Tag Archives: CETA

QP: Bringing back the Duffy questions yet again

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Tuesday, and all of the leaders were finally present like they should be. If we’re lucky, we may see them for two days this week instead of just the one. Thomas Mulcair led off, once again returning to the issue of PMO interference in the Senate audit. Harper insisted that the premise was false and the matters were before the court. Mulcair tried to drag in Senator Carolyn Stewart Olsen into the conspiracy, but Harper wouldn’t take the bait. Mulcair asked about Duffy’s residency prior to appointment and the statement he allegedly signed before being sworn in, and Harper again retreated behind the courts. Mulcair finally segued to layoffs at Alcan, to which Harper and praised his government’s low-tax agenda. Mulcair read the question in French, bringing up Jack Layton’s name in the process, but Harper’s answer didn’t change. Justin Trudeau was up next, asking the government to cancel tax breaks for the wealthy. Harper insisted that their lower taxes benefit everybody, and insisted the Liberals would take everything away. Trudeau asked again, and Harper insisted his plan would make life better for every Canadian. Another round in French, and more of the same answer.

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QP: Triumphalism and playing catch-up

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In the wake of the Alberta election, there was a giddiness among the NDP benches — never mind that they had nothing to do with what happened there. Thomas Mulcair led off, asking about the Deschamps Report and the lack of action on eight of the 10 recommendations. Jason Kenney refuted the questions, and said they were working on implementation. Mulcair brought up a recent case of an Inuk soldier who was in the media, and Kenney insisted that they were taking action. Mulcair then changed to Mike Duffy’s appointment and the declaration Duffy allegedly signed before being sworn in. Paul Calandra turned it around on the satellite offices that the NDP owe for. Mulcair demanded the document, and Calandra offered the same response. Mulcair tried once more in French, bringing in the Nigel Wright “good to go” claim. Calandra was undaunted in his talking point. Justin Trudeau stood up for the Liberals, asking about tax breaks for the wealthy and asked if they would cancel those tax breaks. Pierre Poilievre insisted that Trudeau was going to raise taxes. Trudeau rephrased it, and Poilievre insisted that Trudeau’s platform won’t balance, and insisted Trudeau would raise taxes. One last round in French was no more edifying.

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Roundup: Risk or propaganda?

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It really was pretty galling when the tweets started rolling in yesterday morning – after admonishing the media to pay close attention and be very careful not to show the faces of any of the Special Forces troops in Iraq while they covered the Prime Minister’s surprise visit, the PM’s own media team went ahead and did it without a second thought. Oops. When this was pointed out, they took the videos down and tried to make some excuses, and later in the day, the Chief of Defence staff called the risk “minimal,” but maybe that’s because the PM’s 24/Seven videos get a mere tens of viewers, half of them from the media trying to see what they weren’t allowed to cover while the PM had his own team of propagandists doing the work for them. But the thing is, this wasn’t the first time this particular screw-up happened either. No, just a few weeks ago, Jason Kenney tweeted some of those faces that were not supposed to have been shown when he posted photos of the ramp ceremony of Sgt. Doiron, and I’m not sure that he delivered so much as an apology. And while Marc Garneau did ask whether this was a matter of incompetence, it also needs to be called out that neither of the opposition parties took this rather serious breach of operational security and government incompetence was asked about in QP until the second round for the NDP, the third for the Liberals. If a government is putting troops in danger because they want to bolster their image for propaganda videos, they deserve to be raked over the coals for it. It’s too bad that the opposition parties can’t be bothered to do their jobs.

