First Reading (11/04/09)
- November 4, 2009 9:34 AM |
- By Janyce McGregor
(Robin Rowland/CBC)
Today's essential political reads:
1) The most-anticipated House of Commons vote of the week happens later today on Conservative Candace Hoeppner's Private Member's Bill to abolish the long-gun registry. And so, the coverage: MacCharles on how the registry appears 'doomed', the Star's editorial about how the politicization of this issue is 'unfortunate', Don Martin's declaration that it's a good time for the registry to die... well, you get the idea.
2) Loads of detail and reaction to yesterday's Auditor General report in every paper today... but Greg Weston draws perhaps the most interesting conclusion: that Fraser's report 'calls the Conservatives' competence into question.' And speaking of emergency preparedness, the 'where's all that vaccine going?' game also continues. The Globe's front page, as well as The National last night, explain how some of Canada's 'leftovers' have been shipped abroad.
3) As first reported by our Kady yesterday afternoon, the Clerk of the Privy Council and the Treasury Board Secretary don't seem to have a problem with those big cheque props.
4) Remember those 76 Sri Lankan Tamils who sailed into Canadian waters last month? Concerns continue that they're connected to the Tamil Tigers, a banned terrorist organization in Canada.
5) More fun with Michael Ignatieff archives... this installment: a 1992 article in support of the republican cause, which declared 'the Royal Family is not doing its job.'
About the Authors
- Rosemary Barton started her television career reporting from Quebec City where she covered the ins and outs of Quebec politics. She moved to the CBC Parliamentary Bureau in 2007. She also stood on the side of road awaiting U.S. President Barack Obama's motorcade for hours in the cold. When she finally spotted him, all of Canada heard her shriek, "I saw him!"
- Alison Crawford worked in Fredericton, Calgary and Winnipeg before returning to her hometown to work in the CBC parliamentary bureau. Her beats include the RCMP, justice, public safety and the Liberals. Alison credits her investigative skills as well as a national etiquette column and coverage of a ferret Christmas party, with having prepared her for covering national politics.
- James Cudmore has been a national newspaper reporter, a national television reporter and a national radio reporter. He's reported from every province and territory in the country. James has been, in no particular order, a bouncer at a Toronto night club, a book-seller, a house-painter, a soldier, a prep-cook, an ice-cream scooper, coffee-server, dish-washer, and paper boy. James has covered three federal elections from Ottawa, and two more from Alberta. James covers Defence for the CBC and has reported from Afghanistan. He also covers politics (but most days would rather be cooking).
- Louise Elliott has been a national reporter on the Hill since 2002. As a regular contributor to CBC Radio's The House, she has tackled stories about policy and politics that range from food labelling to refugee policy to the G20. Elliott has won numerous awards, including two Radio Television News Director Awards and a Canadian Association of Journalists award for her series on the spraying of chemical defoliants at CFB Gagetown. In 2003, she received a National Newspaper Award for political journalism.
- James Fitz-Morris came to Parliament Hill 10 years ago as the bureau chief for two private radio stations. In 2005, James joined CBC so he could report without pausing for "important messages from his sponsors." His primary beats are foreign affairs and finance, making him the bureau's resident number-cruncher and exchange rate converter. He's also worked in Beirut, Lebanon. He speaks English and French fluently, and is still grappling with Arabic.
- Chris Hall is the National Affairs Editor for CBC News. He's been a member of the CBC Parliamentary Bureau since 1998. That adds up to 11 budgets, four elections, three prime ministers and too many confidence votes to count. Chris started his career in print before moving to the CBC in 1992. Since then, he's worked in Toronto, Halifax and St. John's, as well as Ottawa.
- Susan Lunn started reporting in her home town of Halifax in 1986, where she had wrote a column called pet-pourri. But like many other maritimers, the bright lights of Toronto beckoned. She was hired in 1990 by the CBC and has worked in so many locations her mother still writes her address and telephone number in pencil in her address book. She has been in Ottawa now for a record seven years.
- Leslie MacKinnon Leslie's been working in news and current affairs since newsrooms used teletype, televison was shot on film and radio tape was edited with a razor blade. She saw through The Journal's long run on CBC-TV, and since then has worked in Halifax, Toronto and Ottawa in the CBC's various permutations. Right now, she's a TV news reporter in the political bureau, and likes certain parts of Ottawa - the canal, the Hill - a lot.
- Janyce McGregor has been a television producer in the CBC's Parliamentary Bureau since 2001. She started her career working for Studio 2 on TVOntario. In 2005 her then-doctoral student husband persuaded her to follow him to the U.K., where she worked for BBC World Service Radio in London. Janyce is originally a farm girl from southwestern Ontario. Her most important job title is "Norah's Mom."
- Kady O'Malley has been covering the Hill for more than a decade (yes, really) for a variety of publications. An Ottawa girl (not quite born, but raised), she has a passion for politics that borders on the unhealthy, and has liveblogged her way through hundreds of committee meetings, press conferences, judicial inquiries, budget launches, cabinet shuffles, and even the odd constitutional crisis. Oh, and yes, her Boston Terrier really is named "BlackBerry."
- Chris Rands has been a member of the Parliamentary bureau since 2001. He started at Toronto's AM Radio giant CFRB before moving to CBC's National Radio News in 1996. Chris has worked in Toronto, Moncton, Sudbury, Regina, Washington and St John's. Every time Chris walks up to the Peace Tower, he wants to throw his hat in the air like Mary Tyler Moore.
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