CalMac breakdowns increased by over a third in 2019, according to figures obtained under freedom of information by Scottish Greens transport spokesperson John Finnie.

There were 1,069 cancellations of CalMac sailings because of technical failures last year compared to 780 in 2018, an increase of 289 or 37 per cent.

In light of the figures, Highlands and Islands MSP Finnie called for the Scottish Government to urgently review its vessel deployment and replacement plan.

John Finnie MSP said: CalMac is entrusted to deliver lifeline services to remote and island communities up and down the west coast, so it is particularly concerning that the number of cancellations as a result of technical breakdowns has greatly increased in the last year.

Behind these cancellations are people unable to attend hospital appointments on the mainland, missed job interviews, small businesses unable to send and receive goods, and a loss of important tourism revenue.

We know that the bulk of the fleet needs renewed.

The average age of the CalMac fleet is 23 years, and the Scottish Governments own ferry plan for 2013-2022 highlighted that the majority of the vessels needed to be replaced.

This hasnt happened and were left with the situation where we have an ageing fleet which requires longer periods of maintenance and repair.

The Cabinet Secretary for Transport must urgently review the vessels deployment and replacement plan, ensuring community representatives and trade unions are at the heart of the procurement process, in order to deliver a fleet that communities served by the Clyde and Hebrides services deserve.

Here is the original post:
CalMac ferry breakdowns increase by over a third in a year - Holyrood

Suffolk County Council is looking to reduce its carbon footprint by investing 9.8m in street lighting, if an LED street lighting replacement project is given the go ahead next week.

The council recognises the importance of climate change, the need to reduce the effects of this and its role in protecting the environment.

Following a review of its street lighting policy in 2010, and with energy prices set to increase at between 8 per cent and 12 per cent a year, the council has decided the high energy consumption of its existing lanterns is costing too much.

The council owns and maintains over 60,000 street lights. Back in 2010, the county council took numerous steps to help reduce both the energy costs and carbon footprint of its lighting stock.

This included the introduction of part-night lighting arrangements and conversion to LED for those lighting units that were consuming the highest level of energy.

The proposal to convert the remaining street lighting stock to LED will help to reduce both Suffolks energy consumption (cutting about 60 per cent of its energy bill) and carbon footprint (which would reduce by about 80 per cent), whilst providing crisper illumination of the streets for residents. The project will also ensure that Suffolk remains resilient to any future energy price increases.

Recommendations put forward by Councillor Andrew Reid, Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Rural Affairs, will be considered at Suffolk County Councils Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, February 25.

Cabinet will consider:

n capital investment of 9.822m to enable all existing street lighting units to become LED with the capability for dimming;

n the setting of a dimming regime to all LED street lighting equivalent to an average power throughput level not exceeding 50 per cent;

n the delegation of authority to the Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Rural Affairs and the Assistant Director of Operational Highways for determining specific levels of dimming that should apply.

Cllr Andrew Reid, Suffolk County Councils Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Rural Affairs, said: We recognise the importance of our environment in Suffolk and the impacts of climate change.

Where possible, we want to ensure that we protect and enhance the natural environment, decrease carbon emissions and reduce the use of scarce resources, for the well-being of future generations and the natural world.

Initiatives such as this are important in helping us to achieve that aim.

We will be replacing almost 43,000 lights with new energy saving LED lanterns.

This will save approximately 60 per cent of our current energy bill which can invested elsewhere.

We will be able to reduce our carbon usage by around 80 per cent, benefitting residents throughout Suffolk.

If Suffolk County Councils Cabinet agrees to the recommendations, the project will be completed in the autumn of 2022.

Full details of the committee paper for the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, January 28 is available on Suffolk County Councils website under the item 25-02-2020, The Cabinet.

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Changes to street lighting would cut bills by 60% - Haverhill Echo

Ive been trying hard to ignore the Dominic Cummings thing. Partly, this is because whenever Margaret Thatchers press secretary Bernard Ingham popped up on TV to slag me off when I was in Downing Street, I would say to my kids: If that is ever me, doing that whole wouldnt have happened in my day thing, promise you will put me down.

But when my own daughter starts to talk about Cummings in her stand-up comedy show, perhaps it is time to realise I am swimming against an impossible tide, that you cannot credibly talk about the workings of the Johnson government without trying to understand the wirings of Cummings mind.

