The Commons: And that's when the nuns started yelling

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 7:53 PM - 47 Comments

The Scene. Dominic LeBlanc was speaking in his grand stage voice, the sound of his second question filling the chamber, when the shouting started.

In the first row of the north visitors’ gallery, three nuns, or at least three women clad in the outfits of nuns, were chanting something unsavoury about the seal hunt, each holding a banner that read “The Seal Slaughter is a Bad Habit.” Get it?

The Speaker called for a pause in proceedings and all turned to gape at the spectacle. While security officers struggled to contain the invaders, Conservative Steve Blaney stood and held aloft a binder, apparently wrapped in seal skin. MPs stood to applaud their colleague’s brave choice of office supplies. Liberal Gerry Byrne crossed the floor to happily shake Blaney’s hand.

Security eventually gained control of the situation—the nuns handcuffed and carried away, each still yelping their protests as they were shown the door—and the Speaker called on LeBlanc to continue his casting of aspersions on government efforts to ease trade between Canada and the United States.

It has only been three days and already it has been a fine first week back for our 40th Parliament. Continue…

Scrum Theatre: Can you hear the gratitude gushing forth?

By kadyomalley - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 5:27 PM - 68 Comments

James Moore, speaking outside the House after Question Period on the NDP decision to support — at least tentatively — the government’s employment insurance reforms:

Question:                       Is it something you’re looking forward to?

Hon. James Moore:       We just govern and the NDP can make their own decisions for themselves.

Question:                       But do you like the decision they’ve made?

Hon. James Moore:       I like that our policy is passing and we’ll govern and other parties can make their own decisions for themselves.

Question:                       So it’s good to be on life – you know, your ticker, it’s sort of like you’re in the ICU and you keep going for another day.

Hon. James Moore:       It’s a minority parliament so you have to govern responsibly.  We put forward legislation that we think reasonable people should support.  Our EI reforms are what we think is in the best interest of Canada and if other members of parliament, regardless of party, vote for it, they vote for it.

Question:                       When do the NDP get to see (inaudible)?

Hon. James Moore:       Soon.  Minister Finley will let you know.

This Clip Defines the Term "Time-Waster"

By Jaime Weinman - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 5:11 PM - 0 Comments

After I used the Going Places theme song for my “30 Rock Retooled” video,  I was asked by TGIF nostalgia types whether there were any clips of this one-season bomb available online. At the time, the answer was no, but now it turns out that there is a clip. And it shows in graphic detail why this show was too crummy even for an all Miller/Boyett lineup, and why Heather Locklear and Alan Ruck needed to wait a few more years to become successful again. However, it does allow one to play a game of “spot the terrible sitcom clichés.” These include the “gypsy curse” plot, which used to happen on a lot of shows and fortunately seems to be dead now, and such hacky jokes as:

- “Are you [name]?” “No, I’m [insert name of celebrity]”
- Wacky incorrect pronunciations of words and names
- Jokes about “will this be cash, charge or credit card?”
- The rhythmic rhymed chant, with dancing and clapping

The point being, you’ll never get far through this clip, but at least it will remind you that whatever struggles the multi-camera sitcom is going through now, it had its own problems in 1990, too.

Oh, and a thing I’ll never get a chance to mention anywhere else is that whereas a lot of people in the industry think of film as classy and tape as cheesy, in the ’80s and early ’90s it was probably the other way around: filmed sitcoms, with their distant look, bellow-y sound recording and over-use of music, were generally much cheesier-looking than their taped counterparts (with some exceptions like Cheers). This may have been simply that some of the hackiest producers, like M-B, preferred to work on film, but it was not until the early ’90s boom in sophisticated filmed sitcoms — Seinfeld, Frasier, Friends – that filmed comedy once again seemed truly “classy.”

Question, answer: Jack Layton

By Paul Wells - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 4:37 PM - 101 Comments

Inkless makes a too-rare visit to the scrums after Question Period and poses this question to Jack Layton.

