Meanwhile, in an Ottawa court room

Very convenient that much of the public and media attention this week is focused on Brian Mulroney at the Oliphant Inquiry and the nanny business at the fortuitously-timed parliamentary hearings, because otherwise more attention might be being paid to these revelations from an Ottawa courtroom, where Mayor Larry O’Brien is on trial and the ears of many prominent Conservatives are burning:

O'Brien claimed "some very prominent Conservatives" wanted the two to come to a business arrangement about who would run, Kilrea testified during the first day of testimony at O'Brien's influence-peddling trial.

"There are some Conservatives that like you and they would like not to see you hurt," Kilrea said O'Brien told him during a face-to-face meeting in July 2006.

"They'd like to do something to make a business arrangement for you and to make sure there's only one of us in the race."

(snip)

Kilrea had worked on the campaigns of now-Transport Minister John Baird and Pierre Poilievre, currently the prime minister's parliamentary secretary.

He testified that O'Brien indicated he could get him a federal appointment if he quit the race.
"He said, what if my team found you other employment?" Kilrea testified.

Kilrea quoted O'Brien as telling him: "John Baird is the key. John Baird is the one that makes this happen."

The job offer was a five-year appointment to the National Parole Board at a salary of $110,000 a year, he said. Kilrea said O'Brien called back within a few hours of his face-to-face meeting and told him he was "in the queue."

O'Brien indicated that had been arranged by John Reynolds, Harper's campaign co-chair in the 2006 election, Kilrea testified.

More from the Globe:

There are also federal reputations at stake, as Mr. Kilrea testified Monday that Mr. O'Brien told him that senior Conservative officials would help him obtain the federal job.

The trial is scheduled for nine weeks and is expected to hear from a number of Conservative officials, including Mr. Baird, the current Transport Minister, and Dave Penner, director of appointments in the office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

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Margaret Atwood, Jim Balsillie, and other interesting political contributors

I thought it'd be interesting to take a look through the Elections Canada database for donations to political parties in the last quarter of 2007, and see what names popped-out.

To refresh everyone on the overall numbers, the results for the fourth quarter of 2007 were as follows:

Conservatives
44,324 contributors for $4,892,921.63
Liberals
13,618 contributors for $1,944,946.11
NDP
15,698 contributors for $1,424,524.23
Green
3390 contributors for $414,274.84
Bloc
3,888 contributors for $336,384.00

Continued gradual improvement for the Liberals. Sure, we still lag way, way, way behind the Conservatives. But we also don't have the CBC to pick on, so it's a tad more challenging. Still, while it's a work in progress, there is progress.

That's another story though. As I said I was more interested in talking a gander at some of the names donating to the various parties. I kept my browsing to donations of $500 and above, because otherwise I'd be scrolling forever and I don't have that kind of patience. Here's a few names from each party that jumped-out:

Liberals

Naturally, as a Liberal a few more names here were recognizable to me, such as:

Gordon Ashworth, the LPC's National Campaign Director.


This name was a surprise, author Margaret Atwood.


As was Research in Motion founder Jim Balsillie.


Raymond Chretien is a our former ambassador to the U.S., and is Jean Chretien's newphew.


Former Liberal MP and minister Anne McLellan.


Former Liberal MP and minister Pierre Pettigrew.


I believe this Gordon Wilson of Powell River, BC must be the same Gordon Wilson that was a leader of the BC Liberal Party, then former the Progressive Democratic Alliance, and then became a BC NDP cabinet minister. Interesting.


Among current parliamentarians, I noticed MP Navdeep Bains ($500), Senator Larry Campbell ($500), Senator Jerry Grafstein ($1000), Albina Guarnieri ($1000 to Michael Ignatieff's campaign), and Senator Serge Joyal ($500).

Less names naturally popped-out at me from the other parties' donor lists, but here's a few that did.

Conservative Party

You'll remember Jim Dinning as the entertaining but failed wannabe successor to Ralph Klien as leader of the Alberta PCs. (Off topic, but go to his Web site and you're told "You have reached this page accidentally12a.". I guess so Jim, I guess so.)


Tim Powers is a lobbyist and regular Conservative commentator on the pundit circuit.


John Reynolds is a lobbyist, Conservative insider, former Conservative MP and election campaign co-chair. Yvonne is his spouse.


Don Mazankowski was a Mulroney-era cabinet minister. Lorraine is his spouse.


NDP

Marion Dewar was a long-time mayor of Ottawa and was briefly an NDP MP.


Howard Hampton, of course, is the current leader of the Ontario NDP.


Green Party

It's author Margaret Atwood once again, this time donating to the Greens. I double checked, and she didn't donate to the NDP, at least not this quarter.


And media pioneer and CityTV founder Moses Znaimer was another interesting Green contributor.

And being an anglophone from the west, while I skimmed the BQ contributors list I can say I recognized any.

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Harper to name next B.C. Lieutenant Governor on Tuesday

The word on the street is that Steve Harper will name a new B.C. Lieutenant Governor tomorrow. No word on whom the new vice-regal representative will be, although I'm staying close to the phone, and practicing my vice-regal wave, just in case.

