Email transcripts from Nigel Wright, the prime minister’s former chief of staff, revealed at senator Mike Duffy’s fraud trial last week, gave Canadians stark insight into questionable actions by prominent members of the Prime Minister’s Office, including an attempted cover-up and tampering with a Senate audit report.
However, what could turn out to be most damaging to the Conservative party brand is the spotlight the transcripts have shone onto the inner workings of the control apparatus within the PMO.
Over the past decade, prime minister Stephen Harper has created a system where most substantive government communications pass through the communications structure in the PMO.
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Seemingly innocuous issues that should require only straightforward re-sponses from low or mid-level federal officials, require a PMO stamp of approval before a response can be released.
The media, including The Western Producer, and therefore the public, are fed messages crafted by the prime minister’s inner circle.
Initially, the approvals seemed to focus on Conservative attempts to get its members of Parliament to sing from the same party songbook, especially with statements on hot button issues like the CWB and supply management in agriculture, and broader subjects such as abortion.
But over time, the control expanded.
Reporters who question Conservative MPs are often supplied an answer to a different question, attached only by a loose segue and potentially followed by a stock generic slogan such as “marketing freedom for farmers.”
Tight controls are also placed on government bureaucrats and scientists, including Agriculture Canada staff.
When reporters ask to interview Agriculture Canada scientists, the reply is often less than prompt and when it does it come, the department often asks for a list of emailed questions. The emailed answers are usually polished and likely vetted by communication staff up the Conservative food chain.
Taxpayers pay the salaries of federal scientists, bureaucrats, and even Conservative caucus members, but getting answers about how the country is run and where tax dollars are spent is becoming more and more difficult.
Now, due to the combination of the election campaign and the Duffy court hearings, Harper might be experiencing the downside of having consolidated government communications inside his office.
Wright’s emails show unelected officials trying to decide what a senatorial report should find, and deciding what Canadians should be told. Reading the emails divulged in court, it might cause one to wonder who was looking after the public’s interest in the Duffy affair.
During the Duffy scandal cover-up attempts, why did not one of these taxpayer-paid, government officials step back and say, “maybe we should let the Senate or the RCMP figure out this mess?”
Had they stepped back, this might not be the election issue it has become.
The blowback effect of consolidating power at the top is that it also consolidates responsibility.
