It was another day where the two main leaders were again absent from the House today, with Justin Trudeau on the far front bench, and Elizabeth May tucked away in the far corner of the Chamber. That meant that it was up to Megan Leslie to lead off, asking about Pierre Poilievre’s remarks about Harry Neufeld’s report on voter vouching, when Neufeld I himself there was no connection with vouching and fraud. Poilievre continued to selectively read the report and read quotes out of context in order to justify the provisions in the bill. Leslie moved onto the way that Jason Kenney took employment data from Kijiji rather than other, credible sources. Kenney, a little hoarse, listed anecdotes about sectoral skills shortages that need to be taken seriously. Sadia Groguhé repeated the Kijiji question in French, getting the same response. Justin Trudeau was up next, and noted the criticism of the rail grain bill and wondered if amendments would be accepted. Pierre Lemieux touted how great the bill was. Trudeau moved onto the coming 90 percent cut to the Building Canada fund, and insisted that the minister of finance answer. Instead, Peter Braid assured him that they were making plenty of infrastructure investments, neglecting to say that most of the funds won’t be available for years.
Tag Archives: Environment
Roundup: So long, Alison Redford
In a somewhat surprising move, Alberta premier Alison Redford resigned last night, effective Sunday evening. It sounds like she’ll be staying on as MLA for the time being, but man, that’ll be a tough gig. Jen Gerson notes that for all of her skill at policy, Redford lacked political instincts and was in fact the victim of her own transparency laws as her own spending came to light. Colby Cosh reminds us that this really had little to do with the cost of the South Africa trip, but was a long simmering series of problems that kept building until Redford finally collapsed under the weight of them.
QP: The Great Prairie Grain Crisis
As the sitting week winds down in advance of the two-week March break, there was a definite feel of that very same happening in the House. Thomas Mulcair, the only leader present, led off by asking about the bottleneck of grain shipments on the prairies, for which Pierre Lemieux — a parliamentary secretary and not even a designated back-up PM du jour — assured him that they were working to address the logistics system. Mulcair gave an angry retort and demanded that Lisa Raitt answer the question, but Lemieux repeated his answer as the Conservative benches mocked Mulcair’s angry growl. Mulcair moved to the issue of voter information cards, and Pierre Poilievre listed possible kinds of ID that could be used. Mulcair brought up Marc Mayrand’s concerns about the ability to dress-up campaign advertising as fundraising under the elections bill, but Poilievre reminded him that the NDP leadership allowed the very same thing. Mulcair closed his round by saying that Mayrand demolished their arguments about voter fraud, but Poilievre disputed the factuality of that assertion. Ralph Goodale led off for the Liberals, pointing out a section of the Railway Act that the minister of transport could use to get the grain on the prairies moving, but Lemieux stood up to deliver his same talking points. Goodale turned to the coming drop in funding for the Building Canada Fund, but Denis Lebel insisted that they tripled funding for infrastructure over the ten years.
QP: In the shadow of a Quebec election call
With the election called in Quebec, which will no doubt consume the news cycle for the next six weeks, things carried on here in the Nation’s Capital unabated, despite the added media attention to Quebec MPs and any role that they’ll play. When QP got underway, Thomas Mulcair led off by asking whether Canada would be sending observers to Ukraine along with the Americans and others, to which Harper said that we were, as well as freezing some Russian assets and suspending more bilateral operations. Mulcair asked if Harper had reached out to the IMF, to which Harper said that they had. Mulcair changed topics, and asked about the consultations on the elections bill. Harper expressed his disappointment in the NDP’s opposition to the bill (err, kind of their job, you know). Mulcair said that the partisan tactics around the bill were unprecedented (um, not sure about that), to which Harper reminded him that they opposed the bill without reading it. For his last question, Mulcair asked about the lack of sanctions against Brad Butt for his “mis-speaking,” but Harper shrugged it off, saying that Butt had apologised of his own volition. Dominic LeBlanc led for the Liberals, and asked if elections observers would, be sent to Ukraine, and Baird indicated that we would be. LeBlanc turned to the decrease in funding from the Building Canada Fund, to which Denis Lebel insisted that the fund was $70 billion over ten years.
QP: Sombre questions about Ukraine
After an abbreviated number of members’ statements, thanks to a vote on closure regarding that prima facie breach of privilege around MP Brad Butt “mis-speaking” on voter fraud, QP got underway in a somewhat strange manner. While most everyone was present for the vote, the benches suddenly emptied and Harper, who was there for the vote was nowhere to be seen. Undaunted, Thomas Mulcair led off, mentioning his meeting with the Ukrainian ambassador and asked about news that Russia tested an intercontinental ballistic missile. Peter MacKay responded with the government’s concerns, and when Mulcair asked about the troops in Ukraine that Putin denied sending, MacKay reiterated the government’s concerns. When Mulcair asked about engagements with Putin, John Baird gave a quick statement about his efforts to date. Harper returned to the House, (as had most of those MPs who fled) and Mulcair asked again about what the government was doing about the situation, Harper told him that Canada was suspending bilateral activities with Russia. For his final question, Mulcair asked about the discussions among G7 partners, to which Harper told him that they were discussing the possibility of a meeting in a few weeks. Ralph Goodale was up for the Liberals, and asked about the status of our embassy in Kyiv. Harper noted that the embassy was closed because of the violence during the protests, and that it wouldn’t be reopened until the threat of violence had passed. Goodale asked about the status of our embassy in Moscow, to which Harper assured him that our recalled ambassador had just returned and would be meeting with Baird later in the day, and that bilateral activities remained suspended. Goodale closed the round asking about the statement made by China with regards to respecting Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty, and Harper noted that this kind of activity hadn’t been seen since the Second World War (to which one of my gallery colleagues muttered “What about Georgia?”)
