12:39:44 PM
Hey, look, it’s an impromptu scrum-in-waiting! Turns out that the NDP’s Judy Wasylycia-Leis will be stopping to chat with reporters about Brother Doer’s ascension to the ambassadorship, so we’re now hanging out just down the hall from where the health committee will be meeting. It’s downright serendipitous!

Incidentally, ITQ had a Doer Sighting of her own on the way here — he was striding purposefully from Wellington to the Chateau Laurier, entirely ignored by the passing crowds of tourists, and entirely content with such. I was going to yell out a greeting, but he vanished behind the pillars before I’d de-shaded-and-ipoded. Alas.

12:42:00 PM
And here’s Judy — who looks just plain delighted to be here. “This decision just makes perfect sense,” she says, before giving kudos — yes, *kudos* — to the prime minister for recognizing what a fine job Doer would do. “He’s a pan-Canadian politician … he’s a diplomat by all accounts, he’s easygoing and fun to be with … But more importantly, he has a *strong* vision of Canada.” She lists some of his accomplishments — water, health — and promises that he will “stand up for Canada”. Wait, isn’t that some other party’s slogan?

12:43:50 PM
Questions — first, the obvious: Will he find it difficult to work for this particular prime minister? Not at all … Although it sounds like she’s expecting him to “stand up” for Canadian health care, in the light of all those nasty things that some Americans have been saying about our beloved Medicare, which seems like a bit of a long shot, as far as I can tell. Isn’t there a rule about Canadian ambassadors getting involved in American domestic disputes?

12:45:37 PM
She sort of breezes past the question about whether this will create “good will” leading up to the fall session, thereby possibly saving us from a fall election, but notes that, while this is a sign that Harper is able to reach beyond his “nucleus” of close advisors, it’s not going to change the lay of the land.

12:46:47 PM
Julie Van Dusen notes that just last week, the NDP was “parading” Doer and Darrel Dexter around as twin icons of NDP winnibility, “and now Stephen Harper has poached him.” According to Judy, that just shows that even Harper can recognize talent.

She also thinks that there are two issues on which he’ll be particularly strong: the environment, and “standing up for Kyoto” — are we starting to notice a theme? — as well as water (think Devil’s Lake) — and health care. “He can help set the record straight,” according to Judy. He can make those fatcats down in Washington see reason. “The role of an ambassador in the United States is to stand up for Canadian values,” she tells us. So — he should hire Ari Fleischer to get him on FoxNews, and take Bill O’Reilly to task? Wow.

“You think he’s going to be pro-Kyoto and bring Omar Khadr home?” JVD wonders, with just a hint of scepticism (and amid some chortles from the rest of us).

“Well, you can dream,” she notes.

12:51:04 PM
And now, back to your regularly scheduled questions on H1N1. This has been the most bizarrely two-track day, y’all. I’m not going to liveblog the rest of her scrum, because she’s not saying anything new, so you can head over to the other thread for all the flu coverage you can possibly handle.

If there is one feature of the Obama administration that transcends all others, it is its level of activity. Not a single day passes without a policy initiative being launched, a decision being announced, or a commentary being offered, either by Obama himself or through a government spokesperson. A second and more important characteristic is the strategic content associated with its policy making. This guy has a plan. Whether or not you agree with Obama, you know there’s a sense of direction and a view of a bigger picture. No wonder, then, that Obama is more popular than all our leaders combined.

Even his adversaries concede that Obama is transforming the conduct of his office and is moving in directions that will have long-term repercussions on the nation and the rest of the world. Although there is strong opposition to many of his proposals, at least there is a strategy to be debated and a sense that things are changing. Young people are engaging in numbers not seen since the baby boomer generation came of age. In the lead-up to the anniversary of their nation, there is today a sense of hope, excitement, and optimism shared by a majority of Americans. But while the U.S. is on the move, where is Canada headed? Where is Canada going to be in the next decade? Put more bluntly, is Canada asleep at the switch?

