Author: Dale Smith

It’s time to start my end-of-sitting (brief as it was) roundups, starting first with new NDP MP Dany Morin. I spoke with Morin after Question Period today.Q: How has it been the past three weeks?A: The past three weeks were great, very informativ…

More government cuts have been announced, and these ones hold no less of an ideological odour than the last round. While previously, environmental scientists, National Gallery curators and now researchers with the National Research Council have found t…

Jack Layton was absent from the House today, which left his deputy Thomas Mulcair to lead off Question Period, kicking off with a pair of questions about news that the PMO had broken its own rules on hospitality expenses, to which Dean Del Mastro, Harp…

The NDP convention has now passed, and things have not changed that much. The party deferred the decision to drop references in its constitution to “socialism” in favour of more modern language like “social democracy….

That back-to-work legislation is going ahead next week, although it's only for Canada Post, as Air Canada has come to an agreement with their union. The NDP and the other opposition parties aren't happy about it. According to the House&n…

The House treated today like a Friday to allow the NDP to head to Vancouver for its party convention by holding question period early. But it wasn’t a real Friday with the usual B and C-list MPs and parliamentary secretaries jockeying for camer…

If MPs really wanted to get out of Ottawa when the House is scheduled to rise at the end of next week, they should think again. It doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. You see, there just aren’t enough days in the calendar f…

News of a revolt among Conservative senators over Harper’s unconstitutional (and frankly asinine) reform bills should actually be welcome news. But of course, that’s not how everyone is reacting. Senator Bert Brown, Ha…

With a Canada Post lockout now in place, one would think that Jack Layton would begin question period by asking about it. But instead, he began with a fairly standard pair of questions about job creation (Harper: thanks to us, the economy is creating…

I suppose it could be considered quite a coup for some, but probably not those who think they scored the points. Jack Layton and the NDP probably think they scored one for democracy: they believe that by demanding a vote on the Libyan deployment…

Concerns about procedure echoed through the press gallery as question period got underway. Jack Layton opened with a trio of questions on the Libyan deployment, despite the fact that there was an all-day debate in the House about the missio…

In the event that the suspense is killing you, let me put your mind at ease – yes, the budget was passed. But what’s that? The government won’t actually show its plan for cost savings, which the parliamentary budget officer is&…

Jack Layton kicked off question period with a trio of questions about Libya, which asked about the mission Parliament intends to vote upon, why Canada was not playing a bigger humanitarian role and SNC-Lavalin, the Canadian firm currently under contr…

Former Liberal MP Michelle Simpson says she’s writing a book about backbenchers in Ottawa. She says that they have little power, are pressured by their parties to toe the line, and they have given up their oversight rol…

Stephen Harper may have decided to cancel the Commons debate on the speech from the throne, but that didn’t stop the debate in the other place. Senator James Cowan, the Opposition leader in the Senate, kicked off the debate with the o…

The first auditor general’s report without Sheila Fraser, who is gone after 10 years of service, shows some pretty serious things. The most troubling is that the government didn’t inform Parliament or leave a paper trail on how …

During members’ statements before question period, Liberal Scott Brison rose to mark the passing of Audrey-Ann Murphy, his constituency staffer for the past 14 years.

Jack Layton was absent from QP, and one hopes he has a doctor&rsqu…

While we’re dealing with budget debates (shockingly, the Liberal sub-amendment was defeated) and Harper deciding to cancel debate on the throne speech, what is the big story of the day? It's Harper's deciding to take off …