The Marty Burke Email Story…"My Minister’s Pet Goat"

AllTheScapesThatFit

OursIsAVastLandVille

So.

It would appear that the locals running Marty Burke’s Guelph campaign were chafing a little under the central party machine’s iron (target?) fist just as the campaign got rolling (i.e. before the Guelph U student ballot box conflaguration).

How do we know this?

Because pre-election day Email trail somehow turned up on the doorstep of the Guelph Mercury.

Here’s how the story begins:

…An email from Burke to those running his campaign suggests leaving national headquarters out of the loop while considering submitting an opinion piece in Burke’s name to the Guelph Mercury.

let’s be realistic,” Burke wrote the morning of March 23, two days before the Harper government fell on a non-confidence motion. “Once we have a piece reviewed by all six of us, I reckon we have a good message. I am willing to submit it without vetting through Ottawa.

“We have already seen how unwieldy that process is,” Burke wrote….

And then all the local characters chime in to get their Ya-Ya’s out that ends with a reference to to the fine fellow who is now, officially, the federal party’s local scapegoat:

…The original email referring to “Ottawa” as “unwieldy” was sent to communications director Michael Sona, campaign manager Ken Morgan, events manager Paulette Padanyi, Conservative riding association president John White and campaign volunteer Andrew Prescott.

Nine minutes later, Prescott emailed back and wrote that “ALL media calls should be going through Michael (Sona).

“Remeber, (sic) while he may physically be in Ottawa at the moment, he’s the GUELPH Comms guy, he’s not “Ottawa”.”

Padanyi replied six minutes later.

“Agreed — we were told in media training at last Saturday’s Campaign Training session exactly that — ALL media must go through the “press secretary” — in our case, Michael,” Padanyi wrote…

But then, suddenly, in a pivot, the fine fellow now wearing the goat’s horns, makes it clear that he is no longer anybody’s local hero.

…The email exchange also includes a note from Sona urging other campaign insiders to maintain a link with national headquarters.

“I am in National Caucus with the Minister until noon, so I would like until then to be able to see what the PM has to say to us in Cabinet before we submit this article,” Sona wrote.

Imagine that, a local goat workin’ the Cabinet room with the Minister and waitin’ to hear what the Big Boss has to say before he lets his homeboys off the leash.

Yup.

Sure sounds like this was all just a rogue riding problem to me.

And do you want fries with that?

Your poutine I mean.

_________

And what else were the local heroes told in that ‘media training’ session on that fine Saturday in March of 2011, I wonder?….

Tip ‘O the Tam to Holly Stick commenting over at Alison’s fabulous Robo-Recap for pointing us back to the Guelph Mercury piece…

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By RossK