Health Canada, CBSA under ‘wasteful spending’ reviews; Brison overseeing cabinet colleagues’ work
The federal health and public safety ministers are leading special reviews of their own institutions this year, looking for wasteful spending and obsolete programs, while Treasury Board President Scott Brison oversees their work. A Conservative MP on the Government Operations and Estimates Committee compared the arrangement to “having a fox in charge of the henhouse,” […]
Union worried feds could turn back on IT workers post-Phoenix
The head of one of the largest public service unions is warning the government not to contract to an outside company the ongoing maintenance of the problem-plagued Phoenix pay system once it’s working properly. “I have yet to get a commitment, although I will be seeking it firmly, that they will not contract out the […]
The danger and promise of frank talk in fraught times
GATINEAU, QUE.—By some accounts, politicians and public figures live in dangerous times—only one glib remark, or one youthful mistake, away from pubic disgrace, even career suicide. But it isn’t that simple. Consider the troubling story of Wab Kinew, former broadcaster, author and now the leader of the New Democratic Party of Manitoba. Kinew’s victory two […]
Liberal MP Khalid calls launch of Islamophobia study ‘exciting,’ but says MPs need to do more to combat discrimination
The launch of a controversial House study on racism and religious discrimination in Canada is an “exciting time” for rookie Liberal MP Iqra Khalid, the sponsor of the motion, but she says MPs need to do more to combat discrimination. Ms. Khalid (Mississauga-Erin Mills, Ont.), who attracted tens of thousands of angry and hateful messages, […]
Organized crime in Canada is a problem, says expert Nicaso
TORONTO—Last week, CityTV stations aired the first of a six part series of Bad Blood (8 p.m. every Thursday), a true story based on Business or Blood: Mafia Boss Vito Rizzuto’s Last War, written by Antonio Nicaso and Peter Edwards, two of the best experts about Mafia and organized crime in the world. The book is […]
Meet Grit MP Wayne Easter: defender of the tax avoiders
POWELL RIVER, B.C.—What is it about progressive politicians going to Ottawa only to end up as arrogant conservatives? The last encounter I had with Wayne Easter, Liberal Finance Committee chair, was in 1991 when he (as head of the National Farmers’ Union) and I joined other social activists to demonstrate in front of the Reform […]
Potential Liberal candidates in Scarborough-Agincourt waiting to see if Chan’s widow will run for nomination
Two weeks after Liberal MP Arnold Chan died after a battle with cancer, potential candidates are waiting to hear if his widow, Jean Yip, a former Queen’s Park staffer, plans to run for the coveted nomination in Scarborough-Agincourt. “If she decides to run, I don’t think anyone would challenge her,” said Toronto city councillor, Jim […]
Monsef’s chief of staff departs for new Health Minister Petitpas Taylor’s office
Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef has lost her chief of staff Monique Lugli, who has left Ms. Monsef’s office for a job in new Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor’s political staff team. Ms. Lugli had been running the Status of Women minister’s office since January 2016, starting under then minister Patty Hajdu, who was shuffled into her […]
Whatever the outcome, new leader’s first job will be to heal internal divisions
OTTAWA—The New Democratic Party turban wars were officially launched last weekend. The first toxic, anti-turban bomb dropped was dropped by Quebec NDP MP Pierre Nantel on the eve of a leadership pre-vote launch in Hamilton. Nantel characterized candidate Jagmeet Singh’s religious garb as “ostentatious” and “not compatible with power.” Party officials and candidates moved immediately […]
Harder calls for independent oversight of Senators’ expenses two years after AG’s report, says current structure ‘inherently flawed’
The government’s top player in the Senate says it’s time the Upper Chamber finally acts on Auditor General Michael Ferguson’s 2015 recommendation to establish an independent oversight of Senators’ expenses and replace the Senate’s Internal Economy Committee as the “ultimate authority” on Senators’ expenses because the structure is “inherently flawed” and raises an appearance of […]
