The Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation has decided to lump themselves in with the group of civic illiterates who operate under the mistaken impression that a national referendum is a constitutional amending formula. In this case, they used a giant inflatable Mike Duffy to launch their lobby campaign for a referendum on Senate abolition. In other words, they want to spend a great deal of tax dollars for a useless, non-binding process that is little more than a case of populist knee-jerk reaction to the bad behaviour of a small number of individuals. How exactly this seems to fit in with their mandate of eliminating government waste is a little beyond me, especially considering that the Senate delivers a great deal of value for money – not that knee-jerk populists actually know enough about the institution to realise it.
Tag Archives: Canadian Forces
Roundup: Lisa Raitt is on the case
Two days on the job as transport minister, and Lisa Raitt paid her first visit to Lac-Mégantic to assess the scene there for herself, and to promise that yes, the federal government will assist in reconstruction. And while the NDP complained that she didn’t come with numbers in hand, it’s like they don’t understand how federal disaster assistance works – that at the end of the process, they write one big cheque that will cover something on the order of 90 percent of the costs. It just doesn’t happen up front, which is the role of the province and municipality.
Roundup: Totally cooperating with the RCMP
Remember how the PMO was going to be “fully cooperative” with the RCMP in getting to the bottom of the whole Wright-Duffy deal? Well, sources are telling CTV that “fully cooperative” means stonewalling the RCMP’s attempts get emails related to the deal. I really can’t wait for the warrant to come next…
Possibly the most damning of the reactions to the cabinet shuffle comes from one of their own – newly independent MP Brent Rathgeber quite correctly diagnoses the issue that such a morbidly obese cabinet has ceased to function as a deliberative body and is now simply a representative one, which makes all of the appointments less about the competence of the people in the jobs than about which boxes they tick off. He also makes some very salient points about how antithetical it is to conservatism that they have so many junior ministers and economic development portfolios to put them into. If you need a refresher as to some of the new faces, iPolitics created some trading cards to help you out. Jennifer Ditchburn gives a preview of the files that some of our new cabinet ministers will spend their summer familiarizing themselves with. Jason Lietar considers the PM’s social media rollout to be a success and a step in the right direction when it comes to combating Justin Trudeau’s formidable social media presence – with the exception of the badly lit Instragram videos of new ministers. Don Martin frets about the price of loyalty for the always genial James Rajotte, who has a lot going for him, but lost out in a cabinet post to the virtually unknown Kevin Sorenson.
Roundup: Ever so slightly younger and more female
“New faces, experienced hands.” That’s the slogan that Stephen Harper slapped on his reshuffled cabinet, whereby there is now one more woman in the ranks – though none in any major economic portfolio – and the average age has moved from 55 to 52. And by keeping the likes of Peter Van Loan as the Government House Leader, it’s not signalling any change in tone or strategy (let alone trying to find someone competent when it comes to House management, because we know that Van Loan has proven not to be). The cabinet shuffle announcements also formed part of a new social media strategy by the PMO, where they were sent out over Twitter and other social media (and yes, Twitter Canada did track this). Here is the full list of the reshuffled cabinet, as well as the cabinet committees where the real work of this government happens. Laura Stone profiles some of the new faces, as well as some of the departing ones. Global notices five things about the ceremony itself. John Geddes comments on the sweeping changes, the spine of continuity, and the rabidly partisan undertone that make up this cabinet. Tim Harper notes how little actually changed in the shuffle. Paul Wells gives his own take on the shuffle on video here. Andrew Coyne notes that the bloating of cabinet has been in inverse proportion to the effectiveness of the ministers within it.
Roundup: The Shufflenado arrives
So, it’s confirmed – the cabinet shuffle takes place today between 10 and 11 AM at Rideau Hall. Who will be shuffled? Who’s in, who’s out? Well, at last the wait – and the breathless speculation – will be over. It’s expected to be “substantial,” and Canadian Press sources say that Peter Kent and Stephen Fletcher are out, and the fact that Gerry Ritz cancelled a function scheduled for today could mean that he’s out as agriculture minister – though not necessarily out of cabinet. And Shelly Glover has come to town, so she’ll likely be getting a portfolio, though nobody knows just what that might be.
