Mr Baird: Court Jester

Artful Dodger Dept: Mr. Baird uses a different technique the court jester. With quips and merriment and outrageous bafflegab, he makes light of everything. When the going gets tough, the PM looks over to Bairdsie. The minister dons his dancing slippers, does his array of pirouettes and glissades, and Bob s your uncle. If you can leave em laughing, you win every time, according to Globe and Mail. His latest act of levity came a few days ago with the news that, contrary to government policy, he had ordered expensive gold-embossed business cards. It was a minor infraction, and we all knew Bairdsie would blow it off in no time. He did so by pointing out how the Liberals were once the party that debated the great issues of our time. Now, he said, they re reduced to getting all worked up over $425 worth of business cards and what gives Mr. Baird special status is his effectiveness in the role of the government s defuser-in-chief. He s the dean of damage control, the team s most artful dodger. Every government needs one of these guys. Under the Chretien Liberals, it was Herb Gray. The Gray Fog, as he was called, gave such plodding indecipherable responses to questions that he left everyone in a state of semi-consciousness. As environment minister, Mr. Baird won multiple fossil awards at climate summits but deflected criticism so well that damage to the government s image was kept to a minimum. And there are few limits to his hyperbole. As the minister in charge of accountability, he left everyone rolling in the aisles with his claim that this government was the most open and transparent in history. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.