Saturday, February 20, 2010

Prime Minister arm twisted into Prorogation?

I have been reading reports today that a number of Tory Government insiders (including MPs) have been complaining about the PMO's Chief of Staff, saying that the Prime Minister had to be talked into pausing parliament. While Stephen Harper has never struck me as a politician with a rubber arm, I do trust John Ivison's "anonymous" sources. The complaint being that the man running operations for the PMO is too focused on individual battles that he can't see the entire war.

I am not privy to the internal machinations of the PMO, but I would agree that there were some tactical errors in the Richard Colvin Affair. They should have focused on Colvin statements like "I never saw a prisoner in a cell" instead of attacking him personally. On prorogation, I don't see it as a catastrophic error. I would say that the orchestrated Facebook campaign did have a minor impact; I do not consider it to be a permanent demographic shift. I'm certain that the job of Prime Minister's Chief of Staff is a difficult position that requires and abrasive personality. One needs sharp elbows to survive in that jungle.

I really had no idea who Guy Giorno was until today.  He did this same job in the 2nd term of the Mike Harris administration in Ontario, which cannot be considered a success by any metric.

1 comment:

  1. I only start reading three quarters of the way through a Don Martin or John Ivison story because that's usually when the straight facts of a story come out, while the rest and the final paragraph are dumping on the Conservatives.

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