Janyce McGregor Bio

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews on Wednesday kicked off a timely and no-doubt interesting -- but mostly closed-door -- conference of law enforcement officials, civilian oversight bodies and academics wrestling with how to manage the rising costs of policing. CBC News is doing an in-depth series on this issue this week.

Among the minister's prepared remarks, this section in particular jumps off the page:

"Spending on policing has increased steadily -- reaching more than $12 billion annually in 2010.

At the same time, over the last decade, the volume and severity of reported crime have both been on the decline.

This has added fuel to the debate among Canadians, who rightfully want to know where and how their tax dollars are being spent."

What Toews says is true, according to Statistics Canada crime rate statistics. Given the theme of the conference, it's a perfectly legitimate point to underscore: as decision-makers figure out how to cut costs and (to use a cliché) "do more with less," they also have to wrestle with how much of what they're doing now is justified according to the latest figures.

The accuracy and relative importance of these Statistics Canada crime rate statistics have been challenged frequently by several ministers in the Harper government -- including Toews -- over the last few years, in explaining the need for often-controversial pieces of crime legislation, not to mention the increased spending required to pay for the Conservatives' justice and public safety agendas.

A selection of past quotes, after the jump...

Plenty of politicians try to make a name for themselves on Parliament Hill. But it's a rare day when a Member of Parliament gets to announce a new name for herself in the House of Commons.

Candice Bergen (formerly Candice Hoeppner) announced before question period on Monday that she's reverting back to her surname from birth. But hold the Murphy Brown jokes: it appears she's heard those lines before.

Video, after the jump...

It's a pretty big deal for any member of the Conservative backbench to have the prime minister in town. The locals come out to see him, and it can generate a lot of local partisan momentum.

So maybe Yukon Tory Ryan Leef was just a little over-excited when he got a little tongue-tied during his introduction for Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Carcross, Yukon on Monday night.

But how does Environment Minister Peter Kent explain his similar slip of the tongue the following day in Norman Wells, N.W.T.?

Update and video, after the jump...

With Canada's Amateur Sport Minister Bal Gosal focused on the Canadian athletes competing in London, it fell to Labour Minister Lisa Raitt to sub in and wave the federal government's flag at a KidSport announcement Thursday in Toronto.

But like several of her colleagues this summer, Raitt met up with an opponent of the federal government's recent cuts to refugee health benefits.

The tale of the tape, after the jump:

Earlier this week, we published a Canadian Press story about the difficulty of tracking the attendance records of Senators, something which requires old-fashioned, in-person paper searching in a Senate office in downtown Ottawa. In an "open government" era, some believe its time to make these records available electronically.

Today, Senator David Tkachuk, the chair of the Senate's internal economy committee, responded to that report.

Full text, after the jump:

Olympic triathlete Simon Whitfield is wrapped in a Canadian flag as Amateur Sport Minister Bal Gosal looks on, following the Olympic flag bearer announcement Thursday on Parliament Hill. (Chris Wattie/Reuters)

Doctors threatened to show up and disrupt events featuring Conservative MPs and cabinet ministers all summer long. Turns out, they meant it: at least if Amateur Sport Minister Bal Gosal's past week is any indication.

Video of the latest two doctor versus cabinet minister confrontations, after the jump:

MPs take their mobile devices into the House of Commons. We see them use them all the time, reading and sending text messages.

But a ringing phone? That's a total no-no.

Which might explain why some government MPs went nuts when a phone rang not just once, but twice, during Newfoundland and Labrador MP Jack Harris' question to Defence Minister Peter MacKay during Wednesday's question period.

House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer let it go. Both times.

It's been a while since press gallery journalists had a chance to ask any questions directly to International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda.

It's hard to say whether they'll feel satisfied with the information they got during this impromptu scrum after the Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament Hill Wednesday.

Watch the video after the jump....

Remember David Wilks? The backbench Conservative MP from British Columbia briefly experienced his 15 minutes of political fame when he was caught on a YouTube video telling his constituents he had concerns about the budget implementation bill.

Wilks was filmed during a meeting with constituents in Revelstoke suggesting that as an individual MP he couldn't stop the bill, which would require at least 12 other MPs to break ranks from the government's line and vote with the opposition.

When the time came for Wilks to vote on the budget bill's amendments and the final third reading stage, he dutifully rose alongside the rest of the Conservative caucus and supported C-38.

Any regrets? Apparently not.

Could Harper's strong, stable, majority Conservative government be about to fall over the controversial budget implementation bill? 

"How the heck could that even be possible?" you may ask. "I thought we were done with this craziness when the majority was returned last year."

You're not wrong. We were done with it, to a certain extent.

But there was the Opposition House Leader Nathan Cullen last week, seeming to suggest that because the margin of this majority is small, even a brief bout of sleep-deprived slip-uppage on the government's part could bring everything crashing down for the Conservatives.

This week's report stage votes for the budget implementation legislation seem as good an excuse as any for a bit of a refresher course on the parliamentary convention of "confidence" as it pertains to the House of Commons.

More, after the jump...

 

NDP-turned-Independent MP Bruce Hyer told the CBC's Julie Van Dusen Thursday that he's introducing a private member's motion calling for random seating in the House of Commons.