You get the flavour of my daughter Graces show by its title, Why I am Never Going into Politics, suggesting that a life growing up in it she was a young baby when I started working for Tony Blair in 1994 has put her off following in parental footsteps.

She describes Cummings as being to Boris Johnson what my Dad was to Tony Blair. As for Cummings studied scruffiness, which screams out please photograph me every time he walks up Downing Street with his takeaway coffee and his arse hanging out of his trousers, Grace says he reminds her of posh kids at university who spend ages in front of the mirror working out how to dress in a way that disguises the fact that their parents are absolutely loaded.

Whatever similarities between then and now, me and Cummings whom I barely know, so it is hard to judge there are some very significant differences between Johnson and Blair. TB had a very clear agenda, knew what he wanted to do, and his team knew it too. Most of it flowed from the manifestos on which he was elected, and even when dealing with the unexpected, we were always trying to fit it all to the broader strategy of modernisation. With Johnson, it has long been clear what he wants to be Prime Minister but less clear what he wants to do. He is executive chairman, not CEO. That opens a gap for others to set an agenda including, dare I say, unelected advisers like Cummings.

Anyone who has read my diaries will know there were times I might have disagreed with TB, but on the broad agenda his I was totally signed up, and it was my job to help him communicate and deliver it, across government and in the eyes of the public.

The second big difference between Johnson and Blair is that TB was into detail. As with Bill Clinton, because they were both good communicators, who could explain complex things simply, often the media thought communication was their strong point. But they were both detail people, and with a work-rate to match. Johnson is intellectually lazy, glib, still in many ways more of a journalist than he is a politician and he skates over detail. This too opens the door to Cummings, assuming he does have an agenda separate from his boss.

The third big difference is that TB wanted strong characters around him, both in his inner circle and Cabinet, where I was but one of several who were encouraged privately to challenge, cajole and often criticise him. I am hardly breaking State secrets in saying that there were tensions between Number 10 and the Treasury in our time too, and Tony often toyed with the idea of sacking Gordon Brown. But when push came to shove, he saw the exceptional talent in GB, and knew the government as a whole would be weaker without it. John Prescott could be a nightmare. Robin Cook could be a nightmare. Mo Mowlam could be a nightmare. But they were big talents offering different qualities to the team that government has to be.

Sajid Javid is no Gordon Brown, but the circumstances of his removal as Chancellor, and replacement by Rishi Sunak, suggests Johnson wants ciphers, middle managers, not leaders of huge departments of state. The removal of Julian Smith from the Northern Ireland Office the first Tory Secretary of State since 2010 to win the backing and respect of most local politicians, and who actually achieved something his predecessors had not in getting the political process moving again underlined that Johnsons Cabinet is no meritocracy. The juvenile chanting around the Cabinet table, of the lies he had told about new hospitals, nurses and police numbers during the election, underlined it further.

Campaigning is hard. Governing is harder. That Johnson and Cummings have earned their spurs as campaigners is beyond doubt. The 2016 referendum, and the 2019 general election, have seen to that, though in both cases they were hugely helped by their opponents. But slogans, whether written on the side of buses, or reduced to three words from a focus group, eventually get tested against broader economic and political realities. It is not happening yet. But it will.

Thanks to their campaigning skills, a broadly supine media and a largely absent Opposition, with its seemingly endless leadership election, have succeeded in getting get Brexit done done. By this I mean that Brexit continues to have the potential to damage both country and government, and it is not clear that either Johnson or Cummings has a plan to avoid it.

It also means that another, possibly more important slogan from the election campaign is going to become more central to the debate and to peoples lives. This one is just two words . . . levelling up.

It begs an awful lot of questions, none of which have yet begun to be given answers. The Budget, drafted by one multi-millionaire investment banker, now being rewritten to be presented by another, will need to provide some of them.

Successful slogans raise expectations. They will be dashed once it becomes clear how far we are from a trade deal with the EU and how we will need the extension that Johnson promised would never happen. The seats won over by the slogans in the North will be expecting to see a reversal of the public spending cuts to local government, health, education, social care and support for poorer families.

