Alliance mean-spirited
“God if there is a God, save my soul if I have a soul,” that was the despairing prayer of 1917. Tories can be forgiven if they echo these lines as they contemplate another round of the “unite the right” follies. The “unite the righters” fail to understand that the majority of Canadians will vote […]
Canada’s the female principle
Early last week, President George W. Bush stood in the ballroom of a downtown Washington, D.C., hotel and toasted the guests with a glass of non-alcoholic beer. The guests themselves got to drink the harder stuff and to nibble at some pretty fancy canapes. They deserved it. For the privilege of being in the same […]
Head: Canadians don’t trust Alliance: Mark
Stephen Harper jumped ship from the Progressive Conservative Party after half a dozen years of association including working for Calgary PC MP Jim Hawkes in Ottawa. He later unsuccessfully campaigned against Hawkes in the 1988 federal election. Harper won the Canadian Alliance leadership race in April 2002 actively campaigning against unity with the Tories. His […]
Gimme some soul, Liberal contendahs!
As with millions of other Canadians, I tried — I really tried — to watch most of the Liberal leadership “debates.” But, even though most of these events were televised on weekend afternoons, other competing priorities — such as getting a haircut or turning the compost — often intervened. When civic-duty and self-discipline prevailed, I […]
George Radwanski’s travel and meal expenses – April 2001 to May 2003
Item Location / Purpose People Date Amount Trip Toronto, Ont. – Speeches N.A. April 5-9, 2001 $1,336.65 Lunch Ottawa, Ont. – Mamma Teresa 2 April 4, 2001 $55.75 Trip Boston, U.S. – Harvard Law School N.A. April 23-25, 2001 $2,973.94 Lunch Ottawa, Ont. – Capital Club 2* May 2, 2001 $152.19 Lunch Ottawa, Ont. – […]
CanWest cuts creates buzz on the Hill
It didn’t take long for political columnist and author Susan Delacourt’s phone to start ringing off the hook after she was cut earlier this month from the National Post. Politicians, political types and colleagues phoned to offer their best wishes, as well as to express surprise over the dramatic layoffs which eliminated her job as […]
Stop the madness in Middle East
Unless both sides in the Israeli/Palestinian continuing destructive war are both determined to end the bloodbath, the violence will continue. Both groups of people face a future filled with turmoil if they are unwilling to step back and say we cannot continue placing our people in graves. It is an unfortunate deadly reality in Israel […]
Senate votes down C-10B changes
An all-party Senate committee rejected several amendments made to cruelty to animal legislation by the House of Commons last week, giving the government another nosebleed over this controversial bill which has been lobbed back and forth between the two Chambers several times since last December. The latest disagreement between the MPs and Senators over Bill […]
Apologies to Omar Khayyam
Our political leaders provide endless fodder for cynics and satirical comedians. Take the PM’s latest legacy, a $100- million Canada History Museum Centre earmarked for the old railway station and Government Conference Centre. This political history museum will be run by the competent but hobbled staff of the National Archives and National Library of Canada. […]
PCO Clerk Himbelfarb, Judd draw audience of two Liberal MPs
The country’s two most senior bureaucrats got the cold shoulder from the Commons Government Operations and Estimates Committee last week, when only two MPs bothered to stick around for the bulk of a hearing on making the federal public service more accountable to Parliament. Alex Himelfarb, clerk of the Privy Council, and Jim Judd, secretary […]