Question: when you borrowed to finance your campaign, only a year ago, your collateral was your anticipated per-vote public subsidy. How can that be your collateral for another campaign — because the Prime Minister has said he will abolish the per-vote public subsidy?

The Hon. Jack Layton: I’m not sure about this, but we may be the only political party to own a building in downtown Ottawa that has a very good tenant, in fact more than one in it.

Question: That wasn’t your only collateral a year ago.

The Hon. Jack Layton: You’ll, you’ll have to talk to — well there’s actually many sources of collateral. There’s the percentage that comes back as a percentage of the campaign expenditures automatically, there’s all kinds, it’s a fairly complicated set of revenues that make up the revenue of a political party. What I’m very happy about is the surge of financial support that’s come in just in the last five days to our party. And I think Canadians like the fact that we’re standing up and fighting for the unemployed and not chomping at the bit to try and fight an election. And so, we’ll, we’ll keep on this path and try to get those results.

The NDP speaks! With enthusiasm that sounds only a little forced!

By Paul Wells - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 4:24 PM - 53 Comments

So I ran into a surprising number of NDP types during my stroll up the Hill this afternoon, all eager to explain why this decision to support the government is not a 180-degree turnabout. Or in the words of one nameless but affable senior NDPer, “It’s not a 180.”

Having mocked Canada’s Natural Non-Governing Party in a couple of posts below for what, from where I’m standing, sure looks like a 180, it behooves me to print the NDP’s rationale in something approaching good faith. Off we go then:

• It’s not that the Liberals voted confidence in the government 79 times that upset the NDP so, it’s that they gave the government such unflagging support “and got nothing in return.”

• The NDP, on the other hand, “got $1 billion.” That’s the value (anticipated, at least) of the government’s latest proposed changes to EI payments. That $1 billion “isn’t enough, but it’s a pretty good start.”

• So, as Jack Layton put it in his scrum, the choice was between $1 billion for unemployed Canadians, or spending a third of a billion on an election. Layton asserts that he made the wise decision.

• Surely there’s a punchy talking point I haven’t quoted yet? Right you are. “A working group was the best the Liberals got out of the government for all those Yea votes,” one shadowy but determinedly chipper New Democrat told me. “So, Michael Ignatieff got lunch with Pierre Poilievre. We got a billion bucks.” Punchy!

There you go. Now. Having relayed this line of argument with an admirably straight face, perhaps I can be forgiven for adding this. The latest round of changes to EI, which have won the support of the NDP, aren’t the only incremental spending on employment insurance this year. Here’s a bunch of other changes, already passed, which add to $6.2 billion in value. One would be tempted to argue that is 6.2 times as good a start as a $1 billion change. But the NDP was against those earlier changes. That’s not a 180?

In the Oval Office with Barack and Stephen

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 3:13 PM - 16 Comments

What they say is true. The Oval Office is smaller in person than it looks on TV. But it’s not that small and still impressive. So Stephen Harper must be pleased with the rarefied photo-op Barack Obama gave him by hosting him there today.

As you walk from the press briefing room through the colonnade facing Rose Garden,

past the Cabinet Room and enter the iconic curved room with the presidential seal on the ceiling, you can’t help but feel the weight of history.

It was hard to tell which particular ghosts were on the mind of outgoing Canadian ambassador Michael Wilson today as his fingertips reverently caressed the top of the elaborately carved Resolute Desk — the same one that young JFK Jr. once used as a hiding place at his father’s feet –  while Stephen Harper and Barack Obama gave their short press availability (one question per county.) I couldn’t take a picture of Wilson’s reverie because prior to being led into the room, we were specifically instructed not to take pictures of the president’s desk or anything that might be on it. I scoped it out for classified documents, or at least a presidential Macbook, but the desk was clear except for a plaque and a ceremonial pen.

Continue…

Polls bad in Outremont, Tom?