As the impact will not be felt for some time, the only way to judge them will be by comparison with better off regions of the UK. But even the best off regions have huge levels of poverty, and are struggling with the fallout from a decade of austerity. Can they level up without levelling down? Given that they have promised not to raise the main taxes, that growth forecasts are pretty dismal, the fiscal position is weak, productivity remains a problem, and even their own assessments are showing that Brexit will leave a hole that will not be easily filled, Sunak is going to have to find not just a magic money tree, but a whole forest of them.

When he doesnt, Johnson and Cummings are going to need friends beyond those newspapers that have turned themselves into fanzines. They will discover that real change and reform require a strong centre which empowers strong ministers, and strong leaders in public services. The centre can lead, organise and strategise. But it cannot deliver without goodwill across the civil service and beyond. Which is why it strikes me as profoundly stupid constantly to communicate a message that most people in the civil service, the NHS, schools and the police, are useless, and that they need to be shaken up by weirdos and misfits with a penchant for racism and eugenics.

As Kenneth Clarke reminded Johnson shortly before, ludicrously, he was kicked out of the Tory Party, he has finally got a serious job. It is time he started doing it, and understanding that as well as coming up with snazzy one-liners, it means helping people whose homes are flooded; it means being part of events like the Munich Security Conference when all the big players of security and diplomacy are present; it means inspiring, not abusing, those who work for you; it means getting a grip of the people who represent you to others, and it means making sure they understand that it is all very well to make enemies, but there will come a time when a government and a Prime Minister need friends.

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What Johnson and Cummings don't understand about government - TheArticle

Dwight Ball couldn't seem to stop scoring on his own goal.

Throughout last fall he had to defend moving former senior Liberal staffer Carla Foote into a position at The Rooms, the provincial museum and archives, sans competition.

Instead of a fresh start in the new year, he faced a new controversy: a fat contract for a deputy minister-turned-oil and gas consultant.

Behind the scenes, multiple sources say cabinet and caucus members were frustrated with the premier's performance and his inability to handle scandals of his own making.

"Every leader has an expiration date. Dwight Ball just reached his," one cabinet minister told CBCNews after Ball announced Monday evening that he was stepping down as premier.

Just last week, when Ball made his big announcement on keeping electricity rates low, there was another sign of waning support: only a few cabinet ministers showed up, with some of the heavy hitters Transportation MinisterSteve Crocker, Health Minister John Haggie, Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation Minister Bernard Davis, and Municipal Affairs and Environment Minister Derek Bragg all absent.

Ball is expected to speak with media in one-on-one interviews Tuesday afternoon.

Rumours of Ball's resignation aren't new; they started early inhis tenure as premier.

He underestimated the backlash from his first budget that hiked taxes and feesand cut libraries. Some in the public would never forgive him.

Every day he had to drive by posters calling for his resignation. He faced large, angry protests.

Multiple sources inside his own caucus say Ball never really regained the public trust. Less than a year ago the public returned him to power, but with his wings clipped atop a minority government. After that, he kept stumbling from scandal to scandal.

Ball acknowledged the loss of trust from the public in a subtle way in his video address.

"I have always understood that every MHA serves at your pleasure," he said, before saying his time had come to step back and spend more time with his family a line as old as politics itself.

Leaving now saves Ball from facing a June leadership review one he knew would be tough. Caucus and cabinet members were not-so-quietly expressing their desire for him to leave. Liberal executive members loyal to Ball tried to get the party to delay the vote, to give Ball more time, but they failed.

Ball had a choice: fight a battle or leave on his own terms. He chose the latter.

The Liberal party is expected to lay out the process today, but the unofficial race has already started.

Some inside the cabinet have already ruled it out, with Natural Resources MinisterSiobhan Coady and Minister of Fisheries and Land Resources Gerry Byrne insisting they won't run.

One name is already seen as a front-runner: Andrew Furey,an orthopedic surgeon better known for his philanthropy. He founded Team Broken Earth, which helps provide medical care to developing countries.

Furey has never held elected office but comes from a political family. His father, George Furey, iscurrently speaker of the Senate.

Insiders say he also has the backing of former premier Brian Tobin, who was helping him get ready for a run even before Monday's resignation. Furey told CBC news on Tuesday morning he is interested in throwing his hat in the ring, but would not speak further to the matter, adding he needed to discuss the issue with family and colleagues.

From inside the party, Minister of Justice and Public SafetyAndrew Parsons is well-liked, but is dealing with serious family health issues that sidelined him from the House of Assembly last fall and will keep him from running for the top job.

