With whitewash in hand, we now commemorate 1812
PARLIAMENT HILL—Cabinet members, soft and chauffeured, proclaim a summer celebration of death in battle—not that they’ve seen it first-hand. Non-combatants outnumber veterans in Cabinet by 37-to-one, excluding Environment Minister Peter Kent who as a war correspondent covered the fall of South Vietnam in 1975. Most combat veterans rate war an obscenity. On Parliament Hill, […]
Budget bill should be called the Lobbyists’ Bill, it’s a gift for oil and gas lobbyists
PARLIAMENT HILL—“Canada’s golden age,” one MP called it. The House was in session, after dark, grinding through C-38, the Lobbyists’ Bill. Drafted in secret, frog-marched on closure, its provisions hidden from voters in the last campaign, the bill reads like it was ghostwritten at the Calgary Petroleum Club. It puts Canada dead last among […]
Don’t forget old what’s-his-name
PARLIAMENT HILL—We’ll never forget old what’s-his-name. The Library of Parliament erased Charles Tupper, a Father of Confederation, from an online reference guide on prime ministers. “Oh, wow!” says Scott Armstrong, Conservative MP for Tupper’s home riding in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. “This shocks me.” These are hard times for Tupper. The library gaffe follows […]
Odd but true story: when misfortune strikes two towns
PARLIAMENT HILL—An odd but true story: misfortune struck two towns. Both were off the path, unknown to most, but had deep community roots and were home to good Canadians. What occurred next is so unbelievable it should be put down on paper before they say it never happened. The misfortune in one town, Slave […]
Does no one see a problem in Elections Canada looking into Elections Canada?
PARLIAMENT HILL—Elections Canada is looking into irregularities in votes managed by—Elections Canada. Does no one see a problem? Police must be relentless, fearless, and meticulous in pursuit of truth. Yet the nation’s vote police, Elections Canada, are short on all counts. Evidence shows the agency appears oblivious to election manipulation by party operatives; that […]
Toews makes it harder for prisoners to buy puzzles and prayer mats
PARLIAMENT HILL—In the annals of Hill entertainers, 2012 will be remembered as the year The Vic Toews Show ran its course. It’s been a great ride: this B-talent from Steinbach, Man., who made top bill by declaring war on phantom crime waves, then slandering fellow MPs as being in league with pornographers, then complaining […]
Lougheed gets lionized as greatest premier of the era
PARLIAMENT HILL—Memories, like fishing anecdotes, grow more outrageous with time. So it is that 27 years after he left office, Alberta’s Peter Lougheed is lionized as the greatest premier of the era, a political colossus. He is praised lavishly on TVO. An Edmonton Journal item asks, “Lougheed For Governor General?” A tribute in his […]
Dean Blundell, on-air talent at CFNY-FM, holds a Canadian media distinction, eh?
PARLIAMENT HILL—In all Canadian media a distinction is held by Dean Blundell, on-air talent at CFNY-FM, Toronto’s “102.1 The Edge.” In 10 years, The Dean Blundell Show has been the subject of nine inquiries by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. This does not include repetitive complaints deemed unworthy of investigation since they touch on […]
Media once again blew an election call
OTTAWA—Media once again booted an election call and quickly moved on without explanation or mea culpa. Pundits and pollsters weren’t merely wrong on last week’s Alberta election, they were emphatically wrong. We will presumably keep this up until the public shames us into competence. Alberta politics defy casual interpretation. The province is calcified […]
For Ottawa, NHL hockey is big escape
PARLIAMENT HILL—For a brief moment last week politics was not with us. On every street in Ottawa, in every shop and schoolyard, the people asked, “Did you see Neil?” “Did you see him!” The subject was Chris Neil, Senators winger, a farm boy from Flesherton, Ont., leader of the club in penalty minutes, best […]
