Liberal Biennial Convention 2012 Ottawa

By Mitchel Raphael - Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 8:12 PM - 0 Comments

Martha Hall Findlay (left), Michael Igntieff.

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And what have we learned?

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, December 16, 2011 at 5:26 PM - 0 Comments

Bruce Anderson considers the Speaker’s ruling and the campaign against Irwin Cotler.

Does the leadership of the Conservative Party interpret the ruling as carte blanche to do more of this kind of “wet-work”? If this tactic were carried out on a broader scale, would anyone really think it is nothing more than sporting politics? (As an aside, do we really think the Speaker would have arrived at the same decision if the tactic was used against 50 or 100 opposition MPs?)

Do other leading Conservatives share the views of Government House Leader Peter Van Loan, who said that the calls made into Mr. Cotler’s riding were vital free speech and a sign of good health in our democracy? If Mr. Van Loan truly is speaking for cabinet… well, that would be kind of frightening. If not, he should seek an opportunity to step back from that argument and acknowledge that a line was crossed.

‘We’re good at it’

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, December 16, 2011 at 10:28 AM - 0 Comments

The polling company behind the phone calls in Irwin Cotler’s riding is now the subject of complaints.

Campaign Research Inc. had not been advised of any complaints as of Thursday afternoon, said principal partner Nick Kouvalis. “We’ve done tens of millions of dials through our call centre and there’s never been any complaint launched against us,” Kouvalis said. “We’re in the business of getting Conservatives elected and ending Liberal careers. We’re good at it.”

Kouvalis said his firm always follows Elections Canada and CRTC rules and denied doing anything wrong in Mount Royal. He said Cotler’s claim that the calls interfered with his work was “a bit rich” because the MP would have spent more time writing speeches about the issue than it would have taken to return calls from constituents about them.

The Hill Times reports that the founder of Campaign Research managed Peter Van Loan’s campaign in 2004.

The best kind of Parliament

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, December 16, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Irwin Cotler rose during Question Period yesterday with a humble proposal.

Mr. Speaker, the government has used or abused free speech with respect to justifying what has been characterized as reprehensible actions, but it has limited free speech with regard to the frequency of in camera committees. May I, in the spirit of the Christmas season, suggest to the government that it reverse priorities, namely that it ceases and desists from reprehensible actions and protects free speech and parliamentary democracy?

In response, government House leader Peter Van Loan made the case against legislatures. Continue…

Small world

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 1:53 PM - 0 Comments

The polling firm implicated in the campaign against Irwin Cotler did work for at least 39 Conservative candidates in the last election, including Andrew Scheer.

A Citizen analysis of Elections Canada records shows that Campaign Research was involved in at least 39 candidate campaigns during the spring election, and was paid nearly $400,000 for the work.  Not all Conservative candidate returns have been filed so the figure could be slightly higher still.

As @kady notes, one of the campaigns that used Campaign Research was that of the same Andrew Scheer who found no breach of privilege. His campaign paid more than $8,000 for their services in aid of his run for the roses in Regina – Qu’Appelle, before he was elected Speaker. Scheer does not appear to have mentioned this in his ruling or, uh, anywhere else.

John Williamson Maverick Watch

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 9:52 AM - 0 Comments

The Conservative backbencher abandons the government’s free speech defence.

“I don’t think there will be any more use of suggestions that a byelection might happen,” said New Brunswick MP John Williamson, one of the Conservatives who had initially defended the phone calls as simple “voter identification.”

Williamson, a former communications director in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office before he entered elected politics, said all parties will continue to conduct phone campaigns to identify potential supporters for future elections. He also said that Conservatives would not call misinformation “free expression.” “Let me put it this way: that was the weakest argument put forward,” Williamson said.

The voice of the people

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 8:45 AM - 0 Comments

Speaking with reporters after QP yesterday, Irwin Cotler was asked if he would advise somebody to get into politics.

