CANADIAN POLITICS: Are MP Dechert emails with Xinhua reporter's Shi Rong an evidence of Chinese espionage?

Are Canadian MP Dechert emails with Xinhua reporter's Shi Rong an evidence of Chinese espionage?


OTTAWA, 17/09/2011

As Ottawa fosters closer economic ties with Beijing, the news that a Conservative MP exchanged flirtatious emails with a reporter from China's state-run news agency has raised questions about possible Chinese spying activity in Canada.

Last week, a series of emails came to light that appeared to reveal a close friendship between Bob Dechert, MP for Ontario riding Mississauga-Erindale, and Shi Rong, a Canada-based reporter for China's state news agency, Xinhua.

In the emails, which Shi has said were distributed by her husband, Dechert tells her she is beautiful, encourages her to watch a Parliamentary vote on television so she can see him smile at her from the Commons floor, and asks if she was able to get enough information for a story about how Canadian banks responded to the global financial crisis.

Dechert issued a statement in which he acknowledged that the emails are "flirtatious," but said the relationship between the two is a friendship that "remained innocent and simply that -- a friendship."

But the controversy has led to speculation that Shi is really a spy who cultivated a relationship with Dechert, a parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, in order to gain access to sensitive government information.

Charles Burton, who has served at Canada's embassy in Beijing on two separate diplomatic postings and has worked as a consultant for the federal government on Chinese affairs, said "certainly a lot of circumstances point to something irregular about this."

Communication between the two appears to have been started after Dechert accompanied Prime Minister Stephen Harper on a December 2009 trip to China, when he would have come to the attention of Chinese officials who may have been on the lookout for a Canadian target, Burton said.

Shi also appears to have written little for Xinhua, which suggests reporting is not her primary function in Canada. And Dechert's queries about her article on Canadian banks raises the question of whether he helped her gain access to the executives interviewed for the story.

"So you put it all together and a lot of questions are raised," Burton told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview. "Questions which should be looked into by the RCMP in an investigation that I imagine Mr. Dechert would welcome because it would clear his name if in fact there's nothing there that the government should be concerned about."

For his part, Baird dismissed the controversy, saying he still trusts the junior minister to continue in his job. Baird has since refused to make further comment on the story.

While opposition MPs have so far declined to call for Dechert to step down from his post, they have questioned his judgment in developing a relationship with a representative from China's state-controlled news agency.

"We all knew that particular paper was basically a front for the Chinese government, both as a propaganda tool but also as an espionage tool they use periodically," NDP justice critic Joe Comartin told The Canadian Press. "That was pretty well known."

Burton agreed, saying that as a diplomat who has served in China, he was briefed by a security officer from the Department of Foreign Affairs to be wary of being approached by representatives of Xinhua.

Parliamentarians and parliamentary secretaries must be receiving the same briefings, he said.

"When entrusted with classified documents and in a position of influence, there are certain classes of people that you cannot have close personal friendships with, and I would put correspondents for the Xinhua news agency right up at the top of that list," Burton said. "It just wouldn't be a good idea to develop a personal relationship with someone who is the agent of a foreign power."

Angry spouse exposes emails

According to Burton, Dechert fits the profile of a prime espionage target, according to how the Chinese intelligence apparatus is known to work. An agent will identify a middle-level minister who has influence and access, but is not among the upper tier of ministers or senior officials who are too well-protected from falling prey to subversion.

An agent will cultivate his or her source over a long period of time in the hope that he or she gains access to ever more sensitive information. As the relationship deepens, the target may be encouraged to seek jobs that give the agent better contacts. And targets likely don't even realize they are being duped until it's too late.

"The kind of thing we are speculating Mr. Dechert was involved in is certainly something that one has seen over and over and over again, not just with China, but in the Cold War with the Russians and so on," Burton said.

What's troubling to Burton is that the Dechert emails were revealed by an apparently angry spouse and not via a security check or investigation by the RCMP. Dechert's security clearance was renewed in March after he passed a routine round of security checks.

But the incident does not come as a complete surprise. Canada's spy chief recently warned that Canadian politicians, civil servants and other groups are susceptible to "threats, coercion or potential blackmail."
Dick Fadden, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said Canada is a target for "foreign interference" due to natural resources, technological and scientific innovation and close relations with world powers.

Fadden has not singled out China in his reports on foreign spying, but he has not denied media suggestions that it is among the nations he is referring to.

There are also ongoing concerns about cyber attacks, particularly in the wake of attempts earlier this year to crack the networks of both the Treasury Board and the Finance Department. Those incidents are suspected to be the work of Chinese hackers.

Closer ties, greater vigilance

After years of chilly relations with China, the Harper government has been seeking closer ties with the nation's communist government in an effort to entice investment and boost trade.

In July, Baird visited China and hailed the two countries' close relationship, which includes a 57-per-cent boost in trade over the past five-and-a-half years. Baird noted that China is Canada's second-largest trading partner, with $14 billion worth of Chinese investment in Canada.

While closer ties with China allow Canada to diversify its trade markets and decrease dependence on a shaky U.S. economy, Burton said the government must still be wary of the threat of spying.

"It's normal that foreign states will try and engage in espionage activities to further their state goals. It's incumbent on us to take measures to try and counter these things, so that the Canadian national interest is not harmed," he said.

Burton said Beijing is known to be involved in the theft of intellectual property, military secrets, financial data and other information that it deems useful for advancing business, and therefore government, interests.

Allowing the Chinese or others to gain access to sensitive information could have devastating consequences on Canada's relationship with the United States, and with NATO allies.

Countering Chinese espionage would require a significant financial investment at a time when the federal government is warning of belt-tightening amid the ongoing economic recovery. Greater resources must be allocated to the RCMP and other agencies to monitor Chinese intelligence activities in Canada. This includes staff that speak the language, who can sift through reams of intelligence.

"If Canada is seen as a more-or-less open field for Chinese espionage because we're not doing anything about it, basically it's like leaving the doors unlocked kind of thing," Burton said.


Harper backs Mississauga MP in flirty email furor


OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper is standing up for a parliamentary secretary who was involved in a now controversial relationship with a reporter for the Chinese state news agency.


With Mississauga MP Bob Dechert gone to ground and Toronto-based Xinhua journalist Shi Rong reportedly having returned to China, it was left to the Conservative party leader to answer for his junior minister’s affairs of the heart.

Harper said there was no cause for concern because there was no proof that Dechert, who is married, shared privileged government information with the woman.

“I have no information that links this in any way to any government business,” he said at an event in Saskatchewan.

The relationship came to light one week ago when someone hacked into Shi’s email account and sent a series of flirty emails that she and Dechert had exchanged to more than 200 of her contacts. The list of recipients includes academics, Bay St. business leaders, Chinese foreign ministry officials, Canadian political operatives and personal contacts, including a Toronto youth soccer club.

The emails, dating back to April 2010 and often signed “Love, Bob,” have caused a fuss in the capital because of Xinhua’s close links to the Chinese government and its secretive role gathering foreign intelligence for senior Communist Party officials in Beijing.

One of those who received the emails said he had been contacted on several occasions in Shi’s capacity as a journalist about topical issues in the news.

While allowing that Xinhua performs legitimate journalism for both Chinese and English language media, he said he was aware of their secretive missives back to Beijing, contained in “internal reports” as well as reports of their espionage activities.

“These aren’t the types of people I would pick out to be my buddies,” said the person, who asked that his name not be used.

The New Democrats have called for Dechert, 53, to resign his position as parliamentary secretary to Foreign Minister John Baird as well as ask the federal ethics commissioner to clear the cloud of suspicion surrounding his relationship with Shi.

A neighbour says she hasn’t seen Dechert or his wife, Ruth Clark, return to their home in a high-end Mississauga neighbourhood for about five days. She described the couple as “very nice.”

At his Mississauga constituency office, Dechert’s executive assistant said the MP was not in but would be returning to his Ottawa office on Monday.

Dechert emails underline need to guard against Chinese espionage: Expert


OTTAWA — Amidst the brewing scandal that is slowly enveloping the Harper government over the supposedly "flirtatious" emails of a Tory MP with a foreign journalist who may actually be a Chinese spy, two questions stand out.

