Thursday, May 22, 2008

Good riddance to Brodie

It seems Ian Brodie is out as Prime Minister Harper's Chief of Staff and Guy Giorno is in.

Hallelujah!

Let's face it, Brodie -- an academic -- was out of his league in the rough and tumble world of federal politics.

And while his "NAFTA-gate" gaffe was what probably did him in, he could just as easily been canned both for his general incompetence and for his disdain for true conservatives.

It's also good to see that his replacement will be Giorno, a former Mike Harris staffer. Will things change dramatically in the Harper government because Brodie is gone?

Probably not.

But at least, this is a step in the right direction.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Radwanski on the PMO's alleged Nafta-gate and Kevin Lynch's crack team of investigators final report: "The most troubling aspect of Lynch's report is that what should have been a secret memo on a private meeting was so badly misclassified that it went out to 232 e-mail addresses. That's completely ridiculous, but it's good old-fashioned bureaucratic bungling that doesn't reflect on either our politicians or the people who work directly for them. As for the initial leak, the worst that can be said of Ian Brodie is that he was a bit sloppy when he thought he was off the record, kicking off a game of broken telephone that he couldn't really have anticipated."

A deliberate leak? Hmmm...judging from the press it got, it was a bloody successful leak until the PPG got its undies all tied up in a knot.

In other words, you're right Gerry, Brodie resigned (and took the bullet for the PM on this one). Gotta keep the wolves at bay.

Furthermore, I honestly believe this mix-up in the PMO signals that there will definitely be a fall election (in that Brodie's services were no longer required on the policy front since they will be firing up their war room as soon as parliament shuts down and the dreaded barbecue circuit begins...I can hear Harper sighing as I write the line. lol)

WE Speak said...

Derek Burney, 1987-1989 (Mulroney)
Stanley Hartt, 1989-1990 (Mulroney)
Norman Spector, 1990-1992 (Mulroney)
Hugh Segal, 1992-1993 (Mulroney)
David McLaughlin, 1993 (Mulroney)
Jodi White, 1993 (Campbell)
Jean Pelletier, 1993-2001 (Chrétien)
Percy Downe, 2001-2003 (Chrétien)
Edward Goldenberg, 2003 (Chrétien)
Tim Murphy, 2003-2006 (Martin)
Ian Brodie, 2006-present (Harper)

I always figured that Brodie would go this summer if an Election hadn't happened. If you look at the above, 2 to 3 years is the average, with the exception of Pelletier under Chretien.

Depsite all the speculation, this isn't exactly a big shock.