Harperland Crumbling

Whispering in the Wind (WITW 28) May 7, 2014. 

Not too long ago Steven Harper’s strategy for the 2015 election was both simple and obvious:  neutralize any and all contentious issues not related to economic opportunity and make the 2015 election campaign all about Mr. Harper and his economic management performance since he took office in 2003.  Unfortunately for Mr. Harper and his government, things have not gone as planned.  Today the prime minister and a few handlers are scrambling about trying to salvage the Harperland image.   

Temporary Foreign Workers Program – In Chaos  

The Temporary Foreign Workers Program has been around for decades and has become an important part of making Canada’s diverse economy run more efficiently.  In the past eight years things have gone amok where regulations that were to operate in the national interest were severely abused, if not ignored.  Mines in Canada are now owned and operated by foreign managers using foreign workers, at the expense of using qualified Canadian workers.  In the service industries the situation appears to be worse with critics saying that the situation is an exercise in “human trafficking and slavery”.  Minister Kenney placed a moratorium on applications in the food services sector indicating that the moratorium is only temporary – the situation is a disaster without a solution.  The Temporary Foreign Workers Program as it now exists was created by the Harper government and can’t be fixed easily and definitely can’t be fixed by the 2015 election.  Mr. Harper is going to be living with the debacle and some 200,000 temporary foreign workers working in Canada.

Harper’s Aboriginal Education Program – In Chaos

In early April the Harper government tabled the First Nations Control of First Nations Education Act.  When the aboriginal education initiative was first agreed to by the prime minister and Shawn Atleo, it was seen to be a historic understanding.  The agreement outlined a transfer of the education portfolio to some 600 reserve chiefs – the chiefs would be responsible for education on their respective reserves but would have to meet minimum education standards – the money for construction of schools and administration would be in the billions, to be worked out in more detail after the 2015 federal election.  Last week Shawn Atleo resigned his position as National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations because of the education agreement.  The Bill on aboriginal education is on hold with the federal government because of the Atleo resignation.  In my view Mr. Harper’s strategy to give control to individual chiefs was a cunning move on the prime minister’s part and all that it had to offer was gobs of money.  Surely Mr. Harper knew that the individual chiefs couldn’t handle such a monumental transition – nor could the Assembly of First Nations coordinate such a major transition.  The result is chaos within the aboriginal community and what is at stake – a generation of young aboriginals will be without an education program – the real tragedy. 

Supreme Court Smeared by Harper – Not a Good Idea

The Supreme Court recently issued two rulings which have disappointed Prime Minister Harper, big time.  First, the Supreme Court ruled that Senate Reform could not be undertaken without measured agreement from the provinces.  Mr. Harper was disappointed by the decision and shrugged it off with the suggestion that the court ignored the primacy of the federal parliament and it was now up to the provinces to respond.  In my view Mr. Harper has ignored his responsibility as prime minister of Canada, but in a way does neutralize the issue for the 2015 election campaign.  Second case, the Supreme Court rejected Prime Minister Harper’s nomination of Justice Marc Nadon to the high court.  The rejection incensed Prime Minister Harper to the degree that the prime minister suggested that Chief Justice Beverely  McLachlin acted inappropriately in the nomination process.  Canada’s Bar Association president, Fred Headon offered his opinion on the discord between the prime minister and the chief justice, indicating that the chief justice of the Supreme Court did nothing wrong and suggested that Mr. Harper should clarify publically that the chief justice acted appropriately.  As to the impact this dispute might have on the 2015 election, it’s going to have a big impact because it shows the dark side of Mr. Harper’s personality and management style – nobody is safe from Steven Harper’s wrath. 

Tom Flanagan, On Harper’s Personality - the Dark Side

Up until 2005 Tom Flanagan was a very close confident and senior advisor to Steven Harper in his rise to power.  In his book, Persona Non Grata: the Death of Free Speech in the Internet Age, Mr. Flanagan writes: “There’s a dark, almost Nixonian, side to the man. He can be suspicious, secretive and vindictive, prone to sudden eruptions of white-hot rage over meaningless trivia, at other times falling into week-long depressions in which he’s incapable of making decisions.”  As to whether Mr. Harper participated in Nixonian type “dirty tricks” Mr. Flanagan opined in a television interview that Stephen Harper pushed the envelope many times but never broke the law.  Will Mr. Flanagan and his book have an impact on the 2015 election?  You bet, and it might have an earlier impact as well!

