Author: KEITH_BEARDSLEY

Today, a Conservative motion demanding the Prime Minister fire his Chief of Staff over the Vance issue was defeated in the House of Commons by a vote of 209 to 122.

Thank goodness! Who dreams up this stuff for the Conservatives- please tell us their name so that they can be fired too! After all if you can demand Liberal staffers be fired why not Conservative ones?

Personally, if I was Katie Telford right now, I would be giving the middle finger to the Conservatives.

Who gave opposition parties the right to decide who works or does not work in the Prime Minister’s office? Only the PM can do that and only he is responsible for their action or inaction. The buck stops on Trudeau’s desk, not Telford’s, not some other junior staffer.

Outside of being a dumb motion the Conservatives gave up an opportunity to go after Trudeau and to hold him personally accountable on the Vance file. They also gave up an excellent opportunity to go after the Minister of Defence or an opportunity to attack Trudeau on the vaccine supply issue or an opportunity to nail the Prime Minister on our trillion dollar plus deficit and so on.

All of this for a cheap attack on a staffer.

The Conservatives biggest failure was that they took their aim off of the Prime Minister. This motion allows him to skate away with the media now focused on a staffer and not where it should be on the PM. Trudeau is the one responsible, not Telford. They should never have taken their focus off of the man at the top. Was Telford instructed by the Prime Minister or other senior Liberal, not to tell him details about Vance? When did he agree to that?

Was there an understanding between them that hot issues like this be kept from him to allow for plausible deniability? When was this decided? What issues would this apply too?

No matter how you look at it- it always comes back to the Prime Minister and when did he know and what did he do about it? Nothing can be simpler than that.

Should the Conservatives win the next election (and we all have opinions on that happening) I can almost guarantee you that there will be opposition motions for the Prime Minister to fire one of his staffers.

Sometimes these issues come back to bite you where it hurts.

Dumb as a bag of hammers.

It is interesting to see how Trudeau gets a pass from most of today’s media on his screw-ups.

On the other hand, Premiers such as Ford and Kenney get savaged in the media for every misstep.

This is not to say that that they have not screwed up, they have. Ford’s latest fumble and back-walking on his last announcement is one of the best examples. As Don Martin said, he needs some adult supervision in his office, and he needs some staff capable of calming him down. It is time for Ford to shop around for such staffers.

Trudeau however skates away with only a rare reprimand from the media and most often it is just a one-day story, or his involvement is buried at the end of the story where few people finish reading.

In any other country the media would be skewering the Prime Minister for his complete failure on the vaccine front- the media would be screaming about the daily number of total cases, the daily number of deaths and the total number of deaths to date and why it is taking so long, why we compare so badly to other countries around the world?

Remember the USA media and Trump. They posted the totals on the screen throughout their broadcasts. Just think if you could fly to the USA today you would have both shots withing two weeks. Yet the bulk of our media eagerly report every pronouncement of vaccines arriving months from now while ignoring the fact that other countries have them right now.

Biden giving us some of the USA supply is treated as a victory for Trudeau as opposed to a complete embarrassment that he screwed up so badly he had to go begging for vaccines from our neighbour.

Interesting times we live. Interesting media accountability too.

Keith Beardsley is a former Conservative political staffer and former Deputy Chief of Staff for Issues Management to the Prime Minister as well as a senior advisor for five federal political party leaders.

I almost feel sorry for Erin O’Toole today. I say almost because it was his political organization and his staff’s work on the policy convention that has pretty much handed him a loss in the next election. Losing the fight for pro-O’Toole delegates at the riding level selection meetings, cost O’Toole dearly at the convention.

Just think four more years of Trudeau because a majority of Conservative delegates cannot see climate change as a reality.

The Conservative spin machine is in overdrive doing damage control. They need to understand that no one is listening to them.

After losing the vote they are trying to say that adding these few words “we recognize that climate change is real. The Conservative Party is willing to act.”  was just tinkering with what was already in the platform etc. is BS. You do not move a motion at a national policy convention unless you really believe those few lines are essential to the party’s success.

The spin team is also reaching back to past leaders for proof that the Conservatives are tough on climate issues. Well, the Conservative team lost back then and in the last election as well. Come to think of it, isn’t it a standard Conservative talk point to criticize the Liberals for reaching back in time to the Harper era?

The issue for O’Toole and the next Conservative leader and the next one after that will always be how to attract more voters to the party. It will be tough going as the Liberals have successfully framed the Conservatives as climate deniers and on other issues as well.

