Tories send message to lobbyists with tough penalties, $50,000 fine for violating cooling-off period
Federal Cabinet ministers, senior government officials and lobbyists are looking at significant new fines for violating the government’s proposed Lobbying Act, including a $50,000 fine for violations of the government’s five-year ban on ministers and senior public servants who wish to work as lobbyists. Robert Makichuk, a spokesman for the Treasury Board, the department responsible […]
Donner Prize Finalists
Donner Prize Finalists Want to know the Donner Prize finalists for the best book on Canadian public policy? The winner, to be announced in Toronto on April 27, will also win $35,000 Rethinking the Welfare State: The Prospects for Government by Voucher, by Ronald J. Daniels & Michael J. Trebilcock, Routledge. Blurb: “Rethinking the Welfare […]
MPs expect budget? Early May
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is expected to table his government’s first federal budget on May 2, say opposition MPs. NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis (Winnipeg North, Man.), who is also her party’s finance critic, said there is widespread speculation the budget will be tabled on May 2. “How much can you place in rumours? But that’s […]
Harper gets presented with two equally unpalatable notions
Of all the difficult jobs on Parliament Hill these days, few are about to become as demanding as that of Quebec adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. That is so because one of the hardest calls Harper will have to make soon is how much of his political future he can afford to stake on […]
National media played along with Stronach while it lasted
I’ve always felt badly for rich people. Naturally, my feelings for Belinda Stronach are close to pity. Not the same pity you might feel for orphans or baby seals, but close. Though not yet 40, Stronach is in the twilight of a brief, bizarre political career that reads like a Trivial Pursuit question: what tycoon’s […]
Three federal Conservative organizers hired for Quebec grassroots campaign
The Conservative Party has hired three election campaign staffers to help out with a sweeping grassroots campaign of signing up party members in Québec, Québec Tory Christian Paradis told The Hill Times. Mr. Paradis (Mégantic-L’Érable, Qué.) confirmed that Pierre Coulombe, the Conservative Party’s chief organizer of the Quebec membership campaign, has hired Nelson Bouffard, Robert […]
State Department’s human rights report: Canada’s world class
WASHINGTON, D.C.-During the past five years, and notably since 9/11/2001, the annual United States Human Rights Report (HRR) has become increasingly controversial. During the Clinton presidency, the USG placed a significant priority on advancing human rights throughout the globe. As a consequence, the HRR became a major tool in this process and exercised leverage to […]
Three Harper Conservative MPs could run provincially in Alberta if Manning wins leadership
Tories Bob Mills, James Rajotte and Rob Merrifield aren’t ruling out running provincially if Preston Manning is the next Conservative leader in Alberta. At least three Alberta Conservative MPs are not ruling out running provincially if Preston Manning wins the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party in Alberta. Conservative MPs Bob Mills (Red Deer, Alta.), […]
Media too hard on Jim Loney: Ontario NDP MP Charlie Angus
NDP MP Charlie Angus said that just before his friend, and now freed Canadian hostage, Jim Loney, was kidnapped in Iraq, he sent Mr. Angus a letter telling him that he was coming home. “He had mailed me a letter just prior to him being kidnapped in Iraq, discussing that he was not planning on […]
Three Grit leadership candidates expected to officially launch their campaign this week
Three high-profile potential Liberal leadership candidates are expected to make their candidacies official this week. Liberal MPs Carolyn Bennett (St. Paul’s, Ont.), Maurizio Bevilacqua (Vaughan, Ont.) and Joe Volpe (Eglinton-Lawrence, Ont.) could officially launch their leadership campaigns this week. So far, three other candidates Martha Hall Findlay, Liberal MP Stéphane Dion (Saint-Laurent-Cartierville, Que.) and Liberal […]
