From the PMO press office: "A paid message from Canada's Conservatives"

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, December 2, 2008 at 11:59 AM - 92 Comments

Passed along by the Prime Minister’s office, according to Kory Teneycke, in order to “[share] them with the public along with other information  on 3rd party efforts to oppose this undemocratic coalition with the separatists”.

RADIO ADS.

Karine Leroux

Office of the Prime Minister / Cabinet du Premier ministre
Deputy Press Secretary / Attachée de presse adjointe
[contact info redacted]

2 attachments — Download all attachments
No coalition (Stephane Dion).mp3
1199K   Play   Download
No coalition (Separtists).mp3
1201K   Play   Download

I’m sure they’ll be up on the Conservative website soon enough, at which point I’ll add a link to the files themselves. Until then, you’ll just have to use your imaginations based on the evocative file names.

Just another sleepy Monday on the Hill

By kadyomalley - Monday, December 1, 2008 at 2:07 PM - 48 Comments

Man, if only we could get some excitement around here:

Opposition deal would oust Harper, pour billions into economy

December 1, 2008 – 14:00

THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA – Opposition parties have reached a tentative deal that would see Liberal Leader Stephane Dion take over as interim prime minister and pump billions of dollars into the economy.

But some hurdles still stand in the way of the plan to oust Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s minority government next week.

The Liberal caucus agreed Monday to support the tentative deal and allow Dion to take over as prime minister until a new leader is picked next spring.

“We’ve decided that the only person and the best person to lead and form a coalition government is the elected leader of our party … Stephane Dion,” said leadership hopeful Dominic LeBlanc.

“We are comfortable with that, we support that and we think that’s right.” [...]

Is that a confidence motion I see before me?

By kadyomalley - Monday, December 1, 2008 at 11:40 AM - 57 Comments

Well, on CPAC, that is.

The Bloc Quebecois just proposed an amendment to Government Business #1 – which proposed that the House “take note” of the the possibly-soon-to-go-down-in-Canadian-political-history-as-the-worst-idea-EVER economic and fiscal update. The Bloc, however, appears to feel that the motion would be more reflective of, you know, reality if the motion were rewritten to condemn the EFU instead, which sounds an awful lot like a matter of confidence to ITQ. Poor Barry Devolin – who is currently in the Chair for what must be just his second or third day as a deputy speaker – looked utterly gobsmacked, although to his credit, he didn’t leap out of the Chair, toss off his robes and run screaming from the House, so maybe he does have a future in this gig. He took the motion under advisement, so I guess we’ll have to wait until Peter Milliken shows up to find out if this motion can go forward. If it does, the House may decide the fate of the Conservative minority government much sooner than expected.

For those of you just tuning in…

By kadyomalley - Monday, December 1, 2008 at 10:35 AM - 31 Comments

Complete Macleans.ca coverage of the Conservative government’s crisis of confidence – from rumour to reality to rampant speculation.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

What does this mean?

Thursday, November 27, 2008
Godspeed and farewell, NSOC(tm)*
ITQ Political Book Club: A little light reading before the games begin …
Putting the FUn back into the Fiscal Update
And now for the fall economic update
Getting politics off the dole
Why Charest should be annoyed with Ottawa for threatening the Bloc
Prime Minister Dion?

The short version

Continue…

NDP kinda-sorta-maybe threatens the media over "possibly illegal" recording?

By kadyomalley - Sunday, November 30, 2008 at 10:48 PM - 53 Comments

Or does this request only refer to the original tape of the conference call? I can’t tell. Anyway, here’s what the party sent out a few minutes ago. (I’m not sure if this applies to the transcript that PMO so helpfully provided earlier today, but I’m trying to find out.)

NOVEMBER 30, 2008

ATTENTION: MEDIA

RE: PHONE TAP OF NDP CAUCUS MEETING

Based on the advice of legal council, the New Democratic Party is sending this note out to members of the media.

