Tag Archives: F-35 Fighters

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: CSIS volunteers to help Vic Toews

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The Director of CSIS has generously volunteered to assist Vic Toews in fixing his delayed Lawful Access bill. You can find the redacted letter here.

The federal government has announced that it will appeal the BC court ruling on assisted suicide.

What’s that? Federal bureaucrats weren’t impressed when John Duncan didn’t appear to understand the Attawapiskat file in public? You don’t say!

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QP: All over the map before the summer

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The last QP of the sitting could be described in a single word: Scattershot. Apparently everyone was looking to get as many YouTube clips for their MPs’ websites to sustain them through the summer on a variety of topics, so there was very little coherence to any of the debate. Thomas Mulcair asked about F-35s (Harper: We’re rebuilding the Canadian Forces with the equipment our men and women in uniform need!), the cut in funds to minority francophone newspapers (Harper: There’s this funding formula in place, and hey, you ran all kinds of unilingual Anglophone candidates in francophone ridings), and about the myriad ethical lapses of the Conservative front bench (Harper: This was one of the most legislatively productive periods in Canadian history, and you’re an ineffective opposition!). So there. Nycole Turmel then took a turn batting away at those ethical lapses (Paradis: Our government’s done a good job on the economy!) before Bob Rae got up and went after Flaherty’s mortgage announcement earlier in the morning, noting that the new changes return the policy back to where it was in 2006 when the government took office (Harper: We’re being prudent after listening to the experts!). For his final question, Rae noted that it was National Aboriginal Day, and given all of the 1812 celebrations, why hasn’t the government resolved the Six Nations land claims dispute that has been going on since said war. Harper assured him that they were in negotiations, and hey, they have new land claims legislation.

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Roundup: Last-minute Order Paper additions

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With a little over a day left in the spring sitting of the Commons, two major government bills were unveiled yesterday. The first was yet another immigration bill, this time looking to crack down and deport non-residents who commit crimes and serve time in Canada, and oh look – it proposes to give the minister additional powers to decide on these cases. Right as a bill that proposes to give the minister additional arbitrary powers over refugee determination has nearly finished wending its way through the Senate. But you would be correct if you saw a theme emerging – giving the minister more arbitrary powers under the guise of speeding processes along, seeing as creating sets of rules that need to be followed takes time, and apparently we’re willing to forgo rules for the sake of speed. Or something like that.

Meanwhile, Vic Toews announced the tabling of a bill to amend the RCMP Act in order to improve the discipline process as the Commissioner had been requesting while he works to clean up the Force after a series of embarrassing scandals. These changes also include a more robust public complaints process, which is also a good thing.

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QP: A refusal to apologise

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With Harper still in Los Cabos for the G20 meeting, and with Jason Kenney in the news over a curse-laden email, it was up to John Baird to again take on the role as back-up PM du jour. And when Thomas Mulcair kicked off QP by asking whether there would be another omnibus budget bill in the fall – giving the oh-so-clever “more like ominous bill” as part of his answer – to which John Baird touted their focus on jobs and growth. When Mulcair turned to the issues of transparency and accountability in respect to the PBO’s search for data on the cuts (Baird: Yay Accountability Act! Oh, and the PBO has overstepped his mandate). Linda Duncan was up next to give a grave and sanctimonious account of Jason Kenney’s email in which he called the Deputy Premier of Alberta “a complete and utter asshole” – though she couldn’t repeat that in the House. Kenney stood up and not only didn’t apologise, but hit back at Duncan and the NDP for not supporting the development of the oilsands and then once again distorted the “Dutch disease” comments. Bob Rae was then up and wondered why Kenney refused to apologise. Kenney continued to not apologise, but touted his government’s “close working relationship” with Alberta and oh, he got 76 percent of the vote in his riding during the last election – as though that gives him a mandate to insult provincial representatives. Rae idly wondered what Kenney would have called him if he got 80 percent of the vote, but Kenney stuck to his non-apology.

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Roundup: Pressuring the Clerk of the Privy Council

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As his showdown with the federal government over details of the budget cuts intensifies, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, Kevin Page, obtained a legal opinion from a respected constitutional lawyer to try to pressure the Clerk of the Privy Council to giving up the information he’s requested. Page says he doesn’t want to have to take the government to court to get the data because it means that basically he’s lost – he won’t get the information in time for it to be useable, but at the same time, it’s a battle he needs to wage before the government treats him and his office with further contempt. Of course, this is all related to the ongoing contempt the Conservatives have been showing to Parliament over their refusal to turn over any of the requested financial data, no matter that IT’S THE FIRST DUTY OF PARLIAMENT TO CONTROL THE PUBLIC PURSE. But who cares about MPs doing their own jobs when they can (try to) get the PBO to do it for them and fight their battles for them?

The NDP made one last effort to kill the omnibus budget bill with a “reasoned amendment” that it not move to third reading. Not surprisingly, it was voted down, and the bill is now on its way to the Senate.

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QP: Never mind the PBO, check the Public Accounts

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The first Question Period of the last sitting week of the spring semester of the Commons kicked off with Thomas Mulcair inquiring about the legal challenge that the Parliamentary Budget Officer was bringing forward since he wasn’t getting the answers that were due to him on the government’s cuts. Conservative backbenchers scoffed as Kevin Page’s legal experts were referenced, and John Baird, acting as today’s back-up PM du jour, studiously avoided referencing the PBO at all as he talked about how financial data was continuing to be released as it always has been, through the Quarterly Reports and the Public Accounts. Peggy Nash reiterated the questions, for which Tony Clement reiterated the answer, before Nash moved onto how the omnibus budge bill was going to punish seniors, to which Diane Finley assured her that seniors were better off under their government than they had been previously. Bob Rae then got up to not only restate the case for the PBO to get those numbers, but to remind the Conservatives that they had previously been found in contempt of parliament because of their refusal to turn over the necessary figures. Baird insisted that they were elected on a plan that they were following through on, which again studiously avoided the issue entirely.

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Roundup: Moral victory at report stage

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After 22 hours of solid votes, the omnibus budget bill has passed Report Stage. There were no amendments passed, but the opposition still claims moral victory, and they did turn the public’s attention to the bill, which really was the whole point. The question remains, of course, whether the public will still care by September, let alone by 2015?

The Supreme Court has set a date of July 10th to hear the Etobicoke Centre appeal. Looks like Ted Opitz isn’t going to get the summer barbecue circuit after all (not that he isn’t being given an inordinate amount of Members’ Statements and backbench suck-up questions in QP at the moment).

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Lord and Smith Commission, Episode 8

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My friend Destine Lord and I have a new video up, in which we talk about the omnibus budget bill vote-a-thon, and the latest revelations with military procurement deals in this country.

Roundup: The vote-a-thon rolls along

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The omnibus budget bill amendment vote-a-thon is currently underway in the House of Commons. Actual voting stated at 1 am, and will continue likely for 24 hours, give or take.  Andrew Coyne sees the virtue in the vote-a-thon, as one of the tools that the opposition has to bloody the government if only a little bit, which we need to see more of if we really respect democracy.

As you may have heard, Bob Rae officially announced that he’s not seeking the leadership of the party, but will stay on as interim leader until the convention, which will happen in April. And in a rare move in this place, he ended his speech/press conference with a few lines from Shakespeare’s Sonnet XXV. Susan Delacourt looks at some of the possible factors of the decision. All eyes are now on Justin Trudeau, who has admitted to feeling pressure to run, but he’s still saying no for now. Pundit’s Guide looks at lessons that the Liberals should learn from the NDP leadership.

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