The Commons: Finally, a straight answer

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 6:11 PM - 17 Comments

The Scene. Mark Holland walked out into the foyer and, surrounded by cameras, gamely tried to explain that he was not particularly interested in the cocaine and hookers, that this was about much more fundamental matters of governance and accountability. A short while later, Libby Davies, in sandals, strode out and, surrounded by microphones, attempted to parse the difference between the Conflict of Interest Code and the Conflict of Interest Act. The assembled reporters gamely pretended to be interested.

Alas, Day whatever-this-is of whatever we’re calling this crisis (“The Gaffer Affair” seems both a tidy and au courant moniker) passed without much more in the way of insight. Which is perhaps precisely the problem. Continue…

MPs do their part and chow down on lobster

By Mitchel Raphael - Monday, July 6, 2009 at 6:00 AM - 33 Comments

Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Gail Shea hosted a packed reception at the Westin Ottawa for PEI Seafood Processors Association, in an effort to bring awareness to current low-price challenges facing the lobster industry.

Shea and Alberta Tory MP Ted Menzies.

Defence minister Peter MacKay.

Montreal Liberal MP Justin Trudeau.

Continue…

Genocide remembered on the Hill

By Mitchel Raphael - Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 12:31 AM - 3 Comments

The Congress of Canadian Armenians recently honoured MPs who had voted in 2003 to support a private member’s bill recognizing the Armenian genocide.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff is greeted by Azad Chichmanian of the Congress of Canadian Armenians.

Continue…

The Commons: The House of Comedians

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, April 20, 2009 at 6:09 PM - 28 Comments

The Scene. In the 15 minutes between 2 o’clock and the start of Question Period, three different Conservatives were sent up to demonstrate their loyalty to the cause.

“Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Party sure loves taxes,” sang Candice Hoeppner.

“This is a very troubling revelation and it should have Canadians worried,” moaned Bruce Stanton.

“The Liberals want to make Canada the most taxed country in the world,” reported Ron Cannan, who took the opportunity to compare some recently reported remarks of Michael Ignatieff’s to an earthquake in Italy this month that killed nearly 300 people and left tens of thousands homeless.

Ignatieff’s side balked and squawked at this last comment. Then their leader stood and offered the day’s first question. “Mr. Speaker, the government is presiding over the worst collapse in employment on record, 300,000 jobs lost in the first three months of 2009. Mayors and municipal councillors I spoke to in southwestern Ontario last week were promised federal help months ago to create jobs. It has not arrived. When will help arrive?” he wondered. ”What additional measures will the minister offer to protect jobs in a recession which the Minister of Finance has finally acknowledged is serious?”

The Prime Minister was away, as were both the Finance Minister and the Finance Minister’s parliamentary secretary. So up came John Baird, who took the opportunity to ignore the question and instead offer a few thoughts on the airplane scare in Montego Bay. Continue…

The Commons: Smile and shrug

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, April 1, 2009 at 1:23 AM - 41 Comments

The Scene. After the last of several government MPs had been sent up before Question Period to cast aspersions on Michael Ignatieff’s character, the Speaker decided to interject. Calling for order, Peter Milliken told Conservative Daryl Kramp that he might “find himself suspended” if tries again to defy a recent ruling against the use of Parliament’s time to attack a fellow MP.

Those on the Liberal and NDP benches applauded. The government side pouted and, after Question Period, once more asserted its right to freely disparage by doing just that.

“This is politics. This is not a Harvard classroom,” explained Kory Teneycke, the Prime Minister’s press secretary. “You have to be able to take it as well as give it.”

Above all else, it seems, one’s ability to “take it” is the highest measure of public leadership in Stephen Harper’s Ottawa. Take, for instance, the Question Period that followed the Speaker’s warning. Continue…

The Commons: The eternal shame of the Ivy Leaguer

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 6:42 PM - 45 Comments

The Scene. In preemptive move, the government side sent up another of its backbenchers before Question Period—this one named Greg Rickford—to report on the latest outrageousness of the Liberal leader.

