unimaginative2
Senior Member
...and they didn't even mention his attempted bribery of Chuck Cadman.
Harper's 'political pit bull'
Sep 06, 2008 04:30 AM
Linda Diebel
National Affairs Writer
Doug Finley has a puckish face and a macho swagger. He loves the two-fisted Celtic rock of the Pogues, likes to laugh at himself and wears the weirdest ties and a wistful comb-over.
He is, according to former Liberal MP Rod Blaker, "a very gentle person – gentle to every human being I ever saw."
Such is one image.
But there are other takes on Finley. They are blisteringly negative and come from ousted Tory candidates with crushed self-esteem, blacklisted party members and former ministers struggling to grasp their inconsequence in the Conservative hierarchy of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
They attribute their fate to the bullying character of the most important man the Canadian public doesn't know.
Finley is Harper's hammer. He's No. 2 to the PM's No. 1, apparently with more clout than cabinet ministers and more access than anyone except, possibly, Laureen Harper.
At 62, his job is to win this election for "the boss" – his all-consuming passion since joining then-Canadian Alliance leader Harper in early 2003 and going on to orchestrate his leadership win of the merged Alliance and Progressive Conservatives later that year.
It may be the English-born, Scottish-raised Finley, with an MBA and career in the aircraft industry, is almost there. Married to Immigration Minister Diane Finley, his life is politics. Campaign manager and director of political operations (which used to be two jobs), he's changing the landscape of Tory politics and centralizing power to an astonishing degree.
Finley evokes fear in many, nervous at his very name. Some spoke to the Toronto Star only on background. He's described as a "political pit bull" and a "bully" who models himself on the "in-your-face" style of American GOP honchos Lee Atwater and Roger Ailes, oblivious to the trail of human detritus.
"It got so bad I couldn't look my wife in the eyes," says Phil Green, former Mississauga South candidate, of his humiliation during his ouster in 2006-07. It was a long process during which he was frozen out, with Finley refusing to take his calls or answer his emails.
Requests from the Toronto Star for an interview were ignored.
Green, an environmental management consultant with community awards and grassroots support, ran twice for the Conservatives, losing in 2006 to Liberal Paul Szabo by 2,160 votes. His were the best Tory results in four Mississauga ridings and he was excited about running again, but Finley refused to grant the expected waiver from the "two strikes" rule.
"You don't run for the Conservative party unless Doug Finley says you can run," says Green. "Canadians need to be aware of what is happening in the Conservative party. Candidate selection should be coming from the grassroots and not the backrooms.
"This is not about me. It's about the state of our democracy."
Amidst a litany of hurt, there's praise for Finley. He's a maverick, with a kind of "I'll rip-your-lungs-out" bravado that can appeal to politicos and pundits.
The Pogues began as Pogue Mahone, Gaelic for "kiss my a--."
Tom Flanagan, University of Calgary political scientist and former Harper adviser, worked closely with Finley in Ottawa.
"He's tough and focused and that's a good thing," says Flanagan. "Candidates need discipline. They have big egos and these people need a disciplinarian to keep them in line. ... Maybe you get bruised egos occasionally but you need all the candidates toeing the party line."
Adds Flanagan: "Doug's not there to argue with Stephen Harper; he's there to implement what he wants."
Winning the Conservative nomination in Toronto Centre in 2007 became a nightmare for international lawyer Mark Warner. Before it blew up in what sounds like a Keystone Kops showdown in an Ottawa boardroom, he clashed with Finley's hard line.
In an urban riding with a diverse population that includes a large gay and lesbian community, party operations people told Warner to omit any reference in his campaign profile to his attendance at a 2006 international conference on AIDS in Toronto ignored by Harper.
Finley "doesn't understand the city at all, he has no clue about Toronto," says Warner. "I don't think he wants to know. ... I never met with him in Toronto." He portrays Finley as a man obsessed with his own strait-laced image of Canada who talked about his "Reform-Alliance" roots and what would play in conservative Canada.
"I wasn't supposed to talk to the media," says Warner. "I told them I couldn't have a non-existent media campaign when I was running against Bob Rae because I'd get killed."
He was told he could go to a Star forum on poverty where Rae spoke, but "not to say anything."
Warner says Finley's office summoned him to Ottawa, where he met with Finley on the 12th floor of Tory headquarters at 130 Albert St. Finley apparently yelled at Warner several times during the five-hour session, including over his edict Warner couldn't fill out a questionnaire about equality from a gay-lesbian alliance. "He said if I answered it, I would be denounced by the Prime Minister and everybody else in caucus."
Warner tried to explain "Harper was desperately unpopular in the riding and running strongly on Harper may work in much of the country, but not in Toronto. I'll lose." Warner calls the session a "Star Chamber."
Finley finally "lost it," according to Warner, a scene Warner says he can't forget, complete with heavy Scottish brogue soundtrack.
