Leonard Tilley: unlikely saviour of Confederation, ‘rare example of a politician who knew when not to talk’
OTTAWA—When British North American colonial leaders gathered at Québec City in 1864 to shape the details of the Confederation project, one man stood out, in historian P.B. Waite’s words, as “the rare example of a politician who knew when not to talk.” This was Samuel Leonard Tilley, a Saint John druggist and leader of the […]
Senate overhauls rules on expenses, transparency, and spells out Internal Economy Committee veto over release of records
An overhaul of the Senate’s administrative rules and new policy on office management will come into force at the beginning of November, with new language around transparency, partisanship, and spending. Changes to the Senate Administrative Rules document and the new office policy were drawn up by a small team of Senators, then passed by the […]
Echo chambers, strategists and Scheer
OAKVILLE, ONT.—A recurring theme in politics is that “behind-the-scenes” guys, a.k.a political party strategists, don’t always remain behind the scenes. Every now and again one of their number flashily pops into the media’s consciousness, sometimes popping in voluntarily; sometimes, involuntarily. An instance of the latter case occurred recently when The Walrus, a left-wing magazine, ran […]
“Do you think Bill Morneau’s a political liability for the Liberals? And why shouldn’t the rich be taxed?”
Cameron Ahmad Liberal strategist “Our government was elected on a promise to create jobs and opportunities for our country’s middle class and for Canadians who work hard every day to join it. We have followed through on that promise since the very beginning of our mandate, when we cut taxes for millions of Canadians by […]
Duncan drags universities kicking and screaming into 21st century
OTTAWA—Show me the money and I will show you the path to equality. Just last week, the university sector announced groundbreaking news about a new nation-wide plan to collect and publish data on how each institution is doing when it comes to diversity. The Action Plan for Inclusive Excellence, a five-year strategy unveiled Thursday by […]
Lebouthillier’s top political staff should have known about Revenue Canada’s now-nixed plans to tax employee discounts: former CRA ministers
A former Jean Chrétien-era national revenue minister says Diane Lebouthillier’s top political staff should have known and warned the minister about prospective plans for the Canadian Revenue Agency to begin taxing employee discounts, a controversial proposal which has since been kiboshed by the government. David Anderson, a former long-serving Liberal MP and cabinet minister who oversaw […]
Bank of Canada’s monetary policy report offers a more sobering assessment of Canadian economy
TORONTO—Compared to the boastful and self-congratulatory messaging in Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s fiscal update, the Monetary Policy Report of the Bank of Canada offers a more sobering assessment of the Canadian economy. However, both project an economy growing at 3.1 per cent this year, slowing to just 1.5-1.6 per cent by 2019. “We came to […]
The ramifications of the demise of Energy East
OTTAWA—I don’t understand why people believe that western Canadian separation is dead. It appears, at least on the federal level, that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals believe they can ignore Alberta and now Saskatchewan. In the past, the only province that threatened separation was Quebec. However, when Pierre Trudeau was prime minister the […]
Trudeau PMO tightening control over ministerial staffing, ‘identical’ to Harper approach, says ex-Liberal MP
The flow of staff from the Prime Minister’s Office to key posts in ministerial offices reveals an underperforming rookie cabinet, increasingly controlled by the PMO despite promises that a Liberal government would reverse Stephen Harper’s centralized approach, say some Conservatives and Liberals. Many The Hill Times spoke with said this style of governance, coupled with inexperienced […]
O’Regan hires comms director, Freeland bolsters political staff team, Scheer hires almost a dozen new staffers
Veterans Affairs and Associate Defence Minister Seamus O’Regan has hired a number of new political aides, including John Embury as his director of communications. Mr. Embury started on the job in early October, and before then was director of communications and marketing client services for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Mr. Embury started at […]