"My family continues to deal with a medical issue andI simply cannot devote my time to a leadership run," Parsons tweeted Tuesday morning.

The now outgoing premier wants his replacement to be chosen soon.

In his address, he said he wants a new leader to put a stamp on a spring budget, due out in only two months.

That will mean a quick race or a delayed budget.

Under a law brought in by the PC government under Danny Williams, an election will have to happen within a year of a new premier taking office.

Even if the budget passes this spring not a guarantee for a minority government an election is coming.

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador

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The fall of Dwight Ball: An embattled premier with waning caucus support - CBC.ca

13 Feb 2020, 11:11

Tatton MP Esther McVey has been sacked as housing minister her successor will be the tenth person to have held the post in as many years.

McVey said: I wish my successor the very best and every success.

The Liverpool-born former work and pensions secretary returned to parliament when she took George Osbornes old seat in 2017, having lost her Wirral West seat in 2015.

Her replacement is MP for Tamworth, Christopher Pincher, who has worked as minister for Europe and Amercias and is a former deputy chief whip.

Other business and property-related ministers sacked in Boris Johnsons reshuffle on Thursday include:

Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid has resigned as part of the reshuffle. It is reported that he was offered to keep his role if he fired his advisers, to which he refused and subsequently resigned. The new chancellor faces a budget in four weeks.

Melanie Leech, chief executive, British Property Federation, said:Itll come as a shock to many to lose Sajid Javid as Chancellor of the Exchequer with only four weeks to go to this years Budget but Rishi Sunak was already a senior member of the Treasury team and we stand ready to work with him to ensure fiscal policy drives forward much-needed investment across the UK.

We also welcome Alok Sharma as the new Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and Christopher Pincher as the new Minister of State for Housing. A new government with a strong mandate is a big opportunity to ensure stability in key roles including housing, something which has been missing in recent years and has got in the way of delivery.

Paresh Raja, CEO of national bridging loan provider Market Financial Solutions, said: A new parliament, a new housing minister. One has to think whether this cabinet position holds any real relevance anymore it has become something of a merry-go-round, with Esther McVeys successor becoming the tenth person to hold this position in as many years.

Given the challenges facing the UK property market, the lack of consistent leadership from the Government in this space is extremely frustrating. We will never be in a position to properly address issues like the housing crisis, not to mention the obstacles preventing people from jumping on and moving up the property ladder, until Westminster gives the position of housing minister more respect and consideration.

One can only hope that with a majority government now in place, this will be the last cabinet reshuffle we see for some time. But I for one believe too many MPs see the position as little more than stepping-stone.

Flicie Krikler, director at London-based Assael Architecture, said: There is a total incompatibility between the political cycles and the long-term aspects of housing. Appointing the tenth housing minister in the last 10 years makes a complete mockery of the role. The industry needs stability to make progress on the housing front and bring forward policies that clarify questions over design, quality and delivery methods concerning the homes we build.

Understanding and addressing the issues troubling the market takes time and effort, and while another minister gets to grips with the role, we have high streets in need of reform and high-quality homes in need of building. I hope whoever steps in to fill McVeys place will be able to quickly adapt and contribute to the UKs housing needs.

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McVey replaced as housing minister - Place North West

349 Stevens Ave., Portland $494,900

Prices on multi-units prove Portland values are operating in a different tier than other Maine cities. This week, during a low inventory season, 2-units were the only multi-families under $500,000. Theres cheaper, but this Deering Center home gets a price boost for having 2- and 3- bedroom apartments and a fenced in yard. Click here to see the full listing.

5 Glenwood St., Augusta $125,000

Located near the Kennebec River Trail and within walking distance to Water St. businesses, this homes units are both 2-bedrooms. One of the current tenants has lived there for over 10 years. It has an expansive back yard and deck as well as a newly installed Pensotti furnace and roof and window updates. Click here to see the full listing.

119 S. Maine St., Auburn $165,000

The units in this 1920 home are both 3-bedrooms with fresh paint, recently refinished hardwood, and newer laminate flooring and carpet. The first-floor apartment just got a countertop and cabinet replacement and has 1 full and 1 half bath. Bonus: 2-car garage and an attic for storage. Situated in the quiet New Auburn neighborhood. Click here to see the full listing.

