And another one steps down – this time, long-time Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis, or “Jimmy K,” as he is known colloquially, has tendered his resignation, and he plans to run for Toronto city council instead. Karygiannis is something of a polarizing figure, a “bare-knuckles” organizer for the party who made great inroads with ethno-cultural communities, but who also had a tendency to boast that if the party simply listened to his communications advice that they would be better off. Karygiannis was one of the three longest continually serving MPs in the House. This also means that we’re up to four by-elections to be called, which is going to put us at a really high number in recent parliaments, and we’ve still got a year-and-a-half to go before the next election.
Tag Archives: Russia
Roundup: Sanctions as a badge of honour
The Russian government has retaliated against sanctions imposed by Canada by instituting sanctions of their own against 13 Canadian officials, including the Clerk of the Privy Council, the deputy secretary to cabinet in the Privy Council, Speaker Scheer, Peter Van Loan, Senator Raynell Andreychuk, and MPs Dean Allison, Paul Dewar, Irwin Cotler, Ted Opitz, Chrystia Freeland and James Bezan, all of whom consider it a “badge of honour.” Notably absent were John Baird and Stephen Harper, which signals that there is still room for negotiation. Irwin Cotler wrote his response about how he was first banned from the Soviet Union in 1979, and that he was poisoned on his last trip to Moscow in 2006. Meanwhile, the G8 is essentially no more, as Russia has expelled after their invasion of Crimea. The G7 is now resurrected in its place.
Roundup: A new front bench dynamic
The House is back this week, though Harper is over in Europe. We will, however, see the first of the new line-up on the government’s front bench, with Joe Oliver taking Jim Flaherty’s place, and Greg Rickford filling in for Oliver. Add to that the NDP’s front-bench shake-up and we’ve got a new dynamic of Nathan Cullen versus Joe Oliver, which I can just imagine will be full of passive aggressive snark from Cullen and impatient grumpiness from Oliver, if previous interactions are anything to go by. It also sounds like we’ll see the budget implementation bill get tabled this week, so we’ll see if that is as crazily omnibus as their previous implementation bills have been of late.
Roundup: Exit Flaherty
Out of the blue, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced his resignation from cabinet yesterday, but not his seat (just yet). This after Flaherty promised that he was going to run again, while simultaneously dropping hints that he was ready to wind down his political career. And it looks like Joe Oliver will be tapped to replace him as Finance minister, but no word on who would then take over the Natural Resources file. Here are some facts about Flaherty and his career, and a look back at his best ties, which were pretty much all green, which was kind of his shtick. Here’s Paul Wells’ profile of Flaherty from a couple of months ago.
Roundup: Condemning an illegitimate referendum
As expected, Stephen Harper has denounced the “referendum” in Crimea, and said that it would lead to further isolation for Vladimir Putin. Said vote, which was done on ten days notice, with no voters list, and with the only options of seceding from Ukraine or seceding from Ukraine and joining Russia, is said to have a result of 95 percent in favour of joining Russia, but given that it’s illegitimate and dubious at best when conducted under what amounts to military occupation, it’s only real use will be for Putin to legitimise his occupation of the region. (Incidentally, Justin Trudeau tweeted that the government did the right thing to condemn the vote; Thomas Mulcair tweeted a photo of himself pouring beers for St. Patrick’s Day).
Roundup: PKP goes to the PQ
All tongues were wagging, not only in Quebec but across the rest of the country as Pierre-Karl Péladeau, head of Videotron (owner of QMI and the Sun Media chain) and Hydro-Québec, was recruited as a candidate to run for the Parti Québécois, no matter that he categorically denied having any intention to run a few weeks previous. Péladeau says that he’s resigned from all of his holdings, but that his stock will go into a “blind trust” – which would mean that it’s not really a blind trust, because you don’t know what stocks are in a blind trust. At least one Quebec union is unimpressed given their history of clashes with Péladeau, and well, the unions tend to like the PQ. So there’s that. Here is Maclean’s profile of Péladeau. Martin Patriquin writes that in the short term, at least, he’s a win for the PQ, while Michael Den Tandt wonders about how this will play out with the Sun chain, and the “so Canadian it hurts” SunTV crowd, now that their majority shareholder is dedicated to the break-up of the country.