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QP: New BSE concerns

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The benches were pretty empty in the Commons on Monday, and apparently more than a few MPs were snowed in at their local airports, and none of the leaders were present. That meant that David Christopherson led off for the NDP, gruffly worrying about the BSE case in Alberta. Gerry Ritz confirmed that it was found and that they were still investigating. Christopherson wondered about consumer confidence, to which Ritz repeated that they were working with the farm in question and they put money in the budget to advance beef trading, which the NDP opposed. Christopherson then moved onto the back-to-work legislation for CP Rail, and the safety issues around it. Jeff Watson responded with some bog standard talking points about rail safety. Nycole Turmel repeated the questions in French, and Watson repeated his answers in English. Stéphane Dion was up for the Liberals, asking about the infrastructure deficit and the comments made by Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi, and would the government do something about it. Peter Braid gave his standard Building Canada Fund talking points in response. Dion pressed, and Braid repeated his talking points more forcefully. Dion was back up, noting the bulk of the investments were backloaded, but Braid insisted that they were better off than under the Liberals.

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QP: Decrying the finance minister’s insults

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A blustery Monday in Ottawa, and only one major leader was present in the Commons. Thomas Mulcair led off, decrying the insulting way in which the Finance Minister treated the premiers and the Prime Minister’s lack of attendance at their meeting. Paul Calandra stood up to give a bog standard talking point about how the PM meets with the premiers on a regular basis, so that was getting things off to a good start. Mulcair pushed about the PM shunning those meetings, but Calandra repeated his answer. Mulcair demanded to know why Harper sent out the finance minister to insult the premiers, and again, Calandra repeated the praising talking points about the relationship with the provinces. Rosane Doré Lefebvre was up next, asking about the lack of increased oversight for CSIS if they are to be given new powers. Stephen Blaney insisted that all activities will be under the review of SIRC, which is independent. Mulcair got back up and demanded to know why the minister considered oversight and the protection of rights “red tape.” Blaney continued to insist that SIRC would do the job. Ralph Goodale got up for the Liberals, and wanted the government to redirect the funds for income splitting and direct it to infrastructure instead. Jason Kenny insisted that theirs was the better plan, and how the Liberals just wanted to raise taxes. Goodale then turned back to the question of oversight for national security, and how Canada was the only Five Eyes country without parliamentary (or congressional) oversight, not Blaney was undeterred, praising their new appointments. Dominic LeBlanc followed up in French, and Blaney tried to claim that our system was the envy of the world.

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QP: Dusting off the cobwebs

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The first Question Period of 2015 took place on a cold day in the Nation’s Capital, with more than a few empty desks still dotting the chamber as MPs make their way back. The PM was absent, at that RCMP funeral in St. Albert, Alberta, but the rest of the leaders were present, which has become unusual for a Monday. Thomas Mulcair led off, asking about the our Special Forces painting targets for the bombing mission in Iraq. Rob Nicholson insisted that they were doing what was stated — advising and assisting. Mulcair noted that this was ruled out by the Chief of Defence Staff back in September, but Nicholson offered some bafflegab about shooting back when fired upon. Mulcair insisted that they never should have been put in harm’s way in the first place, but Immediately changed topics to demand the budget that will reflect falling oil prices. Joe Oliver insisted that other projections were more generous than the ones the government made, and that they would honour their promises to the provinces and families while balancing the budget. For his final question, Mulcair gave the demonstrably false “all of our eggs in the oil basket” meme, threw in the job losses from Target, and demanded a jobs plan. Oliver repeated the substance of his answer. Justin Trudeau was up next, asking about the government’s wrong projections about the price of oil and wondered what kind of a hole that put in the budget. Oliver said there was an adjustment of $2.5 billion, and they would base budget projections on private sector economists’. Trudeau insisted that Oliver was not sharing the figure that his officials gave him, and asked him whether they would use the contingency fund to balance the budget, based on contradictory statements. Oliver repeated his line about private sector economists, and then accused Trudeau of talking down the manufacturing sector. Trudeau then changed to the issue of Special Forces on front lines, to which Nicholson said that they need to be with Iraqi forces to assist and train them.