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Today’s news reports that a member of the Conservative Party intercepted and electronically recorded a private communication restricted to members of the NDP caucus raises serious questions as to whether this activity contravened the Criminal Code of Canada. The caucus meeting was intended to be confidential as were the communications that took place during the meeting. The only intended recipients were the members of the NDP caucus. It appears that the call-in number was inadvertently sent to a Conservative MP.

We have been given legal advice that any reasonable person who was inadvertently given access to the call would have understood that he or she was not invited to listen to the communication or to record it. The continued possession of any such recording may also be an offence under the Criminal Code.

The New Democratic Party would request that anyone in possession of the recording to turn it over to the Office of the Commissioner of the RCMP for use in any subsequent investigation.

For your information the provisions of the Criminal Code are set out below.

Criminal Code

PART VI: INVASION OF PRIVACY

Interception of Communications

s. 183. “private communication” means any oral communication, or any telecommunication, that is made by an originator who is in Canada or is intended by the originator to be received by a person who is in Canada and that is made under circumstances in which it is reasonable for the originator to expect that it will not be intercepted by any person other than the person intended by the originator to receive it, and includes any radio-based telephone communication that is treated electronically or otherwise for the purpose of preventing intelligible reception by any person other than the person intended by the originator to receive it;

Interception

184. (1) Everyone who, by means of any electro-magnetic, acoustic, mechanical or other device, willfully intercepts a private communication is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.

Saving provision

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to

(a) a person who has the consent to intercept, express or implied, of the originator of the private communication or of the person intended by the originator thereof to receive it;

Breaking: NatNewsWatch reports deal reached for coalition government

By kadyomalley - Sunday, November 30, 2008 at 9:39 PM - 60 Comments

Apparently, it’s on.

BTW, a note to the Conservative talkingpointskateers: the NDP won’t get Finance or the DPM slot, so you might want to cross that one off the list.

UPDATE: And for the Liberal talkingpointskateers – General Martha Hall Findlay has your marching orders!

Her Majesty's Official Opposition teams up with separatists to topple democratically elected government …

By kadyomalley - Sunday, November 30, 2008 at 9:18 PM - 22 Comments

… in 2005 – and you’ll never guess who was leading the charge!

(You don’t think there were any prior discussions between the two parties involved in this attempted coup, do you?)

None dare call it a desperate scramble to the lowest possible moral ground to stay in power!

By kadyomalley - Sunday, November 30, 2008 at 4:08 PM - 202 Comments

Oh wait – I guess ITQ just did, huh?

From the virtual desk of the Prime Minister, courtesy of the press gallery listserv, comes the following missive – which, under normal circumstances, would seem to the kind of potentially incendiary info dump that a party wouldn’t want to put out directly, but would instead farm out to a friendly media outlet, a sympathetic blogger or some other officially unaffiliated conduit:

from Gallery-Tribune <pressres2@parl.gc.ca>
date Sun, Nov 30, 2008 at 3:32 PM
subject NDP Caucus transcript – secret deal
mailed-by parl.gc.ca
NDP Conference Call: Part 1 – and

NDP Conference Call – Part 2

Karine Leroux

Office of the Prime Minister / Cabinet du Premier ministre
Deputy Press Secretary / Attachée de presse adjointe

I’ll have more to say about this later this afternoon, most likely, once the NDP has had the chance to respond to the allegations, and I’ve gotten my head around the idea of PMO being okay with the notion of recording another party’s caucus conference call.  In the meantime, here’s the full text of the Secret NDP Caucus Call That May Indeed Change Everything, But Possibly Not How PMO Might Have Hoped after the jump:

Continue…

Welcome to his nightmare: Jim Flaherty holds nooner conference call to chat with reporters about .. oh, you know. Stuff.

By kadyomalley - Sunday, November 30, 2008 at 12:22 PM - 64 Comments

Since the government has now backed down over public financing for political parties and – as of earlier today – its plan to suspend the right of civil servants to strike, the proposed changes to pay equity could be the third shoe to drop. I guess we’ll find out when this uncharacteristically lively hold music is replaced by the dulcet tone of the Finance Minister.  

