Lib MP Savoy has fun with ‘Splice Boys’

Payback for "The Libranos?" It started as an off-the-cuff joke--national Liberal caucus chairman Andy Savoy came up with a line about the Tories being the Splice Boys. Before he knew it, one of the folks back in his Tobique-Mactaquac, N.B., riding had done up a digital poster and now it is doing the email rounds. You might have caught a quick glimpse of it on Mike Duffy's CTV NewsNet show Countdown, but if not--here it is. From left to right we have MP Gurmant Grewal (Ginger Splice), Deputy Leader Peter MacKay (Posh Splice), Leader Stephen Harper (Scary Splice), MP James Moore (Baby Splice) and Foreign Affairs Critic Stockwell Day (Sporty Splice). The Libs' poster is somewhat of a resemblance to the Libranos poster, which portrayed Prime Minister Paul Martin, his predecessor Jean Chrétien and others in a Sponsorship Scandal spoof based on TV's hit mobster series The Sopranos. Revenge of the Grits? Not at all, insists Mr. Savoy's executive assistant Rayanne Brennan. "Andy just came out with the line as a joke and one of our people in the riding came up with this poster for fun," said Ms. Brennan, who declined to provide the name of the creator. "We've just been sharing it with a few people." The Spice Girls spoof is of course all about the tapes recorded by Mr. Grewal of conversations he had with Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh and PMO Chief of Staff Tim Murphy prior to the crucial Budget confidence vote in May. The PCs insist the tapes show the Liberals were trying to buy Mr. Grewal's vote and that of his Conservative MP and wife Nina. Mr. Dosanjh, Mr. Murphy and the Liberals insist it was Mr. Grewal, who is now on stress leave, who came a-courting. Several experts have been produced to say the tapes were edited before being released. The Conservatives have produced their own expert to say it wasn't, and have said that various clicks and missing minutes were simply recording problems. Ouch, that hurts... It literally pained Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Andy Scott to show up for the confidence votes in the Commons late last Tuesday night. Mr. Scott showed up in a wheelchair after undergoing day surgery operation which while not major, we are told, was extremely uncomfortable. "He is in a lot of pain, and I think when people say that they stopped laughing. His doctor told him he had to rest up for two weeks, but he had to show up for the vote," says Dan Brien, Mr. Scott's director of communications. Mr. Brien refused to divulge the nature of the operation, and all I can tell you is that it apparently involves some work on the minister's nether regions and hurts like heck. A different kind of pain... Toronto MP Sarmite Bulte was hurting in a different place after Tuesday's votes--in her wallet. Ms. Bulte was very late arriving before the votes, apparently because of delays at the Pearson International Airport caused by thunderstorms. Her Commons seat-mate Paddy Torsney later told reporters Ms. Bulte's late arrival caused some anxious moments and that a number of MPs later required her to buy drinks after the marathon of votes to compensate for the angst she had caused. Not sure if it was Ms. Torsney's personal choice of tipple, or a popular choice among Grits in general, but the libation she referred to was vodka and orange. Meanwhile, Ms. Bulte told CanWest News' Anne Dawson last week that a political "enemy" who opposes her Liberal values, set fire to her house in Toronto causing $200,000 damage. New France... The Senate isn't the usual place for Members of Parliament to hold press conferences, but sometimes it has its advantages. Apparently Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe chose the Senate's Room 256-S in the Centre Block to announce he would be staying put in Ottawa and not running to succeed Bernard Landry of the Parti Québécois because it has a map of New France on the wall and Fleur-de-lis flags that he could stand in front of for the cameras. See, he knows how to play the game. Massive cleaning job...Weeks after being let go by CTV as its senior Ottawa bureau manager, LeeEllen Carroll is still to be found from time to time sorting through the files she has built up during her 12 years there, and making sure the important stuff goes to her colleagues. Pretty big of her, considering the way she was let go. The popular journalist/organizer/manager extraordinaire, who was so committed she once popped into the office on her way to give birth to make sure all was in order, was let go in a manner eerily reminiscent of the way CTV executed its veteran reporter and now Liberal Senator Jim Munson a few years back. "I got a call from bureau chief Bob Fife who asked me to do him a favour and come along to a meeting at the Delta Hotel's executive suites," says Ms. Carroll. "I asked if I should bring a lawyer and he said yes. When I got there he introduced me to the human resources rep, told me the bureau was restructuring and no longer needed a senior manager, thanked me for my service, then left." Ms. Carroll says she has several irons in the fire and while she may not end up in the Senate, as Mr. Munson did, I suspect that with her media skills, she will land on her feet. Sean Durkan is a political commentator and communications consultant, and is retained as vice president, media, by Association House. seandurkan@rogers.com The Hill Times

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Lib MP Savoy has fun with ‘Splice Boys’

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