QP: If a comedy show can do it…
A couple of hours after the speech in the Commons by the Aga Khan, things had quieted down considerably, and most of the leaders had fled. Thomas Mulcair was still around, and he led off by by asking about the elimination of vouching at the polls. Pierre Poilievre responded that in some 40 percent of cases of vouching, there was no way to contact the voucher to ensure there was no fraud. Mulcair wondered about cases where fraud by vouching was prosecuted and why not fix the system. Poilievre said that the Neufeld report showed that even when they tried to fix the vouching system and better monitoring it, there were still irregularities in more than 20 percent off cases. When Mulcair pressed, Poilievre reminded him that there were documented case of someone using the voter ID cards to vote more than once in his own hometown. Mulcair accused them of trying to make it harder for people who don’t vote Conservative, but Poilievre stuck to the facts around those documented cases, as part of a comedy show or not. Dominic LeBlanc led off for the Liberals, and thrice asked about the cuts to infrastructure spending and called their announcements little more than “creative accounting.” Peter Braid responded, and insisted that they’ve tripled investments in infrastructure.
QP: The post-Olympic high
With the Olympics now over, and MPs giving glowing statements about our medal winners, and the Liberals revved up after their weekend convention, one could almost hope for a punchy QP. Sadly, with a large number of empty seats in the chamber and only one major leader present, it wasn’t going to really be an exiting day. Thomas Mulcair led off by asking for an update on the Ukrainian situation, to which Chris Alexander read a pro-forma statement. Mulcair segued to the elections bill, and demanded to know why Senate committees could hold consultative hearings across the country, but not the committee charged with the bill. Pierre Poilievre insisted that they were listening to Canadians and that the NDP didn’t bother to read the bill. Mulcair and Poilievre had a couple of back-and-forths , after which Speaker Scheer cautioned Mulcair to stop using the word “cheating.” Mulcair stood up and declared that the Conservatives were trying to pre-cheat the next election, and sat down, no question. Scheer said nothing, and moved on. Ralph Goodale was up for the Liberals and asked about that report on the foundering middle class and noted the ways in which the government raised taxes. Kevin Sorensen insisted rather vigorously that his government had cut taxes, and wouldn’t be dissuaded otherwise. Marc Garneau asked the same in French, not that Sorensen’s answer changed.
Roundup: Trying to court the retired general
A few hours before his speech at the convention, it was revealed that retired General Andrew Leslie would let it be known that the Conservatives tried to recruit him. He was vague about it in the speech, however, saying that he had discussions with several parties (to which both the Conservatives and NDP denied it, Pierre Poilievre trying to dismiss it that they didn’t want him anyway) and danced around it when asked during the press scrum afterward. Leslie did get quite a dig in at Rob Nicholson during said scrum, so there’s that. Later in the day, Leslie produced a series of emails in which he was talking to very senior Conservative staffers about various positions, including running for them in a couple of different Ottawa-area ridings, so those denials were all the more suspect, not that the Liberals minded that he was shopping around – they were glad that he wound up a Liberal. Aaron Wherry had a conversation with Leslie, in which he defended the $72,000 benefit, as part of the conditions of service.
Roundup: Commence the convention
The Liberals’ policy convention is now underway in Montreal, and while things started off with a bit of an oops – the feed from the main stage was live to the reporters’ room while Trudeau was practicing his speech, giving it away before he could make it, and it included his camera directions. He delivered his rah-rah partisan speech to kick things off, which included a couple of digs at Pauline Marois, and to Harper and Mulcair in which he said he wasn’t going to play their game of trying to make Canadians angry, and ended it with a Skype call to his family (as they stayed in Ottawa, his wife due to give birth any day now). A few Senate Liberals, but not many, are in attendance, for which the NDP are trying to get a social media shaming going. Mike Moffatt offers three questions for the Liberals to look at as they try to formulate economic policy during this weekend’s convention. Kate Heartfield notes the implicit populist tones in Trudeau’s economics video, and how it still creates an Us and Them in order to play that populist card, while still trying to look like he’s above tribalism. Michael Den Tandt writes that the broad strokes economic policy will be looking at ways to bring the Red Tories and Blue Liberals back into the fold and away from the Conservative coalition. Paul Wells writes about the Conservatives hoping that the convention will prove to be a gaffe-fest for Trudeau (and along the way, coins the best descriptor for the Fair Elections Act as being “Conservative-fair”).
Roundup: Hints and small measures from Mexico
At the “Three Amigos” summit in Mexico, things indeed seemed a bit frosty heading into it, as Harper refuses to lift the visa restrictions on Mexicans, and Obama won’t speed along the Keystone XL decision – a decision which got a whole lot trickier as a judge in Nebraska has struck down the Governor’s approved route for the pipeline, which could mean yet more delays for the project. It does, however, sound like common standards on greenhouse gas emissions may be on the way for Canada and the US. Also agreed to at the summit were a continental transportation plan, more joint research, more security agreements, and a working group to ensure the conservation of the monarch butterfly.