The death of Jack Layton has pretty much
consumed the political sphere. While the volume of material out there is
overwhelming, a few things I took particular note of included the following:
The government has taken the populist Princess
Diana precedent and is going against protocol to give Layton a state funeral.
Here is a look at Layton’s passing in the context of Canadian parliamentary history, like how the last opposition leader
to die in office was Sir Wilfrid Laurier (after he lost the election as Prime
Minister).
Here is a video of Libby Davies talking
to The Canadian Press about Layton’s
passing.
Elsewhere, Leona Aglukkaq says the 2014
health accords will have a major focus on accountability. As though her government understands the term.
Harper is “consulting with allies” on the
future of our mission in Libya. Which I trust will likely mean we’ll do
whatever the Americans are.
The government procurement watchdog says
that a lot of suppliers who have bad experiences with government contracts suck
it up for fear of losing those contracts – which means that problems then don’t
end up getting addressed.
And the outgoing Senate Ethics Officer,
Jean Fournier, has sent a scathing note to the NDP’s ethics critic, Charlie
Angus, for the open letter he sent about the apparent state of Senate ethics. Fournier
not only points to the numerous factual errors in Angus’ letters, but fully
points out that Angus’ accusations come from a partisan motivation, which he (rightfully)
calls distasteful. And he’s got a very good point – one chamber trying to
undermine another does no favours for good governance.
