Walk, chew gum

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 2:22 PM - 47 Comments

Dec. 30, 2009. More than 30 bills will die on the order paper, with more than half of them part of the government’s tough-on-crime agenda. But the Prime Minister’s Office said the goal is to continue focusing on the economy, with consultations on budgetary matters in the next two months. “This is the time to recalibrate, consult and deliver the next stage of our plan that we outlined last year in Budget 2009,” said spokesman Dimitri Soudas. He said that Canada has done relatively well during the recent global recession, but said “we’re not out of the woods yet.”

Sept. 24, 2008. America this week faces an historic crisis in our financial system. We must pass legislation to address this crisis. If we do not, credit will dry up, with devastating consequences for our economy. People will no longer be able to buy homes and their life savings will be at stake. Businesses will not have enough money to pay their employees. If we do not act, ever corner of our country will be impacted. We cannot allow this to happen … Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative. I have spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of my decision and have asked him to join me.

Shutting down Parliament: on the economy, detainees, and senators

By John Geddes - Wednesday, December 30, 2009 at 2:26 PM - 189 Comments

I took three main points from the media briefing offered earlier this afternoon by Dimitri Soudas, the Prime Minister’s press secretary, on shutting down Parliament until March 3. MPs had been scheduled to return from their year-end break on Jan. 25.

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Is Parliament in session? The PMO won't say

By John Geddes - Wednesday, December 30, 2009 at 1:34 PM - 67 Comments

In one of the more bizarre bits of circumlocution that I’ve ever heard from a prime-ministerial spokesman, Dimitri Soudas, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s press secretary, would not say a few minutes ago if Parliament has been shut down or not.

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Looking back, looking forward

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at 12:19 AM - 13 Comments

The CBC finds evidence of delays, going as far back as 2002, in reporting detainee transfers to the Red Cross. Opposition members of the special committee on Afghanistan say they want all relevant briefing notes and government documents related to Afghan detainees before they’ll hear from David Mulroney.

The NDP, the Liberals and the Bloc Québécois are demanding the Tories release a long list of documents linked to Mr. Colvin’s testimony before they allow Mr. Mulroney a public rejoinder…

Prime Minister’s Office spokesman Dimitri Soudas accused opposition parties of playing games on detainees by blocking Mr. Mulroney. “If the opposition were serious about finding answers, they would allow him to appear before the committee,” Mr. Soudas said.

Opposition MPs however say they can’t properly question Mr. Mulroney without access to the uncensored versions of e-mails, briefing notes and memos that make up the background story behind Mr. Colvin’s testimony.

The Liberals are particularly seizing on whatever it was the Defence Minister promised in Question Period this afternoon.

The response

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 9:24 AM - 6 Comments

The Prime Minister’s Office and the Foreign Affairs Minister repeat previous assurances. David Mulroney declines comment.

The end is the beginning is the end

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 16, 2009 at 1:30 AM - 8 Comments

Defence Minister Peter MacKay comments from Kandahar.

MacKay said Natynczyk’s interpretation of Parliament’s instructions to withdraw from Kandahar was “reflective of what everyone from the prime minister on down views as those instructions.”

But MacKay was unclear on what direction the mission would take after 2011 and whether it would involve regions of the country outside of Kandahar. ”The military mission is changing,” he said. “It is obviously transitioning at 2011 to emphasis on reconstruction, development, things that we are doing now but we’ll be able to do more. And clearly, there is discussion as to how this is going to take place. We’re tasked with that now.”

The previously stated positions of Gen. Natynczyk and the Prime Minister’s Office are here. Full audio of the Defence Minister’s comments are here. And a rather interesting interview with Hamid Karzai is here.

Great moments in modern communication

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 at 8:38 PM - 40 Comments

Condolences are apparently due to the Transport Minister.

Some 1,700 luminaries, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, were in the middle of dinner Tuesday night when smart phones throughout the room began to buzz with the news: “Lady Thatcher has passed away.”

… It eventually reached the ears of Harper, or someone close to him. Harper aide Dimitri Soudas, back in Ottawa, was dispatched to confirm the news and start preparing an official statement mourning the death of the Iron Lady, an icon to many in Harper’s Conservative party.

Soudas immediately emailed his contacts at Buckingham Palace and in British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s office. They had no idea what he was talking about. Lady Thatcher, they informed an embarrassed Soudas, was still very much alive.

