{"id":11678,"date":"2015-08-19T15:30:24","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T19:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=11678"},"modified":"2015-08-26T17:12:11","modified_gmt":"2015-08-26T21:12:11","slug":"politics-as-usual-the-enemy-of-my-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/politics-as-usual-the-enemy-of-my-enemy\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS AS USUAL: The enemy of my enemy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, the hot air of summer just got hotter \u2013 both literally and figuratively.
\nThe Duffy trial began anew and we are in the midst of a federal election campaign. Cue the drama, real or imagined. The media folks and various political campaign teams alike are salivating.
\nThey eagerly await every little morsel, every tidbit of information that crumbles out of the daily trial proceedings in the hopes that it is a) salacious, b) damning and\/or c) the coup de grace that will bring down Harper once and for all.
\nSo far it isn\u2019t what most in the Liberal or NDP camps (and probably the media camps too) were hoping for: no \u201csmoking gun\u201d has been uncovered yet in the testimony of Mr. Wright despite the best efforts of Mr. Duffy\u2019s lawyer.
\nPersonally, I think it is highly unlikely that a direct link between the now infamous cheque and Mr Harper\u2019s knowledge of it will ever be found. Perhaps I will be proven wrong, but I doubt it.
\nWhat has been uncovered? Hundreds and hundreds of emails between senior staff in the PMO that reveal how much \u201cpower\u201d staff wields in the day to day workings of the Office of the Prime Minister. Shock! Staff work to manage crises! Again, I am unclear why so many are \u201csurprised\u201d at the supposed outsized role of PMO staff in terms of how the gears of government grind. I am also unclear how \u2013 or why \u2013 the staff are being defined as \u201cpowerful.\u201d They are functionaries, performing a single, clearly defined task: protect the office of the PM. Period.
\nThis is not news.
\nEvery PM has had the same small army of partisan staffers surrounding them putting out fires. Just the political stripes are different. It is disingenuous to suggest otherwise. However, that being said, many would agree that, in Harper\u2019s case, the magnitude or fervency of the partisanship of his staffers is \u201cdifferent\u201d than other PMOs; that the emails clearly demonstrate how extreme the \u201cprotect the party, protect the PM\u201d mantra is in Harper\u2019s inner circle.
\nIt\u2019s difficult to agree or disagree. There are no other PMO staffers\u2019 emails amongst each other during a crisis to which one can compare.
\nBut I do not agree with defining the folks who work in the PMO as \u201cstaff.\u201d It gives the impression that they are somehow like all public servants. They are not.
\nThere are two different types of staff in terms of federal and provincial government functionaries \u2013 political and bureaucratic.
\nSenior staff in the PM\u2019s or Cabinet Ministers\u2019 offices are not neutral. Yes, they are generally highly intelligent and competent people, but they are hired because they are partisan. They work for the party, not us. Elsewhere, the ranks of public service are filled with folks who are hired based on merit alone. They are hired to work for us. And they are \u2013 publicly at least \u2013 politically neutral.
\nCabinet office staffers have terms. Public servants have careers. Thus, given that their jobs depend on whether their \u201cboss\u201d remains in office, of course PMO staffers rabidly protect the office. It\u2019s in their best interest to do so.
\nAgain, none of this is news.
\nShould this arrangement change? Probably, but it\u2019s doubtful that it ever will.
\nIn the end, while the enemy of my enemy may be my friend, it doesn\u2019t mean I want him to work for me.
\nUntil next week, stay informed, stay involved because this is \u2013 after all \u2013 Our Town.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas Well, the hot air of summer just got hotter \u2013 both literally and figuratively. The Duffy trial began anew and we are in the midst of a federal election campaign. Cue the drama, real or imagined. The media folks and various political campaign teams alike are salivating. They eagerly await every little […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-32m","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 06:14:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}