1. No one is running amok? Stephen Harper’s office is fighting back against allegations that its political staffers are roaming Parliament Hill unfettered, bossing bureaucrats around and lacking ethics.
The PMO defence of staffers is contained in an internal memo, “Rules for political staff members,” issued by the Prime Minister’s Office to Tory MPs and supporters yesterday.
It comes after a report in the Ottawa Citizen accusing the usually young and inexperienced assistants to cabinet ministers of bossing around public servants for partisan purposes.
“An article in the Ottawa Citizen incorrectly states that our Government lacks ethical rules for political staff members,” the memo says. “In fact, we were the first to legislate ethical rules for the political staff members, through the Conflict of Interest Act.”
The Citizen story canvasses some of Canada's most-respected public policy experts who say “it is time to rein in the hundreds of assistants to cabinet ministers who roam Parliament Hill with no training and no accountability to anyone but their political bosses.”
It adds: “Among the suggestions for these aides are education in how government works and a code of conduct that forbids them from giving orders to bureaucrats and makes ministers responsible for their staff's actions.”
But Harper strategists are having none of that, arguing the report also “claims, falsely,” that there are no rules governing the conduct of these political staffers.
The PMO memo says a condition of employment requires political staff to comply with a rule saying they “do not have the authority to give direction to public servants.” Political staffers can “ask for information or transmit the Minister’s instructions, normally through the deputy minister.”
Clearly, the assistant to former Public Works minister Christian Paradis who blocked the release of a key document under the Access to Information Act didn’t know about that rule. Rather, he just went ahead himself, emailing bureaucrats telling them to "unrelease" the sensitive report on government real estate.
It is this incident that is provoking the outrage among public-policy experts.
The PMO memo comes as relations are turning sour between the government and its public servants. The Globe is reporting today that bureaucrats are preparing for a battle with the Conservatives over their pensions.
There have also been concerns over the treatment of senior diplomat Richard Colvin who is the principal witness at the special committee investigating the Afghan detainee controversy.
2. The Vancouver Olympics suck? All of the talk has been about the missteps and mistakes of these Games so far – the Olympic cauldron situated behind a chain-link fence, the weather, postponed events and cancelled tickets.
At the daily press conference yesterday, Olympic officials faced a barrage of questions as to how Vancouver’s effort rate and were even if these are the worst Winter Games on record.
But that’s not the view of everyone.
Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae is here; his wife Arlene, is a volunteer at these Games. He blames the media not the weather. “Criticisms are vastly exaggerated,” he says. “Weather is weather – the local atmosphere is electric and it’s wonderful to see such a positive spirit.
“Too many journalists with too little to do make for idle b.s.,” he says. In fact, Mr. Rae took advantage of the cancelled events at Whistler yesterday to go skiing himself. He didn’t win a medal.
And then there’s U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson. Anyone reading his blog would think these were the most successful Games ever.
He writes enthusiastically about the people he has met and the parties he has attended: “We went to the Quebec reception. Ran into a bunch of friends including Premier Charest and his wife Michele Dionne. After that we went to a party given by Michael Budman and his wife, Diane 
Bald, the founders of Roots. Great food and great people.”
He’s been at all sorts of events, watching women’s hockey and figure skating. And Ambassador Jacobson is always working; in one post he recalls the cross-border role he played:
“While we were at the figure skating (the Chinese were awesome) the Canadians won their first gold medal on home soil. Alex Bilodeau at the men’s moguls,” he writes. “I gave Michael Ignatieff the good news. He gave me a high five. That’s what the Olympic spirit is about. Friendly competition.”
No mention of the weather.
(File photo: Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail)
