UPDATE: In the following article it looks as if Justice Minister Peter MacKay’s intern may well have misrepresented himself, baited his target, MP John MacKay, and then recorded the response.
http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/06/05/mackays-office-wont-comment-on-link-to-bozo-eruption-tape/
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The media feeding frenzy over a clandestine recording of MP John MacKay’s comments about Justin Trudeau makes me wonder if Canada has turned into the autocratic Kingdom of Harper more than we realize.
I knew John MacKay at Queen’s. Likeable guy, very bright and principled, but even then his brain had a mind of its own, and he would occasionally branch off into candid comments for which his listeners loved him.
First time I saw Justin Trudeau he was fishing his brother out of Poonamalee Lock and back into the family houseboat. He was about ten at the time. Since then he has appealed to me for much the same reasons I cited above for my esteem for John MacKay.
Both men are liberals. The essence of liberalism is the airing of divergent and often conflicting points of view. The basis of the liberal revolution was the invention of the watch. The opposing spring principle showed that an object could be held in place indefinitely by the balanced, conflicting actions of two or more springs. Modern liberal democracy emerged as a corollary of that principle: a thesis and its antithesis do not destroy one another; rather, the synthesis of the ideas emerges as the workable principle.
Only in the Kingdom of Harper is it forbidden to give loud voice to dissenting opinions late at night when the lights are dim and spirits flow. In the teaching profession we called such comments “venting.” Those who vented these bon mots before their peers in the evening usually got things out of their systems and pulled with the rest of the team the next day.
How else do people get their minds around change?
To my mind the real story is in the clandestine recording made public as news: has politics degenerated to where thinking men and women can no longer express opinions in the process of forming them? If that is the case, then Western society has degenerated into the nightmare state Orwell predicted in 1948.
In conclusion I ask you this: can you name a single case where the publication of a clandestine recording has led to better government?
Update, 2 June, 2014
Yesterday’s story about anti-abortion groups planning to pack nomination meetings of all parties during the 2015 federal election cycle provides another angle from which to view Trudeau’s pro-choice-or-no-nomination stance with candidates.
It looks to me as though JT’s crew, far from having a Bozo moment as MP John MacKay so regrettably suggested, had intelligence enough to put measures in place to head off the anti-abortionists before they tore up future nomination meetings. Future whipped votes on abortion in the House of Commons are a non-issue and everyone knows it, but nomination meetings where a few dozen determined people can really throw their weight around are a potential threat to the rights of everyone.
Hard as it may be for journalists (or readers) to believe, Trudeau is sometimes so far ahead of the pack that he appears stupid. Plato’s expression, not mine.
Update, 20 April, 2020
Some years after my blog about packing nomination meetings and Trudeau’s preemptive move to prevent same, 18 year-old Sam Oosterhoff rode an anti-abortion wave in a nomination meeting of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party to take the place from the established candidate who had not expected a packed meeting hall. He credited the right-wing of the party for the upset.
During the Leadership Campaign for the Ontario Progressive Conservatives, social conservative Tanya Granic Allen dominated the debates with her personality, drew some support from the base and then played king-maker to put Doug Ford into the job over more capable candidates Christine Elliot or Carolyn Mulroney. Ford then took a sniff of her ideas and promptly dumped her.
Peter MacKay in the years since the release of the recording mentioned above has found a variety of ways to shoot himself in the foot by running off at the mouth. John MacKay continues to be a stalwart in the Trudeau Government.
Behind the headline
April 14, 2014
Government buying 1,600 pieces of custom wood furniture for 70 MPs new offices
By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen April 13, 2014
I sent an email to Don Butler and asked if he could give me access to the PDFs containing the sketches of the furniture in the order. He immediately sent the following link:
https://buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/tender-notice/PW-PPS-007-24427
Once the graphics blew up enough that I could see them, I realized that the pieces of furniture in the illustrations are well designed and should be lasting and durable, but they are more utilitarian than extravagant.
A government spokesperson comments in Butler’s article: “Furnishings should be made of good quality materials so they are durable and they should make the most of the heritage spaces for which they are designed.”
From what I could see in the plans, the bookshelves, tables, desks and coat racks are well proportioned according to classical standards. The predominant motif on the pieces is a simple, ¼” bead cut into the bottoms of legs and added to trim to prevent splintering and resist wear. The ogees on the table edges fulfill a similar function. There is very little ornamentation on the furniture.
From the headline of the article I expected when I looked at a sketch of a large table to see a plan for a 10’ by 4’ slab of 3” black walnut cut from a single log in the manner of a corporate boardroom table, priced at about $50,000. What I found was something more like a nice ping pong table – two sections of walnut-veneer plywood sitting on three boxes underneath to hold A.V. equipment. Mind you, with good veneers, solid walnut for the edge trim and a good finish, the result could look very good. Moreover these pieces would likely remain in service for a long time. There’s no sense in buying something of poor materials and shoddy design which will need replacement when the next occupant of the office comes along. That’s where the waste comes in.
