Derby
Crew Member
Attawapiskat – 1, Abo Minister – 0
Staggering ineptitude and whispers of ill health
Attawapiskat, a shameful example of Ottawa’s luke warm concern about the aboriginal condition, may claim its first non-aboriginal victim early in 2012 -- Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan.
Vancouver Island’s only Tory cabinet minister has handled the native housing crisis with such staggering ineptitude that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is said to be looking for a face-saving way of moving Duncan out of the sensitive portfolio.
The PM has a track record of loyalty to troubled cabinet ministers. Take for example his benign neglect, studied indifference and plausible deniability in the case of search & rescue heli-hitching National Defence Minister Peter MacKay.
But, there are limits. My sources tell me that senior Conservative officials, including cabinet ministers, were hinting just before the Christmas break that Duncan has “health issues.” Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. It is well known that the Vancouver Island North MP underwent heart surgery a year ago. And, my sources say he was looking grey and spent as the year wound down.
One of the most damning assessments of Duncan’s fitness to serve comes from Robert Fife, the respected CTV Ottawa Bureau Chief. Fife and I travelled together in 1993 on Prime Minister Kim Campbell’s campaign jet as it spiralled in flames. Believe me when I tell you Fife takes no prisoners.
“Duncan is probably one of the weakest Indian Affairs ministers in recent memory,” he said recently in a report.
“You have to recall that Harper’s first minister was Jim Prentice, a highly competent minister who ended up being industry minister who is now the vice-chair of the CIBC Bank. The other minister was Chuck Strahl, a very very compentent, and highly respected member of parliament now retired.
“They put in Mr. Duncan. And right from the get go his performance has been very shoddy, very poor. If you look at the way he handled himself at a (recent) news conference he was unable to answer questions about whether the band would end up paying for these modular homes and when reporters kept questioning him his press secretary jumped in and hauled him away as if Mr. Duncan was a blabbering idiot rather than a minister.”
I saw that exchange on the news. It was ugly television.
Fife said: “I think he should be embarrassed at the way she treated him so that he wasn’t able to actually answer our questions. She seemed to have to protect him.
“We saw this happen a week or so ago at a committee when he was asked when he first learned about the crisis which has been going on since Oct. 28 and he (took) a long 15 second pause before he said ‘Oh I learned about it last Thursday.’ It was another very embarrassing moment.”
Fife’s assessment is on the mark. “Mr. Harper has a problem on his hands. He’s got a very, very weak minister in charge of a very important portfolio that involves human lives. There’s a lot of mine fields in this and he may have to think about moving Mr. Duncan aside and bringing in someone who is competent enough to handle this situation.”
Duncan’s failing political health was further eroded at year’s end when the United Nations inserted itself into the Attawapiskat crisis. James Anaya, the United Nations special rapporteur on indigenous peoples, called conditions in the first-nations community “dire” and said he had been in communication with the Government of Canada “to express my deep concern.”
Anaya, whose statement was published on the United Nations website, noted that many residents in the community of 1,800 live in unheated shacks or trailers that lack running water. And he suggested that Attawapiskat isn’t the only reserve community in crisis.
Duncan did not defend himself or his ministry. His spokesperson, Michelle Yao, was left to pick up the pieces lamely characterizing Anaya’s attack as an attention-grabbing stunt.
I think Duncan has to appreciate that his colleagues are questioning his health and fitness for a reason. It is a signal that he should take a long look in the mirror and perhaps embrace the notion of a timely exit.
Maybe his ticker is acting up. Obviously he’s not been getting a lot of political oxygen to the brain.
Staggering ineptitude and whispers of ill health
Attawapiskat, a shameful example of Ottawa’s luke warm concern about the aboriginal condition, may claim its first non-aboriginal victim early in 2012 -- Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan.
Vancouver Island’s only Tory cabinet minister has handled the native housing crisis with such staggering ineptitude that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is said to be looking for a face-saving way of moving Duncan out of the sensitive portfolio.
The PM has a track record of loyalty to troubled cabinet ministers. Take for example his benign neglect, studied indifference and plausible deniability in the case of search & rescue heli-hitching National Defence Minister Peter MacKay.
But, there are limits. My sources tell me that senior Conservative officials, including cabinet ministers, were hinting just before the Christmas break that Duncan has “health issues.” Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. It is well known that the Vancouver Island North MP underwent heart surgery a year ago. And, my sources say he was looking grey and spent as the year wound down.
One of the most damning assessments of Duncan’s fitness to serve comes from Robert Fife, the respected CTV Ottawa Bureau Chief. Fife and I travelled together in 1993 on Prime Minister Kim Campbell’s campaign jet as it spiralled in flames. Believe me when I tell you Fife takes no prisoners.
“Duncan is probably one of the weakest Indian Affairs ministers in recent memory,” he said recently in a report.
“You have to recall that Harper’s first minister was Jim Prentice, a highly competent minister who ended up being industry minister who is now the vice-chair of the CIBC Bank. The other minister was Chuck Strahl, a very very compentent, and highly respected member of parliament now retired.
“They put in Mr. Duncan. And right from the get go his performance has been very shoddy, very poor. If you look at the way he handled himself at a (recent) news conference he was unable to answer questions about whether the band would end up paying for these modular homes and when reporters kept questioning him his press secretary jumped in and hauled him away as if Mr. Duncan was a blabbering idiot rather than a minister.”
I saw that exchange on the news. It was ugly television.
Fife said: “I think he should be embarrassed at the way she treated him so that he wasn’t able to actually answer our questions. She seemed to have to protect him.
“We saw this happen a week or so ago at a committee when he was asked when he first learned about the crisis which has been going on since Oct. 28 and he (took) a long 15 second pause before he said ‘Oh I learned about it last Thursday.’ It was another very embarrassing moment.”
Fife’s assessment is on the mark. “Mr. Harper has a problem on his hands. He’s got a very, very weak minister in charge of a very important portfolio that involves human lives. There’s a lot of mine fields in this and he may have to think about moving Mr. Duncan aside and bringing in someone who is competent enough to handle this situation.”
Duncan’s failing political health was further eroded at year’s end when the United Nations inserted itself into the Attawapiskat crisis. James Anaya, the United Nations special rapporteur on indigenous peoples, called conditions in the first-nations community “dire” and said he had been in communication with the Government of Canada “to express my deep concern.”
Anaya, whose statement was published on the United Nations website, noted that many residents in the community of 1,800 live in unheated shacks or trailers that lack running water. And he suggested that Attawapiskat isn’t the only reserve community in crisis.
Duncan did not defend himself or his ministry. His spokesperson, Michelle Yao, was left to pick up the pieces lamely characterizing Anaya’s attack as an attention-grabbing stunt.
I think Duncan has to appreciate that his colleagues are questioning his health and fitness for a reason. It is a signal that he should take a long look in the mirror and perhaps embrace the notion of a timely exit.
Maybe his ticker is acting up. Obviously he’s not been getting a lot of political oxygen to the brain.
