The Liberals are back for their summer
caucus retreat, and Bob Rae gave a fairly barn-burning speech for the assembled
(and invited the media, while they also broadcast it here). The themes? Time to
talk about the economy, and time to rebuild the party.
What’s that? Concerns about privacy around border arrangements with the US? You don’t say!
Kady O’Malley wonders about the NDP
leadership race – what about the past requirement that organised labour gets 25 percent
share of the votes (the percentage will be determined at a later date), should
party president Brian Topp step down if he’s going to consider a leadership run
(he’s not taking part in determining the rules for the process and knows he
needs to make a decision), and about the role of the party’s federal council in determining those rules.
Hey look! Plans for futuristic “airships”
to help service our North, where getting supplies to remote communities and
mines can be difficult.
Citing tough economic times, Alberta has cut funding to restorative justice programmes. You know, right as they’re in a
major increase in crime and Edmonton is leading the country in the number of
murders being committed.
And Sun Media is freaking out because
Libby Davies has put forward a non-binding private member’s motion to eliminate
the ten-year residency requirement for immigrants to receive old-age pensions.
What they’re not mentioning is that this is but one of 71 private member’s
motions that Davies put on the Order Paper, which includes calls for public
inquiries, consultations on genetically modified organisms, “no-frills” bank
accounts, the IMF, ensuring that CIDA only serve fair-trade coffee, social
housing, and funding for groups combating violence against women. (No,
seriously – they’re listed as M-81 through M-152 here). While I have no doubt
that these are important for Davies’ particular ideological convictions, with
71 motions that will never see the light of day (especially if she wants to put
forward a Private Member’s Bill still, and MPs get time allotted for one single
piece of private member’s business, be it a motion or a bill), I don’t know
that the Sun necessarily should be freaking out about it.
