Author: Dale Smith

As I continue with my round-up of queer MPs at the start of the winter sitting, I caught up with NDP MP Dany Morin after QP today. Q: What were you up to over the break? A: A lot of time with my constituents. I launched for 2012 a monthly

After a morning of gun-registry debate that devolved into Hitler references – seriously – it was time to take a break for the scintillating debate that is Question Period. And so, Nycole Turmel stood up to demand to know why we haven’t recalled our ambassador from Syria yet, like all

NDP MP Randall Garrison has been kept busy lately with the issue of air screening regulations and trans Canadians, but it’s just one thing on a busy agenda going forward. I caught up with Garrison after Question Period yesterday. Q: What did you get up to over the break? A:

The nasty dickishness of the Harper government continues to know no bounds. After QP yesterday, Jason Kenney stood up to deliver a tribute to Václav Havel, the former Czech president and free speech activist. Also making tributes were Hélène Laverdière and Bob Rae. But when Elizabeth May asked to make

As part of the festivities kicking off the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations today, here is a message from His Excellency, the Governor General. To mark the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee, 60 Canadians were presented with the Diamond Jubilee Medal this morning to mark their commitment to service. All MPs also were

With Harper on a plane bound for China, the question became just which of his cabinet ministers was going to be back-up PM for the day?  And when Nycole Turmel rose to ask about the UN vote around Syria, and whether Harper would raise the issue with China during his

It’s Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee today – reigning for 60 years! She is the second Monarch in Canada’s history to have done so. Expect a number of celebrations across the country over the next four months, including a visit from Prince Charles and Camilla, as we mark the occasion in a pretty

Stephen Harper met with Nycole Turmel last night to talk about the upcoming budget. No, seriously, they did, and apparently it was really cordial. I’m quite certain that Harper isn’t going to do absolutely anything the NDP want him to do, but hey, no harm in giving Turmel her few minutes of

SunTV has been caught staging a fake citizenship oath-retaking ceremony using mostly bureaucrats from Citizenship and Immigration as their oath-takers. Seriously. Because they’re totally not the official media arm of The Party. For his part, Kenney said it was “poorly handled,” and then sent a departmental comms staffer to SunTV to apologise.

In place of Nycole Turmel, it was NDP House Leader Joe Comartin who was up first in Question Period today, asking about raising the age of eligibility for the GIS to 67. Harper answered – which isn’t always the norm when the leader opposite doesn’t ask the question – or

The joke going around the Twitter Machine last night was that at the pace things are going, the Harper government won’t have to lay off a lot of civil servants because so many of them will resign in protest. And such was the case yesterday with the resignation of the chief economist

Wednesdays being caucus day, it tends to produce the best and most engaged Question Period of the week. And yet the energy wasn’t really crackling. The only thing that seemed to have more enthusiasm were partisan members’ statements in advance of QP proper. And so, Nycole Turmel kicked things off

As the rhetoric on the OAS and pension debates really ramps up, what with the (truncated) debate on the pooled registered pension plans, and the continued reaction to Harper’s speech in Davos, it helps to get some perspective. You can get some political perspective (and Bob Rae delivered one of

Day two, and things didn’t much pick up from yesterday. In a bit of shameless self-promotion, Nycole Turmel stood up to announce that she’d just met with National Chief Shawn Atleo, and wondered what steps Harper was going to take to implement the goals agreed upon by the Crown-First Nations

The experts dissect Harper’s assertion that there is a looming “crisis” with OAS – and find it to be bunk. Small surprise that some people are betting that the government will start backtracking on this issue by week’s end. Economist Stephen Gordon wonders if we’re at the right place in the business

A mere couple of hours into the debate on the bill to create the government’s new pooled registered pension plans, and Government House Leader Peter Van Loan dropped the hammer once again – time allocation. Because there is apparently no bill before Parliament that the government doesn’t deem to be such

The first day back, and you would have thought that Question Period would be bursting with excitement, with MPs eager to trade barbs that they haven’t been able to for the past six weeks, and that there might be a pent-up need to hold the government to account. One also

The House is back after a six week break, and we true to form, every media outlet is warning about how raucous it’s going to be – never mind that we say that every time the House comes back after a break, but so be it. Now that the Conservatives

There may have been more instances of “violent agreement” with the second official NDP leadership debate, held in Halifax this afternoon, but this particular debate saw a few minutes of actual debate take place – but not until about halfway through the proceedings. The topic at hand was “Giving families

Given the absence of details over just what the “transformation” of Old Age Security pensions will entail, as hinted at in Harper’s Davos speech, the government put out talking points to reassure people that they’re not going to touch anyone currently receiving benefits. I feel reassured already! They also put out talking