Winnipeg Free Press

It’s been about a week and yet I’m already impressed with the signs coming out of the PMO press office.

In six months I never laid eyes on Sandra Buckler. Not once.
In 7 days I’ve already met Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s new director of communications, Kory Teneycke, and been sent an e-mail with all of his contacts.And this morning the PMO called and said with a view to improving communication with the press gallery they are updating their contact lists.

I’ll admit I have low expectations for communications from this governement, something which started when I first got here and asked on the hill to speak to a cabinet minister the page taking in the note actually laughed at me.

But I’m starting to think maybe Mr. Teneycke is serious about thawing out this PMO/press gallery ice age. And while I think that is a win-win situation for them and for us, I also think it’s a win-win situation for Canadians. Voters deserve to hear from their governments and governments have a responsibility to speak with voters and not just through the overtly partisan mailers.

It’s over.

The premiers are gone. The flags are being taken down. The speakers and communications equipment is being packed up. And reporters like yours truly are racing to finish her work so she can hit the road for home.

Generally the mood was affable. Quebec City got to show itself off to the premiers for three days. It had its cheesier moments - the repeated appearances of the dude dressed like Samuel de Champlain, the parade of premiers to their Thursday night banquet being serenaded by hundreds of choristers prompting one provincial staffer to quip she felt like she was in a musical.

Next year in Regina. Which with all apologies to the land of living skies just doesn’t quite have the same distinction as going to a 400-year old city with cobblestone streets and horse drawn buggies. Apparently Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is also a little bit worried about topping Quebec.

He noted his 14-year-old daughter had always wanted to move to Europe when she grew up but after spending a few days in Quebec City apparently informed him she no longer thinks she has to move quite that far away.

“I don’t know how we’re going to top (this conference),” Wall said. “We’re going to have to bring Johnny Cash back from the dead or something.”

This definitely falls into the category of kind of bizarre.
About four feet in front of where I am sitting in the media work room at the Chateau Frontenac where the annual premier’s meeting is taking place, they are setting up the premier’s table for the final press conference.

On one side of the table is a hotel employee with a steamer ironing out the table skirt to ensure it is perfectly unwrinkled for the news conference which will begin shortly. We all know if it was wrinkled I just couldn’t pay attention to whatever it is the premiers are saying because I’d be so distracted by the fact the table skirt isn’t perfect.

But on the other side of the same table are two cops with a sniffer dog, checking out every nook and cranny of the table to ensure there weren’t any incendiary devices snuck in while the room was packed with reporters and staffers and hotel staff and guarded at the entrances by somewhat stern looking men in suits.
I am happy to report the table skirt is now beautiful and the cops and the sniffer dogs are moving off so apparently the table itself has also been cleared of any nefarious characters who may have been lurking underneath just waiting to wrinkle up that table skirt.

I spent the start of my trip to Quebec yesterday cursing the unorganized premier’s conference Gods because I showed up at one hotel only to find out that the first event was happening in an entirely different location.

Nothing like driving for five hours to emerge from a car with stiff legs and 3 coffees desperately needing an escape route from your person to discover you are in the wrong place and if you don’t somehow manage to make a 10-minute walk to the correct location in under five minutes you might miss the whole show.
But I digress.

Today the conference Gods are apparently taking pity on the press gallery. Although the conference literature clearly states there will be no meals included for the media and I spent the morning wondering what lovely outdoor cafe I may partake in for lunch, the staff at the Chateau Frontenac have been active all morning bringing out breakfast, coffee, cookies, and now a lunch spread that includes brie and ham on baguette and sugar pie.

I’m starting to think maybe this is the influence of press secretaries who would rather not open their “guy” up to questions from a hungry press corps.

Don’t get me wrong. Reporters can’t be entirely bought off with chocolate cake and egg salad. But reporters on a sugar pie high are at the very least going to be more friendly when they ask the premiers what the heck they’ve been holed up talking about for the last three hours.

Quebec City is absolutely teeming with tourists. I have no idea if there are more or less people around than a usual mid-July week but the hotels are absolutely booked solid, the restaurants are packed and the streets are clogged.

Although tourists always seem to have forgotten to pack their fashion sense (please would someone tell men you DON’T need to pull your socks up when you are wearing shorts! It is almost as bad as socks and sandals!) it’s nice to be in a vibrant spot where everyone seems to be in a good mood.

