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.

Have you noticed the sudden flood of feel-good news stories around the arrival of a few vaccine doses? I have lost count of the vaccine photo ops from loading on the plane to touch down- just wait and we will see the first Canadian injection, the first Ottawa injection and on and on.

It always interests me when the media does a 180 degree turn on a story. From attacking the government for a vaccine program that will not see most Canadians inoculated until the summertime, to wow it is here!  Has anyone asked how much extra the government paid to rush a shipment here and get themselves of the hook of negative publicity?

I could say it is a slow news week, but it most certainly is not. There are lots of stories out there which have for the government at least been conveniently buried by vaccine photo ops, including Chinese troops were scheduled to train with Canadian troops (can someone find out who the dimwit was who suggested that bright idea- inquiring minds want to know), to the two Michaels; to a new Carbon Tax and another broken Liberal promise and many more.

Instead, every news anchor must breathlessly blabber on about a few doses of a drug arriving on Canadian soil. Also, most TV news bobble-heads continue to spout COVID-19 statistics without giving any details. Why? What are we not supposed to know or is it what are they too lazy to research?

It seems to me, if you want the public to support the measures (including lockdowns) that the government feels it should put in place, you need to give the public more, not less information.

To its credit CBC Ottawa has been doing that with our local numbers. Why can’t we get the same information provincially or nationally?

Being in an at-risk age category and in a business with frequent public contact- I would like to know what parts of the city to avoid and which age groups are driving the uptick in numbers.

CBC Ottawa on Sunday identified the numbers by Ottawa community, plus the age groups which breaks down as follows.

80s: 1     70s: 1     60s: 4      50s: 5      40s: 8      30s: 8      20s: 28      10-19: 11 0-9: 4

It is pretty easy to see the problem group, perhaps Ottawa Public Health needs to have some targeted messaging.

What passes as real news often gets lost on Twitter, a platform on which it seems far too many reporters spend their day regurgitating other reporters’ stories and announcing it on their personal Twitter feed as “BREAKING NEWS.”

Some of you will remember when back in February of 1976, the media dubbed Joe Clark, the newly elected leader of the Conservative party as “Joe Who?”

To his credit, Joe would go on to become Prime Minister and one of the most recognizable names in Canadian politics.

One could say the same today for most of the Conservative “A-Team.” In politics it is a hard fact of life, but you have an A, B and C team. For the opposition parties the A-team are their front benchers and potential cabinet ministers. They should be the face of the party and they are key when it comes to attracting new or swing voters as well as solidifying the party’s base.

Today we are in the middle of a horrible pandemic. Individuals and families are really struggling to make ends meet, pay bills, and keep a roof over their head. Food banks are seeing record numbers using their services and thousands of businesses are barely surviving. People are looking towards the government for help.

Who is the face of the Conservative Party at this time? Who can Canadians look towards to offer them hope? If we look at recent polling numbers, obviously it is still Trudeau. In spite of massive screw-ups, he is still the one that voters see as the most sympathetic to their needs.

Here is a simple exercise for my Conservatives friends on the Hill. Step outside of your bubble and ask nonpolitical friends and neighbours which persons fill the following shadow cabinet roles, all of which have a strong role to play during this pandemic:

• Deputy Leader
• Health critic
• Finance critic
• Seniors critic
• Ethics critic
• Foreign Affairs
• Indigenous Relations
• Mental Health and Wellness
• National Revenue

My guess is that your neighbours might get one or two names correct. I follow politics quite closely and I had to look most of them up. Poilievre at Finance would be the main one and quite possibly the only one most recognize.

There are so many different angles that this government can be attacked on other than finances, taxes, pandemic aid programs etc. Many different groups are looking for someone to offer them some hope and to stand up for them.

I have known Pierre for a long time, he knows his files and he is top notch at what he does, but do the Conservatives really want the Finance critic to be the face of the party during a pandemic? There are some very marketable and successful MPs in that above list, why aren’t we hearing more from them?

Another Covid-19 mess up.

Once again Trudeau is playing word games and laying down a smoke screen to give some cover to his inept ministers and government.

From screwing up the timing of our border closings, to giving China tons of PPE equipment that we needed for our front line workers; to buying lots of vaccine, but without making sure we were at the head of the line.

He can brag about how many doses he bought, but if you can’t deliver them and vaccinate people, it is a hollow victory. Here we are on the edge of 2021 and he really has no firm date, exact numbers, or distribution plan to get Canadians vaccinated. Just another Trudeau screw-up.

Today we learned that most Canadians will only be vaccinated by late September, how many million will that still leave unprotected? How many will die or become seriously ill?

I will also remind people who have worked in government how long it takes Health Canada to approve something, even if the item has already been approved in the USA and several different European countries.

Trudeau has the habit of misleading us over and over- too many broken promises to list here and he gets away with it. Thank goodness this isn’t a Conservative government messing this up or we would be seeing Canadian media with wall to wall negative coverage like we saw them do with Trump.

Trudeau can use “By the end of September” as a good talk point if he is planning a spring election and he is hoping to keep control of this issue until it is over. It provides a sense of hope for people desperately waiting for their turn.

Sadly, from Trudeau it is just a lot of blah, blah blah and its even sadder that the media let him get away with this nonsense.

In politics, perception/optics is everything. This is one reason political attack teams exist.

However, it is rare that any one issue defines your political opponent. It is even rarer in Canadian politics that one issue will bring down a minister or a government. What happens is that over time the constant political hammering helps to shape the public perception of your opponent or their party.

I can think back to the “Mr. Dithers” nickname coined by my attack team which helped to define Prime Minister Paul Martin.

On occasion your opponent hands you a gift in the form of a comment made, or action taken or a major misstep by one of their own team members. We can all remember the disastrous Stephane Dion video in 2008 and his now infamous shrug.

The Conservatives were handed such a gift recently with the revelation that Liberal MP Yasmin Ratansi had for years been paying her sister to work in her constituency office- a clear violation of the rules.

The Conservative attack team kicked into high gear. This was a golden opportunity to use this incident to try to reinforce their theme of a corrupt Liberal government with ethical issues.

However, another unwritten rule in politics is don’t throw stones in glass houses. Before you go hell bent on attacking your opponent make sure your side does not face the same issue.

The Conservative attack withered when it was revealed that their former leader, Andrew Scheer, had employed his sister-in-law in his constituency office. It should be noted that this was not against the rules, but that killed the thrust of the Conservative attack. Did no one on the attack team send out an email to all of their MPS to make sure that they were not facing a similar problem? If Scheer knew they were going after Ratansi, did he warn his own team of his issue before they launched their attacks on the Liberals?

The issue for the Conservatives was further clouded when after the story broke, Scheer fired his sister-in-law. Like it or not it leaves the perception that something was wrong. It actually reinforces the Liberal push back. It also confirms the perception that Scheer is a bumbler- remember the claim for education costs for his children that was kept from party members or losing an election that was his to win.

Unless the Conservatives get creative, the Ratansi issue has lost steam and the public is left thinking the Conservatives are no better than the Liberals. That is not the perception they want to leave with voters if they hope to win the next election.