[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. […]
Question period: should House committees be opened up to TV coverage?
I don’t think it’s a bad idea. It opens up democracy. MPs will probably play it up for the cameras, but it’s important for when witnesses come before a committee, these witnesses usually represent organizations and it lets them know what’s going on … it’s also good to see if taxpayers are getting their money’s […]
Joe Clark should heed the wise words of John A Macdonald: those who yearn for a rightist lurch for the Progressive Conservative Party have forgotten its history
I was accredited as a student delegate to the PC Leadership Convention of 1948. I was not at the 1927, 1938 and 1942 conclaves but was an activist with varying degrees of involvement in the 1956, 1967, 1976 and 1993 gatherings. Belonging to a party with such experience (if not always a success) in the […]
Guarnieri brings out heavy-hitters on crime bill, vows to fight
When she appeared before the Justice Committee last week, Liberal MP Albina Guarnieri had filled the committee’s gallery chairs with families of murder victims and supporters of her bill. As she debated with committee members about her bill to end concurrent sentencing for multiple murders and sexual assailants, people like Deborah Mahaffy, whose daughter was […]
Mob psychology takes over Commons as House adjourns [Question period]
A mob psychology has taken over the 45-minute daily Question Period in the Commons, says the veteran House leader of the New Democratic Party, who says increasing delays and off-camera sideshows during the daily question and answer session are hurting the smaller parties. Bill Blaikie (Winnipeg-Transcona, Man.), who was first elected in 1979, said he’s […]
MPs angry over precinct committee [Parliamentary Buildings Advisory Council]
MPs and senators are angry they won’t have a say in who sits on Public Works Minister Alfonso Gagliano’s new advisory committee on the estimated and controversial billion-dollar renovations to Parliament Hill’s buildings. But the Chief Government Whip Bob Kilger (Stormont-Dundas, Ont.) says he’s not satisfied with the advisory board being set up separately from […]
Reporters have a responsibility to find out truth on Faulder
Ideas, of course, are always open to dispute. But facts shouldn’t be. Take the widespread reporting over the scheduled Dec. 10th execution in Texas of 61-year-old Alberta native Joseph Stanley Faulder, for example. The Canadian government has formally sought intervention by U.S. officials and Texas Governor George W. Bush — the former president’s son — […]
Political fundraising epidemic: Peter C Newman says new corporate giants aren’t as loyal to political parties [Titans: How the New Canadian Establishment Seized Power]
The money traders with the red suspenders may wreak havoc with the dollar but federal political fundraisers are going to find it tougher to squeeze money out of them, warns one of the country’s most astute chroniclers of financial and political power in Canada. Peter C. Newman, author of the recently-released Titans: How The New […]
Don’t kid yourself, Saint Lucien will tempt Quebecers again
The re-election of the Parti Qu b cois will mean business as usual, for awhile, say a few days, but not that much more. You see, things have now changed in Quebec and in ways far more important than we can see, on the surface. First of all, His Separatist Holiness, who, at about this […]