“Mr. Speaker, Canada’s auto industry directly employs over 150,000 Canadians and another 340,000 indirectly … half a million Canadians and their families depend on the health and viability of this industry and are looking to their leaders to ensure that Canada remains a strong part of the North American automotive industry through these economic times,” Rickford began. “That is why it is absolutely shameful that the leader of the opposition has turned up his nose to auto sector workers by saying: ‘No voter in B.C. wants to throw money into the auto sector and neither do I.’”

To Rickford’s credit, this was not entirely incorrect. Mr. Ignatieff did speak those 16 words. And one assumes it was by innocent omission that the Conservative failed to note the two preceding sentences. ”I don’t believe in bailouts,” Mr. Ignatieff reportedly said. “What I believe in is fully-refundable loan packages for industries that give you a business plan that will restore them to profitability.”

Undaunted by such details, Rickford went on. “I wonder if he would repeat the same sentiment at a town hall meeting in Ontario,” he whined. “I am sure he has more savvy than that. He has shown time and time again that he is more than willing to flip-flop on the content of his message to suit whatever audience he is speaking to, whether it be in Saanich, St. Catharines or at his home in Harvard.”

This last bit was, apparently, meant as a put-down. Continue…

The Commons: Michael Ignatieff and the herd

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, February 4, 2009 at 7:36 PM - 41 Comments

The Scene. The early reviews are in and Michael Ignatieff is a disaster. A blight upon our democracy. A threat, no less, to the very notion of this nation we hold dear. Ottawa, it is safe to say, is unimpressed.

“Just who is running the Liberal caucus?” begged the Globe and Mail’s editorial board this morning, thoroughly perplexed at Mr. Ignatieff’s decision to let half a dozen Liberal MPs from Newfoundland vote of their own volition. “Whether or not this proves to be a ‘one-time pass,’ as Mr. Ignatieff has claimed, it could have far-reaching consequences for him, for his party, and potentially for the country.”

“I think it’s a total lack of leadership,” concurred Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe, he of nearly two decades in Ottawa.

“It can be described lots of ways but it can’t really be described as leadership,” scolded the NDP’s Jack Layton, speaking from his 26 years of political experience.

“Certainly,” chirped baby-faced Conservative Pierre Poilievre, a keen student of this stuff, “Prime Minister Harper is a strong leader and you’ll notice that his caucus is unanimous in voting with him. I think that is the mark of a strong leader.”

Anonymous Liberals were said to be perplexed. The men on the CTV nightly news were positively aghast, shocked at the Liberal leader’s unprecedented decision to emasculate himself so publicly.

Trying to grasp the sheer enormity of Mr. Ignatieff’s misstep, the Globe consulted professor Tom Flanagan, a former associate of Mr. Harper’s and, consequently, a man intimately familiar with the mystical qualities that make one a proper leader of men. ”It is a sign of weakness in the brutal world of politics,” the professor concluded. ”Harper, would never do something similar.”

No doubt Mr. Ignatieff thought that last bit a compliment. But then he and the herd don’t know quite what to do with each other. Continue…

Frank Valeriote Maverick Watch

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 9:29 PM - 12 Comments

“I believe in working toward a solution, not working toward a coalition … I am not, frankly, anticipating moving into government.” 

Liberal rookie Frank Valeriote will probably not receive a cabinet post in the separatist coalition.

The Commons: 'Unbelievable'

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 1, 2008 at 7:37 PM - 54 Comments

Prime Minister Dion had a question. “Does the Prime Minister,” he asked, “still believe that he enjoys the confidence of this House?”

Prime Minister Harper would not tolerate such a tone in this place. “When the honourable gentleman speaks about playing politics,” he said. “I think he is about to play the biggest political game in Canadian history.”

The Conservative leader sounded envious. Continue…

BTC: What may come

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 6:14 PM - 0 Comments

If the by-election in Guelph is any indication, a general election this fall could be among the most dispiriting in recent memory.