Parliament to deal with largest bill in history, the Banking Bill
[Graph Not Transcribed] This session of a new Parliament will begin with a major bill on financial legislation. It will in all likelihood be a full version of Bill C-38 which died on the Order Paper due to the fall election. With 900 pages of text and consequential changes which affect about 4,000 pages of […]
Desautels to set record straight on Food Inspection Agency [Report covering the last 10 years]
[Graph Not Transcribed] Pushed back because of the fall election, Auditor General Denis Desautels will finally release his December report next week, with a focus on hot government issues like the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Post-Secondary Recruitment Program and Parliament’s access to results-based stats. The report will be released on Tuesday, Feb. 6 and […]
The Hill Times index of the 37th House of Commons
Number of MPs: 301 Number of Grits: 172 Number of CAs: 66 Number of Bloc: 38 Number of NDP: 13 Number of PCs: 12 Eldest Member of Parliament: Liberal MP Clifford Lincoln, 72 Youngest Member of Parliament: Alliance MP James Moore, 24 Number of women in current Parliament: 62 Number of women in Liberal caucus: […]
After 31 years, House’s top bureaucrat exits Parliament stage [House of Commons clerk]
[Graph Not Transcribed] In this bloody game of federal politics, and in parts here on Parliament Hill, the so-called “stars” are the ones who get elected. But behind the scenes, there’s some pretty powerful people who pull the lovers of the House administration and Commons procedure and are considered somewhat starlike in their own right. […]
Chretien government takes doing nothing to an art form: lobbyist
[Graph Not Transcribed] While the PMO has spent the last few weeks putting the final touches on Tuesday’s Speech from the Throne, or the “SFT,” as its called in the Privy Council Office, Ottawa’s lobby community has been waiting since November to find out how Prime Minister Jean Chretien plans to kick off his third […]
Don’t underestimate brilliant Bernard Landry, he’s a smart one
He won’t be the new premier of Quebec until the beginning of March but he’s already the boss. Bernard Landry will finally achieve his lifelong dream, just in the nick of time we might add. At 63 — he will be 64 on March 9 — Landry could not afford to wait another turn. It […]
NDP needs dynamic personality, a federal party with chutzpah
[Graph Not Transcribed] New Democrats across the country are aware that their party is in serious trouble at the federal level. With its number of seats having been reduced from 21 in 1997 to just 13 in the November election, the NDP nearly lost its official party status; even worse, it trailed well behind the […]
Government house leader suggest “two-tier” House of Commons
Hot on the heels of a fact-finding tour of the Mother of all Parliaments and under pressure from the Opposition House leader, Government House Leader Don Boudria says House reforms are on the way, and he’s floating the idea of a creating a second Parliamentary Chamber. Mr. Boudria says he was interested in Britain’s Westminster […]
Mr Landry you are no Mr Bouchard, his resignation a great loss
Lucien Bouchard’s departure from politics is good for Canada. Quite astutely federalists are reticent about trumpeting this flat statement of reality — just as canny American “cold warriors” avoided triumphalism when the Soviet Union collapsed. If your enemies are destroying themselves with internal strife, you don’t interfere; likewise, when a hated/feared foe is departing the […]
Stop the insanity, Speakers say [Campaign for Speaker]
Three former House Speakers, including the first one to be elected, say campaigning Speaker candidates shouldn’t promise the world to MPs. And the retired politicians say the next elected House Speaker can’t act alone in bringing in highly-anticipated reforms to the House of Commons. In interviews with The Hill Times, former Speakers Lloyd Francis and […]