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Original post:
For Your Money: Simple Income from 2-Units in Urban Areas - Press Herald

MORE than 1000 CalMac ferry sailings were cancelled last year because of mechanical problems with the boats, a 37 per cent annual rise, it has emerged.

The Scottish Greens, who obtained the figures, urged Transport Secretary Michael Matheson to order an urgent review of the state of the CalMac fleet.

Sourced through freedom of information, the data showed the vast majority of CalMac cancellations are due to bad weather .

But in 2018, mechanical breakdowns on board accounted for 780 of the 5,383 cancelled sailings.

In 2019, such problems accounted for 1,069 of 5,653 cancelled sailings.

However, less than 1 per cent of sailings were cancelled because of mechanical issues.

Green Highlands and Islands MSP John Finnie said the Scottish Government needed to review its vessel deployment and replacement plan.

He said: CalMac is entrusted to deliver lifeline services to remote and island communities up and down the west coast, so it is particularly concerning that the number of cancellations as a result of technical breakdowns has greatly increased in the last year.

Behind these cancellations are people unable to attend hospital appointments on the mainland, missed job interviews, small businesses unable to send and receive goods, and a loss of important tourism revenue.

We know that the bulk of the fleet needs renewed.

The average age of the CalMac fleet is 23 years, and the Scottish Governments own ferry plan for 2013 2022 highlighted that the majority of the vessels needed to be replaced.

This hasnt happened and were left with the situation where we have an ageing fleet which requires longer periods of maintenance and repair.

The Cabinet Secretary for Transport must urgently review the vessels deployment and replacement plan, ensuring community representatives and trade unions are at the heart of the procurement process, in order to deliver a fleet that communities served by the Clyde and Hebrides services deserve.

CalMac Director of Operations, Robert Morrison said 1069 sailings cancelled for technical reasons out of 168,000 last year meant a reliability rate of 99.35%, which compared very well to other forms of transport.

He said: To increase fleet resilience further we are investing more than 21m during this years dry dock maintenance programme, which includes a record 9m investment on vessel upgrades.

More than 90 major projects will be carried including new engines, replacement pitch control systems, new bow thrusters, replacement ramps and new generators on various vessels.

We have also introduced a new team to carry out in-service preventative maintenance to help avoid technical issues arising.

We are doing all we can to maintain a fully operational fleet while awaiting new vessels.

A Government spokesperson said: Transport Scotland is working with CalMac and [parent firm] CMAL to develop investment programmes for major vessels and small vessels with the aim of increased standardisation, taking account of the many and varied routes which CalMac serves.

The latest Vessel Replacement and Deployment Plan is in final drafting and the intention is to publish this Spring.

While reliability currently stands at around 99.35%, we look forward to working with all interested parties to continue to deliver improvements, building on the substantial investment in routes, services, vessels, harbours and fares which have been made in these services in recent years and which have led to significant improvements in connectivity, capacity, affordability and passenger numbers.

The successor to the Ferries Plan 2013-2022 is being developed following the recent publication of the National Transport Strategy and the National Islands Plan and in conjunction with the Strategic Transport Projects Review which will also consider all potential viable future options in connecting our islands.

The Scottish Government continues to work with CalMac, communities and business interest to ensure lifeline ferry connections are maintained and enhanced.

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Breakdowns of CalMac ferries up by a third last year - HeraldScotland

Umno secretary-general Annuar Musa's heart bleeds for Maszlee Malik, who resigned as education minister with effect today.

According to him, the Bersatu MP became a victim despite not being the worst performer in the cabinet.

The veteran politician also claimed that the next education minister is someone with powerful connections.

Poor Maszlee... He became a victim despite not being the worst. But his place is to be taken by someone known as the crony to the 'most influential person' in the Pakatan Harapan government.

This person is known to play safe and put his interests first in politics. He was a former strongman of DSN (former premier Najib Abdul Razak), he tweeted this morning.

However, the Umno leader did not mention names.

Referring to the petition urging for Maszlee to be retained, Annuar, in a separate tweet, reiterated that the former was a victim of political manoeuvring.

At least Maszlee had principles in his struggle. His successor....? he added.

Puad Zarkashi: This is transition of power game

Similarly, Umno supreme council member Mohd Puad Zarkashi also claimed that Maszlee was made a scapegoat to bring a particular individual into the cabinet.