Why hasn't Prime Minister Stephen Harper dumped MP Bob Dechert yet from his privileged post as parliamentary secretary to the foreign affairs minister?

And if this affair isn't stickhandled delicately, will this embarrassing episode mushroom into a much bigger problem that threatens to derail Harper's plan to repair Canada-China relations?

Foreign policy and security experts said Wednesday that the answers aren't clear, but at the very least, Harper should now recognize that Canada needs to reinforce its intelligence apparatus to guard against Chinese espionage.

Brock University professor Charles Burton, a former political and economic counsellor in the Canadian embassy in China from 1998 to 2000, said it's clear the Asian economic giant will continue to conduct espionage.

Already, this has occurred in areas such as commerce, the military and the cyber sphere. Earlier this year, just a few blocks from Parliament Hill, the computer system of a key government department — the Treasury Board — was apparently infiltrated by hackers believed to be based in China.

And Burton confirmed that — while experts are now puzzling over why Dechert chose to have a very friendly relationship with Xinhua news agency's Toronto correspondent, Shi Rong — it was clear to him as a diplomat in Beijing that he should be wary of such activities.

"Before I left, I received a briefing from the security people in Foreign Affairs talking about exactly this sort of thing. When I was a diplomat in China I was occasionally approached by young women through different means — email or instant message — suggesting that we might want to meet up. But I didn't do that."

Burton added that the appropriate thing for Dechert to do now would be to "step aside" while the RCMP conducts an investigation.

A key question, he said, would be whether the "young Chinese woman" was sending emails and photos of herself to the much older Dechert simply out of pure romance, or whether she "wants something from him."

"If I got such letters, as soon as I found out the photographs were from someone from the Xinhua news agency, I would be hitting the delete button pretty quick. Mr. Dechert evidently didn't appreciate that."

After initially adopting a hostile approach to China five years ago, the Tory government is now pursuing a foreign policy to promote a stronger trading relationship with that country. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird visited China recently and Harper is expected to make his second visit there this fall.

"They have to appreciate that we can't go into it with blind or naive enthusiasm," Burton said of the Tories.

"As we engage China more closely there's going to be more opportunity for Chinese intelligence agencies to engage in more spying. Therefore, commensurate to strengthening our capacity to trade and investment with China, we should be strengthening our capacity to counter Chinese espionage activities."

So far, at least, Harper and Baird are standing by Dechert — a much different approach from the quick retribution that was unleashed on then foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier in 2008.

At that time, he resigned from cabinet after leaving sensitive NATO briefing papers at the apartment of his girlfriend, Julie Couillard, who had connections to biker gangs.

But this episode is being treated differently.

"No government likes to have to demote a secretary of state or minister if they don't feel they are absolutely compelled to," said security expert Wesley Wark, a visiting professor at the University of Ottawa.

"And presumably, from all that we've seen from the government's response, they believe that they can weather this storm, they can pooh-pooh it and they can wait it out."

Fen Hampson, director of the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, said Dechert is "damaged goods" and will eventually be shuffled out of his post — though not necessarily now.

"His credibility has obviously been thrown into question. My observation would be they're not going to throw him overboard today, but he might find himself swabbing decks tomorrow."

As for the broader question — will Dechert's actions be injurious to Canada-China relations — experts suspect Harper will do his best to prevent this from happening.

"What they're trying to avoid is this becoming a hot button issue in which bigger questions are raised about the activities of the Chinese government, or the activities of Chinese representatives," said Wark.

When Harper first came to power in 2006, his government was fiercely critical of the Chinese government over its human rights record. Also, then-foreign affairs minister Peter MacKay openly accused the Chinese of "economic espionage" in Canada.

Harper backed him up and said the espionage was well-documented, despite angry denials from the Chinese who complained the new Tory prime minister was endangering Canada-China relations with false accusations.

Since then, the Tories have dropped their pubic admonishments, and experts don't believe they will come out swinging in the case of Dechert.

"The preferred method that they have learned in government is to deal with it quietly and internally," said Wark.

"What the Harper government now realizes is that there is no point in making a public political brouhaha about Chinese espionage. It's not going to get you anywhere. It's not going to stop espionage and doing anything beneficial to Canada-Chinese relations."

In the case of Dechert, there's another reason why the Tories are reluctant to accuse the Chinese of establishing a spy operation through their journalist.

"They won't say that because when you say that, you're pretty well forced to expel them," noted Hampson. "And they'll do the same thing to our journalists. This is a tit for tat world and if you start pointing the finger at spies, then they will end our reciprocal arrangements to the journalists over there."

Dechert has, in past, had the support of Harper, who he accompanied on a trip to China in 2009 — later receiving the promotion as the right-hand man to Canada's foreign affairs minister.

But now, the leaked emails have turned him into a liability. The emails show that Dechert was writing to Shi, whose news agency is commonly regarded by experts as a intelligence-gathering operation for the Chinese government.

In the emails, written from his parliamentary office account, he describes her as "beautiful" and compliments her for how she looked in a photo "by the water with your cheeks puffed."

Dechert, who has not spoken to the media since the emails were leaked last week, released a written statement describing the emails merely as "flirtatious" and that he merely had an innocent "friendship" with Shi.

But experts question Dechert's political judgment in this regard.

They note that after the Bernier affair, Harper was determined to read the riot act to senior Tories so that there would not be another potential security breach.

Wark isn't so sure it worked.

"The message should have gotten out to all cabinet ministers and all political appointees, all secretaries of state. You have security responsibilities. You have to be aware of the security landscape and who might be operating against the interests of Canada. You have to be aware that people will contact you who are not what they appear to be, including journalists from foreign countries."


Shi Rong, journalist in Bob Dechert affair returns to China

The Chinese journalist enveloped by political scandal over amorous e-mails she received from MP Bob Dechert has returned home to China, sources say.


Until the Dechert affair broke, Shi Rong had been serving as the Toronto correspondent for Xinhua News Agency, an organization controlled by the Chinese government.

Ms. Shi was already due to head to Beijing for a previously scheduled vacation beginning in late September – but has now left Canada early. She is believed to have flown home earlier this week, possibly on Tuesday night.


Before the Dechert affair unfolded, Ms. Shi had arranged to spend a significant portion of October in China to get her Canadian work visa renewed and report back to headquarters at Xinhua.

Friends and acquaintances say the Chinese reporter faces an uncertain career future: It’s unclear whether Xinhua will return her to her job in Toronto or reassign her.

On Sept. 9, Mr. Dechert, a Conservative MP with special foreign affairs duties, admitted to sending “flirtatious” e-mails to Ms. Shi. He denied compromising Canadian secrets and said his messages – which include professing love for the younger woman – were part of an “innocent friendship.”

Canada’s top spy last year warned that the Chinese were trying to infiltrate Canadian politics. Western intelligence agencies consider Xinhua a tool of the Chinese state that collects information for Beijing.

The Dechert affair has drawn special attention to Beijing’s activities in Canada just as China is preparing to build up its public-relations outreach to Canadians.

China Daily, a state-run English-language newspaper, is planning an expansion into Canada - part of a ramped-up soft power campaign by Beijing to shape world opinion. The paper is preparing to publish an edition for distribution in Canada starting in December, a staffer in its New York office said Thursday.

Effectively a propaganda arm of the Chinese government, China Daily was launched in 1981 with the explicit aim of transmitting Beijing’s take on things to the world. The paper’s launch in Canada will include a heavy focus on Toronto and Vancouver.

The primary market isn’t the big numbers of ethnic Chinese in these cities, but rather Canadians of all backgrounds in business, politics or academia, China Daily project manager Liu Lian said.

“We are planning to set up local offices and target Canadian audiences, but the edition will probably be called China Daily North America instead of China Daily Canada,” Ms. Liu said.

She said the paper will feature China-related news on business, politics and culture – as well as Canadian stories that relate to China. “We try to present China in what we would say is a more well-rounded perspective,” Ms. Liu said.

The move comes two years after China Daily launched a U.S. edition.

