Tag Archives: Canadian Forces

Roundup: Adventures in Vladivostok

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While at the APEC Summit in Vladivostok, Russia, over the weekend, Stephen Harper and Chinese president Hu Jintao witnessed the signing of the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement. Harper and Russian president Vladimir Putin also agreed to disagree on the issue of Syria. While at the summit, Harper also ratcheted up the rhetoric around Iran now that we’ve shuttered our embassy there.

It looks like the new Office of Religious Freedoms may have finally found its ambassador and could be set to open soon. Of course, it was also revealed that the Muslim panellists for their consultations were “not available,” which sounds terribly convenient when you’re trying to assure people that this won’t simply be an office devoted to Christian proselytising.

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Roundup: The road to 2015

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From the NDP caucus meeting in St. John’s, Thomas Mulcair made a speech about their “positive, optimistic” future, and how the road to 2015 starts now. As part of that road, the party plans to target youth voters in the next election. Meanwhile, MPs have reaffirmed their belief that 50 percent-plus-one is enough for Quebec to separate, which has the Liberals sounding like they plan to put a motion on the Order Paper about support for the Clarity Act this fall.

The Liberals have formally announced the rules for their leadership contest, which kicks off in November. While We The Media wait to hear whether or not Justin Trudeau will run (who says the party needs teamwork and not a saviour), we’re now getting musings from Jim Karygiannis (aka “Jimmy K”) and Joyce Murray.

Pauline Marois referred to herself as “Head of State.” Um, no. That’s the Queen. You might be the province’s head of government (provided that you can maintain the confidence of the Chamber in a minority context), but you’re not the Head of State. Not even close.

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Roundup: Additional reporting powers requested

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Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson says that politicians are honest, but when the Act comes up for review she wants additional powers, especially when it comes to MPs reporting gifts.

What’s that? The government may be rigging sole-source contracts? You don’t say!

In light of Senator Fairbairn’s dementia and Rob Ford’s hospitalisation, we ask ourselves once again if we give Canadian politicians too much privacy, and where do we draw that line?

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Roundup: Thrice lobbied

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And now the Nigel Wright/Barrick Gold issue gets interesting, as a late disclosure shows that Barrick tried to lobby him on three separate occasions – despite his close personal ties to the owner’s family. I guess that now we’ll really see how narrowly the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner reads the Act before she likely declares it’s not her problem. And subsequently, how long before we hear yet another appeal from the Lobbying Commissioner to give her office some actual teeth.

The Senator Fairbairn “controversy” is now just getting ugly. National Post columnist Jonathan Kay printed the anonymous concerns of a Conservative Senator concern troll. Said concern troll is concerned that Senator Cowan has no authority over the Liberal caucus because he’s a Martin appointee and most of them are Chrétienites, and the Chrétienites wanted her kept in the Chamber. All of which is pretty ridiculous since there would be zero utility in keeping her vote going, and even more ridiculous is the part about how the PMO wants them to keep quiet, which is why said Conservative Senator wants to remain anonymous. Really, this reads like nothing more than a cowardly and ugly partisan attack that is hiding behind both anonymity and a woman with dementia, which needs to be called out for exactly what it is. It also demonstrates that this concern troll seems to labour under the impression that he’s to do the bidding of the leader’s office, which actually isn’t part of a Senator’s job description, but rather, they’re supposed to be independent, which is the half the point of why they’re appointed and not elected in the first place. They’re not supposed to take their marching order from the party leader’s office, and yet he seems to be assuming that they should be. I also find Senator LeBreton’s concerns of what might have happened if the numbers had been closer a bit rich, considering the Conservative majority in the Senate is quite secure, and that’s probably why Fairbairn was being eased out in the manner she was. Retired Senator Sharon Carstairs says that this is why Canada needs a dementia strategy, which we don’t have, and why the Senate needs more robust support systems. Here’s a speech that Fairbairn made on the topic of Alzheimer’s in 1999, with an awareness that she had a family history with it. And while we’re on the topic, can we please stop using this incident to mount up Senate “reform” hobbyhorses? It’s in poor taste, and in fact wrong to somehow equate any of these issues.

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Roundup: An F-35 friendly new defence chief?

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The new Chief of Defence Staff has been named – Lieutenant General Tom Lawson, an RCAF officer with 37 years experience who is currently serving as the deputy commander of NORAD and has been a vocal proponent of the F-35 fighter acquisition. So immediately we have to wonder just what Harper is telegraphing in his choice of Lawson as CDS. Paul Wells notes that Lawson, like the outgoing Natynczyk, has a great deal of American experience, which is interesting.

