Taiwan, Quebec parallels
Re: “Ministers, parliamentarians at Taiwan event anger China,” (The Hill Times, April 20, p. 1). Echoing in my mind more than 40 years later are Charles de Gaulle’s words, “Vive Montreal! Vive le Quebec! Vive le Quebec libre!” and the roar of the crowd caught half in disbelief that someone had the gall to give […]
Hill skin cancer clinic saved Grit MP Casey’s life, it might save yours
Next week, Liberal MP Bill Casey is hosting the kind of skin cancer clinic that saved his life a decade ago. He recalled how in 2006 he attended a skin cancer clinic organized on the Hill by Dona Cadman, a Conservative MP between 2008 and 2011 and wife of the late Independent MP Chuck Cadman […]
CAJ urges MPs to reconsider ‘inherent’ secrecy in review of Access Act
Canada’s current access-to-information system presents a “fundamental challenge” to democracy, was drafted by a political culture that favours secrecy, and MPs should question this “inherent” secrecy as they consider changes to the Access to Information Act, Sean Holman, vice-president of the Canadian Association of Journalists, told the House committee reviewing the act last week. “We have a cultural […]
Quebec’s English-speaking community fighting to maintain disappearing institutional base built over centuries
Canadians are blessed with the opportunity to live, play and work in two official languages. Ensuring this gift is a defining characteristic of our nation’s history. Long ago, we discarded the notion that English and French would be geographically limited, and we have constitutionally guaranteed the presence of our national languages from sea to sea […]
Pre-approval of corridors recommended for northern infrastructure projects
As the Trudeau government begins divvying up infrastructure funds promised in the budget, some say there are better processes that can be applied for planning infrastructure projects in the North. When the three territorial finance ministers met with federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau, they put a priority on infrastructure needs, according to the CBC. A report by […]
A movement in search of a leader: where does the NDP go from here?
OTTAWA—I never understood why Thomas Mulcair kept saying, “When I’m prime minister” during last fall’s election campaign. Whatever he was thinking, the smarmy, overconfident phraseology struck me as totally wrong—symbolic of a tone-deaf campaign that finally caught up with him in the rejection of his leadership on Sunday. Mulcair is a decent fellow who did […]
NDP grassroots still frustrated, angry by last election, want more say in next campaign, there’s ‘invigorated interest in how the party engages the membership’
EDMONTON—NDP delegates at the party’s policy convention in Edmonton this weekend say they want more say over party and policy decisions in the next election and many are still frustrated by the party’s disastrous loss of 51 House seats in last fall’s 78-day election campaign. At a debate, called “party affairs,” some eager delegates ran to be first […]
Former Liberal Cabinet minister Lapierre’s death ‘a great loss to political world’
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair praised former Liberal and Bloc Québécois MP Jean Lapierre as a “formidable Parliamentarian” after he learned Mr. Lapierre, 59, was killed in an air crash in eastern Quebec on Tuesday. Mr. Mulcair said he and his wife, Catherine, were “shocked” at the news Mr. Lapierre, his wife and other members of […]
If Ottawa bails out Bombardier, feds should help 400 laid-off Aveos workers, say Manitoba Liberal MPs
If the federal government bails out Quebec-based aerospace giant Bombardier with a financial aid package, Manitobans will expect financial help for more than 400 workers who were laid off by aircraft maintenance company Aveos in Winnipeg in 2012, say Manitoba Liberal MPs. “There’s a strong group of Liberal MPs who will fight for our aerospace industry, and that […]
Alberta oilpatch braces for higher carbon costs
Alberta’s oil-and-gas sector is measuring potential costs that are soon to be added to the price of taking fossil fuels out of the ground. Some of those costs may be guesstimates right now, but additional costs are a fact, as governments pile-on to the idea of pricing carbon as a way to curb greenhouse gas […]
