Sun News Service shakes up its Parliament Hill bureau as Sean Durkan departs and Greg Weston signs on
It’s war out there… After 20 years with the Sun News Service, 12 of them on Parliament Hill, Hill bureau chief Sean Durkan left the chain after signing his separation agreement last Monday. Mr. Durkan, an affable hack with a Brit accent, had served as the deputy bureau chief for six years before he was […]
Let’s hear it for “The Lobbyists Employment Enrichment Act”
Question: What do many academics, most columnists and all disgruntled Parliamentarians have in common? Answer: They just love the notion of Parliamentary reform. But there’s another group that should be even more enamoured of the idea: lobbyists. Any change of the rules or act of Parliament which gives MPs a more substantive role in the […]
Top House jobs to be announced after speech from the throne: some 20 government bills died on the Order Paper and there were 10 bills waiting for second reading
Want to make a quick buck at the water cooler this week? Get your colleagues in the office to guess what “Bill C-1” will be, that is the first bill introduced by the newly re-elected Liberal government next week when the House resumes sitting. As your colleagues argue over Employment Insurance versus the Banking Bill, […]
We Canucks should mark a PMs’ day [John A Macdonald’s birthday]
SANIBEL ISLAND, FLA.–This year, we received as usual an attractive calendar from a company promoting milk and milk products. I was pleased to discover the calendar noted that Jan. 11 was the birth- date of the chief Father of Confederation, Sir John A. Macdonald. Perhaps I pushed my luck a bit in looking for other […]
Liberal brass talks leadership review soon
The Liberals’ powerful national executive will discuss this weekend in Ottawa the timing of the governing party’s next biennial convention and a possible leadership convention in a pre-emptive strike against calls by some Paul Martin supporters for a quick leadership review. Finance Minister Paul Martin (LaSalle-Emard, Que.) is the perceived front-runner in a future Liberal […]
Speaker’s race has new dynamic as rabble-rouser White enters
It’s a mug’s game trying to predict who will win the House Speaker’s race and the latest candidate to enter, Canadian Alliance MP Randy White, promises to complicate things a little more. While the Liberal vote will be divided amongst at least seven declared candidates, the rabble-rousing Mr. White (Langley-Abbotsford, B.C.) can likely count on […]
Online polling of the future
Darrell Bricker has seen the future of electoral polling and it is online. “It is where our industry is going,” declared Mr. Bricker, president and chief operating officer of public affairs at Ipsos-Reid. “The new reality with survey research is that the telephone is becoming less and less reliable as a source of sample.” Other […]
Nunziata says party politics “irrelevant,” little House enthusiasm
Yep, former Independent MP John Nunziata says he’s still very surprised that he lost the last federal election and last week described it as one of the “lowest points” in his 16-year federal political life. But the outspoken former MP who was knocked off in York South-Weston, Ont., by parachute candidate Alan Tonks by 1,294 […]
He wins, he scores and he quits! Bouchard exits political game
QUEBEC CITY–In the last couple of months, three Quebecers have caused major surprises each in their own field, catching most people off guard and capturing the headlines everywhere. First, Prime Minister Jean Chretien who after calling a general election two-thirds of the way into his second mandate and despite uncertain polls, managed not only to […]
Ottawa movie, Re-Educating Stock not off to a great start
Politics, like most things, is a learned activity. That is the main reason, of course, why Prime Minister Jean Chretien called an early election rather than waiting until this spring or fall. He simply didn’t want to give Stockwell Day, the new kid in town, time to learn the ins and outs of national politics. […]
