Inside Politics

Layton sees Chretien's 'ghost'

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 07:56:47 -0500

(Paul Chiasson, The Canadian Press)

It's hard, perhaps impossible, for any politician to not make any flubs in five weeks of campaigning.

And while NDP Leader Jack Layton has not yet had to deflect scandal quite like the others, he showed Thursday night that he can have "one of those moments."

Layton's new support - from a supporter

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 16:41:28 -0500

Jack Layton has said so long to the brace he was using to walk around.

The NDP leader, who is recovering from hip surgery, is now using an "elegant" cane. It certainly means he's more agile.

When asked if the development has any greater meaning, Layton said: "I'll leave people to come up with their own metaphors." And then he told us how he got the cane.

Sweet times on the NDP tour

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 17:23:07 -0500

I always thought the first time I went to a maple sugar shack would be with my two-year-old daughter. Instead it was with Jack Layton.

At least he made it entertaining: playing the spoons and, of course, savouring the maple syrup taffy.

Jokes abounded about the need for a national dental care program after this particular stop. And that Layton was trying to "sweeten up" voters.

Photographic evidence after the jump...

UPDATED: Christiane Ouimet has a date with Public Accounts

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 17:16:16 -0500

Christiane Ouimet is a much sought-after person. It seems not one, but two House of Commons committees would like to bring the former public sector integrity commissioner before them to testify.

Ouimet abruptly retired last October just before the release of a scathing report by the auditor general into the operations of the commissioner's office. Both Government Operations and Estimates, and the Public Accounts committees have asked her "nicely" to appear. That didn't produce the desired response, and so now both committees are slated to discuss Tuesday whether or not to go the route of formally summoning her.

Ouimet, you'll remember, found not a single case of wrongdoing in her three years as the go-to person for whistleblowers in the federal government. She reported as much in her annual reports to Government Operations, as that is the committee to which her office reports. But Public Accounts is also keen to question her about why the millions spent by her office never led to a case being referred to the independent tribunal created to investigate allegations of government wrongdoing.

But it's unusual for two committees to summon the same person on what is more or less the same issue. So the MPs will have to decide if one committee wants to back off, or if they really can differentiate their "areas of study" enough to warrant the action of summoning her.

Or maybe it will come down to first dibs. Government Ops meets first, from 11 a.m. to 1p.m. and Public Accounts does not convene until 3:30 p.m. But by the end of tomorrow we should know if at least one bailiff will be visiting Ouimet, if not two.

UPDATE: Government Operations has decided not to summon Ms Ouimet. The decision was made in an in-camera meeting of the steering committee, so we are not privy to details as to the rationale. Stay tuned for Public Accounts at 3:30 p.m. to see what the decision, slated to be part of public committee business, is there.

UPDATE, UPDATE: The Public Accounts committee agreed to summons Ouimet to appear before the committee next Tuesday, Feb. 8 - although members conceded that may be short notice.

PM to AFN National Chief: let's talk

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:19:55 -0500

"It may be...it turns out to be one of the most significant statements by a prime minister about the failure of first nations policy in this country," says Assembly of First Nations Chief Shawn Atleo.

In an interview with CBC, Atleo explains why a letter he received from Prime Minister Stephen Harper is significant. You can decide for yourself when you scroll down to see a copy of the letter below.

Atleo concedes that the average reader might not see much beyond polite and careful words, but, "I do think it does signal a shift," says Atleo.

He sees the fact the letter talks about the PM's office and the Privy Council Office being involved in talks as a real attitude change by the PM on first nations issues.

G8/G20 OPP expenses: This just in

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 17:13:34 -0500

This just in on G8/G20 OPP expenses:

Stockwell Day...saving money one dollar at a time

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:49:08 -0500

So, the federal government has shovelled billions of dollars out the door to ease the pain of the recession.

In doing so, we now have a $54-billion deficit.

And the spending continues: fighter jets, billion-dollar summits...

Now Treasury Board President Stockwell Day is looking for places to cut.

But compared to the billions going out, the savings announced so far tally but millions.

Day's new target? Government hospitality expenses. You know, food, drink, travel, conferences and the like.

UPDATED: Sauvé, Paradis and the case of the missing coat

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 11:47:51 -0500

I've had many coats over the years. Ones that were knee length, ones that were full length, puffy ski jackets, a tent of a maternity coat and others.

We live in a cold country, after all.

But I've never spent $5400.00 on one.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but even for a cashmere coat from Holt Renfrew, that's a lot of money to look good and stay warm at the same time.

But that appears to be what former Public Works Minister Christian Paradis spent on a coat he reportedly wore to a fundraiser thrown by construction boss Paul Sauvé.

How do we know this?

It, somewhat surprisingly, came up at the Government Operations committee this morning.

What those G8/G20 glow sticks were really for

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 17:13:48 -0500

There have been many numbers bandied about in regards to the various costs of the G8 and G20 summits last summer.

