Categories: Capital Read, Inside the Queensway

Welcome to his nightmare: Jim Flaherty holds nooner conference call to chat with reporters about .. oh, you know. Stuff.

by kadyomalley on Sunday, November 30, 2008 12:22pm - 64 Comments

Since the government has now backed down over public financing for political parties and – as of earlier today – its plan to suspend the right of civil servants to strike, the proposed changes to pay equity could be the third shoe to drop. I guess we’ll find out when this uncharacteristically lively hold music is replaced by the dulcet tone of the Finance Minister.

November 30, 2008

NOTICE TO THE MEDIA

Minister of Finance to Hold Conference Call

Immediate release

Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty will hold a conference call, today, Sunday, November 30, 2008, at 12:15 p.m.

Media representatives wishing to participate in the conference call must dial xxx-xxx-xxxx or toll-free in Canada only xxxxxxxxxx and refer to reservation #xxxxxxx at least 10 minutes before the call is scheduled to begin.

This conference call is for journalists only.

___________________
For further information:

Chisholm Pothier

Press Secretary

Office of the Minister of Finance

Tags: governmentdownbringingwatch 2008, jim flaherty explains it all

More by kadyomalley

Paul Wells

Actually, not all of us got our clocks cleaned when we ran against him, Brent.
http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/09/09/anyone-but-the-tories-or-the-ndp/
Ti-Guy

You’re an excellent example of the worst behaviour, Ti-Guy. Lots of comments; nothing of substance; partisan and small-minded to the core.

Actually, you’re an excellent example; not responding with substance but simply launching a personal attack. How gracious.
catherine

Gabe, Flaherty already said that everything he has been doing for the last couple years has been helping you. Haven’t you noticed and what more do you want?
Brent Fullard

In situations like this, I get my inspiration from David Bowie:

We can be heroes

I wish you could swim
Like the dolphins
Like dolphins can swim
Though nothing
Will keep us together
We can beat them
For ever and ever
Oh we can be Heroes
Just for one day

I will be king
And you
You will be queen
Though nothing
Will drive them away
We can be Heroes
Just for one day
We can be us
Just for one day

I can remember
Standing
By the wall
And the guns
Shot above our heads
And we kissed
As though nothing could fall
And the shame
Was on the other side
Oh we can beat them
For ever and ever
Then we can be Heroes
Just for one day
Dave

You bet the Conservatives are running scared now.

I live in Toronto. I just spoke with my parents who live in Western Canada and voted Conservative in the last election. They do not understand why the government behaved so stupidly and recklessly; they can barely believe what has happened. They absolutely do not want to see a Liberal-NDP coalition gain power, but if that does come to pass, it seems they place the blame squarely on Harper.

Remember, the Conservatives have the best polling, so they know better than anyone how all this is going over with the Canadian public. They can spin and push those talking points all they want, but Canadians do understand how our system of government works. After all the abstentions over the last few years and the recent talk of a “strengthened mandate”, perhaps it looked like we were forgetting. But last week’s events provided an excellent refresher in civics for us all, especially the Prime Minister, it would appear.

It has been pointed out by Conservative supporters that the government’s big mistake was not leaving elimination of party subsidies for the budget, when it would have been accompanied by a stimulus package that would have been politically much more difficult to defeat. In other words, they shouldn’t have let the opposition know they were going to try to bankrupt them until it was politically feasible to do so.

No kidding, now that the opposition knows what they know, what choice do they have?
T. Thwim

Brad: Except the canadian electorate didn’t give Harper a majority to govern with. So if the latter is true it makes it even worse, since it’s not only an attempt to crush opposition parties as opposed to governing, it’s an attempt to gain electoral advantage through realpolitik means as opposed to a competition of ideas. What step is next? Stationing RCMP members outside the opposition’s homes and refusing them the ability to leave? It simply goes even further to prove the point. Mr. Harper is a rogue dog and needs to be put down so that parliament can actually get some work done.

As for how you couldn’t see it being any worse than 1993 for the Conservatives, I’d suggest to you that in 1993 the government was not threatening to take away the Conservatives primary source of funding by eliminating the donation tax credit or limiting donations to $2/head.
Wascally Wabbit

Fred – that was then – this is NOW!
the Liberals will shortly have the best dialogue / fundraising tools of all the Canadian parties WHETHER THE CURRENT EXECUTIVE WANTS THEM OR NOT!
Not that they have much choice!
Having tools is only step one of course.
You can’t believe how eager people are to contribute to kicking Harper out…he really has let the gneie out of the bottle…
Dr Riff

Those yo-yos had the entire last session with a stronger position to align themselves in a coalition but instead couldn’t even show up when it mattered.
Brad Sallows

Sorry, Ti-Guy, but when you generalize you risk catching people in the generalization. Your comments are often personal.
keith by the Bruce

Kady : any updates on ctv plumbers or a watergate phone tap of duceppe ?
Sisyphus

And now Conservative Central ( CTV ) is reporting that the NDP and Bloq were plotting all this well before the economic statement/ IED device.

Sorry, that should be ” Socialists and Separatists “. They have Chucky-in-Chief Pierre P. talking his points all over the place.

By the way, does Stephen LeDrew still speak for the Liberals …. on anything ??
Ti-Guy

Your comments are often personal.

