Caucus meeting avoids trouble spots: PM’s remarks on third term only excitment, say MPs
As government MPs headed home from the Liberal caucus meeting in Shawnigan, Quebec last week, reactions ranged from quiet confidence to a shrug that the whole caucus meeting was a waste of time. One Ontario MP described it as a normal meeting of MPs belonging to a party in government “that knows it’s going to […]
[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. […]
[Rae co-chair of committee organizing an international conference on federalism]
And last Tuesday, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister St phane Dion named former NDP premier of Ontario Bob Rae and former premier of the state of Hamburg, Germany Henning Voscherau co-chairs of a committee organizing an international conference on federalism. The International Advisory Committee is planning a conference to bring together elected officials, public servants and academics […]
Question period: should the Ontario government be able to tax your non-taxable allowance?
“Should the Ontario government be able to tax your non-taxable allowance?” If [MPPs] want to do that, they should really disclose how much an MPP makes and how much they pay in taxes. I would ask the MPP who’s sponsoring this bill to much more forthcoming about their finances. Liberal MP Dan McTeague Pickering-Ajax-Uxbridge, Ont. […]
CRTC Net regulations are non-sensical
Did you hear the one about the Canadian Radio Telecommunications Commission wanting to regulate the Internet? Unfortunately, it’s no joke. Something’s afoot, too, as it is interesting to note that the hot-button word “Internet” does not appear even once in the public notice, dated July 31, 1998 (www.crtc.gc.ca/ENG/NEWS/RELEASES/1998/R980731e.htm) That’s right, “Internet” is not among the […]
Selling the notion of leadership [Hugh Segal in Fredericton]
The long weekend was a glorious holiday weekend in these parts. It was a good weekend for hanging loose, doing nothing, playing a little golf, drinking a little beer, enjoying near-total immersion during the family-value days. This is reward for enduring the month of March. I marked the first Monday of August as the day […]
Committee chairs are now up for grabs
It’s time for musical committee chairs…The recent appointment of the new Parliamentary secretaries will have a trickle down affect as MPs look to see who will fill vacant committee chairs. Twelve of the 17 new parliamentary secretaries were committee chairs or vice-chairs. National Defence committee chairman Robert Bertrand and committee vice-chair Bob Woods were promoted […]
