Earlier today, David Suzuki, the environmental activist, endorsed Vancouver-Quadra MP Joyce Murray in the federal Liberal leadership race. Here’s the letter from Suzuki, released by the Murray campaign: Continue reading Suzuki for Murray. Take that, Trudeau!
Well, here’s something you don’t see everyday: A retired Supreme Court Justice — Ian Binnie — endorses Liberal leadership candidate George Takach:
Binnie, in endorsing Takach, notes he’s known him for 25 years and says “I think it’s important the country not be left to career politicians.”
Colin Hansen had the good fortune/misfortune to be the finance minister of British Columbia when his boss, then Premier Gordon Campbell, told him to merge the GST and BC’s PST to create BC’s HST. Any number of economists (and a certain federal finance minister named Jim Flaherty) will tell you that an HST is more efficient, better for the economy, etc., etc.,
But British Columbians hated it at least because Hansen announced the plan to move to an HST within weeks after the last BC provincial election, an election in which Campbell’s Liberals made no mention of the HST.
The backlash was ferocious, so much so that Campbell eventually called it a day (and was sent, by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, to London where he is Canada’s High Commissioner to the UK) and was replaced as leader and premier by Christy Clark. Clark subsequently sent Hansen to the backbench in the Victoria legislature. Then she held an HST referendum and after campaigning half-heartedly in its favour lost that ballot and resolved to go back to a PST and an HST. Hansen, meanwhile, had been relegated by Clark to the backbenches in the legislature and so, after 17 years in that institution, got the message and, last September, announced his retirement as MLA for Vancouver-Quilchena (a riding which is the eastern neighbour, incidentally, of Clark’s Vancouver-Point Grey riding).
But Hansen is still a force in the party, taking on the duties of deputy campaign manager for the upcoming election. His task will be to to convince voters that Clark is Campbell’s heir to the free enterprise coalition that has been governing BC for an awful long time now. Here, on Battleground, we ask him about the election and the role the HST will play and what he’ll be doing to help Christy Clark overcome Adrian Dix’s Socialist Hordes. ™
London Free Press colleague Chip Martin had a front-page scoop in mid-October:
Government cheque paid for ex-MP Joe Fontana’s son’s wedding reception
LONDON, ONT. – Federal tax dollars paid the $1,700 deposit on the 2005 wedding reception for Mayor Joe Fontana’s son, QMI Agency has learned.
And the then-manager of the London facility recalls another cheque issued by the feds appeared several months later to cover the outstanding $18,900 Fontana still owed. … [Read the rest of Chip’s story]
Today, the RCMP made the following announcement:
Continue reading London mayor, former federal minister, charged with fraud
David Bertschi, an Ottawa lawyer and former unsuccessful Liberal candidate, appears set to announce next week that he will seek the same job that The Unstoppable Justin Trudeau (TM) also wants. Continue reading Liberal leader hopeful David Bertschi takes aim at Harper on economy
Storified by David Akin · Tue, Oct 16 2012 08:38:26
Today in the House of Commons, Liberal Leader Bob Rae asked the Speaker to rule on this point of privilege, claiming that the House has been misled by government ministers and MPs on the F-35. Here is his argument:
Continue reading Bob Rae: Government MPs and ministers misleading Parliament on F35s
Ray Heard, journalist and former director of communications for Liberal Prime Minister John Turner, and Stephen Taylor of the National Citizens Coalition break down the Liberal biennial convention held in Ottawa last weekend. Continue reading Ray Heard, Stephen Taylor on the Liberal weekend in Ottawa
This is now beyond coincidence.
Mike Crawley was just elected President of Liberal Party of Canada.
Through playing an active role on local campaigns, leading the University of Western Ontario Liberals as Student Director for the Ontario Young Liberals… Continue reading University of Western Ontario makes presidents of the Liberal Party of Canada
The Speaker of the House of Commons — and Conservative MP — Andrew Scheer says what his party was doing to Liberal MP Irwin Cotler was “reprensible.” Conservative MP John Williamson tells the Daily Brief he believes Scheer’s language was “over-the-top” and defends a controversial polling practice. Continue reading Daily Brief Video: Conservative MP John Williamson defends the "reprehensible" Cotler calls