Justin Trudeau put on his penitent face yesterday and made his apology for making a quip about Russia intervening in Ukraine because of a hockey loss. He apologised to the ambassador, and signed the book of condolences there for the dead protesters – and everyone pointed out that none of the other leaders had done so, nor had they spoken to the ambassador. Because we need to play cheap politics over the situation there, and try and drag their ambassador into our domestic political mud fights. Way to show that any party leader in Canada is statesmanlike! Meanwhile, Stephen Harper is sending John Baird to Ukraine with a Canadian delegation in order to meet with the interim government to see if Canada can help out in any way (and it’ll likely involve being part of a bailout package, since much of what started this whole revolt was the $15 billion that the former president accepted from the Russian government).
The NDP want the Speaker to find a prima facia breach of privilege in MP Brad Butt telling the Commons that he witnessed people taking voter identification cards to commit voter fraud, as he deliberately mislead the House.
It looks like Jason Kenney is closing in on a deal with the provinces around the Canada Job Grant, as the April 1st deadline draws closer.
Officers of Parliament were before committee yesterday to outline their concerns with Mark Adler’s private member’s bill that would ban any future officer of parliament from having any political involvement over the past ten years. The definitions in the bill are apparently problematic, and there are concerns that it would discourage too many people from bothering to apply for these kinds of positions, no matter how much they conduct their affairs in a non-partisan manner. Not surprisingly, Adler couldn’t provide any examples of when such an officer has acted in a partisan manner. But they’re all out to get the Conservatives, remember!
Speaking of Adler, it seems that during the trip to Israel, he barred Irwin Cotler from an event Adler was co-hosting with an Israeli charity. Apparently he told Cotler that he wasn’t welcome there, which is pretty galling. And when asked about it yesterday while he was at the committee, Adler “took a call” and ran away from the media. Oh, and the PMO distanced themselves from the affair by saying it was a private affair that they had no part in organising.
While the Senate debates a motion on subjecting MPs’ expenses to the Auditor General, MPs – predictably – feel that they’re fine, no need for an audit thank you very much. Nathan Cullen went so far as to say that the Senate has the moral authority of the Mafia. No, seriously. Apparently Cullen is all class.
The head of the CBC is due to testify at a Senate committee over the broadcaster’s future, but will likely face questions over his repaid expense claims while he’s at it.
Stephen Harper’s former campaign manager, Tom Flanagan, says that Justin Trudeau is proving impossible to attack personally for the Conservatives.
Despite previous assurances that he would definitely run in the next election, Jim Flaherty is now backing away from that and saying that he still hasn’t decided, which could put the Conservatives in a tight spot, not only if they want to keep him in cabinet for the next budget, but also as they start to organise their nomination races nationally.
The preliminary report looking into the allegations of abuse of power and sexual harassment against Senator Colin Kenny has turned up “new allegations” – which appears to be that he asked his assistant to pick up his medication from the drug store. But to be salacious, it needed to be reported that one of those medications was for erectile dysfunction! Salacious reporting FTW!
A letter obtained by PostMedia shows that auditors from Deloitte warned the Senate Clerk and then-head chairman of the Internal Economy committee, Senator Tkachuk, that they would be completing Mike Duffy’s audit with or without his cooperation – one day before Duffy told them that he wasn’t going to cooperate because he had repaid his expenses already. For what it’s worth.
Despite no longer being in cabinet and Harper trying to distance himself from the Senate (albeit not as radically as Justin Trudeau has), it seems that Senator Marjory LeBreton is still seen as a “draw” for local Conservative fundraisers.
As economists continue the debate over the real situation of the middle class, this analysis shows that the “Nathalie” example used by Trudeau during his keynote speech is a demographic that is doing quite well, while the median has not been growing as fast, but also that for the past twenty years, after-tax incomes are exceeding market incomes, which means that they are benefiting from government redistribution. Oh, and it looks like BC families are the wealthiest in the country, but that shouldn’t really surprise anyone given housing prices.
President Obama promises a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline in a couple of months. I’m guessing that assumes that the whole judge striking down the granted passage in Nebraska gets solved.
Lawn fertilizers are running off into Lake Erie and causing algae blooms that threaten to destroy its ecosystem.
Oh look! A social conservative organisation finds “research” that is nothing but correlation without any context or proof of causation to “prove” that marriage is an economic advantage and calls for things like tax breaks for marriage and government-subsidised marriage counselling. Social engineering FTW! (And equally disappointing is that there seems to be no critical analysis of this ridiculously dubious report. Well done, media colleagues).
And my column this week looks at the Samara report on what Canadians think of political parties, and diagnoses where I think much of it went off the rails.