02.10.2015 08:04 AM

All about Eve: the reviews are in

…and the reviews aren’t so good.  Mine, for what it’s worth, is appended at the end. Feel free to add yours in comments.

  • Andrew Coyne, Post: “Justin Trudeau delivers a crawlingly demeaning performance while welcoming Eve Adams…feigned high-mindedness…gut-emptying shame…particularly painful…jaw-dropping self-abasement..For [Conservative secrets], Mr. Trudeau would endure any indignity.”
  • Chantal Hebert, Star: “Liberal embrace of Eve Adams doesn’t add up…a counterintuitive choice…it is unclear whether the timing of Trudeau’s announcement on Monday was meant to praise the addition of Adams to his ranks or to bury it.”
  • Lawrence Martin, Globe: “[The cabinet shuffle] doused the news of Tory lightweight Eve Adams’s floor-crossing to the Liberals. The Liberals should have figured the shuffle was coming and held off on their little coup if they wanted more attention for it.”
  • Robyn Urback, Post: “Justin Trudeau entered the morning presser accompanied by Mississauga-Brampton South MP Eve Adams…There were audible gasps from the gallery — and giggles. No, no you’re not supposed to laugh! Stop it.”
  • Murray Mandryk, StarPhoenix: “It’s this kind of cynical manoeuvre that feeds the public’s appetite to stay as far away from politics – and polling booths – as possible…[it] only serves to cement the negative image most voters already have of the way politics is done in Canada.”
  • Paul Wells, Maclean’s: “Harper is the major-party leader most respondents would trust to run a large company, counsel an investor, or negotiate a contract. Respondents imagined Trudeau would be the best leader to sing a song, babysit a pet or survive in the wilderness. [On the day of Adams’ floor-crossing and the cabinet shuffle], both leaders seemed hard at work deepening their differences.”
  • Les MacPherson, StarPhoenix: “[Trudeau] looked about as comfortable with Adams by his side as Jimmy Kimmel with a large snake delivered into his arms.”
  • Warren Kinsella, Nobody In Particular: “Adams got what she wanted.  Trudeau didn’t. He should have said ‘no’ to the idiots who came up with this stunt. He didn’t.”

47 Comments

  1. Joe says:

    Maybe Trudeau should have consulted with Prentice regarding floor crossings when Trudeau was in Calgary a few days ago. Prentice was badly burned when he accepted Smith and it looks like Trudeau didn’t learn a thing from Prentice’s miscalculation. Here is a hint. When a member of another party is about to get the boot as leader or lose her nomination – DON’T LET THEM JOIN YOUR PARTY!!!!!! There is a reason they are being rejected.

    • Rob W says:

      How exactly has Premier Prentice been burned by the Wildrose floor-crossing? He’s headed to an early election in which he will likely increase his already sizeable 70 seat majority.

      Criticize Trudeau all you want, but your Prentice premise is a fallacy.

      Trudeau welcomes Eve Adams into caucus, gets her to run against a Conservative cabinet minister in TO, and gets to mine Dimitri’s brain to find all the buried bodies, which likely worries Harper. If Ms. Adams wins, bonus. If she loses, no big deal.

      Any of the criticism of Ms. Adams seems like inside baseball to me. The average voter doesn’t particularly care.

      • Warren says:

        You did, enough to write a lengthy rationalization of it.

        • Rob W says:

          Yes I did Warren, but I am not an average voter. I am not at the sabre metrics level that you are, but I am definitely not the average voter.

      • MississaugaPeter says:

        Soudris and his China-tripping requires access to the political elite.

        If he is a turncoat, his China endeavours are over.

      • Joe says:

        I guess you have to live in Alberta to know that Prentice had a wholesale revolt in his caucus with the result a number of progressive members suddenly and unexpectedly exiting the legislature. Prentice soiled the linen during his political honeymoon with a number of regular Albertans when he welcomed the WR outcast and her hangers on. I doubt that the crossing will have much effect during the next election but I am certain that a lot of people are a lot less enthusiastic in their support of Prentice.

        Trudeau doesn’t have the advantage of being in power to cover his latest boo boo and he needs all the votes he can get. As I said before Trudeau is not a serious candidate for PM as is witnessed by his blathering in Winnipeg where he just reversed his own anti war position. I guess he realized the error in his ways from reading Warren’s column. So how big do you think his CF 18s are?

  2. ian turnbull says:

    A couple questions come to mind.

