Conservatives to tackle election reform plan in Liberal-red Atlantic
Federal Conservatives are set to take aim at the Liberal government’s electoral reform initiative during a late-summer caucus meeting in Halifax next week, after only three Conservative MPs have so far taken up a special Commons committee invitation to consult constituents on the project through town-hall meetings in their electoral districts. One of the Conservatives […]
More bafflegab from Veterans Affairs—the minister this time, writes Winter
Veteran Affairs Minister Minister Kent Hehr’s letter to the St. John’s Telegram, explaining the July 1 ceremony in France commemorating 100th anniversary of the Battle of Beaumont-Hamel, was mostly a re-hashing of the bafflegab issued by his PR staff, with his personal observations added. The most potent symbols of a nation are the flag and the […]
Who said infrastructure’s not sexy?
Contrary to comedian John Oliver’s famous depiction of infrastructure as not being sexy, except for when it is being blown up in Hollywood movies, author Ryan Gravel claims that infrastructure can be sexy when “done right.” In his book Where We Want to Live: Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities, Gravel says that […]
Why a West Coast aquarium is working with the feds to study the Arctic
Not long after the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre first opened its doors six decades ago, a team of adventurous employees and researchers travelled to the Arctic to explore the icy, windswept reaches of Canada’s North. In the years since, our Arctic research expeditions have become an annual practice, with scientists heading north each summer […]
Atlantic rookie Liberal MP Fraser says next Supreme Court judge should be from region
Rookie Nova Scotia Liberal MP Colin Fraser says he’s concerned about Atlantic Canada no longer being guaranteed a seat on the Supreme Court of Canada under his government’s new appointment process and wants “strengthened confirmation” that the next candidate will be from the region. “My constituents have expressed their concern that apparently we may not necessarily […]
Trade, jobs, economic growth, income equality: is the budget working?
OTTAWA—On Friday, Aug. 5, Statistics Canada released numbers for both jobs and international trade. Both numbers were discouraging and continued a trend of poor economic data. The top line job numbers were a loss of 31,200, but the most disturbing underlying number was that 71,400 full-time jobs were lost while the major gain came in […]
‘I knew I had big shoes to fill,’ Daniel Blaikie on winning the riding his father represented for nearly 30 years
Daniel Blaikie is not your average politician. The 32-year-old is a philosopher-turned-electrician who traded his steel-toed boots for a suit and tie and followed in the footsteps of his father when he ran successfully in the last federal election and in an attempt to take down the Harper government in his “corner of the country.” […]
People of Newfoundland and Labrador deserve an apology: Winter
The battle of Beaumont Hamel in France on July 1, 1916, was a battle fought by the “Newfoundland” regiment and has nothing whatsoever to do with Canada. In 1949, when our province joined Canada, all five of the Newfoundland and Labrador military remembrance sites in Europe were passed over to the Canadian Department of Veterans Affairs […]
Inuk woman should be among commissioners to MMIW inquiry
Last October, this country elected a new government, a government that promised a future of hope, optimism, and equality for all Canadians. Our prime minister told us that “we defeated the idea that Canadians should be satisfied with less, that good enough is good enough and that better just isn’t possible…in Canada better is always […]
Supreme Court, like Parliament, can accommodate unilingual members
The prime minister soon has another important choice to make. Justice Thomas Cromwell will be stepping down from the Supreme Court of Canada on Sept. 1 and will need to be replaced. This will be Justin Trudeau’s first appointment to the highest court in the land. Cromwell’s seat on the court by convention is designated as […]
