“The story that is missing is that he looked at what happened to Jim Prentice. Why don’t you go out at the top of your game and make a lot of money? He’s a lot younger than Jim Prentice and you can still come back to politics. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him back in politics. That door remains open for him without a doubt,” said a senior Conservative who spoke to The Hill Times on condition of anonymity.
“If the opportunity to become the premier of Ontario presented itself to John as the opportunity to become the premier of Alberta presented itself to Jim, he’d love to be the premier of Ontario.”
Chris Froggatt, former chief of staff and a close friend to Mr. Baird, 45, in an interview last week, said that the former minister does not have any plans at this time to return to politics, but he did not rule out the possibility in future.
“He’s just in the middle of leaving and coming back on the political scene. I don’t think there’s anything he’s thinking about right now. Who knows down the road, he’s a young guy and he’s got a lot to contribute. So I think it’s way too early, but anything is possible down the road,” said Mr. Froggatt, who is now a managing partner at National Public Relations.
Mr. Prentice, 58, a former Cabinet minister in the Harper government, quit federal politics in 2010 to work in the private sector. Last year, he ran successfully for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party in Alberta and became the premier. Other politicians have also left politics to work in the private sector and made successful political comebacks. Another prominent example is of former prime minister Jean Chrétien who left federal politics in 1986 and returned in 1990 to lead the Liberal Party to three majority victories.
Mr. Baird, 45, who spent about 20 years in politics at the provincial and federal levels, made his resignation announcement in the House on Tuesday, Feb. 3 after the news leaked to the CBC Monday night. This sudden announcement was a surprise even to Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.), with whom he has a very close social and professional relationship, but who found out about it from the media on Monday night too.
The surprise factor sparked a wave of speculation about differences between Mr. Baird and Mr. Harper on foreign policy issues to some suggesting the former Cabinet minister had concluded that the Conservatives would not be able to win a majority government in the 2015 election. Some political insiders also suggested the sudden resignation angered Mr. Harper.
But Mr. Froggatt dismissed the speculation, explaining that while Mr. Baird and Mr. Harper disagreed with each other on a number of political and policy issues over the last nine years, those disagreements were about exchanging ideas and coming up with the best solution. Disagreements on policy did not factor into Mr. Baird’s resignation, he said.
The only reason for Mr. Baird’s resignation was that after two decades in politics, he wanted to try something new in the private sector, Mr. Froggatt said.
“His first career was in politics. He’s in his peak earning years and I think he wants to explore the private sector while he is young enough to do so in those peak earning years. I don’t think anyone would begrudge him for that,” he said.
Mr. Froggatt said that Mr. Baird had been contemplating his life after politics for a while but decided to step down only recently and he never intended to surprise Mr. Harper.
“It’s never an easy discussion to have when you’re leaving. When you’re telling somebody you’re leaving, that’s hard. It caught everybody off guard. Those things never come easy,” Mr. Froggatt said.
He declined to comment on what specific job offers Mr. Baird is considering.
Mr. Froggatt confirmed that some of Mr. Baird’s close friends and colleagues, including PMO and former ministerial staffers, got together on Tuesday evening for drinks at Hy’s Steakhouse and Cocktail Bar and later went out for dinner at Mama Teresa Restaurant. Some of those who accompanied Mr. Baird were Ray Novak, chief of staff to the Prime Minister; Howard Anglin, deputy chief of staff to the Prime Minister; Garry Keller, former chief of staff to Mr. Baird; Dan Mader, senior consultant at Strategy Corp., Will Stewart, a principal with Ensight Canada; and Mr. Froggatt.
Conservative MP Rick Dykstra (St. Catharines, Ont.), who served as chief of staff to Mr. Baird as an Ontario provincial Cabinet minister, also denied that Mr. Baird tendered his resignation because of any controversy or any political calculation that Conservatives may not win the next election.
“That’s not the John Baird that I know. He doesn’t think, he doesn’t act and he doesn’t work like that. I don’t think that played a role in his decision to resign,” Mr. Dykstra said in an interview.
Mr. Dykstra added that he was also surprised by Mr. Baird’s resignation.
“I was surprised to hear. The night before I saw media leaks and you start to ask yourself whether it’s true or not true and the first reaction was it was probably not true and the longer I thought about it, it started to make sense to me,” Mr. Dykstra said.
As of deadline last week, Prime Minister Harper had not appointed a new Foreign Affairs minister. According to CBC, he asked other Cabinet ministers if anyone else had plans to resign prior to the next election.
Meanwhile, following Mr. Baird’s resignation speech in the House, the NDP and the Liberal Party foreign affairs critics paid tribute to the outgoing MP.
“He found his best footing as minister of foreign affairs, in my opinion,” NDP MP Paul Dewar (Ottawa Centre, Ont.) said in the House.
Liberal MP Marc Garneau (Westmount-Ville-Marie, Ont.) in his speech lauded Mr. Baird for taking input from opposition parties and referred to his invitation to opposition critics to accompany him to Iraq last year.
“That was a very important moment in foreign policy, and to have allowed us to join you I think demonstrated what is often lacking in this place, and that is a dropping of the gloves in the national interest and putting away partisanship,” Mr. Garneau said.
After the speeches, several MPs from all parties, including the Prime Minister, hugged Mr. Baird and shook hands.
No Conservative MP spoke in the House at the time but Prime Minister Harper issued a statement.
“John has always been willing to do a lot of the heavy lifting in my various cabinets and has assumed daunting new responsibilities with unsurpassed energy, commitment and professionalism, never losing sight of the fact that he was serving the Canadian people,’’ Mr. Harper said in his statement.
Conservative MP Mike Allen (Tobique-Mactaquac, N.B.) told The Hill Times that the Conservatives would hold an event to thank Mr. Baird for his contribution to the Harper government.
“We’re going to do our own thing at our own time. We’ll pay special homage to John and what speaks for itself is there were a lot of hugs and handshakes,” said Mr. Allen.
According to Conservative caucus sources, Mr. Baird did not attend last week’s caucus meeting the day after his resignation but Prime Minister Harper noted Mr. Baird’s positive contribution to the Conservative government. Sources said that the Conservative caucus is planning on holding a farewell reception for all Conservative MPs who are retiring from federal politics.
Mr. Baird, who in the past also held the portfolios of Treasury Board, Environment and Transport, was a nominated candidate in the new Ottawa area riding of Nepean. He won the last three elections in the riding of Ottawa West-Nepean but for the next election was acclaimed in the new and more Conservative-leaning riding of Nepean. Mr. Baird won the 2011 election by a margin of 13 per cent, the 2008 election by a margin of eight per cent and the 2006 election by a margin of nine per cent.
As of deadline last week, no candidate had officially announced their intent to seek the Conservative nomination to replace Mr. Baird. But speculation abounded that Ontario PC MPP Lisa MacLeod, who withdrew from the provincial party leadership contest last week, was interested in seeking the federal nomination in the riding. Ms. MacLeod previously served as a political aide to Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre (Nepean-Carleton, Ont.) and currently represents the same riding provincially.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com/
Author: Abbas Rana
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