Do the right thing, how to blow the whistle on wrongdoing in the government: it’s not easy
OTTAWA—Whistleblowers are not well understood. They are under tremendous pressure and are faced with resolving their own personal belief in doing the right thing with survival. This affects them at work and at home. The whistleblower may be faced with a number of situations: from blowing the whistle perhaps on the use of chemicals that have polluted the water […]
Status of government bills
House of Commons S-2, Strengthening Motor Vehicle Safety for Canadians Act (second reading) C-5, An Act to Repeal Division 20 of Part 3 of the Economic Action Plan 2015 Act, No. 1 (second reading) C-7, An Act to Amend the Public Service Labour Relations Act, Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board Act, and others […]
Trudeau can fix our broken whistleblowing system: here’s why and how
OTTAWA—The House Government Operations Committee deserves kudos for taking the bull by the horns in its review of Canada’s failed system for protecting government whistleblowers. This week the committee will hear from no less than four experts representing countries that have much better laws: the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Ireland. The comparisons these experts can […]
Politics at its worst in political parties
OTTAWA—Politics is at its worst in political parties. Internal decisions are usually made in secret with little recourse to the rules of due process that apply to normal business decisions. That may change, as a disgruntled New Democrat took his case to the courts last week after his party would not allow him to run […]
Trump’s words come back to haunt him
TORONTO—Campaigns matter. That’s a long-time conceit of political consultants, of course. We say it all the time. I even worked at a successful political consulting firm which trademarked the phrase. Campaigns Matter™. Campaigns matter—along with its corollary, “the only poll that matters is the one on Election Day”—are central to the political consultant’s belief system. […]
BC’s Liberals: A rogue government that must be dispatched
POWELL RIVER, B.C.—The experience of anything approaching good government or robust democracy in the province of British Columbia is now such a distant memory that the present danger is people’s low expectations. The Liberal government of Christy Clark is not so much a government as it is an anti-government: contemptuous of both the public good […]
Liberals to meet for two-day caucus this week, some Grit MPs dissatisfied with level of cabinet consultation
Liberal MPs will hold a special two-day caucus meeting on Parliament Hill this week to plot parliamentary strategy for the remainder of the current sitting, but some backbenchers say they would like to see cabinet justify its policy positions better and improve its consultations with MPs. The meeting is a replacement for the usual winter caucus […]
A short generation in Scotland
LONDON, ENGLAND—Maybe they reach sexual maturity very young in Scotland. What else could explain the fact that they are going to have another referendum on Scottish independence only three years after the last one? The Scottish referendum on independence in 2014 was supposed to be a once-in-a-generation event. That was the one thing that then-British […]
A ray of light for electoral reform
When Prime Minister Trudeau pronounced: “I think we can see that there is a fairly clear desire out there to improve our electoral system” he was right. Although he recently darkened the skies of electoral reform by claiming: “There is no consensus. There is no clear path forward. It would be irresponsible to do something that […]
Health Accord, opioids, assisted dying, and more keep lobbyists focused on Philpott
With the federal government having worked out new health-funding arrangements with most provinces, passed assisted-dying legislation, started a process to legalize marijuana, and facing a national opioid crisis, it’s not surprising Health Minister Jane Philpott would see an ample amount of lobbying since coming to office. Ms. Philpott (Markham-Stouffville, Ont.) has been named in 115 […]