I would still recommend people going into politics. I go back to what John Turner once said when I first started to work with him in, in my late 20s, and he said politics is the highest form of public service. I still regard is as the highest form of public service and I was brought to this House when I was 12-years old and my father turned to me and said, and I still remember his words, and he said son, this is vox populi. This is the voice of the people. Today, people might react cynically. I don’t. I still think this is the voice of the people. I intend to speak and work on behalf of the people. And on this issue, their voice has not yet spoken the final word either. 

At Huffington Post, Mr. Cotler explains his concerns with the Speaker’s ruling.

Reprehensible, but not against the rules

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 3:37 PM - 0 Comments

While allowing that “all reasonable people would agree that attempting to sow confusion in the minds of voters as to whether or not their Member is about to resign is a reprehensible tactic,” Speaker Scheer has ruled just now that, on technical grounds, the campaign against Irwin Cotler does not constitute a case of privilege.

Mr. Cotler’s interventions in this regard are here, here, here, here and here. Previous coverage here, here and here.

And below, the prepared text of the Speaker’s ruling. Continue…

Occupy Parliament

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 9:07 AM - 0 Comments

Noting the campaign against Irwin Cotler and the general state of the House, former Liberal MP Glen Pearson challenges this Parliament.

Do today’s MPs have the courage to stand with the House of the people against their own political masters when the occasion demands it? To date the answer would have to be a clear “no”. Perhaps what they require is the courage, mustered by their own citizens and constituents, to do the honourable thing and stop silently condoning what surely must be one of the saddest eras in Canada’s parliamentary democracy.

It is surely time for our federal political representatives to occupy the very House their constituents voted them in to. As Edmund Burke famously put it, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” I have learned that good men and women occupy the House of Commons. They question now is: will they at last show up to rescue Parliament from its more debased instincts and speak for us?

This is the week that was

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 4:59 PM - 0 Comments

The NDP leadership contenders made their first impressions. Bruce Hyer napped. Robert Chisholm defended his unilingualism. Paul Dewar proposed a new kind of vote subsidy. Thomas Mulcair pitched cap-and-trade.

Chuck Strahl complicated John Duncan’s timeline. The citizens of Attawapiskat turned away the auditor, who’s costing them $1,300 per day. Peter MacKay had a history with helicopter rides. The Liberals double-checked. A retired major came to the minister’s defence. And the minister threatened to sue. Peter Goldring became an independent. MPs failed in their duty. And Jim Hillyer celebrated (and then kind of tried to sort of apologize). Continue…

Rejected by voters, paid for by the public

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, December 7, 2011 at 8:30 AM - 0 Comments

Irwin Cotler notes that the Conservative candidate in his riding now works for the government.

Mr. Cotler said the Tory candidate, now employed in the office of Heritage Minister James Moore, is performing the duties of a member of Parliament. He said ex-opponent Saulie Zajdel is now offering to help municipal politicians in his Montreal riding secure federal grants and services.

“We have had information conveyed to us that, in fact, he has had meetings with mayors and councillors in this riding, in which he has held out to them that he, in the course of his work, can confer a benefit upon them,” Mr. Cotler said in his office Tuesday. “What has he been hired to do and what is he, in fact, doing? … The question is whether a defeated candidate seeks to perform the duties of an MP, as a kind of shadow MP on the public purse.”

See previously: Puppet MPs

The Commons: A fish story, in verse

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 at 5:55 PM - 0 Comments

The Scene. “Is that all you’ve got?” moaned James Moore, as he is wont to do.

“Is that all you’ve got?” he cried again a second later, in case Alexandre Boulerice hadn’t heard him the first time.

The Heritage Minister did not clarify what precisely he found lacking in news that, as The Globe and Mail put it this morning, “the RCMP is probing allegations that members of the Quebec construction industry tried to use Conservative contacts all the way up to the Prime Minister’s Office in a bid to influence the choice of a new president of the Montreal Port Authority.” But if Mr. Moore didn’t think that much was worth a query or several, he was no doubt mollified as the range of the opposition’s concerns this day became clear: everything from ethical lapses to alleged failures by this government in regards to conditions on native reserves, firearms licensing, international climate talks, asbestos exports, employment insurance, food safety and poverty.

