Author: Dale Smith

From the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Stephen Harper delivered his earth-shattering speech about the future direction of the Canadian Economy. Harper told the gathered economic leaders – for the benefit of a domestic audience – that he plans to transform the pension system to curtail government costs, and that there

As we count down the days before the House comes back, we turn our attention once again to the gross lack of attention that MPs pay to the government spending that they sign off on. Conservative MP Mike Wallace, however, thinks that the government is open to giving committees more influence over

And that was the big Crown-First Nations Gathering. Nothing agreed to, no deliverables, no concrete date to meet and follow up in the future, and Harper getting praise because he *gasp* stayed the whole day rather than taking off at lunch like he’d planned. Oh, but there’s a lot of commitment

John Baird gave a foreign policy speech in London, England, on Monday, and people from across the political spectrum are swooning over how vigorously he’s defending things like gay rights abroad. And that’s great; we should be encouraging this kind of talk. That said, Baird’s speech is full of all kinds of

Harper’s big Crown-First Nations Gathering happens today, for as much as he’ll be there (which will be until lunch, at which point he takes off for Davos). And while Harper did meet with a few chiefs last night, there is

NDP queer issues critic Randall Garrison writes in the Times Colonist that his party will be introducing a bill to fix what they perceive to be the gaps in marriage legislation when it comes to foreign recognition if the Conservatives or the courts don’t do it first. (A reminder that several law

Vic Toews denies that he is muzzling the new commissioner of the RCMP, and points to similar practices by Anne McClelland when she was Minister of Public Safety. None of which is terribly believable, but so be it. There are legitimate questions to be raised about proper channels as far as parliamentarians

Remember how every time a question about the RCMP came up in QP, Vic Toews would insist that they’re arm’s length. Except, it seems, if another parliamentarian wants to meet with the commissioner. You see, when Senator Colin Kenny, a man with a deep understanding of national security issues, asked

Down in the States, President Obama has nixed the Keystone XL pipeline – for now. The company behind it can re-apply using a new route, and it’ll go through the whole process again (not expedited), and he’ll get the political points he was after (this was in part about smacking the Republicans

MP Lise St-Denis’ floor crossing last week has me pondering a few things, given some of the statements that have been made, both from her and the NDP. This was an unusual defection in that it wasn’t touched off by any one incident, as is what so often happens in

The premiers have emerged from their meeting in Victoria saying that they want to create an innovation working group, so that we can start harmonising our 13 different healthcare jurisdictions, and talking to each other about best practices and all of that. Which is great. But usually the federal government has

Oh, Canadian politics. Did you really have to be so busy while I was on vacation, virtually unplugged and confined to radio silence? And what did I miss? Harper announcing a visit to China, Lise St-Denis’ defection from the NDP to the Liberals (and really, what does it say about

The other day, I interviewed Liberal Party president hopeful Ron Hartling, who is currently the riding president in Kingston and the Isles. While we were talking about engaging the queer community (the story should be online by now), I wasn’t able to use everything he talked about in the article,

Amidst the nonsense that the Young Liberals were proposing with severing our ties to the “British Monarchy” as part of their convention resolutions (despite the fact that we have no ties to the British Monarchy and instead have a separate and unique Canadian one), crypto-republican columnist Stephen Maher came up

In the event that you haven’t heard, Alberta is planning on running another sham Senate “consultation election” to happen in conjunction with their provincial election. They’re encouraged by Harper’s current Senate “reform” bill that would legislatively encourage provinces to hold such “consultative elections” – using their own processes, with no

Hey readers – a bit of bad news. I’m going on vacation for a week, and will be largely without Internet access for the duration. That means no daily roundups, and none of my sparkling banter over the Twitter Machine. But it can’t be helped, and hey – it’s been

Oh, look – more sniping between the chief of Attawapiskat and the Minister. Because that’s helpful. Meanwhile, audits are showing that funds for First Nations were being mishandled by the department, who wasn’t doing their own job with due diligence. Harper is talking tough on Iran, but perhaps is exaggerating the situation a little too much,

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada is backing the call by Conservative MP to re-open the abortion debate – entirely through the back door – by debating on the criminal code definition that child is not a human being until full birth. Of course, Woodworth wants to talk about “medical science” – but

Dear Young Liberals, Having looked over your policy resolution about “severing formal ties with the British Crown,” I am overcome with a sense of disbelief because I fear that you don’t actually understand the constitution of this country. You see, Canada has its own monarchy. It’s the Canadian Crown. It’s a separate

The Conservatives spent $2.8 million to promote the Next Phase™ of Canada’s Economic Action Plan™, but for all of that money, they refuse to disclose the effectiveness of the campaign. Sure, they’ve released the survey data – and according to marketing professionals, the levels of recall are nothing to proud of. But