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2008

Wed1365
At the political level, the redistribution of wealth among the provinces, devolutionist philosophy of Stephen Harper, lack of “executive federalism” (not a new problem) and absence of a vision for the country combine to create a real reason to worry about the future of Canada.

Sunday 04 May 2008 OTTAWA: OPPOSITION PARTY DESCRIES LOSS OF FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
The federal opposition New Democratic party is criticizing a decision by the Conservative Party government to shut down Canada's freedom-of-information registry. The registry gave researchers, reporters and ordinary citizens access to millions of pages of once-secret government documents. The federal Treasury Board says that the registry is no longer viable. But the New Democrats say that the move is another example of the Conservative government trying to avoid accountability.

Sunday 27 April 2008 WASHINGTON: U.S. ECONOMIST CRITICIZES CANADIAN FOREIGN AID
A key adviser to the United Nations says that Canada is abandoning its global leadership role in foreign development. U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs says that the Conservative Party government has essentially done nothing on crucial international matters such as poverty, hunger, disease, climate change, and foreign assistance. Mr. Sachs adds that his pleas for Canada to take a special role in the global food crisis have been ignored since the former Liberal Party government.

Sunday 27 April 2008 Harper's blinkered view
Last Thursday, as Mark Carney of the Bank of Canada was telling Canadians that the economy had stalled and that growth will remain sluggish until 2010, Prime Minister Stephen Harper had a different story for a business audience in Quebec. "I believe the reason we continue to govern is quite straightforward, because despite these uncertain economic times, the Canadian economy is strong."

HER WORD AGAINST HIS
by Daniel Casey
February 29, 2008

Back when the balance of power in Parliament was more delicate, and the opposition wasn’t quite as desperate to forestall an election, getting a budget passed (or defeated) took some doing. The emerging details about the Conservatives’ alleged offer to the late independent MP Chuck Cadman don’t make the process sound pretty. British Columbia journalist and Cadman biographer Tom Zytaruk originally reported that unnamed “representatives” of the Conservative party met with the independent MP, who was dying of malignant melanoma, to offer him an uncontested Conservative nomination and a $1 million life insurance policy. Today, the Globe reports that the “representatives” were no mere messengers: Doug Finley and Tom Flanagan are the chief ideologues and strategists of the merged Conservative party, firm Stephen Harper loyalists who engineered his ascent to the top of the Canadian Alliance. While Harper adamantly denies that the offer went any further than a deal for Cadman to rejoin the Conservative party, Zytaruk has Harper on tape saying that he didn’t “know the details,” but that the Conservative emissaries (he does not specifically name Finley and Flanagan) were “legitimately representing the party,” and goes on to make a vague reference to an offer “only to replace financial considerations he might lose due to an election.”

At the time, Chuck Cadman denied that the deal went beyond a welcome back into the Conservative caucus, but Dona Cadman and her daughter Jodi assert that it did. Cadman family friend and Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh told the Citizen that he believes Dona Cadman’s version to be “the ‘death-bed’ truth from a terminally ill man to his wife.” Two reports in the Post raise a further complicating issue: A man receiving chemotherapy for malignant melanoma would be essentially unable to get a life insurance policy. One insurance broker stated that for a dying man, “the only way to buy a million-dollar life insurance policy is to pay a million-dollar premium,” and likened such an arrangement to a “money-laundering scheme.” The Citizen runs a confusing report about the conditions of the Parliamentary life insurance plan, including some potential ways in which Cadman could have upped his insurance benefits by rolling over to a private insurance plan and paying a higher premium, but there’s no evidence that Cadman did so or that this was somehow part of the alleged Conservative offer. The details are tricky and the allegations are as explosive as it gets—there is some serious reporting to be done on this, and the Big Seven’s Ottawa bureaux should be gearing up for a fierce race to get the full story. Start your engines.

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THE LEADS:
THE NATIONAL: “Accusation & Denials: Calls for an RCMP investigation after our report last night about allegations of an offer made to a dying MP”

Saturday 23 February 2008 LONDON, OTTAWA: SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL CRITICIZES CANADA
One of the most respected scientific publications in the world has criticized Canada's Conservative Party government for supposedly showing contempt for science. An editorial in "Nature" affirms that although Canadian scientists are among the world's best, the same cannot be said for the federal government's attitude toward science and research. The editorial entitled "Science in Retreat" claims that science has struggled for a long time to be recognized in Canada, but that the struggle has become tougher with the election of the Conservatives in 2006. The text refers to the scepticism of the Conservatives concerning climate change and the decision to abandon the emissions reduction targets of the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change. Industry Minister Jim Prentice responded in an open letter that Canada is determined to support world-class research and that the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper considers climate change one of the biggest threats which the world faces.

