Bearded wonder and NAFTA-gate blabbermouth Ian Brodie is stepping down from his post as Stephen Harper's chief asslicker. He's apparently giving up his position because of a sudden desire to teach at UWO. Uh huh.
But the decision comes just ahead of the release of an investigative report into "NAFTA-gate," the leak of sensitive diplomatic information that made headlines on both sides of the border, embarrassed Harper and his government and possibly undercut Canada's dealings with the future president.
The Star has learned that Brodie will be replaced by former Mike Harris staffer Guy Giorno. I wonder who leaked that bit of information to them?
8 comments:
Why is it that these sleazy guys look sleazy. Brodie looks the part of a sleaze.
How about Doug Finley - he's another sleazy, sloppy looking guy - would you buy a used car from either of these guys?
Brodie's replacement:
Giorno, Guy - To be Conservative campaign "script-writer"
Former Mike Harris heavyweight helped organize anti-Kyoto front group supported by John Baird in 2002.
OTTAWA, November 19, 2007: Last week the Ottawa weekly newspaper Hill Times reported that Guy Giorno, one of the architects and top commanders of Ontario's radically right-wing "Common Sense Revolution" government under Mike Harris is writing the campaign script for Stephen Harper's next election campaign.
Giorno, a corporate lawyer and lobbyist, was one of the hard-liners in the Harris years, along with with prominent Conservatives like Tom Long, Leslie Noble and Deb Hutton. Giorno's and Hutton's names came up prominently in the inquiry into the death of Dudley George in Ipperwash, Ontario in 1995 in connection with a native protest that was brutally suppressed by politically-driven police action.
Giorno works with the law firm Fasken Martineu, which says he is "widely recognized as Canada's leading expert on lobbying legislation and lobbyist registration law" on its website.
In 2002, Toronto's NOW Magazine reported on a meeting in that city by a what proved to be a short-lived industry front group called the Canadian Coalition for Responsible Environmental Solutions (CCRES). This organization was formed to oppose the Kyoto agreement on climate change. Giorno worked with lobbying firm National Public Relations, which set up the organization. The CCRES folded less than a year later.
"There were speeches by coalition organizers, and a particularly passionate Ontario energy minister, John Baird, made his anti-Kyoto rallying cry," reported Greenpeace campaigner John Matlow. "Needless to say, the audience was very receptive." Baird went on to get elected federally and to become Stephen Harper's environment minister.
Matlow reported that two days later, Giorno exposed his hand "by sending every MPP at Queen's Park an e-mail suggesting what they might say in op-ed news pieces or letters to their constituents about Kyoto. Then Liberal and NDP members, for whom the missive was obviously not intended, were sent a second e-mail that read, 'Unfortunately, materials from the Canadian Coalition for Responsible Environmental Solutions were sent to your office in error in a previous e-mail. I do apologize for any inconvenience.'"
....it's going from bad to worse...
Ruralsandi - Heh. Yeah, there are a bunch of sleazy looking people in the Harper cabinet. And I wouldn't buy a car from any of them! Although, interestingly, a friend of mine once bought a car from Wajid Khan's dealership. [shudder]
And the switch to Guy Giorno is at best a sideways move. All of these former Mike Harris cronies are the same - i.e. useless. Just look at Jim Flaherty and Tony Clement.
Hmmmm.....curiouser and curiouser:
Civitas Society
Civitas Society is a low-key but influential Conservative group in Canada with close ties to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
In its last annual report filed with the government, Mr. Harper's chief of staff, Ian Brodie, is listed as a director and Mr. Brodie attended the group's annual conference in May 2006 held at the luxurious Brookstreet Hotel in the Kanata high-tech research park of the Canadian capital, Ottawa. [2]
The Civitas Soceity has been described as "a society for conservative and libertarian academics, think-tankers, lobbyists and journalists."
Members include Brian Lee Crowley, president of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, a conservative, free-market think tank in eastern Canada, and a member of the advisory Board of the Frontier Institute for Public Policy in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Montreal Economic Institute president Michel Kelly-Gagnon is also a member of Civitas.
The group’s current president is Lorne Gunter, a columnist with the right-wing national paper, National Post, launched by media mogul Conrad Black and now owned by the Asper family, which also owns the CanWest Global media empire in Canada.
Its annual meeting held in Ottawa in early May 2006, was intended to be "private". But journalist Elizabeth Thompson of the Montreal Gazette, covered the meeting from the lobby of the hotel, and reported that one of the guest speakers was American pollster and former Newt Gingrich associate, Frank Luntz, whose speech "Massaging the Coservative Message for Voters" offered Civitas members tips on how to obtain a majority for Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party in the next federal elections in Canada. [4].
Thompson reported, "Introducing Mr. Luntz yesterday, former Reform party leader Preston Manning praised the work Mr. Luntz had done for him several years ago. During his speech, Mr. Luntz mentioned that he had met with Mr. Harper -- whom he referred to on a first-name basis -- Friday and had posed for a picture together."
The Civitas Society does not appear to have its own web site.
.....the Republicans are taking over......hmmm...
Another Common Sense Revolutionary lands neatly into a position of power of influence. God Help Us. It seems with fall of the Harris/Eves government at Queen's Park, they gravitated to Ottawa as the new nexus of self-righteous, sanctimonous, incompetence in this country.
The Harris years were a dark, dark time in this province. Its turning into a recurring nightmare.
Well, Harper knows he needs Ontario if he is to have any chance of ever attaining a majority government. Perhaps he's collecting relics of the Harris regime in an attempt fine tune his message to Ontarians. So far, however, his approach has been puzzling...berating Ontario in public and dicouraging people from doing business there aren't going to win him many votes.
RC, not so puzzling really.
Giorno is the big 'devisive' tactic guy.
Get votes where you can and screw the rest. This is bad news.
I know Harper runs the joint but Flaherty, Clement, Baird and now Giorno back together...it makes my skin crawl.
To underestimate how much power these guys have in the PMO I think is a mistake.
Think about who is off the leash to mouth off at will.
KNB - To underestimate how much power these guys have in the PMO I think is a mistake.
Oh I certainly don't underestimate these guys. In many ways, these "advisors" are much more dangerous than the elected members. They have the ear of the PM, and they are free to pursue their own agendas without having to answer to the electorate or anyone else.
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