… Turns out it was Transport Minister John Baird’s beloved 16-year-old cat – whom he’d named Thatcher out of admiration for one of his political heroes – who had ceased to be.

The general and the PMO

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 7:09 PM - 12 Comments

CBC, October 10. The Conservative government intends to keep some Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan in a non-combat role beyond Parliament’s 2011 end-date for the military mission, CBC News has learned. Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office, told CBC News there will be Canadian troops in Afghanistan after 2011, though “exponentially fewer.” ”I would caution you against saying dozens or hundreds or a thousand, there will be exponentially fewer,” Soudas said. “Whether there’s 20 or 60 or 80 or 100, they will not be conducting combat operations.”

CBC, tonight. Amid speculation over a future role for Canadian forces in Kandahar, Canada’s top commander says he will withdraw all of the country’s soldiers from the region by 2011. ”The parliamentary motion directs that it will be the end of the military mission in July of 2011. I mean those are the words that are there,” Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Walt Natynczyk told CBC News in an exclusive interview. “And for me it’s pretty clear. What we do for the Canadian Forces are military missions.”

Geddes has analysis. CBC has the full audio of its interview with Walt Natynczyk.

'A civilian, development, humanitarian mission'

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 8:55 AM - 1 Comment

Saturday. The Conservative government intends to keep some Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan in a non-combat role beyond Parliament’s 2011 end-date for the military mission, CBC News has learned. Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office, told CBC News there will be Canadian troops in Afghanistan after 2011, though “exponentially fewer.” ”I would caution you against saying dozens or hundreds or a thousand, there will be exponentially fewer,” Soudas said. “Whether there’s 20 or 60 or 80 or 100, they will not be conducting combat operations.”

Wednesday. Prime Minister Stephen Harper sought Wednesday to clear up any confusion about Canada’s role in Afghanistan after 2011, saying the military mission to the strife-torn country would end as planned by that date and be replaced by a civilian operation. ”We are very much planning to have the military mission end in 2011,” Harper said in an interview with Global News in Edmonton. Asked directly if there would be a role for soldiers after 2011 or whether they would be pulled out, Harper said: “The plan is to move to a civilian, development, humanitarian mission.”

Soldiers, yes. Military, no.

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, October 10, 2009 at 3:25 PM - 10 Comments

CBC draws out more on the specifics of Canada’s presence in Afghanistan after 2011.

Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office, told CBC News there will be Canadian troops in Afghanistan after 2011, though “exponentially fewer.”

“I would caution you against saying dozens or hundreds or a thousand, there will be exponentially fewer,” Soudas said. “Whether there’s 20 or 60 or 80 or 100, they will not be conducting combat operations.”

Meharchand v. Soudas

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 4, 2009 at 2:39 PM - 31 Comments

Another in this week’s series of Frustrated Journalists Losing Their Patience.

Today’s episode pits the CBC’s wildly frustrated Suhana Meharchand against Dimitri Soudas, who, as he says here, speaks for the Harper government, except of course when he takes a day off to speak for the Conservative party. Continue…

Jim Flaherty's permanent tax on everything (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 7:21 PM - 25 Comments

Jim Flaherty, April 10, 2008. We’ve done our stimulus at the federal level but we really needed the province to do its part, and of course we’re also calling on the remaining provinces that have not harmonized their PST with the GST to work with us to accomplish that goal of harmonization. That would be a great tax burden relief for businesses in Ontario that’s certainly needed.

Jim Flaherty, Oct. 23, 2008. Being from Ontario, as you may have heard, I have a bit of a challenge with my provincial government and I’m gently nudging Premier McGuinty and the Government of Ontario and encouraging them in the direction of reducing the burden of business taxes in that province and, importantly, since that province and a few others are not harmonized, to harmonize the PST and the GST in those provinces, which would be the single most important step that could be done to help relieve the tax burden on business … we need harmonization of sales taxes in some provinces.

Dimitri Soudas, tonight. “If any Ontarian is concerned about this provincial decision (on tax harmonization), they should contact his or her MPP … We said that we would accept the decision of any provincial government to proceed with the harmonization of the sales tax, but ultimately the decision is a decision that needs to be made by the provinces.”

Today, we are all poor spellurs

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 6:03 PM - 98 Comments

CBC reprints an e-mail distributed by PMO implicating almost everyone in that inadvertent reference to improper hygiene. Note that our Kady is nearly identified as her own independent media outlet.

