Apropos of nothing...

... but whatever became of this story, from the Ottawa Citizen, Dec. 14, 2003:

Former International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew gave a $17-million grant to a forest industry association shortly after his policy adviser joined a lobbying firm that represents the same organization. Andre Albinati left Mr. Pettigrew's office just before the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) received the grant to promote Canada's position on softwood lumber in the U.S. Five days before the grant was announced, in May 2002, he registered as a lobbyist with the Earnscliffe Strategy Group, an Ottawa firm closely affiliated with Prime Minister Paul Martin's leadership campaign... Mr. Albinati served as adviser to Mr. Martin during the leadership campaign and was a member of the transition team that negotiated the hand-over of power this fall. At the time he joined the firm, Earnscliffe's Michael Robinson and Charles Bird were both registered to lobby the government on behalf of FPAC. Mr. Robinson has served as a senior adviser on both of Mr. Martin's leadership bids. (Mr. Robinson was required to temporarily de-register as a lobbyist in September while working on the transition team.) Mr. Bird also volunteered on this year's campaign. At the same time, one of Mr. Martin's closest advisers was working as FPAC's vice-president of government relations: Ruth Thorkelson had served as Mr. Martin' s chief of staff until Oct. 2001 and remained active as a supporter of his leadership bid. She was listed by FPAC as its contact point for the $17-million grant. This fall, she worked on the transition team alongside Mr. Albinati and Mr. Robinson and was on Thursday named as deputy chief of staff in the Prime Minister's Office. The grant provided to Ms. Thorkelson's organization was intended to pay for an advertising campaign in the U.S. to promote Canada's position in the $10-billion trade dispute. FPAC says it used the money for an awareness campaign with U.S. legislators and to buy print and broadcast advertising... In Mr. Pettigrew's office, Mr. Albinati served as policy advisor on the softwood lumber file and would likely have been familiar with the plan to promote Canada's position through a U.S. campaign. Asked if he had worked on the grant for FPAC, Mr. Pettigrew's spokesman, Sebastian Theberge, said: "He was responsible for softwood lumber in general, yes."

And who should receive $800,000 of that $17-million for its work promoting “lumber awareness”? Why, Earnscliffe Research and Communications, as we later learned in this bizarre, three-paragraph story in the Globe and Mail:

Martin-linked group received $17-million By STEVEN CHASE Friday, March 19, 2004 Ottawa -- A $17-million grant to promote Canadian softwood lumber in the United States was awarded in the spring of 2002 to a forest industry association with ties to Paul Martin. And the Forest Products Association of Canada enlisted Earnscliffe Research and Communications, an Ottawa firm linked to Mr. Martin, to help the campaign. Earnscliffe received $800,000 of the money for polling, research and advice on the matter, FPAC says. The multimillion-dollar grant was announced in May, 2002, by then-trade minister Pierre Pettigrew, a strong supporter of Mr. Martin, who was finance minister. The aim was to boost U.S. support for Canada's position in the softwood lumber dispute.

As I say, it's not really relevant to anything current, but just for the record, here's the original Foreign Affairs press release announcing the $17-million grant. The precise date is May 27, 2002.