"Wheeerrrrrrrrr have you ever run before? Wheeerrrrrrrrr?
Tell me, wheeerrrrrrrrr? Wheeerrrrrrrrr?"
Warner was officially fired by senior official Don Plett, in a hotel room near the Toronto airport.
In late 2007, Guelph Tories had problems with candidate Brent Barr, a business leader. Despite her nomination loss to Barr, party officials in Ottawa installed city councillor Gloria Kovach as candidate.
"At no time did (Finley) ever answer any of my emails," says former Tory science minister Bill Winegard, who supported Barr. "It was pretty silly. They said (Barr) wasn't working hard enough but he had a business to run and he would have as we moved closer to the election."
Winegard still asks: "Who are these people in Guelph who got rid of Brent? Did these folks have a board meeting? Did they talk to anybody? ... They complained to Ottawa and he was thrown out."
In Mississauga South, Green didn't get a reason either. "I heard the PMO didn't like something I said to somebody – who knows? The whole thing is nuts."
Finley is a backroom master. He sent a complaint to the CBC about parliamentary reporter Krista Erickson for feeding questions to a Liberal MP during parliamentary hearings into business dealings between Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber, then used media bias as a fundraising tool.
"Doug Finley was in my face in a big way," says John Cruickshank, publisher of CBC News, agreeing there was "no question she did it." After a leave, Erickson returns to Ottawa this fall, but won't report on camera until January.
"I wasn't at all surprised. I've seen other political parties do the same thing," adds Cruikshank. "It was very opportunistic, very entrepreneurial. He just understood how to do some fundraising based on the problems with the CBC. ... I have a certain amount of admiration for (Finley) despite the personal pain. It wasn't any fun at all."
If Finley has surfaced in the public consciousness at all, it's likely as the guy being escorted by security from the Commons ethics committee last month after showing up unexpectedly and refusing to budge. The committee had tried to serve him with a subpoena to testify later that week about allegations of election misspending, but the bailiff couldn't find him.
"Remember, we are talking about the issue of respect for Parliament," says Liberal committee chair Paul Szabo. A Liberal strategist sees hubris in Finley's stunt, "as if they're already tasting victory."
Still, Finley is a patient man. Through organizing stints for the Scottish National Party to the Liberals, Reform, Alliance and Conservatives, his is an enduring love of politics.
"He is quite fascinated with concepts of organization and he enjoys the parallels between politics and the military," says Blaker. It's about order and organization "and he thinks about the work to be delivered, the problems to be analyzed and the goals to be achieved."
In other words, about winning.
Harper's 'political pit bull'
Sep 06, 2008 04:30 AM
Linda Diebel
National Affairs Writer
Doug Finley has a puckish face and a macho swagger. He loves the two-fisted Celtic rock of the Pogues, likes to laugh at himself and wears the weirdest ties and a wistful comb-over.
He is, according to former Liberal MP Rod Blaker, "a very gentle person – gentle to every human being I ever saw."
Such is one image.
But there are other takes on Finley. They are blisteringly negative and come from ousted Tory candidates with crushed self-esteem, blacklisted party members and former ministers struggling to grasp their inconsequence in the Conservative hierarchy of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
They attribute their fate to the bullying character of the most important man the Canadian public doesn't know.
Finley is Harper's hammer. He's No. 2 to the PM's No. 1, apparently with more clout than cabinet ministers and more access than anyone except, possibly, Laureen Harper.
At 62, his job is to win this election for "the boss" – his all-consuming passion since joining then-Canadian Alliance leader Harper in early 2003 and going on to orchestrate his leadership win of the merged Alliance and Progressive Conservatives later that year.
It may be the English-born, Scottish-raised Finley, with an MBA and career in the aircraft industry, is almost there. Married to Immigration Minister Diane Finley, his life is politics. Campaign manager and director of political operations (which used to be two jobs), he's changing the landscape of Tory politics and centralizing power to an astonishing degree.
Finley evokes fear in many, nervous at his very name. Some spoke to the Toronto Star only on background. He's described as a "political pit bull" and a "bully" who models himself on the "in-your-face" style of American GOP honchos Lee Atwater and Roger Ailes, oblivious to the trail of human detritus.
"It got so bad I couldn't look my wife in the eyes," says Phil Green, former Mississauga South candidate, of his humiliation during his ouster in 2006-07. It was a long process during which he was frozen out, with Finley refusing to take his calls or answer his emails.
Requests from the Toronto Star for an interview were ignored.
Green, an environmental management consultant with community awards and grassroots support, ran twice for the Conservatives, losing in 2006 to Liberal Paul Szabo by 2,160 votes. His were the best Tory results in four Mississauga ridings and he was excited about running again, but Finley refused to grant the expected waiver from the "two strikes" rule.
"You don't run for the Conservative party unless Doug Finley says you can run," says Green. "Canadians need to be aware of what is happening in the Conservative party. Candidate selection should be coming from the grassroots and not the backrooms.
