Campaign Finance Bill
Government House Leader Don Boudria introduced the long-awaited Campaign Finance Bill last week (Jan. 29) in the House of Commons and some of the top PMO players were out spinning the merits of the bill. Eddie Goldenberg , the PM’s chief policy adviser, briefed reporters in a “lock-up” during Question Period before the bill was […]
House still has to deal with redistribution of ridings: This issue has yet to be seriously debated in House of Commons
In the March 18, 2002, issue of The Hill Times you published an article on the proposed redistribution of House of Commons seats that will see the federal Parliament grow from 301 to 308 seats. This article “House of Commons to jump from 301 to 308 seats after 2004,” dealt with some of the major […]
Global protests against war
The reason so many people braved to the cold to voice their objections last weekend to the war on Iraq is quite simple. Peace is right and this war would be wrong, and yet the simple truth of that does not appear to be clear to many world leaders. So the protesters find it necessary […]
Diverse opinions in media?
TORONTO–A funny thing is happening at the God channel. People are taking notice of it. It’s not really the God channel, of course. It’s Crossroads Television Systems, or CTS. And, as the name implies, it is licensed under CRTC’s religious programming, broadly defined by them as “anything directly relating to, inspired by, arising by, or […]
House takes fight to Supreme Court
The House will fight to prevent Commons’ employees from taking discrimination complaints to the Canadian Human Rights Commission and has decided to bring the battle all the way to the Supreme Court. Canadian Alliance MP John Reynolds (West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast, B.C.), a spokesperson for the Commons Board of Internal Economy which represents the House on […]
Clouseau of Cabinet
In a National Post interview with Allan Rock (“Quitting felt right,” – Jan. 15, 2003), the Post quotes the great man as saying that when he arrived in Ottawa in 1993 he “had a lot to learn,” that he did it “in a very public way” and that it “was periodically painful.” Nonetheless, he claims […]
Of Spin Doctors and Spin
Regarding last week’s “Spin Doctors” column (The Hill Times, Jan. 27). Whether you like them or not, The Spin Doctors have a job to do, and three of your four seem to do it well. Whether or not you agree with them, you also have to give credit to Warren Kinsella, Goldy Hyder and Bill […]
Beer and ballots…
Beer and ballots… In olden times, politicians were allowed to get their constituents drunk on Election Day in order to obtain their vote. Alas no more. However, there is still a link between beer and politics, according to a contract abstract currently posted on the Government’s Merx website. The contract calls for collapsible voting compartments […]
This week [in Parliament]
The Senate returns this week, while the House continues work on a number of bills, including Bill C-6, an Act to Establish a Centre for the Resolution of First Nations’ Specific Claims, and Bill C-20, which proposes to close several loopholes in child pornography laws and increases the maximum jail time for abandoning a child […]
Marleau’s dissolution argument doesn’t fly
Regarding “PM’s election threats: a dangerous game of ‘chicken’” by Liberal MP Diane Marleau (The Hill Times, Jan. 27). Ms. Marleau’s suggestion that the Governor General’s formal power to refuse dissolution of the House would be proper in the circumstances she discusses is completely incorrect constitutionally. The “circumstances” in question are entirely political: they involve […]
