Despite having already lost their star candidate for the riding, Thomas Mulcair remains confident that the NDP can still win Edmonton Centre in the next general election – never mind that the confluence of factors that favoured Linda Duncan aren’t really present in that particular riding. Mulcair then headed to Calgary, where he scoffed at the notion of Harper as national unifier, and pointed to the current voluntary national securities regulator project as an example of sowing divisions with provinces like Alberta, who don’t want to sign on. Erm, not sure how it’s relevant, or why the Supreme Court would shut down a voluntary scheme, but whatever.
Tag Archives: Federalism
QP: Dodging and weaving around promises
With a Team Canada hockey game going on, the members were distracted as QP got underway, and there were a great many empty seats dotting the chamber. Even more, only Justin Trudeau and Elizabeth May were the only leaders present. Megan Leslie led off for the NDP, and wondered if income splitting was to be abandoned. Jim Flaherty rose to assure her that they were committed to tax relief for families, and that the opposition voted against income splitting for seniors. Leslie pressed, and Flaherty hit back about how only the Conservatives lowered taxes. Leslie turned to the elections bill and wondered why the government was reluctant to allow cross-country consultations. Pierre Poilievre insisted that he consulted outside of Ottawa and heard their complaints. David Christopherson shouted the same question again in English, to which Poilievre insisted that the opposition simply needed to submit a list of witnesses to the committee, and they would be bring them in. Trudeau returned to the issue of income splitting, and how Kenney rebuked his own caucus members by saying they always keep their promises. With that established, Trudeau wondered what happened to the patient wait time guarantee. After some hesitation, Rona Ambrose rose to assure him that billions had been invested in the problem. Trudeau then wondered about the promise to lower the price of diesel fuel, to which Flaherty dodged by insisted that they lowered all kinds of taxes. For his final question, Trudeau wondered about the promised oil and gas regulations, but Leona Aglukkaq skated and tried to accuse the Liberals of letting the infrastructure in national parks lapse.
Roundup: Harper’s need for ambiguity
At a business school event, the Prime Minister said that they don’t want foreign takeover rules that are too clear because the government wants room to manoeuvre in the event that some takeover bids aren’t good for the country and need to be blocked. He also said that the free trade deals that they are negotiating with China, India and South Korea aren’t going to be the same as the EU trade deal just agreed to, as they won’t be of the same depth or comprehensiveness.
Roundup: The premiers take exception
What’s that? Several premiers are taking exception to the federal factum on Senate reform that says that the government can make changes without provincial consent? You don’t say! It’s almost like we’re a federation and that the provinces have as much say in things relating to the constitution as the federal government does. What a novel concept that is!
Access to Information documents show that the government listened primarily to industry stakeholders when it made changes to the Fisheries Act around the protection of fish habitats – not that this should come as any great surprise.
Roundup: The premiers demand thus
And that was the premiers’ meeting. Aside from the opposition to the Canada Jobs Grant programme as it is currently structured, they wanted disaster mitigation to stand apart from their infrastructure demands, which of course they want federal funds for both. They also agreed to work together on the issue of cyberbullying, and on some healthcare initiatives related to things like home care, diagnostic imaging, and brand-name pharmaceuticals. John Geddes has a brief rundown of the meeting as a whole, and notes how curiously late the infrastructure working group comes after the federal budget. Andrew Coyne looks at all of the things that these premiers could accomplish that are in their own jurisdiction, and yet they choose to spend their time ganging up on the federal government instead, demanding cash.
Roundup: The RCMP take a look
The RCMP has confirmed that they are looking into those Senate audits to see if criminal charges are warranted, which Liberal Senate leader James Cowan is encouraged about, as he wants to ensure that due process is being followed. Cowan also noted on CTV’s Question Period that one particular sentence was missing from Senator Mike Duffy’s audit – that the Internal Economy committee said that the guidelines were perfectly clear and that the language was “unambiguous” in Senators Mac Harb and Patrick Brazeau’s reports, but somehow not in Duffy’s. In other words, it looks like Senator Tkachuk – who heads the Internal Economy committee – is protecting Duffy, as in two cases they said the very same forms and guidelines were clear and unambiguous. Curious indeed.
