Shorter Chuck Strahl: I can’t see why a secret police service should be overseen by anybody other than the MPs who are willing to break their own rules to inflict it on the public in the first place.
Continue readingTag: Chuck Strahl
A BCer in Toronto: Being a good guy doesn’t excuse Chuck Strahl’s lack of judgment
I don’t know Chuck Strahl, but I’ve always thought he seemed like a pretty good guy, all in all. He certainly has won many friends on all sides of the political fence and in the pundit class, and they were quick to shower him with praise last week when he
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Lana Payne calls out Stephen Harper’s hypocrisy in paying lip service to the problems with the use of disposable temporary foreign labour while expanding exactly that policy throughout his stay in power: The program was supposed to be a last resort for employers
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Still hoping for a ‘deal’ with AUPE, Alberta Deputy Premier Dave Hancock has a Seinfeld moment
Deputy Premier Dave Hancock holds forth in the Legislature this morning as a few bored reporters half-heartedly listen. Below: Comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who could have written Mr. Hancock’s script; former Reform Party and now former SIRC chair Chuck Strahl. With nothing to report in “negotiations” between the government of Alberta
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On self-interest
With Chuck Strahl’s massive conflict of interest between lobbying and patronage appointments already making news, the revelation that Vic Toews has found his way into the lobbying industry (having seemingly planned for it before he’d even resigned from Parliament) looks all the more noteworthy. And Toews’ assertion that a lawyer
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – The Star’s editorial board sees Canada’s woeful job numbers as a signal that it’s time for some economic management in the interests of people (rather than artificial manipulation of numbers): Economists used words like “dismal” and “ugly” for these results, and no wonder.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Former federal Tory Chuck Strahl’s lobbying activities break no laws, but highlight a problem
Lobbyists gather in the lobby of the House of Commons at Westminster. Below: Politician turned lobbyist Chuck Strahl, B.C. Lobbying Commissioner Elizabeth Denham. Notwithstanding his classification as a Designated Public Office Holder under the federal Lobbying Act, former Reform Party, Canadian Alliance and Conservative office holder Chuck Strahl is breaking
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Jim Stanford writes about the myth of a labour shortage in Canada: In this context of chronic un- and under-employment, it is jarring that so many employers, business lobbyists, and politicians continue to complain about a supposed shortage of available, willing, and adequately
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: For What It’s Worth
There’s something happening here What it is ain’t exactly clear There’s a man with a gun over there Telling me I got to beware Paranoia strikes deep Into your life it will creep It starts when you’re always afraid You step out of line, the man come and take you
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Thomas Walkom points out that many Canadians can expect to lose jobs without any social supports due to the Cons’ focus on political messages over real-life impacts. And Blake Zeff offers a reminder that while progressive economic policy may be receiving more attention
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Caught in an apparent conflict like Chuck Strahl? No problem! Just double down!
Manning Centre-Security Intelligence Review Committee Chair and Enbridge lobbyist Chuck Strahl. Below: Former would-be Reform Party prime minister Preston Manning; Reform Party prime minister in waiting Jason Kenney. All these slightly out-of-focus profile shots were taken by your blogger during his infiltration of the 2013 Manning Centre conference in Ottawa. When
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Why Has Stephen Harper Not Fired Chuck Strahl?
It's been more than two days since we found out that Chuck Strahl, Canada's spy watchdog, is moonlighting as a lobbyist for Enbridge.And by so doing has erased the boundaries between the petro state and the surveillance state.Now to make matters even worse, we find out that Strahl is also a
Continue readingLeft Over: Right, Right, you’re bloody well Right…
Former Tory minister on the hot seat over Enbridge lobbying gig by Kady O’Malley Posted: January 7, 2014 9:00 AM Last Updated: January 7, 2014 8:58 AM CBC online I was a bit disappointed in the lack of a big anti-pipeline presence outside the location of the Harpster’s meeting with the BC Bored
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Spy Watchdog and the Northern Gateway Pipeline
Well it seems that Stephen Harper is pulling out all the stops to try to crush all opposition to his Northern Gateway pipeline.By not only getting the National Energy Board to rubber-stamp his insane project.But also by getting Canada's top spy watchdog to lobby for the pipeline maniacs from Enbridge. Read more
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Doctor of Panama: a strange tale of Harperite politics and national security
Positive vetting? Where’s George Smiley when you really need him? Not in Canada, by the sound of it. Below: Dr. Arthur Porter with his former pal Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Globe and Mail photo). It’s almost bizarre, and almost certainly driven by political expediency, that no one seems to have
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Is Chuck Strahl’s dual role on the Manning Centre and security committee appropriate?
Chuck Strahl listens to a participant in the Manning Centre conference in Ottawa in March. Below: Manning Centre founder and figurehead, Preston Manning. Should Chuck Strahl be able to serve simultaneously on the board of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy, a partisan political organization tied to the ruling Conservative
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Annals of Digital Recording: ‘Preston is out of the country and cannot comment’
Your blogger with Preston Manning, both exactly as illustrated, although, in fairness, Mr. Manning may not have known just who your blogger was. Then again, maybe he did. He did say something like, “Oh, you…” Below: Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Is somebody going around trying to pull a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Rick Salutin offers an important take on the U.S. election by pointing out that the Occupy movement and its focus on inequality laid the groundwork for Barack Obama’s re-election:The aftermath to the bailouts was the…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Sunday reading. – It’s a few months old, but the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s comparison of U.S. states with a zero personal income tax to those with the highest tax levels looks like one of the most clear refutations yet of the idea that
Continue readingLeftist Jab: Aveos: Denis Lebel More Or Less Says Chuck Strahl Lied To Parliament
Denis Lebel’s formal salute to union workers involves another finger. When Air Canada passed off its maintenance jobs to Aveos in 2011, there was a significant outcry about the move. Nobody at Air Canada wanted to go to Aveos which had financing issues as late as 2010. They were told
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