One that the opposition has enjoyed bringing up again and again is the reportedly $14,000 spent on glow sticks for the G8 in Muskoka.

Now why, pray tell, would the police need glow sticks?

As colleague Rosemary Barton blogged last month, was there an after-party we didn't hear about?

But alas, we now have the answer!

No, there wasn't a giant rave that went well into the wee hours to which we were not invited. In fact, most of the glow-in-the-dark sticks were not for the police at all.

UPDATED: Is Oda softening on abortion in maternal health initiative?

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:19:30 -0500

Wish I could answer that question.

According to Thursday's Ottawa Citizen, CIDA Minister Bev Oda, after a visit to Mali and Mozambique, has changed her views on the role of safe abortions in maternal health.

Here is what she said, according to that newspaper about what role family planning and abortion plays, when it comes to maternal health in the developing world:

Cons & NDP exchange emails on long-gun registry

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:45:35 -0500

From Power and Politics Host Evan Solomon:

With the September 22 vote on the long-gun registry fast approaching, there is furious lobbying from the Conservatives to keep on side those eight Liberal and 12 New Democrat MPs who supported the bill in the past. Candice Hoeppner, the Manitoba MP who sponsored the private member's bill, has said she and her fellow Conservatives are urging the NDP MPs to not flip their vote.

CBC's Power and Politics has obtained an email exchange between Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz, an outspoken opponent of the long-gun registry, and New Democrat MP Charlie Angus. The exchange reveals not only how intense the lobbying effort is, but that Angus may be on the verge of changing his mind and ~~voting to kill the registry.~~ (Ed Note: Oops! That should have read 'voting NOT to kill the registry'. Sorry, we missed that on first writing.)

The unedited email exchange is below:

How many bills does it take to kill or save the long-gun registry?

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:50:23 -0500

So, if you were watching the Jack Layton news conference today, you would have heard that many of the questions from reporters were about how his proposed bill would work, timing-wise.

Dimitri Soudas: The planes are coming, the planes are coming!

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:32:42 -0500

And so, as you can see from the latest news stories, it seems Russian aircraft, in the form of two TU-95 Bears, approached Canada ~~a couple of days ago~~ yesterday. Canada sprung into action, sending two of its own CF-18 Hornet fighter aircraft to shadow the Russians until they turned around.

How do we know this? Well, in early hours of Wednesday morning, Dimitri Soudas, the prime minister's director of communications told us so, in an email sent to members of the national press gallery.

Where's Harper? Where's Ignatieff? Where are my car keys?

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:40:48 -0500

So this week's Liberal news conference hitter-of-the-week is Scott Brison. You know, the MP the Libs trot out to raise burning issues or to provide comment on the political news story of the day (and surprisingly this summer, there have been quite a few of those!)

Yesterday, Brison's issue du jour was a "Where's Waldo" theme directed at Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Brison argued that with all these major issues and policy changes happening ($16-~~million~~ billion (oops!) fighter jets, scrapping the long-form census, concerns over leadership at the RCMP), the PM should be out and about, defending his government's decisions or handling of situations.

Brison's train of thought is that Harper is known as the man who calls the shots, so even if cabinet ministers are making announcements or appearing before committees, it's really the PM who is in charge. And so Brison asks, "Where's Harper?"

Brison, in all earnestness, is outraged that Harper has made only seven (!) public appearances in July (three of which were when the Queen was visiting). Meanwhile, his leader, Michael Ignatieff, has nobly spent three weeks on a bus tour, taking questions from the media and meeting "regular" Canadians, as well as chuggin' back a brew (see above.)

Honestly, it would be great for the news cycle if Harper came out to try to defend the census decision, or to say why Canada needs state-of-the-art, "fifth-generation" fighter jets. But it's not like the government is silent or offering "no comment." And I think most of us would agree even the prime minister is allowed to take a vacation and spend some time with his family (even if there was also that little matter of prorogation vacay back in January...)

But before anyone (Conservative or other) express indignation that the Liberals are even daring to question Harper's work ethic (Brison urged him to "get back to work"), it should be noted that last summer, one of the Conservatives' favourite talking points was "Where's Iggy?" when Ignatieff seemed to be bypassing the summer's political barbeque circuit.

Some might say it's a case of 'what goes around comes around.' Others might see it as 'imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.'

Maybe we could poll Canadians on that on the next census.

Stop the census presses! This just in from the National Statistics Council...

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:21:45 -0500

The National Statistics Council (that just rolls off the tongue now, doesn't it?) has issued a news release today calling for the reinstatement of the mandatory long-form census in 2011.

I know, I know, that's hardly shocking seeing as the NSC is made up of, well, statisticians and others who have already decried the government's move to replace the long-form with a voluntary National Household Survey. People such as economist Don Drummond, former Statistics Canada Chief Statistician Ivan Fellegi, William Robson of the C.D. Howe Institute as well as dozens of professors and academics from universities across the country. (See here for a link to what the Council is about.)