Butts returns - and Trudeau's putting the band back together for October
---------- Original message ----------
From: "Shugart, Ian" <Ian.Shugart@pco-bcp.gc.ca>
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2019 13:06:06 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: Methinks everybody knows why I called the
Media Relations Department of National Defence (613-996-2353)
immediately after I read this news statement # 83 of my lawsuit said
enough N'esy Pas?
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Please note that Ian Shugart, Clerk of the Privy Council, will be out
of the office from July 8 to July 19 inclusively. During his absence,
you can contact Catherine Blewett at 613-957-5466.
All correspondence and various requests should be routed in the usual manner.
Thank you
******************************
********************************
Veuillez prendre note qu’Ian Shugart, Greffier du Conseil privé, sera
absent du bureau le 8 au 19 juillet, 2019. Pendant son absence, vous
pouvez communiquer avec Catherine Blewett au 613-957-5466.
Toute correspondance et autres demandes doivent être acheminées de
façon habituelle.
David Raymond Amos@DavidRayAmos
Replying to @DavidRayAmos@alllibertynews and 49 others Methinks Mr Scheer and my fellow Maritimers Mr Butts and
Madame McLellan know why I called the PCO and the PMO on Friday after I
got a wicked email N'esy Pas?
Almost 10,000 Comments before I refreshed the page Commenting is now closed for this story.
Debi Mcdonald Did he ever really leave ? Or just disappear to avoid any questions ? Maybe wernick and the rest of the crowd will show up to.
David R. Amos Content disabled
Reply to @debi
mcdonald: Methinks Mr Scheer and my fellow Maritimers Mr Butts and
Madame McLellan know why I called the PCO and the PMO on Friday after I
got a wicked email N'esy Pas?
Richard Sharp Reply to @Lee McEachern:
I can never call out another poster like you just did to me.
David R. Amos
Reply to @debi mcdonald: 'Or just disappear to avoid any questions ?"
Methinks like that happen all the time just like my first comment N'esy Pas?
David R. Amos
Reply to @Richard Sharp: Methinks we got fair warning last week N'esy Pas?
Forget 'positive politics.' Expect a steady stream of Liberal bile until election day
A tour of senior PMO Twitter accounts is the best place to see where Liberal priorities are these days
Andrew MacDougall · for CBC News Opinion · Posted: Jul 14, 2019 4:00 AM ET
Mike
Trahan Reply
to @David R. Amos: The Harper conservative party are the only Canadian
party to practice character assassination, they have nothing to offer
Canada but hate a divisive politics.
David R. Amos
Reply to @Mike
Trahan: Methinks you should ask my fellow Maritimers Gerry Butts and Rob
Moore why I ran as an Independent six times thus far N'esy Pas?
Steve Richards How can the puppet-master return, if he never really left? A vote for JT is a vote for Butts.
David R. Amos Reply to @Steve Richards: "How can the puppet-master return, if he never really left?"
BINGO
Rick Guthrie What arrogance.
David R. Amos Reply to @Rick Guthrie: Welcome to the Circus
William
Joseph Westcott Did
anyone really think that GB would stay away from the trough? I swear to
god the masses really should give their head a shake
David R. Amos
Reply to @William
Joseph Westcott: Relax and enjoy the circus. Trust that Mr Butts knows I
will be back as well. Methinks anyone can Google the following N'esy
Pas?
Fundy Royal campaign targets middle class with focus on jobs
Mike Trahan Reply to @David R. Amos: If you do not know French don't abuse it
David R. Amos
Reply to @Mike Trahan: Methinks you forgot to ask me if I cared what you thought of my Chiac N'esy Pas?
Buford Wilson He was known as justin's brain.
The PM is lost and bewildered without him.
Irv Miller Reply to @Buford Wilson: Washington hot today?
Kevin
Delaney
Reply to @Buford Wilson:
Thank Heavens Andy has a secure back channel to Steve.
Jake Devries
Reply to @Kevin
Delaney: awww yes, the good old old days of PMSH when we had an adult
and statesman as PM, unlike Mr Dressup and his team of virtue
signallers...
David R. Amos Reply to @Buford Wilson: Methinks he certainly was not Trudeau The Younger's conscience or he would not be back N'esy Pas?
Sian Maccauley Reply to @Buford Wilson:
The PM - can't bear saying that - is lost all the time, with or without Gerry.
