Liberal backbenchers prepare to run for leadership [of regional caucus chairs]
Vote for me…With the House back, government backbenchers will step up their lobbying efforts for the regional caucus chairs this week. Votes are expected to be held before the House rises for the Thanksgiving break in the second week of October. National caucus chairman Joe Fontana said he wants to take a crack at a […]
Question period: should prime minister Jean Chretien have to appear before the commission investigating the actions of the RCMP at last fall’s APEC summit?
Absolutely. Hes got to be held accountable for the action, for the incident at the APEC conference. There is too much evidence of political interference in this matter for him to not be held accountable. This is a very serious development, the thought of our prime minister and our federal government being involved in the […]
Some lobbyists want more scrutiny of public officials, from deputy ministers to political advisers [Lobbyists Registration Act looks at lobbyists, not the lobbied]
For 10 years, federal lobbyists have been required to register their activities under the Lobbyists Registration Act. But after nearly a decade in place, there hasn’t been a single case of a lobbyist being found in violation of the act, and only a handful of investigations have been conducted. Is the absence of any actionable […]
Down under, Australian Parliament follows US reforms, leaves Canada trailing
He’s been billed as yesterday’s man, someone desperately trying to catch up with the end of the 20th century while aspiring to lead this country into the twenty-first. He’s gambling that voters will support his stand on the GST to keep his Liberal Party in power. He’s fighting against an upstart, right-wing political party, whose”grassroots” […]
PM names Saada to Canada-US security post
First-term Quebec Liberal MP Jacques Saada is taking over from former Ontario Liberal MP Jesse Flis as chair of the Canadian section of the Canada-United States Permanent Joint Board on Defence, run on the Canadian side, by the Foreign Affairs Department. Mr. Saada’s appointment to replace Mr. Flis was made on Aug. 28. He is […]
Ethics guru says voters weight morality [A Question of Ethics: Canadians Speak Out by Maureen Mancuso]
As the world digests the graphic sexual details of U.S. President Bill Clinton’s sexual encounters with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, a Canadian expert on ethics in politics says Canadians, like most recently-polled Americans, would not likely want to throw the U.S. president out of office over his lying about an affair with Ms. […]
House bigwigs want to cut committees: Reform says government trying to keep MPs busy
House leaders will meet this week to decide how to cut the number of Commons committees in a bid to free up more House time for its 301 MPs, after the government lost last spring’s vote temporarily stripping them of their right to use closure. It was one of the bargaining chips on the table […]
Reform MPs tell why they opted in and out of pension plan
As the MP pension issue threatens to do some political damage to the Reform Party caucus, two Reformers told The Hill Times why they opted in and out of the so-called “gold-plated” plan. For second-term Reform MP John Duncan (Vancouver Island North, B.C), 49, who decided to opt into the controversial pension plan recently after […]
House players set strategy [Dhaliwal wants Bill C-43 to go to the House Finance committee by November]
As the House prepares for a highly-partisan and nasty fall session, the nation’s top tax collector, Federal Revenue Minister Herb Dhaliwal hopes his bill to set up a new super-tax collection agency will move off the floor of the House of Commons and through committee. National Revenue Minister Herb Dhaliwal (Vancouver South, B.C.) told The […]
Public entitled to know issues of public morality
Regular readers will know that your correspondent has serious reservations about the veracity of public opinion polls. That having been said, however, polls often serve as an easy measure by which to compare — albeit not as accurately as pollsters would have you believe — public sentiments at a given moment in time. I’m thinking […]
