What it costs to own the podium
By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, July 26, 2012 - 0 Comments
In an interview with Postmedia, Bal Gosal explains the government’s commitment to sports.
Ottawa has almost doubled spending on elite athletes since the Athens Games eight years ago. Gosal’s ministry was also one of the few to escape Harper government spending cuts in the spring budget. “I am one of the luckiest ministers. Nobody touched sports funding,” said the MP for Bramalea-Gore-Malton. “I am confident we will do better in 2016. Progress is being made because of the doubling in funding and it will keep on building. You are really going to see a difference in a couple of years.”
Gosal said sports dodged the recent cuts because the prime minister is “very keen on sports,” and understands their value to the country. “We want to be a leading sporting nation and we are proud of this. We will do what it takes to get high-performance athletes to achieve podium finishes.”
Sport Canada is projected to spend $198.8 million during this fiscal year. Of that, about $78.6 million is dedicated to the Summer Olympics and Paralympics.
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The shouting continues
By Aaron Wherry - Friday, July 13, 2012 at 2:46 PM - 0 Comments
Bal Gosal was interrupted again this morning.
See previously: Another news conference crashed, Bal Gosal gets interrupted, The Conservatives vs. the doctors and ‘Members of the Conservative government will be disrupted from this point on’
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Bal Gosal gets interrupted
By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, July 10, 2012 at 5:53 PM - 0 Comments
Doctors opposed to the government’s cuts to health care for refugee claimants confront a third cabinet minister.
Amateur Sport Minister Bal Gosal was speaking at a promotional event for the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto when he was interrupted by four doctors wearing their white coats who approached the stage yelling. ”What about health care for refugees? What about medications for our patients?” yelled the protesters. ”How can you look your cabinet colleagues in the face?” added Gary Bloch, who identified himself to reporters later in a scrum as a family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. ”Ask Minister Kenney why diabetics can’t get insulin,” another doctor added as Gosal stopped his remarks.
See previously: The Conservatives vs. the doctors and ‘Members of the Conservative government will be disrupted from this point on’
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Happy Canada Day
By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, July 1, 2012 at 11:26 AM - 0 Comments
Canada Day video greetings from Jason Kenney, Ted Opitz, Cheryl Gallant, Peggy Nash, Jinny Sims, Colin Carrie, Joyce Murray, Wayne Marston, Craig Scott, John Weston, Ralph Goodale, Elizabeth May, Robert Chisholm, Claude Gravelle, Christine Moore, Laurin Liu, Ray Boughen, James Lunney, Russ Hiebert, Jack Harris, Peter Braid, Steven Blaney, Randy Kamp and, expressing their best wishes in rather similar words, Daryl Kramp, James Bezan, Randy Hoback, Diane Finley, Ed Holder, Ryan Leef, Bob Zimmer, Dave MacKenzie,John Carmichael, Bal Gosal, Costas Menegakis and Parm Gill.
After the jump, a video from the Prime Minister and statements from Thomas Mulcair and Bob Rae. Continue…
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The Commons: Mulcair and Harper wish each other a lovely summer
By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 21, 2012 at 5:55 PM - 0 Comments
The Scene. “Mr. Speaker, this spring we saw the Conservatives abandon the very principles they claim they came to Ottawa to defend,” Thomas Mulcair declared this afternoon. “Ramming through their Trojan Horse budget bill.”
“Wrong!” called Conservative MP Jeff Watson.
“Gutting their own Federal Accountability Act,” Mr. Mulcair continued.
“Wrong!” chirped Watson.
“Treating their backbench MPs like a rubber stamp,” Mr. Mulcair went on.
“Double wrong!” Watson cried.
“Using closure a record number of times,” Mr. Mulcair proceeded to general grumbling and mumbling from the government side, “electoral fraud, slush funds and, of course, ministers travelling the world staying in luxury hotels and taking $23,000 limo rides on the taxpayers’ dime.”
On all of this the leader of the opposition had two questions. “How can a former member of the Reform Party defend this behaviour?” he asked. “This summer, will the Prime Minister just shuffle the deck chairs on the Titanic or will he get his Conservative cabinet under control?”
This being the last Question Period for nearly three months, it was now Mr. Harper’s turn to impart best wishes for the summer ahead. Continue…
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Justin Trudeau vs Patrick Brazeau: the weigh-in
By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, March 29, 2012 at 12:07 AM - 0 Comments
Photos from the charity boxing match pre-party
Liberal MP Justin Trudeau and Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau held a weigh-in at the Aulde Dubliner & Pour House before their big charity boxing match on Saturday in Ottawa. Fight for the Cure 2012 is an annual fundraising initiative for the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation. Since training for the event Trudeau has put on 20 pounds. His shirt collars are now too tight and he can’t do up the top bottom. Brazeau says his weight has pretty much remained the same. Brazeau, who is 5-feet-10 weighed in at 183 pounds, while Trudeau, who is 6-foot-2, is now 180 pounds. Tory MP Patrick Brown, who was at the bar, said he would also be happy to battle Trudeau so long as it was on ice and they were wearing skates and hockey equipment. Bal Gosal, Minister of State (Sport), noted this was one sports event where he would not remain neutral and sported a Brazeau T-shirt which said Patrick “Brazzknuckles” Brazeau. The majority in the bar were Brazeau supporters.
