Expect mostly posturing in first round of NAFTA talks this week
Round 1 of renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) gets underway this week, with this initial series of talks expected to see all sides introducing their starting positions, with limited progress beyond that. A Canadian delegation of about dozen people will meet with similar-sized contingents representing the United States and Mexico in Washington, […]
Groups representing education, food, health research lobby on through dog days of summer
Why would anyone want to lobby in the summer? Well, one reason is to explain to the government what a polytechnic is. In these dog days of summer, lobbyists are hard-pressed to find the country’s top elected officials hanging around Ottawa. Yet, a handful of organizations have been particularly busy so far this summer, talking […]
India and Israel could be better to their neighbours
India celebrates its 70th anniversary of independence on Aug. 15, but it does not have much to celebrate when it comes to maintaining good relations with its neighbours. India and Israel hold the dubious record of being in bad relations with all their neighbours. Israelis neighbours are: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. India’s neighbours […]
Canada’s effort to include climate change in NAFTA worth a shot
OTTAWA—Canada’s effort to include climate change in the North American Free Trade negotiations is worth a try. But it is likely to get the same kind of reaction from American President Donald Trump that he levels to all climate comers. In Trump world, climate change is in the same category as the real media world […]
Caribou file on the move
OTTAWA—As the five-year anniversary of the Boreal Woodland Caribou Recovery Strategy approaches, conservationists are looking for leadership and action on the ground. In the last few months, the leadership demonstrated by the minister of Environment and Climate Change and the parliamentary secretary on this file has been quite encouraging. In the end, caribou need action […]
Was Mulroney Trump before there was Trump?
GATINEAU, QUE.—When Peter C. Newman’s controversial and sensational book The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister was released in 2005, it created a national buzz. The book was based on hundreds of candid interviews with Mulroney, his friends, and family and political contacts, over a decade, that were originally intended for a biography […]
New world requires new arguments
OAKVILLE, ONT.—We hear a lot these days about how we need to prepare for global climate change, but there’s another kind of global change happening right now, and it too requires our attention. Or at least it requires the attention of those who pontificate on politics, because the global change I’m talking about is dramatically […]
Senate harassment policy to be reviewed in wake of Sen. Meredith scandal
PARLIAMENT HILL—The nine-member Senate Advisory Working Group on Human Resources will examine the Red Chamber’s harassment policy when Parliament returns in September, as a response to the sexual harassment and workplace harassment accusations that were levelled against former Senator Don Meredith Alberta Conservative Sen. Scott Tannas, who chairs this group, told The Hill Times that the […]
Senators see their public bills as chance to fill gaps in government agenda
PARLIAMENT HILL—Senate public bills provide an opportunity for Parliamentarians to fill legislative holes and tackle important public policy issues not on the government’s agenda, say Senators with public bills before the House of Commons. There are 11 Senate public bills—the equivalent of MPs’ private members’ bills—before the House, and their sponsors say so far this […]
Trudeau’s atypical media exposure pushed by ‘most image-conscious PMO in Canadian history’
From Rolling Stone magazine to CBS Sports, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes a point of engaging beyond the usual media suspects covering Canadian politics, and it’s all part of a media strategy of what is considered the most image-conscious, communications-driven Prime Minister’s Office ever, say strategists. “The Prime Minister’s Office has an innate understanding of […]
