OTTAWA ? Doug Finley wasn?t supposed to deliver a speech in the Senate on May 8. The legislation was a private member?s bill from a Conservative backbencher about Canada?s waterways that cross international boundaries.
?If I had thought ahead, I would have performed much the same way as my esteemed colleague, Sen. (Stephen) Greene, did (Tuesday) to pass this bill straight through, but I did not want to let down my allegiance to supporters of my Scottish accent,? Finley joked to his Senate colleagues last Wednesday. (http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/Sen/Chamber/411/Debates/161db_2013-05-08-e.htm#30).
It was the last time Finley?s distinct, rumbling Scottish accent filled the upper chamber.
Finley, the man considered one of the architects of Prime Minister Stephen Harper?s election victories, died Saturday after a battle with colon cancer (http://www.dianefinley.ca/?p=436). The Conservative party operative and organizer was 66.
?He was seen as being this gruff Scot, but when you get to know people you see something in them that people don?t see or appreciate,? Sen. Marjory LeBreton, the top Tory in the Senate, said in an interview.
?Despite his gruff side and sometimes the way he came across, he had a really decent core.?
LeBreton said Finley would email the Senate leader during difficult moments in the upper chamber, with the two sharing memorable quotes from Scottish poet Robbie Burns.
?At different times when we were dealing with difficult issues in the Senate, he sent me some extremely warm and friendly and wonderful emails, which I wasn?t expecting and yet I really appreciated it coming from him because it was a side of him you didn?t see,? she said.
The partisan operative?s death sparked condolences from party leaders, with NDP Leader Tom Mulcair saying in a statement (http://www.ndp.ca/news/statement-leader-official-opposition-passing-senator-doug-finley) that Finley?s passing ?will be mourned beyond party lines.? Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau tweeted (https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau/status/333278793575825409) his condolences to Finley?s family.
The prime minister issued a statement expressing his condolences (http://www.dianefinley.ca/?p=438).
?Our government has lost a trusted adviser and strategist. Canada has lost a fine public servant. I have lost a dear and valued friend,? Harper said in the statement. ?A great Canadian has been taken from us, before his time.?
Finley was married to federal Human Resources Minister Diane Finley, making the duo only the third married couple in Canadian political history to have one partner serve in the House of Commons and one in the Senate.
?Between the two of us, we have both the red and the green chambers covered. Of course, I like the fact that I am the one who is called the ?sober second thought? of the family or, as I call it, having the last word,? Finley said in his first official speech in the Senate on March 23, 2010 (http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/Sen/Chamber/403/Debates/009db_2010-03-23-e.htm#50).
Finley was controversial, working in political campaigns for parties of all stripes, including the Liberals. That political mix mirrored the upbringing he had in Scotland before immigrating to Canada in 1968.
His mother had ?ultra-socialist leanings,? he once reminded the Senate (*http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/Sen/Chamber/411/Debates/062db_2012-03-15-e.htm#37), since she had come from the ?cradle of the trade union movements ? in Scotland. His father, he said, was ?an avowed Tory.?
Finley walked into a non-unionized work environment in the 1960s and became a union organizer. Years later, he took an aviation company and ran it without the presence of organized labour in his shop.
In 2002, he met Harper and joined his ranks, first helping merge the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservatives into the Conservative Party of Canada in 2003, then helping Harper become the leader of that party and running his election machine.
He was credited with bringing discipline and organization to the party, a quality that permeated his own life, LeBreton said.
His campaign experience made him a source of advice for campaigners inside and outside of Canada.
?He invariably responded generously and with practical realistic advice,? said Brian Loughnane, federal director of the Liberal Party of Australia. ?In the cut-and-thrust of campaigning he was always supportive and encouraging.?
Finley was in the middle of the so-called ?in-and-out? election-spending affair (http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/03/02/what-the-the-in-and-out-spending-scandal/), in which the Conservative party pleaded guilty to exceeding campaign spending limits in the 2006 election. A more serious charge was dropped and the party paid more than $50,000 in fines. Finley denied there was ever wrongdoing.
In 2010, Finley was diagnosed with colorectal cancer, the third most common cancer diagnosed in Canada and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the country. Although it is treatable if caught early, surgeons found that the cancer had spread to Finley?s liver.
The cancer spread again in 2011 at which time he was given about three years to live. He then started to tell colleagues, family and friends that his cancer was terminal.
?I didn?t want to lie to them and say everything is OK when it isn?t,? Finley told the Simcoe Reformer in a December 2012 interview (http://www.simcoereformer.ca/2012/12/20/doug-finley-its-terminal). ?And I don?t want to shock people in person by saying it?s terminal. I don?t want anyone to be under any illusions of what it is.?
In a frank, detailed interview with iPolitics.ca in November 2012, he spoke openly about the prospect of dying (http://www.ipolitics.ca/2012/11/27/im-not-scared-of-dying-conservative-senator-doug-finley-opens-up/).
?Like a lot of people I?m not scared of dying, I?m more concerned about the process of dying,? Finley told the web publication, which covers federal politics.
?And if I want to dig that hole for myself by thinking about that, then the process of dying will be even worse and longer. So look, whatever is going to happen is going to happen. I?ll deal with it when it happens.
?There?s really not much else to say. I?ve got a great family, my wife has been brilliant.?
Finley is survived by his wife, Diane, brother James, sister Maureen, daughter Siobhan and three grandchildren, Willem, Erin and Emma.
?Doug fought a hard and very public battle with cancer,? his wife Diane Finley said in a statement (http://www.dianefinley.ca/?p=437). ?His death is a loss to our family, our friends ? and to the entire country.?
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Doug Finley ? at a glance
Born: July 25, 1946 in England.
Age: 66
Appointed to Senate: Aug. 27, 2009 by Stephen Harper.
Represented: Ontario ? Ontario South Coast.
Married to: Diane Finley, minister of human resources and skills development
Previous political work:?
-Conservative campaign manager in 2006 and 2008 federal election.
-Liberal organizer in Quebec in the 1970s.
Office: Occupied Sir John A. Macdonald?s old East Block office, nicknamed ?the church? because of two large stained glass windows.
Highlights
1968: Arrives in Canada from Scotland with a degree in business administration.
1974: Volunteers in his first political campaign for Liberal MP Rod Blaker.
1982: Meets and marries Diane Dennis, his second marriage.
1982: Joins aerospace company Standard Aero.
2000: Helps out in the Ontario provincial election for the Mike Harris Conservatives.
2002: First meeting with Stephen Harper.
2003: Major backroom player, helps facilitate the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties.
2004: Diane Finley wins seat in southwest Ontario.
2004: Doug Finley appointed director of political operations of the Conservative Party with responsibility for running campaign and candidate schools.
2005: Becomes Harper?s deputy chief of staff.
2005: Part of a group that visited dying Chuck Cadman to persuade the B.C. MP to vote with the Conservatives and topple the Paul Martin government.
2006: Helps Conservatives defeat the Paul Martin Liberals; Harper forms a minority government.
2008: Responsible for the negative advertising campaigns directed at the character of Liberal leaders Stephane Dion, then Michael Ignatieff.
2009: Is appointed to the Senate in August.
2010: Diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Undergoes 11-hour operation.
2011:
February: One of three party officials charged in the ?in-and-out? financing scheme used in the 2006 election.
May: Cancer treatments keep him from running the campaign that finally gives Stephen Harper a majority government.
November: Reaches a plea agreement with Elections Canada over ?in-and-out? scheme. Charges against him are dropped; in return, the Conservative Party pleads guilty and pays a fine.
2012: Reveals in media interviews in November and December that his cancer is terminal.
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