Foremost among concerns this afternoon was Peter MacKay’s fish story. Continue…

‘Just wrong on every level’

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 5, 2011 at 8:45 AM - 0 Comments

Bruce Anderson rips the Conservative campaign against Irwin Cotler and Peter Van Loan’s attempt to justify it.

This truly isn’t complicated. If our children tell lies about schoolmates, we punish them not shrug it off. When it happens on the Internet, we call it cyber bullying and bemoan how young people seem to have grown up without decent values. Conservative Christian groups presumably recognize this as something hard to square with the “Golden Rule” … It’s insulting, it’s beneath this government, and I’m sure it is an embarrassment to many good people in the Conservative Party.

You can’t ask that here

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, December 2, 2011 at 12:15 PM - 0 Comments

On the requirement that questions concern the “administrative responsibility” of government, the Speaker now seems to be taking a strict stance. Yesterday, for instance, he ruled the following, from Liberal MP Geoff Regan, out of order.

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives have admitted the phone campaign of lies to the citizens of Mount Royal. The government House leader has actually said he is proud of these unsavoury tactics that seem to be straight from the era of Watergate. Would the Prime Minister heed the calls of commentators, even Conservatives, apologize for this outrage against democracy, shut down his dirty tricks team and call on Elections Canada to investigate?

Mr. Regan challenged the Speaker after Question Period and the Speaker duly promised to get back to the House with clarification of the rules. As Mr. Regan noted, questions about the in-and-out scheme were not ruled out of order and so it will be interesting to see where Mr. Scheer intends to draw the line here.

On the other hand, maybe this Parliament thing could be useful

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 10:00 AM - 0 Comments

Kady O’Malley reviews how the government failed to amend its own bill.

What makes the government’s eleventh hour effort to amend its own bill even more puzzling, however, is what the speaker didn’t mention, perhaps out of politeness, but more likely because he simply didn’t know: namely, the fact that similar amendments had, in fact, been brought forward at committee, by Liberal MP — and former justice minister — Irwin Cotler, whereupon the Conservative majority on the other side of the table voted down each and every one.

The freedom to spread rumours about your opponent

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 3:56 PM - 0 Comments

Irwin Cotler is pursuing a point of privilege on this matter of the Conservative party telling his constituents that he plans to quit.

This morning, Peter Van Loan responded with an appeal to the freedom of speech and the long practice of peddling rumours about one’s political opponents.

It doesn’t have to be true, it just has to be plausible

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 1:32 PM - 0 Comments

A Conservative official confirms that the party has been calling Irwin Cotler’s constituents and suggesting he might quit.

A Conservative official confirmed to The Globe and Mail that the party is trying to identify the vote in Mr. Cotler’s riding, which it does on a continuing basis across the country. In this case, a company called Campaign Research that has been linked to Ontario and federal Conservatives is behind the calls … He said the “script” does not mention a by-election. However, if people ask why the party is phoning, callers say “there are rumours that Irwin Cotler may resign causing a by-election,” the Conservative official said. “It’s an honest answer to the question. There have been rumours for a long time that Cotler is going to step down,” he said.

The rest of the story

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, October 21, 2011 at 2:36 PM - 4 Comments

Yesterday afternoon, Conservative MP Brian Jean stood just before Question Period to share some news with the House.

Mr. Speaker, members will be shocked to know that the CBC has not corrected the record on its misleading report from Monday night. It failed to inform Canadians about the drug treatment court exemption in our government’s safe streets and communities act. Today the Quebec Bar Association confirmed that it supports the important drug treatment court exemption in Bill C-10 for those who are seeking treatment for their addictions.

