Maloney’s riding disappears, Whelan fights to keep farming area: MPs, Cabinet ministers plead their cases to Subcommittee on Electoral Boundaries Committee
A flurry of Ontario Liberal MPs, where the governing Liberals hold 98 of the 103 seats, has descended upon the Procedure and House Affairs Subcommittee on Electoral Boundaries on the Hill armed with maps, pens, pencils — and their own ideas about how the Ontario electoral map should be redrawn. The committee is hearing presentations […]
PM to attend his last Gallery Dinner
On Saturday afternoon, Jean Chretien will likely put on his shirt, bow-tie and tuxedo, shine his shoes and tuck one of the year’s most highly-anticipated speeches into his inside breast pocket before setting off to the National Arts Centre for his final Parliamentary Press Gallery Dinner as Prime Minister of Canada. Don Martin, a columnist […]
Motorcycle Mamma eager to ride off into sunset: Outgoing Alberta Alliance MP Deb Grey loves motorcyling, I mean loves it
If there is one thing that Alliance MP Deborah Grey is looking forward to this summer, it’s that feeling only motor-bikers get when cruising under an open-sky canopy during a serene ride in the Rocky Mountains. Admittedly, this coveted sensation has been difficult for Ms. Grey (Edmonton North, Alta.) to experience over the course of […]
“Will Peter MacKay’s deal with David Orchard help the Liberals in the next federal election?”
Warren Kinsella Liberal strategist “What follows is Warren engaged in a conversation with Warren (something that, sadly, happens too often): “That wily old Paco Francoli… this one is clearly a trick question. It has to be. “I mean, it is so patently obvious that the answer is yes — it is so clear, so self-evident, […]
Last of Liberal Party leadership debates on Saturday
Parliamentary Press Gallery dinner in Ottawa this Saturday night too MONDAY, June 9 House Sitting–The House is sitting this week and is scheduled to remain in session until Friday, June 20. The schedule could change. For more information on the House calendar, please call the Government House Leader’s Office at (613) 952-4930. Senate Sitting–The Senate […]
Grits headed for another divisive vote
The federal government is headed for another clash with several members of its own backbenchers this week as it moves to restore $9-million from Transport Canada’s budget, funding which had been removed by Grit MPs on the House Transport Committee during their annual review of the federal department’s spending priorities. Although this latest showdown is […]
Tell us the ideological biases
TORONTO–One of the time-honoured ways that advocacy groups use to inflict their viewpoints on an unsuspecting public is to create a “non-partisan” group and proceed to do a study on a “problem” of their choosing. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, of course. The problem comes in the reportage. When advocacy groups are right-of-centre, […]
Radwanski hauled before Government Ops
Members of a House of Commons committee have hauled Privacy Commissioner George Radwanski before them to figure out if he tampered with evidence he provided to their committee, something which could put him in contempt of Parliament and possibly cost him his job. The Privacy Commissioner is set to appear before the Government Operations Committee […]
CanWest decimates bureau
A hell of a mistake… Even in these days of regular layoffs of reporters, the Bloody Wednesday axing of six veteran reporters from the CanWest (formerly know as Southam) News Service Hill bureau shocked the Parliamentary Press Gallery and the body politic alike. The condemned were called up to what is fast becoming known as […]
Transport Committee digs in its heels
Government House Leader Don Boudria’s attempt to kill a recommendation made by the Commons Transport Committee to chop $9-million from VIA Rail’s annual budget was dismissed as “pathetic” and disappointing by backbench Liberals last week. The dispute is just the latest sign of how bad relations between the federal Cabinet and Liberal caucus have become […]