Beyond The Commons

 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 new line-up

by Aaron Wherry on Friday, August 6, 2010 10:37am - 0 Comments

We interrupt this vacation to note that the Prime Minister is on television explaining that Parliament depends on the “maturity and wisdom” of its members.

So John Baird fills Jay Hill’s spot as government house leader, Chuck Strahl fills Baird’s spot at Transport and John Duncan fills Strahl’s spot at Indian Affairs.

As Transport Minister John Baird not only handled questions on the federal stimulus program, he took the Prime Minister’s questions when Mr. Harper was absent from QP and defended other ministers (Helena Guergis, par exemple) when the questions became too incessantly uncomfortable.

As house leader, Jay Hill was rarely called upon to take a question. There seemed a relatively straightforward understanding of his mandate, Mr. Hill generally only made to stand when the question applied to house affairs (the government’s decision to withhold its staffers from parliamentary committees). Mr. Hill was subsequently celebrated, upon the announcement of his impending retirement, as a fine student of Parliamentary procedure.

So, at first, it might seem odd that the former would succeed the latter. At the same time, it perhaps serves to recall that Jay Hill’s predecessor as government house leader was Peter Van Loan. And, as house leader, Mr. Van Loan was this government’s most prominent QP performer.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Bookmark and Share
  • WDM

    Strahl would have been a much better choice as House Leader.

    • OntarioTown

      I agree. I often wondered if Indian Affairs was a good portfolio for Strahl, given his health issues. I saw a photo of Strahl smoking a pipe with some aboriginal leaders and thought this can't be good for him.

      • Sigh

        Inhaling isn't necessary. And he seemed to be generally respected at Indian Affairs.

        • OntarioTown

          I'm not denying that – but inhaling has nothing to do with – being near it is bad.

          • Sigh

            I agree that second-hand smoke is dangerous, but he really isn't called upon to smoke the pipe very often. He, and anyone else, is probably more frequently exposed to second hand smoke in other situations.

    • PeteTong

      Yes, but I'm sure he's going to make an excellent Transport Minister too.

    • Anon 001

      No, he wouldn't have been because, like Jay Hill, Strahl still has some self-respect.

      Harper wanted to punt Baird from Transport and his no-pork-left-behind program.

      Baird's main job as House Leader, besides being the obnoxious blowhard in the House during QP, will be to make sure that all non-confidence votes get pushed to the end of the Fall session so that opposition parties will not vote the government down and cause an election over Christmas.

      Harper is just killing time now. I don't think he has any plans beyond just hanging on to power and keep punting the timing of an election call until he can be sure of getting yet another minority.

      Of course, Paul Wells and his colleagues in the press will soon hail this strategy as nothing short of a brilliant masterstroke of genius, which will, in turn, self-perpetuate the awesomeness of Stephen J. Harper.

  • Emily

    The “maturity and wisdom” of its members?

    We're screwn.

    • RunningGag

      Who's screwn who?

  • Aongasha

    This'll set the cat among the pigeons and he'll have them for lunch!
    Can't wait.

  • JamesHalifax

    screwn???…..what means this word screwn?

    Other note:

    This column brought to you by Aaron Wherry……..texting from the back of the Bus in the Iggy Express.

    • tobyornotoby

      Wherry took a vacation "from the back of the Bus in the Iggy Express."

      Maybe you should consider taking one too?

    • Emily

      It's a web-word.

      Screwn – FReeper for "screwed", as posted on the website http://www.freerepublic.com the morning after the 2006 midterm elections. In context: "We are screwn".

    • Be_rad

      Emily may be a fan of this blog – http://wearescrewn.blogspot.com/

      Or maybe she's an able manipulator of the language who could be coining a new and more family friendly way of saying f**ked.

    • Lord Kitchener's Own

      Well, it's not like Wherry's going to hang out around the Prime Minister! Harper hasn't taken a question from a journalist in over a month.

      • Sigh

        Maybe that's where Wherry goes for a vacation.

  • Anon 001

    Shelly Glover. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.

