Randall Garrison talks about Vancouver Pride and the Outgames
While NDP MPs were in Ottawa to meet over the issue of the interim leadership, I caught up with queer rights critic Randall Garrison this afternoon. Q: It’s Outgames and…
Dale Smith
Libby Davies talks about Vancouver Pride and the Outgames
News of Jack Layton’s health crisis came just as NDP MP Libby Davies was ready to celebrate Pride in Vancouver. I caught up with Davies after the caucus meeting this…
No publicly ruffled feathers
On the eve of their caucus meeting to “consult” on the topic of the interim leader, NDP MPs seem to all agree that Nycole Turmel is a good choice, and…
Layton’s next battle
As you’ve no doubt heard by now, NDP Leader Jack Layton is taking a temporary leave of absence in order to deal with a new type of cancer that he…
Crying over shredded files
Newly minted NDP MPs are complaining to the media that outgoing MPs shredded constituency files rather than turn them over when they took office. Pardon me while I make a…
Informing on your neighbours
Because we are a country that apparently believes in informing on one’s neighbours, the government took the rather unprecedented move of posting the names and photos of 30 “suspected war…
Bennett on the falling crime rates
As it seems to be Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett’s week to man the fort in Ottawa, she called a press conference this morning to draw attention to the fact that…
Too hot for news
In case you haven’t noticed, it’s sweltering in the Nation’s Capital, which is probably what’s smothering the news cycle. At least, here in Canada, anyway.What’s that? The federal government is…
Stripping citizenship
The government is set to strip the citizenship of some 1800 Canadians who apparently attained it fraudulently. The kicker – some of them may not know that their citizenship is…
Tim Uppal’s dangerous rhetoric
Populist rhetoric on Senate reform is nothing new, but this Maclean’s interview with Tim Uppal, the newly appointed Minister of State for Democratic Reform – and the man Harper has…
A tool likely to be ignored
The Parliamentary Budget Officer has created a new database to help MPs track government spending so that they have more timely information when it comes time to review expenditures for…
Ignoring the long-term damage
While 24 Sussex continues to deteriorate, Harper continues to refuse to move out so that they can do the necessary renovations, knowing full well that the longer he holds off,…
You are not a lawmaker
I know this particular speech has been floating around the Internet for a couple of weeks (also available here if the previous link is behind a firewall), but I felt…
An overdue verdict on Guergis
The Ethics Commissioner has ruled that Helena Guergis did indeed contravene ethics guidelines when she promoted a company that her husband was connected to in a letter to her local…
Releasing it on second thought
In less than 24 hours, the Conservative government decided that perhaps they were being a bit foolish, and they released the report on the Champlain Bridge, which apparently wasn’t as…
Ways not to avoid a panic
I know we’re all playing the Champlain Bridge drinking game at this point, but here it goes. The government received a report on the state of the bridge – which…
Happy to let you do your own thing
The Conservative government has declared that if provinces want to create their own long-gun registries when they’ve finished killing the federal one, they’re welcome to do so – but not…
Pride before the fall
At a Stampede event in Calgary, Stephen Harper declared the “long Liberal era” to be over. Also, Conservatives need to reach out to Quebec, because their honeymoon with Quebec will…
Why "working for you" is killing the system
“Popular rule is not democracy, Anakin. It gives the people what they want, not what they need.”This line comes from a deleted scene from Attack of the Clones of all…
Doing no harm, really!
Tony Clement promises that budget cuts won’t put Canadians at risk, though there are already some disputes about that with the closure of rescue centres in Newfoundland and Quebec City.…