The sparks are still flying in Ottawa !

The fury is still raging at home from what I am seeing on the Net from here.

The Fortier Senate appointment has met with some resistance and surprise amongst the Conservatives:

"OTTAWA—A day after stunning many Western Conservatives with the appointment of a party organizer to the Senate and then to cabinet, Prime Minister Stephen Harper moved to soothe their feelings, suggesting the Tories may hold Senate elections in conjunction with the next federal vote.

According to caucus sources, Harper said he hopes to be able to fill any remaining vacancies in the Senate the next time voters go to the polls in a federal election — which is likely to happen within the next 18 months.

"The idea is to let Elections Canada run it; there's no need for any constitutional amendment, although there would presumably have to be discussions with the provinces," said a Tory source who was heartened by Harper's pledge ".

And from the journalistic Hell Hath No Fury department, Michel Vastel wades in reminding everyone who Michel Fortier is closely associated with Brian Mulroney:

Stephen Harper, l'ingrat!

Faire élire, de peine et de misère, 17 députés en Colombie-Britannique, et demander à un député libéral de changer de chemise pour entrer au conseil des ministres, ce n'est pas vraiment la nouvelle façon de faire les choses que nous a annoncée Stephen Harper.

Au fait, lequel est le plus opportuniste: le vire-capot libéral? Ou le chef conservateur calculateur?Faire élire, encore plus de peine et de misère, dix députés au Québec, et en laisser six de côté parce que les affairistes de Montréal avaient peur d'être laissés à l'écart du pouvoir, ce n'est pas vraiment la vertu qu'on nous avait annoncée...Michael Fortier fut un associé important du cabinet d'avocat Ogilvy Renault.

Ceux qui verraient dans sa nomination l'influence d'un certain Brian Mulroney ne seraient que des mauvaises langues.

Question: où est le Stephen Harper qui nous jurait, la main sur le coeur, qu'il faudrait être élu pour siéger au cabinet? Ou qu'il faudrait démissionner de son poste de député et se représenter immédiatement sous la bannière du parti au pouvoir avant d'accéder au cabinet?

Réponse: si Harper voulait vraiment nommer un authentique sénateur conservateur de la région de Montréal au cabinet, pourquoi pas Pierre-Claude Nolin? Et pourquoi Stephen Harper s'est-il tant offensé de la défection de Belinda Stronach?Ça pue la politique, monsieur Harper, et nous attendions un peu mieux que cela de vous, cher premier ministre...

Par Michel Vastel le 6 février 2006 @ 19:07:27

It didn't get any better when I was reading this item:

Ian Bailey, The Province
Wednesday, February 08, 2006

A furious David Emerson lashed out at the federal Liberal Party last night after his former riding association demanded that he repay close to $100,000 in campaign costs.

Emerson said his children -- a son, 14, and daughter, 12 -- were bearing the brunt of attacks over his defection to the Conservative Party this week.

"My kids are being treated with hostility in school because of what's being said. My kids are crying because of what's being said at school," Emerson told The Province from Ottawa.

His outburst came after the riding association that helped elect Emerson in Vancouver-Kingsway last month told him it wants him to repay $96,755."

Let's say that from here, it doesn't look like the Harper Conservatives are doing as well as their election campaign.

Fellow Canadian travellors didn't sound impressed by these two choices.

We went shopping today and I saw this fellow on the local bus holding a chicken.

I knew you wouldn't believe without seeing so here's the pic:



Time to savour some of the National products: rum, sugar, rice, and chicken....

Conservative Majority: One cabinet post at a time

Just some quick thoughts.

Does anyone remember l'affaire Grewal, the Stronach non-confidence defection and the Brison crossover ?

I do and I am certain that many of you do as well.

Mr. Harper ran on a platform of change and accountability.

Offering a Cabinet post to former Liberal Industry Cabinet Minister isn't doesn't support the talk we all heard about Liberal scandals and so on...

Mr. Emerson if you recall was part of the Martin Liberals until a few days ago, he ran with the Liberal platform.

The comments in today's news are harsh, and rightfully so.

Elevating an unelected person to a Senate position and placing him in a Senior Cabinet position (Public Works) doesn't sound much like Senate reform from this vantage point.

And now we return you to our regularly scheduled programming:

Where are we ?

It's hot, it's sunny, it's an island, they grow coffee and sugar and it's...



Next, shopping in a very old city.

The Lagoon

Sorry, no pictures today we were using a waterproof camera.

We swam in a lagoon deep in a jungle.

