MPs are somebodies
Dan McTeague, Liberal MP for Pickering-Ajx-Uxbridge, Ont., found himself on the cusp of making Parliamentary history last Tuesday when the House of Commons passed his private members’ bill on amending the Competition Act, Bill C-249. If the Senate gives the bill the green light as well, he’ll be the only backbencher to pass three bills […]
Happy Auditor General [125th anniversary]
MPs celebrated the 125th anniversary of the Office of the Auditor General of Canada last week in Ottawa, not bad for an office that uncovers millions of dollars in waste and accountability each year in its regular reports to Parliament. Canadian Alliance MP John Williams, chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, told the House […]
Foundations mock ministerial responsibility: New study pushes for major reforms to bodies beyond Parliament’s reach
Since the Liberal government got into the habit of creating independent foundations about a decade ago, the criticism that has been heaped on these largely unaccountable federal agencies has been sporadic and almost completely ignored around Parliament Hill. Which could explain why every time one of these rare salvos is launched against them, the Liberals […]
MPs’ and Senators’ Birthdays
*National Revenue Minister Elinor Caplan, 59, May 20, 1944 *Liberal Sen. Alasdair Graham, 74, May 21, 1929 *Liberal MP Paul Macklin, 59, May 22, 1944 *Liberal Sen. Richard Kroft, 65, May 22, 1938 *Alliance MP Cheryl Gallant, 43, May 23, 1960 *Liberal MP Roger Gallaway, 55, May 23, 1948 *Tory Sen. Brenda Robertson, 74, May […]
Sen. Jaffer’s peace envoy title now accepted by Sudan: Initially rejected by Sudanese, Canada’s special peace envoy now warmly accepted
Sudan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs says that British Columbia Liberal Senator Mobina Jaffer who is Canada’s special peace envoy to the Sudan Peace Process is playing a constructive and valuable role in the peace process currently underway between the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLA) to end the decades old bloody […]
Grit MPs lash out at Campaign Finance Bill
A number of Liberal MPs are rising up against the Prime Minister’s controversial Political Finance Bill — a centrepiece of his legacy — and some say they won’t support the bill unless the government backs down from its proposal to curb severely corporate fundraising. Stan Keyes, the Liberal Party’s national caucus chair, who appeared as […]
Opposition attacks Paul Martin’s use of privilege: Everything else warrants absenting from the House, but not a court subpoena: Alliance
Alliance House Leader John Reynolds has called on the House of Commons to review whether Paul Martin, the former finance minister, abused his Parliamentary privileges to get out of testifying as a witness in a million dollar tax case before the British Columbia Court of Appeal. “If the former minister of finance was formally charged […]
Byelections in two Quebec ridings on June 16
Third of a series of the six Liberal leadership debates on May 24 MONDAY, May 19 House Sitting–The House of Commons is not sitting this week but will resume its session again on May 26. For more information on the House calendar, please call the Government House Leader’s Office at (613) 952-4930. TUESDAY, MAY 20 […]
Morphing Ottawa from a political mud-wrestling pit into a national shrine
Last week an 82-year old Albertan arrived in Ottawa only to encounter what is a rare thing in these parts this year — a beautiful spring day. Blue sky, brilliant sunshine, new green emerging everywhere with splashes of red, yellow and purple in the flower beds, the air scented with freshly-mown grass and warming wet […]
New York Times folly
TORONTO–Jayson Blair is not the first journalist to be exposed as a fake. But the former New York Times reporter could be the first to keep his scam going for so long and for such a prominentsome argue the most prominent — newspaper. Blair, of course, is the 27-year-old reporter who resigned last week in […]
