With the Rob Ford sideshow slowing down enough so as not to consume the news cycle whole, and with the leaders back in the House today, it was setting up to be a much more lively QP than yesterday’s rather sedate hour. Thomas Mulcair started off with giving the Prime Minister a chance to address the relief efforts for the typhoon in the Philippines, which Harper dutifully did to much applause. Mulcair then moved onto asking if Harper had any regrets of his role in the ClusterDuff affair. Harper rejected the premise of the question, and said that he was disappointed with Wright and Duffy when he found out. Mulcair asked which members of Harper’s staff have been questioned by the RCMP, even offering up names that have been mentioned. Harper insisted that this was all Wright’s responsibility, and both he and Duffy have been sanctioned. Justin Trudeau started his round off by congratulating the government for its typhoon response, and asked if they would extend the deadline for matching donations and visas for students and foreign workers in Canada. Harper said that moving forward, they would extend the needed flexibility as need be. Trudeau moved onto the topic of judicial obstruction by the Conservative staffers, some of whom are now in the PMO, and wondered why there were delays in the false robocall investigations. Harper hit back by pointing out that Trudeau’s lack of support for mandatory minimums meant that he didn’t believe in accountability in the justice system.
Tag Archives: EI Reform
QP: Searching for clues in the PMO
As yet another Rob Ford video hit the media and drew out all of the oxygen of the news cycle, Question Period got underway, the benches in the Commons a little emptier than usual for a Thursday. Thomas Mulcair started off back in prosecutorial mode, and asked who in the PMO was interviewed by the RCMP. Harper assured him that the PMO wasn’t under investigation — Mike Duffy was. Mulcair wondered what documents the RCMP were requesting, but Harper would only say that they were cooperating. Mulcair asked if Harper personally knew about requests for the party to pay for Duffy’s expenses. Harper insisted that he’s been clear, and that he told Duffy to repay his expenses. Mulcair brought up the contradictions in the story to date, but Harper insisted that the facts were clear, that Duffy made inappropriate claims and took a cheque he wasn’t supposed to. When Mulcair brought up Harper’s quote from the days of the sponsorship scandal, Harper said that the $40 million in taxpayer dollars from sponsorship was completely different from the Duffy situation. Dominic LeBlanc led off for the Liberals, and asked if any documents from Chris Woodcock were turned over to the RCMP. Paul Calandra took the hit for this one, and said that they were cooperating and then accused the Liberals in the Senate of fighting for the status quo. Ralph Goodale picked it up, and asked if Woodcock was ever asked about his participation in events. Calandra simply insisted that the Liberals were awful.
QP: Calandra deflects
It was Friday hours on a Thursday, given the courtesy granted to the Conservatives for their convention, and attendance was only slightly better than any given Friday. The final member’s statement before QP was given to Conservative Corneliu Chisu, who played up his native Transylvanian accent to warn about how scary the Liberal leader and his plans were, which is now a Halloween tradition for the Conservatives. Nathan Cullen started off QP proper by asking how many cheques were written on Duffy’s behalf, but Paul Calandra, after a message about safety on Halloween, gave the usual talking points about how Wright took full responsibility and so on. Cullen asked how many people in the PMO knew about the payment. Calandra decried that the NDP didn’t want to talk about to talk about the economy. Cullen raised the spectre of the Liberal sponsorship scandal, and Cullen reminded him that they wanted to form a coalition government with then. Nicole Turmel was up next, asking when Harper last spoke to Nigel Wright, but Calandra simply insisted that they wanted to talk about more important issues. For the Liberals, Ralph Goodale asked for an itemised invoice from Duffy’s lawyer to demonstrate why they charged $13,000. Calandra brought up the sponsorship scandal and the alleged cheque to Joe Fontana from Public Works to pay for its son’s wedding. When Goodale wanted to know how Harper couldn’t know given how many people in his inner sanctum, Calandra responded by calling the Liberals snakes and accused their senators of standing in the way. When Goodale brought up Duffy’s allegation that he was coached to lie, Calandra mused about what Justin Trudeau thought about Chrsytia Freeland talking about people not having their father’s job.
QP: Harper hits back — at the Liberals
It’s Thomas Mulcair’s birthday, not that he was really going to get any answers out of Harper as a gift for the occasion. Mulcair began by asking a rather lengthy question around the stonewalling around what Nigel Wright knew, but Harper insisted that Wright kept the whole affair to himself. Mulcair brought up Ray Novak and Marjory LeBreton’s alleged call to Mike Duffy telling him that the deal was off. Harper responded that Mulcair was buying into the story that Duffy was the victim rather than the fact of the misspending that got him booted from caucus. When Mulcair tried to clarify whether or not Harper had singled out Duffy at the caucus meeting in February, Harper said that the spending of the three senators was brought up in caucus and he made his emphatic statement then. When Mulcair asked when Harper did threaten to expel Duffy from the Senate, Harper reiterated that rule-breakers had no place in caucus. Leading for the Liberals was Dominic LeBlanc, as Justin Trudeau was speaking away speaking in Washington DC. LeBlanc asked why one former PMO staffer who was involved was promoted despite potentially criminal behaviour. Harper responded by calling out Liberal senators for holding up the suspension without pay of those three senators. LeBlanc pushed, bringing up or their questionable hires by the PMO, but Harper kept insisting that the Liberal senators were keeping those misbehaving from being punished (which is of course false, as they are simply looking to put it to committee to give it due process).