"This is not about me. It's about the state of our democracy."
Amidst a litany of hurt, there's praise for Finley. He's a maverick, with a kind of "I'll rip-your-lungs-out" bravado that can appeal to politicos and pundits.
The Pogues began as Pogue Mahone, Gaelic for "kiss my a--."
Tom Flanagan, University of Calgary political scientist and former Harper adviser, worked closely with Finley in Ottawa.
"He's tough and focused and that's a good thing," says Flanagan. "Candidates need discipline. They have big egos and these people need a disciplinarian to keep them in line. ... Maybe you get bruised egos occasionally but you need all the candidates toeing the party line."
Adds Flanagan: "Doug's not there to argue with Stephen Harper; he's there to implement what he wants."
Winning the Conservative nomination in Toronto Centre in 2007 became a nightmare for international lawyer Mark Warner. Before it blew up in what sounds like a Keystone Kops showdown in an Ottawa boardroom, he clashed with Finley's hard line.
In an urban riding with a diverse population that includes a large gay and lesbian community, party operations people told Warner to omit any reference in his campaign profile to his attendance at a 2006 international conference on AIDS in Toronto ignored by Harper.
Finley "doesn't understand the city at all, he has no clue about Toronto," says Warner. "I don't think he wants to know. ... I never met with him in Toronto." He portrays Finley as a man obsessed with his own strait-laced image of Canada who talked about his "Reform-Alliance" roots and what would play in conservative Canada.
"I wasn't supposed to talk to the media," says Warner. "I told them I couldn't have a non-existent media campaign when I was running against Bob Rae because I'd get killed."
He was told he could go to a Star forum on poverty where Rae spoke, but "not to say anything."
Warner says Finley's office summoned him to Ottawa, where he met with Finley on the 12th floor of Tory headquarters at 130 Albert St. Finley apparently yelled at Warner several times during the five-hour session, including over his edict Warner couldn't fill out a questionnaire about equality from a gay-lesbian alliance. "He said if I answered it, I would be denounced by the Prime Minister and everybody else in caucus."
Warner tried to explain "Harper was desperately unpopular in the riding and running strongly on Harper may work in much of the country, but not in Toronto. I'll lose." Warner calls the session a "Star Chamber."
Finley finally "lost it," according to Warner, a scene Warner says he can't forget, complete with heavy Scottish brogue soundtrack.
"Wheeerrrrrrrrr have you ever run before? Wheeerrrrrrrrr?
Tell me, wheeerrrrrrrrr? Wheeerrrrrrrrr?"
Warner was officially fired by senior official Don Plett, in a hotel room near the Toronto airport.
In late 2007, Guelph Tories had problems with candidate Brent Barr, a business leader. Despite her nomination loss to Barr, party officials in Ottawa installed city councillor Gloria Kovach as candidate.
"At no time did (Finley) ever answer any of my emails," says former Tory science minister Bill Winegard, who supported Barr. "It was pretty silly. They said (Barr) wasn't working hard enough but he had a business to run and he would have as we moved closer to the election."
Winegard still asks: "Who are these people in Guelph who got rid of Brent? Did these folks have a board meeting? Did they talk to anybody? ... They complained to Ottawa and he was thrown out."
In Mississauga South, Green didn't get a reason either. "I heard the PMO didn't like something I said to somebody – who knows? The whole thing is nuts."
Finley is a backroom master. He sent a complaint to the CBC about parliamentary reporter Krista Erickson for feeding questions to a Liberal MP during parliamentary hearings into business dealings between Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber, then used media bias as a fundraising tool.
"Doug Finley was in my face in a big way," says John Cruickshank, publisher of CBC News, agreeing there was "no question she did it." After a leave, Erickson returns to Ottawa this fall, but won't report on camera until January.
"I wasn't at all surprised. I've seen other political parties do the same thing," adds Cruikshank. "It was very opportunistic, very entrepreneurial. He just understood how to do some fundraising based on the problems with the CBC. ... I have a certain amount of admiration for (Finley) despite the personal pain. It wasn't any fun at all."
If Finley has surfaced in the public consciousness at all, it's likely as the guy being escorted by security from the Commons ethics committee last month after showing up unexpectedly and refusing to budge. The committee had tried to serve him with a subpoena to testify later that week about allegations of election misspending, but the bailiff couldn't find him.
"Remember, we are talking about the issue of respect for Parliament," says Liberal committee chair Paul Szabo. A Liberal strategist sees hubris in Finley's stunt, "as if they're already tasting victory."
Still, Finley is a patient man. Through organizing stints for the Scottish National Party to the Liberals, Reform, Alliance and Conservatives, his is an enduring love of politics.
"He is quite fascinated with concepts of organization and he enjoys the parallels between politics and the military," says Blaker. It's about order and organization "and he thinks about the work to be delivered, the problems to be analyzed and the goals to be achieved."
In other words, about winning.