Tim Powers: The Prime Minister’s Lead Blocker

Meet the Players

The Second in a Series of Interviews with Political Strategists and Candidates

What do you get when you cross a rugby player, a communications professor, a top-ranked lobbyist, a compulsive tweeter, a regular blogger, an expert in everything from brassieres to bazookas, and by all accounts, a fun-loving dude?

Meet Tim Powers, Vice President of Summa Communications, a public relations and crisis management firm. He is also a trusted advisor and confidante for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), and is the Conservative Party‘s top draft pick for television punditry.

Take a look at Powers performing his craft on television here and here, for example. Pretty good, eh? And he still has many years of broadcasts left ahead of him.

Powers hasn’t yet had to manage too many crises in the PMO. After all, let’s be fair, the Prime Minister simply does not make that many public relations mistakes. Or is it perhaps that the Prime Minister does not make communications mistakes precisely because Powers is there blocking for him?

Either way, the safest bet this side of pocket aces is that Powers can talk a story down from a crisis to a mere speedbump.

It is sometimes said that rugby is a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen. Judging by my interview with Tim Powers, it’s hard to conclude that this rugby player is anything but a gentleman. And a funny one at that.

Richard Albert (RA): So, our favourite adult soap opera returns to the air in just a few weeks when Parliament reconvenes on September 14. How excited are you?

Tim Powers (TP): My euphoria is boundless. Only a trip to the dentist for a root canal would be more appealing.

RA: What should we look for in the first month or so of the new session?

TP: You’ll go tone-deaf with every utterance of the word election. Another quarter, another round of will there or won’t there be a vote. Hopefully logical forces will prevail and everyone can focus on recovering from the recession.

RA: It seems not a week goes by–and when the House is in session, barely a day goes by–when we do not see you somewhere on TV, battling the likes of NDP strategist Brad Lavigne and Liberal über-strategist Warren Kinsella. Do you have anything nice to say about Warren? And what about Brad?

TP: Like any good fellow with Irish blood, I love to whack the hell out of my partisan opponents on the air. But I respect and like both Brad and Warren. Both fight hard for what they believe in, and I respect that. Both are huge assets to their parties. Both I consider friends.

RA: Now how about something not-so-nice but still playful and friendly?

TP: We call Brad the oxygen eater because he’ll run down all the time remaining in a panel discussion with limp Layton lines.

Warren says we are brothers. I am not sure which set of parents would be more upset after the DNA testing.

RA: Do you remember the first time you appeared on TV as a talking head? I bet you did great but I would love it even more if you had messed up and would agree to share a funny story from your first–or an early–appearance.

TP: My first time on national TV was as a commentator for CPAC during the 1999 Nova Scotia provincial election. I remember my brother-in-law called in using a fake name to throw me a softball question. It was classic.

When you are on TV, screwing up is part of the game. I like to laugh, and I remember I laughed when I was on-air with Warren when he did his famous Barney the Dinosaur joke on Canada AM. (For background on this story, read this and this.  –RA.)

Instead of feigning rage or disgust at Warren’s slight of Stockwell Day‘s religious beliefs, I broke into a fit of laughter. I know a few people who weren’t happy with me then, and probably still aren’t now. But having gone through the good and bad of a religious school system in Newfoundland, his wit struck a chord.

RA: You are a fierce and tireless advocate for the governing Conservative Party. How much of what you say is spin and how much of it is unvarnished fact? 60 percent spin, 40 percent unvarnished fact?

TP: It is all in how you tell the story and lay out the facts–which I always pray are accurate.

RA: Maybe you can clear something up for me about the “Just Visiting” Conservative ad campaign. Some people say it worked, others no. Who is right? (How is that for a softball follow-up to my question on spinning?)

TP: Time will tell who is right and what right means. But I do think it touched more than a few nerves because it was on the mark. Fairly or unfairly, Mr. Ignatieff comes across as a self-interested dilettante who’d rather be cavorting in Harvard Yard, not Harbour Grace.

RA: Bottom line: Why, in your view, is the Stephen Harper better for Canada than Michael Ignatieff?