The seating plan could change a few times a year, with MPs dispersed among representatives of other parties.

"We would no longer be sitting in hockey teams, with our coaches dying to send us over the boards for a brawl," Hyer said. "We'd get to know them as people."

The MP, who is now free to speak and vote as he wishes, thinks the move would end the "mindless solidarity and tribalism" he sees around him, and improve cooperation and decorum.

Take our poll below - see video and more, after the jump...

This YouTube video, posted Thursday morning by United Steelworkers economist Erin Weir on his Progressive Economics Forum blog, is making the rounds in Ottawa.

It's an edited excerpt of the committee testimony on the budget implementation bill from late Wednesday, and features a rather persistent line of questioning from Saskatchewan Conservative MP Randy Hoback, including this question:

"Have you ever been or are you presently a member of the NDP party?"

Video and more, after the jump:

Earlier this spring, the Ottawa media was at pains to find any federal MP interested in saying much about either the policies or the politics driving the mass student protests across Quebec.

Opposition Leader Tom Mulcair, whose party represents the majority of Quebec's federal seats (including several held by student-aged MPs), brushed off questions, saying the student tuition battle was "first and foremost a matter of provincial jurisdiction."

The federal Liberals were no more eager to wade into the fray. Senior Quebec MP and Liberal House Leader Marc Garneau also called it a "provincial matter" in refusing to comment.

Conservative MPs were equally reticent -- until now.

More, after the jump...

Justin Trudeau, seen here visiting Katimavik volunteers in London, Ont. in 2007, was a champion of the volunteer organization even before his election as a Liberal MP. (Dave Chidley/Canadian Press)

Governor General David Johnston was caught musing by The Canadian Press earlier this week about his idea for a new program that could see the government offer funding for young people who are interested in academic or work exchanges abroad, or in other parts of Canada.

On the surface, it seems like a sort of motherhood idea anyone could or should get behind: relatively non-controversial, potentially low-cost, and heck, who could be against a governor general focused on an education agenda who's out to help young people better themselves?

But the current political climate is such that funding for youth exchange programs, and one program in particular, has become extremely political.

More, after the jump...

In a world where question period has become mostly-reading period... let's all pause to give full props to this little number from Monday's show.

Fresh from busting out the rhymes for Paul Dewar's showcase at the NDP leadership convention last Friday, NDP MC, er I mean MP, Charlie Angus threw it down on the subject of the Harper government's ethics failings.

Tory Dean Del "Maestro" responded with some powerful spinning of his own.

Bonus track: Industry Minister Christian Paradis, rapped last Thursday by the ethics commissioner, stepped up to the mic for the first time since being found in breach of the government's conflict of interest rules.

Video, after the jump.

Alberta Premier Alison Redford is poised to call an election following this week's provincial budget.

As all parties rev up their campaign engines to hit the election trail this spring, the wheels on the rookie Wildrose party bus appear placed to do more than go 'round and 'round.

The picture everyone's talking about... after the jump:

(Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

The 2011 federal budget, passed with fanfare last June after the Harper government won its majority on May 2, included a small economic stimulus program intended to help small businesspeople.

The stated objective for the "hiring credit for small business" was to "stimulate new employment and support small businesses."

But in the way it's administered, it also supports taxfilers who are not actually small businesses.

Even the hint of Justin Trudeau - Justin Trudeau! - flirting with sovereignty was just too tempting for Quebec bloggers, then mainstream media, to walk away from.

Never mind that the notion of Pierre's son changing teams wasn't rooted in any sort of factual basis even before his defensive tweet and almost-melodramatic rant in the foyer of the House of Commons after question period on Tuesday.

His federalist bloodlines - on both sides - as well as his own track record as a political actor should have been enough to dismiss the early headlines as nationalist muckracking.

So why the protracted parsing of a few selected words on his part?

It's time for some housekeeping about the twin events Prime Minister Stephen Harper held Thursday on both coasts to announce the next steps and promote the winning bidders for the federal government's huge shipbuilding project.

First, let's take attendance.

In Halifax, with bells on: Defence Minister and Nova Scotia's representative in cabinet, Peter MacKay, introducing around his new bride, Nazanin Afshin-Jam.

Not invited to the event in Halifax: As reported by CBC Halifax, NDP Premier Darrell Dexter, who lobbied hard for his province to win the larger of the two contracts up for grabs. (Though the government did maintain all along that lobbying would not influence the contract decisions.)

Also not at the event in North Vancouver: B.C. Premier Christy Clark, who also did her best to make the west coast case for their share of the procurement.

But perhaps the most interesting thing to happen during Harper's coast-to-coast shipbuilding blitz took place during the question and answer session in North Vancouver.

More, after the jump...

(Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

When you cover the political beat, indulging in a little tabloid guilty pleasure doesn't usually call to mind something you need to ask the foreign minister's office.

But a British tab piece about some of the gifts received by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge from various trips abroad included mention of the gift of three pairs of shoes for the Duchess from Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird.

Shoes? Did someone say shoes? The inquiring (mostly female) minds in our office wanted more details.

The Canadian designer behind the gift, and the low-down from Baird's spokesman, after the jump...