The Corrections Investigator, Howard Sapers, is ringing the alarm over record prison populations and double bunking levels leading to increased violence. But wait – didn’t Vic Toews say that the prisoner population explosion didn’t happen and they’re going to close prisons because of it?

Apparently Stephen Harper “owns” the Arctic as a policy file. Um, okay, so he goes up for photo ops and to announce new National Parks every summer. But the fact that he hasn’t fulfilled any of his sovereignty-related promises, that food prices in the North continue to climb, and climate change remains pretty much a zero on his regular policy agenda, it doesn’t speak to highly for his commitment to the file that he “owns,” does it?

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Roundup: Paying back union sponsorships

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It appears that Elections Canada has forced the NDP to pay back $344,468 in union sponsorships for their conventions since 2003. This is the figure that Thomas Mulcair has been refusing to disclose to date, and which the Conservatives will use as more ammunition in the days and weeks to come.

Liberal MP Frank Valeriote stands by his campaign decisions with the robo-calls in his riding – but would simply have followed the CRTC rules of having the proper tags on the end had he known.

The Canadian Forces’ Arctic exercises last week offered us a glimpse of the secretive and mysterious JTF2 unit.

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Roundup: Fined for telecomm violations

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The CRTC has fined the Liberal riding association in Guelph for an improper robo-call during the last election, and Frank Valeriote, the MP, accepted the finding. Now, just to remind you – this was about a violation of the Telecommunications Act with an unidentified robo-call warning that the Conservative candidate might be pro-life. It was not a violation of the Elections Act. It has nothing to do with misleading voter to wrong polling stations, or anything like that. No matter how many equivalencies the Conservative partisans try to this to the other Guelph robo-calls and the mysterious “Pierre Poutine,” they would all be wrong.

Helena Guergis’ lawsuit against Stephen Harper and company has been tossed out – as well it should be. The Judge correctly asserted that the matter of her being in cabinet are a Crown Prerogative – because it is. And Crown Prerogatives are generally non-justiciable for a reason. Otherwise, people start doing silly things, like taking to the courts when they lose at politics, just like they start writing to the GG or the Queen. Oh, wait – they already do! But yeah, it’s not the court’s jurisdiction. If you have a problem with the way a government exercises its prerogative, then you vote them out in the next election. If people had a modicum of civic literacy, this kind of thing might be avoided. Guergis says she’s stating law school next week – hopefully she’ll learn this lesson, as well as what “frivolous lawsuit” means. She also says she wants to appeal, but good luck with that.

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Roundup: Parks as environmental policy

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This may come as a surprise, but Stephen Harper is going to announce the creation of another park in the North during his tour. You know, like he’s done every other year. And hey, creating parks are a great way to look like you’re doing something for the environment when really you’re making no effort at all, right?

The federal government has announced they’re going to launch a 25-year renewal plan for Tunney’s Pasture (otherwise known as the Land of Exile during my former life working government contracts). I hope they have good luck with the contaminated sites there, and that hopefully unlike the Parliamentary precinct plans, 25 years won’t turn into 40.

Thomas Mulcair admits that he’s no Jack Layton, but that he learned a lot from his leadership style. Aaron Wherry has more tales of the creation of Layton’s final letter.

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Roundup: What Flaherty and his pals discuss

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Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is off on his summer retreat with business and policy leaders, talking about finance stuff all candidly and off-the-record like. But just what are they talking about? Well, some rather intrepid ATIPing by the Globe and Mail shows that last year, they talked about things like raising the retirement age, lowering wages, anti-union “right-to-work” legislation and two-tier healthcare. You know, all kinds of imported American Republican ideology that’s served that country so well.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel concluded her visit to Canada. The take-away message: “Yay trade!” Duly noted.

What’s that? The government is likely under “enormous pressure” from the US to buy the F-35 fighters? You don’t say!

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Roundup: A visit from Merkel

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel is in town to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to talk trade, security, and the Eurozone crisis. Later today she’ll be off to Halifax to talk with scientists.

Now that the media has done his due diligence for him, John Baird has announced that the government won’t be funnelling aid money to Syrian rebels through that dubious organisation after all. This isn’t the first time either – during the Libya mission, I heard from Foreign Affairs staff that Baird was looking to turn over millions of dollars to rebel groups there without any due diligence then either until he was talked out of it by cooler heads.

The CBC also takes a look into the delays around finding a new Chief of Defence Staff, and throws a couple of other names on the table. Peter MacKay says the pick will be announced in the “very near future.”

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