Ryan Cleary Maverick Watch

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 4:00 PM - 0 Comments

The NDP MP for St. John’s South-Mount Pearl muses of an end to the seal hunt.

“Part of our history is also whaling, for example, and the day came when the whaling industry stopped,” said Cleary, the MP for St. John’s South-Mount Pearl. “Now, is that day coming with the seal hunt? It just may be.”

The Harper government is displeased. The NDP officially supports “a commercial seal harvest that is humane, market driven and sustainable, with no tolerance for inhumane hunting practices” and also supports “the right of the Inuit to engage in their traditional and commercial seal hunt.”

Mr. Cleary has a certain history of saying interesting things.

‘Very routine’

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 12, 2011 at 9:30 AM - 0 Comments

On Thursday, the NDP pressed Julian Fantino with specific questions about Peter MacKay’s helicopter ride. Mr. Fantino wandered off script just long enough to say that the Defence Minister’s ride was “a very routine endeavour.”

On Friday, the New Democrats sent Ryan Cleary after this point.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday in this House, the Associate Minister of National Defence described a flight on a search and rescue helicopter fromva fishing camp as “a very routine endeavour indeed.” “Routine” is taking a taxi to an airport. “Routine” is taking a taxi to work. I would like to ask the associate minister exactly what he means by “routine”. How frequently does the minister use a search and rescue helicopter to get back from vacation?

Standing in for Mr. Fantino, who was standing in for Mr. MacKay, Chris Alexander ignored this question as best he could.

This is the week that was

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 6:41 PM - 0 Comments

We tried to save the House of Commons.

Brian Topp pitched higher taxes (and considered equality). Nathan Cullen pitched democratic reform. Martin Singh pitched a national pharmacare plan. Paul Dewar prioritized. Robert Chisholm talked leadership.

Elections Canada tried to figure out kids these days. The Department of National Defence tried to keep the cost of its new headquarters quiet. The NDP bought billboard space. The omnibus crime bill went unaccounted for. The House voted to keep curtailing debate. The Harperization of Canada was confirmed. The Conservatives peddled rumours and defended their right to do so. Tony Clement explained his verbal typo. And the Speaker ruled John Williamson and Geoff Regan out of order. Continue…

What does ministerial accountability mean?

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, December 2, 2011 at 12:54 PM - 0 Comments

NDP MP Ryan Cleary thinks Peter MacKay should resign.

“The email trail that has been released doesn’t back up his story,” Cleary, a New Democrat, told CBC News Friday. ”It looks like he lied about it, that’s how it looks. So when you have a federal minister of Canada come out and tell one story and a chain of emails indicate another story and it looks like he’s lying, I think that he has to resign,” Cleary told reporters in St. John’s.

Roll call

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 3:34 PM - 1 Comment

Gary Doer, Brian Masse, Ryan Cleary, Wayne Marston, Peter Stoffer and Chris Charlton are staying out of the NDP leadership race.

On the other hand, I’m told that Libby Davies hasn’t ruled anything out.

A preliminary list of potential candidates is thus as follows: Davies, Megan Leslie, Paul Dewar, Charlie Angus, Peter Julian, Francoise Boivin, Pat Martin, Thomas Mulcair and Brian Topp.

The NDP's former Newfoundland separatist

By Richard Foot - Friday, May 13, 2011 at 6:50 AM - 27 Comments

Andrew Vaughan/CP

Forget the NDP’s young Quebec caucus: Jack Layton’s biggest management problem when the House of Commons reconvenes may well be the newly elected MP from St. John’s South-Mount Pearl. After failing to win the suburban Newfoundland riding in 2008, Ryan Cleary astonished himself on election night by unseating Liberal incumbent Siobhan Coady by more than 7,000 votes. Making it all the more surprising is the fact that in his previous life as a journalist, Cleary called the NDP a bunch of “losers,” “a small pocket of aging granolas and artsy-fartsies,” and “a party that wouldn’t win an election if Jackie Layton was given a 100-seat head start.”

As the former editor-in-chief of the Independent, a St. John’s newspaper, and as an open-line radio host on the popular St. John’s station VOCM (Voice of the Common Man), Cleary also carved out a reputation as an unapologetic Newfoundland separatist. “I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but now that we’re rolling in the cash it may be time to consider breaking away from the country of Canada,” he wrote in May 2008, five months before hoisting the federal NDP banner for the first time. “If we’re teetering on the edge of economic independence anyway, why not go all the way?”

Today, Cleary, 44, pauses when asked if he still favours independence. “I do not consider myself a separatist,” he says finally. “There have been points when I was younger, when I was gung-ho in terms of separation. But that’s not what people want, and that’s not what I want.”

Continue…

BTC: Ryan's first scrum

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 12, 2008 at 1:55 PM - 4 Comments

Next to the campus of Memorial University, where, after suitably inspiring about 150 of Newfoundland’s finest young minds in a manufacturedly casual setting, Jack Layton appeared at a press conference with his suddenly noteworthy candidate for St. John’s South-Mount Pearl.

Pressed again to account for Ryan Cleary’s altogether pessimistic feelings for both the NDP and Confederation, the NDP leader made variations on his earlier points, reassuring us of his assurance that Mr. Cleary was not a separatist and would never again refer to him in print as “Jackie Layton.” Upping the ante just slightly, Layton made sure to be photographed shaking Mr. Cleary’s hand and smiling wide.

Then Layton turned the proceedings over to Mr. Cleary and disappeared from sight.

“This is my first scrum,” said Cleary, sporting a black suit, white shirt and open collar. “On this side of the mic.” Continue…

BTC: The rolling people

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 12, 2008 at 9:28 AM - 4 Comments

Greetings from the East Side Mario’s at the Holiday Inn in beautiful St. John’s, Newfoundland.

This morning’s event was an announcement on the front lawn of the White family residence, located on a tree-lined street here in the suburbs of St. John’s. With the household posing rigidly behind him, Jack Layton wanted to talk about ATM fees, text messaging charges and gas prices. And, for a few moments, the traveling press played along.

Then questions turned to Ryan Cleary, the self-hating New Democrat candidate for St. John’s South-Mount Pearl, former journalist and an outspoken Newfoundland sovereigntist.

The first query came from a local scribe who took the opportunity to review Cleary’s published assertion that New Democrats range from “granola eaters” to “Gucci socialists” to “artsy fartsy types.”

At this, Jack Layton laughed hard. Perhaps a little too hard.

“Well, look, I’ve been going back-and-forth across this country, encouraging people to take a new look at the New Democrats,” he said. “And guess what? We’ve even convinced a journalist.”

There was nary even a titter from the journalists in attendance, so Layton went on. Continue…

Such a refreshing change from flirting with Quebec separatists

By Paul Wells - Friday, September 5, 2008 at 3:44 PM - 48 Comments

Meet Ryan Cleary, former editor of the quirky, very good Newfoundland paper The Independent, who is running for the NDP in Loyola Hearn’s riding. Here’s what he wrote four months ago:

I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but now that we’re rolling in the cash it may be time to consider breaking away from the country of Canada.

There’s more….