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Roundup: London Liberal retreat

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With the Liberals kicking off their winter caucus retreat in London, Ontario, there were some defensive press releases sent out by the local Conservative MP, and later by Joe Oliver regarding comments that Trudeau said about the economic situation in the region – a region that has seen a “lost decade” compared to the rest of the province. Trudeau did make remarks about the economy in the evening, and while he still won’t lay out policy planks, he can now claim that it’s been a prudent move because he hasn’t committed to any grand spending plans in a time of falling oil prices. That said, he has made infrastructure spending one of his priorities, something that Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne made an explicit call for while in Ottawa yesterday, to the tune of five percent of GDP. It’s ambitious, and this government isn’t exactly going to be receptive – look at how they continually pat themselves on the back for back-loading their infrastructure spending plans as is – but Wynne was making some interesting points that this didn’t have to be all money in the next fiscal year, but other options about leveraging surpluses when approaching the markets for capital loans. Add to that, but economists like Mike Moffatt have been talking about the need for better infrastructure in southwestern Ontario in order to help them regain their productivity – after all, it’s hard to get your manufacturing business off the ground if you can’t get high-speed Internet in the area. It will be interesting to see how this will all play out in the upcoming election.

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Roundup: Refuting Jason Kenney

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In an interesting turn of events, an unnamed senior government official was talking to The Canadian Press yesterday to refute statements that Jason Kenney had made over the weekend about the upcoming budget – more to the point, that there were more cuts on the way, and that indeed the $3 billion contingency reserve wouldn’t be used to balance the books. It’s curious for a number of reasons – that Kenney would apparently be freelancing and undercutting Joe Oliver (not that Oliver has done himself any favours with some of the answers he’s given the past few days), that these officials would go to these lengths to refute Kenney, and that they’re claiming there are no further cuts because we all know that any “surplus” the government was counting on came from a continued austerity programme, so the fact that they’re saying there won’t be further cuts is a bit hard to take – even if it’s technically that there are no cuts on top of those they have already planned. One wonders if it’s a signal as to current dividing lines in the caucus (and cabinet) around Kenney and his leadership ambitions, and any positioning that he’s engaging in before the election, so that if it doesn’t go well and Harper resigns afterward, that Kenney finds himself ready to swoop in. But like I said – it’s just speculation, which odd stories like this tend to generate. Funny that.

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Roundup: An unconstitutional promise

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Over in the francophone media, Thomas Mulcair has been talking about his promise to never ever appoint senators ever if he were to become PM and form government. Of course, that kind of talk is beyond ridiculous and is in direct contravention to the constitution – the same sections that the Supreme Court gave a whole lot of clarity on in the recent Senate reference decision. Mulcair claims he would try to push the provinces to abolish the institution, but good luck with that – all of which tends to put a lot of doubt into just how seriously Mulcair would take is constitutional obligations should he ever assume the position. The interview did give rise to this post, which speculated on the conditions by which a Governor General might reasonably start appointing senators without waiting for advice from the PM, if said PM was obstinately refusing to put forward names for appointment. While we are going to start hearing from the courts on this matter sooner than later, with an active challenge now underway in BC, I’d have to agree with both Emmett Macfarlane and Philippe Lagassé on this one – having the GG make direct appointments would put us into a constitutional crisis because it would violate the principles of Responsible Government, but said GG could also note that the PM was refusing to act within his or her constitutional duties, and dismiss them, inviting someone else to form government instead. It would still be a bit of a crisis, mind you, and there would be all manner of wailing and gnashing of teeth in the media about it, but it would be much more in line with the principles of Responsible Government than making the appointments without advice. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t come to that, and that our current and future prime ministers start taking their jobs of making these appointments far more seriously.

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Roundup: Another unhappy premier

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He still won’t meet with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, dropping by Toronto for a meeting with new mayor John Tory on Thursday instead, and yesterday, Stephen Harper met with Paul Davis, the new premier of Newfoundland and Labrador. That meeting, however, did not go happily as the premier is accusing the PM of changing the rules unilaterally regarding their agreed-upon compensation for fish processing losses under the EU trade agreement in such a way that the province will never see those funds. So, still trying to win the province over, I see. Meanwhile, PostMedia imagines how the conversation between Harper and Wynne will go when it eventually does happen, and Paul Wells has some thoughts on the affair as well:

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