Other state-controlled media have flourished as China’s economy has grown rapidly over the last decade. CCTV – China Central Television – has been relaunched, and the Xinhua newswire, has undergone massive expansion.
China’s moves are in sharp contrast to how most Western media organizations are shrinking their foreign operations.

China Daily has historically been a turgid read, but has gotten livelier and slicker in recent years.

It’s clearly aimed at readers outside of China. Electronic versions of China Daily stories are regularly accompanied by an invitation to use Twitter to spread the story online, even though Twitter is blocked in the People’s Republic of China.

The newspaper is currently surveying Canadians through two market research firms to prepare for the launch, asking respondents what kind of news they’d like, how they see China and how they consider the Asian country relevant to their lives and careers.

China Daily has made no secret of how it views the Western media. In 2010, responding to a BBC poll of how various countries regard each other, the paper said public opinion about China was shaped by the Western media, which it described as “unsuitably seasoned with misunderstanding, misinterpretation or even bias and enmity.” At the time, China Daily held out hope for change in its favour. “As mutual understanding deepens, public opinion will change,” it said.

Chinese reporter, ‘Old Fox’ more than friends in e-mail


Bob Dechert calls “flirtatious” messages he sent to a journalist with China’s state media part of an innocent friendship but among the cache of leaked e-mails that brought this to light is an especially personal letter about an entanglement gone sour – one that raises more questions.


•China’s Xinhua a trap for unwary Western politicians

•Bob Dechert is flirting with trouble

•Workplace e-mail: What’s appropriate and what’s not

The Harper government treated this missive, written in Chinese, seriously enough that it went to the trouble of translating it while investigating what transpired between Mr. Dechert, 53, and Xinhua News Agency correspondent Shi Rong.

Mr. Dechert is a Conservative MP with special duties to assist the Minister of Foreign Affairs, while Ms. Shi is the Toronto correspondent for Xinhua, an organization that Western counter-intelligence agencies consider a tool of the Chinese state. Both are married.

The e-mail, titled “Old Fox,” was part of the same bundle of e-mails hacked from Ms. Shi’s inbox last week and sent without her consent to more than 240 business, academic and political contacts. She blames her husband for the leak.

Mr. Dechert is never mentioned by name in this note, a fact Tory government officials cite when defending their decision to stand by the MP.

This e-mail, however, appears to be counselling Ms. Shi on a relationship she’s having with an older man – something that was more than a friendship and is now on the rocks.

Dated June 26, 2010, it was purportedly sent to Ms. Shi by fellow Xinhua correspondent Qu Jing.

“About the old man, tune him out,” reads the e-mail from Ms. Qu, which then goes into a lengthy diatribe about how men treat their girlfriends as “clothes” that they can wear or discard as they see fit.

“About the sad tales you told me about him keeping you waiting for a long time, put it out of your mind. I have experienced the same,” Ms. Qu writes to Ms. Shi. “Sweep him into dust bin, he is not good enough for you.”

Members of the Harper government, which has refused to fire Mr. Dechert from his parliamentary secretary post, keep repeating that the MP has denied any “inappropriate behaviour” and that it has “no information to suggest otherwise.”

In e-mails that that Mr. Dechert has already admitted writing – and are widely circulated in the media – he professes his love for Ms. Shi and fawns over a picture of her.

The Mississauga Erindale MP did not respond to a request for an interview Tuesday and Ms. Shi has avoided answering media calls since the story broke.

University of Toronto political scientist Nelson Wiseman, who has been interviewed by Ms. Shi in the past, said he is surprised Mr. Dechert hasn’t been removed from his duties.

“It’s really bad judgment,” he said of Mr. Dechert’s conduct. “There’s no doubt Xinhua is strictly under the thumb of the Chinese authorities.”

Little is known about Ms. Shi. Mr. Wiseman said she told him she’d previously studied in England and was especially interested in the works of Oscar Wilde.

He said during past interviews he pressed Ms. Shi on how Xinhua works.

It is taken as a given by those who study China and its security apparatuses that correspondents sent abroad by the Xinhua newswire are agents of the state, and journalists only on the side.

“I explicitly asked her whether she belongs to the Communist Party,” Mr. Wiseman said.

“And she danced around it and said no.”

And I said ‘Well, hold it, how can you work for them without being a member?’ So she said she was just very good [at her job], as if her other qualities had made up for that.”

He said he didn’t give this much credence.

Xinhua colleagues of Ms. Shi described her as a “naive” rookie foreign correspondent and denied that the newswire’s reporters engage in espionage.

A long-time Xinhua correspondent, retired after 40 years with the newswire and two postings abroad, said he and his colleagues were too busy trying to appease editors in Beijing to do espionage on the side. He said demands on correspondents are even higher since Xinhua – like media companies worldwide – expanded operations in recent years to include broadcast and online media.
•Tory MP who flirted with Chinese reporter passed security check

•Baird stands by MP who flirted by e-mail with Chinese reporter

There’s a curious dynamic being played out in political Ottawa when it comes to Bob Dechert, the beleaguered and embarrassed Conservative MP.




While the New Democrats wasted no time in calling for his resignation, questioning whether national security has been breached, the Liberals are being more circumspect and refusing to join in the pile-on.



More related to this story

•Chinese reporter, ‘Old Fox’ more than friends in e-mail

•Bob Dechert is flirting with trouble

•China’s Xinhua a trap for unwary Western politicians

Why Liberals have not raised the issue of potential espionage and security breaches?

According to a senior Liberal MP, the third party does not believe that Canada’s national security was compromised by Mr. Dechert’s amorous e-mail exchanges with a female journalist working for China’s state-run news agency.

It’s not the first or last time someone did something silly, the MP told The Globe. And Prime Minister Stephen Harper is notorious for not sharing information with even his ministers, so why would he tell Mr. Dechert secrets, the Liberal added.

As a result, the Grits won’t be raising the issue in the House when Parliament resumes next week after its summer break – unless new and more incendiary information comes out.

Mr. Dechert, a Mississauga Tory MP and parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, has admitted to a flirtatious email relationship with Shi Rong, the Toronto correspondent for Beijing’s Xinhua News Agency. But he maintains their relationship was innocent – Mr. Baird and the government have stood by him, saying he will remain in his post.

Given that Western counter-intelligence agencies view Xinhua with a high degree of suspicion, NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar says the government’s stand is unacceptable.

“He holds an important portfolio which requires professionalism and discretion,” Mr. Dewar told The Globe. “Unfortunately, this has devolved into a distraction. The right thing to do is for him to step aside from his portfolio until this incident can be properly investigated,” he said.

The Liberals have adopted an entirely different strategy.

Interim Leader Bob Rae has repeatedly refused to comment on the issue. On Sunday at a concert in Ottawa commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Mr. Rae told The Globe he was not going to weigh in on the affair and he has refused to return subsequent e-mail requests on the matter.

Other Liberal MPs have carefully chosen their words. John McCallum, for example, has said that Mr. Dechert “exhibited poor judgment” but he did not call for his resignation. “My own view is that if we are continuously calling for resignations at every misstep, we devalue the message,” Mr. McCallum told The Globe Wednesday morning.

Liberal foreign affairs critic Dominic LeBlanc did not call for Mr. Dechert’s head either. On CBC’s Power and Politics Tuesday, he also called this a “personal embarrassment” for the Tory MP but said he should not have to resign.

“Mr. Dechert clearly showed some lapse in judgment,” Mr. LeBlanc said. “Our view however is at the end of the day the Prime Minister has to take responsibility for issues of national security. ... Mr. Harper has to investigate and satisfy himself there was in fact no breach of security and no compromising of foreign relations.”

A happy coincidence for a jocular Conservative

Defence Minister Peter MacKay is taking a break from the situation in Libya to enjoy his favourite sport – he’s in Whangarei, New Zealand, for the Rugby World Cup.

The trip is on Wellington’s tab. And he’s also doing some work on defence issues between New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

Thank goodness he is there as he was able to represent the Harper government in congratulating Canada’s team Wednesday on their upset victory over Tonga. It was Canada’s opening match and they beat Tonga 25 to 20.

A veteran rugby source says Mr. MacKay went into the Canadian dressing room after the match and that he was very well received by the team.

