More accountability needed PM
Prime Minister Stephen Harper got elected on a campaign of bringing more accountability into government and to the people. To date, he hasn’t delivered too much. Broadening the Access to Information Act is a question mark. National caucus meetings are in lock-down mode. Although all political parties’ caucus meetings are private and closed-door affairs, but […]
Recently-released books
Recently-released books: So what does world opinion look like these days? Léger Marketing has taken on that ambitious question in its new book, Voice of the People 2006: What The World Thinks of Today’s Global Issues, which polled 53,749 people in 68 countries. It is “an essential tool for anyone intent on knowing the latest […]
This just in… federal Liberals advised to use internet to engage supporters and to raise money
Under the new, tighter spending limit of $3.4-million, some federal Liberal leadership candidates face an uphill battle to raise the money, but some Liberals say candidates should make heavy use of the internet to engage potential supporters and to run a more cost effective campaign. In this post Bill C-24 federal political world, Toronto Liberal […]
New Prime Minister Harper inclined to use government less as a punching bag and more as a vector…
Kurt Vonnegut, novelist and Armageddon predictor, has a name for political leaders. He calls them “guessers.” Groucho Marx funny and yet so gloomy that he is only reluctantly still alive at 83, Vonnegut is also dead on target. Since time began, those at the front of the human pack have been guessing about the future, […]
Liberal Party of Canada has no central organization anymore, it has organizations
TORONTO-It’s the organization, stupid, as James Carville might say, and it’s always been about organization when you talk about leadership campaigns, especially federal Liberal campaigns. And the person who has realized this political reality is Liberal MP Belinda Stronach who, last week, gave the Liberal congregation and most of the media on the Hill that […]
CPAC probes Governor General selection process in documentary
More Canadians think the Governor General should be elected, according to an SES Research poll in a CPAC documentary by Holly Doan released this week. But some say the idea is wacky and politically explosive. “I’m sure a lot of Canadians think the office should be elected but when you start thinking about that isn’t […]
Finley defends government’s childcare plan as more lobby against it
Amid a national grassroots childcare lobby on Cabinet and the Conservative caucus, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley says the government will be spending double what the Liberals promised for 13 years while in power. “We campaigned on this, we offered it to Canadians, they chose it, and we’re going to deliver it,” Ms. Finley (Haldimand-Norfolk, […]
Derek Burney, Senator Hugh Segal to speak this week
MONDAY, APRIL 10 IHCMD lecture-The ninth lecture of a public lecture series from the Institute for Human Conceptual and Mental Development will discuss “Managing, Planning, Organizing and Directing: From the Inside Out and From the Bottom Up.” 7 p.m. in the Glebe Community Centre in Ottawa. For more information, please call (613) 233-8354. IRPP Luncheon-Stephan […]
Does conflict influence media coverage of politics? You bet
Stephen Harper was not elected to make reporters’ jobs any easier, and he’s not. In curbing media stake-outs behind a security cordon and suppressing word of Cabinet meetings and his daily agenda, the Prime Minister angered journalists. Press Gallery members warned they do not take orders from the government (right), that Harper must have something […]
Naqvi organizes meetings with Grit leadership contenders
A young professional Liberal is organizing informal meetings between dozens of other like-minded Grits and declared and potential Liberal leadership candidates to hear about their visions of Canada in 2050. Yasir Naqvi, a lawyer with Lang Michener and an executive member of the federal provincial riding association of Ottawa Centre, told The Hill Times that […]