Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

by Aaron Wherry on Monday, April 13, 2009 7:12pm - 22 Comments

CTV’s Tom Clark has some questions for John Baird. Hilarity ensues.

Tags: airport security, CTV, John Baird, national security, security, Tom Clark

catherine

This seems to be an unusually complex message for the Harper crew, who typically stick to simple soundbites – we had to break the law and get others to break the law in order to figure out what to do, but don’t worry, I used my power as Minister to stop the others being punished for purposely breaking the law. What other laws do Harper’s Ministers feel they have to break in order to do their jobs (besides our election laws and security laws and perhaps bribery laws)?
http://www.jackmitchell.ca Jack Mitchell

Anti-terror airport security is a complete joke the world over, a purely feel-good anxiety-reliever for the panicked post-9/11 public; the scandal here is that Pearson’s security is so lax that smugglers could be hauling loads of cocaine up and down the runway and nobody would notice or care.
cam

Did I hear John Baird describe himself as “non-partisan” in the work he does?!?

Wow, I thought this might have been left over from April 1st.
http://bcinto.blogspot.com BCer in Toronto

I’m sorry, I’m still picturing John Baird wearing a fake mustache. Can we get an artist’s rendering, please?

http://www.jackmitchell.ca Jack Mitchell

Actually I’m not surprised he made it through security.

http://www.jackmitchell.ca Jack Mitchell

“Every profound spirit needs a mask: even more, around every profound spirit a mask is growing continually, owing to the constantly false, namely shallow, interpretation of every word, every step, every sign of life he gives.”

– F. Nietzsche
Nick D

He looks like he should be the Minister of the Shiners War.

wilson

And I’m still picturing Liberal Senator Kenny trying to answer his shoe phone!
Anon

What surprises me is why Baird agreed to this interview, without his suit or tie, or apparently any makeup. Did the PMO force him?
Jenn

What surprises me is his lack of a sense of humour at the end. I think he was honestly quite angry at poor Tom Clarke–I guess he thought since it was on during Duffy’s hour, he’d get the Duffy treatment!

I wonder if we’ll see him on Power Play in the future.
http://darklydreamingdavid.wordpress.com DAVE ID

Hilarity Ensues at Farcleans.ca
William

OK so Baird ,for political reasons, can`t tell Clark the real reason why he has to go to such lengths to use the publicity card to convince the slack staff at Pearson to do their job.
Obviously a simple memo from the Minister would not be enough to get some action out of a workforce consisting of a$$-covering management and useless unionists——-so you embarass them and maybe it prevents the next sabotage attempt.
Great to see the responsible media doing their job—-asking the tough questions—-making sure terroism is dealt with before the fact.

Paul Wells

The funny thing here is that Tom asked the tough questions and William wishes Tom had fed Baird the answers. Welcome to the a$$-covering electorate.

Paul Wells

I think William’s “tough question” is so cute. “Tell me, minister, does it worry you that only your tough investigative tactics, unmatched intellact and steely good looks could crack open this socialist hive of corruption and indolence?”

William

I don`t know what ” steely good looks ” and ” stubble beards ” have to do with journalists doing their job and I sure as hell don`t want the media to be the cheerleaders for gov`t like they are for Obama . But, on this site it seems you have journalists scrounging around other media looking for tid-bits that they can throw out there to satisfy the feeding-frenzy of the predominately Harper-hating commenters. And then you have Kady getting excited about the regurgitated nonsense of a pitiful old man recalling partial truths from 25 years ago——Why ? Certainly not to change our opinion of Mulroney, but to try to pin some discredit on our present PM who only entered politics because of his disillusionment with former PM Mulroney———-silly days we live in.
catherine

Wiliam, you have lost your perspective on this one. When a Minister purposely breaks the law and then goes on national television, he should have a good plan for how he is going to explain that. “It was a great learning experience for me” just doesn’t cut it.

Tip: learn to save your Liberal-media-conspiracy spiel for something which has more than one side.

Terren

HIlarity ensues — hahahaha yes it sure does
knick

Another classic case of Harperite ham-fisted means attempting to justify self-serving ends.
William

Catherine—-my perspective has to do with airport security and I`m just asking that the media focus on that and not the cute tid bits in a story.
If we are spending all this money on preventing a terroist attack at Pearson then let`s make sure the Security are being vigilant. Maybe they are a little more aware since Baird and Kenny did their walk-through ( purposely broke the law ) oh yeah —real criminals.

catherine

Media do have a tendency to pay attention to media stunts, so Ministers who decide to pull media stunts should be prepared to deal with the media.

On airport security, you are an optimist. I agree with Jack Mitchell above, that airport security is a joke and Baird pulling this stunt does not reassure me that he knows what needs to be done to improve it. I suspect a lot more than a wake-up call to staff is required.

http://dredtory.blogspot.com/ Sir Francis

Gee, I wonder if Baird’s widely travelled and widely known pumpkin-sized head and his RCMP security detail had anything to do with the ease with which he breached security.

It’s nice to see our Minister take a lead in improving airport security in a way that is discreet, professional, dignified and that can in no way be mistaken for a cheap, juvenile tabloid-driven tactic to gain his government an unearned halo on security issues. What a buffoon.