A test for Trudeau? Canada's Liberals split on Iraq combat mission

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Liberal leader Justin Trudeau (C) stands to vote against a government motion to participate in U.S.-led air strikes against Islamic State militants operating in Iraq, The motion passed 157 to 134. (REUTERS/Chris Wattie)

Justin Trudeau is facing the first serious test of his leadership of Canada’s Liberals in the wake of a parliamentary vote to send Canadian fighter jets to Iraq.

Trudeau and most Liberal MPs voted agains the idea.

But Liberal MP Irwin Cotler, a former justice minister and a globally recognized human rights defender, abstained from the vote, saying in a statement that his “principled absention”, as he called it, was a result of his recognition that military intervention against Islamic terrorists in Iraq and Syria is required but that the Harper government’s proposal lacked “clarity.”

Cotler, former Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion and former Liberal cabinet ministers Lawrence MacAulay and Mauril Bélanger were also absent from Tuesday night’s vote. Continue reading A test for Trudeau? Canada's Liberals split on Iraq combat mission

The funny thing about surpluses …

The deficit/Surplus chart from the February budget. Bay Street economists are radically re-drawing this.

Last week in Brampton, Ont., Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered some good, if surprising news, about Canada’s fiscal situation. Here’s the transcript (my emphasis):

I want to draw your particular attention to the numbers, the one between the dotted lines there for last year, the year completed, 2013-2014. That has been our estimate until today. That has been our estimate of the deficit last year and coming up after that of course this year, 2014-15, we still have a small deficit and are projecting surpluses after that. Continue reading The funny thing about surpluses …

For 15 years, voters and those they elect have ignored the Environment Commissioner

Some in Canada will think it perfectly appropriate that Canadian governments have paid little heed to Canada’s environment commissioner annual warnings that Canada just hasn’t been getting it done when it comes to climate change. Others will find this review depressing that we have not got it done on climate change.

Whatever your view: Given the fact that we’ve had five general elections since 2000 (2 won by the Liberals, three by the Conservatives) and no party has been punished for failing to meet their own targets, it’s pretty clear that our politicians have gotten the message about how much heed they should pay the Environment Commissioner: Continue reading For 15 years, voters and those they elect have ignored the Environment Commissioner

Asked and answered: Trudeau's Iraq questions and Harper's answers

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On Wednesday, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party distributed a list of what it called the “Prime Minister’s Unanswered Questions On Iraq.”  Let’s look at those questions and see if any were answered by Prime Minister Stephen Harper today in the House of Commons. (Short answer:  Answers were provided for most) Continue reading Asked and answered: Trudeau's Iraq questions and Harper's answers

Grilling a Presidential Candidate (Who Also Happens to be My Son)

My son, Henry, an 11-year-old in Grade 6, wants to be Student Council President. So, as my job is to cover elections large and small, I wanted to grill the candidate about his intentions. And Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall had some sage political advice for my son. It involved candy.

UPDATE: The election was held last Friday Oct 17 — and Henry came out on top to win the job of student council president!

The motion to commit Canadian Forces to combat against Islamic State

Here is the motion tabled in the House of Commons today that will be debated on and voted on Monday:

The Minister of Foreign Affairs

That this House

(i) recognise that the leadership of the terrorist group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has called on its members to target

Continue reading The motion to commit Canadian Forces to combat against Islamic State

A prime minister sends Canadians overseas to fight terrorists

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Former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, seen here during an interview in 2011, began Canada’s decade-long war in Afghanistan with nary a word to Parliament. (Blair Gable/REUTERS)

A Canadian prime minister determines that the activities of terrorists operating in a Muslim nation far from Canada’s shores is such a threat to Canada’s security, that he dispatches Canadian Forces on a combat mission. There is no debate or discussion in Parliament let alone a vote. There seems not to have even been a full cabinet discussion before the prime minister makes his decision. Simply a request from an American president.

That was all it took for Jean Chrétien to to begin what would become Canada’s decade-long war against terrorism in Afghanistan. Here’s some of what he said on Oct. 8, 2001 about that mission: Continue reading A prime minister sends Canadians overseas to fight terrorists

The Making of a President (I hope): 2014

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Your correspondent’s son, getting on the school bus for his first day of kindergarten, in 2009. Now he’s running for class president!

So my 11-year-old son came home from school today to tell me that he’s running for school president. He goes to a small  school — few hundred students — with kindergarten to grade 6. He’s in grade 6. He tells me that all the senior boys are behind him and no other boys will be running. The girls, however, will be putting forward a girl candidate. He’s worried about that. The girls tend to vote for girls and the boys tend to vote for boys. In my world on Parliament Hill, it’s left vs right, rich vs poor, old vs young but here, at my son’s public school, the key political cleavage is boys v girls.

Mind you, he says he’s got a good friend — a boy —  in grade 3 who he believes will deliver him the grade 3 demographic. I told him I think the grade 3 demographic is key. So that’s good. Continue reading The Making of a President (I hope): 2014

Nothing But Flowers: Goldkind's Green Gardiner

Green-Ribbon-Aerial View

 

Toronto Mayoral candidate Ari Goldkind doesn’t show up in any of the polls — such as this one, released today showing John Tory in the lead with 37%, Doug Ford in second at 30% and Olivia Chow back at 21% — but Goldkind, who is a criminal lawyer most of the time, is taking the campaign seriously and offering up some interesting ideas. His latest? Turn the Gardiner Expressway that runs east-to-west through Toronto’s downtown into a green space. Continue reading Nothing But Flowers: Goldkind's Green Gardiner