Joe Clark the best to lead Tories
I write in praise of Joe Clark, the Rt. Hon. gentleman from High River, who is once more seeking the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. He has been there before and has led his party to victory. Indeed, it was Clark, not Stanfield or Mulroney or Superman, who defeated the government of […]
It’s the beer, stupid
There is an ancient wisdom that suggests the easiest job in the world would be selling beer on a troopship. Wrong. Far easier is the job of giving beer away to young folk. In fact, you can give away beer with one hand and collect $5 for membership fees in the Tory party with the […]
Judgment day arrives for Lucien Bouchard and Jean Charest [November 30 or December 7]
The election has not yet been officially called, but Premier Lucien will soon confirm that we will go to the polls on Nov. 30 or Dec. 7. Parti Qu b cois thinkers have decided, after all, that the spring is simply too risky to chance. Bernard Landry, the minister of almost everything economic, claims he […]
Reform rounds up staffers for new PR unit
The Reform Party’s recently rearranged communications team in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition (OLO) is minus the party’s former superstar public relations flack. Insiders say Howard May, who had been working as Reform Leader Preston Manning’s speech-writer and communications attach since January 1997, was let go by the OLO at the end […]
Question period: do you think there should be real votes for House committee chairs?
“Wouldn’t that be rather revolutionary where in fact the people of the committee, including the opposition, have a say, an honest say, in who’s going to be the committee chairman? Committee chairman’s a very important position. They actually control to a degree the agenda and they have to be unbiased. They have to obviously have […]
[Canadian Labour Congress Town Hall meeting on pay equity gets few women caucus members]
In other appointment news, Industry Minister John Manley reappointed Arthur Carty for five years as president of the National Research Council of Canada last Monday. He has been president of the NRC since 1994. In other news last Monday, three women from the women’s Liberal caucus of 58 MPs and senators invited to last week’s […]
Senate to spend $3.3m: Upper Chamber wants voters to know what goes on in committees
The Senate plans to spend an extra $3.3-million to beef up its committees system and wants to buy broadcasting equipment in an effort to convince Canadians the embattled, appointed Upper Chamber is worth its $50-million budget. Before taking a two-week break last week claiming it didn’t have enough to do, the Senate passed an Internal […]
The bunker mentality on embassy design is bunk: John Wayne diplomacy reduces US dollar costs while laying open citizens of our host countries to slaughter
In the aftermath of the attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania there has been a predictable outcry over greater protection for such installations. Simultaneously, however, there has been a subtext that the U.S. should not develop a “bunker mentality” by constructing embassies that resemble Maginot Line fortifications graced with occasional flower boxes. The […]
Look who’s coming to dinner: journalists still scrambling to find dates for Press Gallery dinner
And they’re off — with less than a week before the annual Parliamentary Press Gallery Dinner, some journalists are still scrambling to score an eminent escort to the event. The timing of this year’s dinner — the second to be held in the autumn rather than in the spring as was the tradition in past […]
House committees want to grill Scott, but Liberals put kibosh on it: Peter MacKay says four opposition parties talking about using stalling tactics [Procedure & house affairs committee and justice committee]
Opposition MPs went on the offensive at two House committees last week to call embattled Solicitor General Andy Scott out of the House Chamber and before House committees to answer more questions about the APEC controversy. Mr. Proctor eavesdropped and took notes of the now famous conversation between Mr. Scott and Mr. Toole on a […]
