by phone from Calgary, Tom Flanagan, who wrote Harper’s Team: Behind the Scenes in the Conservative Rise to Power, a kind of electoral handbook for political junkies, said, “It’s very effective. It’s tremendously effective. It has decided elections. I’ve lived through it. And that’s why parties do it, and all parties do it in one form or another.”
Mr. Flanagan, a former top campaign adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.), was asked about two recent stories of how the Conservatives deployed their own political staff as agents provocateurs—a broad term that usually means using an undercover agent to provoke the enemy into committing illegal and damaging acts. In current political gamesmanship, it seems to mean enticing politicians to divulge opinions they don’t want all voters to hear.
Last month, a Conservative staffer attended a public discussion hosted by a federal Liberal star candidate, Andrew Leslie, who is running for the nomination in Ottawa-Orleans, Ont. She was later identified by the Liberals to The Hill Times as an assistant to Conservative MP Rob Anders (Calgary West, Alta.). Alexandra Constantinidis asked Mr. Leslie, who advises Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) on foreign affairs, about the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.
After stressing Israel’s right to defend itself and exhorting that Hamas terrorists should be hunted down and killed, Mr. Leslie, a former general, accused the Israelis of “firing indiscriminately” on Palestinian women and children.
After his recorded response was leaked to the media, Cory Hann, a spokesperson for the Conservative Party wrote in an email to The Hill Times, “When Trudeau’s top foreign affairs adviser is quoted at a public event accusing Israel of ‘firing indiscriminately onto Palestinian women and children,’ that’s something Canadians deserve to know and Trudeau should be ashamed of.”
Mr. Leslie wasn’t available for comment by press time.
The second incident occurred at a May meeting of the Lanark Frontenac Federal Liberal Riding Association where the Liberal MP John McKay (Scarborough-Guildwood, Ont.), his party’s environment critic, gave a talk on water safety. After his presentation, Mr. McKay was approached by someone who asked to speak to him privately.
The Liberals identified the man as Trevor Stack, an intern at the time in Health Minister Rona Ambrose’s (Edmonton-Spruce Grove, Alta.) office. Mr. Stack appears to have secretly recorded Mr. McKay’s answer as he sought Mr. McKay’s opinion of the Liberals’ policy to screen out all new nomination candidates who would advocate restricting access to abortions.
Mr. McKay, a veteran MP who has never hidden his anti-abortion views, replied he first thought Trudeau was having a “bozo eruption.” He continued, “Even more disturbing is that his brain trust has actually thought about this.” The tape was given to CTV News.
Mr. Hann wrote, “We understand why the Liberals wouldn’t want to publicize that one of their senior MPs called Justin Trudeau a ‘bozo’ because he is, after all, in over his head.”
Mr. McKay didn’t wish to talk to The Hill Times about the incident.
Gerald Fast, president of the riding association, reached by phone in Godfrey, Ont., said, “It reminds you of Tricky Dick and the Watergate scandal. It’s just dirty tricks,“ adding that Mr. McKay’s staff was able to identify two of the men by scrutinizing sign-in information and photos of the event.
Mr. Fast explained he was initially pleased when three young people showed up together among the 50 or so who attended. He said his wife showed the three where the coffee and treats were and was puzzled when they seemed embarrassed and ill at ease.
Another man, who accompanied Mr. Stack, was identified by the Liberals as likely to be Allan Mason who worked as an intern in Justice Minister Peter MacKay’s (Central Nova, N.S.) office this summer. Neither Mr. MacKay nor Ms. Ambrose has responded to questions about their interns’ conduct.
However, Mr. Flanagan says he’s experienced similar tactics at least twice during election campaigns he’s run, and he suspects the culprits were Liberals. In the 2004, federal election Conservative MP Randy White was interviewed by an independent filmmaker for a film he was told wouldn’t see the light of day for many months.
In the interview, Mr. White said “to heck with the courts” in regards to overturning same-sex marriage, and hinted the Conservatives would use the notwithstanding clause to get around the Charter, a document he described as a “crutch for social libertarians.”
Mr. Flanagan said, “Now, I cannot believe the Liberal Party was not involved in some way. The filmmaker wasn’t a Liberal employee, but somehow the thing got sent to the media in a very high-profile way.”
Some political observers judged the gaffe cost the Conservatives the election, leading to Paul Martin’s minority government.
During the 2000 federal election, Mr. Flanagan recalled a Canadian Alliance candidate who was invited to speak before a university class. “She’d been invited to speak to a class in Winnipeg by a professor who was known to be sympathetic to the Liberals,” he said.
During the class Betty Granger used the term “Asian invasion” about the number of Asian students creating “pressure” so that Canadians couldn’t get into some universities. After her remarks made their way to the media, she resigned.
What’s different this time, Mr. Flanagan thinks, is the use of legislative assistants to do the dirty work in the secret taping of candidates’ comments which are then often used for their shock value in fundraising letters. In the past, local party members might have been used as undercover agents, not staffers on the government payroll, even though so-called “exempt staff,” that is, political staff, are almost always partisans.
“If the Liberals thought that there was anything inappropriate about this they would be complaining to the Board of Internal Economy,” he said. “I say inappropriate in a legal sense. Maybe the whole thing is inappropriate.”
Mr. Flanagan also wonders about the ethics of pulling someone aside for a purported private conversation and then taping the contents for publication. “I think it would be wrong if the questioner was deceptive. If the questioner gave the politician the impression that he was a big supporter, and sort of encouraged him to speak, that would be starting to cross ethical lines.”
Mr. Fast, who didn’t witness the encounter between Mr. McKay and the Conservative staffer, said, “My understanding is he [McKay] was pulled aside and told, “Look, I’m a life-long Liberal.”
Paul Adams of Carleton University, who often writes about political ethics, agreed the Conservatives may have taken dirty tricks a step further by using political staffers, even if they are working on their own time, given candidates’ meetings usually take place in the evening. “It is a continuing step in the degradation of public service. I don’t think there’s any way around that,” he said in phone interview.
As to the Liberals being bushwhacked, Mr. Adams isn’t a big sympathizer although that’s not quite how he puts it. “I mean, I feel so sorry for the Liberals that they were trapped into saying what they actually thought. It’s a sad day for Canada.”
Mr. Adams contends Mr. Leslie and Mr. McKay committed “Kinsley gaffes,” a term coined by American journalist Michael Kinsley to describe when a truth is revealed that a politician did not intend to admit.
“It’s kind of hard to adjudicate between people who are deliberately, deceptively setting out traps for politicians, and then politicians cry foul for saying what they actually think but were hoping nobody would find out about,” he said.
The same riding where Mr. McKay was ensnared is hosting Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett (St. Paul’s, Ont.) at the end of the month.
“Everybody is going to be on guard,” Mr. Fast said. “We’re going to say if anyone has recording devices, please turn them off unless Ms. Bennett agrees to be taped.”
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com/
Author: Leslie MacKinnon
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