Saturday, August 04, 2012

What Mr. Maher Missed.

YouDon'tNeedToRemoveMountainTops
ToMineALittleGoldFromTheGoogleCacheVille


This is not a post about the robo/real call story.

But it is a post about a story from Stephen Maher, sans Sushiboy.

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Yesterday, a piece under Mr. Maher's byline popped up on Postmedia about our (not)Premier's foot-stamping and tantrum-making.

It wasn't a bad piece, particularly if you compare it to the codswallop that used to be dispatched with great regularity by, say, Jane Taber.

Especially interesting, from a 'National Affairs' point-of-view, was the part about the weirdness that seems to washing over the FedCons as they play battling, spinning tops in response to Ms. Clark's grandstanding.

But there was one part of the piece that really bugged me.

To wit:


...In Friday’s Vancouver Sun, former Encana CEO Gwyn Morgan wisely warned against turning the Clark showdown “into some gigantic existential crisis of Canadian federalism.”


Morgan pointed out that bitumen producers in Alberta, who stand to gain the greatest benefit from the pipeline, have done little to boost it, which made Clark’s position “politically inevitable.”


Morgan and Harper go way back. In 2004, Encana gave Harper’s leadership campaign $25,000, and Harper tried to appoint Morgan as public appointment commissioner in 2006, a move the opposition blocked. He likely has the prime minister’s ear.


If Morgan thinks it’s time to go back to the drawing board, it’s no surprise that the government has changed its strategy, but the goal – selling more oil – is the same...



I mean given that Mr. Morgan was being quoted as someone who is both a dismantler of the grandstand built by Ms. Clark and a really big booster of bitumen, couldn't Mr. Maher, a noted digger on other files, have dug just a little deeper on this quick hit piece on goings on in the regions.

Why do I suggest that?

Well, because, it doesn't take much digging amongst the muck and the tailings of the far-Western google cache to find...

This:


...Gwyn serves as Chairman of one of the world’s leading engineering companies, Montreal based SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., and as member of the board of directors the world’s largest global bank, London based HSBC Holdings plc. He is a Trustee of the Fraser Institute, the Manning Centre for Building Democracy and the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education.  He also writes regular business columns for Canada’s Globe and Mail national newspaper.
Gwyn served as business policy advisor to Christy Clark’s Leadership campaign and as a Member of her Transition Team as she prepared to assume the Premiership of BC...

Why fuss about this stuff?

Well, the real point here is that the Wizards working behind Mr. Clark's curtain are playing a Straussian game.

Which means that this is ALL an inside job.

OK?


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Please note: I am not going out on a limb and in anyway suggesting that the former academic tourist who is currently our (not)Premier understands what a Straussian is....But I would be willing to bet my bottom dollar that the good Mr. Morgan does.
Please also note: At the tail end of Mr. Morgan's recent VSun OpEd  he was not identified as either the former Encana CEO or, more glaringly, a Wizard working for Ms. Clark.


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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you wholeheartedly!

This is a big business game and we, the public, are being played by the Big Boys.

I saw the Morgan special opinion to VSUN - headline - "Shunning the Northern Gateway pipeline is a mistake". I know his background and knew immediately: the backroom strategy sends Christy out, she's expendable - all politicians are expendable these days - it's the guys with the money who are calling the shots.

That smile in Morgan's photo is something else ~ who smiles like that?

Thank gaia! for bloggers, environmentalists, activists, young people, first nations, and everyone who works with their hands, cheers!!!

RossK said...

Anon-Above--

I fear you may be right about the expendability of a great many of the politicians who pretend to be walking amongst us these days.

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Ian said...

RossK, Been reading Maimonides lately? Ha, my favourite book by Strauss is on the Laws and reveals Mr. M as the first Straussian. But I still have a soft spot for the guy from Chicago and don't believe he would have approved Mr. Morgan's deal with the Quadaffis.

RossK said...

Ian--

Ha!

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On a somewhat, but only slightly related note...Did you see (notsoJersey) Jim Wolcott's recent quoting of GVidal?

"When I signed my contract with the Devil, bad reviews were not part of the agreement."

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