MPs challenge minister over costs [of Parliamentary renovations]
Opposition MPs , furious that the cost of renovating the Parliamentary precinct could shoot up to nearly one billion dollars, want Public Works minister Alfonso Gagliano and his officials to come before the Natural Resources and Government Operations Committee to explain why the estimate has so dramatically increased. Public Works officials have admitted the original […]
Manley focuses cabinet on information future
Hang on to your mouse pad, I am about to dish out some well deserved credit to a bespectacled, mild-mannered, MP from Ottawa-South. He doesn’t need it, but hey, which politician doesn’t like a positive headline now and then. Industry Minister John Manley, once recognized more for being the relative of an Olympic medalist than […]
Tory leadership candidates strut in Wayne’s World [Elsie Wayne in Saint John, NB]
The five candidates for the leadership of the federal Progressive Conservative party were summoned to Saint John, New Brunswick two weekends ago by the party’s interim leader, Elsie Wayne, who is a former mayor of the old Loyalist city and likely the least beatable member in the whole House of Commons. In this first-time joint […]
[Former cabinet minister from Mulroney years appointed to IOF board]
And off the Hill to the private sector: Former cabinet minister from the Mulroney years Barbara McDougall has been appointed to the board of directors for the Independent Order of Foresters (IOF). Ms. McDougall was minister of Employment and Immigration before the Liberal sweep in 1993. She had also served as minister of state for […]
Question period: in the light of the recent decision of the Supreme Court regarding the secession of Quebec, what do you think is a clear majority?
“Well, I think obviously in a democracy and in a system that is based on democracy, we’ve always measured it on 50 plus one … I can understand the prime minister’s concern and everyone else’s, but it’s not right to change democracy for issues that are more crucial or more important than others. Unless there’s […]
MPs wary of judges going public: it would blur the lines, says critic [Peter MacKay, Tory party]
MPs say they can sympathize with the frustration felt by Supreme Court justices when their decisions are misinterpreted by the public. But they are hesitant about allowing judges to publicly explain their rulings afterwards. Tory Justice critic Peter MacKay warns allowing judges to speak outside of court will change how decisions are treated “It would […]
[Digital Policy Page]
By day, David Clarke (dclarke@storm.ca) is a communications consultant in Ottawa. But his after-work passion is a new website entitled The Digital Policy Page (www.storm.ca/~dclarke/ecom.htm). The idea for the site flowed from an article he was writing about e-banking in the context of the upcoming Ottawa OECD E-Commerce Ministerial meeting (www.ottawaoecdconference.org). Clarke says that he […]
It’s about privacy, stupid [Clinton’s privacy, not his sex life, is the issue: Monica Lewinsky investigation]
C.S. Lewis, in his essay on Prudery and Philology, remarks upon a peculiar “arbitrary discrimination” which allowed the artist to draw the naked human body and “omit nothing that the eye can see,” while it has been far less permissible to render a detailed description of the same subject in words. Lewis invites the reader […]
CJC lobbies for Holocaust museum
Washington trip in the works…The Canadian Jewish Congress has not given up on a national Holocaust museum in Ottawa. The congress plans to take several members of Parliament to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., in an effort to push the government to open a Holocaust museum in Ottawa. Who’s going and when will […]
Grits and Reform opened up coffers for byelection [Port Moody-Coquitlam]
Money is no object…The Liberals spent $65,754 to score an upset win in the the Reform-held B.C riding of Port Moody-Coquitlam during last spring’s by election. According to document filed with Elections Canada, Liberal MP Lou Secora raised $73,456 for the campaign, giving him a warchest that rivals some of the Liberals top fundraising MPs. […]
