Leading the world

Joe Comartin advocates for sports gambling.

Windsor-Tecumseh MP Joe Comartin last spring introduced a parliamentary motion to delete one paragraph from the Criminal Code which bans sports wagering — as was done a few years ago with dice games. ”We have been working with the Canadian Gaming Association and the CAW to get the government to move on this, but they haven’t, and we’re not sure why,” Comartin said. “It’s kind of frustrating.”

Comartin said Ontario casinos are facing a perfect storm, with increased competition and tighter passport rules and that sports wagering could provide a much-needed edge. ”We are worried,” Comartin said. ”At some point, we expect some state in the U.S. will follow Nevada’s example. Probably one of the states in the midwest will allow it. Then they will all come on board, to remain competitive.”

Senator James Cowan cordially partakes of the ancient art of open-letter writing.

As Minister of Justice, and as a personal proponent of a strong law-and-order agenda, you have a duty, which I am sure you recognize, to uphold the truth and not mislead Canadians.  Accordingly, I am confident that you will wish to quickly correct the record, and agree that the Liberal opposition in the Senate has not in fact “obstructed” your Government’s anti-crime agenda.  To the contrary, the greatest delays to the implementation of your agenda have been due to your own Government’s actions in failing to bring bills forward for debate, dragging your feet in bringing legislation into force, and most significantly, proroguing Parliament.

The Canadian Press story to which Mr. Cowan elsewhere refers is here.

The Liberal candidate in Dufferin Caledon carefully explains that while he was a “little tired of the Afghan detainee thing” and while he thinks “most Canadians” are probably are okay with a “little torture” at a time of war, he, with all his soul, abhors “the fact that Canadians have been involved with torture to get information from prisoners, who for the most part, are just farmers in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

In response to an attempt by a government official to save the Canadian Press a few dollars on reprinting costs, Jack Layton attempts to explain the riddle that is access to information.

Meanwhile, NDP Leader Jack Layton highlighted the problems within the federal Access to Information regime by releasing two copies a memo from diplomat Richard Colvin on the subject of Afghan detainees. Only a few words were redacted in the memo as it was publicly released by the Attorney-General to the Military Police Complaints Commission. But, when released by the Department of National Defence under Access to Information legislation, it was redacted almost in its entirety…

“A free society requires access to the facts. That’s fundamental. And the government can’t simply say we are going to protect ourselves by building walls around the truth. That’s not right. And [Prime Minister Stephen] Harper used to say that but then again he used to say a lot of things.”

That memo in its dueling forms can be viewed here and here.

Something like 750 words on the last of the Progressive Conservatives on Parliament Hill.

She defines herself as socially progressive and fiscally conservative. And by her estimation, the Harper government has been neither. Tied by partisan affiliation to the past, working within an institution many consider antiquated, McCoy seems rather contemporary. She uses Twitter, has created an elaborate website (albertasenator.ca) dedicated to “meaningful, informed, open discussion” and regularly blogs about matters of policy and legislation. Last fall, with statistics and graphs, she doubted whether legislation on cigarillos would result in fewer children smoking. She speaks now of early childhood learning as a Progressive Conservative ideal: both socially and economically sound. She says, “I’m very fond, privately, of decrying the messaging, the narrative, that comes from our leaders these days of being positional instead of visionary and pragmatic.”

Looks like Gary Schellenberger might not be able to make it to the Olympics after all.

“We’re bringing a budget forward and we’re doing business. All my staff are working,” he said, responding to citizens who have been asking publicly what exactly MPs are doing during the shutdown of Parliament. ”One thing people don’t realize is that in this business it’s a 24/7-type job. When you’re off you’re not really off.”

… Mr. Schellenberger, in an earlier interview, said he might attend the Winter Olympics during the parliamentary holiday but by last week he had backed away from the idea. ”Right now I’ve got so much stuff on I don’t think I’m going to be going to the Olympics,” he said.

It was perhaps a bit odd that Jack Layton’s disclosure last week that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer would be cause for consideration of his political career and public life to date. He is by no means doomed and is entirely likely to make a full recovery. But perhaps we in this culture crave any opportunity to pause for reflection.

As it is, Mr. Layton seems more inclined to carry on, showing up this afternoon to explain how and why the next session of Parliament should be dedicated, sort of like the Titanic, to putting “women and children first.” Here was Jack Layton as he is, and seemingly as he always has been: insistent and demanding and righteous and demanding, for the most part, to be greeted without irony. Continue…

In lavish detail, Nate Silver explains how Washington might create its own Question Time. Meanwhile, former McCain campaign strategist Mark McKinnon posits that a regular QT might help leach “partisan poison” from Capitol Hill.

All of which may serve to remind that it is not necessarily the institution or the idea of Question Period that is the problem here in Ottawa, so much as how it is used.

According to Christopher White, creator of that Facebook group, he’s been invited to take part alongside professors Peter Russell and Errol Mendes in a Liberal roundtable next month about civic engagement and democracy.

At the prorogation protest on Parliament Hill a couple weeks back, someone held a sign that read “I Can Haz Democracy?” Now this.

The Saskatoon chapter of Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament organized another protest Friday to greet a visiting Conservative Party politician. Prime Minister Stephen Harper stopped in Saskatoon and the group brought out about 75 people to protest Harper’s presence and policy…

Security paced the hotel’s entrance, and four Saskatoon police officers arrived to disperse the members of the crowd because they were blocking the doors of a business. “Accountability fail,” one protester yelled when the protesters got back to their corner across the street.

Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff and Gilles Duceppe extend their best wishes. News and reaction from the Globe, Star, Post, Sun, CBC and CTV. Canadian Press has a primer on prostate cancer.

Stephen Harper talks to Sports Illustrated. Hockey is a fast, aggressive, tough sport and that’s an important part of the Canadian psychology and history. It’s sometimes forgotten because Canadians are thought of as peace-loving and fair-minded and pleasant — which I think we are — but that’s not inconsistent with tough and aggressive and ambitious, which is also part of the national character.

Michael Ignatieff writes for the New York Times. If you’re not trying to demonstrate raw power or announce your arrival on the global stage, however, hosting the Games presents a challenge. We Canadians are immensely proud of our country, but we try to be soft-spoken about it, so we aren’t looking for the Vancouver Games to be a grandiose exercise in self-promotion. Instead, we want to demonstrate that we’re a people the world can count on.

Jack Layton has called a news conference for Monday in Ottawa to “challenge his three federal counterparts to seek common ground to make the concerns of women and children in Canada a priority in the next session of Parliament.”

The NDP has announced that Jack Layton will make an “announcement about his personal status and his immediate future as NDP leader” at 2pm in Toronto.

He will apparently not be resigning. But his announcement will have something to do with his health.

CBC now reports that Layton will announce he has prostate cancer.