Friday Feb 8, 2008 Tories set on effecting spring vote
Crime bill becomes third potential trigger Looking more and more like it is bent on an election in the spring, the Harper government set another potential trap for the Liberals yesterday, introducing a motion urging the Senate to pass the government's violent-crime bill by the start of next month.

Thursday 07 February 2008

HUSTINGS ON THE HORIZON
by Josh Ginsberg
It looks like Stephen Harper’s penchant for political showdown has finally gotten the better of him. After months of election speculation, the government has finally laid a series of booby traps that the Liberals might not be able to tiptoe around, any one of which could trigger a spring vote. The Post says it will come down to Afghanistan, while CTV News figures it will happen over the budget, although the government could also be taken down if the Senate fails to pass the Tories’ latest crime bill. But whatever the catalyst, it will almost certainly be on Harper’s terms. With a series of confidence votes over the budget, extending the mission in Afghanistan, and a crime bill that the government wants passed immediately, the prime minister has given the opposition three choices for how, if at all, they want to send Canadians to the polls. With the Star agreeing with CTV News that the budget will most likely make the axe fall on the two-year minority government, it seems that parliament will likely be dissolved in early March, before the House has a chance to vote on the future of the mission in Afghanistan. The Globe quotes an unnamed Tory source who, reeking of the late-night oil undoubtedly burning in the Conservative spin room, says that the PM doesn’t want an election, but is “drawing a line in the sand” on important issues. For his part, Liberal leader Stéphane Dion is sounding the bell of compromise on the Afghan issue, but a mutual understanding is unlikely on the main point of contention—whether to support the combat mission beyond 2009. Of course, if the government falls on the budget before the Afghan question is considered, it would mean a significant delay in furnishing a response to NATO on the future of Canada’s commitment.

Since we’re likely going to the polls over the budget, it is unfortunate that today’s coverage gives little insight into what the document is likely to contain. The only thing we know for certain is that, due to the economic hard times, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty won’t be rolling out big tax cuts. The Star quotes a Liberal source as saying that the party would rather fight an election on the budget than on Afghanistan, but it’s not clear if the substance of the budget will have any effect on their decision. In an editorial, the Post says it likes the two most likely outcomes of Harper’s Afghan gamble: an election that the government would enter with strength, or an extension of the mission. Still, the Post would have preferred that the government wait to table its motion until after this week’s NATO meeting to see if the organization actually comes up with the 1,000 troops considered a prerequisite for continuing in Afghanistan. The editorial seems to want to spare Harper the embarrassment that would come with pressing a motion to continue a mission that he acknowledges is untenable without more help. If the election is fought on Afghanistan, James Travers in the Star notes, it comes with certain risks for the Tories, yet would also expose the Liberals to attacks on an issue on which they are deeply divided. He says Dion should have used the Manley report to galvanize the party around a solid position, rather than risking defeat due to disarray. Certainly, Dion has work to do in order to close his ranks before Harper charges.

OTTAWA: ELECTION LOOMS OVER AFGHAN MISSION
The Conservative Party government has said it will introduce a motion in the House of Commons by Friday to extend Canada's military mission in Afghanistan beyond the February 2009 deadline approved by the House. There would be a vote on the motion at the end of next month. The decision seems aimed at either obtaining an extension or provoking a national election. On Tuesday, opposition Liberal Party leader Stéphane Dion met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the issue on Tuesday and says he was told that the vote on the motion would be a question of confidence. In that case, opposition by the Liberals, the New Democratic Party and the Bloc Québécois would overthrow the government and elections would ensue. The NDP and Bloc oppose extension. However, a spokeswoman for the prime minister says he has not yet declared the vote a confidence matter. She said the motion will be based on the recommendations of an independent committee that called for an extension of the mission provided that the 2,500 Canadian troops in southern Afghanistan receive 1,000 NATO reinforcements and helicopters.

