Entries from June 2006 ↓

Saturday, Canada Day. I will start it at the cenotaph with the annual, and dwindling, parade of veterans. Then it’s off to the grandstand in the fairgrounds for the opening ceremonies of the day-long party that stretches from the noble and patriotic to the tackiest depths of commercialism. There will be a concert with both kinds of singers, country and western, pony rides for the kids, booths selling T-shirts with tasteless sayings on them, and raffle and draw tickets being flogged by every service club in town.

This is still small-town Canada, despite the endless acres of new houses spreading relentlessly on its borders. Unlike in the cities, where people are just pissed that the liquor store is closed, Canada Day in a place like this actually means something. You can see it in the faces of parents, watching their kids getting red maple leaves stenciled on their foreheads.

So, I’ll be on the stage tomorrow for the brief official deal, which is better than last year, when I stood in the crowd watching the Liberal MP. It’s all a good reminder that I am only a visitor in this job, and that there will be many, many more MPs who come after me.

As I wrote here last night, this time as an MP I am determined not to spend one minute being complacent, taking this for granted, believing the job is owed to me or that I have returned to my rightful occupation. I fought for these days, weeks and months and wake up every morning knowing they will come to an end. This is the blessing and the curse of age – a heightened sense of time and purpose. When I was an MP at 39 I thought the position defined me, that I owned it, and would have it forever. As an MP at 57, such foolish and naïve thoughts have long since disappeared.

This time I do not awaken and wait to see what happens. This time I make it happen. I savour it. I relish it.

Canada’s 139 tomorrow, and that is the only day ever it will be marked. I’ll be proud to stand on that worn stage, sucking it in, loving my country, and my time.

Here’s the latest salvo in the people-who-live-in-glass-houses wars. The following letter was sent today to the Canada Revenue Agency from the Conservative Party of Canada, and I received a copy of it tonight.

Canada Revenue Agency
Enforcement and Investigation Section
7th Floor
555 MacKenzie Avenue
Ottawa, ON K1A 0L5

Re: Improper Issuance of Political Contribution Tax Receipts

We wish to bring to your attention that the Liberal Party of Canada has publicly acknowledged that it has apparently been issuing political contribution tax receipts for 100% of the price of admission to Liberal Party functions where the ticket buyer receives significant personal benefits – for meals, drink, entertainment and the like. This information was conveyed yesterday to the media by the Executive Director of the Liberal Party of Canada, Steve MacKinnon.

As you are well aware, receipts for political contributions can confer significant tax benefits for the donor. It would therefore appear that the Liberal Party of Canada has been using Canadian taxpayers to subsidize its supporters to attend Liberal Party events.

We would therefore ask you to investigate the legitimacy of tax receipting practices by the Liberal Party of Canada.

Yours truly,
Mike Donison
Executive Director, Conservative Party of Canada

From the columns of Wednesday’s Toronto Star
(so it must be true):

OTTAWA—The federal Liberals are looking at ways to have their new leader in place sooner than December if Prime Minister Stephen Harper calls a surprise fall election.

“We don’t trust Harper,” Eizenga said. “He’s displayed a certain craftiness. He’s got bad policies, but his political craftiness is something we have to be wary about.”

I did some pre-Canada Day campaigning today, going up and down Main Street with a bag full of Canadians flags, giving them out to merchants for their windows and, yeah, shaking hands. Amazing how easy it is to skip back into full campaign mode – especially with an intense federal election just five months in the rear view mirror.

So, what of this talk about an election before the end of the year? The news story above would have you believe it is a distinct possibility. But is this just Liberal paranoia? Would Stephen Harper actually would be such a big meanie that he’d call a vote while the Grits were still headless?

Hmmm. Seems bizarre, and I have not heard a whisper of this on the Hill. But at the same time, today the new rules for choosing Conservative election candidates landed with a deadly thud in my email inbox. This is the report of changes agreed upon by the party’s National Convention ten days ago, which makes a boy wonder: Why the hell are they worried about how to nominate candidates for the next election, just 120 days after the last one?

And why is it I am expecting to hear a lot more about this tomorrow morning, during a scheduled phone conference with a senior party operative?

Could this election story have legs?

On one hand, the Harper Conservatives are in honeymoon mode with voters, according to the latest polls. That skinny minority could be turned into a corpulent majority if they are right. And there’s truth to the adage that every government just gets more unpopular and baggage-laden as time wears on, especially when it might have a same-sex marriage vote looming on the horizon…

So, there could be political capital behind the idea of going back to the people for the mandate they withheld from the untested Tories in January. Especially now – with the Liberals in discouraged disarray, with the Bloc becoming increasingly irrelevant in newly-federal Quebec, and the NDP relegated to the Stanley Park-Queen Street West bicycle crowd now that Big Labour has moved on.

But, an election less than a year after the last one might look cynical and manipulative. After all, most Canadians seem quite happy with the job Conservatives are doing, and Parliament apparently is working just fine. The economy is good and money is pouring into Ottawa in large buckets. The Tories have delivered on middle class tax relief, cash for kids, tough treatment of criminals, cleaning up government and done more in the last century of days than the Lib ministers did in their whole time riding around in government limos. So, who needs a damn election?

Good question. But here’s another good one: Why won’t the speculation go away? Why are Top Tories meeting in distant places to map out nominations? Why are riding associations being told to worry about how much money is in their bank accounts? As I said, could the election story have legs?

We shall see, I guess. But personally, I have just started to do my work as an MP. I have yet to massively influence Jim Flaherty on the need for income-splitting, a flat tax, a family tax return and an after-tax retirement savings plan. I am just planning a national conference in Ottawa on pension-splitting for retired couples – a move millions could benefit from. My digital democracy initiative – blog, video content, news service, online voting, MPtv – is a project yet in its first flower. And, of course, I have only begun to be the best member of Parliament I possibly can be in my riding, with Town Hall meetings, a crack constituent help centre, extensive community outreach program, door knocking and every method communication I can think of.

Can I drop all of that and pound on a few thousand more doors? You bet. Me, I’m just a soldier. But I’d rather be an MP, because that’s what I fought the last war to achieve.

Like Stephen Harper, my margin of victory was not what I wanted it to be, and the Liberal blood flowed thicker in these parts than I thought it would. But I won the right to represent Halton, to work with Halton, to promote the needs and wants of Halton, indeed to be Halton in Parliament and, in so being, to serve my country.

I guess we can keep having votes until we get it right. Or we can get on with the job.