Tag Archives: Foreign Policy

Roundup: The premiers take exception

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What’s that? Several premiers are taking exception to the federal factum on Senate reform that says that the government can make changes without provincial consent? You don’t say! It’s almost like we’re a federation and that the provinces have as much say in things relating to the constitution as the federal government does. What a novel concept that is!

Access to Information documents show that the government listened primarily to industry stakeholders when it made changes to the Fisheries Act around the protection of fish habitats – not that this should come as any great surprise.

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Roundup: A federal factum of expediency

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The federal government has submitted its factum to the Supreme Court on the Senate reference with great fanfare yesterday, with newly minted Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre insisting that they don’t really need to open up the constitution, and that they wouldn’t really need to get unanimous consent of the provinces to abolish the Senate. Yeah, somehow I doubt the Court will agree.  Reading the factum over, it’s an underwhelming document, full of “these aren’t the droids you’re looking for,” “Squirrel!” and plenty of “don’t worry your pretty heads about the actual longer-term consequences of these changes, just look at right now.” Yeah. Paul Wells’ take on the factum pretty much says everything you need to know, though I would hasten to add that some of the arguments the government makes are spectacularly moronic. But hey, it’s not like we should actually worry about the constitution when we could be focusing on short-term political expediency – right?

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Roundup: Politics and blame for Lac-Mégantic

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As the blame and politics around the Lac-Mégantic explosion swirl about, which you can parse in all sorts of different ways – including the company saying that the locomotive may have been tampered with – it does bear reminding that Transport Canada has been slapped by auditors in the past for not having clear training regimes and procedures for their inspectors – so that even if inspections were conducted, were they all conducted the same, and what kind of follow-up was done, given the rates at which the same problems were found in successive inspections. The CBC’s extensive coverage can be found here. Liza Ch. Savage looks at how it figures into the Keystone XL pipeline debate in the States. Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall also send their condolences, as well as those for the floods in Alberta.

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Senate QP: Seawalls and missing reports

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With no national caucus to hold up proceedings, the Senate sat early on a humid-but-not-hot morning in Ottawa. With the Order Paper emptying out, the workload has been narrowing to just a few key bills still at various stages of debate.

Senator Mercer was up first, and with all of the flooding that had taken place in Calgary, Mercer was concerned about a seawall on Cape Breton that was in need of repairs, and would the federal government be involved in cost sharing? Senator LeBreton, the government leader and answerer of questions, said that the seawall was privately owned and not federal jurisdiction. Mercer said that there were several quibbles over jurisdiction and it meant further delays, and it had been built with federal funds. LeBreton returned to the issue of jurisdiction, but agreed to verify this fact. When Mercer pointed out that an ounce of prevention was better than a pound of cure — flood mitigation if the wall is breached, LeBreton repeated her answer and agreement to check.

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Roundup: Convention delayed

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The Conservative convention has officially been moved to the fall in order to give Calgary time to clean up after all of the flood damage. This does give the party more time to allow the whole Senate expenses issue to continue to fester for a while longer, but also time to cool down over the summer. It might also mean showcasing a new cabinet by the time the convention happens as well.

Paul Wells looks at Harper’s crisis of confidence within his party and caucus ranks. This as the rumour mill is saying that Harper is looking at bringing Jenni Byrne back into the PMO from her high-profile role at the party’s headquarters.

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QP: Yet more questions of Zajdel and other former staffers

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As the sitting winds down, and the benches are restless, nobody was much expecting it to be a calm and civil QP. On top of that, Thomas Mulcair was off in Quebec City to showcase his regional caucus there, Stephen Harper was wrapping up the G8 summit, and Justin Trudeau was, well, elsewhere, it meant that Elizabeth May was the only leader in the House. Megan Leslie led off, asking if any member of the Prime Minister’s Office had been approached by the RCMP regarding the Wright investigation. James Moore, once again the designated back-up PM du jour, said no, and witness how they cooperate and not sit on evidence of corruption for 17 years. Leslie demanded proof that Wright’s cheque to Duffy was a personal one, to which Moore reminded her that he couldn’t access the personal cheques of Canadians. Leslie changed topics and asked if Moore had even met Saulie Zajdel before he hired him. Moore reminded her that Zajdel was a city councillor for 22 years and was a candidate, but it he had broken the law, the book should be thrown at him. Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe wondered who recommended Zajdel’s hiring — was it Senator Housakos or Dimitri Soudas? Moore sidestepped the question and returned to the admonition that if any lawbreaking was found, books would be thrown. When Blanchette-Lamothe brought up the former staffer who is now under investigation by the RCMP for the West Block contract, Moore said that an investigation already said there was no political interference in that cooperation. Dominic LeBlanc was up for the Liberals, and after another Zajdel question, asked what it was that the PM was asking of his chiefs of staff that landed them under RCMP investigation. Moore kept up his usual swipes about Trudeau’s speaking fees and Senators Pana Merchant and Mac Harb.