OTTAWA: CRIME BILL ALSO COULD LEAD TO VOTE
Meanwhile, it seems that an entire different issue in Parliament could also provoke an election. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson has urged the Senate committee on legal and constitutional affairs to do "whatever it takes" to pass Bill C-2, the Tackling Violent Crime Act, failing which he'll advise Mr. Harper to make it a confidence measure. If the Senate, where the Liberals enjoy a majority, fails to pass Bill C-2, the minority government would fall. Bill C-2 consists of five bills that were reintroduced in the fall after the government cut the previous session short. It deals with issues such as violent and gun crimes, dangerous offenders and the age of sexual consent. The crime legislation would likely be a more attractive election issue for the Conservatives than the Afghanistan war or the federal budget.

OTTAWA: HOUSE APPROVES NEW ANTI-TERROR LEGISLATION
Canada's parliament has passed legislation to deport foreign-born terrorist suspects. The bill was accepted by a vote of 196 to 71. Liberal Members of Parliament supported the legislation presented by the Conservative government, the New Democratic Party and Bloc Québécois opposing it. Last year, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down several federal laws that allow the indefinite detention and deportation of a suspect based on secret evidence presented at closed-door hearings. The new bill improves bail procedures and allows special, security-cleared lawyers to attend the secret hearings, to challenge government evidence and to protect the rights of the accused. Critics say the new law will likely spark new legal challenges.

2007

Thursday 20 December 2007 OTTAWA: FEDERAL TORIES DIP IN POPULARITY
A new poll shows a drop of six percentage points in the popularity of Canada's Conservative government. The Canadian Press-Decima survey puts the Conservatives at 30 per cent support and the opposition Liberal Party at 32 per cent. The drop in popularity comes after heavy criticism of Canada's position at the climate-change summit in Bali, Indonesia, and also after a critical shortage of medical isotopes due to the shutdown of a nuclear reactor in Ontario. Support for the Conservatives dropped across all regions of Canada and in all age groups.

Wednesday Dec 19, 2007 Tories knew about nuke plant problems in October: Liberals
The Opposition Liberals continued their attack yesterday on the federal government for its handling

Tuesday 18 December 2007 RAPED, CONVICTED AND PARDONED
The National, the Globe, the Star, the Post, and the Citizen (not available online) go inside with a pardon from Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah for a rape victim sentenced to six months in prison and two hundred lashes. This amnesty comes in response to the international outcry surrounding the sentence, which was meted out because the nineteen-year-old married victim was with a man other than her husband at the time of the attack, thereby contravening Islam’s imperative against even platonic extra-marital intermingling. The Shi’ite woman and her companion were both abducted and raped by seven men last year. A first trial ended with the woman being sentenced to ninety lashes—a punishment the appellate court found insufficiently severe. Meanwhile, the rapists were sentenced to between two and nine years in prison, according to The National. The Saudi king’s pardoning decree, quoted in the Globe, oozes reluctance, upholds the guilty verdict, but explains that mercy was in order, “because the woman and that [man] who was with her [have] suffered a level of torture and distress that was by itself enough to discipline them.” The Post has the woman’s husband expressing his thanks to “the king for his generous attention and fatherly spirit,” while the Star is the only source to explicitly address the broader context of women’s rights, or the lack thereof, in “one of the most conservative countries in the world.”

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CAVEAT EMPTOR, BUT LESS SO
by Jordan Himelfarb
December 18, 2007

If there’s one thing the federal government and MediaScout agree on, it’s that holiday shopping is already stressful enough without having to worry about whether your presents will metabolize into the “date rape” drug if ingested. With that and other similarly unappealing possibilities looming in the minds of Canadian consumers after a year of disconcerting product recalls, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced yesterday that his government intends to significantly strengthen product safety regulations. Beginning early next year, Harper promised, the government will have the power to impose mandatory food, drug or toy recalls if companies fail to heed safety concerns about their products. In addition, importers of tainted goods will now face a maximum fine of $1 million, up from $5,000 under the current Food and Drug Act, the Citizen reports. The new safety measures were unveiled at a Salvation Army, in front of a Christmas tree piled high with toys, none of which Harper put in his mouth.