Industry Minister Tony Clement, who also appears to be following the tournament from Canada, took to Twitter to gloat: “Eat our dust, Tonga.”

Asked about the genesis of Mr. MacKay’s trip, spokesman Jay Paxton said his boss is “engaging in high-level discussions with Australia and New Zealand on defence, and specifically, defence transformation issues.”

“The goal of these discussions is to find efficiencies in the defence budget in order to save Canadian taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars while ensuring that front line troops and their families have the support they need to do the jobs asked of them,” he explained.

Mr. Paxton noted that “while in New Zealand, Minister MacKay is a guest of government which means New Zealand is bearing all costs relating to in-country transportation and accommodation.”

The New Zealand government also invited the Prime Minister, as the Rugby World Cup is one of the largest sporting events in the world. According to the New Zealand Herald, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron were also invited.

CANADIAN POLITICS: Liberal MPs Trudeau, Rae dismiss NDP merger talk

Liberal MPs Trudeau, Rae dismiss NDP merger talk

Canada's opposition parties are focused on the future, as the New Democrats begin a new era without their charismatic leader Jack Layton and the Liberals renew their objections to merging the two parties together.

New Democrat staffers are moving into offices on Parliament Hill on Monday, where they will serve Acting Leader Nycole Turmel when Parliament resumes next month.


Until recently, the offices were populated by Liberals. But they are being claimed by the New Democrats, who are serving as the Official Opposition for the next four years.

While some pundits have suggested the Liberals should consider merging with the New Democrats to form a stronger alternative to the Conservatives, Liberal MP Justin Trudeau said that such a merger "is not in the cards."

Trudeau said that the Liberals are in a time of "re-think" and need to figure out a way to get back into the political game after suffering a historic defeat in May.

"We need to make sure that we're starting to connect with people," he told CTV News Channel from Ottawa. "But I've never been convinced that a merger is a viable option or a desirable option."

In fact, Trudeau said that the only people talking about combining the parties are reporters.

Brad Lavigne, NDP's national director, said the party is eager to return to Ottawa and to make their late leader proud.

"The party has never been more united than it is today. We've never had as much resolve," Lavigne told reporters in Ottawa on Monday.

"And we've never had such clarity of purpose as we do today coming out of the wonderful outpouring of support for Jack and the family."

Yet after the tragic loss of Layton, who died just a week ago, the party now finds itself dodging questions about who will pick up the leadership mantle from the late NDP leader.

Layton penned a deathbed letter in which he recommended that Turmel stay on as temporary leader until New Democrats elect a permanent successor.

But talk is already rampant about who could be in the race for the top NDP job, with several names emerging as possible leadership candidates. So far, Deputy Leader Thomas Mulcair and party president Brian Topp are two of the most oft-mentioned names.

Toronto-Spadina MP Olivia Chow, the widow of the recently deceased NDP leader, is also rumoured to be a potential leadership candidate.

CTV's Mercedes Stephenson said the early word is that no matter who succeeds Layton in the long term, the next leader will be obliged to continue to uphold the values that resonated with voters in the recent election.

"What NDPers are basically saying is that they see themselves as moving forward on the same values that they came to Official Opposition status with," Stephenson said.

"And that is their social democratic values. And they are saying that really, in particular in Quebec, this is what made them popular."

The New Democrats soared to new heights in the May election, seizing dozens of seats in Quebec and securing Official Opposition status for the first time ever.

Liberals look ahead to future

While the NDP saw new levels of success at the polls, however, the Liberals experienced new depths of failure.

Now a third-ranked party in the House of Commons, the Liberals hold just 34 seats and have been forced to take a hard look at what has made them lose support from Canadian voters.

A series of meetings taking place this week will focus on the rebuilding efforts that lie ahead for the Liberals.

On Monday, Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae said the party needs to change its ways.

"I think we really have to recognize that the party itself has to change, the party has to improve," Rae said.

"We've got to do a better job communicating with the public and communicating with each other."

Rae also dismissed any talk of a merger.

"People are free to talk about whatever they want to talk about, but it's not on my agenda at the moment. I think we really have to focus on the Liberal party."

Rae also dismissed any suggestion that the Liberals will be left out of the limelight in the fall, as a result of their diminished status in the Commons.

Pointing to the fact that New Democrats were able to have their voice heard in the last Parliament, Rae said the Liberals will be able to do the same.

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OTTAWA — Liberal interim leader Bob Rae on Monday accused the Conservative government of being a Canadian version of the Tea Party and using "whim or prejudice or ideology" when making decisions, starting with the economy.


At the same time, however, Rae said Canadians are looking for a Liberal "movement" that knows what it stands for and is prepared to take positions on issues that matter to them.

"Canadians want from us not simply a description of what we're against," he told party MPs, defeated candidates, senators and staff in a speech on Parliament Hill. "It's very clear they want a description of what we are for."

The comments came on the second day of a four-day conference organized by the party to study the last election and chart a new path forward.

Rae opened his address by paying respects to late NDP leader Jack Layton, whose funeral was in Toronto on Saturday.

With Layton's passing, some have predicted Rae will seek to position himself as the de facto official Opposition leader. And indeed, after telling reporters earlier in the morning that a merger with the NDP was not on his agenda, Rae used his afternoon speech to launch an unusually aggressive attack on the Conservatives and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

"The Liberal party finds itself in opposition to Mr. Harper," Rae said. "We are going to fight his government every single step of the way."

In a sign of the tone that could mark this coming session of Parliament, Rae accused the Conservative government of basing environmental, health-care, economic and justice policies on ideology. For example, he said, the government is more concerned with lower taxes and smaller government than creating jobs.

In contrast, he said, the Liberals "are a pragmatic, practical party that believes in putting people first." He said a Liberal government would be more flexible in how it balanced the need for fiscal responsibility with ensuring Canadians continue to prosper before rolling out a new mantra that was picked up by the cheering crowd.

"The message is not cuts, cuts, cuts," Rae said. "The message is jobs, jobs, jobs."

Not all the Liberal leader's criticisms, however, were directed at the government. In fact, a good portion of Rae's speech was directed at his own party.

"Let's realize folks that in the last decade," he said, "the nature of politics in this country has changed. The nature of political organization has changed. And so we have to change."

Rae said the country is in the middle of a permanent election campaign and acknowledged that the party needs better fundraising, more recruitment and real policies and positions that resonate with Canadians if it wants to compete with the NDP and Conservatives.

However, in a reference to the success those other two parties have had at reaching out to and embracing the views and aspirations of average Canadians, Rae eschewed the term "Liberal family."

"Families are not always the easiest institutions to join," Rae said. "And if we want to appeal to Canadians to become part of something, we're not asking you to move our family.

"We're asking you to join our movement, a movement for change."

Rae, who was interrupted by raucous applause and roars of approval several times, said that if the party can accomplish this difficult and complex task, the Liberals will be able to successfully vie for government in the next election in 2015.

In accepting the mantle of interim Liberal leader after Michael Ignatieff stepped down in May, Rae pledged he would not seek the job full time. Speculation of a potential leadership run in 2013, however, has continued.

At the end of his address on Monday, Rae appeared to poke fun at himself, encouraging the gathered Liberals to "follow my white plume . . . but only on an interim basis. Only on an interim basis."

Liberal Senator David Smith, who co-chaired the party's national campaign in the last election, was emotional after Rae's address.

"He spoke with passion and feeling and warmth," Smith said. "And I'll tell you, the caucus and the Liberals here are genuinely inspired. Genuinely."

CANADIAN POLITICS: Jack Layton dead at 61

Jack Layton dead at 61 - OTTAWA - Federal NDP Leader Jack Layton has died.

http://www.ndp.ca/

The party issued a statement this morning, just weeks after a gaunt Layton held a news conference to announce he was fighting a second bout of cancer.

The party says Layton died peacefully at 4:45 a.m. ET today at his Toronto home, surrounded by family and loved ones.

Funeral details have not yet been announced.

Like some political Moses, Jack Layton led his people out of the wilderness, only to die within sight of his own Promised Land.

