The Herb Gray School

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, October 21, 2011 at 10:00 AM - 17 Comments

Steven Fletcher, Oct. 19. Mr. Speaker, I reject the premise of the member’s question.

John Baird, Oct. 19. Mr. Speaker, it will not come as any surprise to my friend from northern Ontario that I do not agree with the premise of his question.

Ed Fast, Oct. 19.  Mr. Speaker, I do not accept the premise of that question.

Stephen Harper, Oct. 19. Mr. Speaker, I completely disagree with the premise of that question.

Denis Lebel, Oct. 18. Mr. Speaker, I do not accept the premise of that question.

John Baird, Oct. 17. Mr. Speaker, it will not come as any surprise to that member or to the House that I categorically reject the premise of the member’s question.

Brent Rathgeber, Oct. 17. Mr. Speaker, I absolutely disagree with the premise of that question.

John Baird, Oct. 7. Mr. Speaker, I say to my friend from Winnipeg Centre that it will not come as any surprise to him that I disagree with the premise of his question. Continue…

The Commons: In a state of “suspended animation”

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, June 25, 2011 at 1:07 PM - 0 Comments

Shortly after the clock passed midnight, a dozen Conservatives sang happy birthday to their colleague, David Sweet. His birthday had actually just passed—he was born on June 24, 1957—so the gesture was a bit belated. But perhaps owing to the pizza party the Prime Minister had apparently been hosting, the government side seemed a jovial bunch, eager to find fun wherever it could be found.

As luck would have it, they had all been summoned to the House of Commons at this late hour for a vote—specifically on an NDP-authored motion to delay moving forward with Bill C-6 for another six months. The official filibustering of this particular piece of particularly contentious legislation had commenced some 27 hours earlier. What began on Thursday was now moving into Saturday. Except that, so far as the reality within these four walls is measured, with the House having not yet adjourned for the day, this was still Thursday. Indeed, there in the middle of the room sat the four-sided calendar, reminding all who could see it that here they remained trapped in June 23. Continue…

Where you need to go in this town for a good idea

By Paul Wells - Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 5:58 PM - 0 Comments

Science and technology minister Gary Goodyear was at the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto to fulfill a commitment the feds made in their most recent budget: he launched a review of Canada’s policies regarding business R&D. As David Akin points out in his Sun Media column today, the problem is simple enough: Canadian researchers are far better at producing new ideas than Canadian businesses are at implementing them. (Here’s a column I wrote in which John Manley expounds on similar themes.) Far too much effort has gone in recent years into fine-tuning (read “fiddling clumsily with”) the research that goes on in university laboratories. This review attempts to get things right: it looks at the very substantial federal aid on offer to businesses that want to engage in R&D, and asks why so little of that assistance is taken up and why it hasn’t produced a culture of constant innovation.

My very strong hunch is that Canadian industry doesn’t need more help so much as it needs to be made to worry, through a set of policies designed to expose Canada more directly to global competition. So I like this quote from John Manley in David’s column: “Quite frankly, if there is an innovation problem in Canada, that’s the responsibility of the management and boards of directors here in Canada.” I’m really pleased to see that UofT president David Naylor is on Goodyear’s panel; he’s good at the kind of blunt talk that will be needed.

There’s another guy on the panel who will not be familiar to just about anybody, but should be. His name is Arvind Gupta, he runs an organization called MITACS, and I’ve had a story about him ready to run for the past couple of weeks in one of our upcoming university issues. We’ve plucked that story out of our queue so you can read about Gupta now. Here it is after the jump. Continue…

The Commons: ‘Whoops!’

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, May 3, 2010 at 6:09 PM - 28 Comments

The Scene. Dominic LeBlanc stood and did as so many great rhetoricians have done before him. In this moment, he stood and sought solace in a complicated law that governs the professional behaviour of elected officials.

“Mr. Speaker, the Conflict of Interest Act specifically states that a public office holder is in a conflict of interest when he or she exercises an official power, duty or function that provides an opportunity to further the private interests of their friends,” Mr. LeBlanc stated.

And so the echoes were sufficiently stirred.