The Globe provides a long list of the many product recalls—including those involving more than eighteen million Chinese-manufactured, lead-riddled Mattell toys—that got so much attention this year in the Canadian media. The Post has Liberal industry critic Dan McTeague chastising the government for waiting as long as they did before developing the new safety measures. McTeague accused Harper of using the announcement to distract from recent Tory troubles, including the Mulroney-Schreiber affair, the embarrassments of Bali and the Chalk River fiasco. NDP industry critic Peggy Nash, on the other hand, focussed less on partisan sparring and more on the efficacy of the proposed measures, promising to promote the plan if, upon study, she finds it sufficiently stringent. In a year when many of even the most innocuous-seeming children’s toys were found to pose a threat to Canadian kids, the issue understandably garnered a good deal of attention from the Big Seven. MediaScout is heartened to see the media’s sustained focus on the story, beyond the alarmism, through to the less sensational attendant policy debate.

Tuesday 11 December 2007 OTTAWA: CANADA SAID LOSING REPUTATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Amnesty International says Canada is in danger of losing its reputation as a champion of global human rights. The group says that since Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government came to power, it has failed to raise human rights abuses in all countries, voted against a United Nations declaration on Indigenous rights and failed to fight the death penalty. Spokesman Alex Neve also says Ottawa has played down reports that Taliban suspects handed over to Afghan authorities were later tortured. Mr. Neve does says, however, that Canada spoke out about abuses in Russia, Cuba and Burma. The comments by Amnesty International came as international Human Rights Day was being marked around the world.

Tuesday 20 November 2007 OTTAWA: PM TO ATTEND COMMONWEALTH SUMMIT
The Canadian prime minister, Mr. Harper, will attend the three-day Commonwealth summit in Kampala, Uganda, next week. One of his officials says he'll carry a "strong message of the importance of human rights to Canada." Other subjects will be Pakistan's Commonwealth membership in light of the state of emergency declared by President Pervez Musharraf on Nov. 3. There will be discussion as well on climate change, barriers to trade and vulnerability to natural disasters in the smaller Commonwealth nations. Thirty-two of the organization's 53 member states have populations of less than 1.5 million.

Monday, October 29, 2007 Photos: Harper on the World Stage he gets around!

Wednesday 17 October 2007 OTTAWA: CONSERVATIVES SAID TO DRAW A BEAD ON ETHNIC, RELIGIOUS VOTE
The Globe and Mail reports that the governing Conservative Party has a strategy to target religious and ethnic groups across the country to win over traditional Liberal Party voters in the next election. Documents obtained by the newspaper indicate that the Conservatives feel they cannot successfully woo all such voters but should target those who offer the best chances. One document cites the Toronto-area riding of Thornhill, where 37 per cent of the voters are Jewish. The document offers a breakdown of voters into visible minorities, which comprise 29 per cent of voters, and religious believers. According to The Globe, the "ethnic outreach team" is being run from both the office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Jason Kenney, the junior minister for multiculturalism.

Monday 15 October 2007 OTTAWA: GOVERNING PARTY RIDING HIGH IN THE POLLS
A new opinion poll shows that Canada's governing Conservative Party has enough voter support to achieve a majority government if an election were held today. The Ipsos Reid poll found that 40 per cent or four out of ten respondents favoured the Conservatives---a rise of four per cent over a poll in August. The Conservatives lead the opposition Liberal Party by 12 percentage points. The poll came one week before the Conservative Party presents its policies for the forthcoming legislative session in the traditional Throne Speech. The Conservatives are in a minority in parliament. Two of the three federal opposition parties are threatening to vote against the speech. If all three oppose it, then the Conservative Party would be largely compelled to hold an election. A Liberal Party member predicted that the government would survive the vote because Canadians do not want an election this fall.

Tuesday 09 October 2007 Forget government, hire a business leader
When there are problems, it helps to get someone who's used to getting things done

Aislin archive Aug 14, 2007

4 June 2007 Jeremy Kinsman: Diplomatically Speaking
When Mr. Harper goes to Europe
When did the G8 last do something important? It's hard to say. Perhaps the most significant thing the big industrial powers have done recently is to invite to their summit those rising nations whose buy-in is essential to global co-operation, China and India in particular.
That in itself presents some interesting challenges. At the annual meeting this week in a German resort town on the Baltic coast, for example, the Europeans are keen to "do something" about climate change. In the lead-up, there has been much talk of a collision at the G8 between the Bush administration on the one hand and the Europeans and Japanese on the other on cutting greenhouse gases.

Sunday 03 June 2007 Parents of soldier 'offended' by O'Connor's assertion
Prime Minister Stephen Harper ignored calls for Gordon O'Connor's resignation Wednesday after a military family disputed the defence minister's statement that his department pays full funeral costs for fallen soldiers.

