Ottawa ON – The election war drums are beating, sounding louder with each passing day as partisan political staffs on all sides work themselves into a frenzy. Every 10 second clip for their leader or spokesperson is cheered as a great victory, media stories are combed for new attack anglesContinue Reading
Ottawa ON – On Wednesday the Committee on Procedure and House Affairs will begin reviewing the two recent referrals on privilege from the Speaker. This includes both the request for financial documents and the one concerning Bev Oda. Both provide our elected representatives with an opportunity to flex their muscles andContinue Reading
Ottawa ON – Yesterday the Speaker of the House of Commons made two important rulings, one of which will have a long term impact on how parliament works. While opposition politicians have scored a victory they shouldn’t get too excited just yet. True, they do have ammunition for an electionContinue Reading
Ottawa ON – The latest rumour de jour is that the Liberals will try a snap nonconfidence motion before the Conservatives can deliver their budget. This is an interesting thought, but it is very high risk. Such a move reflects the desperation of the Liberals to try to get backContinue Reading
Ottawa ON – Parliamentarians often lament the lack of interest that Canadians have in the political affairs of the nation. This past week offers a glimpse as to why that might be the case. I would suggest that some of the most talked about issues of concern to Canadians thisContinue Reading
Ottawa ON – It must be a bit embarrassing these days for those who have been criticizing the Conservative’s purchase of new military equipment. As the situation in Libya deteriorates and Gadhafi counters the efforts of the population to remove him, western powers must now consider if they will useContinue Reading
Ottawa ON – The latest round of political opinion polls has a message for the opposition parties-focus on what matters to Canadians. While the so called Bev Oda scandal allows opposition politicians to hyperventilate with outrage in Ottawa and the media and political pundits are beside themselves over how notContinue Reading
Ottawa ON – It was almost obscene watching 116 Tory MPs and cabinet minister’s blitzing the country this past week bragging about how much of our taxpayer’s money they have spent. On one day alone some 70 MPs announced roughly a quarter of a billion dollars worth of spending. And,Continue Reading
Ottawa ON – The Bev Oda saga drags on made all the worse by the Prime Minister’s stubbornness to keep her in place. Unfortunately in the process a minister’s reputation will be destroyed and the government’s reputation tarnished. The one saving grace for the Conservatives is that the issue isContinue Reading
Cornwall ON – The media continues to whip itself into a frenzy over whether or not there will be an election some time in the next two months- but who is listening? It is certainly not regular Canadians, who shrug and go about their business of earning a pay chequeContinue Reading
Ottawa ON – Will someone please pass the smelling salts to our red chambered senators? It’s time they woke up in the real world. The decision by the Senate Committee of Internal Economy to continue to allow senators to send out a party’s political propaganda is plainly wrong. Were theyContinue Reading
Ottawa ON – Attack ads are a handy partisan tool. They can be quite effective at putting your opponent into a political box and they can help to paint a picture of them that might just sway a few votes your way. As a partisan, I love a good attackContinue Reading
Ottawa ON – Part of the pre-election narrative centres on the spin from the Opposition camps that the Prime Minister is refusing to meet with them to discuss potential options for the budget. They then whip this up into various attack lines that this refusal shows that Stephen Harper reallyContinue Reading
Ottawa ON – New Conservative attack ads are out today. I can’t say that I am overly impressed with them, as they are repeating an old theme that was already getting stale. How many Canadians don’t know that Ignatieff spent time in the United States? And at this point inContinue Reading
Ottawa ON – One can hear the war drums beating as our political leaders rally their troops, test drive their campaign themes and hit the road to deliver their somewhat predictable pre-campaign rhetoric. Of course it might all be for naught, sometimes cooler heads prevail. However, it is very difficultContinue Reading
Ottawa ON – Media reports indicate that Maxime Bernier has released an open letter in which he attacks his own government’s position on a national securities regulator. They report that he was quite specific saying “As I have said in the past, I am personally convinced that securities regulation is aContinue Reading
Ottawa ON – Finally the Conservatives have come up with some decent talk points on the UAE dispute. For the past three months their standard pushback has been that they were defending Air Canada by not granting additional landing slots to Emirates Airlines. Frankly, I doubt too many Canadians giveContinue Reading
Ottawa ON – Here we go again; political parties will be receiving their latest handout from Elections Canada, courtesy of the Canadian taxpayer. Our political establishment will receive roughly $6.9 million of your tax dollars divided up as follows: Conservatives $2,609,418, Liberals $1,819,999, New Democrats $1,260,002, Bloc $691,289, Greens $469,686.Continue Reading