In the preface to his 2006 book, "Speaking Out Louder," Layton wrote a passage that turned out to be eerily prescient:

"Oftentimes, life's highs and lows are inextricably linked. That has certainly happened to me and, occasionally, the ups and downs were virtually simultaneous."

In eight years as leader of the NDP he took his party to heady heights, but fell himself to a tragic disease at the age of 61.

The end came with a terse announcement.

"We deeply regret to inform you that the honourable Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, passed away at 4:45 am today, Monday August 22," said the statement from his wife, Olivia Chow, and children, Sarah and Michael.

"He passed away peacefully at his home surrounded by family and loved ones."

Funeral details have not yet been announced.

Layton rebuilt his party, muted its internal squabbles, united its fractious factions and weaned it from old-style dogma to present a face more palatable to middle-class voters.

He starred in the most successful election in the history of his party and won the title of Opposition Leader, which had eluded his more storied predecessors.

Layton hobbled across the hustings last spring, leaning on a cane against the pain of a surgically repaired broken hip. He shrugged off the effects of treatment for prostate cancer. His dogged campaigning as Le Bon Jack won him a majority of the seats in Quebec, a cherished but illusory goal for New Democrats for decades.

He slew the Bloc Quebecois and saw the long-dominant Liberal party reduced to a battered hulk.

Layton was ready for a new Canadian political alignment that would pit left against right across the moribund Liberal middle.

But the victory cup was dashed from his lips by the onslaught of another, more brutal cancer that wasted him to skin and bones — and killed him just 16 weeks after election day.

Layton went, in one short summer, from triumph to tragedy and left behind less a political legacy than a political question: What if?

He was a man who carried politics in his genes. A great-grandfather was a Father of Confederation. His grandfather, a Quebec provincial cabinet minister in a Union Nationale government. His father, a Tory cabinet minister under Brian Mulroney.

He was a believer. He made that clear in the first sentences of "Speaking Out Louder:"

"Politics matters. Ideas matter. Democracy matters, because all of us need to be able to make a difference."

Layton was born in Montreal on July 18, 1950. He grew up in Hudson, Que., an Anglo community complete with a celebrated yacht club. It was a small town, but hardly typical of small-town Quebec.

He was a child of the placid Fifties in a well-off family in a well-to-do town. He was a teen and university student of the Sixties, with all that went with a decade that has claimed the word "turbulent" as its singular descriptive.

Layton took his BA at Montreal's McGill University in the late 1960s, when radicalism blew through campuses like a stiff gale. The rebellious vigour of the times led him to political activism. He doffed the conservativism of his family and embraced socialism.

"Events in the Sixties and Seventies were formative for me," he wrote in "Speaking Out Louder."

"My path grew out of the tumultuous days of the October Crisis."

He became an activist, canvasser and organizer for a community movement in Montreal as a student.

By the time he earned his master's degree at Toronto's York University in 1972, his political genes had clearly activated. He had studied under Jim Laxer, a key figure in the Waffle movement that rocked the NDP at the time.

Layton taught at Ryerson University in Toronto. But by the time he received his PhD in 1984, he had already largely abandoned academic theory for community activism and then the practicalities of municipal politics.

"I was hooked on local politics and neighbourhood engagement," he wrote.

First elected in 1982, he served on Toronto and Metropolitan Toronto councils for 20 years, honing his instincts and skills at the level of retail politics. He was a politician in the mould of a people's tribune, with rolled-up sleeves, 14-hour days and seven-day weeks. Every hand was there to be shaken, every story was there to be heard, every windmill was there to be charged.

His politics were those of the poor, the homeless, the alienated, the disenfranchised. He served as vice-chair of Toronto Hydro, chair of the Toronto Board of Health and president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. He twice ran federally and lost.

Layton's first marriage to high-school sweetheart Sally Halford, which had produced two children, ended in 1983.

He would eventually team up with Olivia Chow, another municipal power-broker. Together they would become the go-to couple of the left in Toronto politics. They rode a tandem bicycle along the waterfront, entertained, led rallies, marched in parades, ran for office and won.

Chow would follow Layton into the House of Commons in 2006. And she would be beside him in the dark summer of 2011.

In his rise, Layton gained a reputation as a brash, aggressive, even abrasive figure.

On a trip to Calgary for a meeting of the federation of municipalities, he raised local hackles with dismissive comments about the city, its appetite for new buildings at the cost of older properties and even its ritzy new city hall. There was an outcry in the local media and Art Eggleton, then mayor of Toronto, dispatched his own apology for Layton's comments.

He also gained a reputation as a master of the political stunt and the over-the-top comment. Some joked that the most dangerous place to be around city hall was between Layton and a microphone, where one might get trampled.

Rightly or wrongly, the image of a loud lout shouting into the mike from the left side of any issue clung to him after he won the NDP leadership in 2003.

It was a leadership contest that pitted Layton and the trendy new left against Bill Blaikie and the traditional, Prairie populist wing. Blaikie was a United Church minister in the best traditions of NDP and CCF champions of old. Layton was an academic and a firebrand. Blaikie was a Manitoban, Layton was from Toronto, font of all evil for many Canadians, especially westerners.

Layton won on the first ballot and went into renovation mode. He began to rebuild and re-brand his party. He was a people person whose BlackBerry kept him linked to hundreds of organizers, fund-raisers, recruiters and policy wonks. He worked through meals and vacations, pushing himself and his goals.

He toned down the wild rhetoric, although he raised an uproar in the 2004 election campaign by accusing then-prime minister Paul Martin of responsibility for the deaths of homeless people because he failed to produce affordable housing.

Despite that, Layton won his Toronto-Danforth seat in Parliament in 2004, an election that left Martin's Liberals with a minority government. The NDP raised its seat total to 19 from 13.

It was a start. Layton criss-crossed the country to raise the party profile and in doing so, became the public face of the NDP. The trademark grin, the brush moustache, the earnest optimism, the trademark head tilt were the tools of his trade. The hellfire rhetoric cooled. This was reasonable Jack, optimistic Jack, the Jack of the kitchen table, not the street corner.

The approach seemed to strike a chord with regular folk.

In 2006, Layton's campaign produced 29 seats, but boosted its vote to 2.59 million. Momentum was building.

In 2008, Layton campaigned not as a third-party leader, but as a prime minister-in-waiting. The vote total slipped slightly, but his campaign won 37 seats, just six short of its then all-time high under Ed Broadbent.

By 2011, Layton was ready for a breakthrough. Despite the prostate cancer diagnosed in early 2010, despite the mysterious hip fracture, he was everywhere. In Quebec, his working-class French and his call to action on behalf of the ordinary family struck a note with voters grown weary of the Bloc and leery of the Liberals.

On May 2, about 4.5 million people cast ballots for the NDP, giving the party 103 seats — 59 from Quebec — and making Layton leader of the Official Opposition.

Just over two months later, looking pale and gaunt, he called a news conference to say he was suffering from another, unspecified cancer and he would temporarily step down as party leader. Nycole Turmel, rookie MP and veteran labour leader, took over in the interim.

Deuteronomy 34 says God took Moses up to a high place and showed him the Promised Land in the distance.

"I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord."

Statement today from Jack Layton's wife and two children:

"We deeply regret to inform you that The Honourable Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, passed away at 4:45 am today, Monday August 22. He passed away peacefully at his home surrounded by family and loved ones.

Details of Mr. Layton’s funeral arrangements will be forthcoming

Jack Layton dead at 61

Statement today from Jack Layton's wife and two children: "We deeply regret to inform you that The Honourable Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, passed away at 4:45 am today, Monday August 22. He passed away peacefully at his home surrounded by family and loved ones. Details of Mr. Layton’s funeral arrangements will be forthcoming."

OTTAWA–Jack Layton, the New Democratic Party leader who led his party to Official Opposition status in this year’s federal election, has died after a battle with cancer. He was 61.

“Your support and well wishes are so appreciated. Thank you,” Layton, posted to the social media site Twitter in July after announcing he was battling a new form of cancer. “I will fight this and beat it.”

It ended up being the last public announcement he would make in his long political career, which saw him evolve from campus activist to rabble-rousing left-wing municipal councilor to the most electorally successful leader of the federal New Democrats in history.

