On the Trans-Canada Highway east of Winnipeg there is a striking, full-colour billboard of Conservative MP Vic Toews, the MP for Provencher and Manitoba's regional minister.
It is a handsome image of Toews, with a smart dark suit framing his snow-white hair and matching moustache. And it's fortunate the billboard is there because Toews has been seen so little in public lately, even his constituents might be forgiven for forgetting what he looks like.
The bombastic politician has literally dropped off the radar screen, both here and in Ottawa. Opposition MPs say Toews is rarely seen or heard, even in question period where he previously seemed to relish the thrust and parry of debate. The last speech he posted on his website is from December 2006. Toews regularly posts news releases, but is rarely available to reporters for follow-up interviews -- his communications director staff Mike Storeshaw is often quoted, but only to explain that Toews has nothing to say.
After months of lying low, however, Toews is making headlines again, albeit for the wrong reasons. Winnipeg and Ottawa are now officially abuzz with word that Toews will retire from politics before the next election to accept a seat on the federally appointed Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench. Sources told the Free Press a committee searching for candidates to fill bench positions had been calling around to provincial officials for background information as part of a normal vetting process.
Toews was not available last week to talk about the increasingly firm rumours but Storeshaw (who else?) dismissed them out of hand. That denial has done nothing to quiet the rumours, or explain the activity of the nominating committee. We are now left to wonder why Toews would leave federal politics on the eve of what could be the Conservative government's great leap forward to majority status.
For those who have watched his career closely, however, Toews has given every indication that his star in the Conservative government has been falling steadily. Following the 2006 election that elevated Canada's new government, the former Manitoba attorney general was rewarded with the portfolio he most coveted -- federal justice minister. However, a snap cabinet shuffle one year after the Conservatives' minority election victory, he was moved to Treasury Board.
For many politicians, a move from justice to Treasury Board might not be considered a demotion. For Toews, it was immediately portrayed as a slap in the face given his active interest in, and strong opinions about, justice issues.
Toews' personal life has also become an issue for the Harper government; his wife filed for divorce last fall and there are concerns that his relationship with a Conservative staffer could hurt him in Provencher, the core of Manitoba's Bible belt.
Perhaps as a result of that shuffle, Toews has been uneven and unpredictable as Manitoba's regional power broker. He has sparred with the province over funding for the completion of the expanded Red River Floodway, putting hundreds of millions of infrastructure dollars in doubt. He has sparred with businessman David Asper over public funding for a new Blue Bombers stadium, putting the future of that project very much in doubt.
Perhaps nothing has typified the Toews era than his decision last fall to ignore a provincial-municipal justice delegation from Manitoba visiting Ottawa so that he could attend the opening of a Grand Forks hotel built by his good friend Leo Ledohowski of the Canad Inn empire. As regional minister, Toews is supposed to be the first point of contact and fixer for Manitoba politicians from other levels of government visiting the federal seat of power. If Prime Minister Stephen Harper has given his blessing to the judgeship -- and it seems certain that he would have to sign off for this to happen -- one has to wonder how he will frame it to avoid having it blow up in his face come election time.
The issue has even greater traction because of Toews' own record on this issue. As an opposition MP, Toews lambasted the Liberal government for appointing Liberal friends to the bench. "It's just one more illustration of how who you know gets you to the bench," Toews said in 2004.
After he became justice minister, and appointed at least one very close personal friend to the QB bench here in Manitoba, Toews defended the very system he had once decried. Now that he is reportedly looking for a soft landing in retirement, the system appears downright perfect.
It appears that Toews is one of the lucky few who will benefit not so much from what he knows, but who he knows.
dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
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