(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: https://peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint08/11__HARRIS_TORY_TO_SCRIPT_HARPER.html