    • practical mom

      Has Ms Glover blotted her copy book? For a while she seemed to pop up everywhere and now she appears to have completely disappeared.

      • Tceh

        Glover does not deserve anything more than what she already has and maybe not even that much. Her 'Tough on Crime' mantra has recently been taken up by another CON rocket scientist by the name of Stockwell Day. Poor Shelly. Ha

      • Jan

        She's been sent out to find unreported crime.

  • Geiseric

    The Minister of Dead Stop has a new sandbox. The house is a blackhole.

    • Jan

      It's strictly Animal House rules fron here on in.

  • NorthernPoV

    Harper is moving the loud-mouthed lying oaf, Baird into this position to further provoke the opposition and make Parliament truly dysfunctional.
    All the controversy regarding the census is part of the plan. Harper's strategy is to create a narrative of "endlessly squabbling politicians" in order to appeal to enough swing voters (and de-motivate potential opposition votes) to get a majority. He is staying out of the limelight so as to appear above it all and "Presidential". And killing off Stats Can is a great long term bonus – no empirical data to challenge the truthiness of their world views.

    • McC_

      I wouldn't underestimate Baird's ability to adapt himself to a number of seemingly-contradictory roles simultaneously; like him or loathe him, he is an impressive performer.

  • PolJunkie

    Is it me or this is a step down for Baird?

    • LynnTO

      *shrug* Now, he has the semi-official post of "handling the PM's questions in QP when the PM doesn't want to, or isn't there." This, as opposed to his post in Transport, where it seemed really out of context – and procedure, really – for him to do so.

      • non-partisan

        Yeah, lets not pretend Baird is actually running any department, let alone one as big as Transport. His role is to dominate QP. As House Leader, his time is freed up to rest his vocal cords and practice his one liners.

        • PolJunkie

          Yeah but he got to travel, do photo ops and hand out those pretty tax-funded Tory cheques.

          • Stewart_Smith

            I think his public image, especially at QP is both loathsome and misleading. If you listen to opposition MP's comments about Baird it is clear there is more to this guy than the cartoon he presents.

            VanLoan & Pierre are different (and far less interesting) stories.

          • LynnTO

            Which sort of begs the question why, if Baird really is so much more congenial than his QP image suggests (and I too have heard that his QP image isn't the whole Baird), why we don't see more Congenial Baird?

            I mean, really, if the CPC is trying to win over hearts & minds, looking like bullies in one of the few exercises that ever sees nighttime news segments surely can't be helping.

          • Stewart_Smith

            I think the mathematics of wedge politics dictates that we will continue to see more of the Congenital Baird than the Congenial Baird.

          • Phil

            It will be disappointing if your math is correct.

          • E_B_

            I definitely do not want to see any congenitals…

    • bennji

      If you look at Chuck Strahl and how he and some of his former CA colleagues when rogue under Day's leadership. I can see him as more of a potential threat to Harper's leadership than what Baird would be.

      Given that most of the Action Plan money flowed through Transport and Infrastructure, there is a strong possibility that there will be some poop that hits the fan in coming months. Who better to wear it than Chuck.

      Think about it – Clement could challenge Harper for leadership, make him look like a knob with the census. Prior to this week, Day 2.0 could have made a run as well, make him look like a knob with mystery stats. Chuck could have made a run – but he will be knee deep spinning the pork barreling of his predecessor.

      Harper, more concerned with his grip on power than the future success of the CPC.

      • dougrogers

        If Harper gets what he wants, there'll be no need for the CPC anyway.

  • D-R

    Let this bring an end to pundits who want to pretend that the infantile behaviour of the current parliament is not primarily caused by the Conservatives.

  • Blacktop

    Next thing is Iggy will shuffle his non-cabinet, muttering, "we're screwn."

  • PolJunkie

    "So John Baird fills Jay Hill’s spot as government house leader,…"

    RELEASE THE KRAKEN!!

  • michaeltripper

    I would say appointing Baird is entirely provocative and time for the opposition to call an election. Get rid of these fanatics for whom evidence is whatever they can dream up and impose.