It’s impossible to apply an asterisk to words as they are spoken and Hansard doesn’t include footnotes, but, in case you were wondering, here is the story of that third sentence. Continue…

Team Rae

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 3:08 PM - 6 Comments

The interim Liberal leader has announced his House line-up.

Dominic LeBlanc takes Mr. Rae’s old spot at foreign affairs and Irwin Cotler takes Mr. LeBlanc’s old spot at justice. Rookies Sean Casey and Ted Hsu get veterans affairs and science respectively.

How Justin Trudeau could have changed electoral history

By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, May 6, 2011 at 1:10 PM - 5 Comments

Mark Blinch/Reuters; Photograph by Mitchel Raphael

Victory moustaches!

At the Toronto NDP victory celebration, which was filled with people sporting fake Jack Layton moustaches, the partiers kept the music playing over Michael Ignatieff’s concession speech as it was broadcast on giant screens. They turned the music down for all of Gilles Duceppe’s, and for half of Green Leader Elizabeth May’s. When Layton acknowledged the campaigns of the other leaders, May got the most applause. Layton was happy about the re-election of his wife, Olivia Chow. There had been a huge battle to keep her riding safe. The week before the vote, Liberals Bob Rae (who won) and Gerard Kennedy (who lost) went to Chow’s riding to support the Liberal candidate there. The NDP claimed it was an attempt to get at Layton by doing everything they could to take down his wife. Chow had her stepson, Toronto city councillor Mike Layton, helping her with door knocking, since the area he represents overlaps with hers. For his efforts, he ended up with a pile of complaints from constituents about local problems, mostly broken sidewalks and potholes.

Mulcair’s strategy

Each day during the election campaign, Thomas Mulcair would have a conference call with all the other Quebec NDP candidates. There were ridings they knew they could win, ridings in which they thought they had a chance, and ridings where the odds were against them. When candidates would report suspicious things like a large number of their signs being removed, Mulcair said that was their way of knowing the competition must be worried and they took it as a signal they should up their game in those areas.

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From the magazine

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 1:09 PM - 55 Comments

I spent last Sunday hanging around with Stephane Dion. Here is what that was like.

If you’re interested in a director’s cut, full of never-before-seen material, see below.

You can add this as a post-script to what I wrote the night of the 2008 election.

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The Commons: Rave-up

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 8:08 PM - 68 Comments

The circular amphitheatre, used in other circumstances by a circus school, was bathed in red light. A muscular DJ spun pounding dance music, the heavy bass shaking the floor. In the audience, signs and thundersticks waved approximately to the beat.

After a few warm-up acts, Justin Trudeau bounded on stage, vibrating with apparent enthusiasm. He wore a suit jacket, but no tie, the top two buttons of his dress shirt undone. He and a cohost proceeded then to introduce the party’s Montreal team, Mr. Trudeau announcing each arrival as if introducing the starting line-up of the ’76 Habs.

On defence, the bespectacled one, Francisss Scarrr-pa-leggia! At left wing, in the tweed coat, Irwinnnn Cot-ler! Each descended the stairs from the top of the crowd. Each of the men wore the same look: suit jacket, no tie, top button of dress shirt undone. The lone candidate in a tie promptly removed his upon arriving on stage.

Finally, the captain, Michael Ignatieff, the Liberal leader appearing in a pink shirt, his wife by his side. Continue…

Mitchel Raphael on why Michael Ignatieff got his own 'fake lake'

