Month: April 2006

The Toronto Star's Les Whittington has a fun piece today:

Emerson frustrated, ex-aide says
Said to complain Tories `too partisan'
Minister's office denies remarks made
OTTAWA—Trade Minister David Emerson is telling former associates privately that he is frustrated being a member of the Conservative government, according to an ex-aide.
His main complaints are that the government is too partisan and too tightly controlled under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the ex-aide says. …
Jay Epworth, Emerson's legislative assistant when he was industry minister in the Paul Martin government, said Emerson recently told him he has been shocked by the Harper government's fierce adversarial approach.
“Behind closed doors, the Conservatives are worse partisans than the Liberals ever were,” Emerson said, according to notes Epworth wrote after his conversation with the minister.
“They hate the f—ing Liberals and they're doing everything they can to screw them,” he quoted Emerson as saying .. [Read the rest of the story]

TD Bank senior economist Derek Burleton (left)casts his eye on surging commodity and crude oil prices and finds evidence that speculators may be driving the market at this point. [PDF version of Burleton’s report]:

“…improving fundamentals do not appear to be behind much of the most recent wave of buying. Indeed, inventories of base metals, while still low, have been grinding higher in recent months. In the case of crude, stocks have climbed to 8-year highs. Speculative activity appears to have taken the helm of late, spurred by either heightened geopolitical concerns (i.e., oil and gold) or merely cashing in on strong upward momentum (base metals).

Speculation, in the minds of most institutional and professional market watchers, is a bad thing because it tends to lead to the inevitable bursting of the bubble:

In light of the fact that the activities of speculators are erratic in nature, we are now even more steadfast in our view that a correction in crude oil and base metal prices in the order of 20% is in store for later this year.

 

My Globe and Mail colleague Bill Curry has been raising some eyebrows over the last couple of days with some stories about how Prime Minister Stephen Harper has decided to “nominate” the leaders of the House of Commons Standing Committees that the Conservatives will get to chair. These nominations, some say, amount to appointments of the chairman of each committee, a position which is supposed to be elected by committee members themselves through secret ballot. Here's Bill's lede from Tuesday's paper:

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper is choosing which Conservative MPs will become chairs of Commons committees, reversing a parliamentary reform that he championed while leader of the Official Opposition.

And here is his first two paragraphs from today's paper:

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper is facing public criticism from some of his own MPs over his decision to nominate the chairs of House of Commons committees. But several other Conservatives say the nods from the Prime Minister's Office should be viewed simply as helpful suggestions and that MPs are still free to elect someone else.

A committee chairmanship comes with some extra pay and (usually, but not always) some influence and respect. So who are the committee chairs? Well, as Bill reported, Maurice Vellacott (Saskatoon-Wanuskewin), will chair the Aboroginal Affairs and Indian Development Committee and Gerald Keddy (South Shore-St. Margaret's) will chair Fisheries and Oceans. Here's a list of some others, provided to me by one of my sources on the Hill:

• John Williams (Edmonton-St. Albert) or Brian Pallister (Portage-Lisgar) to chair the Finance Committee
• Gerry Ritz (Battlefords-Lloydminster) will chair Agriculture
• James Rajotte (Edmonton-Leduc) will chair Industry
• Dean Allison (Niagara West-Glanbrook) will chair Human Resources
• Leon Benoit (Vegreville-Wainwright) will chair International Trade

One of the key committees is Public Accounts. This was chaired in the last Parliament by Williams and was the committee where a number of the Gomery-related issues as well as the Dingwall affair were discussed. By tradition, this is a committee where the leadership goes to the Official Opposition. Speculation on the Hill is that Liberal Mark Holland (Ajax-Pickering) will end up chairing that committee.

The Dingwall arbitrator report was released late today, hours after Dingwall put out his reaction to its pending release. CP’s Sue Bailey has an excellent summary …

David Dingwall was indeed entitled to his entitlements, says an independent report that concludes he was unfairly forced out as head of the Royal Canadian Mint by a former Liberal government that hung him out to dry.

Mr. Dingwall, a Jean Chrétien loyalist, was essentially booted out by the Paul Martin government amid unfounded attacks over Mint expenses, says George Adams, a retired Ontario Superior Court judge.

Mr. Adams' 10-page report, released late Wednesday, justifies severance of $417,000 paid to Mr. Dingwall. It also puts Ottawa on the hook for Mr. Dingwall's related legal costs — an amount Mr. Adams will determine “failing agreement of the parties.” . . . . [Read the rest of the story]

 

A new report from the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says Canada is tops among the G7 when it comes to broadband or high-speed Internet connections.

Here’s some other data points the OECD published in a media advisory notice:

The number of broadband subscriptions throughout the OECD continued to increase during 2005 from 136 million in June 2005 to 158 million by December 2005. Broadband penetration growth in the OECD held steady at 15% in the second half of the year, reaching 13.6 subscribers per 100 inhabitants in December.

In December 2005, four countries (Iceland, Korea, the Netherlands and Denmark) led the OECD in broadband penetration, each with more than 25 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.

