PoliticsWatch's Best and Worst of the session to date 
by Romeo St. Martin

[PoliticsWatch posted 7:30 p.m. November 19, 2004]

Conservative MP Bill Casey

Parliament is at the halfway point before the Christmas break. 

The first six weeks of the new minority Parliament have been filled with close calls, more sponsorship inquiry revelations, a discussion about federalism in Belgium, another chapter in the ongoing Liberal feud, an angry premier, and a change in the seat total for the Liberals. 

PoliticsWatch examines the best and worst of the first session of the 38th Parliament of Canada to date. 

Most Effective MP

Conservative MP Bill Casey gets the nod for his tireless investigation into Canada's fleet of used submarines. Although he is not the Conservative defence critic, Casey had been investigating problems with the fleet years before the fire onboard HMCS Chicoutimi, which resulted in the death of seaman. 

After the fire happened, Casey had all types of information and documents about potential problems with the fleet available for reporters while the Defence Department was reluctant to speculate on the cause.

"Bill's a digger," says fellow Nova Scotia Conservative Peter MacKay. "He took a personal interest in this file a number of years ago. He has put a great deal of personal effort forth in visiting these submarines. Talking to those individuals aboard, so I think he deserves a lot of credit."

"It shows that an individual MP can make a tremendous difference in a story like this. And his timing is impeccable."

Best Story

Getting one MP to make a faux pas is one thing, but Globe and Mail columnist Lawrence Martin struck journalistic gold when he was able to get not one, not two, but three Liberal MPs - including two cabinet ministers - to out themselves as John Kerry supporters. Martin's scoop forced the PM to advise his MPs not to get involved in the U.S. election. 


Most Surreal Moment

Question period operates with the precision of a pendulum. An opposition MP asks a loaded question and a cabinet minister downplays the problem and talks about how the government has taken action. 

Not in the case of Transport Minister Jean Lapierre, however. 

When Conservative MP Rob Nicholson suggested security at Canadian ports was weak, Lapierre responded by saying Nicholson didn't know the half of it. 

"Last week, a checker at the port of Montreal pleaded guilty to conspiracy for importing $2.1 billion of drugs: 31 tonnes of hashish and 265 kilos of cocaine. I think we have every reason to worry about that, and that is why we are talking about security checks," Lapierre said in response to the question that raised more questions.

Nicholson later told PoliticsWatch he was surprised, but appreciated Lapierre's forthrightness. "If he admits there's a problem, that's great. And now he has to do something about it," he said. 

Most Talked About Story

National Post columnist Don Martin had reporters' attention after he wrote about an exodus of Parliamentary Press Gallery reporters to the Liberal spin machine. 

"Being a journalist on Parliament Hill is supposed to be a job, not a job application," began Martin's column in a lede for the ages. 

Martin's column, which questioned whether reporters were giving favourable coverage to the politicians they later worked for, started a debate on media bias on Parliament Hill, a subject that many are touchy about in Canada. 

Best Development in the Ongoing Liberal Feud

Former deputy PM Sheila Copps releases a book in which she alleges Paul Martin had to be stopped at the last minute from scrapping the Canada Health Act, flippantly floated the concept of privatizing the CBC, gave a cabinet presentation on cutting benefits to seniors and even won the loyalty of one MP by having a road paved in his riding. 

Copps began a brief war of words with the PMO, but the story fizzled out after Copps revealed she had no documents to back up many of her claims. 

Story With the Happiest Ending

Toronto Star bureau chief Susan Delacourt's tale about how the showdown between the opposition and the Liberals over the throne speech, which potentially could have brought down Martin's minority government, has spawned a beautiful friendship. 

Delacourt details how the two tough and combative House leaders for the Liberals and the Tories - Tony Valeri and John Reynolds - have become friends due to the time spent together in procedure and legislative negotiations. 

Valeri once saw Reynolds waiting for a Parliamentary precinct bus and offered him a lift in his ministerial limo to a television studio where they were both scheduled to be interviewed and the two men also had tea an Ottawa McDonald's to discuss business. 

