PM’s new aide known for getting things done, being ‘a nice guy’
OTTAWA — Paul Calandra seems like the kind of guy you could buy something from. A commercial insurance broker before he entered politics, he makes eye contact and talks in a downto-earth manner.
Good qualities for someone who is suddenly charged with selling the Conservative government’s message on the Senate expenses scandal. All last week, the one-time Conservative backbencher, promoted just last month to become Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s parliamentary secretary, has made the rounds of the political talk shows to explain his boss’s point of view.
He’s also had to answer tough questions about the Senate affair from the NDP and Liberal opposition in the House of Commons.
When he stood up in place of the prime minister during question period one day last week to respond to NDP Leader Tom Mulcair on the topic, he drew a chorus of jeers from opposition benches.
“It is certainly nice to be loved, Mr. Speaker,” he joked wryly, before responding.
It’s tough sledding for any parliamentary secretary to a prime minister. People want to hear from the boss, not you. And the job has had a few recent wrinkles: the previous parliamentary secretary, Dean Del Mastro, resigned from caucus and his post in September while facing charges from Elections Canada that he exceeded his campaign spending limit and filed false expense accounting in the 2008 federal election.
Del Mastro was also feisty and combative. Calandra, who represents the Ontario riding of Oak RidgesMarkham, is seen as having a somewhat different style.
“Paul’s a very hard-working MP,” Frank Scarpitti, the mayor of Markham, said. “He’s one of those guys who is not that flashy but works behind the scenes to get things done.”
Scarpitti said Calandra is able to see past partisan divides to do what’s best for the broader community.
For example, Scarpitti said, in 2011 Calandra supported the building of a new skating rink outside Markham’s civic centre under the Canada Infrastructure Program. This was despite the fact that the rink was in the Markham-Unionville riding, held by Liberal MP John McCallum. The $4-million rink was completed in 2011.
“I guess I can say, as Conservatives go, he’s a very nice guy,” McCallum said. “We get along well.”