Layton had been on a leave of absence as party leader since July 25, when he temporarily stepped aside to fight a second — and evidently much more serious — bout of cancer.

It is cliché to say that a politician has politics in his blood, and yet there are few politicians who embody it the way Layton did, with his family involvement in the life reaching all the way back to the birth of the country.

There was his great-grand-uncle, William Henry Steeves, a bona fide father of Confederation from New Brunswick who also served as a founding member of the senate Layton has long wanted to abolish.

His great-grandfather, Philip Layton, came to Canada as a blind teenager and helped to found the Montreal Association for the Blind. He once threatened to march as many blind people as he could find to the steps of Parliament Hill to push for pensions for the visually impaired, the sort of attention-grabbing move that his great-grandson would use time and again.

Then his grandfather, Gilbert Layton, was a cabinet minister in the Union Nationale government of Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis, until he resigned in support of conscription for World War II.

His father, Robert Layton, an engineer devoted to the United Church, was chairman of the Conservative caucus under Brian Mulroney from 1984 to 1993 and served briefly as minister of energy, mines and resources.

“My dad taught me a lot of my values,” Layton told the Star in 1988. “I just don’t believe the party he chose is a vehicle for achieving those values.”

Layton looked to his father, who died in 2002, as a role model in his personal life too, especially when it became clear just how closely he was following in his footsteps.

“Like my dad, I am a fighter. And I will beat this,” Layton told reporters in February 2010 as he announced that he had been battling prostate cancer for the previous few months.

Layton grew up in the sleepy, affluent bedroom community of Hudson, Que., a mostly English-speaking enclave. He was president of the Hudson High School student council, and became prime minister of the Quebec Youth Parliament.

His yearbook predicted he would be a politician when he grew up, but Layton dismissed the idea that he—a jock who was hopeless at football but won a national swimming title at the age of 15 – was overtly political.

“I ran for student council president on a promise to get the Rolling Stones or an equally popular Montreal group called M.G. and the Escorts to play the dance. So no, I wouldn’t say I was political,” Layton told the Star in 1991.

Still, there were signs his political engagement – and a budding talent for procedural tactics – ran deeper than his ability to charm his peers into voting for him by promising to bring in Mick Jagger.

Layton noticed the French-speaking kids he played hockey with in Hudson did not enjoy the swimming pools and boat clubs alongside the richer English-speaking kids, having to swim in the polluted Ottawa River instead.

An oft-recounted anecdote that became even more prescient following the historic NDP breakthrough in Quebec in the spring election has a young Layton discovering in the rule book of the Hudson Yacht Club youth group that as junior commodore, he was allowed to invite as many guests as he wanted to the upcoming dance.

A hundred Francophone kids joined him at the dance that night and while what exactly happened next is unclear – the Hudson Yacht Club disbanded the youth group, or Layton quit in protest to their disapproval – the story of the progressive little guy taking on the right-wing establishment begins.

After graduation, Layton went to McGill University and, at 19 years old and against the advice of Robert and Doris Layton, married his high school sweetheart Sally Halford, with whom he had two children, Sarah and Michael.

Studying political science under philosopher Charles Taylor, Layton became enamoured with his theory of dialectics – the idea that change comes from the tension between opposing views.

“The reason I stick to a tough position on an issue is when I think there is still room for the conclusion to move. That’s from Taylor. He said it’s good to create debate because then you can create space within which new ideas can happen,” Layton told the Star in 1991.

“If you start with a compromise right at the beginning and no debate, you’re really only going with the status quote and buttering it up a little. No space is created for change to happen.”

The young couple moved to Toronto in 1972, where Layton began graduate studies at York University and began teaching urban politics at Ryerson two years later when he began his PhD. He would also teach at the University of Toronto and York.

His 1983 thesis, dedicated to Sally and his children, announced the family was about to embark on “the no-more-thesis era of family freedom,” but by that time another passion had already begun to consume his life.

Layton was first elected to Toronto city council in 1982, where he quickly made a name for himself as a brash left-wing reformer who relished the spotlight and knew how to seek it out.

The phone began ringing at home almost immediately, in the early morning hours after his first successful municipal election campaign.

It never stopped, although was later joined by the BlackBerry mobile device, which Layton used constantly to ask questions, give orders and develop strategy as quickly as his thumbs would allow.

“It’s mindboggling to me,” former NDP leader Alexa McDonough told Toronto Life in 2004, speaking of his work ethic after he succeeded her as leader. “People think I was a workaholic and I was intense, but I was nothing compared with this guy. He’s indefatigable.”

Layton and Halford separated and in 1985 he became involved with Olivia Chow, then a school board trustee who, like him, blurred the line between personal and political life.

They spent their first Christmas Eve together drafting a policy on school nutrition, and remembered that time fondly.

Even their 1988 wedding – on Algonquin Island, with the “horrendous harbourfront behind them,” recalled his mother – was as much about their commitment to Toronto, the environment and socially progressive causes as it was about their devotion to each other.

“We are the political partnership,” Layton told the Star in 2003, before they both became NDP MPs for downtown Toronto ridings. “No one has had more influence on the way I think and work than Olivia.”

Their chemistry was obvious. They finished sentences for each other, held hands in public, danced together at the biennial NDP policy convention in Vancouver in June like no one was watching, even while media and party faithful snapped pictures with their mobile phones and uploaded them to the Internet.

They sometimes rode a bicycle built for two.

They became a left-wing political power couple at city hall, twin rabble-rousers as known for their gimmicks as their causes, once wearing black gags to symbolize being silenced by other municipal politicians over their objection to a deal with Shell Oil.

They came under fire in 1990 when the Star reported they were living in subsidized co-op housing despite earning a combined annual salary of $120,000.

It was a mixed-rent building, they were paying market rent and the city solicitor cleared Layton of wrongdoing, but the story followed him around, another element of the image of Layton as a latte-sipping urban socialist who did not really practice what he preached.

“Jack once told me many years after that incident that it is the one thing he has never (been) able to purge or expunge from the public’s mind, this apparent contradiction,” his former council seatmate Brian Ashton told the Star in April.

Layton and Chow later bought an old Victorian semi-detached home on Huron St. in downtown Toronto, recognizable by the solar panels they put on the roof as part of a massive energy-efficient retrofit that allowed them to live nearly off the grid.

They were joined by Chow’s Cantonese-speaking mother, Ho Sze Chow, whose traditional cooking – along with the cleaning and the laundry – Layton talked about often, especially when his prostate cancer pushed him to eat more vegetarian fare.

“When I met Olivia, she told me that she was always going to live with her mother,” Layton, who spoke passable Cantonese, told Toronto Life in 2001.

She accompanied Layton, alongside his own mother, at a garden party for the press gallery held at Stornoway in late June, where the NDP leader, looking tired and weaker than he had been in months, held court at a corner table instead of mingling with the guests.

Chow showed off a dress she proudly proclaimed Layton had bought her as she flitted about the party, a red, white, beige and black sleeveless number she wore again at his side when he announced barely a month later that he was seeking treatment for a new kind of cancer.

It was the first night Layton and Chow slept at Stornoway, but it was not long before they were back in Toronto for tests at Princess Margaret Hospital after he complained of pain and stiffness.

Layton acknowledged there was something about him that rubbed some people the wrong way – he joked that it was his moustache – even though he believed it came from a misconception of who he was.

“People have a picture of me that’s a caricature,” Layton told the Star in 1991, during his unsuccessful bid for mayor. “Now, caricatures are always based on some element of truth – but they don’t give the whole picture.”

Layton nonetheless credited being faced with what others thought of him with helping him to evolve from protester to powerbroker, an epiphany that he said came as he introduced himself while speaking to a group of engineering students in the mid-1980s.

“Jack Layton? I thought your name was ‘But…,’ ” one of the students wisecracked, noting how the newspapers always included the line “But Jack Layton said…” in stories about a new development proposal. “I realized I was in the process of being typecast. I decided, ‘We’re going to switch from opposition to proposition,’ ” Layton told the Star in 2003.

It is a line Layton has used many times over the years, even trotting it out to describe how his supersized caucus of 103 New Democrat MPs would handle the transition from fourth-party status to Official Opposition.