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 9:20 AM - 2 Comments

Too bad about the protesters’ cake
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff’s annual garden party for the media had its own special “water feature”: a child’s swimming pool was decorated to create that Muskoka-like feeling. Liberal strategist Kevin Bosch said he learned from the Conservatives that if you want to get the media out you have to have a “fake lake.” Capital Diary asked several TV journalists to stand in front of the backdrop for a photo; all politely declined. Ignatieff’s version of a “fake lake” included fake ducks and a mini remote-controlled boat, all of which cost around $80, thanks to some strategic shopping at Wal-Mart. The party was a sit-down dinner of pasta and meatballs, as opposed to the usual food stations. Steve Paikin of TVO’s The Agenda seemed mortified when the band, armed with an accordion, sang Happy Birthday to him. Outside Stornoway, two groups of protesters arrived. The first were NDP supporters upset at how the Liberals helped the Conservatives pass their fifth budget bill by having several of their members absent for the vote. Unfortunately, an ice cream cake with Sesame Street’s The Count on it melted in one of the demonstrators’ hands, making the message written on it difficult to read. Then there were the anti-seal-hunt protesters who joined in with some of the NDP chants. When Capital Diary pointed out to the seal protesters that the NDP officially supports the hunt, the protesting NDPers claimed not everyone in the party is behind that position.

Her bodyguard money gone
When Liberal MP Irwin Cotler was in Geneva speaking at a conference to mark the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, he met Dr. Massouda Jalal on a panel. Jalal was the sole female presidential candidate during Afghanistan’s 2004 election and spoke out about the conditions for women in her country. Cotler was so impressed with her talk he invited her to Ottawa where she spoke to MPs. She pointed out that many of Afghanistan’s TV and radio stations are in the hands of warlords who use the media to suppress women’s rights. Jalal says most people in her country believe what the media tell them so she is advocating for a women’s TV station to combat the misogynist attacks. When she was in cabinet, she said, she expected a minister who had lived in the U.S. for 20 years would be progressive on women’s rights. Instead, he told her the reason he had come back to Afghanistan was: “In America I don’t have control over my wife and daughter.” Jalal was shocked. Amnesty International gave her some funds, which she used to hire bodyguards. But the money has dried up and she is now without protection. Cotler is hoping Canada can help her remain a voice for women in Afghanistan.

Could Ottawa get any smaller?
MPs whose homes are far away from Ottawa tend to get excited when their children move to the capital. Cape Breton Liberal MP Mark Eyking is delighted his son Josh Eyking is starting work as a real estate agent in the city. He is with Keller Williams Ottawa Realty, the same firm where Transport Minister John Baird’s mother Marianne Anderson works.

Bilingual judges
Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella recently spoke at the Yeshiva University Toronto convocation and dinner. Noting the controversy around a private member’s bill that any newly appointed Supreme Court judges must be bilingual, she said she wanted to say a few words in another language. She proceeded with remarks in Yiddish, much to the delight and laughter of the predominantly Jewish crowd.

They also have a real lake
The term “fake lake” is getting under the skins of some Tories. But one joke going around is that they in fact have a “real” lake too: Edmonton MP Mike Lake.

Photographs by Mitchel Raphael

Mitchel Raphael on the MP who made the worst-dressed list and Peter MacKay's suitcase

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 10:20 AM - 18 Comments

Tory MPs are sexiest
When the Hill Times came out with its annual “Politically Savvy, Stylish and Sexy Survey,” Montreal Liberal MP Irwin Cotler was disappointed to discover he’s tied for the worst-dressed male MP on the Hill, with Yukon Liberal MP Larry Bagnell. “I know I am not the best-dressed MP,” noted Cotler. “But I don’t think I am one of the worst.” He confessed to Capital Diary, however, that his family agreed with the Hill Times survey. Vancouver Liberal MP Hedy Fry, known for her fashion flair and commitment to ensuring animal prints never become endangered, said that Cotler is clearly “the best-dressed professor” on the Hill. What about Liberal leader and professor Michael Ignatieff? Fry joked, “Well, he has people around him.” And professor Stéphane Dion? “His wife [Janine Krieber] has excellent taste,” she quipped without missing a beat. The survey named Tory Maxime Bernier the best-dressed male MP. Sexiest male MP went to Defence Minister Peter MacKay, leaving Justin Trudeau in second place. Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose was voted sexiest female MP, followed by NDP MP Megan Leslie. Transport Minister John Baird cleaned up in two key categories: “Most Influence in Cabinet” and “Best Cabinet Minister in Question Period.”

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