QP: All in due course
It was Friday-on-a-Thursday in the House, as it prepared to rise for the Easter break. Attendance was lighter than usual, but not as light as a usual Friday, and most unusually, Stephen Harper was present, which I completely did not expect. Megan Leslie was leading off for the NDP, asking about the tax increases in the budget. Harper stood up to list all of the tax increases that he claimed the NDP were in support of (which may or may not reflect reality). For her final question, Leslie asked about a patronage appointment at ACOA of a former ministerial staffer, to which Harper assured her that it had been cleared by the Public Service Commission and there was no ministerial interference. Craig Scott was up next, and with his air of affected gravitas, asked about the Elections Canada report on recommendations to avoid future instances of misleading robocalls, and wondered where the promised bill was. Tim Uppal reminded him that they just got the report yesterday, and that the bill would come in due course. For the Liberals,Ralph Goodale asked about the government pulling out of the UN convention on drought, which has plenty of applications back in Canada as well as abroad. Harper responded that the UN body spent less than 20 percent of its dollars to achieve results, and surely they could spend their funds being more effective elsewhere. Goodale moved onto the robocall report, to which Harper somewhat spuriously claimed that only the Liberals were “convicted” of breaking these laws, and as the the report was only tabled yesterday, they were reviewing and and would take its findings into account. Massimo Pacetti asked the same again in French, to which Harper repeated the same again in French.
Roundup: Interim PBO and the search for a replacement
In a rather surprising announcement at the end of the day yesterday, the government has named the Parliamentary Librarian as the interim Parliamentary Budget Officer until Kevin Page’s replacement can be found. That process is internal to the Library, and Page has expressed concerns that the makeup of the committee charged with the search is being kept secret, but I do get concerned when opposition parties want input into those processes, because it ultimately erodes the accountability for those appointments. Look at the questions surrounding Arthur Porter these days, and how Vic Toews skirts accountability by pointing out that the opposition leaders were consulted on his appointment. That’s why the prerogative power of appointment should rest with the Governor in Council – because it keeps the executive as the sole resting place of accountability. Meanwhile, the job criteria for the next PBO have been posted, and they include qualities like “discreet” and “consensus seeking” – perhaps not too surprising after the battles that Page had with the previous Parliamentary Librarian over his role.
Roundup: Context on Clarity and “Unity”
Political scientist Emmett Macfarlane takes apart the NDP’s “Unity Act” on replacing the Clarity Act with the Sherbrooke Declaration. Shorter version: the NDP is wrong about everything in it. Paul Wells then takes a crack at it, and reminds the NDP of just what was in the Supreme Court reference, and about the importance of this little thing called the constitution, and how anything to do with secession is actually pretty complex business, what with amending it in order to take Quebec out, and how there are explicit sections in that Supreme Court reference that the NDP are outright ignoring. Meanwhile, it seems that the bare minimum would be even less than that because the NDP’s proposal doesn’t take voter turnout into account. So yeah, there’s that.
Senator Patrick Brazeau and Conservative MP Royal Gallipeau were publicly belittling Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence at a local fundraiser for a provincial candidate. Gallipeau did have some more constructive comments afterward regarding his visit to Victoria Island over the Christmas break, but it still is a bit distasteful what went down.
Roundup: Harper’s lowered expectations
Apparently Stephen Harper avoids First Ministers meetings in order to keep expectations low and appear to be over-performing. Good to know. And suddenly I’m reminded of these old MadTV sketches. Seems rather apropos.
The Canadian Forces wants to spend a billion dollars on armed drones. Considering their recent track record when it comes to procurement, and the fact that we still don’t actually have any kind of white paper or policy direction when it comes to what our Forces are supposed to be doing and what roles they’re supposed to be filling, um, perhaps we should get on that first, before we spend a billion-plus dollars on drones that we might not actually need, no? Just saying.