Friday 01 June 2007 Canada to push on greenhouse cuts: PM
The Harper government plans to pressure the Bush administration to accept targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at next week's G8 summit, even though neither side expects that a new global pact to fight climate change will be in before the end of 2008, Environment Minister John Baird said Thursday.

Saturday 19 May 2007 Tories produce secret instructions to tie up Parliament
Outraged opposition MPs called on the federal government Friday to make public a secret manual that instructs Conservative committee chairmen on cherry picking witnesses favourable to the Tories and disrupting parliamentary committees that want to study subjects that don't suit the government.

Partisan bickering paralyses Parliament
The House of Commons was enveloped in a cloud of partisan bitterness Thursday with the unprecedented spectacle of two standing committees grinding to a halt from government filibustering and a third paralyzed for lack of a Conservative chairman.

Wednesday 09 May 2007 Tory green plan favours oilpatch, critics charge
The Conservative government fended off opposition accusations Tuesday of favouritism for the Alberta oilpatch as various industry groups started raising questions about new federal environmental regulations that make the oilsands the only Canadian sector allowed to increase pollution linked to smog over the next decade.

Thursday 26 April 2007 Tory support slips to 2006 vote level
Harper government gets good marks on economy, but pollster finds it out of step on social or ideological issues

Tuesday 10 April 2007 Despite the panoply of international topics, we admit to a certain fascination for some local issues such as when the federal election may be called by Prime Minister Harper - and whether L. Ian is right in suggesting that " Being prime minister is the best part of Stephen Harper's job. Actually, it's the role of prime minister, as opposed to the job, that's the best part. And every day he's in that role, being prime ministerial, is one more day he's not some scary guy with a hidden right-wing agenda." tinyurl.com/2bjbub

Appointments - and musical chairs - in the new Liberal (minority) Cabinet in Quebec. One pundit remarks that "With a smaller caucus of only 48 members, he can have jobs for everyone - half his caucus can be in cabinet, and the other half can be parliamentary secretaries or committee chairpersons." The alternative is to shrink the Cabinet. Bets anyone?

And in Westmount - what are the bets on who replaces Lucienne Robillard as the Liberal candidate? Will there have to be an imposed candidate due to lack of time for due process - with all the baggage that imposition will entail? Wednesday Night does not lack for putative candidates who would like to see a spirited debate before election of the standard bearer - it is high time, in our opinion, that we were favoured with that opportunity, but we are not optimistic.

Wednesday 21 March 2007 Tories may head to polls over justice bills
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government is prepared to force an election if the opposition does not stop trying to block its law-and-order agenda, says Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn.

Friday 02 March 2007 New polls shows Tories moving up
Talk of a spring election heated up Thursday with the release of new polling data showing the rising Conservatives holding an almost double-digit lead over the fading Liberals.

Friday 16 February 2007 Harper says he will respect Kyoto
Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he’ll respect the Kyoto climate-change legislation forced through the Commons by the opposition — but he’s hinting the final result will be meaningless.

Wed1301 That's twice in a week that he has had to reverse himself, a bitter pill for a politician.

Speaking of reversing themselves, isn't it fun to watch the (New) Harper Government turning every shade of green in the wake of the IPCC Report. Our favorite convert is the newly-minted (would that be mint green?) Environment Minister, who, in an interview with RCI, said he did not expect the report's conclusion that human activity is the cause of climate change.' That's a surprise for me,' he told Radio-Canada. [We are NOT making this up.] He must have been expecting the report of the scientists the American Enterprise Institute tried to recruit for $10K each

Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study

Tuesday 30 January 2007 Negative Tory ads could backfire, say experts
The Conservative party’s attack adds against Liberal Leader Stephane Dion "have a whiff of desperation" about them and could backfire, say advertising experts.

Tuesday 23 January 2007

HARPER'S LIBERAL ENVY
by Daniel Tencer

Sunday 14 January 2007 Harper invites 'Governator' to Canada to talk trade
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has formally invited California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to visit Canada, a move that's drawing criticism from an environmental group that wants the federal government to take action on the environment instead of holding meetings.