Perception in politics is reality. Just as the Conservatives successfully framed Dion as incompetent and Ignatieff as just visiting, the Liberals have successfully framed the Conservatives on the climate issue. Thanks to the convention delegates, O’Toole is now a wounded leader with a tough road ahead of him.

The Liberal platform is taking shape- run on climate change (try and grab some Green Party and NDP votes), abortion (the one issue Conservatives can never seem to shut down), a national day care program (which will appeal to millennials) and maybe toss in some type of universal basic income program.

Good luck Erin, you are going to need a lot of it.

The Conservatives always underestimate Trudeau and they have been doing that for years. Remember the attack ads based on “He Is Not Ready.” The same can be said of the present Conservative team.

A recent Ipsos poll had the CPC at 28%, one of the lowest numbers since the party was created and this is with a new leader.

A lot of this can be attributed to messaging. They might have the right topic, but the messaging sucks.

Is it a lack of experience? Poor research? A poor QP strategy? A poor attack team?  A poor performance by the leader? It is most likely a combination of all of those reasons.

You win elections by winning the voters hearts, not appealing to their heads. Throwing numbers at them only appeals to a small segment of the voter pool and many of them already vote Conservative. Scandals and arrogance bring down governments- rarely is it a quick fall, it is the constant barrage of issues over time that wear down a government IE a Prime Minister’s support. Think back- Jane Stewart and the Transitional Job Fund, Chretien and Shawinigate, Paul Martin and the Sponsorship scandal, Dingwal and “Entitled To Their Entitlements.”

WE charity is one example. Yes, there are questions about millions of dollars, but do I care or other voters care, if some wealthy individual feels misused? No, but I feel for those tens of thousands of young school age children and their parents, who saved pennies and loonies to donate to the charity. How many of us know someone who did that for the charity, perhaps you did too?

The same holds true for the vaccine issue which has turned the corner for Trudeau- hence a spring election. Trudeau and his gang of incompetent ministers screwed up big time- their incompetence has contributed to untold misery across this country. Thousands of family members have been lost, many more will be in the months ahead. Canadians feel for those who have lost loved ones, for seniors unable to spend their last days with their family.

Trudeau is throwing money at everyone possible to buy the voter’s hearts. The Liberals know that someone who lost their job, home or business due to Trudeau’s incompetence is an angry voter. They are countering this with our own money- they have to if they want to win. Again, if you are appealing to the voter’s head you count dollars and the hundreds of millions spent. That won’t win the opposition an election.

There is untold misery out there- people have lost their jobs, families are unable to keep their homes, children have to drop out of university. That is a story that appeals to a voter’s heart and the Liberals know it, so they throw money to cool the anger down.

The Liberals screwed up, our vaccine supply is late, we are well behind other countries in vaccinating people. Now seniors can’t see their grandchildren, many people are reluctant to go to a restaurant. Canadians can’t travel and the list goes on, all thanks to this government’s incompetence. That is a message that appeals to the hearts of voters.

Add to the list abuse claims in the military, bullying his female ministers, broken promise after broken promise. Many of those issues appeal to a voter’s heart.

Trudeau is an ex-drama teacher; he can put on a performance that is better than any other Canadian political leader. He can cry on cue, appear sympathetic and sincere when needed. Over many decades, I have attended events with quite a few politicians and party leaders, including one with Trudeau, no one works a crowd better than him.

When you are at 28% in the polls and the party in power has been a disaster, you have to ask yourself “who isn’t ready?”

Keith Beardsley Is a former senior political staffer for 5 Federal Party leaders and a former Deputy Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister for Issues Management including over 16 years involvement with Question Period.

In the midst of a deadly pandemic and with a risk of a third wave plus a botched vaccination plan by the Trudeau Liberals, who would have guessed that the most important question facing the nation yesterday was the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank?

That is correct folks, if you have never heard of it before, you have now.

There must have been one of those headline blockbuster stories that no opposition part can resist to warrant the leader of the Conservative Party to lead off Question Period with this issue.

Here minus the blah, blah of the lead in section to each question are the actual first 5 questions O’Toole chose to ask. I say chose to ask because no leader has to ask this stuff- they have staff or should have staff capable of putting together tough media savvy questions.

The first five questions asked by O’Toole yesterday:

1. Will the Prime Minister wake up and remove Canada from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank?
2. When will the Prime Minister start prioritizing Canadian workers?
3. Why are Canadians paying the price for the Prime Minister’s planning failures?
4. Why did the government abandon Canadian businesses and embrace Chinese state-owned firms?
5. That is all well and good, but can the Prime Minister tell us how many Canadians will be vaccinated next week?