    What happens when she attempts to get nominated in whatever riding Justin promised her? She either loses the nomination and then who knows what she might say about her new party or she wins and its one more knock against Justin’s “open nomination” bs.

    If she was told she was not allowed to run again as a Conservative did she tell Justin that fact? If she did tell him why did he not realize it would be the first and only message out of the Con’s mouth and either tell Eve to take a hike or pre-empt the Cons message. If she didn’t tell him he should be pretty pissed at her and his staff for not doing their due dilligence.

    The quote from Paul Wells above sums up how it comes across to me.

    Imagine if Justin said “Yes Eve approached our party about crossing the floor in the house and running as a Liberal in the next election. We understand Eve’s frustration with the Harper government as many Canadians feel the same way. We welcomed Eve’s support for the Liberal party as we welcome all Canadians. However we informed Eve if she no longer wanted to sit as a Conservative, it was best she sit as an independant and if she would like to run as a Liberal candidate in the next election we have an open nomination process that she is welcome to participate in.”

  3. Peter says:

    Paul Wells for the win. Maybe JT should gather his staff and advisors together and tell them that he expects them to wait until he legalizes it first.

  4. m5slib says:

    Well…

    When I first heard this yesterday morning, my reaction was WTF? Throughout the day, however, I kinda revised a bit. I don’t know if it’s a good move or not, but a few observations.

    -Winter surprises: it’s been a year – give or take a week or two – since Trudeau pulled the Senate move. Here he comes with another shocker. At that time people weren’t sure, but what I saw him doing was taking a Liberal liability and turning it into a Conservative one. Is it the opposite here? Who knows, but what Trudeau has been successful in doing is taking away control from a man who relies on control and discipline to be effective.

    -Risks: I like this Trudeau who takes risks. This is the same guy who fought Brazeau showing up here with this move. What it shows me is that he’s willing to go toe to toe and fight with the full arsenal to try and get a victory. Is that victory guaranteed? Of course not, but this kinda reminds us all that he has a bit of a scrapper in him. That’s always a good quality in politics.

    -Soudas: everyone’s talking about the Soudas effect. I really don’t know about this. Sure he must know a thing or two about CPC operations, but I can’t see Harper being so careless. What this must do regardless is irk Harper. Adams is now up for a nomination to run against Joe Oliver. Even if she does win the nom, it’ll be an uphill battle for her to beat the Finance Minister. If she loses, then no big deal, she lost against the Finance Minister and Trudeau won’t have to deal with her baggage. If she does knock off the Finance Minister, she’ll rightly deserve an award. Price you pay.

    What’s also interesting is the pundits’ reaction. No one bothered to step back and hide their disdain for Adams. Some of the articles were patronizing and damning of her past conduct. Her conduct is fair game, but I can’t help but wonder about the tone and how it would have been if she were a member of the more politically dominant sex.

    • Darlene says:

      Pretty much agree, but for me the concern of where she would run. Eglington-Lawrence was open so no-one was shoved out. She still needs to win the nomination, but if she does, I will be quite ecstatic on the fight between her and Joe Oliver. If she can oust a Conservative that belittles Ontario, I’m all for it.

    • Matt says:

      Whatever “inside information” Soudas has on Harper, I’m sure Harper has equal amounts on Soudas.

      He should tread lightly.

      • GFMD says:

        If they can do equal damage to each other, its far better to score hits against a prime minister than the spouse of a candidate who would have done his evil deeds at the behest of that prime minister.

  5. peter friesen says:

    Could this be Harper’s machiavellian masterstroke? Is Adams (Soudas) a plant?

    • Jon Powers says:

      Yes, this is obviously the work of Harper. I’ve worked it all out. Her name is EVE ADAMS. Harper, as we all know, is a hardcore fundamentalist Christian. Adam and Eve are biblical characters! She is one of his puppets! At this moment, Harper is sitting in his mountain layer, stroking his cat, murmering “excellent….”

    • smelter rat says:

      You mean…..he could be a DOUBLE NAUGHT SPY?

  6. OttawaDave says:

    The Liberal Party of Canada wants You!

    Lots of entry level positions left to choose from! (just not the PM position, hah hah)

    Just like a real political party, no awkward ethics discussion to endure. And hey, family values are important to us. Whatever family you’re with today. No problem.

    Big hair and Botox a plus! just don’t outdo JT’s hair, okay? Party no-no.

    But wait, there’s more!

