After allegations were made that the Supreme Court of Canada somehow intervened during the patriation of the Constitution, the Court’s investigation has turned up no documents to suggest that this is the case. Not that there was anything that they could really be expected to find – phone records from 1982? And every justice on the bench at that time is now deceased, so it’s not like they could ask any of them. This, however, is not good enough for either the PQ government in Quebec, nor Thomas Mulcair, who seems to think that the Supreme Court is somehow covering something up. No, really, though one is left to wonder how much of this is yet another attempt to pander to nationalists in Quebec. And thus we can add another institution that Mulcair has “respect” for – the Senate, the Crown and now the Supreme Court. So much respect…
Meanwhile, the NDP launched another rather bizarre assault during QP yesterday in the wake of the revelation that a cabal of developers were trying to influence the forthcoming Calgary municipal election. The NDP’s contention is that because those developers also donated heavily to the Manning Institute that it somehow compromises Chuck Strahl, who heads the Centre as the Security and Intelligence Review Committee, and because the government appointed him, they too are compromised in some way. None of this makes any sense, however, and Jason Kenney quite rightly smacked down the suggestions in QP. (In a somewhat related story, one Calgary councillor was left with the impression that she wasn’t conservative enough when the Manning Centre refused to provide her training like they would other candidates).
What’s that? The government is committing sociology and funding a project to learn about the root causes of terrorism, to the tune of half a million dollars? And Harper himself was talking about root causes on the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attack? You don’t say!
Chief of Defence Staff, General Tom Lawson, has made a public statement to explain the process by which the hardship and hazard pay of soldiers was proposed to be changed by an internal process that was arm’s length from the government, before the government stepped in to halt the change – not that this has stopped the opposition from making political hay of this.
HRSDC has spent a quarter million dollars to replace all of its USB keys and portable hard drives with encrypted versions after its high-profile data losses and privacy breaches. It does beg the question as to why these were not there in the first place, as is required by their own privacy guidelines.
In order for Exxon to give up its surface rights on Sable Island, so that it may become a national park, they are being given the option to do horizontal drilling and seismic testing underground. The committee is reporting this legislation back to the Senate.
At the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, former Prime Minister Paul Martin said that we need to call a spade a spade and say that residential schools were an act of cultural genocide.
Over in the Labrador by-election, it seems that the NDP candidate’s numbers have plummeted since Thomas Mulcair was there to campaign with him. Oh dear. It’s also not good news for Harper, as this could be the first by-election that the Conservatives will have lost since they formed government in a riding they held.
Paul Wells looks at the ways in which Justin Trudeau makes Stephen Harper do irrational things, especially in the past two weeks. Meanwhile, charity auctioneers praise Trudeau for his “striptease” – removal of his shirt – to help raise funds, and one who was “born and raised” a Conservative doesn’t appreciate the attack ads mocking his doing his part for charities. Oh, and the Liberals are lodging formal complaints that those ads make unauthorised use of copyrighted footage.
Prince Philip is in Canada on a private working visit to present colours to one of his Canadian regiments. He was also presented with the Order of Canada and the Order of Military Merit for his long service to this country. Richard Berthelsen explains more here.
It’s all but official that Denis Coderre will be abandoning federal politics to run in the Montreal mayoral race, as he has registered a website for the race. His official announcement isn’t slated until May 16th.
Susan Delacourt looks at the way in which the denizens, past and present, of 24 Sussex Drive keep insisting that they’re ordinary folks who really aren’t the elites that the address suggests. This also fits into the narrative that both Laureen Harper and Justin Trudeau claim.
Here are the three things you need to see from last night’s political shows, including Rosemary Barton’s triumphant return to the Friday night hosting job, and she was amazing – her MP panels had some substance to them! It was also my final Politics on TV column for Macleans.ca. Onward to new challenges, and so on.
And here is a handy ministerial survival guide for ribbon cuttings and other funding announcements on behalf of the Harper Government™.