Richard Sharp
Reply to @Buford Wilson:
Trudeau is on top of all issues. He shows it every day with his
THOUSANDS of media availabilities and taking questions from Canadians at
public events, unvetted, unscripted. Harper was the opposite, a
control freak. You don't know what you are talking about.
Aaron Morris
Reply to @Richard Sharp:
So all you need for proof that Justin is great is that he shows up in front of the people he has bribed with billions?
What a low bar for success you have.
Mike Trahan
Reply to @Aaron Morris: Unlike you Aaron, Richard is telling the truth
Aaron Morris
Reply to @Mike Trahan:
Yes, Richard is rehashing a few successful points from last election
cycle. The same points GB used to pull the wool over so many canadians’
eyes by tricking them with form over substance.
David R. Amos
Reply to @Mike Trahan: Yea Right
Edward Andrews Not
afraid of an SNC rehash because they buried the first time around.
Whatever the character of Trudeau is well known, the ineffectiveness of
his policies well known, the divisiveness and, to use his words
"unneighbourly" conduct he has show through out his time as our senior
elected employee are all enough for me to happily send him packing in
Oct with a vote against the Liberals. If the Conservatives want this
they'd better start attacking policies and talking about their views and
plans.
Alex Keith Reply to @Mark Wood: Citizens in all provinces except Ontario and Quebec dislike Trudeau. Is that good enough for you
John Francis Reply
to @Alex Keith: Quebec and Ontario tend to win the elections.....
Anyway, there are people disgusted by Andrew Scheer from coast to coast,
when they aren't rolling on the floor laughing at him.
David R. Amos
Reply to @Alex Keith:
Me thinks Mr Butts' problem is that his buddy Trudeau The Younger not
all that popular in Ontario and Quebec either N'esy Pas?
David R. Amos
Reply to @John Francis: Oh So True
Dawn Lee Oh look, the guy who cares very deeply about his country and climate change is back. Why did he leave again?
David R. Amos Reply
to @Dawn Lee: Methinks it was politically correct for Mr Butts to fall
on his sword at the time but he trusts that the liberals have a short
memory as to why N'esy Pas?
Elias Eliot I
was driving along highway 97 just west of Cambridge s few days ago and a
sign said: "Let's make Trudeau a drama teacher again"!
David R. Amos Reply to @Elias Eliot: Methinks everybody agrees he makes a most excellent Mr Dressup N'esy Pas?
Robert
Campbell Why
is lame duck still making decisions and spending our money. Hes only
got 95 days to play prime minister. Hope they can cancel all these
checks he's promising.
Richard Riel
Reply to @Robert
Campbell: Imagine being a senior on a fixed income or working on a
pressured low minimum salary and seeing all those taxes flying out the
window
David R. Amos
Reply to @Robert Campbell: Dream On
David R. Amos
Reply to @Richard Riel: I don't have to imagine it.
Methinks I have made Mr Butts and his buddy Mr Prime Minister Trudeau
The Younger well aware that I am one of legions of old folks getting by
on CPP and the Old Age stipend who were no doubt not impressed with
moving expenses Mr Butts and Madame Telford N'esy Pas?
Stephen David
The arrogance of this bunch is truly nauseating.....Canadians will send them all packing in October
James
Holden
Reply to @Stephen David:
Arrogance is a Conservative trademark.
Stephen David
Reply to @James Holden:
Sadly for you nobody agrees with you.
Joan Tyne
Reply to @James
Holden: Would you please provide some proof of said Con arrogance? I
have seen it countless times and ways via t2, butts, McKenna, etc.....it
streams out of the lib caucus mouths. they have little to no respect
for the taxpayer and what they are doing to the future of this great
country. it's all about what looks good thru the camera lenses. your
total disdain for the conservative party is well noted - none of them
are perfect. not one of them but at least be honest and admit that the
t2/butts/telford cabal of control is one of the worst to lead this
country.
David R. Amos
Reply to @Stephen David: Methinks you need to learn to speak for yourself N'esy Pas?
David R. Amos
Reply to @Stephen
David: Methinks the same holds true for you nobody will know until the
votes are tallied and the Fat Lady sings the score in October N'esy Pas?
David R. Amos
Reply to @Joan Tyne:
Methinks a lot of my fellow Maritimers still recalled Mr Harper calling
us defeatists long before he lost every seat in the Maritimes in 2015
N'esy Pas?