Mel Gibson's hand puppet, Dave Carroll's broken guitar, and "Shannon Tweed Day" in Oshawa

By Lianne George - Thursday, July 16, 2009 at 9:30 AM - 1 Comment

Kim Jong Ill?
So much mystery attends North Korea, Asia’s only Communist dynasty, and so fraught are the geopolitics of the region, that the merest sign of health trouble for its Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il, sets off international alarms. So it was this week when South Korea’s YTN television, citing Korean and Chinese intelligence sources, reported that the 67-year-old has pancreatic cancer and, at best, five years to live. In his recent appearances, Kim has looked gaunt, with thinning hair, a limp and an asymmetrical bent to his mouth, indications he’s not entirely recovered from a stroke last year. Renewed fear that Kim is not long for this world caused Seoul’s main stock index to plummet, so vexed are the markets by what his death could mean. Though he is said to have named his youngest son, the Swiss-educated Kim Jong Un, as his successor, there’s concern the installation of a weak leader still in his mid-20s will destabilize the regime and the region.

What’s wrong with being sexy?
Shannon Tweed, the Canadian adult-film star, has been denied recognition for such contributions to world cinema as Hard Vice and Indecent Behavior 3. But the acting mayor of Ottawa, Doug Thompson, issued a proclamation that this Wednesday would be “Shannon Tweed Day,” to celebrate the blond bombshell’s visit to the city where she lived in the 1970s. He soon rescinded the proclamation, however, admitting sheepishly that he “spoke to the media before the item had been fully vetted.” Tweed told the Ottawa Citizen that she had “no hard feelings” about the rejection, but bristled at a councilwoman’s suggestion that she is a porn actress: “I’ve done movies with love scenes,” said the star of Body Chemistry 4: Full Exposure and Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death, “but I’ve never had real sex on camera.” Oshawa, which recently finished first in an online contest hosted by KISS, doesn’t care either way. Oshawa city councillor Robert Lutczyk, who headed up the spring contest effort, promised a “Shannon Tweed Day” in Oshawa if she and the band come through town this fall. “I’ll be there,” said Tweed. “I’ll be there.” Continue…

'Life is too long for any one person to worry about the short term'

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, July 10, 2009 at 11:15 AM - 9 Comments

The Star’s Tonda MacCharles’ expands on precisely how the Prime Minister came to question Michael Ignatieff’s patriotism at the G8 this morning.

Soudas admitted Harper was “very upset” and angry at having been ill-informed and ill-advised…

Asked if he’d offered his resignation, Soudas said it was his priority to come quickly to correct the record with reporters and apologize to Ignatieff, before the news was reported — forgetting, perhaps, the comments had already been broadcast live at home. Soudas said he was ready to “assume any consequences” of his actions. ”In terms of resigning, not resigning, life is too long for any one person to worry about the short term. What’s important here is that I’m accepting the consequences of my actions.”

More from CTV and Canwest, while Kady wonders precisely what’s gotten into the residents of Langevin.

UPDATED: Langevin, we have a problem

By kadyomalley - Friday, July 10, 2009 at 10:51 AM - 137 Comments

Seriously, y’all, for the last few days, I’ve been saying that the latest round of prime ministerial embarrassments — Ablonczy/Pride, specifically the almost unbelievably hamhanded handling thereof, and the extended remix screwups surrounding the LeBlanc funeral, from failing to keep the PM briefed on protocol, to arguing about what exactly was depicted on that now-removed Youtube video –  have revealed a serious staffing problem at PMO. As far as I can tell, this latest debacle proves it. (Sorry, Dimitri.):

PM’s aide apologizes after wrongly attributing quote to Liberals’ Ignatieff

July 10, 2009 – 10:42

THE CANADIAN PRESS

L’AQUILA, Italy – An aide to Stephen Harper has offered an abject apology after the prime minister took a sharp shot at Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff for comments he never made.

Dimitri Soudas said he mistakenly informed Harper that comments by an academic about Canada’s irrelevance in the G8 were actually Ignatieff’s.

The academic said Canada is at risk of being shut out of such international councils.

Harper took those comments and ran with them in both official languages during his closing news conference at the Group of Eight summit.

He accused Ignatieff of being “irresponsible,” saying the Liberal leader “is supposed to be a Canadian.”

Shortly after the 45-minute news conference ended, Soudas rushed to inform Canadian media that he’d misread an email, wrongly attributed a quote to Ignatieff and then advised the prime minister to comment publicly on the matter.

Soudas said he owes a personal apology to both Ignatieff and Harper.