This is true. I’m just not a very nice person. I ran out of “nice” around March 2003 and five years of Conservative vilification and three years of a government that only cares about its own political fortunes and thinks I’m an idiot have done nothing to rehabilitate me.
keith by the Bruce

“And now Conservative Central ( CTV ) is reporting that the NDP and Bloq were plotting all this well before the economic statement/ IED device.”
—–
If the plumbers had jack bugged then the incompetent economic update makes sense .
T. Thwim

Apparantly a conservative member “recorded” a phone call between Jack Layton and his caucus. No indication has been provided of when Mr. Grewal will release the full tape.
Brad Sallows

>Except the canadian electorate didn’t give Harper a majority to govern with. So if the latter is true it makes it even worse,

The electorate did not, but there is nothing in law or convention – nor should there be – which should prevent a minority government from trying to govern ambitiously. Had the public political funding cut measure been enacted in legislation it still would never have been more than a disincentive to defeat the government for anything less than a very compelling reason; the opposition would still have had the ability to act in concert to defeat the government, just as they have had since the 2006 election. For all the complaints about the Harper government, it is a fact that it could have been replaced within the structure of Parliament and without necessarily recourse to an election long before now. The question as to whether the opposition parties have more in mind than a grave concern as to whether the federal government is spending enough is an interesting one which I hope the journalists get around to asking and answering this week, before the confidence vote may take place.

>What step is next? Stationing RCMP members

That is exactly the kind of discourse which is not very helpful. I’m a law-and-order, fiscal and social liberal (in the classical sense), kind of person who nevertheless likes to see strong and clear limits on authority; every time someone smears “the right” as being two inches away from a police state that person is levelling a baseless and insulting accusation against me. No one thinks it is acceptable to smear religious or ethnic groups any more; why is it acceptable to frame comments about Conservatives and (partially) like-minded supporters as if the blueshirts were imminent?

I don’t recall any party ever proposing to remove donation tax credits, and the per-vote funding did not exist in 1993. Nevertheless, it was a Liberal government that took the first major steps toward party funding reform in a way that removed big business (Conservative supporters, as the perception of the time had it) and big labour (NDP supporters) from the picture. As it turns out, the Liberals also depended on big business, which I think surprised a number of people when the effects of the legislation were seen.
Peter

Ti-Guy: “Actually, you’re an excellent example; not responding with substance but simply launching a personal attack. How gracious.

Pot meet kettle. Your nonstop posting is 70% word for word parroting of Liberal talking points, 20% anti-Conservative drive by smear, and 10% personal attack. Not to mention, you seem to be the most active poster on a number of Liberal circle jerk blogs such as this one. I’m guessing you might be the unemployable b@stard spawn some old lecher of a Liberal Senator knocked out of a streetwalker.
Ti-Guy

Apparantly a conservative member “recorded” a phone call between Jack Layton and his caucus.

It’s true. CTV”s reporting that a Conservative member recorded a conference call with Jack Layton.

Oh, my….
SJ

“Those yo-yos had the entire last session with a stronger position to align themselves in a coalition but instead couldn’t even show up when it mattered.”

Well I’m convinced. You know how to pull them punches…. What exactly is your point?
Ti-Guy

Your nonstop posting is 70% word for word parroting of Liberal talking points, 20% anti-Conservative drive by smear, and 10% personal attack.

I love science!
keith by the Bruce

For the Best Government Money Can’t Buy:How to Make Canada’s Political Finance System Democratic
researched and written by: Aaron Freeman

ALERT – it is still legal to make secret donations of unlimited amounts of money, products and services to all types of provincial and territorial political candidates, and to federal nomination race and party leadership candidates!!
A.Political

Ti-Guy
Nov 30, 2008 14:16

You’re an excellent example of the worst behaviour, Ti-Guy. Lots of comments; nothing of substance; partisan and small-minded to the core.

Actually, you’re an excellent example; not responding with substance but simply launching a personal attack. How gracious.

===

Heh, Ti, you are usually pretty acidic in your postings across the tubes. But they certainly are not substance free, most of the time ;)
T. Thwim

I wasn’t saying “the right” was two steps away from a police state. I was pointing out that using realpolitik means to strangle opposition opens up these kinds of avenues.. avenues which we simply do not want open.

As to people being surprised that the Liberals depend on big business, I would suggest that was only the people who weren’t paying attention. M. Chretien knew quite well what he was doing when he put that restriction in place, and he was not thinking of the best interests of the LPC at the time. (It would be nice to suggest that he was thinking of the best interests of Canadian democracy, but I doubt that as well) Hell, I wasn’t even terribly interesting in politics at the time, and when I heard Chretien proposed that I was amazed, as I knew that he was seriously hurting the Liberal party with that move but I felt it was the right thing to do and admired Chretien for having the courage to do so, even if it was on his way out. (I still feel it was the right thing to do, though I no longer admire the motives behind it)

And you’re right, no party proposed to remove donation tax credits. That’s what I was pointing out, that the troubles faced by the Conservative party in 1993 are in no way analogous to what was being threatened against the opposition parties now. So your suggestion that the Liberals would not be permanently put down by this type of change coming at this moment is only an assumption. Their credit for this last election was surely based on the collatoral of the subsidy. Were that removed, they would be in debt to the point where bankruptcy would have to be considered. This would essentially prevent them from making the investments needed to create the machinery to fund themselves.

It would be literally easier for the party to dissolve entirely than come back from that.
G. Milner

I really hope someone on that line uses the Con talking points from the website.

“I am outraged that…”

A. The conservatives are wasting my Sunday afternoons
B. This conversation is using up my unlimited evening weekend minutes
C. That the new age of cooperation has failed so badly
Michael

CTV is reporting that the NDP and Bloc have been in coooperation “talks” for some time, long before the Economic Update. Did the Liberals know this?
whyshouldIsellyourwheat

The Conservative Party has to get it through their heads, that this is Harper’s blunder, not a Conservative Party blunder.

Don’t follow Harper over the cliff. Throw Harper over the cliff themselves first. Come to Parliament with a new PM and a new finance minister.

The alternative to a Harper minority is a Conservative minority led by somebody else.