Stephen Harper has made the call – four by-elections will be held on June 30th, two in Alberta and two in Ontario. The fifth vacant riding, Whitby–Oshawa, former riding of Jim Flaherty, will remain open for the time being. That means that Fort McMurray–Athabasca and Macleod in Alberta, and Trinity–Spadina and Scarborough–Agincourt in the Greater Toronto Area are now officially in play. It also means that the two GTA ridings will be contesting the by-election in the middle of both a provincial and municipal election. It has also been suggested by the cynical among us that Harper intended to drive down voter participation by holding the by-elections the day before Canada Day. It remains to be seen in some of the more hotly contested ridings, and Justin Trudeau has spent the weekend in both Northern Alberta and Okotoks because of the two by-elections, hoping for a Liberal breakthrough in that province.
Over the weekend, former Quebec justice John Gomery said that the reason that Stephen Harper was so intent on getting Justice Nadon on the Supreme Court is that the Quebec courts are too full of liberal judges for his liking. It’s a pretty provocative statement, but it could actually fit the established narrative without trying too hard. Meanwhile, there are some suggestions as to how to make the appointment process even more transparent, such as releasing the long list of candidates, and the offices of who were consulted in the process.
Shannon Gormley writes about how Canada is pretty much unique in the world in which the way its head of government has gone to war with experts and officers of parliament. We’re unique, everyone! Err, but maybe not in a good way.
It seems that the Conservative Party’s lawyer twice gave Elections Canada false information about the call centre scripts being used during the last election regarding incorrect polling locations, which raises more questions as to what shenanigans were taking place. (Also consider this advance notice that this is not government business when it comes to QP, so don’t ask).
The government’s own internal surveys are blasting the decision to kill off the long-form census for the more expensive and less reliable National Household Survey, which can’t be used to compare with census data. Well done, government!
The Assembly of First Nations won’t be calling a special Assembly of Nations meeting before their planned July meeting, in part because the mechanism hadn’t been used in about ten years and there wouldn’t be enough time to get enough chiefs in place in time. As well, with the government putting the First Nations education bill on hold for the time being, they felt they had the time to wait until the July meeting, and that while there are problems with the bill, they would rather try to fix them than throw it out.
The UN’s special envoy on the rights on indigenous peoples will release his full report today with regards to the situation of the Aboriginal populations in Canada. Expect next week to be full of Leona Aglukkaq getting up in the House and standing before microphones to denounce the report and its author.
While research is showing that the Americans are moving away from their “tough on crime” policies that have seen their prison populations explode at the cost of their public treasuries, Canada continues to forge ahead with similar failed policies. Meanwhile, the federal Justice Department is cutting its research budget and narrowing the subject areas in which it will do studies that “better align” with the government’s law-and-order agenda. In other words, hobbling the civil service’s ability to give independent advice, and putting ideological blinders on policy making. Brilliant move!
The CEO of Canada Post says that the corporation can reinvent itself, and points to a greater shift toward parcel delivery as they phase out home delivery. And no, he’s not interested in restarting a postal bank, as the union and others are agitating for, as there is no core competency in the organization to support such a move.
The Liberals and the NDP are getting into a slap-and-hairpull fight over Trudeau’s boasts about being on the road. “Oh, but Justin Trudeau is out in the real world!” “Oh, but Thomas Mulcair is asking questions while Justin’s not!” That the NDP have also taken to trotting out the “Ottawa Bubble” meme doesn’t exactly help matters either, nor endear themselves to the notion that they too respect Parliament.
Marc Garneau suggested that Elections Canada might be looking into alleged NDP abuses of mailing privileges after their investigators spoke with him about his complaints about their mailouts in advance of by-election writs.
VIA Rail has a new chief shortly after John Baird made calls for its CEO to be replaced because of ongoing signal problems at an Ottawa crossing.
Here’s a depressing look at the way in which temporary workers for the federal government are seeing their pay rates fall to minimum wage as there becomes a surplus of workers available in this time of cutbacks, paired with smaller budgets to hire these temps, while there remains a great deal of work for them to do. It’s not really a good situation for anyone involved.
And with everyone still overthinking Trudeau’s move on the abortion issue (Hint: It’s a greenlight issue and not an open nomination issue for starters), Aaron Wherry posts some reflections on the debate that nobody wants to have, and Michael Den Tandt points out that it’s not a move that will harm Trudeau’s chances.