It was his realization that he could get things done on a national scale that Layton said prompted his decision to run for the leadership of the federal NDP.

Layton said that moment came when, as president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in 2000, he built a nationwide campaign on affordable housing that led the federal government to commit more than $1 billion to the problem.

For good measure, Layton always pointed out that while he spearheaded the campaign that got mayors of major Canadian cities to declare homelessness a national disaster, then prime minister Jean Chrétien apparently told him that after giving some money to the provinces, Ottawa had lost interest in the issue.

Layton, who wrote a book on homelessness, would repeat that anecdote throughout his leadership campaign.

The establishment did not care about affordable housing and Layton got results. Ottawa was broken, as he would say during his last campaign, and he was going to fix it. As some former city council colleagues – and his municipal constituents – would say, fixing potholes was never his thing anyway.

As was the case on city council, Layton immediately displayed an ability to get more media attention than his small party stature deserved, making sure to come to the microphone at the right time to make up for not having a seat in the Commons when he first took the helm.

Marilyn Churley, who represented Toronto-Danforth for the NDP in the provincial legislature, credited Layton with teaching her everything she knows about getting noticed by the media when she moved from community activism to electoral politics.

“He taught me how to focus, how to grab media attention on issues, so you don’t bury an issue in too much detail … When to be hot, when to be cold,” Churley told Maclean’s in 2005.

Sometimes he was too hot.

During the 2004 federal election, for example, Layton accused then Liberal prime minister Paul Martin of being directly responsible for the deaths of homeless people when he cut affordable housing while balancing the budget as finance minister.

He later admitted that had been a mistake.

But Layton was able to get much more than headlines.

He parlayed his party into powerbroker status by getting Martin to include $4.6 billion in NDP priorities – including affordable housing – in the 2005 federal budget in exchange for supporting the minority Liberal government through a crucial vote.

The idea of working together to get results later lost out to the fear that continuing to support the Liberals would mean losing some of that clout and, later that same year, Layton voted with the Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois on a non-confidence motion to bring the government down.

The resulting election brought Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper to power, but it also gave the New Democrats more seats.

Working together was back in style in 2008, when Layton and then Liberal leader Stéphane Dion agreed to form a coalition that, with the support of the Bloc, would govern after the three opposition parties toppled the Conservatives shortly after the election.

“For decades, New Democrats and their predecessors have helped to shape the direction of this country. Much of what Canadians are so rightly proud of – Medicare and pensions and old age security – are the result of our party working with others,” Layton said during a news conference announcing the proposed coalition that would have made him a cabinet minister. “We’ve accomplished much by influencing government with sound and progressive ideas over the years. Now we are ready to continue that legacy inside the Government of Canada.”



The deal fell apart.



Harper was granted a prorogation of Parliament, Dion stepped down and was replaced by Michael Ignatieff, who decided to support the Conservative budget.



“We could all tell you could almost taste it,” Star reporter Richard Brennan, often a thorn in his side, thundered when Layton held a news conference to react to the development. “You wanted the chance to get into cabinet probably for the only time in your life. Isn’t this more about your personal dissatisfaction in how things unfolded rather than Michael Ignatieff?”



Layton, as always, appeared unruffled. It was about helping Canadians, Layton responded, and Ignatieff had denied them help when they needed it most by propping up the Conservatives.



It worked the other way as well.



Layton and the NDP proudly voted against the Conservatives on motion after motion and bill after bill – including ones that would have toppled the minority government – while mocking the Liberals for not being strong enough to take a similar stand.



Then in September 2009, when Ignatieff was ready to go to the polls with his ill-fated “your time is up” shtick, the NDP was suddenly holding the balance of power and supported the Conservative through a confidence motion to pass a home renovation tax credit.



The jokes stopped.



It was a pragmatic move, and pragmatism was something Layton brought to the NDP as he guided the party away from the fringes and into the spotlight through boosting its organization, strategies, communications, fundraising and even its policies, a shift to the centre that allowed the party to broaden its appeal to non-traditional voters.



Sometimes that meant being different things to different people, which often resulted in some awkward tongue-twisting on issues like the HST – bad in British Columbia and Ontario but all right in Nova Scotia, where the NDP provincial government raised it – or the Clarity Act.



For all the contradictions in message, Layton was remarkably on message, all the time.



Layton was cast as the politician who Canadians – and especially Quebecers – would most like to have a beer with and yet, when you did have a beer with him, he was little different than he was before the cameras.



Layton said he resisted labels.



“I don’t go around sticking labels on myself,” Layton told reporters in June when asked whether he considered himself a socialist. “Lots of other people have done that. I’ll leave that to them. Social democrat, democratic socialist – can very many people describe the difference?”



Yet it was Layton and his team who were behind a controversial move to modernize the language in the party constitution by eliminating references to socialism, something that proved too much too soon for grassroots members still coming to grips with electoral success.



Still, Layton knew how important the labour movement was to his party, even though a ban on union donations ? something Layton said he was thankful for ? meant they were not as closely allied as they had been in the past.



His relationship with labour got off to a rocky start when the heads of the Canadian Auto Workers and the Canadian Labour Congress both criticized him publicly for bringing down the Liberals in 2005, but then his first feat as leader of the Official Opposition was to lead a marathon filibuster in the Commons to stall back-to-work legislation for Canada Post workers.



The 58-hour debate, including an hour-long speech by Layton, who was still using a cane, ended up serving as a bonding exercise for the new caucus.



The NDP caucus became remarkably disciplined under Layton, with a media relations style that could be compared to a gentler version of what is employed by the Conservatives, especially after ranks swelled with 58 rookie MPs from Quebec.



After it emerged that Interim Leader Nycole Turmel (Hull?Aylmer) had been a card-carrying member of the Bloc for the five years leading up to her running for the NDP, one party staffer complained anonymously to RDI that there was a “profound unease” in the caucus.



The anonymous gripe prompted NDP insiders to joke the party had finally made the big time, a reference to how often unnamed Liberal sources air their dirty laundry to the media.



The result was that NDP MPs whose own views were scattered across the progressive ideological spectrum – from the left-leaning Libby Davies to the former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister Thomas Mulcair – tended to speak on every issue with one, upbeat voice.



As friends, supporters and colleagues were left reeling from the announcement in late July that doctors had discovered new tumours in his body, leaving him shockingly gaunt and hoarse, they all stressed that Layton’s optimism – the “they said it couldn’t be done” bravado that helped propel the party to ever greater success – was at the very core of his being.



Layton spoke of it too.



“If I’ve tried to bring anything to federal politics, it’s the idea that hope and optimism should be at their heart. We can look after each other better than we do today,” Layton said as he announced that he would be stepping down – temporarily, he assured everyone – to focus on fighting cancer.



“As I am hopeful and optimistic about all of this, I have to say I am as optimistic as when I started out my life in politics. And so I’m hopeful and optimistic about the personal battle that lies before me in the weeks to come,” Layton said. “I am very hopeful and optimistic that our party will continue to move forward, that we will replace the Conservative government in a few short years from now and that we will work with Canadians to build the country of our hopes, of our dreams, of our optimism, our determination, our values and our love. Thank you very much.”

Then, the man with the moustache and cane, still smiling, told everyone that he would see them soon.







http://www.ndp.ca/officialphotos

CANADIAN POLITICS: Nycole Turmel, the new NDP leader

OTTAWA—Nycole Turmel, the new interim leader of the federal NDP, promises that Canadians are going to get to know her a lot better over the next couple of months.

Plucked from the rookie backbenches to fill in for ailing New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton, Turmel said she would bring her own strengths and style to the post.

“I believe that I am strong enough to represent Canadians wherever they come from,” Turmel told reporters on Thursday after the NDP’s federal council formally installed her as interim leader. “You will be seeing a lot more of me.”

Acknowledging that she doesn’t have Layton’s charisma or profile, Turmel said she would nonetheless be a strong voice for the official Opposition over the summer while the NDP leader is undergoing cancer treatment.

“He has a great charisma, we all know that,” she said. But “I have my own way of presenting.”

The 68-year-old former union leader, more comfortable in French than in English, and only elected to the Commons for the first time in May, was hand-chosen by Layton to be his interim replacement.

