Canada’s place in the world
As we make cuts to CIDA, Foreign Affairs, disband Rights & Democracy, eliminate Elections Canada’s ability to help with elections abroad, and compound our loss of a seat on the…
Dale Smith
The F-35 spanking
And that was the Auditor General’s report. Issues with border inspections, airline safety, and oh yeah – the F-35 procurement process, which was understandably scathing. DND didn’t run a proper…
Letting the grown-ups take over
The Auditor General’s report comes out today, and it’s expected to be exceptionally scathing to the F-35 procurement process. And rightfully so. Word has it that following the release, the…
Bracing for cuts
If you work in the public service, brace yourselves – the government is expected to start releasing details about job cuts today. Because some people care about this, Justin Trudeau…
The budget fallout
Among other budget fallout, the Conservatives have signalled that they will reform EI to try to cut down on its “reliance” by those in seasonal industries, which makes some people…
Your budget round-up
So, that was the federal budget. What can we say? Some 19000 federal jobs to be cut over three years, two thirds of which will likely be by attrition, while…
Budget Day vs Robocon
It’s budget day! To send the signal this year, Jim Flaherty took reporters out to the Aldo in Rideau Centre for a new pair of shoes, apparently to say that…
Robocall court challenges
The Council of Canadians is backing court challenges of the electoral results in seven ridings based on evidence of misleading robocalls and other voter suppression techniques. It’s not enough to…
Mulcair’s making changes
And that was Mulcair’s first day as leader in the House. As one of the changes the NDP will be making under the Mulcair Era is to immediately start advertising…
Mulcair mania
In the wake of Thomas Mulcair’s victory, here is his first interview as leader with Peter Mansbridge, and some commentary from the other party’s observers at the convention, like Scott…
Thomas Mulcair, Leader of the Opposition
And so, after interminable delays, Thomas Mulcair is the new leader of the NDP. In case you missed the rundowns, here they are: 1st Ballot: Ashton: 3,737, Singh 3,821, Dewar…
Lackluster leadership speeches
And those were the final NDP leadership candidate presentations. And how very…underwhelming they were. Nathan Cullen’s was spare and he had lots of personal anecdotes about fighting the Northern Gateway…
Paradis’ public ‘shaming’
Christian Paradis has been a very naught boy, the Ethics Commissioner has reported, and he broke conflict of interest rules when dealing with Rahim Jaffer. Paradis’ response is that these…
Declaring interim victory
NDP interim leader Nycole Turmel gave her farewell press conference yesterday and declared victory. Um, okay – except you know that getting the government to vote on a bunch of…
The Harper decade
Holy cripes! Yesterday marked ten years since Stephen Harper became leader of the Canadian Alliance Party, and the slow march to 24 Sussex. Over at Maclean’s, Paul Wells marks the…
Craig Scott wins
In the Toronto Danforth by-election last night, the NDP’s Craig Scott won handily with nearly 60 percent of the vote. This now brings the queer contingent of the caucus to…
Toronto-Danforth by-election today
It the by-election in Toronto Danforth today, and it’s been a pretty queer-heavy race so far. NDP candidate Craig Scott is a gay law professor, and while Liberal candidate Gordon…
Delay, degradation, and blind eyes
Julian Fantino is now musing that they could put off the F-35 purchase for a few more years to save some money, given the production costs, and so on. Err,…
Ides of March for Mulcair
Ides of March drama happened in the NDP leadership yesterday as Ed Broadbent pretty much came out and knifed Thomas Mulcair in the gut yesterday, warning about his centrism and…
QP: Turmel’s interim leader swan song
The NDP benches applauded extra vigorously today for what looks like Nycole Turmel’s last QP as interim leader, and she stood up to ask about the planned cuts to services,…