By Paul Wells - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 2:00 PM - 68 Comments

House rebukes outburst against Obama

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 1:52 PM - 1 Comment

They are two words that, for the last week, have been the talk of Washington, DC: “You lie.” Now, the congressman who shouted them at President Barack Obama, South Carolina Republican, Joe Wilson – has received his official comeuppance. On Tuesday, the House formally rebuked Wilson for a “breach of decorum” which “degraded the proceedings of the joint session.” Republicans insist Democrats are using the incident to distract from the health care debate. But Democrats counter that it all could have been avoided if Wilson had just taken the floor to apologize, something he refused to do, saying Obama had already accepted a personal apology made last week. Even Mr. Wilson’s wife, Roxanne, is ready to put this mess behind her. In a video posted on her husband’s campaign website, she admits that after Obama speech, she asked her husband, “Who’s the nut that hollered out, ‘You lie or you liar?’” Since the episode, Mr. Wilson and his Democratic challenger have each raised more than $1 million in campaign funds.

New York Times

RCMP is racist, officers say

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 1:51 PM - 4 Comments

Two members of the RCMP are suing the force for racism. Cpl. Greg Blain and Sgt. Derrick Ross, both of First Nations heritage, say they were discriminated against and harassed while part of a 2007 mission to Afghanistan – and harassed again when they returned to Canada and filed complains. The two men allege that, while training local recruits in Afghanistan, they became targets for “ill-treatment” by white officers. They say they were treated as “inferior” and criticized for “not being military enough.” One suggests that he was denied a leadership opportunity because of his race. The lawsuit claims that, since returning home, the men have developed stress-related medical conditions and lost deserved promotions.

CBC News

Ten months in the life of Thomas Mulcair

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 1:46 PM - 17 Comments

January 28. The budget we saw yesterday is a fiction, and again we will see the Liberals complicit in it over the next few months. This will make 45 times that they have voted in favour of the Conservatives and expressed confidence in them. We are entering the fourth year in which the neo-Conservatives, the most right-wing government in Canadian history, have been kept in power by a party with the word Liberal in its name. I can, however, assure the members of one thing: the people who voted Liberal last time, thinking—wrongly, as it turns out—that the party would actually stand up to the current Prime Minister, were all mistaken. Now these people have realized that they were conned. We, the members of the NDP, are calling on all those who wish to build a better country. We are urging them to join us, to work with us if they want to see a fairer, more egalitarian society when it comes to women’s rights.

Today. The NDP say they will vote to prop up the Conservative government this week and for some time – probably through the fall – if the Harper government follows through on promises to expand employment-insurance benefits. The New Democrats deputy leader, Thomas Mulcair, expressed his party’s inclination to keep Stephen Harper’s government alive until the employment-insurance money flows.

Ranking Canada’s law schools

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 1:37 PM - 30 Comments

In its third annual ranking of Canadian law schools, Maclean’s assessed each institution against recognized measures of faculty quality and of how well graduates do in the workplace. In all, we sought to answer two questions. Are a law school’s professors significant contributors to the intellectual life of their discipline? And do a law school’s graduates land the most sought-after jobs in government, the private sector and academia?

For the third year in a row, the University of Toronto Faculty of Law takes the top spot. McGill Faculty of Law also maintains its second-place position for the third year running, but this year it shares that spot with Osgoode Hall Law School, which last year ranked third. Continue…

Alberta economy worst since 1982: RBC

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 1:06 PM - 5 Comments

It’s a lousy time to be an Albertan, no matter what line of work you’re in. Natural gas prices are the pits, hence low drilling rates and skeletal rig crews. Houses? No one’s building them, so don’t count on a drywalling gig. Topping it off, with a nod to John Steinbeck, is this summer’s drought, which has put an awful dent in agricultural production. That mishmash of rottenness has now led RBC Economics to issue a report calling this downturn as bad as Alberta’s seen since 1982, when high interest rates, low commodity prices and of course the NEP conspired to crush Alberta’s economy. At the Calgary Herald reports, RBC “has revised its real GDP forecast for 2009 down to -2.8 per cent from the -2.5 per cent in the June outlook.” The upside? The report also forecasts “growth of 3.0 per cent for the province in 2010,” thanks to better weather, more robust commodity prices and more consumer spending. That must hearten the folks at Holt Renfrew, who are still busy installing an enormous store in Calgary’s downtown, where word of the recession has in many respects still not arrived.