This is the transition of power game plan, he said.

Surely, (Maszlee's replacement) is not (PKR president) Anwar Ibrahim, he was quoted as saying by Umno Online.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he would determine Maszlee's replacement and an announcement would be made soon.

Among the names making the rounds is former Umno minister Mustapa Mohamed, who joined Bersatu last September.

Read more:
'Crony of most influential person in Harapan' to replace Maszlee, says Annuar - Malaysiakini

For someone who spent most of his political career cast as agitator-in-chief, Pierre Poilievre is getting a lot more ink than he deserves among those being talked about in Conservative party circles as a potential successor to Andrew Scheer.

Poilievre is not what the party needs right now another Harper-era sycophant from the partys Reform base whos dodgy on same-sex marriage and abortion.

But there was CTV weighing in last week with some holiday filler on how Poilievre is the most likely to succeed Scheer. That story was based on the opinion of one party insider, which should rate as a thin gruel on which to base a conclusion.

To be sure, Poilievre has been one of Parliaments most polarizing figures. Hes earned the nickname Skippy for his exuberance in defending his partys political interests, no matter what. To say its been comical at times would be an understatement. Poilievre is the kinda guy that gets blocked on Twitter. (Full disclosure). Funny thing is, however, is that Poilievre best represents the geist of the current party perhaps better than any of the other names being kicked around to replace Scheer.

And therein lies the dilemma for the Cons. After more than a decade of tacking right under Harper and arguably further right under Scheer the Conservative movement has hit a ceiling. Its appeal to populist sentiment has resulted in the partys base of power reverting to a facsimile of its former Reform wing.

Where to from here?

For some party insiders, the results of the recent federal election suggest a new leader with socially progressive views is enough to unseat Trudeau. For others, nothing short of a wholesale change in direction is needed for the party to win in Ontario and Quebec. So far, the unofficial race to replace Scheer is shaping up to be a bit of a dog-and-ponyshow.

Suffering from saviour complex

Rona Ambroses name has come up a lot in public opinion polls among Conservatives when theyre asked whod make the best replacement for Scheer. She has practically been anointed party saviour.

There is good reason to like Ambrose. She served ably as interim leader after Harper's departure. She looks good on paper. Shes also the choice of Ontario Conservatives. She scores well with seniors and affluent voters, which are among the party's core constituents.

But if its a break from the past that the party is looking for, then her record as a Harper loyalist poses a problem. It includes a number of questionable votes, including a motion to essentially reopen the abortion debate in 2012.

And who could forget her performance as environment minister, which was nothing short of a disaster? Besides making a mess of Canadas Kyoto obligations, Ambrose is also remembered as part of the climate-change-denying cabal in the Harper government that muzzled scientists. She also served as minister for western economic diversification under Harper, and we're all witnessing the fallout from that failed experimentasenergy sector workerslosing their jobs have nowhere to turn.

And if were being brutally honest, the fact Ambrose is a woman will hurt more than help her chances in a party whose views are mostly dominated these days by white guys angry at"globalists" and elites.

The old guard versus the new

Peter MacKay has been plotting to take over the party ever since he left politics to get married and raise a family. In fact, some would say MacKay has been plotting to reclaim the position he believes is rightfully his since he made that deal with the devil (Stephen Harper) in 2003and the Progressive Conservative party led by MacKay was absorbed by the Canadian Alliance to form the Conservative Party of Canada.

Harper went on to serve as PM. And MacKay would occupy a number of important portfolios in successive Conservative governments. But the relationship with Harper was one borne out of necessity rather than a mutual belief that the future of conservatism is populist.

The scion of the MacKay family has got the money to mount a challenge. And he has reportedly assembled a team that includes former PM Brian Mulroney. He seems to have learned a few tricks from Brian when it comes to orchestrating a coup. But MacKay is long past his best-before date. And if its excitement the Cons are looking for, then MacKays not it.

On the outside looking inward

Some pundits argue that what the Cons need is an outsider to break from the partys Harper-era past, but dont bet on it. Ekos Research polled Conservative Party members on their choices and the results were more of the same. Jason Kenney (who says hes not interested), Michelle Rempel (good luck with that) and, yes, Stephen Harper, were among those on the list. This is clearly not a party looking for radical change. The only outsider to speak of was Jordan Peterson, who scores well among the partys young male base.