There were a lot of campaign signs along the way, like road repairs, sidewalk maintenance the stuff the inhabitants here see every 4 years when an election is held.

Something, like when we have the run up to an election in Canada....

I will have some interesting pictures of the campaign HQ's here when I come back.

It's nice to see that Chuck Strahl and John Baird made it into cabinet.

Super Bowl

Miles away from the United States and the Super Bowl is on 2 televisions in the Pizza Parlour.

In Spanish.

Amazing.

Tomorrow, the new PM get's sworn in. I am certain that he is just thrilled at one Paul Martin's last administrative acts, that would be Mr. Dingwall's $417,780 entitlement.

A lot of the Europeans staying here are concerned about the cartoons depicting the prophet Mohamed as a terrorist. The cartoons have set off a big wave of protests and threats in many of their respective countries.

Still, it's pretty hard to think of such events when you're looking at this:

We visited a small remote island in the ocean and saw some beautiful tropical fish. Just one thing, I wish those pesky convention people would go away...

Tomorrow, we go into the jungle and see how they grow sugar cane and coffee.

Ola !

Two of the Gomery recommendations which I have been pondering over are :

Deputy ministers and other senior public servants should be hired through an open and competitive process, and given greater job security, including minimum terms of office, to guard them from the threat of retribution.

Political staff working in cabinet ministers' offices should be prevented from giving orders to civil servants, and banned from getting public service jobs without going through formal hiring competitions when they leave political life – when their boss is defeated in an election, for example.

I wonder how these recommendations will be enabled in light of the new Public Service Employment Act (PSEA).

The new PSEA defines a political activity as:

• carrying on any activity in support of, within or in opposition to a political party;
• carrying on any activity in support of or in opposition to a candidate before or during an election period; or
• seeking nomination as or being a candidate in an election before or during the election period.

The regulations concerning appointments have been broadened in order to permit managers to select the candidate of their choice even if the candidate is not the "most" meritorious.

It will be interesting to see how that plays out. It would be possible to tailor the competition poster to specific candidates.

Anyway, down here no one cares about Gomery. They have their own election campaign in full swing.

I was on the beach, and you can't escape those convention people:

I would rather see this:

Back to the beach....tomorrow, we see and feed the fish !

Arrival

Well this is a little better than last time.

I have a descent connection.

The computer is a little better, the screen is a 13 in samsung.

I had a chance to read on the plane. I haven't much to add on the Gomery material I posted.

Warren's item in the Post on Gomery, Inside was good.

We checked in very tired from our 3 AM wake up to catch the plane.

It's a very nice resort, we have a spectacular view on the ocean and the kids are enjoying their stay.

There's some sort of convention going on here as you can see for yourself from this picture.

Speaking of which, the Liberal leadership race has few takers. I was confident Allan Rock would have given it a try.

I guess I will have to start reading the Big Red Machine to try and see if there's any past precedent for so many non condidates.

Until then, I am off to do some sailing.

Destination: Due South

Different look today.

Well that's because the main website is linking to this blogger site and I will hopefully be posting to this page until February 10, 2006.

Why ?

The Oracle Of Ottawa is taking a leave of absence from Ottawa on February 2nd, 2006.

The bags are packed with the bare essentials of life (we will be lucky if the plane flies above a 1,000 meters) , the tickets (costing the equivalent of the GNP of Swaziland) are bought, the resort (the rooms this country are always a bit of a roll of the dice) is booked and the kids are excited (as they should be) .

This item was prepared well before we left Ottawa, as you read this item on February 2nd, 2006.

I will have left this

For this

Where exactly is it ?

Well, let's call it a variant of CBC's campaign confidential:

Vacation Confidential

Here's some pictures of our destination taken by previous visitors:

Now I said "hopefully be posting to this page" because having been to this place before, I am "painfully" aware of it's technological limitations.

The last time I was here, it cost $5.00 US per 30 minutes of Internet use. Sounds like a good deal until you get your hands on the computer. The computer I was using was an old Pentium 1, 133 Mhz IBM clone with a small 14 inch screen running Windows 98 (first edition).

So we'll see how that goes (if I manage to post).

If I do manage to secure a half decent connection, I may even have some "guest bloggers" post some insightful material.

You never know.

What will I be watching online when I will be there and should I manage to get a connection:

• The Final Gomery Report coverage and reaction.
• The Harper Cabinet selection
• Liberal leadership race
• Bourque Newswatch
• The blogs on this blog roll

I will be back before the Winter Olympics, should the plane manage to leave the ground with the "bare essentials of life" in tow.

Now where's that book on Punk Rock....