Even the premiers are trying for some joviality. A little birdie tells me during a boat cruise of the St. Lawrence yesterday afternoon, a man dressed like Samuel de Champlain was hamming it up for the old boys club and some of them were actually clamouring over each other to get a better position near him for the group photo.

Not quite the eye-rolling, man that’s cheesy reaction I had when the same actor(?) showed up in full costume at a reception at the art museum last night but maybe you have to be a premier to fully appreciate the effort.

But maybe also they get excited about stuff like that because they know he isn’t going to ask them tough questions like the ones posed to Quebec Premier Jean Charest yesterday afternoon.

Questions like why Quebec seems to want to claim to be celebrating the beginning of a permanent French presence in Canada this year when the Acadians celebrated the same thing out in the Maritimes four years ago.

But he gets a good mark for back pedaling against that one.

“We’re not trying to compete on a historical basis,” Charest said.

Then he shut the reporter down by implying the media are always trying to see the negative in something and let’s just celebrate and remember, even Sir Paul McCartney is going to be here giving a free concert this weekend. And the Acadians didn’t have a former Beatle at their party did they?

“If Paul McCartney can have a good time here so can you,” Charest said.

This morning Elections Canada Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand testified before the House of Commons Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics Committee about the In and Out Scheme.

Although apparently we aren’t supposed to call it that anymore because the problem had nothing to do with the Tories transferring money back and forth between candidates and the central campaign but in the fact that the advertising expenses claimed by the candidates were not actually incurred by the candidates.

Unfortunately the Liberals have a lock on Ad Scam as a title, so if any of you have any ideas on what we can call this, uh, situation, please feel free to let me know.

But I digress.

The Tories were clearly cranky at having to take time out of their summer to sit in the hearing. Tory MP David Tilson threw a minor hissy fit during one pause in Mayrand’s testimony because he couldn’t figure out how much longer Mayrand’s presentation was going to last.

When chair Paul Szabo told Tilson it was in the outline given out earlier, Tilson threw up his hands in disgust.

“I‘ve got papers coming out my ears here Mr. Chair. I don’t need more paper.”

Mr. Cranky Pants indeed.

But my favourite quote so far in the hearings goes to Bloc Quebecois MP Carole Lavallee, who clearly wasn’t impressed that Mayrand was not drawing any conclusions about what the Tories had done and wouldn’t convict them right then and there of being no goodnicks.

“It seems to me you are saying ‘it’s an animal, it’s got black fur, it says Meow, but it’s not a cat.”

For the record the Tories have always denied doing anything wrong and are fighting the allegations in court. Elections Canada is still investigating and hasn’t laid any charges in the matter.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper apparently has a new director of communications.

Sandra Buckler, the woman the press gallery seems to despise on masse, who was responsible in part for the chill between the PMO and the press gallery, announced she was leaving last week.

Speculation has been running rampant on parliament hill (it has been about the only active thing in this place this week) as to who her replacement will be.

Late this afternoon we’re told Kory Tenycke is stepping up to the plate. He of Conservative Research Group fame.

Now the speculation is turning to what the next showdown between the PMO and the PG will be. I’m not betting a soon-to-be-worthless Canadian penny on a warm front coming in. . .

Every seat in Alberta is held by the Conservatives and all but one of them won their seat with more than 50 per cent of the vote.

But it’s not stopping the leaders of Canada’s opposition parties from schlepping out to Calgary for the opening of the Stampede.

The Prime Minister stopped there as expected Friday (thankfully sans the vest he made famous a few years ago in a photo that never needs to see the light of day again but you can find here if you are so inclined) but he was joined by Stephane Dion, Jack Layton and Elizabeth May. All of them seemed to want to sell their climate change plans. In oil country.
I’m wondering if I missed the invite to the political gathering of lost causes?

A French language rights group from Quebec is steamed about a poster the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. used to promote a Canada Day party at the embassy.

The party was supposed to focus on Quebec City’s 400^th anniversary and the poster had a picture of Samuel de Champlain holding a plate of poutine.

That is offensive the group says because it’s junk food. According to the group using poutine is an attack on Quebec culture and would be akin to a poster promoting the rest of Canada using a hot dog. Apparently the offence is so egregious to Imperatif Francais, its spokesman, Jean-Paul Perreault, wants Prime Minister Stephen Harper to apologize and Ambassador Michael Wilson to resign.