November 30, 2008

       
NOTICE TO THE MEDIA

               
Minister of Finance to Hold Conference Call    

Immediate release      

Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty will hold a conference call, today, Sunday, November 30, 2008, at 12:15 p.m.

       
Media representatives wishing to participate in the conference call must dial xxx-xxx-xxxx or toll-free in Canada only xxxxxxxxxx and refer to reservation #xxxxxxx at least 10 minutes before the call is scheduled to begin.

       
This conference call is for journalists only.

       
___________________
For further information:       

Chisholm Pothier

Press Secretary

Office of the Minister of Finance

UPDATED: Behind the scenes at PMO: Wait, so this wasn't Ryan Sparrow's fault?

By kadyomalley - Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 9:49 AM - 142 Comments

According to Don Martin, the fateful – and possibly fatal, at least for the government – decision to take advantage of the fiscal update to declare war on the public financing system may have been the result of an error in judgement by an overzealous, overtired …. Prime Minister? Hang on, that can’t be right, can it? And yet: 

[...]Stephen Harper has to wear this political mess himself. He personally ordered the incendiary paragraph inserted into Thursday’s fiscal update, ignored warnings from his own MPs who felt it was a lousy idea and clearly under-estimated his opponents’ resolve to defend their cash at any political price. 

Which puts a whole new slant on the rumours of rancour and recrimination around the caucus room, doesn’t it?

Continue…

UPDATED: A trip down minority government memory lane

By kadyomalley - Friday, November 28, 2008 at 10:49 PM - 64 Comments

The opposition has every right to defeat the government but Stéphane Dion does not have the right to take power without an election.

-Prime Minister Stephen Harper gives the nation a lesson in parliamentary democracy from the foyer of the House of Commons (November 28, 2008)

As leaders of the opposition parties, we are well aware that, given the Liberal minority government, you could be asked by the Prime Minister to dissolve the 38th Parliament at any time should the House of Commons fail to support some part of the government’s program. We respectfully point out that the opposition parties, who together constitute a majority in the House, have been in close consultation. We believe that, should a request for dissolution arise this should give you cause, as constitutional practice has determined, to consult the opposition leaders and consider all of your options before exercising your constitutional authority. Your attention to this matter is appreciated.

-From a letter to then-Governor General Adrienne Clarkson signed by all three opposition leaders: Gilles Duceppe, Jack Layton and Stephen Harper
(September 9, 2004)

(Many thanks to an ITQ reader who shall remain nameless, but deeply appreciated for her elephant-like memory, for the tip.)

UPDATE FROM THE COMMENTS: Robert McLelland dredges up this absolutely fascinating CBC interview with Stephen Harper from the same time period, in which he goes on at (what is, in hindsight, I’m sure deeply regretted) length on the need for minority governments to cooperate with the opposition, and repeatedly states that he and his party are ready to provide an alternative government, should it be necessary.

Gosh, this could be interesting: The PM Speaks!

By kadyomalley - Friday, November 28, 2008 at 4:53 PM - 152 Comments

Further to Colleague Wherry’s post, I’ll be hanging around the foyer tonight between 5and 5:30 tonight to hear the Prime Minister accuse the opposition parties of plotting a coup d’etat that would strike at the very heart of Canadian democracy. Sadly, he won’t be taking questions, but it should be fun, and anyway, everyone knows that it’s not up to the press gallery to hold the government accountable — that’s the opposition’s job! Or something like that. Right, Kory?

5:09:24 PM
Okay, so apparently, this will be a “game changer” of an announcement. Ooh! In fact, the theory seems to be that he will cancel the scheduled opposition day on Monday, and put off all votes – like, for instance, a non-confidence motion – until the week after. Just so Canadians can properly appreciate the enormity of forcing him and his family to move out of 24 Sussex over Christmas. Will no one think of the cats?

Oh, I kid. Well, about the cats.

