Tag Archives: Liberal Leadership

Roundup: The Quebec decision

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There’s an election in Quebec today, and the pundit class are calling for a PQ victory, despite all of those usual caveats that we don’t trust polls, especially after what happened in the Alberta election. Curiously, the Quebec Liberals are calling for police investigations into what they call illegal robo-calls being made yesterday. Thomas Mulcair is downplaying the potential strife between his “federalist” Quebec caucus and a PQ government.

A plane hired by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) that was carrying a banner that read “Steven Harper Hates Us” in French, was grounded after the RCMP may have been a bit overzealous about it entering restricted airspace. PSAC and the pilot say that the RCMP were concerned the banner was “hate speech,” which the RCMP deny. Note that there weren’t any charges laid, and this “Stephen Harper hates me/us” campaign has been going on from PSAC for weeks now without any particular issue (other than it’s kind of infantile). Incidentally, PSAC has gone on to endorse the PQ in the Quebec election, which is kind of odd, considering that they represent federal public servants, but “they don’t take a position on sovereignty.” Note that back in 2006, then PSAC president and now “federalist” NDP MP Nycole Turmel also endorsed the Bloc.

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Roundup: Additional reporting powers requested

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Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson says that politicians are honest, but when the Act comes up for review she wants additional powers, especially when it comes to MPs reporting gifts.

What’s that? The government may be rigging sole-source contracts? You don’t say!

In light of Senator Fairbairn’s dementia and Rob Ford’s hospitalisation, we ask ourselves once again if we give Canadian politicians too much privacy, and where do we draw that line?

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Roundup: An F-35 friendly new defence chief?

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The new Chief of Defence Staff has been named – Lieutenant General Tom Lawson, an RCAF officer with 37 years experience who is currently serving as the deputy commander of NORAD and has been a vocal proponent of the F-35 fighter acquisition. So immediately we have to wonder just what Harper is telegraphing in his choice of Lawson as CDS. Paul Wells notes that Lawson, like the outgoing Natynczyk, has a great deal of American experience, which is interesting.

The Corrections Investigator, Howard Sapers, is ringing the alarm over record prison populations and double bunking levels leading to increased violence. But wait – didn’t Vic Toews say that the prisoner population explosion didn’t happen and they’re going to close prisons because of it?

Apparently Stephen Harper “owns” the Arctic as a policy file. Um, okay, so he goes up for photo ops and to announce new National Parks every summer. But the fact that he hasn’t fulfilled any of his sovereignty-related promises, that food prices in the North continue to climb, and climate change remains pretty much a zero on his regular policy agenda, it doesn’t speak to highly for his commitment to the file that he “owns,” does it?

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Roundup: Paying back union sponsorships

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It appears that Elections Canada has forced the NDP to pay back $344,468 in union sponsorships for their conventions since 2003. This is the figure that Thomas Mulcair has been refusing to disclose to date, and which the Conservatives will use as more ammunition in the days and weeks to come.

Liberal MP Frank Valeriote stands by his campaign decisions with the robo-calls in his riding – but would simply have followed the CRTC rules of having the proper tags on the end had he known.

The Canadian Forces’ Arctic exercises last week offered us a glimpse of the secretive and mysterious JTF2 unit.

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Roundup: Exit the Deputy Speaker

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NDP MP and deputy Speaker Denise Savoie has announced her retirement for health reasons, and her letter mentioned that the travel demands of being a west coast MP was taking its toll. This means there is yet another by-election for the Prime Minister to call, likely this autumn. As for the role of Deputy Speaker, there’s no rule that says it has to go to an opposition party but should be someone whose linguistic proficiency is opposite that of the current Speaker, meaning it will likely have to be a Francophone as opposed to current Assistant Deputy Speaker Barry Devolin. As for who that might be, well, is a harder guess because I can’t think of any Francophone NDP MPs who have enough of an understanding of the rules and procedures as nearly all of them are still newbies, so maybe Mauril Bélanger from the Liberals, as he once expressed an interest in becoming Speaker? Wild guess, but it will be interesting to see who he ends up choosing.

From Nunavut, Stephen Harper announced funding for a new Arctic research station (after cutting an existing one, mind you), that the government was launching a new search for the lost vessels of the Franklin Expedition, and named Leona Aglukkaq to be the chair of the Arctic Council. Since she’s not really doing anything as Health Minister other than reminding everyone that nothing is her jurisdiction and ignoring the advice of expert panels, she’ll have plenty of time to memorise a whole new set of talking points to recite by rote.

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Roundup: Parks as environmental policy

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This may come as a surprise, but Stephen Harper is going to announce the creation of another park in the North during his tour. You know, like he’s done every other year. And hey, creating parks are a great way to look like you’re doing something for the environment when really you’re making no effort at all, right?

The federal government has announced they’re going to launch a 25-year renewal plan for Tunney’s Pasture (otherwise known as the Land of Exile during my former life working government contracts). I hope they have good luck with the contaminated sites there, and that hopefully unlike the Parliamentary precinct plans, 25 years won’t turn into 40.

Thomas Mulcair admits that he’s no Jack Layton, but that he learned a lot from his leadership style. Aaron Wherry has more tales of the creation of Layton’s final letter.

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Roundup: Detaining refugees versus the Charter

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Apparently an internal report at Citizenship and Immigration says that the government should consider detaining Roma refugees if the new changes to the Act don’t stem the tide of claimants. It’s a bit hard to see how that would be squared with the Charter, considering it would be arbitrary detention and racial profiling, no?

The National Energy Board is now demanding that report from the Enbridge spill in Michigan two years ago as part of the Northern Gateway review panel. Thomas Mulcair, meanwhile, considers the project dead, while still calling the oil sands an “important resource.” Okay then.

Despite Conservative promises that the whole F-35 purchase was going to be frozen and rethought, Lockheed Martin says there’s no change on their end and we appear to be going full steam ahead.

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Roundup: A visit from Merkel

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel is in town to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to talk trade, security, and the Eurozone crisis. Later today she’ll be off to Halifax to talk with scientists.

Now that the media has done his due diligence for him, John Baird has announced that the government won’t be funnelling aid money to Syrian rebels through that dubious organisation after all. This isn’t the first time either – during the Libya mission, I heard from Foreign Affairs staff that Baird was looking to turn over millions of dollars to rebel groups there without any due diligence then either until he was talked out of it by cooler heads.

The CBC also takes a look into the delays around finding a new Chief of Defence Staff, and throws a couple of other names on the table. Peter MacKay says the pick will be announced in the “very near future.”

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Roundup: Pipeline review deadline set

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The federal government has imposed a December 2013 deadline on the environmental panel review of the Northern Gateway pipeline. Which is all well and good, provided that the proponent – Enbridge – has their files together and doesn’t delay their own paperwork so that other respondents can get their reviews done in time, as has happened with other panels. In fact, the government should stipulate that Enbridge should face a penalty if it engages in such behaviour, for what it’s worth.

Rumours of Katimavik’s demise may be exaggerated. It seems that with the starvation of federal funds, they are picking up sponsorship from elsewhere for programming that they offer, and may be able to carry on in some capacity after all.

Conservative MP Brent Rathgeber continues to do his job as a backbench MP and hold the government to account, this time on the policy of Supply Management. More backbench MPs should follow his lead.

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Roundup: Spinning prison gangs as good news

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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.

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