BC senator joins flock of Segal supporters [Provincial chairs & other top people]
In yet another update on the Tory leadership campaign front: Hugh Segal’s campaign team has been completed. Veteran British Columbia Tory Senator Gerry St. Germain has joined the ranks of Segal supporters as the provincial chair for B.C. For those of you needing a reminder, Sen. St. Germain served as a federal MP for Mission-Port […]
Question period: considering Canada is campaigning to sit on the United Nations Security Council, should we be spending more money on defence and foreign aid?
“No. I happen to be the chairman for the Interparliamentary union … it’s the farthest from my considerations. It goes to water, it goes to environment, it goes to literacy. The military aspect doesn’t take guns, it takes peaceful consideration. Look at the feeding of children, look at AIDS research, leprosy.” Liberal MP Sheila Finestone […]
Official languages commish up for grabs
And the race is on, albeit a quiet one, for the leadership of the official languages office. While insiders say there is yet to be any active jockeying that is going on at the Prime Minister’s Office for the position, a number of names have surfaced as a possible replacements for Mr. Goldbloom, all of […]
A house divided: a US look at the “two” Canadas
During a U.S. Senate campaign speech delivered on June 16, 1858, former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” This statement was made in reference to the heated debate at that time in the United States concerning the abolition of slavery. However, the same statement could easily apply to […]
PMO shells out pay for staffers on PM’s campaign trail
The Prime Minister’s Office donated $43,389 to the Liberal warchest last election to cover the salaries of some of the prime minister’s top assistants. Liberal Party national director Terry Mercer said the money was used to cover the salaries of some of the prime minister’s assistants during the campaign. “It is the usual people that […]
Financing reforms would mean cash windfall for parties [Report of House of Common’s Procedure & House Affairs Committee]
Political parties could find their bank accounts swelling, in some cases by millions of dollars if Parliament acts on a recommendation by a House committee to double the amount parties are reimbursed after elections. The House’s Procedure and House Affairs Committee spent several months studying electoral reform issues such as financing, the length of campaigns […]
Media has obligation to set Mulroney story straight
In his Friday, July 3 Report on Business column, The Globe’s Terrence Corcoran exposes a chronic media weakness – the inability or unwillingness to follow up on sensational stories which turn out to be, well, not true. Headlined: “The windfall scandal that wasn’t,” Corcoran writes that “It was big news back in 1995 when the […]
Lobbyists dole out $250,000: dinners lure in lobbyists’ dollars
They attend more committee meetings than some MPs, they held 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 […]
Pot, fundraising and breastfeeding: not talked about in public
I was listening to my son the journalist on the radio the other day. He was interviewing a woman who teaches nursing, but whose activity is as a volunteer canvassing local restaurants in an effort to persuade their management to allow mothers to breast-feed their children when dining out, and to make their approval of […]
Atlantic politicians focus on jobs, jobs, jobs
Atlantic Canadian federal politicians are spending their time this summer addressing their traditional concerns: jobs, jobs, jobs. More than any other region, politicians from Atlantic Canada only lose focus on their main preoccupation at their own peril. In the last election, the Liberals were punished at the ballot box for their overwhelming preoccupation with the […]