Roundup: Politics and blame for Lac-Mégantic
As the blame and politics around the Lac-Mégantic explosion swirl about, which you can parse in all sorts of different ways – including the company saying that the locomotive may have been tampered with – it does bear reminding that Transport Canada has been slapped by auditors in the past for not having clear training regimes and procedures for their inspectors – so that even if inspections were conducted, were they all conducted the same, and what kind of follow-up was done, given the rates at which the same problems were found in successive inspections. The CBC’s extensive coverage can be found here. Liza Ch. Savage looks at how it figures into the Keystone XL pipeline debate in the States. Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall also send their condolences, as well as those for the floods in Alberta.
Roundup: So long, Vic Toews
As had been expected, Vic Toews has now resigned not only his post in cabinet, but also his seat as an MP. That makes six cabinet vacancies and three by-elections now on the way. Stephen Harper has been meeting with his minsters up at Harrington Lake to get them to give self-evaluations of their performance, in advance of the shuffle.
The Queen sent condolences to Lac-Mégantic regarding the tragedy there. Blame is already being thrown around for the cause of the derailment. Paul Wells notes the absurdity on the scene of the press being kept away, while a dozen politicians have been given tours so far. Andrew Leach looks at how it will affect the entire oil industry, just as the Deepwater Horizon explosion had an effect on the offshore oil industry.
Roundup: ClusterDuff contradictions
In the wake of Thursday’s ClusterDuff revelations, people have been questioning the Prime Minister’s various statements to date about the affair – things like how no members of his staff were aware of Nigel Wright’s intentions to pay Mike Duffy’s expenses for him – and that in turn leads to questions about whether or not Harper has misled parliament. Not that it would be the first time for that particular practice, mind you. You can see those court documents here and here. Paul Wells recalls similar incidents in the past where the party paid out big money to make problems go away, and how that got them into trouble then too.
Roundup: The RCMP’s ClusterDuff revelations
The ClusterDuff detonated yet again yesterday with the revelation of RCMP documents related to their ongoing investigation into his expense claims, and it looks like Mike Duffy is headed toward charges of fraud and breach of trust. In particular, the revelations include word that the party was prepared to pay off his housing expenses when they believed it was $30,000 worth, but it was at the point of $90,000 that the party backed away and Nigel Wright stepped in, in a move he believed was “ethical” because it would protect taxpayers. Oops. Wright’s lawyers also say that Wright knew Duffy, but they weren’t friends – contrary to one of the versions of the story that was being circulated at the time, and that the conditions attached were that the expenses be repaid immediately and that Duffy stop talking to the media. And yes, it looks like the RCMP have seen the bank draft from Wright to Duffy’s lawyer. Oh, and three people in the PMO appear to have known what was going on – remember that Wright took sole responsibility – and they still insist that the PM was out of the loop. The RCMP also believe that Duffy has a demonstrated pattern of filing false expense claims and double-dipping, so really, it’s not looking very good for the Ol’ Duff at this point.
QP: In which Trudeau apparently became the PM
With Harper in a plane over the Atlantic, there was little chance of there being any meaningful exchanges in QP again, and it didn’t disappoint. Thomas Mulcair asked first off who Nigel Wright had spoken to in the PMO regarding the Senate expenses issue. James Moore, the designated back-up PM du jour, said that Nigel Wright acted alone. When Mulcair try to ask about the PMO engaging in partisan activities, Pierre Poilievre stood up and said that the party paid for partisan activities. For his final question, Mulcair asked if the party fund would be audited to see if Wright paid for anything else, to which Poilievre said that it is audited every year by Elections Canada. Jean Crowder was up next to note that it was the fifth anniversary of the apology to Indian Residential School survivors, and decried the government’s lack of action on First Nations files. Bernard Valcourt turned around and blamed the NDP for standing in the way of their reforms. Justin Trudeau was up next for the Liberals, and wondered if they ever gave the reason why Nigel Wright gave the cheque to Senator Duffy. James Moore hit back with his swipes at Senators Harb and Merchant, though Trudeau did respond by saying of Harb “if he’s innocent he’s in, if he’s guilty he’s out.” Moore then accused him of changing his position on the floor of the House (which he didn’t), but when pressed on Wright, Moore took a swipe at Trudeau’s speaking gigs and accused him of using MP expenses for them.