    Next 10 sign-ups will get a free copy, autographed by The Man himself, of the Liberal Party Policies. Three pages of insight, never before released to the public. See how we’re going to run the country, or something. Whatever.

    your call is important to us.

    Operators standing by

  7. Paris Nicolaides says:

    The truth is probably deeper than that. Eve is the wrapping paper & bow, it’s Dimitri Soudas that is the prize. Let’s just see how his “debriefing” goes.

  8. Kelly says:

    The news cycle is about 12 minutes now. This was worth about 5 minutes of news. To the casual observer, who doesn’t know anything about Eve Adams and Dimitri Soudas, they heard that a Conservative quite Harper, they heard her talking points: Harper — bully; Income splitting — benefits only the rich, nothing for widows or single moms, Flaherty was against it, etc. And now…it’s over. Hardly anyone (statistically speaking) read the above quoted opinion pieces. In a few days everyone will forget about her. If she runs against Oliver she will be used as a foil against income splitting. If she loses against Oliver, she will be out of the picture and no longer pose a potential problem for Trudeau. The leftover news reports today all bring out the Liberal talking points and this has dominated the news the same day as a major cabinet shuffle. On balance I think it’s positive, for the short amount of time this will have any news value.

    As Mr. Kinsella has stated many times, it’s all about the campaign (and results in BC, New Brunswick, Ontario and Alberta have borne this out.)

    • Mark says:

      I agree with Kelly that, for the Average Joe, the only message that broke through yesterday was that someone left the Conservatives for the Liberals, because Harper bad, Trudeau good.

      That’s great for the Liberals, but that story is ephemeral and will be quickly forgotten by the end of the week if not sooner (unless there are some more defections/resignations that contribute to a rats-off-a-sinking-ship narrative). So, short-term gain but longer-term risks for the Liberals, since Adams’ behavior and ethics are unlikely to change with the change in party membership.

      For that reason I really, really, hope for Trudeau’s sake that this deal involved some seriously compromising information about the Conservatives from Soudas (even if indirectly via Adams). If his “insider” knowledge only has to do with Conservative strategy, I think this was a mistake, because I don’t think Soudas understands strategy nearly as well as he’d like to think, and by this point his info will be somewhat dated anyway. But if he does have information regarding any lingering scandals (like Duffy) or perhaps new stuff, then it might in fact be worth the (almost assured) trouble that Adams will be for the Libs.

      I thought Trudeau looked a bit too smug at the presser with Eve, like he was relishing the “gotcha” moment against Harper just a bit too much. The body language was that of a school-yard “ha-ha!”, rather than a more serious Prime Ministerial tone.

  9. WDM says:

    If there’s any practical impact it will be an internal one for the Liberals. I understand why Liberal HQ put the brakes on a handful of nominations, but boy if you raised money or volunteered for someone who didn’t get the green light to run, you’re probably right to be a bit miffed looking at them welcoming in someone who wasn’t going to be allowed to run as a Conservative for misbehaving in a nomination race.

  10. Rick says:

    Put this in the post below, but might be more appropriate here!

    I sort of see 2 types of responses in general:

    1) If you hate Harper, then Eve is doing this out of principle – regardless of the fact that she was trying to get a Tory seat as late as Jan 29th.
    2) If you like Harper, then Eve is an opportunistic headache and Trudeau made a big mistake.

    Truth is probably somewhere in the middle. She may not even win a nomination battle, but I’m sure Justin’s mgmt team will try to get her a spot to run – I don’t think Dmitri gives up any secrets until she has a confirmed place to run.

    – See more at: http://warrenkinsella.com/2015/02/a-reader-writes/#comments

  11. Domenico says:

    1.) I am not sure anyone outside of small town cranks want to share opinions on many things with Les Macpherson:

    http://www2.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=7cf392cd-99ad-41be-91ad-bf3baa9a46a9

    2.) Harper has a double standard for his female and male MP’s when it comes to acting badly.

    3.) As mentioned above, Trudeau takes risks.

    4.) as per point 3, she runs against Joe Oliver. No downside for the Liberals here. Dimitri Soudas runs her campaign. Should be a good race.

    5.)

    • Kevin T. says:

      Politics in this era is not about substance anymore, if anything, substance is a weakness; if she beats the Con finance Minister, which is not outside the realm of possibility, then the gamble will have worked. If she works for it and Soudas successfully uses his dark side skills against the Cons in the upcoming election, it will have been worth it, even if the nicest reaction right now is a raised eyebrow and a “really?”.
      Narratively, for the common folk outside of Ottawa bubble, this fits the “rats are deserting” story about Harper, especially after Baird exit.

