It being Tuesday, and lo and behold, all three leaders were in the House. Praise be. Thomas Mulcair led off with a softball about the assistance that Canada is deploying to Nigeria to help locate the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram. Stephen Harper offered a condemnation of Boko Haram, needn’t said that Canadian personnel were in Nigeria to help authorities there. Mulcair moved on to ask a short question as to whether he advised Justice Nadon to resign and rejoin the Quebec Bar. Harper spoke about advice he received that said appointing him from the Federal Court would be okay. Mulcair noted that he didn’t get an answer and asked which staffer gave Nadon that advice to resign. Harper reiterated his answer. Mulcair changed topics again and demanded severe financial penalties for companies that breach railway safety rules. Harper noted improvements that had been made to the safety network, and that they were coordinating with the United States before congratulating the police for laying charges on the individuals involved in the Lac Mégantic disaster. Mulcair insisted that nothing had really been done, but Harper insisted that they were indeed taking measures. Justin Trudeau rose for the Liberals and noted his visit to Fort McMurray before saying that the Temporary Foreign Workers programme was increasing unemployment in Alberta. Harper retorted that the Liberals were looking for more TFWs for their ridings. Trudeau pointed out the ways that the government loosened the rules and demanded the adoption of his party’s plans. Harper said that while there was a need for some workers, it shouldn’t be a business model. Trudeau then noted the objections to the changes in Quebec, but Harper reiterated his assertion that the Liberals wanted even more TFWs.
Tag Archives: Bruce Carson
Roundup: New allegations around satellite offices
Documents suggest that the NDP may have mislead the House of Commons administration with respect to their “satellite offices,” saying that those staffers would be working in Ottawa when they weren’t. This will make for a lot more awkward and/or acrimonious questions when Thomas Mulcair appears before committee to answer questions about this particular setup.
QP: The Great Prairie Grain Crisis
As the sitting week winds down in advance of the two-week March break, there was a definite feel of that very same happening in the House. Thomas Mulcair, the only leader present, led off by asking about the bottleneck of grain shipments on the prairies, for which Pierre Lemieux — a parliamentary secretary and not even a designated back-up PM du jour — assured him that they were working to address the logistics system. Mulcair gave an angry retort and demanded that Lisa Raitt answer the question, but Lemieux repeated his answer as the Conservative benches mocked Mulcair’s angry growl. Mulcair moved to the issue of voter information cards, and Pierre Poilievre listed possible kinds of ID that could be used. Mulcair brought up Marc Mayrand’s concerns about the ability to dress-up campaign advertising as fundraising under the elections bill, but Poilievre reminded him that the NDP leadership allowed the very same thing. Mulcair closed his round by saying that Mayrand demolished their arguments about voter fraud, but Poilievre disputed the factuality of that assertion. Ralph Goodale led off for the Liberals, pointing out a section of the Railway Act that the minister of transport could use to get the grain on the prairies moving, but Lemieux stood up to deliver his same talking points. Goodale turned to the coming drop in funding for the Building Canada Fund, but Denis Lebel insisted that they tripled funding for infrastructure over the ten years.
Roundup: “Captain Canada” remaining neutral
An election has been called in Quebec, but in Ottawa, Thomas Mulcair has declared that as there is no provincial NDP, he will remain “neutral.” And yes, he did just last weekend insist that he was going to be “Captain Canada” and fight for national unity. To that end, he says that he’ll support the federalist side (recall that he was once a provincial Liberal), but he doesn’t want people to vote only on that issue, especially because there are some Quebec Liberals who are in favour of private healthcare and so on. But wait – he also said that Marois would try to force a referendum if she wins a majority. So, he doesn’t want federalism to be the only factor, but it’s a major factor because she’ll launch a referendum that nobody wants. No doubt this has nothing to do with keeping the soft nationalists in the party fold. The Liberals, meanwhile, are on the attack saying that Mulcair can’t be neutral while the issue of separatism is on the table, while the Conservatives (who aren’t a big presence in the province) are holding back but saying that they would prefer Quebeckers choose the federalist option. Aren’t Quebec politics fun?
Roundup: Gun obsession and political direction
As if there weren’t enough problems to worry about in the wake of the floods in Southern Alberta, a small storm erupted yesterday with the revelation that the RCMP seized some unsecured firearms when they were conducting legitimate search and rescue operations. Not just unsecured firearms, but those left out in the open in evacuated homes. The RCMP explained this, as did the premier, but that didn’t stop the “government is seizing our guns!” conspiracy theorists from having an epic meltdown and theorizing that they were using gun registry data to target houses and enter them illegitimately. And to compound that, the PMO put out a statement that advised the RCMP to spend their time and attention elsewhere (as though unsecured firearms isn’t an actual offence that are well within their duties), which was perilously close to political direction – something that the PMO should not be doing when it comes to the Mounties. Meanwhile, High River’s fire chief had some pretty harsh words for the federal government when it comes to their interference – most of which he deemed to be posing – and cuts to emergency preparedness funding.
Roundup: Denying consent for transparency
After QP yesterday, Justin Trudeau rose to seek unanimous consent for his four motions on greater transparency for parliament – MPs posting expenses, opening up Internal Economy, and calling in the Auditor General. None of them passed, and apparently it was the NDP who denied consent (though some reporters heard Conservatives dissent despite the party line being that they were in favour). What did pass was a motion from Nathan Cullen that would ban MPs from using their travel points to go to speaking gigs, as apparently the latest bout of Trudeau bashing is to assert that he apparently used his MP expenses to do speaking gigs, despite there not being any evidence to support this, and the fact that most speaking gigs include airfare as a standard part of the deal.
