Month: December 2007

CTV News announced the top ten stories of 2007 this morning but pure political stories didn’t do very well this year, as our president Robert Hurst — who once covered Parliament Hill — writes in a piece on our Web site:

Normally a prime minister and his government's achievements or failures are sure bets for inclusion in the top-ten list. But it didn't happen this year even though the Conservatives are governing with a minority Parliament.

The high-flying loonie was the obvious choice as the top Canadian story of 2007. The dramatic rise of Canada's currency affects every single Canadian, which is a key factor in evaluating its inclusion and ranking on the list. Indeed during the autumn, the loonie's climb against the U.S. greenback was the lead story night after night, week after week.

Now, of course, federal politics influenced or was influenced by some of the year’s big stories. 

The story of the loonie’s rise continues to be a political flashpoint here in Ottawa, with opposition MPs and business lobby groups pushing the government to do something to help out ailing manufacturers. And Canada’s war in Afghanistan – the number two story of the year — continues to be a significant point of cleavage between the four major political parties.

The use of tasers (number 5) and the deaths of RCMP officers (number 6) had politicians scrambling in reaction.

The only pure political story of the year was our number ten selection – the Mulroney-Schreiber saga.

Check out the complete list at the bottom of this page.

Washington Post media columnist Howard Kurtz has a good idea: Political reporters should stop letting sources who refuse to go on the record throw mud at political opponents.

Is it really necessary to allow operatives from one campaign to attack another candidate without their names attached? These strategists are paid to slam the other contenders. Why should they be able to hide behind a curtain of anonymity? Do you really want to be aiding and abetting that sort of cheap-shot politics? …

Political reporters, as a rule, are an industrious band of road warriors who work hard to get people to speak on the record. But under deadline pressure, they sometimes succumb to the lure of the juicy quote dished out by operatives trying to damage rival candidates. Perhaps it's time to rethink the practice.

Debate:

Neoconservative foreign policy — which is to say bellicose nationalism crossed with an idealistic faith in America’s capacity to transform the world for the better — is dead. Iraq was its Frankenstein’s monster, and the beast has turned on its creator. Our central task today is to devise a new way of thinking about the post-9/11 world.

[Those are the opening lines, incidentally, in James Traub's review of a new book about Richard Perle]

P.J. O'Rourke reviews a new book about the rise of the coffee chain Starbucks in this week's New York Times Book Review. O'Rourke doesn't much like the book under review but he does provide this great quote from the book:

Howard Schultz, [Starbuck's] chairman, [ says]:

“People weren’t drinking coffee. … So the question is, How could a company create retail stores where coffee was not previously sold, … charge three times more for it than the local doughnut shop, put Italian names on it that no one can pronounce, and then have six million customers a week coming through the stores?”>

Lucienne Robillard, who represents the Quebec riding of Westmount, announced today that she will resign her job late next month. Here’s the statement from her leader, Stephane Dion:

On behalf of the Liberal Party of Canada and our Parliamentary Caucus, I want to express my deepest gratitude to the Honourable Lucienne Robillard, Deputy House Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, who today officially announced her resignation as the Member of Parliament for Westmount-Ville-Marie effective January 25, 2008.

Over the past 12 years, as an MP and as a Cabinet minister, Ms. Robillard has served her constituents with enthusiasm, professionalism and dedication.  Her accomplishments reflect her commitment and devotion to Canada and her home province of Quebec, as well as her impressive expertise, integrity and commitment.

It has been a tremendous privilege for me to serve with Ms. Robillard in the Liberal caucus as well as in the Cabinets of former Liberal Prime Ministers Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin. 

First elected in 1995, Ms. Robillard was re-elected in 1997, 2000, 2004 and 2006.  During her time in federal politics, Ms. Robillard has held a number of important government portfolios.  She has served as Minister of Labour, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, President of the Treasury Board, Minister of Industry and the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, and Minister of Human Resources and Skills Developments. In February 2006, she was appointed as Deputy Leader of the Official Opposition and in January 2007, Deputy House Leader for the Official Opposition.

Ms. Robillard's accomplishments make her a formidable role model for young women who want to follow in her footsteps by dedicating themselves to public service, and I know she will continue to be an inspiration to future generations.

I wish Ms. Robillard and her family happiness as they pursue their future endeavours.  I am sure that she will continue to serve both Canada and Quebec as enthusiastically in her private life as she has throughout her political career.