UPDATE: Colleague Wherry rounds up the reaction from media on the ground, and has more from Dimitri via the Toronto Star. Apparently, at the time that he was explaining his mistake to reporters, he hadn’t yet offered his resignation, but acknowledged that he his boss was “very upset,” and angry and his boss was “clearly, clearly not happy”. [See update at bottom of post for explanation for edit]

Yikes. That’s going to be one tense flight home from Italy — if he lasts til the end of the trip, that is.

EVEN MORE OF AN UPDATE: After going out of his way to lambaste Michael Ignatieff for something that, as it turned out, he never actually said, the PM has apologized to the Liberal leader directly. Aww, that’s nice — and yes, possibly a first. But as some commenters have already pointed out, would it really have been terribly appropriate to attack an opposition politician while attending an international summit? It just seems a little — unseemly.  On the other hand, Canada? Backer than ever!

URGENT UPDATE: PM “very bothered”, not “upset”, according to latest version of the Toronto Star story:

Soudas said “No, I am upset,” and he added later that the prime minister was “clearly, clearly not happy with the fact that he was put in that situation by one of his advisors.

“The prime minister is very bothered by the fact that his press secretary mis-informed him, and mis-briefed him and hence he obviously made an accusation.”

Noted, with some sympathy, is his use of the phrase “his press secretary” rather than, say, the personal pronoun. He also made the following somewhat poignant observation:

“[I]n politics you do have exchanges between political opponents but you have to make sure those exchanged happen within a certain reality of things that people actually say.”

.
So true, Dimtri. So true.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Blogger (and macleans.ca commenter) BigCityLib reveals the actual source of the not-Ignatieff quote – Gordon Smith, of the Center for Global Studies.

PMO gets colourful, Harper goes red

By Mitchel Raphael - Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 8:38 AM - 6 Comments

Yesterday several top PMO staff got colourful with their ties. 

PM spokesperson and media man Dimitri Soudas in yellow.

Media Officer Mike White in orange.

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Supermen

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, May 15, 2009 at 12:54 PM - 26 Comments

When is the Prime Minister’s press secretary not the Prime Minister’s press secretary? When he says he isn’t.

Life is but a series of photo opportunities

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, April 3, 2009 at 11:37 AM - 11 Comments

The Prime Minister’s Office quite rightly dismisses the attention paid to yesterday’s Prime Ministerial bathroom break.

“I don’t think any leader came here for photo ops,” said Dimitri Soudas, a Harper spokesperson. ”World leaders are here to discuss very serious matters while we go through the biggest global crisis in a generation.”

Very serious. Global crisis. No time or need for photo ops.

Well, except for that one with the Queen. And that one with the Prince. And that other one with the soccer player. And there is that photo with the Finance Minister that’s up on the party website now. And there was that photo with the phone that the PMO sent out beforehand. And the G20′s Flickr page. And the Prime Minister’s Flickr page. And all the photos on that “action plan” website.

But otherwise. Photo ops, completely beside the point.

Conservatives, All-Bran and pizza

By Mitchel Raphael - Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at 11:01 AM - 11 Comments

Towards the end of the Tories’ first caucus meeting following the holiday break, staffers were seen bringing hot pizzas into the room as journalists outside the door salivated.

Earlier, a cart with All Bran bars and peanut-free chocolate chip Chewy bars was seen going in.

Peter Van Loan, Minister of Public Safety, shows off his environmentally friendly shopping bag.

Conservatives almost never use the mic set up on the Hill after caucus meetings. This time Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, used it to talk to the media. He was even on crutches.

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UPDATED: Scenes from a stakeout

By kadyomalley - Monday, September 1, 2008 at 4:40 PM - 0 Comments

For still more coverage, check out Colleague Wells via videoblogthing, my experiments with twitterdom (in reverse chronological order, so it might make slightly more sense if you start on page three and go forward) – and, of course, Aaron Wherry, who covered the whole thing in a slightly more conventional way.

A sure sign of events transpiring: The CTV satellite van.

This was while that Senior Conservative Official was pacing aggrievedly out front, but I decided not to press my luck by taking a shot of him. [A little background, for those of y'all who missed it, from the twitterfeed: "Well, I'm here - as is (or was) a Senior Conservative Official, whose name wasn't on The List, and was delayed by security before he was inally allowed in after a dark-tinted-windowed car rolled up and told the Mounties that he was with them."] (Fun game: Name That Senior Conservative Official!)

Last shot of scrum assembly until something actually happens, I promise.

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