The Prime Minister and Me

I was one of hundreds of delegates who piled into the Palais des congres de Montreal for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Annual Conference and Municipal Expo on June 2, 2006. My mission that morning was to hear the Prime Minister give the opening address and also to get close enough to take his photo for the magazine. With what we all know about his dislike for the media, at least the mainstream media, I thought I might be up against a “mission: impossible”. However, I did prevail, as you can see here, even though at one point I was asked to “move or be moved” by one of his handlers. (I was determined to get a photo of him and not just him behind the podium). He actually smiled at one point, but of course I had already taken the photo.

I found Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s address to be full of promise yet short on details. Given the conference theme "Building Prosperity Together," he spoke to the challenges of municipal representatives, including environmental and waste management issues. Most seemed pleased to hear that Mr. Harper will consult with the FCM in advance of announcing the next federal budget. The FCM welcomed his remarks on the need for all governments to work together to take action to fix the fiscal imbalance. Mr. Harper said the imbalance “impacts almost all Canadian provinces and municipalities and is a threat to the proper functioning of the Canadian federation.”

While Harper has been criticized for neglecting urban agendas and killing our role in the international Kyoto pact, he took the opportunity to reflect on some of his government’s commitments to the environmental agenda, including “$1.3-billion in urban public transit to increase transportation options for reduced emissions and cleaner air” and “$5-billion toward the new Deal for Cities.”

Other promising environmental commitment are coming in the way of $2-billion to sewage treatment and water systems and mandatory biofuel content by 2010, using grain and corn, which will result in cleaner burning fuel.

However, the following day, political commentator and one of Canada’s most credible reporters Chantal Hebert cautioned us to take Harper’s comments with a grain of salt. “His main goal is not to pick up your garbage on time. It’s getting a majority in the next election.” She said that the environment is going to be the next medicare issue of this decade. Unfortunately, Environment Minister Rona Ambrose was not there to defend her government – she cancelled her appearance at the last minute.

And now about me. Following the FCM conference, I rushed to the Canadian Business Press “Kenneth R. Wilson” award ceremony in Toronto at the Old Mill. I was pleasantly surprised to find out I had won the very prestigious Gold award for Best Editorial!

The editorial – which examines a gasoline company's controversial decision not to clean up a former pump station site and the subsequent environmental investigations – appeared in the October/November 2005 edition of the magazine. The article, “Fuel for the Fire,” is linked below.

The KRW awards are presented annually by the Canadian Business Press (CBP). Business and trade magazines submit their best work in 20 different categories. The entries are judged by a peer review panel, which determines the “Top 10” entries. These entries are then passed to the official judges to determine the Gold, Silver and “Top Five” winners. More than 750 entries poured in to the CBP for this year's competition.