Robert Chisholm, the former leader of the Nova Scotia NDP and the MP for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour has ended his bid to become leader of the federal NDP, mostly, he says, because he won’t meet what he sees as a basic requirement for the next leader: the ability to speak both official languages. Here’s his press release: Continue reading Nova Scotia's Robert Chisholm first to exit NDP race
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Tory MP wants to ignite Parliamentary debate on abortion
Out this morning from Conservative Stephen Woodworth, who represents the Ontario riding of Kitchener Centre:
MP Stephen Woodworth calls for another look at Canada’s 400 Year Old Law
A recent poll disclosed that 80% of Canadians believe that Canadian law protects the fundamental human rights of children before birth in the later stages of gestation. Continue reading Tory MP wants to ignite Parliamentary debate on abortion
BC Premier Christy Clark on resource development and foreign money flowing to Canadian green groups
BCLocalNews.com published yesterday a year-end interview Tom Fletcher did with British Columbia Premier Christy Clark. Here’s some excerpts, in which Clark stays on the sidelines of the debate on a Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific but frowns on U.S. groups mobilizing and funding Canadians: Continue reading BC Premier Christy Clark on resource development and foreign money flowing to Canadian green groups
Flaherty exits boldly from one fine mess
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty boldly went Monday where no finance minister has ever gone before when it comes to the billions upon billions Ottawa transfers every year to the provinces for health and social services.
He told the provinces they would continue to get the billions upon billions from the federal treasury and — here comes the bold bit — told them they could spend it however they saw fit.
Imagine that: A federal government program with no strings attached.
Still, provincial finance ministers are a tough act to please. Continue reading Flaherty exits boldly from one fine mess
An encouraging take on Kim Jong-Il's death: Signs of change!
It’s from Christian Caryl, a Senior Fellow at the Legatum Institute and a Contributing Editor at Foreign Policy magazine, writing at the blog of the New York Review of Books. And I say it’s encouraging because of lines like these that suggest there is some hope for limited change in the Hermit Kingdom:
After all, isn’t the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea a staunchly totalitarian state where nothing ever changes? Actually, no. You could have gotten away with writing that just a few years ago. But too much has happened in North Korea in the interim . . . Continue reading An encouraging take on Kim Jong-Il's death: Signs of change!
Was the 2005 vote on same-sex marriage a model for the way it should be done in the Commons?
In this month’s American Review of Canadian Studies, a couple of American academics take a look at the voting patterns in Canada’s House of Commons for the 2005 vote on same-sex marriage. The trio of academics concluded that voting patterns on Bill C-38, the Civil Marriage Act were special, even rare, because of “unusually strong evidence of constituency characteristics influencing the voting behavior of MPs.”
The final vote in the House of Commons — I remember sitting in the Press Gallery above the Speaker’s Chair watching the historic tally — went 158 to 133 in favour of the bill. Continue reading Was the 2005 vote on same-sex marriage a model for the way it should be done in the Commons?
AT&T lobbying excess in the U.S.: Surely Canada's way is the better way
I think feeling smug and superior is, generally, a loathsome attribute but as someone who lives in a country where the money and influence of lobbyists, corporations, and unions has been curbed by both of our leading federal parties, it’s hard not to feel that way when you see the kind of money thrown around in the U.S. system to further corporate goals often at the expense of everyday, individual citizens. In this case, Continue reading AT&T lobbying excess in the U.S.: Surely Canada's way is the better way
David Dodge's predictions for nominal GDP growth
Yesterday, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced (too abruptly for some, mostly the finance ministers of provinces east of Saskatchewan) that the rate of annual increases of the federal-provincial social and health transfer will continue to be 6 per cent per year until 2016 and then, from that point until 2024, it will increase at the rate of inflation plus the rate of the growth of the economy, something economists call nominal Gross Domestic Product or nominal GDP.
So: Who’s got some predictions for nominal GDP going out 12 years? Continue reading David Dodge's predictions for nominal GDP growth
UN agency slams Canada on Attawapiskat
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples just released the following statement that began this way:
“I have been in communication with the Government of Canada to express my deep concern about the dire social and economic condition of the Attawapiskat First Nation, Continue reading UN agency slams Canada on Attawapiskat
More "reprehensible" tactics from the Conservatives?
[There is an important update at the bottom of this post]
A few weeks ago, Andrew Scheer, the Speaker of the House of Commons who, it happens, is also a Conservative MP, ruled on a point of privilege raised by Liberal MP Irwin Cotler. Cotler had been upset that the Conservative Party of Canada, in a telephone-based voter-identification drive, was, in his view, spreading the rumour in his riding that he was either retired or about to retire. While Scheer found that Cotler’s privilege had not been breached, Scheer scolded his own party, saying (my emphasis): “I am sure that all reasonable people would agree that attempting to sow confusion in the minds of voters as to whether or not their Member is about to resign is a reprehensible tactic.”
Speaker Scheer went on to say he was sympathetic to Cotler and almost sorry that he could not find the parliamentary jurisprudence to find in favour of Cotler, saying, “I can understand how [Cotler] and others are seeking relief from the climate of cynicism – not to say contempt – about parliamentary institutions and practice that seems to prevail.”
Well, if the Conservative Party of Canada engaged in “a reprehensible tactic” by “attempting to sow confusion in the minds of voters” when it comes to an MP’s employment status, I wonder what Speaker Scheer will say about this, Continue reading More "reprehensible" tactics from the Conservatives?