Inside Politics

This weekend on The House

by Janyce McGregor Posted: November 27, 2009 5:33 PM Last Updated: November 27, 2009 5:56 PM

A preview from Max Paris, Senior Producer for The House on CBC Radio One:

We have a major surprise this week:  three MPs on one panel -- Laurie Hawn, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Defence, Liberal Defence Critic Ujjal Dosanjh, and Paul Dewar the NDP's Foreign Affairs Critic -- and for the most part, they're civil, intelligent and respectful.  The discussion about this week's testimony at the Afghanistan Committee was really engaging. We're a little stunned... pleasantly so... but stunned nonetheless. It's not often that you get three MPs from three different parties together without a lot of partisan blather. But there was very little here. And that works to the MPs' credit and the listeners' benefit.

Of course, this is a show about politics... so we've got to get a little partisan fix in there. Louise Elliott injects the show with a documentary feature on "ten-percenters". Those are the taxpayer-funded flyers somebody else's MP sends to your house. A lot of folks think the latest one sent out by the Conservatives isn't kosher. The Liberal Party is portrayed as anti-Israel and the pamphlet was mailed to households in ridings with large Jewish populations. Yikes!
 
House producer Nick Gamache also wanted to have a say in what's on the show this week... So here he is:
  
Did you notice how the announcement that Prime Minister Harper would travel to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen after all came almost exactly at the same time as Michael Ignatieff was giving a big speech on the environment? That's gotta be a coincidence, right? Anyway, the Liberal leader decided to leave the job of explaining his climate change plan on our show to his environment and energy critic. David McGuinty will explain why his party's plan is a good one, even though it doesn't include actual targets.

Speaking of climate change, a report released this week shows how seriously northern communities will be affected by global warming. We got the mayor of Inuvik, Northwest Territories, on the line. His reaction: "no kidding, climate change will affect us!" He said it's already started.
 
I also hope you tune in to hear the guy reading listeners' emails, to find out who wrote in! (Hint: she's related to Richard Colvin...)
 
Enjoy the show! 
Max & Nick