New lobbying opinion could force senators who are corporate directors to register [Includes members of Senate banking committee and their directorships]
Senators who also sit as directors of corporations may have to watch their step to avoid running afoul of the latest advisory opinion issued by the Lobbyists Registration Branch. According to an opinion published last month, outside directors — those who are not employees of a company or organization — who undertake to meet with […]
The PM’s instincts of survival [Alberta and the election of senators]
Presumably, everyone in Alberta is hot under the collar because the prime minister appointed Douglas Roche to the Senate. This has spoiled their plan to elect their own senator in a province-wide election. Alberta’s Premier, Ralph Klein, has written the prime minister saying, “I think you have underestimated the depth of feeling on this issue […]
Dinners are the ticket to lobbyists’ dollars: Grits and Tories lead the way in association funding
They attend more committee meetings than some MPs, they hold lobby days on the Hill and they have clocked mile after mile around the corridors of power, trying to build support for their respective positions. They are Canada’s trade, industry and advocacy associations, and last year they handed out more than a quarter of a […]
Feds sell ad space on Web sites
Who says government can’t be bought? I had an interesting conversation with Allan Schweyer (Schweyer.Allan@ic.gc.ca) the other day. He is the director of Industry Canada’s career and recruitment network. Whether he realizes it or not, Schweyer is responsible for a watershed moment in federal government operations: the advent of advertising on government web sites. Read […]
Ivy League journalists just don’t get it
I think they should impeach Kenneth Starr. So saying, I have not read his documented, detailed, prissy, prurient”report” on the activities of the U.S. president and the Intern. I’m not about to read it; I’ll wait for the movie. Not that I haven’t read of it, heard of it, been told of it. On the […]
PM appoints new senators, Reformers vow Alberta won’t forget it
Prime Minister Jean Chrtien appointed four new senators last Thursday, including one for Alberta, causing an uproar among Reformers in Alberta gearing up for an election to select two”senators in waiting” on Oct. 19. Reform Party strategists failed to get an injunction from the Federal Court in the summer preventing the prime minister from appointing […]
MPs flock to freebie trips to Taiwan [Includes list of third-party trips from January 1997 – May 1998]
Nothin’ like a free lunch…Taiwan was the most popular destination for MPs this session. According to the MPs Travel Registry kept by the House of Commons, 20 MPs have registered for 22 trips which are paid for by third parties in the first session of the 36th Parliament. Fourteen of these excursions were to Taiwan, […]
Newspapers take full-bore approach on Clinton
Records, as they say, are ultimately made to be broken. For example, it took Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa some 37 years to break Roger Maris’s coveted home run record of 61 home runs. But it only took Bill Clinton a little over a year to supplant the death of Princess Diana as the most-covered […]
Liberal backbenchers prepare to run for leadership [of regional caucus chairs]
Vote for me…With the House back, government backbenchers will step up their lobbying efforts for the regional caucus chairs this week. Votes are expected to be held before the House rises for the Thanksgiving break in the second week of October. National caucus chairman Joe Fontana said he wants to take a crack at a […]
Government MPs give thumbs down to bank mergers [House finance committee hearings]
Some skittish government backbenchers criticized the widely-publicized MacKay task force on financial institutions report released last week and one suggested that its findings fly in the face of Liberal party politics. Said Liberal MP Dennis Mills (Broadview-Greenwood, Ont.) of the report:”It’s a joke.” For the outspoken Liberal member”this whole notion of an orange light, a […]