Calgary Herald

Protest much?

By Paul Wells - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 1:06 PM - 65 Comments

From the Inkless emailbox. Some people have trouble understanding the provenance of these things, so please NOTE that this is, in its entirety, a news release from the NDP:

CREDIBILITY WATCH: New Democrats are ready for an potential election

Other political parties are spinning that the New Democrats aren’t ready for an potential federal election.

There is zero credibility to this spin.  None.  Faced with the third minority government in three elections, New Democrats haven’t missed a beat in readying for the next election.

Campaign manager: Ready. Last week, Jack Layton named current National Director and former Director of Strategic Communications Brad Lavigne as the party’s campaign manager.

Candidates: Ready. The party has 250 ridings with candidates lined up.  (New Democrats prefer that local ridings run nomination meetings, which is a longer process than merely appointing candidates.)

Campaign plane: Ready.  New Democrats have an agreement with Air Canada for an Airbus A-319 – the same plane as the party used in the 2008 election.

Advertising agencies: Ready.  New Democrats have hired Toronto-based Wills and Co. Media Strategies for English and Montreal-based Amen Creation for French language advertising.

Campaign financing: Ready. New Democrats will be spending the legal maximum in this election – the first time the party has been able to make such a commitment two elections in a row. This means that the NDP will spend the same as the Conservatives and the Liberals.  BTW – the New Democrats are welcoming a new store to its downtown HQ, where the long term lease which runs until 2016 will be introducing a new operation. The NDP will invite their friends from the Liberal war room for the grand opening of the bigger and better store later this fall.

Are the other parties ready for an election?  Ask them.

The Conservatives are still struggling to replace Doug Finley as National campaign director since his appointment to the Senate, and Liberals including Ignatieff’s campaign chair are openly saying they don’t want to face the electorate on Employment Insurance:  “We’re not having an election on EI … I don’t hear Canadians clamouring for an election on this issue.” – Senator David Smith, Toronto Star, 28 August 2009

The NDP has already proven they are ready.  Can the Liberals?

Another setback for Jim Balsillie

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 1:05 PM - 1 Comment

Last week, Blackberry billionaire Jim Balsillie upped his offer for the Phoenix Coyotes. The latest bid-US$242.5 million-includes up to $50-million for the jilted city of Glendale, Ariz., which doled out piles of cash to build the arena where the team now plays (and where only 2,000 fans showed up for the first preseason game). Clearly, the offer wasn’t juicy enough. In a closed-door meeting last night, city council chose to back the NHL’s much smaller bid, which would keep the franchise in town for at least this season. Jerry Moyes, the Coyotes’ current owner, begged the council to accept Balsillie’s bid, but the mayor threw him out of the chambers and locked the door. “The city of Glendale would be better off without hockey,” Moyes said, suggesting concerts and events staged at the arena would bring the city more cash. “This team is going to be gone in a year.”

The Arizona Republic

'Please stop insulting us'

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 12:35 PM - 15 Comments

Dan Gardner makes a foray into the speechwriting business.

Look, we’re all adults here so I’m going to stop talking as if Canada is a nation of five-year-olds. There is no Santa Claus. Rex was not sent to a farm in the country. I was doing considerably more than giving your mum a vigorous hut that morning when you walked in. And my decision about an election will be based on whether it’s good for our party. And me. Most of all, me. Yes, I will keep the national interest in mind but, you know, if you look at the entire long history of democratic politics you will see that the national interest is always an exact fit for the interest of the politician who’s talking about the national interest. You think that’s a coincidence? Go get a psychology textbook and look up “cognitive dissonance.” And grow up, people. Like I said, we’re all adults here.