Iceland now leads the OECD with a broadband penetration rate of 26.7 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.

Korea’s broadband market is advancing to the next stage of development where existing subscribers switch platforms for increased bandwidth. In Korea, fibre-based broadband connections grew 52.4% during 2005. This switchover effect is evident by the net loss of DSL (-3.3%) and cable (-1.7%) subscribers during the year.

The strongest per-capita subscriber growth came from Iceland, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands and Australia. Each country added more than 6 subscribers per 100 inhabitants during 2005.

Japan leads the OECD in fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) with 4.6 million fibre subscribers at the end of 2005. Fibre subscribers alone in Japan outnumber total broadband subscribers in 21 of the 30 OECD countries.

DSL is still the leading platform in 28 OECD countries. Cable subscribers outnumber DSL in Canada and the United States.

The United States has the largest total number of broadband subscribers in the OECD at 49 million. US broadband subscribers represented 31% of all broadband connections in the OECD.

Canada leads the G7 group of industrialized countries in broadband penetration

Last week, Prime Minister Harper announced in the House of Commons that an arbitrator’s report on David Dingwall’s departure as president of the Royal Canadian Mint would be tabled in the House of Commons so long as the third parties mentioned in that report agree to its release. Dingwall himself has agreed to its release. The other two ‘third parties’ are likely John McCallum, the Minister in charge of the Mint at the time of Dingwall’s departure, and then Prime Minister Martin. I spoke to  McCallum and, while he had not seen the arbitrator’s report at the time we spoke, he said he could think of no reason why he should object to its release. We have not yet been able to contact Mr. Martin about his opinion on the release of the document.

In any event, Dingwall, pictured left during his appearance last fall in front of a Commons committee, released the following statement today:

Statement by the Hon. David Dingwall,

OTTAWA – The following is a statement by the Hon. David Dingwall, P.C., Q.C. regarding the proposed release of the arbitration ruling awarded by the Hon. George Q. W. Adams, Q.C.

“I have given my consent to the Government to release the award of the Hon. George Adams and I am very pleased that the binding arbitration award by Mr. Adams, a former Justice of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, will be released to the public by this government. I wish to thank Prime Minister Harper for taking steps to make the entire award public. This award rules that my departure was involuntary and makes a compensatory award.

In the days preceding my resignation from the Royal Canadian Mint, mounting uproar unfolded over my company's lobbying activities, as well as the expenses of the President's Office at the Mint. I immediately assured the Clerk that my expenses were entirely in order, which was subsequently confirmed by an independent audit of PriceWaterhouseCoopers. I also assured the Clerk that my lobbying activities were appropriate and requested that they be reviewed by the Ethics Commissioner. My offer was never withdrawn.

Nevertheless, the Government was clear that it was 'troubled' by the negative publicity surrounding the stories and that all I could rely upon was their silence in face of the criticism. I advised them I felt compelled to resign and no one disagreed with this motivation or the necessity of leaving.

In his careful review of all the facts and evidence, the Hon. George Adams ultimately found that my departure was clearly involuntary – equivalent to a termination or constructive termination without cause.

As the former CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint, I consider it an honour to have led such a fine organization through a strong financial turnaround and I am pleased to see that it is continuing on a successful path into the future in a competitive marketplace.

On a personal note, I am deeply appreciative for the love and support of my wife, children and close friends that have sustained me through this very difficult period.”

Calgary Grit scores a one-on-one with Liberal leadership canadidate Michael Ignatieff.

“We, of course, had to discuss blogs to a certain extent. Michael himself doesn't read blogs, but his wife is apparently well versed in the blogosphere and frequently “breaks the bad news” to him about what people are saying online,” Calgary Grit writes.

 

Posting from the press gallery in the House of Commons … Michael Ignatieff just concluded his maiden speech on the floor of the House of Commons. He pressed the government for two things: To ensure that any prisoners caught by Canadians are protected from abuse and also to come to terms with the purpose of the mission once NATO takes over later this year. The paradigm has shifted, Ignatieff said. “We are in a world where there is no peace to keep.”

Michael Ignatieff — the Liberal leadership hopeful – moves down from his assigned seat in the back row of the Opposition benchesto a front bench seat for his 8:10 pm speech in this five-hour Afghanistan debate while the eight – count 'em – eight Liberal MPs in the House all move to sit around him so it looks better for the camera. But don't believe the camera — the rest of the Opposition side is completley empty. [Moblogging this from the press gallery in the House of Commons]

[Posted from the press gallery in the House of Commons]

NDP Leader Jack Layton has just finished speaking. He asked the PM to commit to a vote before committing forces beyond their current commitment.

“Those who portray the request for a vote as a lack of support for our valiant and committed defence personnel are attempting to portray democratic debate on foreign policy as a choice between cheerleading or abandoning our soldiers. Such a characterization does not honour our troops. Surely wise foreign policy involves far more.”

The entire NDP caucus is in the House for the speech.

O'Connor accuses Layton of leading a party that never wants our troops anywhere, even going back to WW II. Layton says his dad quit the Quebec cabinet because the government he was a member of would not go to war against the Nazis.