  12. Stephanie Powers says:

    Did I miss something in the story? Is she being promised the Liberal nomination in Oakville-Burlington or her old riding in Mississauga? If you’re in either of those two Liberal riding associations why would you be happy to have this hot mess dumped on you while long-time Liberal loyalists are bypassed for the nomination(s)? This is an absurd move from JT.

    I’m assuming she passes the ideological litmus tests; pro-abortion, pro-carbon tax, anti-tar sands, opposed to military action against ISIS, anti-income splitting tax cuts… if so, what took her so long to jump ship?

  13. Mark says:

    Another reason not to vote for Trudeau this time around. Adams is a self-indulgent, narcissistic princess who, if she runs against Joe Oliver, will deservedly be trounced. Never thought I would say “go, Joe, go”.

  14. Tiger says:

    So apparently Eglinton-Lawrence is going to be fun to watch. Starting with the Liberal nomination meeting.

    • Matt says:

      What nomination meeting.

      When Justin claimed she’ll have to earn a nomination, he means she will be appointed the Liberal candidate.

  15. Greg Vezina says:

    With all these experts condemning this move, it will likely turnout to be a good one. After all, almost every one of these so-called journalists work for News organizations that endorsed Harper in the last election, except the Toronto Star, that endorsed the NDP. Not a Liberal friendly comment in the bunch, wonder why? I don’t. Keep in mind that there is now clear proof everywhere in Western democracies exactly who our media experts and political insiders really represent, and it is not the public at large or any for of democracy the vast majority of ordinary people believe in. The line between print and broadcast media no longer exists, they both parrot the same propaganda.

    Our ‘impartial’ broadcasters have become mouthpieces of the elite. If you think the news is balanced, think again. Journalists who should challenge power are doing its dirty work.

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/20/broadcasters-mouthpieces-of-elite-balanced-news-journalists

    • Jackal says:

      Aww the poor widdle LPC. The media and this country’s elites are so mean to them! Truly the Liberals are the party of scrappy outsiders who are unfairly shut out of the halls of power. Media coverage of Trudeau has been so overwhelmingly negative.

  16. ottawacon says:

    I hear Patrick Brazeau is looking to deal.

  17. davie says:

    “Liberal Headquarters! Who’s calling?”
    “Hi, this is Rob Anders. Is Justin there?”

    • davie says:

      Yeah, yeah, I know, lame joke.

      I think we do have a number of people who spend their lives in politics as a vocation because they like the action, and they have a cause or a group that they champion. Libby Davies, Ralph Goodale, John Baird, …and there are lots of other examples at all levels of government…are people who have done little else in their adult lives other than work in politics. At the news conference the Lib leader mentioned years of service at municipal council for this lady.
      She might be a person who has always been in politics, does like the action of being in politics, and does what she can to stay there.
      Paying attention to her own looks is no different than any other politician in the House. My MP from ruggedly individualistic mountain man northern BC used to wear a leather rifle patch on his jacket shoulder in the house. (He was a grain farmer.) I catch the House on tv, and I, as well as most of you, could point out fashion statements constantly made by all members of the House.
      She strikes me as a smart, steely, hard working person, and she might turn out okay for the Libs.

  18. Matt says:

    And the story gets jucier:

    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/eve-adamss-defection-followed-tense-221434298.html

    Conservative sources said Adams assured Harper she wanted to get past her previous nomination issues and would bring new members to the party if he let her run.

    According to sources, she also assured the prime minister that she and her fiancé, Dimitri Soudas, were finished.

    The sources said Harper leaned toward Adams and told her he knew Soudas was sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for her. He then informed her that the party’s national council deals with nominations and, with that, the meeting was concluded.

  19. james curran says:

    Both of those ridings already have Liberal candidates nominated.

  20. Bill M . says:

    Reviews are inside baseball stuff.

    Average voters have seen two conservatives leave Harper within a week.

    • Warren says:

      That’s funny. You sound like the Cons did, whenever a scandal broke – nothing to see here, real folks don’t care, inside baseball, etc. You’ve become what you profess to oppose. Funny.

      • doconnor says:

        Of course, in most cases they where right.

      • Bill M . says:

        Most folks won’t care…not about Eve Adams or about a unilingual Foreign Affairs Minister.