QP: The aftershocks of Duffy’s bombshell
With Parliament Hill still reeling from last night’s ClusterDuff bombshell, and all leaders were in the House, waiting for the big show. It got started with Mulcair asking if Harper threatened Duffy with expulsion on February 13th. Harper said that he didn’t threaten him with expulsion, but he did think the expenses were inappropriate and ordered them repaid or he’d be thrown out of caucus. Mulcair asked if Harper had said that it wasn’t about the rules, but the perception. Harper denied saying that, and gave another rousing defence of following the rules made before the entire expenses. Mulcair pushed, and asked if Wright was present for that discussion. Harper, getting punchy, said that it was a statement before the entire caucus, and did not order Wright to write the cheque, and because that action was wrong, Wright was no longer in his office. When Mulcair asked if Ray Novak was party to those discussions, Harper insisted that Novak was not one of the people that Wright named as being involved, and he obviously wasn’t involved as he never would have approved it. Justin Trudeau began by pointing out that leaders take responsibility, and named the people that Harper hired or appointed at the centre of the scandal. Harper rejected the premise, and hit back at Duffy, saying that since Duffy felt he hadn’t done anything wrong, it was why he was no longer in caucus. Trudeau demanded that Harper answer questions under oath around the affair, but Harper hit back, saying that Trudeau was too willing to let Senator Harb back into caucus (which is not exactly true).
Roundup: Forget the science of treating addiction, drugs are bad!
Rona Ambrose held a press conference yesterday to say that the government would be closing the “loopholes” in the Special Access Programme so that illicit drugs can no longer be prescribed for clinical purposes – never mind that the whole point of the programme that the injectable heroin was being prescribed in was because none of the other replacements worked, and that it was the safest and most effective way to preserve the health of the patient while getting them off the drug in a controlled manner. But hey, when did science matter over the ideological concerns that “drugs are bad”? Aaron Wherry talks to BC’s provincial health officer about the scientifically proven heroin-assisted treatment.
Roundup: Flaherty’s EI premium freeze
Jim Flaherty announced a “good news” economic measure of freezing EI premiums for the next three years – you know, like the Liberals have been hounding him to do for the past couple of years. Only, to be clever, the Liberals were calling them “job-killing payroll taxes” either, and despite the freeze, there will still be some rate increases. It also makes one wonder about the utility of the arm’s length board set up to advise on things like rates if the government continues to undermine them and set the rates anyway. Aaron Wherry notes that this was the subject of one of Justin Trudeau’s “crowd-sourced” questions during QP in the spring. When you crunch the numbers, however, the freeze isn’t worth all that much – about $24 per year for the average person, and $340 for the average business.
Roundup: Economic Action duds
Survey data shows that the Economic Action Plan™ ads are getting little traction with the public. In fact, of a sample size of 2003 Canadians, only three of them actually visited the website. And yet, the government was paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to show these ads during the hockey play-offs – which totally seems like an efficient use of tax dollars, and an important way of getting messages across to the public. Shall we also go back to the tautology about them being necessary to show consumer confidence?
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.
QP: PRISM concerns
With Harper prepping for his trip to Europe, and Justin Trudeau elsewhere, Thomas Mulcair was holding down the fort in the House for QP. He began by asking in Nigel Wright had signing authority for the “secret” party fund. Pierre Poilievre was designated to answer, and he insisted that the fund wasn’t secret, it was controlled by the party, and audited by Elections Canada (which is not exactly true). Mulcair then turned to the issue of the American surveillance programme PRISM, and asked about the Canadian monitoring by the Communications Security Establishment. Peter MacKay answered that the CSE is prohibited by law from engaging in domestic surveillance, and has been lauded for its culture of compliance. Jack Harris asked more of the same, before wondering if CSE was using PRISM data. MacKay noted the policies on foreign information sharing, and that those reports are tabled in Parliament. Ralph Goodale was up for the Liberals, and asked if Benjamin Perrin was aware of the the deal between Wright and Duffy, if not the source of the funds. James Moore was up, belatedly the designated back-up PM du jour, and took swipes at the Liberals over Senators Mac Harb and Pana Merchant.