Stephen
David
Reply to @David R. Amos:
Methinks you is a weirdo N'est-ce Pas?
David R. Amos
Reply to @Stephen David: Methinks I have the right to believe that you are not very witty N'esy Pas?
David R. Amos
Reply to @Stephen
David: Methinks your hero Mr Scheer and my fellow Maritimers Mr Butts
and Madame McLellan know why I called the PCO and the PMO on Friday
after I got an wicked email but you would have no clue unless you read
my emails N'esy Pas?
Butts returns - and Trudeau's putting the band back together for October
His participation suggests the Liberals aren't all that worried about rehashing the SNC-Lavalin affair
Katie
Telford, left, and Gerald Butts look on as Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau delivers his opening remarks during the meeting of First
Ministers in Ottawa on Dec. 9, 2016. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press )
Among the 60 people who gathered at a
downtown Ottawa hotel for a day and a half this month to discuss the
Liberal government's campaign for re-election was Gerry Butts, the
senior adviser and close friend of Justin Trudeau who left the Prime
Minister's Office five months ago in the midst of Trudeau's painful
spring.
In February, Butts stepped away because his presence —
and the suggestion that he was somehow involved in inappropriately
pressuring the former attorney general — threatened to be a drag on the
government's ability to pursue its mandate. From the outside, Butts was
able to mount his own defence against Jody Wilson-Raybould's
accusations.
The return of Butts (who was widely credited with
helping to define the Trudeau Liberal message and narrative in the first
place) might reassure Liberals who valued his contribution to the 2015
campaign and the first three-and-a-half years of the Trudeau government.
His
return is also a significant part of the Liberal band getting back
together in the hopes of recording a follow-up to their smashing
breakthrough in 2015 — even though this re-election bid is bound to be a
very different challenge.
Butts's exact role in the campaign
is unclear. Speaking to the Huffington Post in May, Butts indicated he
was looking toward the private sector. He also acknowledged that he
would be readily available to any Liberal who came calling and suggested
that his own enthusiasm for the mission hadn't dimmed.
The new-old Liberal crew
"It's
no secret that I have a lot of friends who are still actively involved,
whom I care about very deeply, and I care about my country very
deeply," Butts said. "And I think that what is happening and how we're
experiencing it in Canada, we're at a really important moment, in
particular on the issues that I care most about, like climate change.
We're at a turning point and it's important for people who care about
those issues to get involved and try and make positive change happen."
Trudeau is more closely associated with Butts than he is with any other
single adviser. But since he launched his quest for the federal Liberal
leadership in 2012, Trudeau has gradually accumulated a slate of
long-serving aides who will accompany him into the 2019 campaign.
In the beginning there was Butts, a friend to Trudeau since
university, and Katie Telford, a friend of Butts's from their time
together as senior figures in Dalton McGuinty's government. Telford got
to know Trudeau when she was running Gerard Kennedy's campaign for the
Liberal leadership in 2006, which Trudeau had endorsed. Telford became
Trudeau's chief of staff after the 2015 election and formed an
inseparable duo with Butts.
Tom Pitfield, a childhood friend of
Trudeau's (Pitfield's father, Michael, was clerk of the Privy Council
under Pierre Trudeau), was enlisted to begin building Trudeau's digital
operation. Mike McNair, who had worked with Telford in Stéphane Dion's
office, was recruited to help with policy.
Minister
of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland and Gerald Butts walk in the
loading dock of the Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council
during NAFTA talks on Sept. 30, 2018. (Canadian Press)
After Trudeau won the Liberal leadership, he convinced Kate Purchase,
director of media relations for interim Liberal leader Bob Rae, to stay
on to oversee communications. Jeremy Broadhurst, Rae's chief of staff,
became national director of the Liberal Party, then a deputy to Butts
and Telford, then chief of staff to Chrystia Freeland when the Trudeau
government was reorienting itself to deal with Donald Trump. In May,
Broadhurst was appointed Liberal campaign director, a title held by
Telford in 2015.
Suzanne Cowan, who oversaw advertising in
2015, is now the party president. Brian Clow, who led the rapid response
team in 2015 and later helmed a special unit in the PMO dedicated to
Canada-U.S. relations, likely will take on a similar task again this
fall. Cyrus Reporter, Trudeau's chief of staff during the two years in
opposition and then a senior adviser in the PMO for two years, will
return to play a role. John Zerucelli, who managed Trudeau's travel
operations in 2015 and then for another two years in the PMO, is
returning to oversee Trudeau's tour.