Meanwhile, Mr. Harper has lost one of his cabinet ministers over the motion. Michael Chong resigned over what he calls a question of principle. The former intergovernmental affairs minister says he couldn't support the motion and therefore had no alternative but to resign. Cabinet ministers are required to vote with the government. Mr. Chong says that while he remains loyal to Mr. Harper and to the Conservative Party, his first loyalty is to "one nation, undivided, called Canada." Mr. Chong represents the Ontario riding of Wellington-Halton Hills.

OTTAWA: PM SAYS ENVIRONMENT AMONG TOP PRIORITIES
Meanwhile, Mr. Harper has assured the Canadian Press in a yearend interview that the environment is among his top priorities. The prime minister explained that one reason why Canadians are paying so much attention to the issue is that they aren't distracted by Liberal Party scandals and failures or threats to national unity. Polls have shown that many Canadians believe the government has mishandled the environment question. Mr. Harper entered office by saying that the emissions reduction targets of the Kyoto Protocol are impossible to meet. The prime minister says his government has taken the wind out of Quebec separatists' sails by allowing Quebecers a presence in the UN culture agency and by recognizing Quebecers as a people. On the world stage, he says the Canadian mission in Afghanistan shows Canada can make a difference in the world.
And the prime minister says the hardest decision he has had to make since being elected last January was to start taxing income trusts similarly to corporations, after having campaigned on a election promise not to do so.

Tuesday 19 December 2006 TORONTO: TIME MAGAZINE NAMES CANADIAN NEWSMAKER OF THE YEAR
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was named Time Magazine's Canadian newsmaker of the year on Sunday. The magazine's contributing editor, Stephen Handelman, described Mr. Harper as a 'warrior in power' who has changed conventional wisdom about leading a minority government. The magazine's distinction has been given out annually for the past ten years to the person who has made the most impact on the Canadian media. Mr. Harper was cited for his stands on the federal budget, Quebec sovereignty, troop deployment abroad, and cross-border trade negotiations with the United States. In an original move, Time Magazine gave out its Person of the Year Award to 'the public' in general, recognizing its role in transforming the Internet with user-generated content.

Tuesday 28 November 2006 Meanwhile, Mr. Harper has lost one of his cabinet ministers over the motion. Michael Chong resigned over what he calls a question of principle. The former intergovernmental affairs minister says he couldn't support the motion and therefore had no alternative but to resign. Cabinet ministers are required to vote with the government. Mr. Chong says that while he remains loyal to Mr. Harper and to the Conservative Party, his first loyalty is to "one nation, undivided, called Canada." Mr. Chong represents the Ontario riding of Wellington-Halton Hills. [no loss!]

Sunday 26 November 2006 TORONTO: WAITS INCREASING FOR CANADIAN PASSPORTS
Obtaining a Canadian passport could take longer than usual as a result of a recent increase in the number of people sending in applications. The increase began this month as Canadians took greater notice of a new rule that goes into effect in the United States on January 23. The rule requires air passengers from Canada, Bermuda and Mexico to present a passport when entering the USA. Americans returning home must do the same. Last week, Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs received more than ninety thousand passport applications, an increase of almost 38 per cent compared to the same week in 2005. So far this year, just over two million passport applications have been received, about two hundred thousand more than in the same period in 2005. The November-to-March period is typically the busiest time for applying for a Canadian passport.

CALGARY: ALBERTA CONSERVATIVE PARTY BEGINS CHOOSING NEW LEADER
Members of Alberta's Conservative Party began voting on Saturday for a new leader to replaced Premier Ralph Klein, who is stepping down after 15 years in power. Eight candidates are in the running, including former treasurer, Jim Dinning, and former cabinet ministers Lyle Oberg, Ed Stelmach, Dave Hancock, Mark Norris and Victor Doerksen. All candidates worked hard to encourage their supporters to vote, a move seen as crucial to victory. But temperatures on Saturday were below freezing, a fact that some candidates feared would discourage older supporters, rural residents and less-committed party members from going out to vote. If no clear winner emerged, the leading three candidates would face off in a second round of voting the following Saturday. The winning candidate will have control over Canada's richest provincial treasury thanks to Alberta's bomming oil industry.

Thursday 23 November 2006 Tories slammed over China meeting
The Harper government has embarrassed Canadians on the world stage with the prime minister's dealings with China and for receiving harsh criticisms from other countries at an international meeting in Kenya over the rejection of Canada's climate change commitments, Opposition MPs said Monday.