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With national holiday season upon us on both sides of the border, it is a good time to pause and consider whether Barack Obama has had a positive effect on Canada. Last week, Maclean’s Washington correspondent Luiza Ch.Savage wrote a very thoughtful article arguing “Barack Obama is bad for Canada.” The piece was far more balanced than the title suggests, but it raised some legitimate points about Obama’s economic ambitions with respect to free trade, global warming, and energy. She could have added border security for good measure. At first glance, and based on its national interests, Canada has grounds for worry. Yet polls suggest Canadians like Obama more than they do Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Could the Obama effect and his popularity be making us blind to potential threats to our country’s economy and overall interests?

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Must-reads: Daphne Bramham on child abductions; Scott Taylor tours the Caucasus.

Down to business
In which the audacity of hope meets reality, and a bunch of know-it-all newspaper pundits. Phooey!

The Globe and Mail’s John Ibbitson looks at the delicate politics of dealing with the ongoing financial crisis when only Barack Obama’s plans really matter, but George W. Bush is still president, and Obama wants nothing less than to be seen to be cozying up to Dubya. “It is the president-elect who has a clear agenda to solve an economic crisis”—i.e., a stimulus package likely costing $100 billion or thereabouts, coupled with bailouts for crappy American automakers—”and who must convince a lame-duck Congress to pass it, and a lame-duck President not to veto it,” Ibbitson observes. And thus far, he says Obama has looked very “presidential” in handling the crisis. But events will dictate whether he’s able to use the recession “to justify strong measures in energy conservation, infrastructure renewal, reform of financial regulations and improvements to health care and education,” or whether he gets swallowed by it whole.

Obama faces much the same economic situation Bill Clinton did when he became president-elect, Terence Corcoran argues in the National Post. “Harold Poling, then chairman of Ford, called on Washington to bail the auto industry out of its health care costs by setting up a national health care system;” some economists demanded a stimulus package, while others urged restraint; and “environmental activists called for strategic taxes on investment to encourage capital to flow into energy efficient and waste-reducing activities.” What happened instead during the Bush-Clinton interregnum was that simple messages and solutions became burdened with complexity, doubt and conflict amongst experts. It “drown[ed] out any Yes We Can belief that solutions are simple and at hand and all that’s needed is a decisive can-do attitude,” says Corcoran. And he sees much the same fate befalling Obama.

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WEEKEND ROUNDUP

Must-reads: Rex Murphy on the Martin memoirs; Haroon Siddiqui on Barack Obama; Gary Mason on Robert Dziekanski; Jeffrey Simpson on the Tories in Quebec; Chantal Hébert on Iggy’s chances; Robert Fulford on gambling; Randall Denley on frugality.

The fat lady, or the choir of angels?
Canadian pundits have apparently never heard of the jinx.

The Globe and Mail’s John Ibbitson attempts to explain the historical significance of Barack Obama, who isn’t just black, but potentially the first “northern liberal” president since John F. Kennedy. “His victory would acknowledge an ongoing reformation of the republic: the halting, inconstant but unmistakable breaking down of barriers; the political debut of a new generation; the transformation of whole regions of the nation,” Ibbitson argues. It would embarrass “those skeptics who believe [the United States] is a failing giant.” Heck, he’s already “re-enfranchised African Americans” and “convinced Latinos to submerge racial suspicions toward African Americans and join them in common cause,” and he hasn’t even won!

The Toronto Star’s Haroon Siddiqui recaps all the indignities Obama has faced from various Republicans determined to make his race and his purported Islamic faith defining issues among the rednecks. And he suggests it was Colin Powell’s powerful endorsement, during which he asked why a young Muslim shouldn’t (hypothetically) aspire to be President, that really highlighted the meaning of the campaign. “By just being who he is,” Siddiqui concludes, he “has put fellow Americans on an irreversible journey to national reconciliation.”

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