But more recently, Jean Charest has been mentioned as a possibility. The former PC leader who left federal politics to become a Liberal premier of Quebec, has been exploring a return to the political ring. Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says its a done deal, and that Charests friends in Toronto are laying the groundwork.

Charest would be quite a leap. Given Western tensions over provincial cost-sharing agreements, there would seem to be little appetite in the current incarnation of the party for a leader from Quebec. And then theres the cloud of corruption hanging over Charest (related to construction contracts) that led to his departure from politics. He could always explain that away to say it was to save Quebec jobs, right?

Now you see em

One minute John Baird was being touted as a dark horse to watch, the next he was gone among the names of serious contenders.

The former Harper cabinet minister was enlisted by the partyto investigate how the Cons made a mess of the election. Then Scheer unexpectedly resigned and it seemed to many Conservatives that the choice to replace him was staring them right in the face in Baird. As Harpers designated attack dog in the House (and before that under Ontario premier Mike Harris), Baird certainly has the chops to go toe-to-toe with Trudeau.

But the reasons for Bairds departure from the party back in 2015 continue to be the subject of much speculation. Was it over the Harper governments opposition to recognition of same-sex marriage? Was he jumping ship because the writing was on the wall for the Cons under Harper in the lead-up to the 2015 election? Or did it have to do with his notorious lifestyle choices? There have been more revelations about that last bit lately.

Baird has the bona fides. The smart money would be on him, if his chances havent already been upended by rumblings about his past.

@nowtoronto

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The race to replace Andrew Scheer is turning into a dog-and-pony show - NOW Magazine

At the beginning of last year, Mike Pompeo ruled out a 2020 Senate run, saying he would serve as Donald Trumps secretary of state for as long as the president allows. But with impeachment entangling his boss, and Mitch McConnell working overtime to recruit him, the Pompeo rumor mill has continued to churn. In that uncertainty, which Pompeo himself has fed, several candidates have quietly begun to line up behind him, positioning themselves to replace him at State.

Three people whove spoken to the president directly about the matter told Washington Post that Trump has been tossing around names for Pompeos successor with lawmakers and officials. Two figures have emerged as leading contenders for Pompeos would-be replacement: national security adviser Robert OBrien and Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin. OBrien, who replaced John Bolton as national security adviser, reportedly charmed Trump as the State departments lead hostage negotiator, and has been rewarded with a growing portfolio. Hes also endeared himself to Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law and senior adviser, and to Pompeo himself, perhaps making him a natural successor.

Mnuchin would be a less intuitive pick. Unlike Trump and Pompeo, the Treasury secretary has taken a less hawkish approach to China, putting him out of step with the rest of the administration on a key foreign policy front. Still, Mnuchin remains close to the president, as evidenced by his rare longevity in the Trump administration. In a White House characterized by infighting and high turnover, surviving in Trumps cabinet for three years makes him a competitive candidate by default.

Of course, their abilities to appease Trump notwithstanding, each comes with liabilities. Mnuchin was barely confirmed for his current job thanks to his lack of experience. His qualifications to serve as Americas top diplomat are even thinner, raising questions both about his ability to be confirmed and to fulfill his duties. OBrien is reportedly seen as one of the more competent officials in Trumps orbit, rooted in a traditional conservative foreign policy approach, but remains somewhat green behind the ears. I think the greatest challenge he will have is his relative lack of experience inside the U.S. government, and with the interagency process, Richard Fontaine, the chief executive of the nonpartisan Center for a New American Security, told the New York Times of OBrien in September, as he took over for Bolton.

Such concerns could open the door to other figures who have indicated interest in Pompeos job, including Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, Senators Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton, and deputy secretary of state Stephen Biegun, who would become acting secretary of state should Pompeo decide to launch a 2020 Senate campaign. He hasnt yet signaled that hell do so. But the barely concealed jockeying suggests McConnells overtures to Pompeo may actually be workingparticularly Republican leadership believes their Kansas senate seat is in danger. He loves Kansas, he loves the people of Kansas, Trump said last month, suggesting hed be open to Pompeo mounting a bid. If he thought there was a chance of losing that seat, I think he would do that and he would win in a landslide because they love him in Kansas.

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Report: Trump Is Already Floating Replacement Secretary of State - Vanity Fair