Media should investigate cross-Canada incidence of schoolroom misconduct
PARLIAMENT HILL—Ottawa fixated on a sex scandal last week—this time, away from Parliament Hill. A female arts teacher at a suburban high school was fired for kissing one male student, and having “intimate” relations with two others. There were off-colour emails, investigators found, and a “serial pattern” of uncommonly close friendships with male pupils. […]
There’s budgeting and then there’s military budgeting
PARLIAMENT HILL—There is budgeting, and then there’s military budgeting. In this winter of austerity, the Ottawa Citizen obtained documents that revealed the military will spend $841-million on a new city headquarters. That is 35 per cent more than the Empire State Building, and nearly four times the cost of the CN Tower. As […]
Fixating on the unknowable future a fascinating new year hobby, open to ribbing
PARLIAMENT HILL—Will a New Democrat become Prime Minister? Can the Senators win the Eastern Conference? Will the Defence minister regret selling his wedding photos to Hello magazine? Fixating on the unknowable future is a fascinating new year hobby and inspiration for good-natured wagering. “It is impossible to predict the future,” said science guru Arthur […]
Under Official Languages Act, Canada’s no more bilingual than it was a century ago
PARLIAMENT HILL—Official bilingualism is being throttled—by officials. This is irony. The policy was to promote tolerance and codify good manners, implying anyone who seeks federal office ought to be capable of taking questions from French-speaking taxpayers. “Nothing is more important to a person than to understand and to be understood,” Pierre Trudeau wrote in […]
2012 the year Harper shows us what kind of man he is
PARLIAMENT HILL—On the Parliamentary calendar this is the Year of Wolf Eyes. It’s the year Stephen Harper shows the country what kind of man he is, once and for all. Harper is already six years in office. He’s no enigma. People like and dislike him in unequal measure, about 40-60 according to Elections Canada […]
Evidence shows, holidays in 19th century House bar likely meant a rum punch
Parliament ran its own tavern for 49 glorious years. But what did MPs, Senators and reporters drink? Specialties of the House are lost to history. Public Accounts and Sessional papers are silent on the question, though the bar was so convivial reformers twice tried to shut it down, in 1874 and 1881. Old-timers […]
Remembering the most interesting Canadian you never heard of: Thomas White founder of the Parliamentary Press Gallery
PARLIAMENT HILL—Reporters pause this week to remember the most interesting Canadian you never heard of: Thomas White, founder of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. White died 123 years ago. His creation thrives. The old press room in the Centre Block of Parliament is surprisingly little-changed with Gothic Revival windows, doors trimmed in tiger oak and […]
Even today, no one will say which six NDP MPs would have been in Cabinet
PARLIAMENT HILL—They are a half-dozen MPs who nearly made history—the first sitting New Democrats to serve in the federal Cabinet. They were never named; many of the MPs themselves were not told of their nominations. Insiders who did know remain tight-lipped years after the fact. “I cannot discuss those confidential details,” said MP Olivia […]
Canadians are right to be worried this winter
If central bankers were hockey cards I’d collect Erkki Liikanen, governor of the Bank of Finland. His stats are tremendous. Finland has seen less unemployment than Canada, lower deficit spending and been rated “prudent” and “strong” by Standard & Poor’s—“a bright spot within a region deeply shaken by sovereign debt issues,” enthused The Wall […]
Even remembrance is political
PARLIAMENT HILL—When politics is with us, even remembrance is political. Should Afghanistan be inscribed on the National War Memorial? “I think so,” said Laurie Hawn, Conservative MP for Edmonton Centre. Hawn was lieutenant-colonel at Cold Lake, Alta., home of the squadron trained to intercept Soviet bombers. If there had been a Third World War, […]