5:15:07 PM
Okay, apparently, that’s exactly what will happen. Hey, didn’t a noble, democracy-loving leader of the opposition once lead his party in a dramatic walkout from the House of Commons when a Liberal PM whose name escapes me postponed the remaining opposition days in a session out of fear that the oppositon would bring down his government?

5:18:02 PM
Hmm. So he was supposed to be here before 5:30. Any bets on whether that’s actually going to happen? I mean, this is a man who tends to be on the fashionably late time for event planned months in advance – an impromptu press conference? We could be here til midnight!

5:22:16 PM
“Can he do that?” That seems to be the question of the hour, and as far as I know, the answer is “yes”. The government is under no obligation to hold an opposition day on Monday, or any other day – as long as there are two before the end of the session, they can be scheduled whenever the Government House Leader pleases.

5:27:59 PM
Ooh! Five minute warning!

Continue…

Tyrannical Majority to PMO: Check.

By kadyomalley - Friday, November 28, 2008 at 2:45 PM - 175 Comments

Hot off the Canadian Press wire (link when available):

The Liberal Opposition plans to introduce a motion in the House of Commons on Monday declaring non-confidence in the minority Conservative government and proposing a governing coalition.

The motion comes as emissaries from the Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois hold talks about forming a new government should Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s minority fall.

But Harper could still avert the immediate defeat of his weeks-old government through procedural tactics.
The Liberal motion, which has the approval of the NDP and Bloc Quebecois, reads:

“In light of the government’s failure to recognize the seriousness of Canada’s economic situation and its failure in particular to present any credible plan to stimulate the Canadian economy and to help workers and businesses in hard-pressed sectors such as manufacturing, the automotive industry and forestry, this House has lost confidence in this government and is of the opinion that a viable alternative government can be formed within the present House of Commons.”

A source says the opposition parties have agreed that Liberal Leader Stephane Dion would lead the government for the next few months.

UPDATED: The day just got shorter. Or longer.

By kadyomalley - Friday, November 28, 2008 at 11:38 AM - 83 Comments

At this point, I’m not sure if the threeway opposition love (or at least not hate) train can be stopped, but I think this constitutes a prime ministerial blink:

Conservatives back down on controversial party funding changes

November 28, 2008 – 11:29

THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA – The Conservative government says an incendiary plan to strip political parties of their public financing won’t be included in a confidence vote on the fall fiscal update.

Government sources say only tax measures will be part of the ways and means motion that parliamentarians will vote upon on Monday.

It’s a sharp reversal for the minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

When the fiscal update was delivered on Thursday, government officials and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty expressly stated the party financing measures would be considered matters of confidence.

But with the Liberals and New Democrats in deep discussions about a potential coalition government should the Tories be defeated, the Conservatives are pulling back.

The party financing measures would effectively gut the opposition parties, who are far more dependent on public subsidies than is the Conservative party.

UPDATE: Okay, the latest CP update pretty much scotches the idea that backing down on political financing (which they’re not actually doing, you’ll notice, since it was never going to be in Monday’s Ways and Means motion in the first place) will kill off the New New Spirit of Cooperation (NNSOC):

A government source now claims the elimination of the $1.95-per-vote subsidy was never intended to be part of the ways and means motion, which will be voted on Monday evening.

But Liberals and New Democrats say that dropping the financing measures will not influence their decision to vote against a fiscal update they say provides no economic stimulus at a time when Canada is entering a recession.

"It's going to be a long day."

By kadyomalley - Friday, November 28, 2008 at 10:51 AM - 37 Comments

Gee, “senior NDP official”, you think?

Leaving aside the monumental OMGness of behind-the-scenes opposition party negotiations involving Jean Chretien and Ed Broadbent, as Colleague Wherry pointed out via email, the very best bit is the following:

Chretien was seen on his way to his downtown Ottawa office, but when asked about the coalition talks he feigned an inability to understand English.

“Je ne comprends pas anglais,” he said.