(The
following article is from
the December 1-31,
2007
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3. The Ottawa weekly
newspaper Hill Times
has reported that Guy Giorno, one of the architects of Ontario's
so-called "Common Sense Revolution" government under Mike Harris, is
writing the script for Stephen Harper's next election campaign.
According to
the Harper Index
website (HarperIndex.ca), "Giorno,
a corporate lawyer and lobbyist, was
one of the hard-liners in the Harris years, along with prominent
Conservatives like Tom Long, Leslie Noble and Deb Hutton. Giorno's and
Hutton's names came up prominently in the inquiry into the death of
Dudley George in Ipperwash, Ontario in 1995 in connection with a native
protest that was brutally suppressed by politically-driven police
action."
Giorno works
with the law firm
Fasken Martineu, which specializes in lobbying legislation and
registration. In 2002, he worked with lobbying firm National Public
Relations to help establish an industry front group called the Canadian
Coalition for Responsible Environmental Solutions. Formed to oppose the
Kyoto agreement on climate change, the CCRES folded less than a year
later.
As Harper
Index relates about
the CCRES founding meeting: "There were speeches by coalition
organizers, and a particularly passionate Ontario energy minister, John
Baird, made his anti-Kyoto rallying cry," reported Greenpeace
campaigner John Matlow. "Needless to say, the audience was very
receptive."
Giorno soon
exposed his hand by
sending every MPP at Queen's Park an e-mail suggesting what they might
say in op-ed news pieces or letters to their constituents about Kyoto.
Liberal and NDP members, for whom the missive was obviously not
intended, were quickly sent a second e-mail that read, "Unfortunately,
materials from the Canadian Coalition for Responsible Environmental
Solutions were sent to your office in error in a previous e-mail. I do
apologize for any inconvenience."
John Baird
went on to become a
federal MP and Harper's environment minister. And despite his e-mail
gaffe, Giorno appears to wield enormous power in Ottawa these days -
influence that will only increase if the Tories win a majority in the
next election.
Found at:
http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint08/11__HARRIS_TORY_TO_SCRIPT_HARPER.html