My wife looked at the illustration of the larger bookshelf in the “catalogue” and commented: “That’s just like the cherry one in our upstairs hall.” But I used solid wood throughout. The government plan calls for veneer, and rightly so: good veneer over plywood will outlast solid wood in wide, relatively thin panels where changes of humidity are to be expected, such as in Ottawa in winter.
Butler comments: “When the MPs settle into their new offices in 2016, they will be surrounded by furniture of the highest quality.” Based upon the tender requirements which Mr. Butler forwarded to me, I would disagree. The tender simply calls for an office-full of decently-designed plywood furniture covered in walnut veneer, with solid walnut used for the edge trim. There’s a lot of it in the order, but that is hardly the fault of the designers.
There remain a lot of myths about black walnut after the inflated prices of the 1970’s. In fact in 2007 Eastern Ontario hard maple was worth more than black walnut on the wholesale market. Home decorating guru Martha Stewart had declared that she preferred lighter woods, and that was the end of the demand for black walnut lumber. Even today black cherry, to my mind a much inferior furniture wood, is worth more than black walnut.
“The contract is conditionally limited to companies that can supply at least 80 per cent of the goods and services from Canadian sources. Other bids will only be considered if fewer than three bidders meet the Canadian content requirement.” It’s hard to see a bad side to this.
It’s interesting that prices for black walnut veneer logs recently shot up in Ontario. A veneer buyer told me a couple of months ago that 10,000 board feet of logs sold for $100,000 at an auction. This is a solid price in a chronically depressed market. It may not be enough to turn the hardwood market around in Ontario, but for this black walnut producer, it’s a whole lot better than nothing.
I am no admirer of the Harper Government and I am not at all sure Canada needs 70 more MP’s, but I can’t see anything wrong with this furniture order.
Harper vs Supreme Court of Canada (Updated)
March 21, 2014
The Supreme Court’s rejection of Harper nominee Marc Nadon to fill an upcoming vacancy must come as a major slap in the face to a prime minister who does basic math: he has appointed five of the eight judges, and they just won’t stay bought. They voted six-to-one against his man. One recent Harper appointment recused himself. Another voted for Nadon. But the other three voted the appointment down because Nadon was not qualified according to the rules laid down in the Constitution.
Harper can’t very well cut the budget of the Supreme Court of Canada and expect Beverley McLachlin and her colleagues to fold their tents and go home. He can’t remove their charitable status, nor pack their board of directors. He can’t even change the law to qualify his personal candidates for the high court. He tried that by adding a page to the last omnibus bill. They quashed the change along with Nadon’s nomination. Damned Constitution.
Now McLachlin and the five others who voted against Nadon specified in their report that they did not judge whether Nadon could still qualify for the post if he were again to join the Quebec Bar. That was not the question they had been asked. This leaves Harper, the man who gave new life to the word “prorogation” in the Canadian lexicon, another out: all he has to do is hop through the court’s hoops and then send Nadon, hat in hand, again to attempt to gain admission to the vacant Supreme Court seat.
Under the circumstances I would do exactly that. But Stephen Harper has had eight years of power, and his growing pride in his authoritarian rule may not allow him to bend to the Court’s will.
Expect Harper to fire a blast at constitutional lawyer Rocco Galati, the Supreme Court, the Constitution, and pretty well everyone else from his favourite perch: the lectern of a press conference in Europe. This may leave the Ukrainians within earshot slack-jawed in bewilderment, but it’s not about your country’s problems, guys. When Harper speaks on the world stage, it’s about Stephen Harper.
Weaponized bitumen?
January 14, 2014
Looks to me as though the Alberta oil patch guys want to ship the bitumen from the tar sands out untreated because they want to send the pollution involved in processing the stuff downstream, as well.
Maybe it’s time for a new meme. How about “weaponized bitumen”? North American business extracts its revenge on China for cheap exports by strangling the country with emissions from its bitumen refineries.
And we thought smallpox blankets and the opium wars were unethical.
OPSEU – funded film: Is this an attack ad?
January 6, 2014
I found this video on Rabble and screened it in anticipation of a cheap attack ad directed at Tim Hudak.
Here’s the link without spoilers. You decide. Comments welcome.
Poorest Hamilton neighbourhoods vanish from new census.
January 3, 2014
This is too important to ignore.
Who is Valerie?
January 1, 2014
She appears on my TV screen as a rather timid woman not far from middle age, a pleasant person who may be a bit down on her luck. She tells of her desire for a career and how she got to take a mechanic’s course with a four thousand dollar grant from the federal government. Then come those execrable green arrows and the Canada’s Economic Action Plan logo.
So I decided to find out who “Valerie” really is. I got nowhere. The Action Plan website is all flash and no substance. I’ve seen sources better documented on entries to the annual Legion Poetry Contest. “Valerie” is nowhere to be found.
