News

The morning buzz: What's making news on Parliament Hill

1. 'Stop the whining,' Tom Flanagan to Liberals on '10-per-centers.' Super Tory strategist Tom Flanagan - he’s the former chief of staff and mentor to Stephen Harper - says Liberals should “stop all the whining about the messaging” of the contentious free-mail leaflets that the Consevatives most recently sent to opposition ridings with big Jewish populations. The pamphlets suggested the Liberals were anti-Israel and, according to some critics, anti-Semitic.

As a result, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff is demanding the leaflets be limited to the MPs' own ridings. “The Conservative Party has turned a tool for Members of Parliament to communicate with Canadians on parliamentary issues into one that focuses on increasingly outrageous partisan propaganda and negative attacks,” said Mr. Ignatieff in a press release. Mr. Flanagan, a political science professor at the University of Calgary, however, thinks it “odd” that the Liberals are complaining about these flyers. He says they are a great tool for opposition MPs as they are meant to allow opposition parties to spread their message into ridings they don’t hold.

“The odd part is people are complaining about the Conservatives doing it but this is actually of most potential use to opposition parties because by definition the government is going to hold more seats,” Mr. Flanagan says. “It’s a tool that the opposition has. So why are the opposition parties always complaining about it. Why don’t they just use it?” He did caution, however, that these flyers can be expensive and suggested there could be a budgetary cap on them.

Meanwhile, Jewish leaders, many of whom are Liberal, have written to Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking that he withdraw the leaflet. For his part, Mr. Flanagan, says he doesn’t see anything untoward in the pamphlet: “I can’t see that it’s any different from the kinds of stuff political parties do and say all the time on kinds of issues.”

2. Gerald Keddy: unemployed Nova Scotians are 'no-good bastards.' Trouble finds this Nova Scotia Tory MP. Last month, he attracted controversy because of a picture showing him presenting a super-sized cheque - complete with a big fat Tory logo on it - to constituents for infrastructure stimulus projects. It was that picture that provoked the outrage over the partisan nature of the program and subsequent stories about the way in which the funding was being distributed.

Now, more controversy from Mr. Keddy. The Halifax Chronicle-Herald’s Stephen Maher writes this morning that Mr. Keddy thinks Nova Scotians are lazy and that is the reason for migrant labour in the province. “Nova Scotians won’t do it – all of those no-good bastards sitting on the sidewalk in Halifax that can’t get work,” he said, noting that the market gardeners in the Annapolis Valley would have to shut down if it weren’t for migrant labour.

3. Jerry Grafstein says goodbye - and Stephen Harper says hello to more patronage. Senator Grafstein, appointed in 1984 by Pierre Trudeau, celebrates his 75th birthday on Jan. 2. You know what that means for a Canadian Senator - retirement. To celebrate all that, Senator Grafstein is to be roasted next Tuesday on Parliament Hill. As one of his friends says, “In his long career, hyperactive Jerry advocated building a Chunnel through the Aleutian Islands to link North America and Asian.”

He also pushed a free trade zone for the Mediterranean. A big dreamer, some of his big ideas came to fruition, however - he brought the Rolling Stones to Toronto to revive the city after the SARS crisis and was behind the “Canada Loves New York” effort that saw 30,000 Canadians travel to New York City after 9/11. Tory Senator Mike Duffy and former Liberal cabinet minister and now Quebec broadcaster Jean Lapierre are the hosts of the roast. They will be joined by lots of former and current Liberal politicians: Wayne Easter, Sheila Copss, George Baker, Stephane Dion and Dennis Mills.

Senator Grafstein’s retirement will again upset the balance of power in the Red Chamber - the Tories are inching closer to controlling it. The standings are now 51 Liberals compared to 46 Conservatives, two Progressive Conservatives, three Independents, one Senator who is in no party and there are two vacancies. Two other Senators - one independent and another Liberal - will be retiring in the next couple of weeks as well. And once Prime Minister Harper performs more Tory patronage by filling those spots, the two main parties will be tied.

(Photo: Tom Hanson/The Canadian Press)