Month: November 2008

Are our banks really number one?

Just about any time these days that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty or Prime Minister Stephen Harper talk about the global fiscal and economic crisis, you will almost certainly hear them assert that Canada’s banks are “the soundest in the world.” Indeed, that was the first thing Flaherty said Wednesday morning just as he was announcing a suite of measures to help the banks do their job better.

It’s a claim Canada’s politicians have been making ever since the Geneva-based World Economic Forum published a report Oct. 8 that ranked Canada’s banking system the “soundest” among 134 countries surveyed.

But is Canada’s banking system really that sound? Should Canadians and politicians be putting much stock in the World Economic Forum’s report?

“If you look at . . . all these rankings, they’re meaningless,” Reuven Brenner, a professor in the Desautels faculty of management at McGill University told me. Continue reading Are our banks really number one?

Barry Has a Plan

Ontario MP Barry Devolin (left) is telling MPs today about this three-point plan to to make the House of Commons work better. This comes hot on the heels of news from my colleague's in Canada's flattest province that Andrew Scheer is also running for Speaker.

DEVOLIN HAS 3 POINT PLAN TO IMPROVE DECORUM IN THE HOUSE

OTTAWA – Barry Devolin, Member of Parliament for Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock and candidate for Speaker of the House of Commons, today announced details of his 3 Point Plan to improve decorum in the House.

“Ever since I was first elected, I have heard Members of Parliament talk about raising the level of debate in the House,” said Devolin. “I believe there is an appetite for change among Members of Parliament from all parties. This is not a partisan issue.”

“The tone of debate in the House is set by the Speaker, the same as the tone of play in a hockey game is set by the referee,” explained Devolin. “If you want a new tone, you need to find a new referee.”

Devolin’s plan is based on 3 points:

1. Assemble a team for the Speaker's chair committed to improving decorum. “My first act as Speaker will be to ask House Leaders to appoint three Members of Parliament committed to working with me to improve decorum to serve as Deputy Speaker, and as Deputy and Assistant Deputy Chairpersons of Committees of the Whole. To be successful, we need consistency in the chair.”

2. Start on the periphery of House activities; then move towards the centre – Question Period. “I believe the best time to introduce a new tone in the House is during the least stressful activities, such as private members’ business or routine debate. Subsequently, this more respectful tone could be expanded to include more stressful activities, such as Question Period. Starting with Question Period won’t work.”

3. Establish a Special Committee to develop a “Members' Code of Mutual Respect”. “I will ask the House Leaders to appoint a caucus member each to a Special Committee, to be chaired by the Deputy Speaker, which will draft a statement of reasonable expectations for Members’ conduct in the House. This special committee will consult with Members while drafting a high level, one page document to be tabled when the House returns in January.”

“Every M.P. deserves respect from their colleagues, the same as they would get in any other workplace in Canada,” said Devolin. “I look forward to the day when I can be proud to welcome a group of school children to attend Question Period.”

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Looking for a good time in Winnipeg

The Conservative Party of Canada holds its second ever policy convention this week in Winnipeg and, after quickly glancing over the social calendar, there's no denying the Conservatives know how to put the party back into Conservative Party!

In addition to a National Caucus Meeting (Thursday afternoon), a speech by the One, the Only, the Right Honourable Prime Minister Stephen J. Harper (Thursday night), and lots of policy discussions, there will also be lots of social or semi-social things to do for the 700 or so delegates who will attend. For one thing, I've heard a certain Environment Minister has a hospitality suite if you care to pop by and discuss the future of the Conservative Party of Canada when the One, the Only has moved along. Members of the national executive council, I'm told, may also be organizing their own hospitality suites. And don't forget: At every gathering of Conservatives or Progressive Conservatives for what seems like the last two decades, you can always count on Peter Van Loan – recently put in charge of the country's police forces and spies, I might add — to put on his own hospitality suite.

In addition the to the hospitality suites, there's lots of events, such as:

  • Rahim and Helena Wedding Social Rahim Jaffer was a surprise loser on election night, going down to defeat in his Edmonton riding to the NDP's Linda Duncan. The big consolation prize came from his fiancé, Conservative MP and Minister of State Helena Guergis who showed up the next day ready to get hitched. Conservatives in Winnipeg can celebrate these celebrity nuptials with the Boogie Nights Band at the Delta on Saturday night. (Question: If the Power Couple at the first ever Conservative Convention in Montreal was Peter and Belinda, are Rahim and Helena the Power Couple for this second-ever convention? Who will it be at the third convention?)
  • The Canadian Private Copying Collective Suite The Canadian Private Copying Collective cordially invites Conservative Party of Canada delegates to our hospitality suite to meet some of Canada’s outstanding musicians, performing artists and songwriters. (Thursday all night at the Radisson. Bring your iPod!)
  • Canada-Israel Committee Part-ay All night Thursday at the Delta.
  • UPDATE: Canada India Foundation and the Canada India Interparliamentary Association does the hospitality suite thing all night Friday. Location unknown, I'm afraid, but if you ask around, shouldn't too hard to find.
  • Lunch with Jason Kenney Our new Citizenship and Immigration Minister is the keynote speaker at lunch at the Marlborough on Thursday.
  • Eggs over easy with Monte Monte Solberg — you remember him, don't you? — headlines the Conservative Club of Winnipeg's breakfast at the Norwood Hotel. You need tickets for this one on Thursday morning.
  • The next premier of Manitoba? Hugh McFadyen is the leader of Manitoba's Progressive Conservatives and the Manning Centre for Democracy is presenting Hugh teamed up on an exciting double bill with Dr. Frank Plummer who will talk about infectious diseases. (Add your own punchline here …). All the action from the Manning Centre is at The Winnipeg Millenium Library. That's right, the library! On Friday, from 4 till 6 pm.

