The gimmick was solid. Tom Clark of Global News’ West Block show was offering a flight in his little single engine airplane to the three party leaders. All they had to agree to was an on-camera interview in the air. Both Liberal Justin Trudeau and New Democrat Tom Mulcair accepted and the interviews were aired. Nobody expected a control freak like the Prime Minister to accept and we thought that covered it.
But we forgot about the wannabes. Just because the Prime Minister said ‘no’ that hardly means that those potentially vying for his party leadership would not want coverage. The Bobbsey Twins must have whined a lot to Tom. While he might have been able to take them both, the twins are overweight and if the choice is between taking two twins or enough fuel, the sensible pilot opts for fuel.
And that was why Canada’s Minister of Employment and Social Development Jason Kenney was shown flying around in Tom Clark’s little airplane this past weekend. Not that there was much learned from the interview. While Kenney makes much about the workload of being Minister of Employment and Social Development, both jobs are low on the priorities of the Conservative government.
It took Kenney about a year to negotiate the changes provinces demanded in the federal training program to get the program working. This hardly deterred the Harper government though as it had immediately spent millions promoting the training program as a cornerstone of its mythical Economic Action Plan. It is likely more money has been spent by the Conservatives telling Canadians about the program than on any training.
Kenney is also Minister of Multiculturalism. In this role, he mines new Canadian ranks for potential Conservative voters. He was the guy credited with creating those mixed racial walls of people who stand behind the Prime Minister at news conferences to make Canadians think that people of all races support the Conservative government. The participants always look so bored he frankly would have done better to hire the old musical group The Village People.
The only insight that viewers might have gained from the interview was that Kenney was once a Liberal until he found out that he was really a social conservative. That does happen sometimes.
Hopefully we will hear something more substantive when Tom Clark gives a lift to the other Bobbsey Twin, Foreign Minister John Baird. Being from Ontario, Mr. Baird has never seemed to have a problem knowing which way he leans.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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