Liveblogging the First Ministers' Meeting
By kadyomalley - Friday, January 16, 2009 - 39 Comments
When the only tool you have is a shovel…
… everything starts to look like a hole. Which is now no longer called a hole, but an infrastructure investment opportunity, so please update your talking points accordingly. (For yesterday’s liveblog, click here.)
7:42:06 AM
Good morning, federal-provincial jurisdictional sports fans ! We’re here outside Old City Hall, where, in an unwelcome development, the pre-meeting ins are taking place on the front steps – the outside front steps, in the bitter, freezing cold. I’m not sure how much realtime liveblogging I’m going to be able to do before actual, no-kidding frostbite kicks in.
I arrived at nearly exactly the same time as BC Premier Gordon Campbell, who turned up in a car, unlike ITQ, and as such was happy to stand outside for a few minutes to talk about shovels, and readiness as his aides – unaccustomed to the brutality of the central Canadian winter, shivered beside him.
Hey, there’s the PM! Who doesn’t have anything to say to us, other than good morning, and that he plans to focus on the economy. Never have I been so relieved to hear him say so little.
7:48:53 AM
Fashion note; the PM is wearing the same coat and scarf has he did the day he visited Rideau Hall.
7:55:27 AM
I’m sorry, y’all, I just couldn’t stick it out — minus thirty is just too darned cold to liveblog in the open air. I’ve retreated to the makeshift media gallery, where Danny Wiliams – of whom we saw neither hide nor hair yesterday – is explaining to the assembled press that his focus is on employment insurance – “we really should pump up EI!” – and not tax cuts, although he’s not categorically opposed to the latter.
8:00:13 AM Continue…
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Federalism as viewed from the foyer of the Chateau Laurier: Liveblogging the FMM pre-game show
By kadyomalley - Thursday, January 15, 2009 at 12:50 PM - 16 Comments
(For a full rundown of FMM-related events, check the official ITQ guide here.)
12:28:47 PM
The rallying cry of the reporter who turns up at a press conference half an hour early: “Ooh! Free cookies!” As I told the FCM official eyeing me with suspicion, in these uncertain times, one should never turn away from. chocolate chips.Yes, I’m here in the Quebec suite at the Chateau Laurier, cooling my heels – or as is the case today, given the temperature outside, warming them and every other body part – in anticipation of a post-meeting press conference by the mayors of Canada’s 22 largest cities, a number presumably arrived at so as not to exclude Ottawa (despite the Obama tails that have so shattered the will of Colleague Potter to live).
Just as I was typing those words, however, the microphone was abruptly hijacked by none other than Martha Hall Findlay, the Liberal critic for infrastructure, who has seized the opportunity presented by a room full of otherwise at loose ends journalists to put forward her party’s position on the issue. The opposition, it’s clear, needs no lessons from the devil when it comes to finding work for idle hands.
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FMM 2009: Lock up your jurisdictional powers, Ottawa
By kadyomalley - Thursday, January 15, 2009 at 11:44 AM - 9 Comments
The premiers are in town!
Yes, it’s First Ministers’ Meeting Eve, everyone! Get excited!
The pre-preshow gets underway this afternoon at 1pm, when members of the Big City Mayors’ Caucus of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities hold a media availability to reveal the results of their discussions on, in their words, the “ongoing economic challenges and opportunities leading into the First Ministers’ Meeting, Speech from the Throne and Federal Budget,” which, as far as ITQ can tell, basically involves using the phrase “shovel-ready” over and over and over again.