The NDP caucus endorsed that decision on Wednesday and the approximately 75 members of the party’s federal council made it official on Thursday, in a swift, hour-long meeting in Ottawa.

Layton addressed the meeting by telephone and Turmel apparently gave a “roaring” speech, NDP president Brian Topp later told reporters.

Officially, Turmel is supposed to be in the job only until Parliament resumes in mid-September, when Layton has said he plans to return to his job.

However, in the days since Monday’s stunning announcement by a gaunt, clearly ill Layton, an increasing number of NDP MPs and partisans have been hinting that Turmel could be in the job a little longer.

And that prospect has raised questions about why Turmel, a rookie in the Commons, was elevated to the interim leadership over more seasoned MPs such as B.C.’s Libby Davies or Quebec’s Tom Mulcair.

Some pundits and commentators have suggested that Turmel’s inexperience will make it easier for interim Liberal leader Bob Rae to claim the lion’s share of attention for opposition to the Conservatives while Layton is away.

Turmel spoke repeatedly on Thursday about how she’ll be backed by the strong team that Layton has built, though she couldn’t say how much Layton himself would be consulting from the sidelines. “We want to leave him to make sure he comes back in September,” she said.

The NDP is also being fiercely protective of Layton’s privacy, especially surrounding the type of cancer he’s now facing, which remains a secret. This, on top of Layton’s clearly fragile appearance this week, has fed speculation that his condition is dire and the treatment will be long and arduous.

When asked about the prospect of her new job being extended past Sept. 19, Turmel said only: “Mr. Layton will be back.”

Windsor-St. Clair MP Joe Comartin underlined this same stand with reporters: “We’re not prepared to address the ‘what if.’ We’re going on the assumption he will be back.”

In her remarks to reporters on Thursday, Turmel went to some lengths to play up her experience with the NDP — beyond elected politics.

“I’ve been at this for decades,” Turmel said. “In the 1990s, I chaired cross-country NDP panels that consulted Canadians on their ideas about progressive government. I served as associate party president under (former leader) Alexa McDonough and moderated the leadership process that saw Jack Layton elected (in 2003).”

Turmel said she will be visiting Vancouver and Newfoundland in the coming days and pushing the same messages that thrust the New Democrats to their strong election showing earlier this year and historic heights as official Opposition.

“I’ve never been prouder to be a New Democrat,” she said.

CANADIAN POLITICS: Jack Layton says he has new cancer, taking leave as leader of NDP

..OTTAWA - Only three months after riding Jack Layton's personal popularity to a historic electoral breakthrough, New Democrats are confronting the tragic possibility that they'll have to soldier on without their charismatic leader.


A frail, raspy-voiced Layton, who has been battling prostate cancer and a recent hip fracture, announced Monday that he's been diagnosed with a new form of cancer.

The 61-year-old said he's taking a temporary leave of absence in order to "focus on treatment and recovery." The party is to appoint an interim leader — Layton is recommending the slot be filled by newly elected Hull-Aylmer MP Nycole Turmel — on Thursday.

Layton would not reveal what kind of cancer he has or what treatment he is undergoing. But he struck a resolutely optimistic tone, saying he expects to be back in the House of Commons on Sept. 19.

"I'm going to fight this cancer now so I can be back to fight for families when Parliament resumes," he told a surprise news conference in Toronto.

"If I have tried to bring anything to federal politics, it is the idea that hope and optimism should be at their heart," he added.

"I am as hopeful and optimistic about all of this as I was the day I began my political work many years ago. I am hopeful and optimistic about the personal battle that lies before me in the weeks to come. And I am very hopeful and optimistic that our party will continue to move forward."

Privately, NDP insiders were shocked by Layton's appearance and how much he's deteriorated since his last public appearance on July 3. The once trim, athletic leader was gaunt and pale, his voice weak and hoarse.

His Ottawa staffers were informed of the announcement at a meeting 15 minutes before the news conference. Initially, one insider said staffers were pleased to hear that Layton — who campaigned vigorously with a cane during the spring election just weeks after undergoing hip surgery — was finally taking time to take care of his health.

But as they watched the televised news conference, the insider said: "You could see hearts sinking in the room because the visual was very hard."

Party president Brian Topp, one of Layton's longtime top advisers who joined the leader and his wife Olivia Chow at the news conference, acknowledged the obvious.

"I think you can see, as I did, that Jack has lost a lot of weight and obviously we're very concerned about him," Topp said.

"It's clear that it's serious, there's no doubt about that."

Still, Topp added: "If you look at what he's accomplished already, I wouldn't bet against Jack Layton. Jack Layton has a habit of taking on tough battles and winning them."

Layton's health is a paramount concern for the leader's tight-knit inner circle, who refer to him familiarly as "Jack" and regard him as a close friend. But there's a political dimension to their worry as well.

For the May 2 election, the party had rebranded itself as "Jack Layton's NDP," cashing in on the leader's personal popularity. His cheerful, moustachioed visage was plastered on every NDP campaign poster; he was front and centre in every ad.

The party soared to a second place finish with 103 seats, becoming the official Opposition for the first time in its 50 year history. "Smiling Jack's" personal appeal was particularly strong in Quebec, which delivered 58 of its 75 seats to the NDP.

The party has set its sights on replacing Stephen Harper's Conservatives as government in the next election. But if Layton is not at the helm, it may have trouble hanging on to the gains made in the last election.

"He's certainly the New Democratic Party's most charismatic asset," said Ian Capstick, a former press aide to Layton.

Prior to Layton, Ed Broadbent was the NDP's most popular and successful leader, taking the party to 43 seats in 1988. When he retired, the party collapsed, falling to nine seats in 1993 under the leadership of Audrey McLaughlin.

Capstick argued the party won't backslide again when Layton exits the leadership, whenever that should happen. He said Layton has devoted himself to building a "modern political machine" with solid finances and a strong organization, and that will outlast his leadership.

"All is not lost without him because of the building that he's done," Capstick said.

There is, however, no potential successor on the horizon who can come close to Layton for sheer likeability. In opting to recommend Turmel as interim leader, Layton seemed intent on ensuring that leadership jockeying doesn't start prematurely rending his newly enlarged, Quebec-heavy caucus.

He did not choose deputy leader Thomas Mulcair or other prominent MPs, such as Paul Dewar or Libby Davies, who are likely to be leadership contenders. Turmel is a neutral choice and someone likely to have the support of caucus, which has already unanimously chosen her as caucus chair.

Caucus is to be consulted about the choice of interim leader on Wednesday, with the party's federal council making a final decision by mid-afternoon Thursday.

While Layton insisted he'll be back on the job Sept. 19, Topp said the party will give him as much time as he needs to recover.

Layton revealed Monday that he "suffered from some stiffness and pain" during the closing days of the spring parliamentary session in late June. Once Parliament broke for the summer, he underwent a battery of tests at Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital and was informed last week that he has a new form of cancer.

Topp said Layton was in hospital last week for a period of time but is now at home. He defended the lack of transparency about the leader's health, arguing that Layton is entitled to maintain privacy about his personal health.

As recently as last week, party officials insisted Layton hadn't been seen in public lately because he was simply on vacation and that there were, in the words of one, "no health issues to report."

Princess Margaret released a statement saying only that "recently, new tumours were discovered which appear to be unrelated to the original cancer and Mr. Layton is now being treated for this cancer."

Good wishes for a speedy recovery instantly poured in to the NDP's website and over social media. Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement, saying he's "deeply saddened" to learn of Layton's latest illness.

"I salute the courage Mr. Layton continues to show in his fight against cancer, a fight that more and more Canadians are winning. We are all heartened by Jack's strength and tireless determination, which with Mr. Layton will never be in short supply," Harper said.

Liberal Leader Bob Rae also lauded Layton's courage.

"We know that Jack is an incredibly resilient man who does not give up a fight. During the last election, he showed an incredible courage in the face of health challenges."

Layton tweeted a characteristically hopeful message later Monday, thanking Canadians for their outpouring of good wishes.

"Your support and well wishes are so appreciated. Thank you. I will fight this — and beat it."