    It's not funny how the new so-called hard on gangs laws are all about prohibitions that fundies wish to impose upon everyone else – gambling, prostitution and drugs.

    It's time to end putting regressive religious prohibitions into criminal law. Believe what you want but do not expect the state to enforce this upon everyone. Have you no faith of your own to act accordingly?

    Why use prison to enforce dogma?

    Baird…unbelievable call that election now.

    • PolJunkie

      "I would say appointing Baird is entirely provocative and time for the opposition to call an election."

      It also shows that Harper has gone completely tone deaf.

      • NorthernPoV

        No, unfortunately it is our dear Iggy who is politically tone deaf. Harper loves this stuff.
        Today's "media availability" (ie 4 hand-picked softball questions) allowed him to continue in his 'above the squabbling fray' Presidential posture. The trivial census issue is not worthy of the great mans' comment. (He ignored it in his big speech yesterday , too.)
        He is trying to create a narrative that will hand him a majority gov't. IMHO, he is succeeding. I hope I am wrong. We'll see.

    • LynnTO

      It's time to end putting regressive religious prohibitions into criminal law. Believe what you want but do not expect the state to enforce this upon everyone. Have you no faith of your own to act accordingly?

      I realize what you're getting at here, but religions were often the first to codify laws of the land in the West. I mean, that whole "don't murder people" thing, for example…

      • Blacktop

        No. the offence of murder may go back beyond homo sapiens into primate behaviour. See Scientific American Aug 2010,

        • LynnTO

          I didn't realize primates codified their codes of behaviour.

          • michaeltripper

            let's see romans, greeks, caanites, pharoahs all had laws long before the selfish, jealous, hateful and painful leaders of official christianity came along.

            The idea religion is the source of everything is so out of touch with Historical Fact says more about the delusional bubble some live in. Seriously human history is tens of thousands of years old and predates everything in the bible, talmud and koran.

            Just ask the Chinese.

          • A_logician

            History is restricted to the time since the introduction of written records. While this varies from culture to culture, in no case does it go back more than 5500 years. Humanity is tens of thousands of years old, but human history is not.

            If you meant to refer to the equivalent of the Bible and the Koran, the proper term is the Torah. It is the oldest of the three.

          • Livebloggin Junkie

            let's see, Jupiter, Zeus, El, Ra, where all major deities in ancient societies. Their authority was cited in the administration of law, war and even construction. In fact the commonalities in the structure of hierarchy in Greek, Norse, and Hindu pantheons suggests their shared roots go back at least ten thousand years.

            A sense of a metaphysical source animates everything from law, and art, to politics and even sport. You don't have to believe in God/gods to appreciate that much of the human experience has been shaped by our sense, whether intrinsic or irrational, of something beyond.

            Just ask Confucius.

          • michaeltripper

            sigh, talk about totally clueless or trying to misinform! Those ancient gods were consulted at orales and temples but laws made for them, a few maybe but not the major ones that were run by the rulers, the kings the princes et al.

            YOu guys are simply insane to keep pushing this nonsense.

            Really only 5500 years old – must be a pal of Stocks I guess. The history of human communication dates back to the earliest era of humanity. Symbols were developed about 30,000 years ago, and writing about 7,000.

            Good enough for me but always the greedy religiously inclined try and take it all for themselves.

            Please, the Sun Media chain is the place for you.

    • Olaf

      It's not funny how the new so-called hard on gangs laws are all about prohibitions that fundies wish to impose upon everyone else – gambling, prostitution and drugs.

      These are all, in one form or another, prohibited, and have been for sometime, even under non-fundy governments. They are all, also, closely linked with gang activity, and drugs especially remain their main source of income. So, it could be that they're trying to address the concern of gang activity, instead of usher in a theocratic state. But yes, enjoy your conspiracy theories – it's fun to have some hobgoblin to trot out to explain everything you see before you. Makes thinking waaaaay easier, almost superfluous.

