The lead-up to the Conservative convention was supposed to be a walk in the park for Stephen Harper.
You know, the speech from the throne, and the Canada-Europe free trade agreement. A big agenda for the second half of a majority mandate, and a major achievement — the biggest trade deal in the quarter-century since the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, certain to be a template for a larger North American-European agreement.
Did we mention the economy? Unemployment below seven per cent for the first time since the Great Recession of 2008-09? Or one million new jobs created since then? Or the strongest fiscal framework and lowest debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7? Or Ottawa being on track to balance the books in 2015?
That’s a narrative of success.
The Senate expense scandal? Well, the RCMP was on the case, and so was the auditor general. Let them do their work, report their findings and recommendations.
After the convention.
In other words, leave well enough alone. Or as my mother used to say, in Irish terms, “Feed a cold, starve a fever.”
But then, in the rollout of the speech from the throne and the CETA deal, the Conservatives decided to introduce motions in the Senate suspending three of their own former members of the Red Chamber, appointed by Harper himself, for “gross negligence.”
Right, the Senate expense scandal. And this, again, before anything had been heard from the RCMP, much less the AG.
No one in Ottawa believes this was the idea of Claude Carignan, the new leader of the government in the Senate.
Everyone knows this came from the Prime Minister’s Office. What were they thinking? Obviously, they thought they’d get this off the table before the convention.
But here’s what happened instead.
The motions suspending the three Conservative senators without pay and benefits amounted to turning the Senate into a kangaroo court, while suspending the presumption of innocence, the core value of British common law.
Oh, and then they gave microphones to Mike Duffy and Pam Wallin, who know how to use them.
They’ve only been in Canadians’ living rooms for the last 40 years.
They’ll be teaching this, years from now, in COMMs 101, on how not to run a political communications issue.
These wounds are entirely self-inflicted.
Harper, who shouldn’t be anywhere near this story, instead finds himself at the centre of the storm over a personal cheque for $90,000 his former chief of staff, Nigel Wright cut for Duffy to repay ineligible expenses.
When the story broke last May, Harper at first expressed confidence in Wright, then accepted his resignation “with regret.” Then in an interview with a Halifax radio station on Monday, Harper said Wright had been “dismissed.” In the House the next day, he said Wright had been “removed,” adding, “On our side, there is one person responsible for this deception and that person is Mr. Wright.”
So, now Wright gets thrown under the bus, too. It’s getting pretty crowded under that bus.
At first, Harper maintained that Wright was acting alone, but last week allowed that “a few” people inside PMO and the government may have known about the cheque.
Then it turns out there was a second cheque for $13,000 cut by the Conservative Party’s lawyer through his firm, to cover Duffy’s legal expenses, and billed back to the party. If party lawyer Arthur Hamilton knew about this, who else did? Which is the problem with this story — the tick-tock. What did the PM know, and when did he know it?
And the vote in the Senate, which was to have taken place before the Calgary convention, won’t occur until sometime next week. So the Senate story played right into a convention that the suspension resolutions were meant to pre-empt.
Instead, the Senate story has dominated the news cycle for two weeks, during which it wouldn’t have been a story at all if only the PMO had left it alone. Who knows how long it would have taken the RCMP and auditor general to report, and what they would have recommended?
The Conservatives have taken a significant hit on two core attributes of their brand: integrity and competence.
Meanwhile, back at the convention, the prime minister’s Friday night keynote had become an important moment. Would he talk about Senate reform? He was certain to tout his achievements.
Among the policy resolutions was a hardy perennial: one member-one vote vs. all ridings are created equal. This debate has been going on since the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties merged a decade ago. For the PCs, the equality of ridings, all having the same number of delegates to leadership conventions, is a fundamental principle. But the old Alliance crowd keep bringing it up at every convention.
