It was certainly a banner day for Stephen Harper’s new Conservative government. Today, the centrepiece legislation (essentially the foreseeable legacy of this new government) was tabled in the House of Commons by Minister John Baird, the President…
Today, Belinda Stronach announced that she will not be seeking the leadership of the Liberal Party. CTV News cited that her reason for not running was because of the way the Liberal Party picks their leader. “I would rather see a Liberal party with…
It seems that Stephen Harper is treating the 39th session of Parliament more like a multi-partite congregation than his predecessor ever did. Today, with a conciliatory gesture, the PMO announced that there will be a Take Note debate on Afghanistan…
The Liberals seem to be in automatic opposition mode and conforming with Jack Layton’s earlier constructive language, the NDP appears supportive of the Throne Speech. NDP priorities included in Throne Speech (remember, they also claim that they…
From a variety of sources, I’ve pieced together a few themes about today’s speech from the throne which is set to occur in just under an hour. I’ve learned that the speech will be very short, just about 30 minutes in length. The Conservative…
1:16pm: Bill Blaikie calls for order. I assume that he’s looking over the proceedings because he’s the most senior member. 1:18pm: Blaikie casts the last ballot. 1:44pm: The bells have started (5 minutes until the first ballot results are revealed)…
I just finished up as a guest on Aphrodite Salas’ show in Montreal after being invited to speak on the topic of Harper’s alleged control of the media’s access regarding his cabinet ministers. During the election, Salas’ producers called and…
…and how they are a continuous source of inspiration for blog posts. A couple of days ago, I received the general mailing list email that gets sent out to subscribers of the e.ndp newsletter. This edition provided insight into the base level of…
They’re still talking about it. In 1984, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney landed a famous “knock-out punch” to Liberal leader John Turner. In the famous “you had a choice” berating, the former conservative Prime Minister admonishes Turner over…
I received the following just a while ago from one of my contacts in the government. It’s the transcript of Stephen Harper’s comments that preceded his speech on accountibility. The original speech on accountibility (prepared before the hostages…