The apocalypse is here: Danny Williams says something nice about S. J. Harper

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's fiercest and sometimes most effective critic has decided to shut down his campaign against Ottawa's Conservatives in recognition of the severity of the economic and fiscal crisis.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams, who leads his province's Progressive Conservative Party, ran an ABC campaign — Anybody But Conservative — during last month's federal election. Largely because of that, the federal Conservatives lost all three seats they held in the province and were wiped off the provincial electoral map.

But today — just a few weeks later — at their first meeting since the federal election, Williams said that period of acrimonious Ottawa-St. John's relations is over and he even had good things to say about the job Ottawa has been doing to deal with the crisis. This, of course, from a man who would only refer to the Right Honourable Prime Minister Stephen Harper simply as “Steve” for the last couple of years.

“Those days are behind me,” Williams told me after he and other premiers had a behind-closed-doors three-hour “workshop” on the global and Canadian economy. “In times like this, in times of crisis, in times of a serious situation in this country, it's not the time for parochial issues or individual jurisdictional issues. So my message in there was quite strong: It's one of co-operation and it's important to put a united front and solidarity for the people of Canada to be working together to get through this. If we're divided in that room, then that's going to destroy confidence in the Canadian public. I was quite pleased at the meeting. It was a very cordial meeting. It was a constructive meeting because a lot of good ideas came on the table.”

Equalization payments came up once during the session. Quebec brought it up. But though Williams has strong feelings about equalization — indeed, he blew his top and declared war on the Harper Tories over what he perceived to be a broken promise on commitments made to his province he bit his tongue during Monday's session.

“Given our special circumstances, I just didn't feel it was appropriate,” Williams told me.

Here's some of what he said later in a scrum with reporters:

I want to tell you quite frankly there was no tension in the room from my perspective and I want to tell you I didn't sense any tension from the prime minister. I think everybody was there acknowledging that, look, we're trying to find solutions to get through a hard time…

When it comes to working for the Canadian people to get us through this storm, we need to be together. There's also a general sense of comfort in the room, and I specifically expressed this to the prime minister, that I had a comfort in way the Canadian government, our Canadian government, is handling this problem, the fact that they have not been over-reactionary, it's been steady as she goes approach and they're coming up with solutions as they need them as opposed to being in a situation where they're just going to throw money at things and try and appease people.

So I'm comfortable with that. To go off to the G20, I think the prime minister has had a comfort level now knowing that Canadian premiers and leaders are generally with him….

There's nothing to be gained by me going into that room and attacking the prime minister or to bringing up old issues with the prime minister. I'm there today not only as the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador but as a Canadian leader, as one of 14 people in that room who basically are there to find solutions and answer for Canadians and make sure that ordinary Canadians had the confidence in their leadership. For me to go in and rant and rave about issues that are important to my province would not help Canada and quite frankly that was the tone in the room today and I felt quite comfortable when we finished up …

A reporter pointed out that, with no MPs from his province, there are no Newfoundlanders in the federal cabinet. In the last Parliament there were three MPs from Williams' province: Norman Doyle and Loyola Hearn from St. John's and Fabian Manning, also on the Avalon Peninsula. Hearn was the Fisheries Minister. But Hearn and Doyle retired and Manning — the lone Conservative incumbent standing for re-election in Nfld – succumbed to Williams ABC campaign. So Williams was asked if that was a problem:

Peter MacKay has been designated as the minister for Newfoundland and Labrador, but you know, all ministers are Canadian ministers, all ministers of the federal government should represent Newfoundland and Labrador to the best of their abilities. For example, the new minister of fisheries [Gail Shea] from Prince Edward Island, I have no doubt whatsoever that she will represent the interests of Newfoundland and Labrador to the best of her ability. You know, there's been an impression that we would be punished because we don't have a specific person at the cabinet table, that that'll work against us but I see federal ministers as Canadian ministers. I'm a Canadian and people in Newfoundland and Labrador are Canadian and we expect to be treated like Canadians.

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Obama who?

The Terrell (Texas) Tribune did not — I repeat, did not — run a story on November 5 reporting on the first black man to ever win the presidency of the United States. Its front page main story was a report on the winner of he local commissioner's race.

“We run a newspaper, not a memory book service,” the publisher said. “We covered the local commissioner's race. We thought that was more important.”

But on the day of the election, November 4, the paper's big story was about Republican candidate John McCain.

