Roundup: Four new workers!

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It’s a special kind of desperation for a good news story when the government holds a press conference to announce four new jobs being filled. Specifically, four jobs on the Irving shipyard refurbishment in Halifax, which will be filled by Aboriginals. I’m still not sure the point of the announcement other than Peter MacKay saying “Look, we’re being diverse!” only they’re not even government positions (though they are getting a lot of government money). Sure, it’s nice that Irving has an Aboriginal employment strategy as part of its contracting procedures, but this was worthy of a government press conference? Sorry, but the news cycle isn’t that slow.

Special summer meetings of the Commons justice committee start next week in order to examine the prostitution bill, and Peter MacKay says that he’s open to amendments – really! The problem of course is that he says the bill is already constitutional, and any meaningful changes to the bill would almost certainly change its scope – something that can’t be done at committee stage, but would instead mean the bill would have to revert back to first reading and head to committee before second reading and not after. And MacKay is talking about the sense of urgency in passing this bill, which means that won’t happen either. So really, it’s going to be more of the empty promises to consider them and then pass none of them.

Kady O’Malley looks at the by-election turnout, and tries to put it into some broader context. Aaron Wherry adds his own musings as to the timing of by-elections and wonders why the Prime Minister sets the date. (The answer is that it’s a Crown prerogative, and we can hold him to account for his exercise of them). Colby Cosh, ever the bane of the turnout nerds, posts a couple of charts to make it clear that there is no relationship between the closeness of the result and the turnout in a by-election, and that by-election turnout, while all over the map, is in an overall upward trend.

The NDP staffers – who are unionised – have decided to sever their ties with mega-union Unifor after Unifor didn’t unilaterally support the provincial NDP during the Ontario election and instead called for strategic voting to defeat the provincial Progressive Conservatives. Hmm – I don’t seem to recall the NDP protesting with Unifor’s media representative arm made statements against the PCs either, damaging the credibility of those journalists they claim to represent.

The Canadian Press takes their baloney meter to Peter MacKay’s claims around female judges not applying, and judges it to contain “some baloney,” as the lack of federal data makes MacKay’s “17 percent more” claims meaningless, though the provincial data doesn’t reflect his claims.

The Ethics Commissioner is looking into those reports around Conservative MP Mark Adler’s fundraiser where he invited people who lobbied Finance Committee, of which he is a member, to attend.

In case you hadn’t heard, Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks are happening this week here in Ottawa.

Tax accountants told a focus group that they think the CRA gives up too easily when it comes to pursuing wealthy Canadians who sock their cash away offshore. CRA of course disputes this, says they’ve done plenty and that they plan to do more in the next five years.

Two new reports are highlighting the decline in income – sometimes dramatically so – of injured vets once the leave the military.

Pundit’s Guide looks through the recent party financial statements and finds that the Conservatives’ mysterious software project is no longer listed as “under development” and is now being deployed. The “C-Vote” system had proven unpopular in some Conservative circles, so we’ll see what happens with it. She also tracks what the other parties have been doing with their funds, such as the NDP paying off their 2011 campaign debt, and the Liberals investing in donor acquisition.

The Conservatives have announced that their new national director is Dustin Van Vugt, who replaces Dimitri Soudas in advance of that contested nomination in Oakville North–Burlington, which Eve Adams is running in.

With a larger number of private members’ bills passing the Commons, Jennifer Ditchburn wonders if this is really more MPs being empowered or more government legislation getting through by the backdoor of less scrutiny and debate – and really, it’s about six of one, half-a-dozen of the other.

Over in the Dean Del Mastro trial, the battle is moving toward the authenticity of computer records. A former call-centre employee also backed up the testimony of the Crown’s key witness about the voter identification campaign that Del Mastro’s campaign was running.

Another Conservative MP, LaVar Payne, has announced that he won’t run in the next election. Apparently Jim Flaherty’s death made him re-examine his priorities.

The NDP are defending their decision to block the nomination of Paul Manly, and are saying it’s part of their overall new vetting process. They haven’t explained how anything Manly said is anything in comparisons to statements that Libby Davies has made about Israel and the occupation of Palestinian territories.

And my column this week calls out the nonsense of declined ballots, and why they are based on a false premise and an abdication of responsibility.