Thursday 23 November 2006 Ambrose accused of boosting Quebec sovereigntists
The Harper government's handling of last week's environmental conference in Nairobi gives new ammunition to sovereigntist forces in their quest to take Quebec out of Canada, says former Parti Quebecois premier Bernard Landry.

Wednesday 15 November 2006 Turner resigns
Calling Conservative party bosses “unrepentant� and “arrogant,� former Tory MP Garth Turner announced Tuesday he’s resigning his party membership after being informed he’ll be blocked from running as a Conservative in any riding.

Nov 13, 2006 01:00 | Toronto Star OTTAWA—Garth Turner, the Halton MP ousted from the Conservative caucus, plans to "clarify" his plans about possibly becoming Canada's first Green party MP at a news conference tomorrow.

Thursday 09 November 2006 Tories keep Alberta stronghold: poll
A new poll suggests Alberta is the only remaining bastion of federal Conservative party support, with the leaderless Liberals leading in every other region of the country.

Nov 4, 2006 | Toronto Star Charest, Harper join for pledge SEAN GORDON
MONTREAL—It's an unfinished commuter headache called Highway 30, the completion of which has been announced and reannounced so many times in recent years that one federal Tory wag said "it should be renamed...

Sat. Nov. 4 2006 The Liberals who still believe they should be governing, along with some of us who simply worry about Canada's foreign policy, are concerned by Stephen Harper's cancellation of his appearance at the Canada-EU summit meeting

Sat 04/11/2006 VICTORIA: FUNDING SET FOR INDIGENOUS GAMES
The federal government has formalized its support for the 2008 North American Indigenous Games, pledging $3.5 million to the event. The federal minister responsible for sport, Michael Chong, made the announcement during a sport leadership conference in Vancouver and again during an evening celebration in Duncan on Vancouver Island, where the Games Council is holding its annual meeting. The island's Cowichan Valley will play host to the event, August 2 to 10, 2008. About 5,000 athletes from across North America, aged 13 to 19, are expected to participate in 16 sports. Mr. Chong said the federal money represents the federal contribution to the Games' $10-to-$12 million budget. The British Columbia provincial government has already pledged a matching $3.5 million. The rest of the budget will come from registration fees, corporate sponsorship and the host Cowichan Tribes.

Nov Policy Options is Canada's premier public policy magazine. Its goal is to encourage an informed debate on the important public policy issues of today, and of tomorrow. In each edition, short articles on the immediate issues that dominate the headlines are combined with in-depth analyses of longer-term issues that are certain to emerge on the policy horizon. Policy Options is published ten times per year.

Monday 16 October 2006 maisonneuve.org HARPER'S UNLIKELY VICTORY
CBC News: Sunday Night, the Globe and the Star lead, while CTV News, the Citizen, La Presse and the Post go inside with the final official Liberal leadership candidates' debate in Toronto on Sunday. The CBC's Keith Boag reports that front-runners Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae engaged in the most heated political sparring, noting however that Ignatieff was the target of all candidates. The Big Seven concentrate on what the Star's Susan Delacourt calls the "testy" exchanges between the candidates, specifically focusing on the tense foreign policy debate between Rae and Ignatieff. According to the Globe, Rae told the audience that "we have to choose our words carefully when we talk about foreign policy" in what the paper suggests was a "clear shot" at Ignatieff's controversial statements on the Middle East. Not to be outdone, Ignatieff then accused Rae of flip-flopping on Afghanistan, prompting Martha Hall Findlay to intervene and remind both men that "this is providing great television but we are Liberals and we have a job to do," reports the Star.
Readers and viewers will be hard-pressed to find a consensus pick for the winner of last night's debate in today's news cycle. In a panel on CBC News: Sunday Night (not available online), the Globe's John Ibbitson was more inclined to pick a loser, opting to fix the less-than-illustrious title on Bob Rae. Meanwhile, the Star's Chantal Hébert suggests that Michael Ignatieff will eventually "look back at yesterday's Toronto leadership debate and tell himself that it really started to go downhill from there." Her pick for the winner: Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Don Martin of the Post agrees, describing the debate's "highlight" as an argument "between two Liberal heavyweights accusing each other of being dithering liars on a key policy question heading into the next election."

