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

The politics of disaster

by Aaron Wherry on Thursday, January 14, 2010 3:43pm - 84 Comments

The Winnipeg Free Press’ Mia Rabson isn’t much impressed with the government’s public relations.

Late last night we got a photo from the prime minister’s office of Stephen Harper on the telephone, presumably with UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, discussing the situation in Haiti. Today Defence Minister Peter Mackay is posing in Halifax as the HMCS Athabaskan and HMCS Halifax leave for Haiti. At about the same time, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife, Laureen, were staging a photo op making a donation to the Canadian Red Cross.

Enough already. Stop posing for photo ops and just get on with the business of helping Haiti.

Much like Jean Chrétien was heavily and rightly criticized for getting in the way in a photo op of him throwing a sand bag onto a dyke in the middle of the 1997 flood in Winnipeg, these kinds of photo ops smack of political opportunism and are out of place.

CBC’s Janyce McGregor is searching for signs of politics put aside. I would note only that Lawrence Cannon and Denis Coderre managed today to sit beside each other at a news conference in Montreal.

Tags: Ban Ki-moon, earthquake, Flood, Haiti, HMCS Athabaskan, HMCS Halifax, Jean Chretien, Peter MacKay, Red Cross, Stephen Harper, winnipeg

More by Aaron Wherry

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jenn_ Jenn_

I have no problem with any of our politicians in respect of helping Haiti. I think, at least from what I've seen and heard, they have all behaved quite well. Not like they were somebody else, but like our politicians at their most responsible.

Ted, I loved your posts on GG.
Tall Grass

The speed of response by the government has been astonishing. Now that Canada (finally) has heavy-lift capability with the purchase and 2008 delivery of the four C-17 Globemaster III, our actions can mirror our rhetoric.

BTW. Aaron, seek help.

Gayle

Astonishing?

They did what the country wanted them to do. In other words, they did their job. I am satifisfied with their performance. They will get a "met expectations" when we get to "disaster response" on their performance review.
Gayle

Or did you mean you are "astonished" our government was able to act quickly. That is a bit harsh on Harper don't you think?
Kevin

I don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but plans for disaster response are drawn up by the good men and women who work in the public service and the forces. All the politicians have to do is say yes, no or wait.

http://intensedebate.com/people/VinceClortho VinceClortho

Aaron,

I think it is time to consider going back to being a sports journalist, where being a "homer" is appreciated.
Mulletaur

Proving once again what Boy Scouts us Canucks are. Not sayin' it's a bad thing, just sayin'.
Light On

"The Winnipeg Free Press’ Mia Rabson "

Who? What?

I hear that Hank Hankerson of the West Bumblefudge Times-Observer had strong words of criticism too, you should really include that in a future post.
http://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/my-favorite-canadian-political-cartoons/ THENONCONFORMER

PM STEPHEN HARPER Stop posing for photo ops and just get on with the business of helping ALL CANADIANS
real conservative

I have a new name for you pal: Airhead Whiney.
Kevin

I bet you giggled quite awhile over that one. You in grade 3?
http://intensedebate.com/people/novagardener novagardener

I guess we should only have journos who praise Stevie's every tactic.