Tuesday, July 15, 2025

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Tuesday, July 15, 2025 | Latest Paper

Liberal MPs to release ‘Pink Book’ at Grits’ retreat in Vancouver

Liberal MP Belinda Stronach, who led a Liberal Women’s Caucus last week in her Newmarket-Aurora, Ont., riding, said Grit women will come out with a so-called “Pink Book,” at next month’s national caucus meeting in Vancouver, B.C. Ms. Stronach told The Hill Times that the book will contain key policy platforms including those on the […]

Pity there’s not more humour in all government records, eh?

There’s only been rare instances of unintended humour in all those government replies to access requests I have filed over the decades. The gags usually have to do-sadly-more with suppressing government data which usually makes you fume more than chuckle. But just recently, there it was, on page 414, tucked away among the largely exempted […]

Prime Minister Harper’s full Cabinet has not met over Mideast crisis

At least 12 Cabinet ministers were engaged in discussions with the Prime Minister’s Office over the last few weeks about the potential political fallout of the government’s support for Israel, according to a source close to the government’s foreign policy on the Middle East. Sources confirmed that there have not been any full Cabinet meetings […]

Bush and Blair’s live microphone chat

U.S. President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were caught unaware on July 17 chatting over a live microphone at the G8 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia about the crisis in the Middle East. The conversation was then transmitted to the world. Bush: Yo, Blair. How are you doing? Blair: I’m just… Bush: […]

Liberals to be briefed on early leadership contingency plan

Claiming Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservatives “can’t be trusted,” federal Liberals will get a detailed briefing later this month from party officials on a contingency plan to elect their next leader much earlier than scheduled, if the Prime Minister suddenly calls a snap fall election, says the chair of the B.C. Liberal Caucus. […]

‘Liberals have never stood for neutrality’: Liberal Sen. Grafstein

The Middle East conflict is needlessly causing deep divisions in the Liberal Party because some don’t understand that the party “has never stood for neutrality,” Toronto Liberal Sen. Jerry Grafstein says. In an interview with The Hill Times, Sen. Grafstein said last week that the escalating Palestinian-Israeli conflict is going to be problematic for the […]

PM HARPER’S PRO-ISRAEL STANCE RISKS WINNING QUEBEC

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is risking his chances of winning Quebec by taking a pro-Israel position on the Middle East crisis and allying himself closely with the foreign policy of U.S. President George W. Bush, say critics. “Don’t you think it looks a lot like the positions on the war on Iraq?” Bloc Québécois MP […]

Some of the top staffers on Liberal leadership campaigns

Here’s an update to last week’s issue on campaign workers and advisers working in the 11 Liberal leadership campaigns. Some are paid staffers, but most leadership campaign officials interviewed said many of their campaign workers and supporters are unpaid. Liberal leadership candidate Carolyn Bennett Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett’s (St. Paul’s, Ont.) leadership campaign is headed […]

HEARD ON THE HILL

A few months back, during an interview with Policy Options editor L. Ian Mac- Donald, Treasury Board President John Baird was asked about the potentially cataclysmic impact that his government’s tough new Federal Accountability Act could have on Ottawa’s restaurants, for which the regular patronage of politicians, powerbrokers and public servants has long been a […]

Conservatives to meet for national caucus retreat on Aug. 2-4 in Cornwall, Ont., in Conservative territory

MONDAY, JULY 31 Deadline for nominations for Parliamentary Poet Laureate for Canada-Nominations close July 31. Poets Laureate must be residents of Canada. They are selected alternately from each official language community, and the 2006-2008 poet will be English-speaking. For more information please call 613-992-4793 or 1-866-599-4999 or e-mail info@parl.gc.ca. Joe Bentivoglio Memorial Golf Tournament-Take part […]