"A more apt description might be found in a comparison to that old Looney Tunes cartoon, featuring the wolf and sheepdog amicably walking to work, punching in at the time clock and then spending the day bashing each other about the head," Delacourt observed.

Best Quote

NDP Leader Jack Layton offers his view on why the once talkative prime minister has suddenly decided not to field any questions about the sponsorship scandal even though his name has come up a number of times at the Gomery inquiry.

"I guess that's because when he wanted to get to the bottom of it initially he thought that maybe it would be Jean Chretien that would be found at the bottom of it, but now it looks like it would be Paul Martin that would be found at the bottom of it. So now he's not quite so interested, he's not so mad as hell any more."

Best Blog Posting

Maclean's Paul Wells offers his views on Conservative Party strategy in question period during the first weeks of the new session. 

> October 12, 2004 

> Scherrer and Scherrer-like

Watching Question Period. I'm just wondering:

>  In precisely which parallel Bizarro universe are Canadians up in arm about Hélène Scherrer's speech to the Banff Television Conference?

>  In which alternate reality do people think the post of principal secretary to the Prime Minister should not go to partisan loyalists of the Prime Minister?

Because in that alternate Twilight Zone reality, one supposes Canadians are grateful to the Conservative Party for spending half of every Question Period rending their garments over a stump speech by a third-rate minister who subsequently vanished down the black hole of endless Langevin Block meetings.

But in this universe, anyone watching the Tories will wonder how they took less than a week to make the Martinites look like skilled parliamentarians by comparison.

Most Mad As Hell Moment

Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams surprises everyone and storms out of what was supposed to be a feel-good First Ministers meeting on equalization, accusing the prime minister of breaking an election promise to give his province 100 per cent of its offshore revenue.

But in any relationship, little things mean a lot. Williams was also peeved because he arrived in Ottawa a few days early to get a meeting with the PM to get the deal ironed out before the First Ministers met. Unfortunately, Martin's office never returned his call. Something Martin at first denied, but his office later had to fess up to. 

If Williams wasn't mad as hell about Martin's staff by now, things didn't help a few days later when PMO spokesman Scott Reid told the Toronto Star that Williams hardline negotiating style was a mistake of historic proportions that would hurt his province for the sake of his ego. 

Surprisingly Overlooked Story

The first meeting of a new committee on the Status of Women was greeted with no media attention, with the exception of PoliticsWatch. 

Worst Day For the Liberals

November 18: Already 20 short of a majority, the Liberals lose an MP, have one of their former ministers accused of having mob ties and another current one under fire in the House for a scandal dubbed Strippergate. All this on top of the sponsorship scandal.

Worst Day For the Conservatives

October 18: Conservative Leader Stephen Harper decides not to downplay a one-paragraph mention of Belgium federalism in speech he gave the previous week.

Worst Day For the Bloc

November 4: First news reports emerge that a rookie Bloc MP decided not to give a group of veterans Canadian flags for Remembrance Day. 

Worst Day For the NDP

October 23: In a performance about as funny as one of those preachy, later episodes of M.A.S.H. where Hawkeye has stopped drinking and now refers to Hot Lips as "Margaret," NDP Leader Jack Layton bombs again at the Annual Press Gallery Dinner.

Best Unheard Soundbite

Globe and Mail reporter Jane Taber reports groans could be heard during a Liberal caucus meeting after MPs were informed that John Kerry conceded to George Bush after realizing the 150,000 vote difference in Ohio could not be overcome with the uncounted 130,000 provisional votes.

Best Joke 

Prime Minister Paul Martin compares and contrasts his two rivals - Stephen Harper and Gilles Duceppe - at the Press Gallery Dinner.

"One's a federalist, the other a separatist. One's from the West. The other's from Quebec. One avoids the English media. And the other is Gilles Duceppe."

© PoliticsWatch 2004. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PoliticsWatch content, including by framing, copying, linking or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Public Interests Research and Communications Inc. PoliticsWatch is registered trademark of PIRCINC.