Whomever the new LG will be, they’ll have a tall order filling the shoes of Iona Campagnolo, who has held the post for nearly six years and has done a heckuva job.

While I may have no idea whom the next LG will be, it’s still fun to baselessly speculate and toss out names. One possibility would have to be John Reynolds. He’s a loyal Conservative with just enough of a record to be semi-respectable, and compared to the payoff for his fellow Conservative campaign co-chair, Reynolds is owed. If they want to go to the Senate they could go for Pat Carney or Gerry St. Germain, freeing-up another Senate spot for an younger appointee, plus prevent them from organizing against Reynolds' hand-picked candidate in Vancouver-Quadra. I’m having trouble thinking of any other prominent B.C. Conservatives…what’s Randy White up to these days?

One thing I can pretty much promise though: Harper will not pluck B.C.’s next LG from the ranks of the CBC. Sorry Ian Hanomansing.

UPDATE: The announcement has been made.

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Politics in the ivory tower

Came across this story last week and I've been meaning to highlight it, as I think it raises some interesting discussion points about the potential for political interference in Canada's universities, or at least how the fear of that potential may be driving university decision-making.

Recently Stephen Owen, formerly the Liberal MP for Vancouver-Quadra, was hired by the University of British Columbia as vice-president, community and external relations. During the hiring process, the hiring committee expressed concerns about whether Owen’s political career may prove detrimental to the university’s relationship with Canada’s Newish Conservative government.

Mr. Peets said concern that Mr. Owen's appointment could sour relations with the Conservatives “was an immediate and obvious thought in almost everyone's mind” during the hiring process.

“You are hiring a guy for government relations who is from a party that is not in power and that should be a concern,” he said. “You worry that if you hire someone from the opposition side that they may have burned some bridges with the government side and the government relations thing may not work well for them.”

It may be a pragmatic concern certainly, although its rather unfortunate that a candidate’s politics should have to be an issue. Owen invited the committee to contact members of the other political parties to discuss Owen’s political career, and whether or not it may prove an impediment to his new potential role.

UBC took him up on the offer, and Conservative godfather and former campaign director John Reynolds was among those contacted to ask whether appointing a Liberal MP to the VP’s role would be a “problem” for the university. Since Owen got the job I guess Reynolds gave him a pass, although one wonders what would have happened had Reynolds said it would be a problem.

When reached for comment by CP, Reynolds comments were a little odd:

“I am a private individual and I got nothing to do with the party,” he said.“I don't decide with the Conservative party who spends money and who doesn't spend money. I am not involved with that end of things at all. I don't think this was done at all or had anything to do with funding whatsoever. It's not (Mr. Owen's) job — his job is community relations.”

John Reynolds has nothing to do with the Conservative Party? Believe that and I have a bridge to sell you. He also has nothing to do Ottawa mayoral races of parole board appointments.

Anyway, while one hopes that no government would let politics enter into decision-making around things like grants and research funding, we do also live in the real world. And the potential for abuse is certainly there:

The last Conservative budget was the first to bypass the peer-reviewed process of federal granting councils by directly funding seven research institutes to the tune of $105 million in matching dollars.

“That is what has a lot of people in the academic community really concerned,” said Mr. Robinson, whose association represents about 55,000 academics ranging from librarians to researchers across the country. “No one is questioning that these institutes weren't deserving, but there are a lot of deserving institutions and the question is how do you decide which one? Do you make a political decision or an academic decision? We would argue that, for a whole number of reasons, it has to be an academic decision. We can't have political interference in the academic world.”

It seems an unfortunate path to be going down, where universities feel they have to vet potential hires for political compatibility with the government of the day. There needs to be a separation of politics and academe, with government setting the broad outlines, goals and mission of a program and non-political learned experts vetting applications and allocating the funding to specific institutions.

Remove the potential for political interference and testing candidates for political purity won’t be necessary.

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Quadra is getting interesting...fall by-election?

Long-time Liberal MP Stephen Owen announced today he will be vacating his seat in Vancouver-Quadra at the end of the month to take an academic post at UBC.

Owen had already announced his intention not to run again so that’s not a surprise, but with Owen resigning with no general election in the offing it does set the scene for a very interesting by-election, and one that will be very important for both the Liberals and the Conservatives.

While the riding has been Liberal for some time (John Turner ran and won there as PM) and Owen carried the riding handily in 2006 (by some 12,000 votes over a high profile Conservative candidate, Stephen Rogers) it’s has been Conservative in the fairly recent past and it’s a riding that the Conservatives, and others, view as poachable. Often described as “tony”, while it includes UBC it also has Point Grey and it’s a wealthy and highly educated riding.

The Liberals already have a candidate selected in the riding in Joyce Murray, a former provincial environment candidate that ran unsuccessfully for the Liberals in New Westminster-Coquitlam in 2006.