On Friday, the PC argument prevailed again on the convention floor as two resolutions on changing the method for selecting a leader were voted down. Harper would have been relieved by that. The last thing he needs now is a house divided.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: L. Ian MacDonald
You know, the speech from the throne, and the Canada-Europe free trade agreement. A big agenda for the second half of a majority mandate, and a major achievement — the biggest trade deal in the quarter-century since the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, certain to be a template for a larger North American-European agreement.
Did we mention the economy? Unemployment below seven per cent for the first time since the Great Recession of 2008-09? Or one million new jobs created since then? Or the strongest fiscal framework and lowest debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7? Or Ottawa being on track to balance the books in 2015?
That’s a narrative of success.
The Senate expense scandal? Well, the RCMP was on the case, and so was the auditor general. Let them do their work, report their findings and recommendations.
After the convention.
In other words, leave well enough alone. Or as my mother used to say, in Irish terms, “Feed a cold, starve a fever.”
But then, in the rollout of the speech from the throne and the CETA deal, the Conservatives decided to introduce motions in the Senate suspending three of their own former members of the Red Chamber, appointed by Harper himself, for “gross negligence.”
Right, the Senate expense scandal. And this, again, before anything had been heard from the RCMP, much less the AG.
No one in Ottawa believes this was the idea of Claude Carignan, the new leader of the government in the Senate.
Everyone knows this came from the Prime Minister’s Office. What were they thinking? Obviously, they thought they’d get this off the table before the convention.
But here’s what happened instead.
The motions suspending the three Conservative senators without pay and benefits amounted to turning the Senate into a kangaroo court, while suspending the presumption of innocence, the core value of British common law.
Oh, and then they gave microphones to Mike Duffy and Pam Wallin, who know how to use them.
They’ve only been in Canadians’ living rooms for the last 40 years.
They’ll be teaching this, years from now, in COMMs 101, on how not to run a political communications issue.
These wounds are entirely self-inflicted.
Harper, who shouldn’t be anywhere near this story, instead finds himself at the centre of the storm over a personal cheque for $90,000 his former chief of staff, Nigel Wright cut for Duffy to repay ineligible expenses.
When the story broke last May, Harper at first expressed confidence in Wright, then accepted his resignation “with regret.” Then in an interview with a Halifax radio station on Monday, Harper said Wright had been “dismissed.” In the House the next day, he said Wright had been “removed,” adding, “On our side, there is one person responsible for this deception and that person is Mr. Wright.”
So, now Wright gets thrown under the bus, too. It’s getting pretty crowded under that bus.
At first, Harper maintained that Wright was acting alone, but last week allowed that “a few” people inside PMO and the government may have known about the cheque.
Then it turns out there was a second cheque for $13,000 cut by the Conservative Party’s lawyer through his firm, to cover Duffy’s legal expenses, and billed back to the party. If party lawyer Arthur Hamilton knew about this, who else did? Which is the problem with this story — the tick-tock. What did the PM know, and when did he know it?
And the vote in the Senate, which was to have taken place before the Calgary convention, won’t occur until sometime next week. So the Senate story played right into a convention that the suspension resolutions were meant to pre-empt.
Instead, the Senate story has dominated the news cycle for two weeks, during which it wouldn’t have been a story at all if only the PMO had left it alone. Who knows how long it would have taken the RCMP and auditor general to report, and what they would have recommended?
The Conservatives have taken a significant hit on two core attributes of their brand: integrity and competence.
Meanwhile, back at the convention, the prime minister’s Friday night keynote had become an important moment. Would he talk about Senate reform? He was certain to tout his achievements.
Among the policy resolutions was a hardy perennial: one member-one vote vs. all ridings are created equal. This debate has been going on since the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties merged a decade ago. For the PCs, the equality of ridings, all having the same number of delegates to leadership conventions, is a fundamental principle. But the old Alliance crowd keep bringing it up at every convention.
On Friday, the PC argument prevailed again on the convention floor as two resolutions on changing the method for selecting a leader were voted down. Harper would have been relieved by that. The last thing he needs now is a house divided.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: L. Ian MacDonald
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