Internal Conservative Battles

Whispering in the Wind (WITW 26) April 23, 2014

In politics, what is considered positive action in the short term can have negative, if not disastrous consequences in the longer term,  It all comes down to short term decision making and assessing the impact those decisions will have on the electorate, at election time.  Rarely do politicians consider the longer term implications of decisions and when they do, they are considered leaders with vision.  Albertans will be going to the polls in the spring of 2016 which seems a long way off but the Alberta PCs are in such disarray there is the question of political survival.  At the federal level, Mr. Harper’s Conservatives are facing a national election in the fall of 2015 and they too are dealing with some confusion and dysfunction within the Conservative Party.  The big question facing both the Progressive Conservatives in Alberta and Mr. Harper’s Conservatives in Ottawa, are they election ready? 

Alberta PCs Need Help

The Alberta Progressive Conservative Party seems to be floundering with no sense of direction and not having a leader to take them into the 2016 election campaign.  Premier Hancock calls himself an “interim” premier and that in itself severely restricts his ability to offer direction to the party, showing any creative imagination in rebuilding the party’s base and formulating a winning election strategy.  To make things more complicated, a good number of potential leadership possibilities are sitting within the present PC caucus (and within the governing PC cabinet) and that reality further weakens the government, a government that cannot put forward a unified front to party supporters or the general electorate.  One name that has emerged as a possible candidate for the Alberta PC leadership is Jim Prentice.  Should Mr. Prentice enter the leadership race, the contest between the PCs and the Wildrose could become interesting, it could be a game changer for the beleaguered PC party.  Mr. Prentice is a former cabinet minister in the Harper government (held portfolios in Aboriginal Affairs, Industry and Environment) and is well respected amongst Calgary’s oil and gas elite.  Should Mr. Prentice take on the leadership of the Alberta PCs he will only have one major challenge:  he must clearly define and distinguish the Alberta PCs from the Alberta Wildrose Party – and that’s the winning election strategy for the PCs.  As to whether Jim Prentice runs in the September leadership contest is still an open question, so watch for the answer on May 6 when Mr. Prentice introduces Premier Hancock at a PC gathering..

Mr. Harper’s Election Strategy, Gone Wrong

I’ve concluded that Mr. Harper sketched out “his” party’s election strategy about 18 months ago – dispose of any contentious issues early on in the campaign which if achieved would allow “his” conservative movement to fight the 2015 election on “his” management of the economy and “his” country’s economic performance since 2003.  Unfortunately for Mr. Harper, things did not go as he had planned and “his” credibility suffered badly, to the point that some observers are now suggesting that it is time for him to move on to other things.  There is a long list of Harper initiatives that have gone wrong in the last few years, but I feel there is one initiative that has to be considered the core wrong doing – an experiment that has gone bad.  The experiment was the fusing of the Reform-Alliance movement with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. In the short run the “unite the right” initiative appeared to be a good idea if the right wanted to defeat the long standing Liberal governments and it worked with Steven Harper at the helm.  Today observers are seeing a clear rift within the Conservative Party of Canada with two factions emerging; the more progressive Red Tories and those further to the right, the Blue Tories.  The Conservative nomination meeting in Calgary Signal Hill two weeks ago clearly demonstrated just how deep the rift is within the federal conservatives.  Ron Liepert, considered to be a more progressive Red Tory won the nomination over Rod Anders.  The question for Mr. Harper, is this nomination in Calgary the start of a wave of discontent with his leadership or is progressive wing of the party simply saying the “unite the right” experiment just didn’t work out?         

Quote, Worth Thinking About: 

Noted poet and novelist Charles Bukowski said:  “The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.”

Canada's Political Landscape In Turmoil

Whispering in the Wind (WITW 24) April 9, 2014

Making sense out of Canadian politics is not an easy undertaking.  Two weeks ago Alison Redford was forced to resign as premier of Alberta, not because of her successes on the policy front, but because of her more aggressive management style – actually Ms. Redford was thrown under the bus and disgraced by her own party.  Pemier Pauline Marois and her left of centre, sovereignty party went down to defeat on Monday to the more moderate Liberal party headed up by Philippe Couillard.  Simply put, Madame Marois was not able to convince Quebecers that her Charter of Values reflected Quebecer’s values in the 21^st century.  And let’s not forget about the confusion in Ottawa; specifically the turmoil within the Conservative Party of Canada.  Two questions emerge when it comes to the federal Conservatives:: can Prime Minister Stephen Harper calm the troubling waters within his own party, prior to the 2015 election?  Second, will Mr. Harper be around to fight in the 2015 federal election?