      • MtotheT

        it's amazing how immune some are to reason and reality.

        • sourstud

          You say amazing, I say shocking.

      • MichaelTNotLoggedIn

        The only reason they fill gang coffers is because religious fanatics outlaw them and force these activities that human citizens wish to engage in underground.

      • sbt

        Isn't it amazing that that comment is currently sitting at +9? And most of these blog commenters think the Conservatives are the ones out of touch with mainstream Canadians. The Liberal government of the largest province in this country is passing laws to make it illegal to smoke a cigarette in a car if a 15-year old is present and these people want to be able to go pick up their narcotics at the corner store. You can't make this stuff up.

  • Phil King

    Aongasha: "…This'll set the cat among the pigeons and he'll have them for lunch! Can't wait…"

    I think it's sad when this is the attitude of some people in relation to the nation's most important place for discussing and determining the laws and regulations that govern the nation.

    I can't think of an institution in which rational decision making should be more in evidence.

    Then again, I think this comment illustrates the general attitude of the CPC, and not one to be proud of.

    • Emily

      I agree, it's the boardroom of the nation and we should be able to see decisions that affect us all, thought out, and carefully presented and considered.

      Instead it's a 3-ring circus. No company could operate that way for long, and Canada appears to have been paralyzed by it as well.

      • Blacktop

        Yes. I think a serious lack in our constitution is a balance of power thing like the us Hous, Senate, executive, Suprem,e Court as referee on constitutional matters. Canada jhas a virtual dictatorship when there si a majority govt whicjh is why I like to see Cons in minority. Unfortunelatey we will never see a senate whose purpose is that. Parliament is just a mush as it is. The media are the main truth-forcers. Maybe bloggers will get there too, but not likely. He/she who has the purse has the power and that, sadly, is what our system is.

        • Phil

          Thanks for removing your gloves for the second half of your post. ;-)

          • Stewart_Smith

            doamn mettins mare lekely.

          • Blacktop

            Actually it's my eyes; tears come when do this. I mentioned the lack of a spell checker before; not that I don't know how to spell.

            But you're close.

          • Phil

            I seem to "inherit" a spell checker when I'm pounding away on the keyboard on the macleans site….perhaps it comes with having an IntenseDebate account? Perhaps you should sign up…

            OTOH, that "inherited" spellchecker does let me down sometimes.

  • won'tgetfoolagin

    THE REAL STEPHEN HARPER

    It would appear that Mr. Harper thinks Canadians are uneducated idiots and buffoons. In fact, we may even be more ignorant than uneducated Americans. Here are parts of a speech Harper gave in 1997 to the Council for National Policy, a right wing American think tank.

    "…First, facts about Canada. Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it. Canadians make no connection between the fact that they are a Northern European welfare state and the fact that we have very low economic growth, a standard of living substantially lower than yours, a massive brain drain of your professionals to your country (I assume he included Mr. Ignatieff in this group) and double the unemployment rate of the Unite States. In term of the unemployed, of which we have over a million-and-a-half, don't feel particularly bad for many of these people. They don't feel bad about it themselves, as long as they're receiving generous social assistance and unemployment insurance."

    Could it be possible that Mr. Harper thinks that Canadians are a bunch of socialists with an entitlement problem? Apparently, we'd rather sit on our butts and collect EI than actually work. All of Canada's smart people (at least the ones that are motivated enough to work for a living) would rather move to the United States to get away from Canada's loser, sit at home and wait for the government cheques to roll in mentality.

    "…Of our two Legislative houses, the Senate, our upper house, is appointed, also by the Prime Minister, where he puts buddies, fundraisers and the like. So the Senate is also not very important in our political system."

    • Blacktop

      Boy, goodbye Mr Harper.

  • Wascally Wabbit

    Expect that – come September – all opposition MPs are bitten by the Mad Dog – resulting in the whole House being quarantined by something called a "writ" for 36 days back in their ridings – while members each wait to see if this bite is fatal to their careers!

  • Dee

    Should be an interesting session……………..

Previous

Next

From Macleans