Down by law

By Jeff Rybak - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 12:01 PM - 4 Comments

Law today is not really one profession, but several. For most lawyers, specialization is simply inevitable. True, some general firms still exist, particularly in smaller markets, but most lawyers will spend their careers in specific practices. When they enter law school, students are not required to have a practice area in mind, and the first-year curriculum is designed to cover all of the most fundamental material. But by the start of second year, the decision looms. And increasingly, hard financial realities—not just interest or inclination—drive a student’s choices about practice area.

The rising cost of legal education is well documented, and most students face significant debt upon graduation. After seven or more years of university, it’s natural that they expect some payoff. For many, a certain income level is not only desirable but a bare requirement—they need the money. We are talking, after all, about adults who range from their mid-to-late 20s to considerably older. Some already have families to support; others are eager to start. The combination of these costs and education debt is a very powerful incentive to look for jobs that will cover the bottom line. Continue…

Getting the word out

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 11:56 AM - 4 Comments

Getting the U.S. media to pay attention to Stephen Harper doesn’t come cheap. During last April’s Summit of the Americas, the Prime Minister’s Office spent $24,000 to have Mike McCurry, Bill Clinton’s former press secretary, set up interviews with the New York Times and Fox News, among other outlets, as well as provide “communications advice” to Harper about how best to present Canada’s positions to an American audience. It wasn’t the first time Harper has tapped former White House officials to help him get his message out. Ari Fleisher, George W. Bush’s former press secretary, was tapped to handle similar duties during the G20 meetings in London, for which Fleisher was paid $24,500.

CTV News

Shush now, Jim

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 11:44 AM - 29 Comments

Jim Flaherty, March 30. Last week, Ontario’s Liberal government, after objecting to the combined tax for years, decided to switch. Ottawa agreed to help Canada’s most populous province with that move by giving Ontario one-time compensation of $4.3 billion. ”I think this is very good economic policy,” Flaherty told reporters in Ottawa Monday. “This is a massive tax cut, a $5 billion tax cut for businesses in the province of Ontario and that means job creation and investment in the province of Ontario. So, this is very good economic policy over time.”

Toronto Star, today. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and fellow Conservatives are distancing themselves from the harmonized sales tax as public angst grows over the price hikes it will mean on everything from fast food to funerals … federal Conservative sources have told the Star that earlier in the summer, officials in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office ordered Flaherty to tone it down. ”They asked Jim to stop talking about (the tax) so much because it’s not helpful,” said one insider.

Let’s all play doctor

By Erin Millar - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 11:39 AM - 3 Comments

In the late 1990s, medical faculty at McMaster University in Hamilton were growing increasingly frustrated with the interviews used to evaluate medical school applicants. Even the most conscientious interviewers, it seemed, were biased, and there was often no correlation between the interview process and the subsequent performance of students. “The way we were admitting students was approaching being unethical,” explains Jack Rosenfeld, a professor emeritus in pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster. “The interview process was letting in people who should not have gotten in and excluding people who should have.”

So Rosenfeld and his colleagues proposed a radical new system called the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI). Instead of rattling off prepared responses to typical interview questions, applicants would have to work through 10 to 12 eight-minute stations where they’d respond to carefully scripted actors, tackle ethical dilemmas or try to solve hands-on problems—all under the watchful eyes of a group of interviewers. Continue…

Canada's Professional Schools Special: Where the jobs are

By Christopher Mason - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 11:20 AM - 3 Comments

A funny thing happened to Jordan Sugar this spring, as he prepared to finish his M.B.A. degree at York University’s Schulich School of Business: he got a job. And not just any job—he got one in banking.

