David Emerson: Media Watch
Media Highlights for Wednesday February 22, 2006 – David Emerson
OTTAWA —A handful of civil servants have been dispatched to Vancouver in an unusual move that allows Trade Minister David Emerson to receive transition briefings while he weathers a political storm in his riding.
At least seven high-ranking bureaucrats from the Department of International Trade have joined Emerson since he left Ottawa while under fire for switching parties immediately after the election, The Canadian Press has learned.
Emerson had been avoiding the national media for days and went home while many of his constituents clamoured for a by-election.
Government officials could not put a price tag on the travelling transition briefings.
Emerson has received briefings in his regional office from deputy minister Rob Fonberg, as well as several assistant deputy ministers and other top-level staff.
”It will cost something, I’m sure,’’ one government official said.
(Emerson, with no mandate from the people, is hiding from us. The people are not well served by a cabinet minister in-hiding – its long past time for Emerson to resign!)
Feb 22 (Don Martin, National Post) PM can’t keep blaming messenger
OTTAWA – It’s about communications, stupid.
This Prime Minister is the real director of communications. And a very bad one at that.
Consider the alleged offence that ultimately triggered Stairs’s dismissal by a peeved PMO.
Stairs thought the backlash against former Liberal Cabinet minister David Emerson’s defection to the Conservative front bench was dragging on longer than necessary because the besieged minister was evasive or missing at the microphone.
Staging a phone-in news conference by Emerson to deal head-on with the aftershocks of his floor-crossing was Stairs’s idea. Cancelling it half an hour after its scheduled start, ostensibly because the minister was trapped in heavy traffic while sitting inside his own office, was Harper’s doing.
Talk about grade school tactics! Continuing on with the theme, yesterday during a ‘Media Availability’ to announce Harper’s appointment of the new Clerk of the Privy Council, a reporter (I believe it was CBC‘s Julie Van Dusen) commented on the invisibility of the Prime Minister and even more so, Cabinet Ministers, since the election, and asked if he planned to change that. Harper grumped back “I will be available when I have something to announce”.
Feb 22 (John Geddes, Macleans) The old switcheroo
Emerson’s defection could hurt Stronach’s chances – Here’s one for the crackpot conspiracy theorists out there. Stephen Harper huddles with a few advisers to pick his cabinet. The prospect of David Emerson crossing from the Liberals to the Conservatives comes up. But won’t appointing a blatantly opportunistic turncoat, the Prime Minister asks, spark wide public outrage? Sure, says a savvy backroom boy, but that’s the beauty part—naming Emerson will generate so much resentment around floor-crossing that it’ll foul up any chance Belinda Stronach has of winning the Liberal leadership.
(What a moronic premise – its surprising to find this published in a national magazine, but then again the few dentist’s patients reading it two years from now will be too apprehensive to notice.
There are many problems with this foolish bit but I’ll only discuss two. First of all, Harper would no doubt love to go up against Stronach. Secondly, even if we were to dismiss the social policy differences which made Stronach’s move ultimately acceptable – to her constituents – the bottom line remains that Stronach has since been given a mandate, as a Liberal, by her constituents. In contrast, Emerson gave the voters of this riding the finger. A very Trudeau-esque move, eh?)
Feb 22 (Sun Media) Insider claims PM wants to control PR
OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants to run his own public relations show and the sudden firing of William Stairs on Monday night was proof of that, according to a Tory source.
[William] Stairs, Harper’s communications director, was dumped after arguing with the PM and his inner circle for a more open approach when handling such hot potatoes as the appointment of David Emerson to cabinet.
Feb 22 (John Slykhuis, YorkRegion.com) OK, so when are we going to elect worthy leader?
…One letter writer even demanded an apology for my being critical of Ms Stronach’s treachery, concluding with astounding mind-reading skill, I approve of the double standard before I had a chance to opine about it.
Well, I don’t. And, anyway, I never apologize for expressing an opinion. I think Mr. Emerson’s display of crass political opportunism is as egregious as Ms Stronach’s, and Mr. Harper’s approval of it as cynical as that of former prime minister Paul Martin.
Great way to start a new era of political openness and honesty, Prime Minister Bonehead.