Angry in the Great White North

On CTV's Canada AM, Liberal MP Garth Turner and Conservative candidate Lisa Raitt both appeared to present their cases as candidates (along with the candidates from the NDP and the Green Party), and to answer questions from the audience.

Watch the exchange that happens at the very beginning of the Q&A session.   It's also on YouTube:

The man reads the carefully prepared question off a piece of paper.  He does not challenge Garth Turner to defend the Green Shift or the Liberal Party platform, but reads a criticism made of the appointment of Lisa Raitt as the Conservative candidate by Rick Malboeuf.  He asks Garth to expand on the theme of top-down decision making by the Conservatives versus the man-of-the-people Garth Turner shtick.

And of course, Garth Turner is ready and willing.  Lisa Raitt gets roughed up badly, thanks to that question from the man in the audience.  Here is a partial transcript of the interview:

Seamus: We had a great turnout here at the Dynasty family restaurant in Oakville, in the riding of Halton where we expect a tight race, a very interesting race. So we have got questions here. Why done it we begin but. Sir, go ahead.

Audience Member [Dan Baril]: Hi, my question is for Garth. It is something that I would like you to comment on. Something that one of Lisa Raitt's contenders said in The Toronto Star. He said, “If our candidate is arbitrarily appointed by the people by the Prime Minister's Office it plays into Turner's hands and confirms everything he has been saying about the lack of democratic process within our party.” Could you comment on this?

Garth Turner: Well, I think what it says pretty clearly is what Lisa said a few minutes ago in her first response. That is she said this is not about the people, this is about top down. Well it is not about top down. That may be what leaders want and maybe what political parties want. It is not what the people want. and in these turbulent economic financial times right now in middle class folks are under pressure, they need to have their voice brought up to Ottawa, not be told that everything is fine. It is all about leadership. I have had 36 townhall meetings in this riding since I was elected as a member of parliament two and a half years ago. I think that is more than any MP in Canada. That is what we need today. We need this voice that goes up, not down, and the real question I think here in Halton is after the election is over, who is going to be there for you? Who will stand up for you? Somebody, you know, doesn't even have the resolve to leave their job to come and…?

That man is Dan Baril.  Here is a screengrab from the Canada AM broadcast:

Here is a picture from Dan Baril's blog:

Dan Baril is a friend of Garth Turner's and a board member of the 2008 Halton Liberal riding association in charge of research and polling:

Dan Baril has acted as a consultant to Garth Turner and in particular, helped Garth Turner become more effective in debates and Q&A sessions.  It's sort of ironic, actually:

Along the way, Dan worked with me as an advisor, while he was being relied upon more and more by Elizabeth and her senior people, juggling his priorities while he carried out proprietary polling. Eventually he ended up being on contract with the Greens, intimately involved in a myriad of issues, including the one that led to the unprecedented liason between May and Dion last Friday.

I first met the guy during the autumn of 2005 after he'd sent a lengthy email my campaign offering to help. We met in the campaign office where I learned his background as a pollster, as a colleague of Alan Gregg, a focus group facilitator and now a self-employed strategist for corporate clients. An Oakville resident, perfectly bilingual, and the author of impossibly long and twisted emails, I found him intriguing but thought he was really trying to land a gig with the Conservative Party, through me.

My opinion changed radically after I staggered through an all-candidates debate, came home and read a detailed analysis of the event, and my messaging flaws together with suggestions, in an email from Dan. I tried those remedies out in the next debate, and used my opponent to clean the gym floor.

So I have to ask myself whether CTV understood any of this.  I have to think that this was partially set up.  Unlike the CPAC incident in which Garth Turner's people were able to direct the CPAC crew to Michael Shaye's home, Garth Turner could not direct the host, Seamus O'Regan, to offer the first question to Dan Baril.

O'Regan could have picked anyone in the audience to ask the first question.  There is no reason to think Dan Baril would even have been asked a question

And yet O'Regan went straight to Baril.  O'Regan made it sound like it was a convenient place to start: Why don't we begin with you, sir?

But Dan Baril was already prepared, his notes in hand, and was able to start without a pause.

This makes me think that this was partially set up by CTV.  This has all the hallmarks of one of those situations in which the candidates were allowed to set up questions to be asked from the audience, and the Canada AM host went to each of the pre-arranged audience members in order.  It was supposed to look like constituents asking questions but it was at least partially contrived.

Fine.  Let's assume that's true.  I could be wrong, but it certainly looks like that.  It's a logical conclusion based on what I'm seeing in the broadcast.

But if this was the case, did CTV agree to have EDA board member Dan Baril be the person to pose the question to Garth Turner?  Were there any rules about who could pose the question?  Did CTV have prior knowledge that this professional pollster and communications consultant would have designed a question (presumably with the knowledge of Garth Turner) that would have delivered a sucker punch to Lisa Raitt right there on the stage?

The Rules: Other candidates at the townhall have told me that CTV was explicit about the rules.  Bring a person along, but that person couldn't be involved in the campaign work.  Did Garth Turner stage another media event?