Roundup: Official residence refuseniks

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In a piece in the Huffington Post that gives yet another farewell from Andrew Scheer to the office of the Speaker, we find that at least two of the people running for the job – Mauril Bélanger and Yasmin Ratansi – are vowing that if elected Speaker, they wouldn’t use the official residence in Kingsmere. While Bélanger could certainly make the case as an Ottawa resident that there’s no real need, anyone else eschewing the use of the residence is, frankly, being obtuse. Scheer makes some good points – that the National Capital Commission needs to spend money to keep the place functional anyway, so it’s not a huge savings if that’s the motivation, and the fact that the “luxurious” apartment the Speaker gets in the Centre Block is anything but (the piece has photos of it, and well, I would hesitate to call it a two star), and it’s not really healthy to live at the office. Beyond that, the whole point of having an official residence is that it’s to be used for entertaining – MPs, diplomats, and even journalists during the annual barbecue at Kingsmere every June. That entertaining can be pretty important, particularly among MPs. Speaker Milliken used to hold dinners that always included MPs of different parties so that they could get to know each other better outside of the Commons – something that is increasingly important with the demise of evening sittings and the fact that MPs simply don’t socialise together the way they used to. Vowing to do away with the official residence – and the space to hold this kind of necessary entertaining – is not being frugal, it’s playing into cheap politics that ultimately serves nobody, and in fact feeds into the toxicity that surrounds the perception of politics as it is. None of this is actually some kind of luxury five-star extravagance that is soaking the taxpayer. It’s relatively modest, but reflects the office – one of the reasons why we have official residences to begin with. Rejecting it, even for symbolism, does nobody any favours.

Good reads:

  • Canada is backing the US decision not to make climate targets legally enforceable (as doing so would make it impossibly to ratify there).
  • Climate change and corruption are the big topics at CHOGOM, while Canada pledges more aid for developing countries with climate change.
  • It looks like most of the Kurdi family has been granted refugee status in Canada, but Abdullah – father of Alan – is choosing to stay in Erbil.
  • Ministerial briefing books are being made available online, such as Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly’s here.
  • Kady O’Malley offer’s a user’s guide to Parliament for new MPs.
  • At the Duffy trial, Gerald Donohue said that Duffy never got kickbacks from the fund that he administered on Duffy’s behalf.
  • The CRA held back information on a Liberal lobbyist being convicted of tax evasion until after election because of the Caretaker Convention, apparently.
  • Anne Kingston has an interesting look at political wives and the politics of taking last names.
  • Andrew Coyne dismisses the rhetoric around increasing taxes on the one percent.
  • Susan Delacourt notes Trudeau’s current neglect of the rest of parliament, and wonders if that will continue once the Commons starts sitting.
  • Delacourt also recaps the lessons learned by pollsters during the last election.
  • Alheli Picazo notes that accepting Syrian refugees into society and fighting xenophobia is a role we can all play in defeating groups like ISIS.

Odds and ends:

Here is more about the early history of 24 Sussex amid the debate on its future, and suggestions on ways to prevent future repeats of its deterioration.

That brooch that Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau was a loan with the idea of promoting Canadian designers, but PMO didn’t know it was going to be used to advertise it.

Here’s Trudeau’s toast to Her Majesty at the black-tie dinner at the Commonwealth meeting.

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