Do we need a string around things?

Oops there goes another rubber tree plant:


June 9, 2009 by roto2027 Some times the staffer is only as good as the Member they serve. Something the member seems to be thick that is when the staffers have to better than the member. Expertly when you working for a cabinet minister. Please read this tell what you think?

Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt, left, and her former press secretary, Jasmine MacDonnell, are seen leaving a news conference in Ottawa last month. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

‘An unfortunate choice of wording,’ PM’s spokesman says of Raitt recording
Last Updated: Tuesday, June 9, 2009 |CBC NewsIt’s embarrassing that Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt referred to the medical isotope shortage as “sexy” in an audio recording, but the prime minister remains confident she can handle her duties, says Stephen Harper’s chief spokesman.

“It’s an unfortunate choice of wording in a recording — that is one word in 5½ hours of tape recording,” said Kory Teneycke. “I don’t think anybody would use a word like that to describe it in public. This was a private conversation.”

In an audio recording made public by the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, Raitt discusses the medical isotope shortage with her former head of communications, Jasmine MacDonnell, during a car ride the two shared in Victoria on Jan. 30.

In the recording, MacDonnell said the isotope issue is “confusing to a lot of people.”

“But it’s sexy,” Raitt said. “Radioactive leaks. Cancer.”

Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Gerald Moir rejected an injunction application by MacDonnell on Monday that was aimed at blocking the newspaper from publishing a story about the recording, which was made inadvertently.

MacDonnell, who resigned as Raitt’s head of communications last week amid an uproar over lost documents, reportedly later left the recorder at an Ottawa media event and did not return calls aimed at trying to turn it.

Teneycke said the government did not participate in trying to block the release of the tape.

Moir ruled it was not a private conversation because of the people involved. He also said it was wrong to deprive the media of the information, given that the medical isotope shortage is a public-interest issue, and a matter of life and death for many cancer patients.

“No one in this government or in the Conservative party provided financial support … nor … would we ever advise someone to block this,” Teneycke said.

‘A very embarrassing situation’
Teneycke said Raitt’s comments about Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq will be resolved between the two privately.

“It’s a very embarrassing situation, clearly, to have a private conversation like this in the public realm,” he said.

On the recording, Raitt expressed doubts about the abilities of Aglukkaq, to handle “hot” issues, saying her staff “is trying to shield her.”

Raitt’s office issued a statement on Monday night saying the minister has personally called Aglukkaq to apologize.

Teneycke added Harper has confidence in both ministers and their ability to handle the isotope shortage issue. He said the prime minister has not spoken with Raitt since the recording was released, nor has she attempted to resign.

Raitt offered her resignation to Harper last week after it was revealed documents related to Canada’s nuclear industry were left behind at CTV’s Ottawa news bureau for almost a week without anyone in the government noticing.

Scarce supply of isotopes
Opposition parties have lambasted Raitt over her handling of the shutdown of the Crown company-operated nuclear reactor at Chalk River, Ont., which usually produces up to a third of the world’s medical isotopes.

The shutdown has left doctors and medical researchers scrambling for a scarce supply from the world’s four other isotope-producing reactors.

Medical isotopes — tiny radioactive particles that can be injected into the body — have become the standard treatment for some cancers and have brought medical imaging to new levels.

In the recording, Raitt said, “You know what solves this problem? Money. And if it’s just about money, we’ll figure it out. It’s not a moral issue.”

Teneycke said he disagreed that the problems at the aging nuclear reactor were just about money.

“If you had all the money in the world, you couldn’t build a new nuclear reactor in the kind of timelines that we’re dealing with to try to get isotope production up and running again,” he said