10.05.2012 04:18 PM

Can you name the president of the Conservative Party of Canada?

…or six of Stephen Harper’s most senior aides? Can’t, can you?

Exactly.

28 Comments

  1. Olmanhall says:

    Are any of them Canadian? I have always thought the resources from every regeon of Canada should be shared equaly by all. Canada has been a collection of jealous fifedoms for too long. I hope Trudeau and his people will work toward uniting them for the common good and we can stop being divided and conquered by foreign interests. We need more young progressive people in polotics anyway. I’m tired of listening to all these ‘old fart’ ideas that do nothing but preserve the status quo.

  2. Michael says:

    How about six cabinet ministers?

  3. CdnPolitico says:

    Totally and completely agree Warren — saw that article today and thought, why is Katie Telford blabbing to the media? Nobody cares who any of those folks are. Back room staff should be exactly that: backroom staff. Their boss isn’t well-served by people looking for their moment of stardom and opining about what does/doesn’t constitute a movement. Get to work FOR Justin — not for yourselves in the media. All backroom staff, strategists, etc, should be seen and not heard by the Canadian public, except by the candidate.

  4. The Real Sean says:

    Bang on Warren.

  5. Realist says:

    From the article:

    From the article: “Certainly, there are early signs Trudeau intends to try something unusual: His stump speech is explicitly anti-ideological.”

    Since when has the Liberal party ever been ideological? Was Paul Martin an ideologue? Jean Chretien? John Turner? Pierre Trudeau? Lester Bowles Pearson? Louis St-Laurent? Mackenzie Freakin’ King?

    Since when has the Liberal party ever done anything but ride down the middle, taking the good bits from both the left and the right as needed, which according to this article seems to be exactly what the Trudeau-ites say they plan to do? And so how is that in any way a new approach?

    People talk such nonsense when they’re in the grip of an infatuation.

  6. Just read the article. “Holy West Wing” Batman.

  7. Have to admit that I admire his fortitude in making Calgary his first destination after his launch though.

    He apologized for his father`s energy policy and praised the Charter. Wish he had done that in Quebec.

    Maybe next time.

  8. Kev says:

    We keep hearing about CPC officials and Harper’s aides when they get into shit. Gerstein, Doug Finley, Dmitri, Bruce Carson…

  9. Youngster says:

    Looks like Justin is gonna retire or purge his Liberal party of all the old Chretien and Martin people, and rebuild the party in his youthful image. Just look at his election team.

  10. thor says:

    Agreed. Five things I take away from this:
    1) Here’s our team so the rest of you just fall in line now, since it’s a done deal and we’d appreciate it if you recognized it as such;
    2) Anybody in the party from the “past” who might think they know about getting people elected should just STFU because obviously, you don’t, and did we mention you are FROM THE PAST (although we are obviously using the GOOD PAST of our candidate’s name while dumping on the BAD PAST of the rest of you incompetents);
    3) Tremendous hubris: “This is JUSTIN TRUDEAU, don’t you know!? JUSTIN. TRUDEAU, Dammit!! (And they are already believing their own good press);
    4) We’re making a clean break from the past, cleaning house, etc., except they are in effect doing what has gone on since the end of the Chretien era both by talking about it publicly and staking out their territory), so a bit of a contradictory message….see point #2.;
    5) A cautionary tale on what NOT to brag about.

    Here’s hoping Garneau announces if for no other reason than to temper the Trudeauistas.

  11. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Warren,

    Nope. Know that someone replaced Don Plett when he went to the Senate but can’t for the life of me remember his name. Ditto for CPC legal counsel.

    As for the PMO: Wright, Novak, MacDougall and that’s about it. Have absolutely no idea who advises on Quebec now.

    Cabinet ministers: too easy!

    Senators: can get past six.

  12. Lynn says:

    Ritt, Oda, Toews, Flaherty, Clement, MacKay, Nichols, Baird, Ambrose, — only because of my intense dislike for them and all that they stand for. Hope that Dear lLader gets some heat with this meat recall. Remember Lyin’ Brian throwing the pitch at the Blue Jays game, if memory serves me correctly, and the crowd chanting “tuna, tuna…” . Oh please let Steve have his moment like Mr. Mulroney got from the crowd. What am I saying, he would never open himself up to that, being in a crowd of non-supporters at this time when things look bad from coast to coast. Sorry for my fantasy!

    • Windsurfer says:

      You should have sent this in reply to that Realist person at the 9.40 pm mark on Oct. 5.

      The CON’s have got lots of stinkers, thus, so what if a party skates up the middle of the road, taking others’ good ideas while being conciliators !?

      If elected (even in minority) I couldn’t the Libs throwing out so many stinkers of cabinet ministers as these incompetents have.

      Or tolerating an agribiz apologist like Ritz, who should have been fired a long time ago. I live my days with the saying ‘all things will pass’ as in, the CON Scourge will have had its day very soon. Harper should have fired or moved a bunch of these a long time ago but the reality is this is “his best team” and the next tier down of his cabinet choices would have been laughable.

  13. Michael says:

    I don’t think things happen by accident.

    The main knock against Justin has been that he is a policy lightweight. Perhaps this was their attempt to say (without coming out and saying it), look at the team he has behind the scenes.

  14. blueworld says:

    Ahh come on.. David Axelrod was well known in the Obama camp and everybody talked about Carl Rove for Buch. Several of Harper’s team are also well published and talked about. I don’t hear much complaint when WK name floats around. The legendary Keith Davey also was discussed at length.

    People in politics have ego’s, they like to float their names, what can I tell you… I don’t think it’s a big deal

  15. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    W,

    Well, finally went back and read the blog. You know what they say about new brooms — and that is all well and good. Why have Liberals failed in past elections? Relatively simple, because the leaders were principled, educated, somewhat learned but sorely lacking in sufficient leadership ability. Running successfully a political party was a bridge too far for these good men. And the same can be said of their respective COS and PS. It had absolutely nothing to do with age (or lack thereof), it had to do with people getting the big jobs who were not sufficiently trained or seasoned for those respective positions. Put another way, they weren’t yet ready for leadership prime time and recent history has recorded the end result.

    Our leader will win the country with honesty, integrity, wisdom and political street smarts — and that cannot be determined by solely assessing the age of the team surrounding the leader.

  16. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    W,

    Finally went back and read the blog. Why has our party failed in the recent past? It had absolutely nothing to do with age. It has to do with leaders and top staff who were intelligent, educated, principled and even somewhat learned but who were absolutely deficient when it came to playing in the political big leagues at the highest level. Successful political leadership capable of winning elections was a bridge too far for those otherwise good and honorable individuals.

    Our leader will win with honesty, integrity, organizational ability, policy and political street smarts. That team will by necessity have to be the best that Canadian liberalism can produce and field in order to reverse present political trends and it won’t manner one whit whether he or she is 20 or 60 — only that the person is the absolute best we can possibly come up with.

  17. Tim Sullivan says:

    Not Oda.

  18. Tim Sullivan says:

    Not
    ^ Oda, I mean.

  19. G. Mcrae says:

    This reminds me of the young Turks that ran the show for Stockwell Day…

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