The pros and cons of experience
Ben
Chin, an adviser in Trudeau's office who is also expected to fill a
senior role in the campaign this fall, was not involved in 2015, but he
was in attendance at the weekend retreat in the summer of 2012 when the
nascent Trudeau campaign began to take shape.
That an
incumbent campaign would return to the same people who helped it win
power is not entirely unusual; Jean Chrétien's re-election team in 1997
bore a strong resemblance to the team that helped build the Liberal
victory in 1993. In theory, an experienced team should offer Trudeau an
advantage against Conservative and NDP leaders facing their first
federal campaigns.
Gerald
Butts, former principal secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,
prepares to appear before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human
Rights regarding the SNC Lavalin Affair on Parliament Hill in Ottawa
Wednesday, March 6, 2019. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)
Still,
Butts's involvement might offer a handy excuse for the Liberals'
political opponents to re-litigate the SNC-Lavalin affair, at least for a
news cycle or two. The ethics commissioner's report on the affair
is expected to be released sometime before the official campaign begins,
which likely will revive the story regardless. Butts and Trudeau have
maintained that Butts did nothing wrong. As long as the ethics
commissioner agrees, they might not have to revisit those assurances.
Among
the attendees at the Liberal retreat this month were the national
campaign co-chairs, including Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains (Dominic
LeBlanc, another co-chair, is being treated for cancer and did not
attend) and a few officials who already had taken leave from their
senior roles in ministers' offices to join Broadhurst at the Liberal
Party's headquarters in Ottawa.
According to a source, the meetings focused particularly on the
campaign's field and digital operations. The Liberals' digital
game could be enhanced by whatever Pitfield learned while assisting
provincial and international campaigns over the last four years.
But the participants also discussed how much has changed since 2015.
The faces around the backrooms of the Liberal campaign might be
similar, but the field is certainly different in 2019. In July 2015, the
Liberals were polling in third place, the New Democrats were leading
and the Greens were barely seen as a factor.
Maxime Bernier
was a minor minister in Stephen Harper's cabinet. "Misinformation" and
"foreign interference" had not yet entered the political lexicon.
"Populism" was a quaint notion.
And Trudeau now has a record in office, with all the good and bad that entails.
All
of this remains to play out. But regardless of the outcome, Trudeau
will go with the team that helped get him here in the first place.
Forget 'positive politics.' Expect a steady stream of Liberal bile until election day
A tour of senior PMO Twitter accounts is the best place to see where Liberal priorities are these days
Andrew MacDougall · for CBC News Opinion · Posted: Jul 14, 2019 4:00 AM ET
The
Liberals have moved to conversion therapy as the next front in the
culture war. After having turned down an opportunity to legislate
against the practice in the spring session, the Liberals are now saying
Scheer can't be trusted to do the right thing. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)
If the past few months of Canadian
politics have taught us anything, it's that bile works. Weeks of Liberal
caterwauling about abortion and hidden agendas have put Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau back on top of the polls.
Desperate times brought
desperate measures and they have, in turn, brought relief. There was a
point in April, you'll recall, when the Trudeau government was desperate
for something – anything — other than SNC-Lavalin to talk about. Day
after day, week after week, month after month, the conversation had revolved around
former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould, Prime Minister Trudeau,
and their interactions over the ethically compromised engineering
company. And to deleterious effect: the Liberals were sinking in the
polls and Trudeau's approvals were taking a beating.
Moreover, no channel change seemed to be working. A report citing the coming climate apocalypse was leaked.
The absence of an Andrew Scheer climate plan was noted. Repeatedly. A
frustrated Trudeau then drummed Wilson-Raybould and former Treasury
Board President Jane Philpott, who was also embroiled in the scandal,
out of caucus. And still the Liberals bled.
Even worse, the breach of trust case
involving Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, who was accused of leaking
confidential cabinet information, then stepped to the fore, once again
casting Trudeau and his office in a dubious light. The prime minister
who promised transparency failed to meet his own bar.
The public was
regaled with tales of meetings between the country's top soldier and
Trudeau's top foot soldiers at which, for some reason, no notes were
taken. The government was also refusing to turn over material to
Norman's defence. It looked bad and smelled worse.