Justin Trudeau (left) and Partrick Brazeau.
Justin Trudeau.
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The Stoffer Olympics
By Mitchel Raphael - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 11:49 PM - 0 Comments
NDP MP Peter Stoffer launched an Olympic awareness campaign at his Ottawa office. In…
NDP MP Peter Stoffer launched an Olympic awareness campaign at his Ottawa office. In exchange for a donation, people can come to his office to shoot five darts, five Nerf basketball shots, five shots of pool, five putts of golf and five kicks of a soccer ball (with double points in soccer if done in wooden shoes). All proceeds go to support the athletes heading the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London.
Peter Stoffer (left) and CBC cameraman Patrick Sinclair.
Stoffer and British High Commissioner Andrew Pocock.
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Firefighters in Ottawa
By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 9:06 AM - 0 Comments
The International Association of Firefighters arrived in Ottawa and held a reception at the…
The International Association of Firefighters arrived in Ottawa and held a reception at the Delta Hotel.
Labour Minister Lisa Raitt (left) and Scott Marks, IAFF Assistant to the General President for Canadian Operations..
Conservative MP James Lunney and Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq.
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Rogers Communications turns 50
By Mitchel Raphael - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 at 9:05 AM - 3 Comments
Rogers Communications celebrated their 50th anniversary in Ottawa at the Metropolitain Brasserie….
Rogers Communications celebrated their 50th anniversary in Ottawa at the Metropolitain Brasserie.
(Left to right) Rogers president and CEO Nadir Mohamed and Rogers Vice Chairman Phil Lind.
(Left to right) U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird.
Liberal MP Justin Trudeau.
Loretta Rogers.
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The MP who has to talk about the Senate all summer
By Mitchel Raphael - Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 9:20 AM - 2 Comments
Handy having an orthopaedic surgeon
Ontario Conservative MP Patrick Brown…’s annual Hockey Night
Mitchel Raphael
Handy having an orthopaedic surgeon
Ontario Conservative MP Patrick Brown’s annual Hockey Night in Barrie continues to grow. Each year, the charity fundraiser for the Royal Victoria Hospital has MPs and NHL players sharing the ice for a game. This year (the fourth) raised almost $200,000 for the hospital’s cancer care centre. Current and retired NHL players this time included Ryan O’Reilly of the Colorado Avalanche, Bryan Little of the Winnipeg Jets, Luke Pither of the Philadelphia Flyers and Darcy Tucker. Also attending was Conservative MP Kellie Leitch (who beat Helena Guergis in the last election). The rookie MP would have been handy in an emergency: Leitch is an orthopaedic surgeon who has sports- injuries training going back to the days when she worked with the Toronto Argonauts.
Calgary Conservative MP Michelle Rempel (who took former cabinet minister Jim Prentice’s old seat in the last election) arrived at the game to support Brown and her fellow MPs. But when she got drafted as one of the coaches, she quickly rose to the challenge. (Last year, Stephen Harper put in an appearance and coached the same team.) Defence Minister Peter MacKay arrived with all his hockey gear but had to borrow one of Patrick Brown’s sticks. Most of the MPs present agreed that Brown is one the Conservatives’ best players.
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This year's models
By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 10:43 AM - 65 Comments
Welcome to live coverage of this morning’s cabinet shuffle, wherein we find out which backbenchers we have to pretend to take more seriously for the next little while.
There’s been a steady stream of Conservatives arriving at Rideau Hall and the Prime Minister is due shortly. So far we seem only to know for sure that John Baird will be the next Foreign Affairs Minister. Presumably he will be counted on to bluster away opposition criticism of the government’s international endeavours, charm foreign officials and periodically convene breathless news conferences to report the latest breathtaking developments in our make-believe war with Russia. Presumably he’ll do fine. His image problem notwithstanding.
10:45am. Our Andrew Coyne is already deeply disappointed with all of this. Follow his Twitter feed this morning to watch his head explode repeatedly.
10:52am. The Prime Minister has now arrived. The swearing in is to commence in about 20 minutes.
11:04am. CTV reports a 39-member ministry, which equals an all-time high mark. Welcome to the new era of smaller government.
11:07am. Peter Van Loan apparently goes back to House leader. Welcome to the new era of non-partisan Harper governance. Continue…
