Inside Politics - Susan Lunn

Ruffling Jim Prentice's climate change feathers

Thu, 20 May 2010 17:25:51 -0500

The normally unflappable Jim Prentice is upset.

It's surprising given that the environment minister doesn't get upset very often.

Despite facing a lot of criticism in his portfolio, Prentice is normally calm and cool in a lawyerly sort of way.

Until today.

Kory's Tories media-not-so-friendlies list: Yup, we made it...

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:03:37 -0500

Former PMO communications director Kory Teneycke gave a breakdown of media friendly to the conservative movement on Friday's opening day of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy's annual conference in Ottawa.

On the not-so-friendly side, he included the Toronto Star, and CBC Radio. For television, he said conservatives need to do better to get their message out.

He also put up a picture of David Suzuki, who has a weekly show, The Nature of Things, on CBC Television.

Teneycke said that gives an hour a week to talk about climate change. He also described Suzuki as "green on the outside, and red on the inside" -- presumably, that's Liberal red.

It's worth noting though that two media outlets covering the conference where Teneycke and others are speaking this week just so happen to be CBC Radio and the Toronto Star.

Turning blue all over?

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:45:39 -0500

Canadians, it turns out, are becoming more conservative, according to a poll presented today at the Manning Centre's annual conference.

Pollster Allan Gregg with Harris-Decima and Professor Andre Turcotte surveyed a thousand Canadians in February.

They discovered the majority of Canadians agree with conservative values on the importance of family, traditional marriage, and the view that abortion is morally wrong.

However, most Canadians do not want the government to regulate morality, the survey suggests.

But most respondents agree with other Conservative party policies, such as getting rid of the long gun registry, as well as the government's management of the recession.

Health care budget tensions return

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:51:46 -0500

The federal government will bring down its budget in March. And the federal finance minister has already signalled there will be a bit of belt tightening, as Ottawa tackles a growing deficit.

But Jim Flaherty has also promised to leave transfers to the provinces alone.

The health care accord, signed in 2004, has given the provinces predictable increases every year in the amount of money they receive from Ottawa.

But that accord expires in March 2014.

And that has people starting to wonder what might replace it.

Listen to Susan Lunn's documentary feature for The House:

Organizations on the budgetary chopping block

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:02:49 -0500

The federal government may not have finished its pre-budget consultations, but it's already begun to cut funding to some non-governmental organizations.

Late last year, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) told the ecumenical organization KAIROS it was ending its three decades of financial support of that agency.

Listen to Susan Lunn's feature for The House:

AECL's fork in the road

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:32:22 -0500

It's a new year for the troubled crown agency, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited.

And its future will likely be determined in 2010.

The government is looking for investors for the Candu reactor division.

It's also deciding the future of the research side of AECL, which makes medical isotopes in Chalk River.

Listen to the audio of Susan Lunn's documentary for The House:

Air travellers on standby for more changes

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:13:31 -0500

Listen to the audio of this feature report:

Travellers may soon find even more to deal with when flying outside of Canada.

This week, the federal transport minister announced Canada will speed up its plans to buy full body scanners. Ottawa placed an order this week for 44 new machines. Some will be arriving in airports within the next few weeks.

The federal government has already tried one in a pilot project in Kelowna.

Federal Transport Minister John Baird admitted the machines are not a perfect solution.

"The reality is, there's no system that is 100 per cent. It would be like we could reduce a lot of road deaths if we went to a 25 kilometre speed limit on our 400 series highways. The reality is, we have to take a balanced approach, based on the freedoms and civil liberties of living in a liberal democracy like Canada," he said at a news conference this week.

But some Canadians argue there is not the right balance between security and people's civil rights.

Copenhagen dispatch: Spotted in the food court

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 08:53:18 -0500

It being lunch time, I wandered into the food court and ran into a couple of Canadians.

One was the prime minister's director of communications, John Williamson.

He was in London, England already for a private event, so he bought a ticket to Copenhagen to come to the summit for the final day.

Copenhagen dispatch: Should have left breadcrumbs

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:54:09 -0500

Reporters can be environmentally friendly, too.

Normally during trips organized by the Prime Minister's Office, media are shepherded around in buses.

But today, reporters took public transit to get to the climate change summit in Copenhagen.

On-Demand Audio: Ottawa Report

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:05:50 -0500

Join the CBC's Susan Lunn and Kady O'Malley on Tuesday morning for Ottawa Report.

They'll be talking with morning shows across the country on CBC Radio One about the latest developments on the national political scene.

With the United Nations talks on climate change entering their second week, we'll hear from Susan and Kady about the politics of climate change as Prime Minister Stephen Harper gets ready to meet with other world leaders in Copenhagen.

Listen to the on-demand versions of Susan's report and Kady's report. You can also tune in to your local regional news broadcast at cbc.ca/radio.

The Torch arrives

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:22:36 -0500

The Olympic Torch took a special journey today.

Olympic gold medallist Barbara Ann Scott became the first person ever to bring the torch into the House of Commons.

Scott, who won the gold medal in figure skating in the 1948 Olympics in St. Moritz, beamed as she held the torch aloft. Politicians applauded and cheered the 81-year-old.

Un petit probleme

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 08:44:59 -0500

Prime Minister Stephen Harper dropped by the Canadian International School in Beijing today.

The school has about 400 students from around the world. Many of Its teachers are Canadian and it follows a Canadian curriculum.

A sign above the entrance welcomed the prime minister in three languages: English, Mandarin and French.

The only problem is that the school doesn't actually teach French.

Standing room only

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:31:37 -0500

It's standing room only in the room where former Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin is testifying before a Commons committee about the torture of Afghan detainees.

Every chair in the small room in Parliament's West Block is taken.

And at the back, the crowd stands three people deep. People are either writing notes or frantically typing on their Blackberries. They spill out the door into the hallway. They are not members of the media.

Yet the room is very quiet as everyone listens to Colvin's riveting testimony. The only sound is some media typing on their laptops.

The PM's Gandhi Tribute

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:29:11 -0500

Prime Minister Stephen Harper paid a visit to Mahatma Gandhi's memorial today.

He and his wife, Laureen Teskey, wrote a brief message in the visitors' book.

This is what they wrote:

Hello? Minister Raitt? Anyone?

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:47:41 -0500

If you have a conference call with a minister, and no one calls in, will anyone hear it?

Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt is in New York today to meet with business leaders, and discuss in particular the oil sands.

At least that's what the media release says.

When I tried to call in, the conference i.d. number didn't work.

UPDATE FOLLOWS...