Funny thing about this Gaffer Affair, the longer it remains with us, the more substantive it becomes. What once was a simple tale of well-endowed prostitutes and illicit narcotics is now something to do with the Conflict of Interest Act, a 13-page code of conduct that is understood by perhaps one person in the capital. This is progress. Continue…

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…

Bless this mess

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, December 18, 2009 at 2:51 PM - 16 Comments

In a two-part post—here and here—Kady O’Malley reviews all that has befallen Parliament’s committee system.

The first one to collapse  was Procedure and House Affairs. where a motion to investigate the Conservative Party’s in-and-out electoral financing scheme led to meeting after meeting after meeting of government members running down the clock to prevent the vote from being called. Eventually, the opposition parties got fed up and ousted the chair — at the time, one Gary Goodyear, since ascended to the ranks of junior cabinet minister — which really did not go over well at all, particularly for Joe Preston, who was elected to take Goodyear’s place, despite his vehement protestations. After accusing the opposition of forcing him into indentured servitude, which made for a truly touching acceptance speech, Preston reluctantly took the chair, and adjourned the meeting, which turned out to be the last one the committee would hold until well into the next year.

Cards to play, chips to use

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 9, 2009 at 10:29 AM - 68 Comments

Reluctant partisan Mike Duffy explains the necessity of his travel on the public dime.

“You look at Holland College in P.E.I., they got $8.5 million this year,” said Duffy. “People say why do you travel? It’s because you need cards to play and chips to use.”

Duffy builds his chips up by traveling to MP’s ridings, meeting people, giving speeches and making friends.

“So I’m going to ask the minister of science Gary Goodyear to look favourably upon Holland College. He has a zillion applications and I say, ‘gee Gary, would you take a personal interest. I think it has merit. Will you look at that and see what you can do,” said Duffy. “So when Holland College comes up they get $8.5 million. They’re going to build some new buildings, take down some substandard housing and rearrange things and do it in a way that will substantially change your impression of Charlottetown.”

The Commons: Shameful, callous, disrespectful, unacceptable, insensitive

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 6:29 PM - 74 Comments

The Scene. Nothing quite calms the barroom atmosphere of an afternoon in the House of Commons quite like death. Or, in this case, the theoretical possibility of same.

So that silence descended today once it became clear that Todd Russell (left) was opening Question Period with something of such seriousness.

“Mr. Speaker, imagine that you, your child or your grandmother has H1N1. Imagine people who live in fear at the spread of this disease. Imagine being a community leader or health worker pleading for help, trying to prepare and too often doing so on your own,” he began, speaking evenly and deliberately. “What message does it send a person, their people and their community when the government will not send medicine but will send body bags? Will the Minister of Health own up to her responsibilities and apologize for this shameful incompetence?”

There were some grumbles and groans from the government side.

The Health Minister was otherwise engaged, so it was John Baird sent up to offer a response.

“Mr. Speaker, I totally agree with the member for Labrador,” he said. “What happened in recent events is unacceptable. It is incredibly insensitive and offensive. The Minister of Health has ordered her department to conduct a thorough and immediate inquiry into this matter and the results of that inquiry will be made public.” Continue…

The Commons: This is a crucial time, apparently

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 6:15 PM - 61 Comments

The Scene. Having not had the opportunity a day earlier to add his unique voice to the discussion, Conservative Gord Brown stood a few minutes before Question Period with a bulletin.

“Mr. Speaker, throughout my great riding of Leeds-Grenville there are shovels in the ground, there are roads, sewers and other infrastructure works being built and repaired and folks are looking forward to the future. Everywhere I travelled in my riding this summer the people told me they are pleased with the direction our government has taken to help position Canada to face tomorrow,” he reported. “My constituents have one message: ‘Remain focused on the economy and do not have an expensive and unnecessary election.’ ”

No doubt. Our last exercise in electoral representation cost the national treasury some $280 million. Even with a drop in the price of oil, another one might add approximately the same to our already overdrawn account.

Mind you, that surely pales in comparison to the cost of sending several dozen men and women to Ottawa after each election so that they might stand in their places every so often and repeat the rote partisan rhetoric of the day.

Not that one should fuss too much over the numbers. For who among us, really, can put a price on precious democracy?

Continue…

Imagine Adoption: Gary Goodyear's wife on the payroll – and the company they co-own is on the creditor list.