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QP: Angry Mulcair’s grand soliloquies

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The benches nearly full after morning caucus meetings, QP started off with Thomas Mulcair asking about the PM’s indication from the UK that he has access to the $90,000 but was simply refusing to turn it over. James Moore, the designated back-up PM du jour, said that it wasn’t the case and that the PM simply indicated that there was an independent process underway. Mulcair asked the same again in English, returning to his old habit of grand soliloquies being read from his desk, while Conservative MPs made grizzly bear noises. For his final question, he asked about Van Loan’s chief of staff being part of the committee looking into replacing the Parliamentary Budget Officer. Van Loan insisted that this process was the same as the one that selected Kevin Page. Peggy Nash carried on the very same line of questioning, and Van Loan and Tony Clement gave the same answers in reply. Justin Trudeau was up next for the Liberals and asked a series of unanswered questions that still surrounded the Wright-Duffy affair. James Moore stood up and talked about passing S-2 on Aboriginal property rights and the great job numbers. When Trudeau pressed, Moore said that the questions had already been answered and took a number of gratuitous swipes instead.

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QP: Another worthy Tuesday

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It was a Tuesday with all of the leaders back in the House and ready to face off once again. Before the show could get started, things took a brief pause so that the newest Liberal MP, Yvonne Jones, could be brought before the bar and be given the chance to take her seat for the first time (which she got a bit sidetracked with, trying to go to shake hands with the Speaker and much laughter ensued). Thomas Mulcair started QP off with the prosecutorial style questions again, asking about Senator LeBreton saying that Harper had dealt with the Wright matter on the 14th and not the 15th as Harper had previously stated. Harper responded by saying he had been clear that he found out on the 15th, and that Mulcair said in 2010 that he didn’t know anything about Quebec corruption. Mulcair then asked when Harper had first spoken to Duffy about his expenses, to which Harper said that they had spoken after caucus that one Wednesday in February, and that he told him to repay any improper expenses. Mulcair asked when he ordered the rest of the caucus to repay their expenses, and who in his staff was present, but Harper kept going back to the fact that he was clear about insisting that improper expenses be repaid — and you sat on corruption allegations. Justin Trudeau was up next, and asked for the reason that Nigel Wright gave him for writing that cheque. Harper repeated the tale that Wright wanted to ensure that taxpayers were reimbursed, and tried to insist that Liberal senators were resisting calling in the Auditor General — a falsehood, as Senate rules dictate that all motions need 24 hours’ notice, and it was only tabled today. Thus, they’ll discuss the motion tomorrow, per the rules. Trudeau tried to ask why Duffy was so special — was it because of his status as a high-profile party fundraiser? Harper’s response didn’t change.

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Roundup: Call in the Auditor General!

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Today in ClusterDuff reverberations, we hear that the Government Leader in the Senate, Marjorie LeBreton, wants to call in the Auditor General to do a full comprehensive audit of Senators’ expenses, not just the systems and administration audit that he did in 2012. There have been concerns in the past that the AG, being an officer of parliament, would be in a kind of conflict auditing his own bosses, but we’ll see if those remain. LeBreton didn’t consult with the opposition about the motion, but the Liberals have since said sure – but audit the Commons’ expenses in as comprehensive manner as well. And the Government Whip, Gordon O’Connor, doesn’t sound like he’s too keen about that idea, pretending that the last AG audit into systems and administration on the House side was “comprehensive” (which it wasn’t). There are also questions as to whether the AG’s office is set to handle this kind of forensic audit, or if it wouldn’t be better to send it to an outside firm with that kind of expertise. Elsewhere, Senator Tkachuk says that they will be setting up a permanent audit subcommittee for the Senate, but they are still discussing whether or not it will have outside members (such as what Senator McCoy suggested, as they do in the House of Lords).

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QP: Half points for effort

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Monday in the Commons, and there were few leaders in the House — just Elizabeth May and Thomas Mulcair. Mulcair kept up with this short questions, asking first the date in which the Prime Minister spoke with Mike Duffy about his expenses. Baird gave a packaged talking point about how Harper insisted that Duffy repay any improper expenses. Mulcair then asked whether Senator LeBreton recused herself from cabinet discussions involving Senate expenses (though I’m not sure why she would, but whatever). Baird returned to the talking points about how Harper learned about the deal on the morning of the 15th. When Mulcair asked about Senators being paid for campaigning, Baird said that all campaign expenses were paid from by party funds. Megan Leslie was up next, more questions on the expenses, to which Baird gave the same talking point about repaying expenses and hey, Mulcair sat on that bribe allegation for 17 years. Bob Rae was up for the Liberals and asked why not simply call one public inquiry than to have the several separate private enquiries currently going on with regards to the Wright-Duffy affair. Baird touted the Accountability Act, and hey, your caucus has a Senator with an offshore tax haven (which is of course false).

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