Month: May 2013

Senate adopts "11 tough new rules" on expenses

Harper and LeBreton
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is seen with Marjory LeBreton, Government Leader in the Senate after speaking to his National Caucus at Parliament Hill in Ottawa May 21, 2013. (Andre Forget/QMI Agency)

Just distributed to the Parliamentary Press Gallery at 10:30 pm ET this evening from Senator Marjory LeBreton, the leader of the government in the Senate. Read it for yourself. My only comment would be that LeBreton has been the leader of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government in the Senate for 7 years now and her party has had an absolute majority in that chamber for more than three years now. So I don’t think it’s inappropriate to ask: What the heck took so long?! Anyhow, I’ll get out of the way now and let Sen. LeBreton continue :

“Our Government is focused on delivering meaningful reform to the Senate – including elections, term limits and tough spending oversight.

“Canadians understand that our Senate, as it stands today, must either change, or like the old Upper Houses of our provinces, vanish. Continue reading Senate adopts "11 tough new rules" on expenses

Who should be Canada's national librarian? A librarian or an economist?

Library and Archives Canada

The country’s librarians and archivists never had a good feeling from the start about Daniel Caron, the economist appointed in 2009 by Heritage Minister James Moore to be Canada’s Librarian and Archivist of Canada, partly because, they felt, his professional training and pedigree was as an economist. (He did a postgraduate degree in economics at Laval and then a doctorate in “applied human sciences” at the Université de Montréal.) Caron, in 2009, was also taking over what was described as a newly “unified” institution. Rather than have separate two separate positions — a national Librarian and a Chief Archivist — both jobs were going to “unified” in one office and Caron was picked to make it a success.

Continue reading Who should be Canada's national librarian? A librarian or an economist?

Justin Trudeau: Senate is Quebec's secret weapon!

Justin Trudeau

As Thomas Mulcair and the federal NDP began their “Abolish the Senate” campaign, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau argues to keep the Senate the way it is, after all, with all those senators from Quebec’s,  it’s all good for Quebec! Continue reading Justin Trudeau: Senate is Quebec's secret weapon!

Former Ford staffer: Who's advising him?

Rob Ford
Mayor Rob Ford denies using crack-cocaine as he speaks to media at City Hall in Toronto May 24, 2013. (Toronto Sun: DAVE ABEL)

Adrienne Batra is my Sun Media colleague, responsible for the comment pages in the Toronto Sun. But before taking up that role, she had been press secretary to Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

Continue reading Former Ford staffer: Who's advising him?

The Federal Court fraudulent call judgement: short version

Federal Court Judge Richard Mosley ruled tonight on the “robocalls” case, the attempt by a handful of voters in six ridings, backed by the Council of Canadians, to have the 2011 election results in those ridings thrown out and new elections ordered because, the applicants alleged, there was widespread voter suppression using “robocalls” and possibly other means to do so. The Council of Canadians alleges the Conservative Party of Canada was the bad guy.

Here’s the questions Mosley asked and I have summed up his answers: Continue reading The Federal Court fraudulent call judgement: short version

Those Liberal elites and their media lickspittles!

london 008
I snapped this pic of Senator Marjory LeBreton during the 2006 general election. Senator LeBreton’s task was to ride on the media bus – a task she has had in subsequent elections — where she has never been shy to let reporters know her opinions about coverage of her party and her leader.

Conservative partisans are angry about this Senate expense scandal. They are angry at Senators Duffy and Wallin for getting them in this mess and they are angry at many others — mostly in the media — who aren’t giving them the benefit of the doubt on all this stuff. On Parliament Hill, that sentiment is largely voiced by Conservative MPs and senators who wish to remain anonymous. But on Wednesday in the Senate, Senator Marjory LeBreton, the leader of the government in the Senate, gave a remarkable speech which, though I thought many parts of it wrong-headed, seems to capture the mood among many Conservative partisans. Continue reading Those Liberal elites and their media lickspittles!

NYT reports: U.S. Tracked Foreigners Leaving for Canada

Interesting …

The pilot project with Canada, conducted from September to January, involved about a third of the traffic across the northern American border, tracking the departure of 413,222 foreigners from the United States. Starting this year, according to Congressional officials who have been briefed on the plan, the information collected at the Canadian border will be used to prevent certain foreigners who have stayed too long in the United States from returning again by revoking tourist visas or taking other steps.The effort relies on an ingenious solution: as foreigners leave the United States to enter Canada — and their passports are checked by the border authorities there — the information is sent back to the United States and recorded as the official “exit” record. By the end of next month, the project is scheduled to be expanded to almost all land border traffic between Canada and the United States.

via U.S. Tracked Foreigners Leaving for Canada – NYTimes.com.

After Harper's speech this morning, we still have questions

I’m not normally a fan of going about my Parliamentary news gathering in this fashion but there are some days when there doesn’t seem to be much choice… (see the raw video posted by CBC News above)

Meanwhile, here is the text of what Prime Minister Stephen Harper had to say to his caucus this morning: Continue reading After Harper's speech this morning, we still have questions

NDP MP Brian Masse makes the New York Times

Ian Austen, who reports for the New York Times about Canada,  only quotes opposition MP, New Democrat Brian Masse, in a piece that takes a look at one of the side effects of Alberta oil.

“Here’s a little bit of Alberta,” said Brian Masse, one of Windsor’s Parliament members. “For those that thought they were immune from the oil sands and the consequences of them, we’re now seeing up front and center that we’re not.”

Mr. Masse wants the International Joint Commission, the bilateral agency that governs the Great Lakes, to investigate the pile. Michigan’s state environmental regulatory agency has submitted a formal request to Detroit Bulk Storage, the company holding the material for Koch Carbon, to change its storage methods. Michigan politicians and environmental groups have also joined cause with Windsor residents. Paul Baltzer, a spokesman for Koch’s parent company, Koch Companies Public Sector, did not respond to questions about its storage or the ultimate destination of the petroleum coke.

Coke, which is mainly carbon, is an essential ingredient in steelmaking as well as producing the electrical anodes used to make aluminum.

via Mountain of Petroleum Coke From Oil Sands Rises in Detroit – NYTimes.com.

Front page faceoff: Rob Ford vs The Senate

Toronto Sun Front Page - Rob Ford

It is rare, believe it or not, for news about federal politics to make the front pages of the country’s newspapers. It is also rare for newspaper editors to give prominent front-page play to stories about another city’s mayor. Not today. The Senate Scandals and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford can be found on front pages all across the country  — but not necessarily coast-to-coast . Continue reading Front page faceoff: Rob Ford vs The Senate