NDP hires a new director of campaigns: Layton shuffles NDP critics
OTTAWA–Newly-elected NDP Leader Jack Layton stumbled last week when he was forced to dump his newlyappointed chief of staff Rick Smith even before Mr. Smith got a chance to warm his seat in a key job on Parliament Hill. Mr. Smith, 34, is the past Canadian director of the International Fund for Animal Warfare, a […]
Layton likes to have fun
OTTAWA–New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton is the latest, freshest, most exciting face on the Ottawa political scene in a long time. Mr. Layton swept the federal NDP leadership on the first ballot last month, and instead of a holiday, charged up to Ottawa to take over his Parliamentary caucus. But he had a rough […]
Hey, Happy Warrior’s back Why PM Jean Chretien’s outwitting us all
This is a nasty job, but someone’s got to do it. Today, to do it half-decently I have no choice but to engage in an act that will violate the code of my tribe and earn me the contempt — the words “sell out” forming silently on their curled lips — of my colleagues. This […]
Thibault hires a new staffer
Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Robert Thibault hired a new assistant for the western desk in his ministerial political office. Bilal Cheema, 25, started in Mr. Thibault’s regional office as special assistant Pacific (Yukon and British Columbia) in Vancouver, B.C. last September but has moved to the minister’s office in Ottawa last month. A native […]
Stand up for Canada
What this country needs (said he, with tongue only partly in cheek) is a good ol’ House Un-Canadian Activities Committee. First in the dock would be the National Post, followed by the Conservative Reform Alliance Party (CRAP) and the “Canadian” Council of Chief Executives. These quisling entities, by continuously bad-mouthing Canada in favour of the […]
Job one: getting serious about transparency
OTTAWA–In all the babble about political-finance reform in recent weeks, several themes have surfaced. Regrettably, most of them are mere distractions from what should be the central issue: the integrity and transparency of our national political and public-policy decision-making system. First, there are the complaints from within the Liberal caucus about what some charge are […]
“How do you think the new political finance bill will change the culture of campaigns and elections in Canada
Warren Kinsella Liberal strategist “The proposed legislation, as it stands now, will make the electoral system more transparent and fair by radically revamping the rules on financing of political participants. I say ‘as it stands now’ because various prominent Parliamentarians – such as Paul Martin, in comments he made in Davos on Jan. 24, when […]
Human shields? It’s assisted suicide in fact: Britain’s anti-war poster child Grace Trevett is the pathos du jour
WASHINGTON, D.C.– Every war — and every run-up to war — generates the tug-at-your-heart-strings, “human interest” stories. The farewell embraces; the teary-eyed stay behind family; the forlorn family pet (usually a dog). Follow up stories morph into “the fatherless child,” “the missing hero,” “the horribly wounded/mutilated/forgotten veteran.” All stock figures for journalism. The pathos du […]
How’d you like PCO Clerk Alex Himelfarb’s big, stressful job, eh?
Who came up with these darned non-smoking rules anyway? You want to know who had the most stressful job at the First Minister’s Meeting on Health Care last week? Well, there were dozens of contenders, but as a slave to the demon weed myself, I would have to give the edge to chain-smoker Alex Himelfarb, […]
Reynolds vows ‘a rocky winter session’: Committee travel sacrificed until private members’ business dispute resolved
Alliance House Leader John Reynolds has vowed to continue blocking most standing committees from travelling and to delay the government’s agenda at every turn, in protest over a decision by the Procedures and House Affairs Committee to tie up a proposal to make all private members’ bills votable. In a letter circulated to all MPs […]
