After only 13 months on the job, Kory Teneycke, the Prime Minister's director of communications, is leaving. He wants to be able to spend more time with his young family. Maybe so, but it's an open secret around Parliament Hill that working in the Stephen Harper PMO is difficult (even more so if you're the communications director, as the Prime Minister is suspicious of the media).
Mr. Harper has lost many senior people from his office in his short tenure at the top, whereas many of Jean Chrétien's senior staff stayed in place for years. Mr. Harper has lost chiefs of staff, advisers, communications directors; several other departures are anticipated.
But the burning question is who will replace Mr. Teneycke? Speculation is that it will be Jason Lietaer, who is close to Harper chief of staff Guy Giorno and who, like Mr. Teneycke and Mr. Giorno, worked in the Mike Harris government in Ontario. Last year, Mr. Lietaer was given Mr. Teneycke's former job as head of the Conservative Resource Group that serves the Tory caucus.
Another person being touted for the PMO gig (but not as seriously as Mr. Lietaer) is Rob Nicol, who also worked for the Harris Tories. He works in Toronto as a communications director. Still, a Conservative insider said that Mr. Giorno may have trouble attracting a strong person: “Good smart employed people might not want the wild ride of minority government and it's not so great job security.”
Tory caucus: a read-out
The Harper Tories, in Ottawa this week for their summer caucus meeting, are a much happier bunch than six months ago, according to an insider: “They [caucus members] feel the glow is coming off Iggy [Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff] and he can be held back.” The Prime Minister's focus, according to the insider, is to craft “an agenda for public consumption on the economy.” The source says that the caucus is split “on whether there will be an election in the fall or next year.”
Hot, Not and Recovering
Recovering: Former prime minister Paul Martin, 70, ruined his knee in his 20s after a waterskiing accident. He put off corrective surgery until he got a new knee this summer. He had to spend a few weeks off his feet and had to miss the funerals of former governor-general Roméo LeBlanc and former parliamentary strategist Jerry Yanover, which upset him “quite a bit,” said his former communications director Scott Reid. However, Mr. Reid said that Mr. Martin's recovery is running ahead of schedule and the new knee will make a huge difference, but not with his basketball game. “The knee was always a beard for his poor shot-making skills,” joked Mr. Reid.
Hot: Election preparedness. Mr. Ignatieff had election-style pictures shot of him this week at Stornoway by Dave Chan, former prime ministerial photographer for Mr. Martin. This, after Mr. Ignatieff told CTV there is a good possibility he will move a motion of non-confidence in the government in September.
Hot: Jack Layton. Main-streeting in Tory-dominated Edmonton this week, the never camera-shy federal NDP Leader found a television camera and a TV show to star in. Mr. Layton was with aboriginal activist Lewis Cardinal who was nominated as the NDP candidate in Edmonton Centre and NDP MP Linda Duncan, who beat long-time Tory Rahim Jaffer in the last election. Walking by CITY-TV studios, they were spotted by the morning show's producer and invited on set.
Not: Controlling the message. The Harper PMO's secrecy around photo ops backfired this week. Photographers who wanted to cover Mr. Harper's event trumpeting his home renovation tax-credit program were told to meet at a certain time behind a certain building and they would be taken by van to a certain location. It turns out the secret place was a Rona store in Ottawa's south end where Mr. Harper talked up the credit. The photo op didn't get much play in the media. It didn't help that the van left without a couple of photographers, who were just minutes late.
