There remains no resolution to the issue of the proposed suspensions in the Senate, as the Conservatives there found their attempt to impose closure to be out of order and they have pulled the motions in favour of a new one, which ties things up even further. Oh, but apparently their ham-fistedness is the Liberals’ fault, because they won’t stand aside and just pass it. Because yeah, that’s how things work in our parliamentary system. As it stands, those motions may not see a vote until Friday, but may stretch into next week. Glen McGregor checks Mike Duffy’s speech against his speaking notes, and where the deviations from Hansard were. Joe Clark doesn’t think too much of Harper’s handling of the whole Senate situation. Paul Wells dissects Harper’s role in the mounting problems facing him with the Wright/Duffy affair, and how his usual stubborn streak is playing out – in spades. Chantal Hébert wonders about Nigel Wright’s silence in the face of his demonization by Harper, and how he may be the one to bring Harper down. Andrew Coyne bemoans the way in which the Conservatives are chucking away the conventions that govern our parliamentary system.
The Conservative policy convention begins today (not that these portions are open to the media), and in case you were worried, yes Conservative MPs and senators are paying their own way. And yes, the cloud of Duffy/Wallin/Brazeau will be casting a pall over a weekend that was supposed to be an enthusiastic kick-off to the next election (two years from now).
Also in Calgary, rather coincidentally – or so he insists – was Justin Trudeau, speaking to the Petroleum Club about his support for the Keystone XL Pipeline and how coherent environmental regulation would have meant that it would be approved by now.
On another note, it seems that Conservative Party lawyer Arthur Hamilton has been offering free legal advice to Dean Del Mastro – but the party hasn’t paid for it! And speaking of Hamilton, the $13,000 legal fee payout to Duffy is but a drop in the $3.4 million the party spent on “professional fees” (meaning lawyers, accountants and consultants) in 2012.
What’s that? The Harper government spent over $55 million on advertising last year? You don’t say! The Public Accounts documents also showed that cabinet spending increased, despite all the cries of fiscal austerity. Contaminated sites remediation was up another $2 billion, after new costs for decommissioning old nuclear sites were also identified. And then there are the millions of dollars lost to theft.
The potential sale of wireless carrier Mobilicity was denied for a second time, and they have a moratorium on transferring their AWS spectrum to the incumbent carriers.
The Federal Court ruling granting constitutional “Indian” status to Métis and non-status Indians is headed to the Federal Court of Appeal.
The Guelph robocalls case is getting increasingly absurd as one of the witnesses is alleging harassment over Facebook by an acquaintance of Michael Sona. No, seriously.
Energy economist Andrew Leach shows how absurd the touted “emission reductions” actually are, especially when they’re counted against projected emissions increases rather than actual emissions.
And Library of Parliament research shows that 85 percent of MPs are divorced, which actually shouldn’t be a surprise given long hours and distance. But the final paragraph of this piece is boneheaded – they don’t have evening sittings in Ottawa any longer since the Reform Party days thanks to the “family friendly” excuse, which is actually one of the reasons why decorum turned toxic – because MPs no longer had dinner together three nights a week before evening sittings, which was how they got to really know each other. And no, the handful of times per year when they have evening sittings for Committee of the Whole or emergency debates now is not enough to count as pressure on families. Sitting hours have already been restricted since the early nineties – restricting them any more means far less debate and work.