QP: Imagining a country
Another Monday back in the House, with a few notable absences – Harper, Baird and Kent among them. Nycole Turmel used her round of questions to ask about the government’s…
Dale Smith
A collection of platitudes does not a debate make
And that was the first NDP leadership debate – nine people up on stage, basically agreeing with one another the whole time, delivering platitudes about how great things like national…
Let’s blow up the constitution!
Last week, “underdog” NDP leadership candidate Nathan Cullen released a policy paper on “Improving our democracy.” But looking at it, one should be terrified by what Cullen is proposing because…
Diane Finley (hearts) Christmas!
Because it’s that time of year, “War on Christmas” silliness has begun, with Liberal and NDP MPs complaining that a Service Canada office in Quebec forbade Christmas trees. Diane Finely…
Holes in MacKay’s credibility
Oh, Peter MacKay. After claiming that the helicopter ride he took from a fishing lodge to a waiting Challenger jet was part of a pre-ordained search-and-rescue exercise, new documents have…
QP: Sanctified by Canadians
It being World AIDS Day, there was an appalling lack of red ribbons on the lapels of MPs in the House of Commons, and virtually none to be found on…
Members’ Statements: World AIDS Day Edition
For World AIDS Day, members of the three main parties made statements to mark the day. Note the tone in the various statements – especially the self-congratulatory tone of the…
Someone to fix the flaws
It’s a good thing the Senate is around because the government will now be relying on them to fix a problem with the omnibus crime bill, since they realised they…
QP: Third-party management
Every now and again, exchanges happen in the House of Commons that remind you about the value of debate and holding the government to account in a forum like Question…
Democracy costs money
And so it comes to this – amidst talk that we are likely going to get 30 new MPs in the next electoral cycle, the government is talking about cutting…
QP: Accounting for Attawapiskat
With Nycole Turmel off in Attawapiskat with Charlie Angus to assess the situation there for herself, it was up to Peter Julian to once again carry the torch during QP,…
Some real electoral inequities
While the seat distribution bill hurtles its way through the House of Commons, here’s some discussion on the urban-rural riding divide in this country, where rural ridings are weighted more…
QP: The return of Kyoto
Mondays can be tricky when it comes to Question Period. Some MPs, fresh off of flights from across the country, are jetlagged and want to be elsewhere. Others are brimming…
Giving a damn about QP
The lament for Question Period continues. Oh, how debased it is. Oh, how it is unreflective of the work Parliamentarians actually do. Oh, how this is all the fault of…
Making excuses
What’s that? A study by Elections Canada shows that people who claim they’re too busy to vote are just making excuses for not caring enough about democratic engagement? You don’t…
Crass committee backdrops
Because nothing is sacred when it comes to government messaging, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney showed up at a committee meeting yesterday morning with backdrops for the camera shots. Seriously. Eventually…
QP: Grumpy old men
Given the inconsistent tone of Question Periods lately, one is never sure what kind of a day one is going to get when one tunes in or shows up in…
Yet more G8 legacy revelations
The sordid deeds of Tony Clement and the G8 legacy fund remain in the news, as the NDP revealed new documents obtained through access-to-information legislation at the municipal level –…
QP: Tracking signs, but not jobs
Most Wednesday question periods tend to be high-energy and volatile, the MPs all fresh from caucus and eager to score points. Not today. Today everything was fairly pro-forma, like they…
Not pursuing the investigation
The RCMP have opted not to pursue their investigation of the government’s decision to improperly reallocate border infrastructure funds to put toward G8 legacy projects in the Huntsville area –…