So I must conclude that the Harper Government has so come unglued from reality that it has now made up a fictitious character to fill a fictitious job funded by a fictitious $4000. grant from a non-existent program.
This “Valerie” character is a less-heroic knockoff of Winston Smith’s “Comrade Ogilvie,” a character he made up one day as part of his job revising history at The Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four.
My fondest hope is that the next government of Canada will draw its inspiration from a more nuanced source than a dated sci-fi novel taught in grade 11.
UPDATE, 23 January, 2014:
Today Employment Minister Jason Kenney uttered the following in a press conference about his jobs grant: “I don’t understand why it’s not widely accepted.”
Think, Jason. Could it have something to do with the $14.8 million of our money you spent last year on ads about non-existent grants for non-existent jobs? Normal people call that lying and it annoys them.
Trudeau denies SUN News a year-end interview.
December 17, 2013
In a column today Warren Kinsella bemoans Trudeau’s refusal to talk to Sun News. I offered the following online comment to his empty-chair interview:
Trudeau has built his career on an adversarial relationship with SUN News. His finest moments have come when under attack from the likes of Levant and Lilley. Last spring’s celebrity boxing match would have been nothing without SUN T.V.’s breathless promotion. All of Canada tuned in to SUN for one excruciatingly bad evening until the main event lit up the screen. Then we watched the victorious Trudeau easily outwit the shameless Levant.
But the same night SUN News also broadcast the single image which won Trudeau the Liberal leadership and likely the keys to 24 Sussex: The Kiss. While Brazeau was still gasping in his corner, Sophie burst into the ring and none-too gently embraced her husband. All of Canada saw the passion of this couple, and approved. We realized right then that Sophie and Justin are what we want in a first family.
Their Christmas card reinforced the family-appeal. On the campaign trail the Trudeaus will be very, very hard to beat.
All year SUN News has delivered for JT. We watched another fine moment when Justin calmly carried on a conversation with a companion while completely ignoring a badgering SUN reporter in an extended camera shot. Awesome.
Trudeau can’t jeopardize this thing with SUN News by getting all friendly. He needs Levant, Lilley and the odd vapid reporter as adversaries to make him look good to Canadians.
More “Gotcha!” journalism produces storm of outrage
December 15, 2013
I just listened to the tape of Conservative cabinet minister James Moore’s scrum interview last Friday with Sara Norman of News1130 in Vancouver. Moore has a point when he claims that his comments were taken out of context. The ensuing headline: “Federal Minister says child poverty not Ottawa’s problem” is not strictly inaccurate, but it certainly didn’t reflect what Moore would have chosen to say on the topic.
On Twitter Norman devoutly maintains that the headline is legitimate: “.@saradnorman responds: It’s on tape and taken directly in context. I asked the questions about child poverty, those were the answers.”
I believe that Norman overstates her case. Moore did wheel out standard Tory talking points to avoid the reporter’s question, and he did come off as unfeeling as a result, but to selectively edit Moore’s words as Norman did is not fair, and Moore doesn’t deserve the Twitter storm currently under way.
http://www.news1130.com/2013/12/15/raw-james-moore-in-scrum-with-news1130s-sara-norman/
Conservative attack ad in Punjabi
December 14, 2013
This one really rankles. The outright lies in it I highlighted.
Justin Trudeau has a famous last name, but he lacks the judgement to be Prime Minister. His only policy priority so far is to promote the legalization of marijuana. He wants to make it available for sale, like alcohol and tobacco. But that would dramatically increase its availability to minors and send the message that recreational drug use is acceptable. To highlight Justin Trudeau’s policy and his lack of judgement, the Conservative Party has released ads in communities across Canada. Stephen Harper’s Conservative Government is following a very different priority, working to help make our streets and communities safer. This includes combatting drug trafficking and grow-ops*, especially in residential areas. Justin Trudeau and the Liberals don’t stop to consider the harmful effects of marijuana on users and society, especially when it comes to younger Canadians. Justin Trudeau’s plan to make marijuana more freely available without considering the consequences shows he doesn’t have the judgement to be Prime Minister. He’s in way over his head.
I stated early this year that I would contribute $50 to the LPC for every attack ad I encountered (up to the $1100 maximum), so I guess it’s time for me to open up the bank account again and send another contribution to battle unfair advertising directed at JT.
*While condemning the legalization of marijuana and Justin Trudeau, Harper’s neo-cons have nevertheless gotten in on the ground floor of a growth industry they are creating by banning the licensed home production of medical marijuana. Witness the purchase of the Hershey Plant in Smiths Falls for conversion to a legal grow op. The whole deal is designed to take advantage of favourable legislation the Harper government will provide in the spring. When you get past the figureheads on the incorporation papers, I’d be very interested to see who’s behind this one.
the Walnut Diary 