SC appointment process is a work in progress
The process for appointing the Supreme Court judges was far from perfect, but it certainly didn’t deserve the slagging it got. The appointments were all about keeping election promises, and Paul Martin scored pretty well. First was the process of reviewing nominations. As promised it involved Parliamentarians in a predominant role. They formed the majority […]
Democrats sing from Liberal song sheet at convention
I could have sworn I saw David Herle at the Democratic Convention in Boston… In fact just when Bill and Hillary Clinton were walking off stage the TV camera caught a handler by them who looked remarkably like Herle, snazzy specs and all. But whether or not he was there in person, the Democrats had […]
Minorities in the House
While the diversity of Canada gallops ahead, diversity in Ottawa moves at a snail’s pace, rendering Ottawa more and more distant from the country it governs. And while visible minorities in the senior public service runs around four per cent, many MPs coming to Ottawa were elected in ridings where visible minorities range between 30 […]
White guys asking all the questions
Three white men did what three white men stereotypically do. They didn’t talk about issues that white men are not immediately or personally concerned with. This is not to say that Craig Oliver, Keith Boag and David Vienneau did not do an extremely professional job in the English leaders’ TV debate last week. But was […]
Where are all the visible minority reporters on hustings?
Whether you see the cultural and racial diversity of Canada in the coverage of the election is the subject of a national survey currently underway. The diversity of the following will be examined: *the reporters assigned to cover each party leader; *reporters assigned to do other election coverage; *the political experts and pundits interviewed and […]
Adrienne Clarkson’s defining hour may yet be ahead
It is often said that some of the best work of Parliamentarians takes place in committees, and indeed the recent committee report on the Governor General’s expenditures was an example of a committee at its best — the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, chaired by Liberal Mississauga South MP Paul Szabo. It was […]
Where do the Conservative leadership candidates stand on urban diversity?
Could it be that the new Conservative Party is becoming more mainstream, more like its Progressive Conservative side and less like it Reform-Alliance past? A new survey on urban diversity priorities of the three leadership candidates found that they all now subscribe to several of the old PC policies on some key diversity issues, while […]
Martin’s new Cabinet ministers and the diversity agenda
The number of visible minorities in Canada is likely to hit four-and-a-half million in 2004, up from the four million mark at the 2001 census. That is well above the combined population of the four Atlantic provinces or of Alberta and Saskatchewan combined. The percentage of Canadians with a minority ethnic origin, which includes non-whites […]
