Grit caucus divided over finance bill
OTTAWA–The Liberal caucus is divided over Prime Minister Jean Chretien ‘s proposed legislation to ban corporations and unions from donating to political parties, says the chair of the large and powerful Liberal Ontario caucus. “There is still a fairly serious group within caucus that can’t fathom why this is a necessary bill,” said Ontario Liberal […]
Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources: Part 7
Mr. Nault: I would not take the credit for that. More precisely, it was Yukoners themselves who wanted to take the time necessary to move in this direction. The umbrella final agreement triggers a process between Yukon First Nations and ourselves. As I said earlier, a number of different processes will need to be put […]
Gun culture
Regarding “Can the Canadian firearms registry reduce gun deaths?” (The Hill Times, April 14). Enjoyed your very pithy story. It reinforced my belief that gun controllers are in large measure embarked on a religious crusade where fact is not germane. David J. Bordua Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana, Illinois Regarding […]
This week
Some of the bills on tap this week include Bill C-20, the child protection bill, Bill C-23, the sex offender bill, and Bill C- 13, the cloning bill, which is at third reading. Friday is a day off because the Bloc is holding its national congress. The House will stand adjourned until Monday, April 7. […]
Strongly rejects Jones’ column
Regarding “Don’t blame the French,” (View From Washington, D.C. column, The Hill Times, March 24). My eyes just could not believe what I read in the article by David Jones. After a long list of poor “arguments” (which are more feeble opinions than facts or rational), the author finishes his paper by a sentence that […]
International diplomacy is a two-edged sword: U.S. would not now want to push its two friendly neighbours too far
Following his speech to the Toronto Economic Club last week, U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci engaged in some unusual diplomatic activity. Usually, as guests in another countries, diplomats do not comment on the domestic affairs of the host country. Recently, when Lebanon’s Ambassador Raymond Baaklini made remarks about media ownership in this country, the same Canadian […]
MPs vent about broken-down estimates process: ‘We can ever forget the role of an MP is to keep government to account’: Valeri
The process for holding the government to account is “boring,” “frustrating” and generally ignored by most House committees, said several veteran Liberal MPs last week who also complained that Parliament has completely failed to prepare new MPs to stay on top of the billions of dollars spent yearly by the governing party in power. The […]
One more sacred cow
Regarding the column “Lack of leadership defines government’s online: strategy,” by Paco Francoli, (The Hill Times, March 17). As someone who is participating in the creation of the Canadian e-learning enterprise alliance, combined with the dealings I have had so far with those in the various government departments and agencies with regards to e-learning, I […]
Stairway to heaven…
Sometimes the more serious stories do earn responses. Last week’s item on John Manley being slow to pick up membership forms in Alberta and B.C. is one such case. Examples of the comments – which blame the problem on stalling and other sneaky tactics by Paul Martin supporters who control the provincial wings and the […]
More talk of Senate reform
It’s not the kind of reform many have been pushing for for the Senate, but Nova Scotia Tory Senator Donald Oliver’s bill to have the Upper Chamber’s Speaker elected by secret ballot is bound to be seen as a start for many. The Nova Scotia Senator, appointed by former prime minister Brian Mulroney in 1990, […]
