Wanted: eager young professionals to lead future public service: demographics require young civil servants to be fast-tracked into federal government big leagues [Report]
Night clubs could soon replace the Rideau Club as the place to be for the government’s senior managers, as demographics require young civil servants to be fast-tracked into the big leagues. Creative strategies need to be looked at to fill the huge management gap that will be created in the public service as the baby […]
House Speaker hopefuls campaign on standing up for the little guy: campaigning candidates bank on “the power of the secret ballot,” will speak to Liberal caucus on Sunday
Frustrated MPs who want to send a powerful message to the PMO will be offered one of the most potent opportunities to do so when they cast their secret ballots for the new House Speaker next week. At least that’s the campaign slogan coming from House Speaker candidates who hope to win the secret ballot […]
Top House jobs to be announced after speech from the throne: some 20 government bills died on the Order Paper and there were 10 bills waiting for second reading
Want to make a quick buck at the water cooler this week? Get your colleagues in the office to guess what “Bill C-1” will be, that is the first bill introduced by the newly re-elected Liberal government next week when the House resumes sitting. As your colleagues argue over Employment Insurance versus the Banking Bill, […]
Liberal brass talks leadership review soon
The Liberals’ powerful national executive will discuss this weekend in Ottawa the timing of the governing party’s next biennial convention and a possible leadership convention in a pre-emptive strike against calls by some Paul Martin supporters for a quick leadership review. Finance Minister Paul Martin (LaSalle-Emard, Que.) is the perceived front-runner in a future Liberal […]
Is that it? Rookies swear oath of office isn’t elaborate enough [Bloc MPs also swear allegiance to Quebec in Hull]
For some MPs, it’s little more than a technicality. For others, it’s an emotional experience, but before they take their seats in the next House on Jan. 29, all 301 MPs will have stood in front of the Clerk of the House, one hand on the Bible, pledging their allegiance to Queen Elizabeth. For newly-elected […]
PM Chretien should sharpen up his US diplomatic relations
In the past several weeks following official recognition of the “president elect” status of Governor Bush, who was sworn in last week as U.S. President, there has been a flurry of articles examining the prospects for Canadian-U.S. relations. Some of them have been silly navel-gazing; frankly, even if the Pakistanis phoned the governor before Prime […]
CBC TV Starowicz’s A People’s History a little one-sided
It’s not easy to agree with Robert Fulford, but his recent “Notebook” column in The National Post concerning the CBC’s impressive series — Canada: A People’s History — made a valuable point. While praising the series as “superb,” he wrote: “The winners write history, and they make damn sure it depicts them as admirable fellows […]
Millions of surfers in America and Britain logging off! Yipee
The cheeriest note of the recent holiday season was struck by The Guardian Weekly with the story that millions of surfers in America and Britain are logging off the Internet. My Spencerian optimism for the future of the human race has been once more sustained and renewed. And no, madam, I am not a Luddite. […]
Let’s hear it for “The Lobbyists Employment Enrichment Act”
Question: What do many academics, most columnists and all disgruntled Parliamentarians have in common? Answer: They just love the notion of Parliamentary reform. But there’s another group that should be even more enamoured of the idea: lobbyists. Any change of the rules or act of Parliament which gives MPs a more substantive role in the […]
Sun News Service shakes up its Parliament Hill bureau as Sean Durkan departs and Greg Weston signs on
It’s war out there… After 20 years with the Sun News Service, 12 of them on Parliament Hill, Hill bureau chief Sean Durkan left the chain after signing his separation agreement last Monday. Mr. Durkan, an affable hack with a Brit accent, had served as the deputy bureau chief for six years before he was […]
