Roundup: Another hit of distraction sauce

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The NDP are set to crack open that bottle of distraction sauce as the Board of Internal Economy sits today to discuss the issue of “satellite offices.” The distraction – that they want the meeting open to the public (so that they can showboat and obstruct, like they did when Thomas Mulcair went before the Procedure and House Affairs Committee while calling it “transparency”) and when their wish is denied, they can rail to the media about how terrible the state of affairs is, and how it’s all a conviction by a “kangaroo court” that’s all just partisans being mean to them because they’re just so awesome, and all of that. The goal, of course, is to try and lose the substance of the story around their satellite offices amidst all of the other noise that they’re generating around it. Because that’s how you maturely handle a misspending issue in Canadian politics.

This is pretty concerning – an internal report from the Department of Justice shows that the government lawyers who are supposed to be drafting laws and are being forced to deal with fewer staff, tighter timelines, heavier workloads, and are essentially being forced to cut corners, and that their current resourcing is unsustainable. Because that’s really what you want to hear about the quality of legal drafting in this country.

Senior bureaucrats think that it’s time the government plays a more active role in retooling the economy, particularly when it comes to the natural resources sector, because of the evolving global dynamics of state capitalism and state-owned enterprises in strategic sectors. Of course, it doesn’t necessarily mean direct investment, but could instead mean looking at a whole-of-government approach to indentify and remove barriers that prevent firms from growing to global scale. We’ll see what the current “small government” government feels about these recommendations.

Conservative MPs are lining up to take potshots at Justin Trudeau for saying he’d repeal the First Nations accountability legislation.

The Canadian Forces Mental Health Survey shows that one in six full-time members of the Forces are affected by alcohol-related or mental health issues. It’s a pretty shocking figure, and highlights the continued need to hire more mental health workers in the Forces.

Health Canada has approved a plan to fix the contamination problems at a Quebec flu-vaccine production plant.

Here’s an update on the court proceedings against Senator Brazeau and former Senator Harb, as they try to figure out if they want to have preliminary hearings or go straight to trial.

With the growth of communications staff in the government – most of who never speak to media and try to limit what messages actually go out – are giving rise to what is being termed a “public relations state.” It’s a cute name, and there are some legitimate reasons for that rise in growth, namely the 24-hour news cycle and social media, but it’s not really an excuse to communicate less with the media.

Energy economist Andrew Leach takes apart that “scientific” study that claims that the climate impacts of the Keystone XL Pipeline would be four times the State Department’s estimates, while Mark Jaccard tries to take apart Leach’s dismissal of his call for a moratorium on the oilsands development. Leach responded thusly:

Here’s an interesting response from the UK about the problems with fixed-term parliaments, something we allegedly have with our weak-sauce “fixed election date” legislation, which we should just be rid of.

Here’s a look at Rob Gillezeau, the NDP’s in-house economist.

Former Bloc Québécois MP – and progressive Catholic priest – Raymond Gravel has passed away from lung cancer.

Former CTV personality Seamus O’Regan sounds like he’ll be contesting the Liberal nomination in St. John’s South–Mount Pearl, Newfoundland – coincidentally, just when another would-be nomination candidate has changed his mind. Now watch every other party snipe about open nominations despite the fact that none of them are pure.

From the How to Win Friends and Influence People, Rob Anders edition:

https://twitter.com/lavarmp/status/498961288811544576

And former PMO Communications Director Andrew McDougall imagines what a mocking letter from Harper to Putin would read like.

7 thoughts on “Roundup: Another hit of distraction sauce”

  1. Is it the role of the journalist to assign guilt to the NDP in the satelite office story? My journalism professors taught me very differently, lay out the evidence as accurately as possible, allow the reader to draw own conclusions. Your overblown sense of self importance is hindering your journalistic standards. Unless of course you are just a pundit spewing whatever for the sheer hell of it.

  2. “Because that’s how you maturely handle a misspending issue in Canadian politics”. Not only do you judge them, you slag them in the same breath.
    I rest my case

  3. I was just wondering if NDP just paid it back, would the public have paid any attention. If Mulclair had simply said, “Yes, we were wrong.” Does that mean they wouldn’t be able to comment on other parties behaviour from that moment on if they admitted it? Actually, I don’t have a clue. I’m not a highly paid pundit on CBC. Could someone tell me what these Summa and Hill and Knowlton groups do. I mean, could we hear from someone else.

    • That’s generally how this stuff worked at BOIE. They’d say “Oops, I guess we’ll pay it back” and then it would go away, and because it’s all behind closed doors, no one would be the wiser. That’s the system that worked for years, but when you don’t admit fault, then things start spilling out.
      Hill and Knowlton and Summa are lobby firms. They have people who are familiar with the parties who can help outside groups to get their message across to government and opposition parties, and MPs in general. They exist because the average person wouldn’t know how to properly make a presentation, and so on. They’re also easy talking heads for TV political shows to access because they’re familiar with some of what goes on, but a relative dearth of people in those kinds of positions means we tend to hear from the same talking heads over and over…

  4. thank you for all the information. I guess I wanted to take a stab at your criticism of Alison Loat’s book. I get that an MP has to make the changes (sorry I’m not eloquent) but if she goes against the system and says no to a bill when she is expected to say yes, isn’t she sort of ostrazised.(spelling) I mean, don’t you have to have an iron gut to do this. I imagine most mp’s want to be part of the group. I guess you are suggesting that MP’s need to do their homework before they take the plunge. I’ll stop now before I get into a rant on the vetting process where they invade every one of your…..I’ll stop there.

    • To be clear – I didn’t criticize the book, but rather the responses from MPs therein, which were self-mythologizing and self-serving. Yes, it’s hard to go against the party sometimes, but if more MPs stood up for themselves rather than be content to play along, it wouldn’t be such a difficult issue. The problem is most decide it’s easier to be a team player, but they content themselves by saying that they’re really just an outsider and that it’s all someone else’s fault.

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