The prime minister who promised transparency failed to meet his own bar when it came to the Norman case. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
Enter the abortion brigade.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in town to talk trade? Let's talk abortion instead. Some anti-abortionist
who's buried so deeply on the opposition backbench he'll never be able
to find a cabinet, let alone serve in one, says he's sad about abortion
on demand? Evidence of a plot! Is Conservative leader Andrew Scheer
reciting how a government led by him won't reopen the abortion debate? Well, down is the new up, you rube, so run before they take your uterus away and lock it.
The recent brouhaha over the anti-abortion movie Unplanned,
which will screen at some Canadian theatres this week, is but the
latest front in the multi-pronged Liberal assault on an imaginary
Gilead. Here, Tourism Minister Mélanie Joly was sent to savage
Quebec entrepreneur and cinema chain owner Vincenzo Guzzo for allowing
the film to be screened. Guzzo's true sin? Being a Conservative donor,
which Joly made sure to note, making his chain's business decision proof
— to Liberal eyes, anyway — of the impending Conservative assault on
women's rights.
What
makes this all so depressing is this crop of Liberals was supposed to
be different. They were supposed to believe in evidence. They were
supposed to be positive. What the abortion routine shows is they are
neither of these things. In fact, they're the opposite; Trudeau's
Liberals are cynical and divisive.
Now, I wouldn't like the
prospect of access to safe and legal abortion being taken away any more
than the average Liberal. But here's the thing: access to abortion,
while uneven, isn't under threat in Canada. And you know how I know
that? Trudeau has had four years to buttress access to abortion and has
done the square root of nothing.
How can the purported party of
evidence look at the nearly 10 years of Harper government and still
detect signs of serious life in the anti-abortion movement? How is
portraying Scheer's assurances as lies not corrosive to people's
perceptions of public life? More to the point, are Canadians – Conservatives included — no longer allowed to express anti-abortion
sentiment? Or are the Liberals now the arbiters of acceptable speech,
too?
This
is to complain about politics, I know. But the reason so many people
are disappointed in politics at the moment is because they feel their
leaders are untrustworthy. Repeating a pack of lies to evade a beating
in the polls might work in the short term, but it does more long-term
damage.
Not that the Liberals appear concerned. They're now on
to conversion therapy — which attempts to change an individual's sexual
orientation or gender identity — as the next front in the culture war.
Having turned down
an opportunity to legislate against the practice in the spring session,
the Liberals are now saying Scheer can't be trusted to do the right
thing, even after Scheer said he is against forcing anyone into a
therapy against their will. And instead of calling the Liberals out on
their hysteria and hypocrisy, the media are gleefully writing the attack
up, torqued headlines and all.
The
Prime Minister's Office isn't even trying to hide their desperation
now, so convinced are they that it's working. Trudeau's director of
communications, for example, lobbed an untruth bomb
into the first ministers' meeting this week, tweeting that former Prime
Minister Stephen Harper had "frozen" health care spending, a claim that
is as far from the truth as anything out of U.S. President Donald
Trump's mouth. And to think: these are the very same people who want you
to trust their monitoring of social media for truthfulness during the
upcoming election.
When he was Prime Minister, Stephen Harper refused to meet with Premiers. His government froze funding for services like health care, childcare, & housing. He refused to work with provinces on climate change. His ministers disrespected Indigenous governments & communities. https://twitter.com/TheTorontoSun/status/1148352362815393792 …
A tour of seniorPMO
Twitter accounts is undoubtedly the best place to see where Liberal
priorities are these days. You will find lots of conversion therapy, a
heaping helping of abortion, and lots of partisan campaign photos. What
you won't find is an equal dollop of concern for the two Canadians
abducted in China, a looming global trade war, lack of movement on the
NAFTA ratification, or the current fiscal position of the government,
which will hamper any response to a downturn.
In other words,
it's all politics all the time. Canadians can expect a steady stream of
Liberal bile from here until election day.
This column is part of CBC's Opinion section. For more information about this section, please read our FAQ.
Andrew
MacDougall is a Canadian-British national based in London who writes
about politics and current affairs. He was previously director of
communications for former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper.
The
Liberals have moved to conversion therapy as the next front in the
culture war. After having turned down an opportunity to legislate
against the practice in the spring session, the Liberals are now saying
Scheer can't be trusted to do the right thing. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)
. The @andrewscheer Conservatives are showing their real colours again. https://twitter.com/mtlgazette/status/1146888681917157376 …
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