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Icing the portrait gallery: The reaction

The federal government put out a Friday night press release announcing that plans to build a National Portrait Gallery of Canada have been “put on ice”, to quote the spokesperson for the Minister of Canadian Heritage. This news made the front pages of several papers today including:

Wasted arts bid angers Calgary

Calgarians expressed disappointment and puzzlement Friday at the federal government’s decision to scrap the process of finding a permanent home for the Portrait Gallery of Canada after the city spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a bid to host the institution.

Local reaction to the federal government’s decision came fast and mostly furious Friday. Civic leaders decried the decision as a waste of money at a time when the city is contemplating a 25 per cent property tax increase on residents.

“The city expended lots of money to prepare a bid that met all the criteria that the federal government asked for,” said Ald. Bob Hawkesworth. “It’s a lost investment and a big disappointment.” Mayor Dave Bronconnier said the city was notified of the decision when the federal government sent out a news release Friday afternoon.

“It’s puzzling,” he said. “It’s a very less-than-respectful way to communicate a decision.

read more…

Tories scrap portrait gallery plan

After seven years and millions of dollars spent, the dream to build a home in Ottawa for the national portrait gallery is dead — again. The Conservative government announced late yesterday that it was abandoning plans to choose a city for the Portrait Gallery of Canada.

In a release, Heritage Minister James Moore said the decision was based on “global economic instability” and on bids that fell short of the government’s requirements.

Deirdra McCracken, the minister’s director of communications, said the project is now “on ice.”

“The selection process failed to meet the best interests of both the portrait gallery and taxpayers,” the release said.

Critics of the government’s handling of the file, however, say the process was doomed from the outset and only succeeded in wasting a lot of time and money.

“The idea was ridiculous from the beginning and it shows a federal government that has no vision of a national capital,” said Somerset Councillor Diane Holmes. “It’s prepared to sell off components of the national capital to the highest bidder.”

read more…

PORTRAIT GALLERY BACKERS BAFFLED

Late Friday afternoon, the federal government provided the only excuse it could muster: It would be too expensive to build the National Portrait Gallery now. The two Edmonton bids for the gallery, by Qualico and Gene Dub, would have drained precious financial resources.

“In this time of global economic instability,” new federal Heritage Minister James Moore said in a prepared statement, “it is important that the federal government continue to manage its affairs prudently and pragmatically.”

Prepared statements issued and disseminated late on Friday afternoons, when offices in Ottawa are closed, are either slimy, ridiculous or mendacious. This one was all three. “I’m not sure what astronomical sum they thought they might be saving here,” Mayor Stephen Mandel said late Friday afternoon, describing his feelings as incredibly frustrated and sad.

“Both bids were led by the private sector, which was the only qualification, as we understood it. We had the provincial support to build the gallery. Beautiful plans. The federal government’s role was to send the art across the country where people might see it. How much does that cost? How, exactly, is this going to save Canada from the global financial crisis?”

read more…

Ottawa nixes plans for portrait gallery

The government has cancelled plans to build a permanent home for the Portrait Gallery of Canada, a move that is likely to anger members of the arts community who slammed the federal Tories during the recent election campaign over cuts to cultural programs.

Citing the uncertain economic conditions, James Moore, newly appointed Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, announced yesterday evening that after years of stops and starts and squabbles, the selection process to grant the new gallery to one of three competing cities has been cancelled.

“A number of developers submitted proposals to house the public programming and exhibitions of the Portrait Gallery of Canada,” Mr. Moore said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, none of these proposals met the government's requirements, and we are therefore terminating the selection process.

“In this time of global economic instability, it is important that the federal government continue to manage its own affairs prudently and pragmatically.”

He refused to say what was wrong with the proposals due to “confidentiality requirements.”

Mr. Moore's statement was released after 5 p.m. yesterday to the ire of NDP MP Paul Dewar, who for years has spearheaded efforts to build the gallery a home in Ottawa.

“Here it is, the classic a-quarter-to-six release on Friday. Obviously they're not too proud of this decision,” Mr. Dewar said.

Many in the cultural community fear the Conservative government is targeting the arts since nearly $45-million in cuts to cultural programs were revealed in August.

read more …

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And the National Portrait Gallery goes to …

…. nobody!

Upon taking office, the Conservatives said they were prepared to establish a National Portrait Gallery in some city other than the national capital and called for proposals from the private sector to build and house Canada's collection of portraits.

But after looking at the proposals that came in, Heritage Minister James Moore announced minutes ago that none of them were good enough.

“A number of developers submitted proposals to house the public programming and exhibitions of the Portrait Gallery of Canada. Unfortunately, none of these proposals met the Government's requirements, and we are therefore terminating the selection process,” said Minister Moore. “In this time of global economic instability, it is important that the federal government continue to manage its own affairs prudently and pragmatically. The selection process failed to meet the best interests of both the Portrait Gallery and taxpayers. We have therefore decided not to pursue this project further at this time.”

The collection will continue to be housed in Ottawa in the Library and Archives Building (where you have to go through hoops to be able to see some of the collection's remarkable pieces).

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