Fish committee big spender [1998 house committee budgets]
The House Fisheries Committee led the pack in House committee spending last year, spending a total of $385,894, under the leadership of colorful Newfoundland Liberal MP George Baker. According to the Annual Report on Activities and Expenditures of the Committees and Legislative Services Directorate, the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans nosed out traditional big […]
MPs raise money for needy kids [First MP’s Magic of Christmas for children from low-income families]
The MPs are gone now for a seven-week break, but a few of them did a good deed a few weeks ago all in the spirt of Christmas before they left. Two weeks ago, the Hall of Honour in Centre Block was transformed into a large children’s party, complete with a clown, magic show, and […]
[Behind the embassy door: Canada, Clinton & Quebec]
Canadians are too humble! That’s a comment you will often hear, usually from our brash neighbours to the south,but from others, as well. This self-imposed humbleness has an effect on our willingness to celebrate our achievements and reaches right down to our ability to define and embrace a powerful, uniting national mythology. That’s probably why […]
[The fight of my life: confessions of an unrepentant Canadian]
How much influence do people who work outside the political system have in the policy process? How much should they have? I’m not talking about the powerful lobbyists, the likes of Tom d’Aquino from the Business Council on National Issues, or Marc Lalonde from Stikeman Elliott, who do much of their work behind the scenes. […]
[Canada: is anyone listening?]
How much influence do people who work outside the political system have in the policy process? How much should they have? I’m not talking about the powerful lobbyists, the likes of Tom d’Aquino from the Business Council on National Issues, or Marc Lalonde from Stikeman Elliott, who do much of their work behind the scenes. […]
[The three questions: prosperity & the public good]
Don’t judge a book by its cover. Don’t buy one because of its dust-jacket. That’s useful advice when it comes to Bob Rae’s most recent offering, The Three Questions: Prosperity and the Public Good. On the front cover is a reproduction of a superb painting, The Peasant’s Wedding by Pieter Brueghel the Elder. On the […]
[To match a dream: a practical guide to the history & histrionics of Canada’s constitution]
The relationship between Deborah Coyne, Michael Valpy and Pierre Trudeau are complex and go far beyond the confines of this review. Let us just say that the three share a number of things in common, one of which is a vision of Canada. That vision is expressed in Ms. Coyne and Mr. Valpy’s book, To […]
[Blue trust: the author, the lawyers, his wife, & her money]
“Suicides are not uncommon in that part of Montreal; the police see about one a month.” “That part,” refers to a neighbourhood of millionaires in the Montrose Avenue area of Westmount in Montreal. Each time this happens, the particulars of the tragedy could be the devastating final chapter of a gripping book, especially if written […]
Dalton Camp picks the best Canadian books of the year. oh ya
British author Deborah Moggach who served as a judge for the Whitbread Book of the Year award found the experience exhausting. Whitbread judges, unlike those of other literary juries, divide the books among them. “I only had to read 55 books,” Ms. Moggach told the press, “so I’m not in such a state of exhaustion […]
Former Liberal MP and House Speaker Lloyd Francis to tell all in upcoming book
Say it ain’t so…National Capital Commission bureaucrats, watch out. In his memoirs, expected to be published sometime early next year, former House Speaker and Ottawa West Liberal MP Lloyd Francis skewers the Crown corporation for some previously unpublicized historic boondoggles. Mr. Francis gathered the information while he was an MP off and on during the […]