TP: Stephen Harper has proven to be a solid leader no more so than now through this vicious economic recession. Harper is not flashy and he is workmanlike–people at some level respect that.

He plays his politics hard, and sometimes that might sting. But so far he has been a steady, capable PM in unsteady times. And so far, unlike his predecessors, he is generally free of scandal.

RA: You are originally from St. John’s, Newfoundland. The current premier, Danny Williams, has not had the best of relationships with the prime minister. (And that is putting it mildy.) Could you manage, do you think, to bring these two conservatives together to iron out the details of a truce? Who would have to make more concessions?

TP: I know them both and I am a fan of both. I could put my entreprenurial skills to work and do a made-for-TV cage match. Watch out Georges St-Pierre. The winner stays in politics. The loser goes.

Canada and Newfoundland can work together. Energy opportunities might be where they unite.

RA: People have compared you to one of Newfoundland’s most respected figures, John Crosbie, a devoted former public servant and colourful parliamentarian–not to mention your former boss. How big of a compliment is that to you? Must be huge.

TP: As long as they don’t say I look like him, I’ll accept the compliment. He is a great man and mentor, and I was fortunate to learn at his knee. If I am fortunate to do anywhere near what he has done in his life, I’ll die happy.

RA: You will soon celebrate your 41st birthday. Hard to believe that you recently doned your old rugby uniform to take on a team from the Canadian Forces in a charity game to benefit the Military Families Fund. How did the game go? I mean, apart from the Minister of Defence breaking his arm?

TP: Life doesn’t end at 40, you know. I can even Twitter. Watch the ageism or I’ll have to come ruck over The Politic.

Well before I got into politics and business, I used to play high-end competitive rugby. I was fortunate enough to make the national under-21 team two years in a row.

Rugby is now back in my life and it has become my release from politics. I am back playing competitively for the Ottawa Irish Rugby Club. The match on the Hill helped remind me what I missed. It was a great night for an excellent cause.

Sure, Peter busted his arm. But being the trooper he is, he never let that take away from the day–though P.T. Barnum would have liked the marketting value of the minister with the broken arm.

RA: Just a few more questions. Which three living Canadians (whom you do not yet know nor have never met either in person or virtually) would you most like to host for dinner at Bianca‘s, one of the finest restaurants in St. John’s? Why?

TP: Neil Young–anybody who has lived this man’s life would most definitely be a lively dinner companion. I might need to book the next day off for my own medicinal purposes, though.

Wayne Gretzky–what can I say? What sporting fan of my age wouldn’t want to hang out with this prodigy?

Conrad Black–I have a morbid curiosity about him. We could end up in fisticuffs by the end of the night or it could be a peaceable affair. Any good dinner in Newfoundland must have those options.

RA: Time for the Lightning Round. Blackberry or I-Phone?

TP: Blackberry.

RA: Facebook or MySpace?

TP: Neither–because I like some privacy.

RA: Mac or PC?

TP: Commodore Vic-20.

RA: Less filling or tastes great?

TP: Wimpy stuff–Screech is the best.

RA: Boxers or briefs?

TP: Stanfields.

RA: Favourite band?

TP: U2.

RA: The Great One or Sid the Kid?

TP: The Great One.

RA: Thomas Carlyle’s Great Man Theory or Herbert Spencer’s Theory of Social Statics? (Do you care either way?)

TP: Daniel Bell’s post-industrial society.

RA: Has Newfoundland ever known a better premier than Joey Smallwood? Doubtful, in my view. But you tell me.

TP: Danny Williams, for cleaning up the messes Joey left behind.

RA: Greatest Canadian?

TP: Terry Fox (sometimes I agree with the CBC).

RA: Greatest prime minister?

TP: Sir John A.

RA: Final Question. Greatest politician never (or never yet?) to become prime minister? (P.S. You cannot answer John Crosbie or your good friend Peter MacKay.)

TP: Maybe Don Mazankowski or Preston Manning.

RA: Hey, Tim, fantastic. Thanks for taking some time to do this. Best of luck to the Blue team when the Governor General fires the starter’s pistol.

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Meet the Players: Interviews with Political Strategists and Candidates

• Warren Kinsella, August 17, 2009