More political staff is not the answer
Two NDP MPs from Windsor have told their local paper that while they’re not getting any new MPs in the region from the seat redistribution, what they really need is…
Dale Smith
Fending off leadership boredom
Brian Topp says that a boring leadership race could hurt the NDP, which explains why he’s been the only one to really go on the offensive against Dewar and Mulcair…
A couple of debates to ponder
It being the New Year, corporate tax rates are going down again, which is good for the bottom line of businesses, but the trend has been to hoard cash rather…
Happy New Year from His Excellency
Happy New Year! While you ponder your resolutions, here is His Excellency the Governor General’s annual New Year’s greeting, where he encourages Canadians to volunteer more. I’m sure your local…
Getting the last word of 2011
Liberal interim leader Bob Rae held a press conference in Toronto to highlight the fact that the government is raising EI premiums next year, despite their continued assurances that they’re…
Too much of a centrist
After all of the pleasantries and violent agreement that has thus far marked the NDP leadership, Brian Topp has duly criticised Thomas Mulcair for being too much of a centrist,…
The problem with that term limit proposal
I don’t really mean to add to the pile-on over Belinda Stronach’s editorial in the Globe and Mail proposing term limits for MPs, and Paul Wells does a really good…
Consular dos and don’ts
Going abroad over the holidays? Foreign Affairs wants you to know what consular officials can and cannot do for you while abroad. Apparently people think they’re good for doing things…
Not going to even try
Foreign Affairs minister John Baird says we’re probably not going to try to get another UN Security Council seat so long as his government is in power. He claims that…
Mulcair’s momentum is building
In the NDP leadership race, Thomas Mulcair declares that things have turned around for him and that momentum is building. Brian Topp is promising major reform if he gets made…
A vice-regal Christmas visit
After his trip to the funeral of Vaclav Havel in Prague, the Governor General went to Kabul to visit the troops for Christmas. Also there was Liberal interim leader Bob…
Oversight demands
Further to the report from officers of parliament demanding more oversight from the House of Commons, experts in the field both agree that this proves more needs to be done,…
Rejecting unilateral approaches to federalism
The Supreme Court came down with a unanimous decision that the federal government’s plans to unilaterally create a national securities regulator is unconstitutional. Not that such a beast itself is…
The watchdogs want to be watched
Seven agents of parliament, including the former Auditor General, Sheila Fraser, signed their names to a report that says that MPs need to do a better job of oversight, and…
Giving up the levers
The minister of health talking points sent out a letter to the provinces saying that now that they have their funding in place for the next twelve years that it’s…
An accord imposed
One would think that healthcare accord negotiations would be a difficult task, slated to take place over the course of the remaining two years of the current accords, with discussions…
Jumping the (long) gun
Because its usefulness as a fundraising vehicle has not yet abated, the Conservatives continue to milk the long-gun registry for all it’s worth. Err, except for the fact that they…
Signs of Conservative independence in the Senate
While the Commons may have risen on Thursday, the Senate was still hard at work on Friday morning. And lo and behold, Conservative Senator Pierre Claude Nolin spoke out against…
Contributions to the tone
And thus ends the fall sitting of the House of Commons. Predictably, it gets the send-off about how nasty the session was, which often tends to be a function of…
QP: Last Shout (for 2011 anyway)
As it happened, Wednesday wasn’t the last day of the sitting as had been predicted. Today was, and it had been agreed that QP would be the second-last item on…