Now aside from the fact that a hot dog is about as AMERICAN as apple pie so using it to promote the rest of Canada is just ridiculous, can we say OVER REACTION.

I mean my goodness. Poutine may be a junk food but it’s a delicacy associated exclusively with Quebec and something almost every Canadian would immediately recognize as coming from Quebec. And I know if I was living in Washington, where I know from experience poutine isn’t exactly on any menus, I’d hightail it to the embassy if there was a promise of poutine on the menu.

I am pretty sure if the Washington Embassy was hosting a party in Manitoba’s honour and promoted it with a poster of Louis Riel enjoying a Slurpee or some Old Dutch Salt and Vinegar chips, I would laugh.

Not to mention, even if you are upset about the use of poutine rather than say maple syrup, an apology from the Prime Minister and the resignation of the ambassador is a little much. As soon as it got the complaint, the embassy pulled the poster and redrew the image sans poutine.

That should have been the end of it.

I could list several potential images which would have been offensive to Quebeckers but I’m not really in the habit of promoting stereotypes so I won’t. Poutine however isn’t a stereotype. It’s delicious. Imperatif Francais should apologize to the rest of Canada for wasting government time with frivolous complaints.

I was actually quite moved by the military parade and pomp this morning when Walter Natynczyk was sworn in as the Chief of the Defence Staff.

It was one of those moments in my career when I was reminded why I wanted to be a journalist in the first place - because you often get to witness the day’s big events in person. And watching the change of command for our military certainly is one of the privileges I will remember getting to cover.

I remember standing there thinking that it’s too bad all Canadians couldn’t be there to witness the ceremony.

It is of course my job to bring the ceremony to the people who can’t be there, to tell them the story so they know what happened as best as possible. The paper will carry a full story in Thursday’s edition. But here are some of the highlights and more memorable moments and quotations.

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General Rick Hillier, retiring after 35 years, went out with the same humour and character he showed throughout his 3.5 year reign as the military’s top dog.

His speech opening:

“I’ve resolved to cut my 52 minute speech down. I know General Walt Natynczyk likes to speak and likes to speak a lot. So you may have to endure him for a little bit today.”

In his thanks to his wife, Joyce, he called her the romantic in the family pointing out that the morning he was set to announce his retirement from the military, he left the house and realized he had forgotten something so he called her and asked her if she knew what day it was.

Her response:

“The first day of the rest of our lives.”

His response:

“Well yes. But it’s also garbage day.”

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Natynczyk has spent much of the time since he was announced as the new Chief of the Defence Staff, fielding questions about what will make him different from Hillier. Today he told the crowd the answer is easy - Hillier is from Newfoundland, and cheers for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Natynczyk said.

“I am from Manitoba and I support the Ottawa Senators and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.”

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Entry to the ceremony was restricted to invited guests, soldiers, and the media. But it didn’t stop a handful of everyday people from turning out to witness the change over. About a dozen people, some sporting folding lawn chairs, hung out at the fence outside the Canada Reception Centre at Uplands military base near the Ottawa airport. There was even a group of young children, who screamed in delight when the Snowbirds flew overhead, and were even seen marching in time to the music of the military band. No military recruiter was spotted signing the youngsters up.

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By the numbers:

1: Hours ceremony was supposed to last.

2: Hours ceremony actually lasted.

9: Number of soldiers who succumbed to the heat, standing at attention on a bare tarmac, in full dress uniform, under a blazing sun with no shade and no relief.

4: Number of SkyHawks – the Canadian army’s parachute team – who were dropped from a C-H146 helicopter and parachuted down towards the ceremony in their trademark Canadian flag parachutes, emitting red smoke and toting both a Canadian flag and a Canadian Forces Ensign, the latter of which is the distinguishing flag of the Chief of the Defence Staff.

9: Snowbirds who did a fly pass during the ceremony.

4: branches of the military represented including the army, airforce, navy and special forces.

15: Number of families present of soldiers who have been killed in Afghanistan.

1: number of tanks which carried Gen. Rick Hillier into retirement.

Eight gazillion: number of times the tune of “Maple Leaf Forever” has run through my head since it was played several times at the ceremony this morning.

3: Number of words to the lyrics of Maple Leaf Forever I actually know.