Seriously, I am not making this up.

Who writes this Stuff?

Every question is so open-ended that Trudeau can pick and choose his perfect answer to broadcast how great his government is doing? None of these questions will pin him down or cause a reporter to pay attention. They might create a few yawns in the press gallery, but that is all they will do.

No party leader should be asking such poor-quality questions in Question Period. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank questions were not even worth asking in the second round. They are third tier questions.

I don’t know who drew up this Question Period strategy, but it does leave one shaking their head that they would not have the Leader focus on the one key issue on the mind of Canadians and the one issue that has cost the Liberals voter support. They even skipped over the genocide issue.

By the way it would also have been far better to have Deputy Leader Candice Bergen ask the second set of two questions in the first round. She is a skilled questioner and a high-profile female MP.

To play on a previous Conservative attack line- they were just not ready.

Keith Beardsley is a former senior Conservative staffer with over a fifteen years of Question Period experience.

No matter how Trudeau tries to spin things, present day life in Canada will not return to anything resembling normal until Canadians get their vaccination shots.

We have seniors dying in long term care homes because we don’t have the vaccines.

People over 60 are at high risk because we don’t have the vaccines.

International travel is curtailed as we don’t have the vaccines.

Canadians can’t vacation because we don’t have the vaccines.

We have to quarantine at a cost of $2000, Canadians returning to Canada, as we don’t have the vaccines.

We can’t visit our family members because we don’t have the vaccines.

Kids are schooling at home because we don’t have the vaccines.

The election in Newfoundland is screwed up because they don’t have the vaccines.

Provinces are in and out of lockdowns because we don’t have the vaccines.

Thousands of small businesses, restaurants, gyms etc. are facing bankruptcy because we don’t have the vaccines.

Pie in the sky announcements about vaccinating Canadians by September or maybe the Fall or maybe next Spring are simply BS as we need our shots now, not 8 months from now and we simply don’t have the vaccines.

Billions announced for public transit is the Liberal attempt to change the channel about why we don’t have the vaccines. I guess the Liberals missed that workers are working from home now and several companies no longer intend to rent downtown office space. Money for empty trains and buses? They throw your money around because we don’t have the vaccines.

New gun control legislation is only being introduced as another attempt to hide the stories that we don’t have the vaccines.

With one of the worst vaccination records, certainly of any G7 country, Justin it is time to wake up! It is all about the vaccines stupid!

Today Trudeau is saying “For almost a year, Canada’s borders have been closed to foreign travelers.” That is pretty rich, he either believes his own manufactured Liberal spin or he is a blatant liar. Take your pick, neither shows well on a Prime Minister in a G-7 country.

On the day Australia closed its borders to China (1 February 2020), Canada had four confirmed COVID-19 cases, all linked to travel from China. The USA closed its borders to China on February 3^rd.

“At the time, the Trudeau government was still committed to the idea that travel bans don’t work and even suggested that those proposing them might be racist. (CBC 22 June 2020)

Australia would expand their border closure again in March.

“Asked in the Commons why Canada was not doing the same, (Health Minister) Hajdu denounced “the spread of misinformation and fear across Canadian society” and called on the opposition to “not sensationalize the risk to Canadians.” (CBC 22 June 2020)

It was on March 16, 2020 that Canada closed its borders, but exempted US travelers and our PM told snowbirds to come home, which they did through the hotbeds of Covid-19 of New York, Newark, Chicago and Detroit.

Basically, what the PM said today is definitely not accurate.

Unfortunately, Trudeau is becoming another Trump in that what he says cannot be taken seriously and every comment needs to be fact checked and rebutted publicly. But who can do that?

Unfortunately, in Canada we have to rely on the CTV and CBC national news networks to set up something like what done to Trump. Fat chance that will happen in any consistent manner with either of those two networks.

Canada does have some excellent political columnists, but for a lot of Canadians their news comes from those two networks, most Canadians don’t follow or have time for Twitter or other social media sites where politics are discussed.

 Back in our Opposition days in 2003-2006, my research team would send out a “Just the Facts” note to every reporter on the Hill and many elsewhere. It essentially was fact checking Paul Martin’s many exaggerated comments. Over time we saw more and more reporters using our material. I have no idea how the CPC does things today or if they even do something similar. If they are not, they should because we have a Prime Minister who it seems does not hesitate to bend the truth and sadly it looks like he believes himself.

Hey CBC and CTV, you like to fact check during an election- it is time to smarten up and start doing it now.