        And it’s partly due to something you posted earlier today where young people don’t get out and vote.

        Young voters don’t know or care about Eve Adams or Nicholson.

        Anyhow, funny or not, I have my two cents and you got yours.

  21. Felipe Morales says:

    I am wondering if the geniuses who advised Justin on this file were the same geniuses who thought the Belinda Stronach crossoever back in 2005?

    Sure they got their move on CNN as the Political Move of the Week back then, but it sealed the fate of the Government in the Fall vote. So instead of forcing the Conservatives to vote with the NDP (or vice-versa) on issues they could never agree on, they got them united to get a non-confidence vote they did agree on!

    This time, they stole a little of the cabinet shuffle thunder

    Eve Adams brings nothing to the table, just like Stronach. Long time militants will be heartbroken and discouraged from running and the Tories have a file on her and Tsoudas thicker than a Omnibus Budget Bill!

  22. kre8tv says:

    Reaction of Canada beyond the Queensway to this high school drama: *yawn.*

  23. ottlib says:

    Mr. Coyne is a Conservative and he always has been. I cannot recall anytime where he has had much good to say about the Liberals in general and Mr. Trudeau in particular. The only time he ever takes shots at the Conservative government is when they stray from his narrow small ‘c’ conservative world view.

    Ms. Hebert is my least favourite columnist. I am always amazed how she can write 600 words and say little of substance. I read her column today, since this post pointed me to it and that is three minutes I will never get back.

    More political people are talking about the floor-crossing than the Cabinet Shuffle so Mr. Martin is not entirely correct.

    Robyn Urback works a newspaper that helped found the CCRAP. It is second only to the Sun group of newspapers in wearing its Conservative bias on its sleeve. Mr. Trudeau can announce the cure for cancer and bring peace to the Middle East and if the Post acknowledged said achievements at all it would only be in context of the question “What took you so frigging long?”

    Mr. Wells is like Mr. Coyne in the sense that he rarely has anything good to say about the Liberals or Mr. Trudeau. Why should today be any different?

    I do not agree with Mr. Kinsella. Mr. Trudeau got his face on TV with a former member of the Conservative caucus who hit all of the Liberal Party talking points about Mr. Harper. That is what I saw on the evening news broadcasts last night so I am assuming that is what all Canadians who tuned in saw as well.

    Mr. Mandryk probably represents the voice of the hinterland but I believe he is overstating the impact of this event on peoples’ opinion. Very few people not working within the neighbourhoods bordered by Wellington, Elgin, Laurier and Bronson would really care about this event.

  24. Matt says:

    Heard from someone with knowledge of the situation today. This person has testified in front of government committees, most recently about Helena Guergis and she even named him in a lawsuit she filed against Harper and other Conservatives. Warren may know him, initials D. S.

    Anyway, he told me this whole thing has nothing to so with Eve Adams. The Liberals wanted Dimitri Soudas to help them in Quebec, and want his information about specific MP’s to use at the riding level across the country.

    Giving, yes GIVING Eve Adams a riding to run in was Soudas’ price to help the Liberals. He has apparently already become very friendly with a couple anti Harper newspapers in Quebec.

    • Ronald O'Dowd says:

      Matt,

      This matter if accurately portrayed, doesn’t say much that is flattering or complimentary about Justin’s Quebec organizers. For them to require outside help speaks volumes about their own abilities.

      If I learned one hard lesson when I was still a CPC member, it is that it never pays to cross Harper. Anyone who does so is a very brave individual.

  25. lance says:

    Lot’s of, “media spin, regular voters don’t care” comments here.

    I’m inclined to think that if you’re relying on the lack of attention by “regular voters”, you’ve probably made a mistake.

  26. Niall says:

    The key point here is how badly J-Tru comes out looking here: from his fatuously amiable grin/smirk (reminding everyone of how close he is to a five year old waiting at the school lunch table for his milk & cookies), to the implied notion that he is the guy that makes the decisions at the LPC.

    cf WK: “Adams got what she wanted. Trudeau didn’t. He should have said ‘no’ to the idiots who came up with this stunt. He didn’t.”

    Of course he didn’t: he can’t, because he has neither the nous or the agency to make the Big Calls.
    It just keeps getting worse for the Dauphin (hence the revealing Press Club laughter at the “unveiling”). Priceless.

    Yours truly,

    Niall from Winnipeg

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