The U.S. Congress this week passed a comprehensive energy package. The Washington Post reports that it may get weakened in the Senate and, if it doesn't, President Bush may veto the thing. Here's the highlights, according to the Post:

• Would raise CAFE fuel standards to 35 mpg by 2020
• Required that, by 2015, 15 per cent of power generated by U.S. utilities would have to come from renewable energy sources such wind, thermal, or biomass.
• Provide tax incentives to bring about a sevenfold increase in the use of ethanol as a motor fuel by 2022, two-thirds of which would have to be cellulosic.
• Re-write standards for appliances and light-bulbs which would effectively mean the end of the incandescent bulb by 2015. (Canada has also banned that energy-wasting bulb)
• A rollback of US$13.5-billion in tax breaks for the five largest U.S. oil companies.

The United States Congress passed legislation this week that would force automobile manufacturers to raise fuel efficiency standards. It's the first time in 32 years, U.S. lawmakers have raised the corporate average fuel efficiency (CAFE) standards. The new rule: By 2020, the combined fuel efficiency of autos churned out by the car companies would have to be 35 miles per gallon.

Canada generally follows the lead of the U.S. government on fuel efficiency standards although some environmental groups have been pressing Ottawa to be more aggressive, perhaps like the State of California, in pushing carmakers to make cars and light trucks that use less fuel and, hence, spew out less of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

The bill now goes to the U.S. Senate. There appears to be support there for the CAFE modifications but Republican senators are threatening to strip out much of the rest of an ambitious energy package and President Bush has threatened to veto the bill.

In the meantime, Transport Canada yesterday released the list of 2008 model year vehicles that qualify for a federal rebate of up to $2,000. This is the second year of this program and, for the first time, Canada's best-selling vehicle, the Honda Civic, is on the list.

There are six new models to the list this year — a car must get 6.5 L / 100 km or better to qualify — including the Nissan Rogue, the Honda Fit, the Mercedes Smart (left), the Mini Cooper Clubman and the Chevrolet HHR, but there are still no models from Kia or Hyundai, both of which had complained, along with Honda, that the arbitrary standard unfairly excluded some of their models which were rated at 6.6 L / 100 km.

The Ottawa Citizen’s top defence reporter David Pugliese crunches the numbers today and finds that ‘pinko’ PM Pierre Trudeau spent relatively more on national defence  than any of his successors including ‘hawks’ like Brian Mulroney or even Stephen Harper.

The Conference of Defence Associations — an advocacy group whose membership, by and large, includes retired military types as well as the country’s military historians — doesn’t disagree with Pugliese’s analysis but notes that Trudeau’s spending ought also to  be compared to his predecessors. On that score, Trudeau spent the least. Here’s the CDA’s comment:

We would like to bring to your attention Canadian average defence spending figures, as percentage of GDP (ref: NATO):

1949-1956 (Louis St-Laurent): 6.5%
1957-1962 (John Diefenbaker): 5.4%
1963-1967 (Lester Pearson): 3.8%
1968-1984 (Pierre Trudeau): 2.1%
1984-1993 (Brian Mulroney): 2.0%
1994-2003 (Jean Chretien): 1.3%
2004 – current (Paul Martin, Stephen Harper): around 1.2%

 

Paul Szabo, the Liberal who chairs the House of Commons committee that has Karl Heinz Schreiber in front of it right now, is in the midst of his opening statement. First, he said the committee was disgusted that the police had failed to protect Schreiber’s “personal dignity” when Schreiber was taken from jail to his Ottawa home to review some documents.

Like all prisoners in jails, Schreiber’s belt had been removed and, as he approached his home in handcuffs, gravity would win out and Schreiber’s pants fell to his knees exposing his undergarments while our camera crews and others filmed the inevitable result.

Szabo took the police to task for allowing this to happen and to “others” — presumably our network and others — for exploiting it.

Then, Szabo launched into Schreiber’s lawyer Ed Greenspan who, after Schreiber’s first appearance, had labelled the event “a political circus.”

“This is not a political circus,” Szabo grandly pronounced.  “This is the Parliament of Canada.”

Schreiber was suitably impressed by all this, for his first words were: “I am deeply impressed and touched by your words.”

And so we’re off ..

You can catch this live on CTV Newsnet, of course, or watch via Parliament’s Web cast.