Keith Beardsley is a former Deputy Chief Of Staff for Issues Management and Question Period coordinator for the Conservative Party.

Anyone following the tragic deaths in our long-term care homes knows that this sector of our province has been largely ignored over time by both the present Ontario government and previous ones. Out of sight out of mind would be a good description- until of course an election comes along and all of a sudden, all sorts of politicians are shilling for their votes.

Few people realize what it costs for a senior to stay in one of these homes and believe me they don’t go willingly, but out of necessity.

Out this way in rural south Ottawa it is quite common for a senior (or their children if the senior can’t afford it) to be paying $3,000 to $6,000 per month. In many urban centers it can be much more.

Regardless of where the senior is staying and because their health is so vulnerable, you would think these homes would have high safety standards during a pandemic.

Yet, the record shows otherwise, especially in for-profit homes run by the big chains. A recent report noted nearly twice as many were infected in for-profit homes and they had a 78% higher mortality rate. Of course, the PR folks always have an excuse, they are older homes, they are more crowded etc. If that is true, shouldn’t the home have stricter standards?  Shouldn’t they be investing more money in rapid testing and in providing state of the art protective gear for staff?

The Ford government needs to start kicking some butt- legislate strict standards that must be met and crack down on the for-profit sector. If 3 of the chains can pay out $178 million to shareholders during the pandemic, there is no excuse for them needing government funds to improve safety protocols and standards in their homes.

Right now, it appears the government strategy is to rely on vaccinations to improve the conditions and mortality rate. With the screw ups in the vaccine roll out that is obviously a failed strategy.

In the meantime, out of sight out of mind until the daily case numbers come out.

Derek Sloan was finally kicked out of the Conservative caucus today. Whether he was guilty or not of knowingly accepting a donation from Fromm one can argue from now to eternity. But, no one should be surprised he was kicked out; it was long overdue. His previous transgressions were widely known.

For a party to win in modern day politics, it has to be united behind one leader with one plan.

This requires discipline.

You can’t have members of your caucus out there on their own doing their own thing. Messaging has to be tightly controlled especially with today’s widespread use of social media. Instant news stories will drive issue management teams crazy.

Thinking back, after O’Toole’s victory, one had to wonder if he or his finance critic was the leader of the party. Whose name garnered the headlines day after day. For O’Toole to become PM this cannot happen.

To be blunt, the leader takes precedence. Others speak when he wants them to as part of a coordinated plan and communication strategy.

It was team play by both former Canadian Alliance and former Progressive Conservative MPs working together that made Harper Prime Minister. It will be teamwork by ALL MEMBERS of the present Conservative caucus that will make O’Toole the next Prime Minister.

The leader has to be focused and yes ruthless at times in imposing discipline on his caucus. If he doesn’t have the stomach for it, then he needs to find someone to be his hatchet man. One way or another the caucus has to realize that each MP is but one player on the team, they are never the only game in town as much as their ego might want them to think so.

Stupidity seems to have infected the political class including- MLA’s, ministers, and political staff.

What do they NOT get about restricting travel during the COVID pandemic, especially in provinces with a lock down in place?

It is pretty simple- when the health advice on federal and provincial websites is asking you to stay at home- why would you take off for Hawaii, the UK, or a Caribbean island?

All have the same ridiculous apology to offer- they are so sorry. Sure, once they got caught!

One premier-Jason Kenney even offered some cover for his bunch of delinquents. Why?

Every one of these travelers should pay a political price for their stupidity.

While the spotlight is usually on government members, even the opposition can get caught up in feeling too self-important. Sadly, the “don’t do as I do, just do what I say” attitude inflicts politicians and staff at all levels and in all parties.

Yes, they are entitled to a holiday- try a staycation like the rest of us.

This feeling of entitlement is quite common when governments are into their second or third mandate, but some of these are first term governments. I can only imagine what these individuals will be like if they survive into a second or third mandate.

The best advice we used to give our MPs was think before you act and how would it look on the front page of the Globe and Mail or Toronto Star?

It is this type of entitled behavior that makes a mockery of their own governments pandemic efforts and encourages the population to also flout the rules.

I doubt they can be fined or docked pay, but I would love their bosses to publicly ask them to donate their entire salary (for the days they broke the rules) to a charity, preferably one working with COVID-19 patients.

Maybe then they will learn they are not so important or above the rules the rest of us live by.

What do you think?

Keith Beardsley is a former senior political staffer and advisor to five federal party leaders with over 40 years of political involvement including both opposition and government roles.