Wednesday Sep 20, 2006 PM dodges calls to apologize to Arar The Harper government refused calls yesterday to apologize to Maher Arar and punish or even fire the...
"I think it's clear that ... Mr. Arar has been done a tremendous injustice," said Harper, adding that his government intends to "act swiftly" in implementing the recommendatio

PM stands by plan to scrap registry
The Last government went after farmers, Harper says
...."As a father of children who go to school, I'm obviously very concerned that under the existing gun laws the Liberals gave us, somebody like this can get an arsenal of weapons, an unstable person, and go into a school," Harper said.

Jayson Gauthier, a Surete du Quebec spokesperson, refused to confirm published reports that investigators found registered firearms at the 15-year-old boy's home. He explained any evidence would be presented in court. However, he added police officers in Quebec consult the gun registry an average of 414 times a day, or whenever they answer calls that could involve an element of risk.

Wed1290 So now we are a nation - but who is we and what is a nation? Oh joy, Stephen Harper's motion to recognize Quebecers as a nation within a united Canada, which passed in a landslide, has no legal authority, but the Bloc has already said it will use it to demand extra powers for Quebec, including the right to speak at international meetings. Reuters has noticed us and so have the BBC and CNN ; the New York Times took up the story earlier declaring "Canadian Prime Minister Is Ready to Loosen Federal Ties to Quebec". Meanwhile, sometime Wednesday Nighter John Moore asks in The National Post "If the Québecois are a nation, who am I" /nationalpost/ watch clip

Bessie Parliamentary Update (2:58) Sister Bessie updates the recent events in Parliament. watch clip

Why Harper Won
A Victory of Character over Connivance

Sunday 17 September 2006 Harper sticks to plans to scrap gun registry
OTTAWA—The government will press ahead with plans to scrap the gun registry as promised, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has indicated in a radio interview to be broadcast today.

Monday 11 September 2006 OTTAWA: PM INSISTENT ON SENATE REFORM
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he'll introduce legislation this fall to begin a reform of the upper body of Parliament. He told a committee that is studying his government's proposed bill to limit senators' terms in office to eight years that the time has come to remake the Senate. He told committee members that he's willing to debate the length of senatorial terms but that the present situation must end. At present, a senator could sit for as long as 45 years before reaching the retirement age of 75. Senators are appointed by the federal government not elected. Some senators named by the previous Liberal Party government claim Mr. Harper's legislation is unconstitutional and that there should be a reference on it from the Supreme Court of Canada. The government says that only the accord of both the Senate and the House of Commons are needed to change the upper body's status.

Sunday 10 September 2006 maisonneuve.org HARPER SPELLS OUT S-E-E-E-NATE
by Philippe Gohier
September 8, 2006

Will it be a face lift or reconstructive surgery for Canada’s Senate? Though he’s dropping hints that it could be a little bit of both, Stephen Harper is sending out the message that it certainly won’t be for senators to decide. In what CTV News notes was “an unprecedented appearance” before a Senate committee examining the Tories’ proposal to cut senators terms to eight years from the current requirement that they simply retire at the age of seventy-five, Harper gave a preview of the tough-mindedness he plans to apply to passing reforms that could eventually see senatorial elections for the first time ever in Canada. According to the Globe, the term limits are only the first part of a wide-ranging process that senators should swallow whole or face the “political consequences” of opposing. In one particularly telling exchange, Liberal Senator Jim Munson suggested the Tories’ would like “nothing better than to fight an election on the backs of the Senate,” to which Harper quickly replied: “Well, don’t give me the opportunity.”

If Citizen columnist Susan Riley’s assessment of the Canadian pulse is at all correct, Harper has ample reason to be confident about making the Senate a central campaign issue. Riley suggests that there is simply “no sensible argument against shorter terms for senators,” that objections over the upper chamber’s institutional memory, or possible influence peddling by the Prime Minister’s Office, or a creeping Americanization of the Canadian political structure can all be easily countered. “Terms need not be renewable [and] the Americans have no monopoly on democracy,” she argues. Nonetheless, in a piece in today’s Globe, Ned Franks, a professor emeritus of political science at Queen's University, says that an elected Senate could quickly lose its diversity. “The process of appointment has given aboriginal people, among others, a voice they have not had in the Commons. The Senate has a higher proportion of women than the Commons. With their assured long-term tenure, senators often devote their energy over many years to important policy issues—such as fisheries, problems of poverty and aging—in a way MPs cannot,” Franks writes. Mediascout can’t help but notice the differing caliber of debate between Franks’ and Riley’s insightful commentaries and Munson’s int