Roundup: Reading his own report wrong
Harry Neufeld, former chief electoral officer of BC and author of a report on voter irregularities in the last federal election wants it to be made clear that said report didn’t say there was fraud. Pierre Poilievre, who likes to cite that report, decided to double down and actually say that Neufeld was reading his own report wrong. No, seriously. Neufeld, incidentally, says that many of the incidents of “fraud” that people insist happen are urban myths that have been repeated so often that people start to believe them without actually witnessing it happen. Andrew Coyne shreds the Fair Elections Act and quite correctly points out that while there are a few good points in the bill, the closer one looks at it, the worse it gets and becomes untenable.
QP: Sombre questions about Ukraine
After an abbreviated number of members’ statements, thanks to a vote on closure regarding that prima facie breach of privilege around MP Brad Butt “mis-speaking” on voter fraud, QP got underway in a somewhat strange manner. While most everyone was present for the vote, the benches suddenly emptied and Harper, who was there for the vote was nowhere to be seen. Undaunted, Thomas Mulcair led off, mentioning his meeting with the Ukrainian ambassador and asked about news that Russia tested an intercontinental ballistic missile. Peter MacKay responded with the government’s concerns, and when Mulcair asked about the troops in Ukraine that Putin denied sending, MacKay reiterated the government’s concerns. When Mulcair asked about engagements with Putin, John Baird gave a quick statement about his efforts to date. Harper returned to the House, (as had most of those MPs who fled) and Mulcair asked again about what the government was doing about the situation, Harper told him that Canada was suspending bilateral activities with Russia. For his final question, Mulcair asked about the discussions among G7 partners, to which Harper told him that they were discussing the possibility of a meeting in a few weeks. Ralph Goodale was up for the Liberals, and asked about the status of our embassy in Kyiv. Harper noted that the embassy was closed because of the violence during the protests, and that it wouldn’t be reopened until the threat of violence had passed. Goodale asked about the status of our embassy in Moscow, to which Harper assured him that our recalled ambassador had just returned and would be meeting with Baird later in the day, and that bilateral activities remained suspended. Goodale closed the round asking about the statement made by China with regards to respecting Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty, and Harper noted that this kind of activity hadn’t been seen since the Second World War (to which one of my gallery colleagues muttered “What about Georgia?”)
Roundup: Unhelpful comparisons with Crimea
While we wait to hear the latest developments with Russia’s troop movements in the Crimea, here’s an interesting piece about how the markets are punishing Russia even more swiftly than diplomats ever could, where they lost some $55 billion in the two days since they moved troops into Ukraine. Stephen Harper is threatening that Russia may also face expulsion from the G8. John Baird helpfully compared Putin’s actions to the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia. Andrew Coyne savages the “peace activists” defending Putin’s actions, and calls for NATO resources in the region to be bulked up.
Roundup: Reactions to the Ukraine situation
The situation in Ukraine consumed much of the news this weekend, and Stephen Harper even took the unprecedented (for him) move of announcing an emergency cabinet meeting, and gave several media readouts over the weekend, which included news that we are recalling our ambassador from Moscow “for consultations” and that we have stopped our preparations for the G8 meeting in Sochi, as have the Americans and other allies. Of course, while the government put in travel advisories, it looks like the Paralympic games in Sochi plan to go ahead next week regardless, but I guess we’ll see. On Sunday, Baird ruled out the possibility of military intervention in the region, while experts felt that recalling the ambassador happened too soon, if only because this is a time for high-level diplomatic engagement. They also said that Canada has been largely reduced to making gestures, while others said that Canada needs to better re-engage with NATO allies. Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland is headed to Ukraine on her own to show solidarity and meet with both government and civil society leaders.