According to the Sun the Conservatives don’t have a candidate yet. John Reynolds, the former Conservative MP, campaign co-chair and current lobbyist (who I guess is banned from the Conservative war room) is touting businesswoman and BC Cancer foundation chairman Mary McNeil as a star candidate, but unless she gets an appointment (or they pull a Cutler) she’ll face a challenge from UBC professor Deborah Meredith, who has a lot of old Conservative backing in Senators Pat Carney and a bbq-less Gerry St. Germain, plus the past candidate and even everyone's favourite reformer, Deborah Grey.

So before we even get to a by-election it looks like a rather interesting battle for the Conservative nomination, with some Conservative titans battling it out in the backrooms. We’ll have to watch and see how it plays -- or isn’t allowed to play -- out.

And when we do get to a by-election the results could be quite telling. Even though it is currently a Liberal riding, a by-election win in a riding the Conservatives are targeting would be a big boost, and getting Murray into parliament would be great. For the Conservatives, a win in an upper middle class riding like Quadra (and taking it from the Liberals) would help boost their desire to portray themselves as a new kind of CPC.

Let the campaigning begin. The only question is when will Deceiven’ Stephen pull the trigger? He has six months from July 27^th. There’s also Jean Lapierre’s riding in Quebec to be filled, the clock is ticking there too...

P.S. No matter who wins in Quadra the odds look good that the HoC will be gaining another female MP, and that's a good thing.

UPDATE: Dan raises a highly plausible conspiracy theory.

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Gentlemen, no fighting in the war room!

The NP's Don Martin reports the Conservatives have piously announced they're banning lobbyists from their war room.

I hope the bouncers have the rubber hoses ready in case their campaign chair tries to sneak in. No mercy!

(H/T Cynic)

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Tell me another one Johnny

Conservative campaign co-chair John Reynolds is rattling his saber, threatening an imminent election:

Meanwhile, yesterday, Conservative campaign chief John Reynolds raised eyebrows when he said the federal government could fall within the next two weeks if the Liberals were to vote against bills that aim to get tough on crime.

"If they pass it, I say it's fine," Mr. Reynolds said on CTV Newsnet's Mike Duffy Live.

"If they were to defeat it, I think you might see the Prime Minister say it's time to go to the people."

Now, would that be some of the same crime legislation that the Liberals have been offering to fast-track since last fall and renewed two weeks ago, offers that have been ignored by a Conservative government more interested in electoral posturing that actually tackling crime?

Dion said Friday a government claim of obstruction on justice bills is “one of the possible scenarios” for an election call — despite the fact the Liberals have renewed an offer made to the government last fall to fast-track half a dozen justice bills, or about half the justice legislation before Parliament, through the legislative process.

“They may find another way but I think they are trying to push us into an election,” said Dion in an interview Friday. “Otherwise, they would act with us in order to have the maximum number of bills ready right away and focus our work on the ones where we think their proposals are not helpful.

So, you were saying John? Rattle rattle.

I don't blame Reynolds though. He's probably distracted these days...

The Ontario Provincial Police are investigating a sworn affidavit claiming one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's closest advisers was allegedly involved in a bid to buy off a candidate in Ottawa' recent municipal election.

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Police probing allegations involving the Conservative campaign co-chair

This story on CTV is a must read. While it is all allegations at this point and everything is unproven, quite a sordid picture certainly emerges about the seedier side of Conservative backroom politics. We should withhold judgment until the investigation is complete, but certainly these allegations deserve a full and proper hearing. All that is surprising though is the hypocrisy and the gall.

OPP probing alleged Tory link to mayoralty offer
Updated Mon. Mar. 26 2007 1:46 PM ET
Canadian Press

OTTAWA -- The Ontario Provincial Police have launched an investigation into a sworn affidavit that claims a senior Tory close to Prime Minister Stephen Harper was involved in an alleged bid to buy off an Ottawa mayoralty candidate.
(more)

I'll let the story speak for itself, and wait for the results of the investigation with interest. In the meantime, on a lighter note let me highlight this comment Reynolds makes about the $110,000/year parole board job:

Reynolds maintains there's nothing sinister. He said he would be happy to put Kilrea's name forward, or any other person's, for a Parole Board appointment because not many people want the job.

"They're looking for people to go on parole boards,'' said Reynolds."Most guys don't want the jobs. They don't pay that much.''

Dear John,

I'm a simple man with simple needs. I also believe in getting tough on crime. To serve my country and keep our communities safe, I'd be happy to endure the sacrifice of serving as a parole board member for the pittance of $110k/year. I'll even get by without a per diem. I'll pack a sandwich. Resume attached, fyi.

Conservatively yours,

Jeff

(h/t Dan)

UPDATE: Ted rightly points out things have been busy lately for the Conservatives. It was just last week we heard the RCMP was being asked to look into new information around allegations former MP Jim Hart was offered a payout to make way for Stockwell Day.

And in other Conservatives and the justice system news, a week earlier an Alberta judge ordered a new Conservative nomination race be held in Calgary-West, overturning the party-engineered acclimation of incumbent Rob "Nelson Mandella is a terrorist" Anders.

The Conservative lawyers sure are being kept busy these days.

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