Turmoil Within Conservative Party 

Dmitri Soudas was summarily dismissed from his job as the Conservative Party’s chief operational soldier for the upcoming federal election in 2015 – Mr. Soudas simply disobeyed direct orders and interfered with an Ontario riding nomination hoping to see his girlfriend win the nomination.  Prime Minister Harper has had to (indirectly) apologize to the Supreme Court of Canada for his appointment of Marc Nadon to Canada’s top court.  The Supreme Court justices rejected Mr. Nadon’s nomination as being unconstitutional.  Should Mr. Harper wish to have Mr. Nadon’s nomination remain then the constitution will have to change.  The so-called Fair Elections Act has become a black eye for the Conservatives and Mr. Harper – virtually every knowledgeable expert on the matter has written that the proposed legislation is fraught with problems – the well respected former auditor general, Sheila Fraser has called it “an affront to democracy . . . and damaging to the democratic system.”  If there is one thing acting in the government’s favor it is that the electoral reform package is of little interest to the Canadian electorate – as an issue as presented has little traction with Canadians.  And let’s not forget about the year old Senate Expenses Scandal and the role the Prime Minister played in the scandal – when will the RCMP complete its investigations and what’s the holdup?   

The Chong Solution – A Good Idea, Will It Fly?

Last December Conservative MP Michael Chong introduced a private members bill that would rebalance the roles and powers of Members of Parliament and party leaders, of riding associations and party headquarters.  The bill is currently before a Commons Committee and is gaining interest and support from Conservative government members and members of the opposition parties.  Two important items that are included in Mr. Chong’s bill:  a transparent trigging process for initiating a leadership review within a party.  The process would be controlled by Members of Parliament and their respective party caucuses.  Mr. Chong’s bill would also revamp the riding nomination process, a process that would include a supervising provincial authority who would give a final nomination endorsement for each riding association nominee – the party’s supervising authority would be elected by all the provincial riding associations.  If enacted Mr. Chong’s bill would take effect seven days after the 2015 election.      

Alberta Politics in Turmoil

Whispering in the Wind (WITW 23) April 2, 2014

Politics has always been about ideals, ideas and governance.  However, when governance takes on an aura of entitlement through its most vibrant star performers, things can get ugly and even fatal.

Alison Redford – A Final Adieu?

For those that have read this political opinion column (over the last few weeks) they are fully aware that I have defended Alison Redford’s trip to South Africa and defended the extraordinary expenses to be a result of unusual circumstances and not a result of arrogance or poor judgement – I continue to hold that view to this day.  I am also convinced that the media did not do their due diligence and put the premier’s circumstances into the proper context.  The most recent smear campaign against Ms. Redford relates to her ideas on the Federal building renovations project which again has not been put into perspective.  My concluding perspective is quite obvious, Ms. Redford’s policies and her strategic approach on economic issues was stellar and never really challenged in the media nor were her efforts seriously trashed by the opposition parties.  So it was her feisty management style that caused her political demise.  The whole situation is a mess for the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta – the situation is truly unfortunate for Alison Redford and yes, unfortunate for the Province of Alberta. 

Biggest Political Mistake of the 21^st Century

In my opinion the biggest political mistake ever made in Canada started with the “unite the right” movement and ended with the fusion of the Alliance, Reform movement and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in December, 2003.  As a “progressive” conservative advocate in Alberta what I fear most is history might repeat itself, with the far right coming in from the side door.

Alberta PC Leadership Race – Preferences   

In the week following Alison Redford’s resignation, readers of the Edmonton and Calgary Sun newspapers were asked to name their preferred candidate in the PC leadership race – there were 4,400 respondents to the question:  Which PC leadership candidate would you vote for?  The results:

Jonathan Denis – 29 %

Jim Dinning – 14%

Manmeet Bhullar – 12%

Naheed Nenshi – 10 %

Ric McIver – 8%

Jim Prentice – 8 %

Stephen Mandel – 6%

Doug Horner – 4%

Gary Mar – 2 %

Donna Kennedy-Glans – 2%

Thomas Lukaszuk – 1% 

Bill Smith – 1%

Ken Hughes – 1%

Jeff Johnson 1%

Diana McQueen at 1 %

Rumors:

Rumor has it that Jeff Johnson will be announcing his candidacy in Smoky Lake on April 9, 2014 at the Ukrainian National Hall.