For Sugar, who was hired by BMO to work on its trading desk, that was something of a surprise. After all, classroom chatter around Schulich about job prospects had been every bit as depressing as the economic tragedy playing out on the front pages of newspapers. “Some graduates from 1999, 2000, 2001 came in to talk to my class about graduating amid the dot-com burst and I thought, ‘My God, I couldn’t imagine finding a job in that climate,’ ” recalls Sugar. “Then I saw Lehman Bros. go under and I thought, ‘Uh-oh.’ ” Continue…

Do nothing, say nothing politics rule Ottawa

By Andrew Coyne - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 11:20 AM - 46 Comments

Well that’s nice. According to my morning paper, as Dalton Camp used to say, the Conservative government is shortly to release a new plan “demonstrating how it would return deficit-swamped Ottawa to balanced budgets.” The move is apparently designed “to bolster its fiscal stewardship credentials” in advance of the allegedly imminent election.

I can just imagine. If history is any guide, the “plan” will consist of a series of bars on a chart tracing the deficit’s graceful descent to zero by the year—well, we haven’t been told that yet, but let’s assume it will be some years after the government’s present forecast of fiscal 2014. Which, for those with long memories, is five years after the government insisted it would never run a deficit at all.

But as to just how the deficit will be coaxed into submission, we will be told very little, except to say that it will require no tax increases, nor any specific spending cuts—though there will be plenty of “rigorous spending discipline” and another round of “program review,” that exceptionally rigorous exercise that in several previous rounds has slashed spending to an all-time high.

Continue…

The roads to law school

By Erin Millar - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 11:16 AM - 13 Comments

Not all law students have been preparing for a legal career since realizing their dream as a kid. And not all are bluebloods for whom higher education is a given. In fact, for many, pursuing a law degree is a step up, or a way out—from humble circumstances, a troubled neighbourhood, or a bad job.

Meet three Canadians who overcame significant obstacles to go to law school, surprising those around them—and sometimes even themselves.

Michael Prestwich
University of Alberta

The son of a warehouse worker and a stay-at-home mom, Michael Prestwich as a teenager had no ambitions to go to university. “All I knew about university was it’s where you went to become a teacher and it was really expensive,” he recalls. So in 1989, when Prestwich—by then the father of three daughters and a custodian for the local school district in his northern B.C. hometown of Williams Lake—started taking distance education courses from the University of Waterloo, he had to explain the point of learning about a subject as esoteric as philosophy instead of something more concrete, like, say, welding. “This is for me,” he remembers telling people who asked what he hoped to get out of his studies. “I need to have this degree, and that’s a good enough reason for me.” Continue…

M.B.A Rankings

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 11:15 AM - 1 Comment

Canada’s Best Professional Schools
Click here for all our related content on Law, Medicine, Business, and Engineering schools

Canada's Best Professional Schools

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 11:00 AM - 22 Comments

LAW
Our third annual ranking of law schools. Plus, would-be lawyers who don’t fit the mould, and why grads face tough choices.

• Ranking Canada’s law schools
• The roads to law school — Think you know what makes a lawyer? These three law students might change your mind.
• Down by law — An underfunded public justice system means many law students will face tough choices

MEDICINE
The good news and bad news about family practice. Plus, med schools by the numbers.

• Where did you go, Marcus Welby? — The good news: more med students are choosing family practice. The bad? It’s still not enough.
• Let’s all play doctor — Do you have what it takes to get through the Multiple Mini Interview?

M.B.A.
Why the job market is looking up for business graduates. Plus, how Canada’s b-schools rank in the world.

• Where the jobs are — Tough times don’t have to mean tough luck for M.B.A. grads, especially in Canada
• Good for business — A new generation of M.B.A. graduates sets out to better the world. Honestly.
• M.B.A Rankings — A look at Canada’s M.B.A. programs, Canada’s E.M.B.A. programs, and how they stack up against international programs

ENGINEERING
Where have all the women gone? Plus, the stats you need to know.

• Getting into the game — Blame culture. Or genes. Or Dilbert. In engineering, it’s a man’s world—for now.