Conservatives recruit Dominique Vien

LaPresse’s Joël-Denis Bellevance received a tip (likely from an eager Conservative war-room) that the O’Toole Conservatives have recruited the former Quebec minister of Labour to run for them in the upcoming – and if reports are true – imminent federal election.

Dominique Vien was a cabinet minister in Jean Charest’s Quebec Liberal government. She served the riding of Bellechasse from 2003-2007 and then from 2008 to 2018. Vien notably served as Quebec minister of Tourism and Quebec minister of social services.

Now she will be running for Steven Blaney’s seat in Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis. Blaney held ministerial portfolios in the Harper government – first in public safety and then in veterans affairs.

Conservatives have ties into three provincial parties in Quebec which often proves to be a difficult balancing act. This candidate pickup is from the Quebec Liberals, but federal Conservatives have also cultivated ties with the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) and the provincial Parti Conservateur du Québec (PCQ).

Dominique Vien is a former radio journalist who used to work for CFIN FM Radio-Bellechasse and for Radio-Canada. Most recently she was working as the Director General for the regional municipality of des Etchemins.

The Seinfeldian media

The latest installment of the “will there or won’t there be an election?” drama of As the Hill Turns, the Canadian Press reports that Quebec Liberal candidates at an election readiness workshop had their election “mug shots” done — these are the official photos that Elections Canada and the media will use to report on the election (and while these are Quebec Liberals, I say “mug shots” for lack of a more descriptive term).

Will they or won’t they? — that is the question that has the media scrambling to fill their columns and air-time. Today, I was on Montreal drive-time talk radio and despite mentioning that party leaders themselves ratchet up election timing rhetoric to fundraise and to fill nominations, we still chatted about the prospects of a fall election.  I fear that I didn’t play my role and let the audience down when I explained that all of this election talk is just the empty thrill of a cheap drama.  I explained that prior to the summer break, Michael Ignatieff had just six additional nominations filled beyond his caucus compliment.  Further, despite healthier second quarter fundraising numbers — buoyed largely by Liberal leadership convention fees — the Liberals still have a steep hill to climb when it comes to fundraising.  Party leaders (or their proxies) amp up imminent election talk to create a sense of urgency that compels people to give and to act.

As for those Quebec Liberal candidate photos that were snapped — indicating that we just be going for it soon — it’s pretty standard fare, I’m sorry to say.

Though I fear this will fuel even more election speculation, the Conservative candidates — all of them — had their election mug shots snapped at the Conservative training convention early last month.

A summer of communion wafers, G8 photo-ops and inuktitut spelling gaffes has professional flacks looking for something else, and instead of hopping on an expensive jet to cover news where its happening, most of the bubble-locked Ottawa media are in a standard holding pattern and doing their best as bit players in a show about nothing called When is the next election?

Because perhaps when those glorious days come, they’ll have something more to talk about.