1. Turnabout is fair play. Peter Tinsley stresses he is not on a personal crusade against the Harper government.
Rather the former chair of the Military Police Complaints Commission, whose probing of the Afghan detainee prisoner issue is believed to have contributed to the Conservative government’s decision not to reappoint him, is worried about a “pattern of governance” and a “deterioration of democracy.”
Mr. Tinsley, 60, joined the Liberal Party only six weeks ago – before that he says he had remained non-partisan – and this week he announced he is seeking the nomination in the federal riding of Prince Edward-Hastings.
This gives the Liberals something to crow about, finally, after losing their long-held seat in Vaughan, Ont., in last Monday’s by-election to high profile Tory recruit Julian Fantino.
Mr. Tinsley is a respected former military police officer and military lawyer with a distinguished career in the public service. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff couldn’t help but smile Monday when asked about Mr. Tinsley’s candidacy and whether other public servants might just join in the Grit cause.
“Will he be the only one? Watch this space,” Mr. Ignatieff said.
But Mr. Tinsley knows he’s in for a fight. The riding has been represented by Conservative MP Daryl Kramp for the past six years. Although, it has also been held by the Liberals in the past, beating an incumbent is never an easy task.
Mr. Tinsley, whose appointment with the Conservative government ended a year ago, is facing no opposition for the Liberal nomination, which is scheduled to be decided on Saturday. He said in an interview with The Globe on Tuesday morning that Mr. Ignatieff, and others, encouraged him to run.
“It was not a quick decision nor was it, I would stress, a personal one in terms ... of my treatment by the Harper government,” he said. “The theme [of his candidacy] is that in many cases it’s because of their policies that are put out there to serve a particular very political and partisan doctrine without explanation to the public ... and certainly with no apparent attempt to achieve any consensus based on understanding.”
He sees the end of his tenure with military police commision “as being a symptom of pattern of governance which gives me great concern.” Indeed, Mr. Tinsley is one of several federal watchdogs whose terms were ended by the Harper government under suspicions the Tories didn’t like what they were doing. (Others include former Veterans Affairs ombudsman Pat Stogran, RCMP complaints commissioner Paul Kennedy and nuclear safety watchdog Linda Keen.)
Mr. Tinsley noted the Afghan detainee issue is barely mentioned on Parliament Hill these days. “Perhaps that was the objective,” he added.
2. Pouring salt in B.C. wound. Asked Monday about the resignation of British Columbia NDP leader Carole James, Michael Ignatieff sought to make hay of what he sees as the marginalization of the New Democrats.
“Carole James had a, you know, had a distinguished public career,” the Liberal Leader said. “I mean I’m the leader of a party so that kind of story is interesting. Look, you know, she’s a woman in public life. She’s entitled to respect and I think it highlights something that we’ve been saying for some time.”
He added: “The next election at the federal level, it’s just a two-person fight. It’s Liberals-Conservatives. I think as the NDP consume themselves provincially, that’s have federal consequences and then we feel very confident that the next battle will be between me and Mr. Harper.”