Roundup: Spinning prison gangs as good news
What’s that? More gangs in prisons as we’re seeing more overcrowding, more double-bunking, more and incidents of violence that might entice prisoners to join gangs for protection? You don’t say! What’s more audacious, however, is the government dressing this up as more gang members in prison and off the streets, and yet not having any police data to back that particular claim up. Just so long as it has to feel convincing, we don’t need facts!
Martha Hall Findlay, Hedy Fry and Joe Volpe are trying to make a deal with Elections Canada about their outstanding leadership debts now that the courts won’t give them any more extensions.
Tim Uppal wants Parliament to stop “stalling” the Senate Reform Act. Um, it’s your government that’s not bringing it forward for debate. Oh, and they want the provinces to pay to “elect” (but not really since it’s just a “consultation”) federal senators. Predictably, no province except Alberta is wild on the idea and won’t pursue their own plans if they have to pay for them. Not that it matters anyway, since the whole thing is unconstitutional to begin with.
Roundup: Missed non-binding deadlines
The government is going to miss the six-month deadline the House gave it when it passed a non-binding motion about amending the Elections Act vis-à-vis robocalls. Hands up anyone who’s actually surprised. Meanwhile, other experts say that Elections Canada already has all of the tools they need, but their problem is actually enforcement, in that they’re not doing enough of it. Meanwhile, Kady O’Malley takes a look at that Paul Calandra fundraiser that people have been talking about, and breaks down what kind of money we’re talking about, and it’s more than some people would think.
In a similar vein, the Conflict of Interest Act is overdue for its five-year review, and given the committee calendar it likely won’t be reviewed until closer to the holidays. And hey, maybe they’ll think about doing more about the mandate of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, which is pretty limited and limiting.
Roundup: Christy Clark walks out
And that was the third and final day of the Council of the Federation meeting in Halifax, and it too had its share of drama as BC Premier Christy Clark walked out on the discussions on a national energy strategy until her concerns over the Northern Gateway Pipeline were addressed. While BC MPs gave a fairly mixed reaction to Clark’s move, the other premiers seemed fairly non-plussed with the attitude that it’s a big country, and they can go ahead without them. And then they all went back to complaining about health transfers. Meanwhile, a portion of an existing Enbridge pipeline in Ontario was approved to have its flow reversed, which could be an early step in bringing more western crude to eastern refineries – assuming that the pipeline can carry heavy crude and has enough capacity to make it worthwhile.
Here’s a look at five past and current interprovincial disputes.
In the Paul Calandra fundraising news, it seems that the chairman of the proposed radio station vying for the licence was encouraged to attend the fundraiser and make a donation. Yeah, that should have raised a flag.
QP: F-35 edition
After some Members’ Statements to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day and a moment of silence to pay respect, Question Period: F-35 edition got underway. Thomas Mulcair took up all five slots in the leader’s round to demand that Peter MacKay be held responsible for the debacle (not that he demanded his resignation outright), but Harper responded with his usual manner – standing up, shrugging, and saying that they’ve accepted the Auditor General’s report and have put in place a new secretariat to oversee the process. And it was probably Thomas Mulcair’s best performance, with shorter more direct questions, but he was still reading them off. Bob Rae stood up to decry the $10 billion misinformation and wanted Harper personally held responsible, right up to his resignation. Harper was sounding a bit more testy by the end, but kept going back to his talking points about accepting the report and the establishment of a new secretariat, but he did use the rather odd language of it being a more independent process to verify cost estimates, rather than to run an open competition. And in case you were worried, no, he didn’t offer his resignation over this affair.
Round two was largely dominated again by the F-35 debacle. Christine Moore, Matthew Kellway, Matthew Ravignat, Peggy Nash and Malcolm Allen had their own takes on it, whether it was more calls for MacKay to take responsibility, or trying to paint Christian Paradis with the same brush from his time as Public Works minister, or demanding an apology on behalf of the Parliamentary Budget Officer for the way he was treated when his estimates were unpopular but later proved correct. Answering were Julian Fantino, Rona Ambrose, and Peter MacKay, but they only repeated the very same talking points as before (though Ambrose, to her credit, could at least mix it up a bit and give the same talking point six different ways and make it sound like she was giving more information than she really was). Marc Garneau demanded MacKay’s resignation (MacKay: You’re misrepresenting the AG’s report), John McKay followed suit (Ambrose: Look! New secretariat!), and Judy Foote demanded that Fantino resign, calling him the minister without portfolio (the M-4 Unit stood up to respond, and you could hear his duotronic circuits whirring for a few seconds while he tried to formulate a response, before he simply went back to his talking points). From here, the topic shifted, and Hoang Mai asked about the AG report on tax avoidance (Shea: Look at all the things the AG praised us for!), while Nycole Turmel and Paul Dewar asked about the effect of public service job cuts (Saxton: Yay leaner government!).
Round three saw questions on Bruce Carson’s relationship with John Duncan, patronage appointments, CBC cuts, gas prices in Quebec, the demise of the National Round Table on Energy and the Requirement and Rights & Democracy, cuts to staff on military bases, and federal intrusion in BC’s coasts with regards to the Northern Gateway pipeline (Lebel: There are sound regulations in place).
Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to John McKay for his charcoal suit with a pink shirt and light blue tie, and to Michelle Rempel for a simple yet tailored black dress with a blue and grey scarf that wasn’t distracting. Style citations go out to Jasbir Sandhu for a pale orange shirt and tie with his grey suit, and to Lynne Yelich for a yellow jacket with black piping with a black turtleneck.