By kadyomalley - Thursday, July 16, 2009 at 10:12 PM - 43 Comments

The Kitchener-Waterloo Record reports on the link between Valerie Goodyear and the ongoing Imagine Adoption/Kids Link International bankruptcy meltdown:

The 16 employees of the bankrupt agency included Valerie Goodyear, wife of federal cabinet minister and Cambridge MP Gary Goodyear.

In a written statement yesterday, Gary Goodyear said his wife helped place children with families and wasn’t involved with the agency’s finances. He also said he has never been involved with its operations. [...]

In an agency newsletter last year, Valerie Goodyear was described as co-ordinator of its African adoption programs.

A profile said she had been to Ethiopia three times and was one of the agency’s first employees.

In the same newsletter, photographs showed Gary Goodyear and other local politicians alongside Susan Hayhow at a ribbon-cutting to mark the agency’s move to new offices.

He is also quoted in a story accompanying the photos.

“This is a wonderful group of people,” Gary Goodyear reportedly said. “I want to congratulate Sue (Hayhow) and her team on the most excellent work and incredible progress.“

The agency newsletter can be found on the Imagine Adoption website.

The Record reports that bankruptcy officials are “trying to determine why the agency was renting three properties in Cambridge with payment obligations of $13,000 a month,” and notes that only one of the three — “the location at 780 King Street East … was used for agency offices.”

ITQ checked the public registry for MPs, and found a disclosure summary for Gary Goodyear, filed earlier this year. In it, he states that he and his wife are co-owners of Constant Energy Ltd. — the same “private real estate holding firm” listed as the landlord of one of those three properties.

Continue…

Who needs the House of Commons when you've got dogs, ponies and Mike Duffy? Liveblogging the PM's Travelling Budget Report Roadshow

By kadyomalley - Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 10:49 AM - 75 Comments

Sadly, ITQ was not able to hitch the last train to Cambridge in order to be there to liveblog the stimultastic spectacular set to get underway later this morning, so she’ll just have to watch it on television like everyone else. Including, as far as we can tell, the finance minister, which seems odd, since it is his report after all.

That’s not going to stop her from sharing her thoughts on the staging of today’s event, as well as – of course – the actual numbers, presuming there actually are any of those and this isn’t just an upbeat recap of the last three months of #ottawaspends announcements that CanWest’s David Akin has been so diligently twittering. The fact that there’s no lockup for reporters lucky enough to be there to cover it in person strongly suggests the latter, but we’ll see.

Anyway, I’ll keep my running commentary up here in the main post, but feel free to use the comment thread to add your own thoughts. In the meantime, here’s a quick reminder of what the parliamentary budget office was hoping to see in these quarterly reports.

INSTAUPDATE WITH COLOUR, Y’ALL:

Colleague Madan from CityTV is on location in Cambridge, and sends along these pre-show tidbits from the front:

Here’s the scene: dozens of seniors lined up early this am outside the armenian community ctr in cambridge. They were brought into the main auditorium, seated in amphitheatre style… A made-for-tv event to be moderated by mike duffy. There are 2 giant screens on each side of PM.

He describes the scene as “part informercial, part Oprah”. WHEE!

Oh, and it’s not clear whether the PM will take questions from reporters,  but ITQ is sure that the above mentioned seniors will grill him during the town hall session. Senator Duffy, meanwhile, is to be referred to as the “master of ceremonies”, which suggests that the organizers — I’m assuming the party is picking up at least part of the tab for this event — are finally getting into the spirit of things. Really, if you’re stuck on probation and statutorily required to provide updates to a sure-to-be-unwowed opposition, you may as well have some fun with it, right?

11:02 a.m.

Okay, so I should probably give y’all a heads up, on the off chance that there are any readers out there unfamiliar with the concept of Harper Standard Time. Although this event was supposed to get underway at 11:00 a.m., I don’t think anyone is expecting him to take the stage before 11:15 a.m. at the absolute earliest, which would probably mark a new personal best as far as prime ministerial punctuality.

11:06 a.m.

Continue…

Welcome to the big show

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 8:43 PM - 38 Comments

Canadian Press previews tomorrow’s economic progress report.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to present a rosy picture of his Conservative government’s handling of the recession Thursday in a slick made-for-TV presentation designed to forestall a quick summer election.

The planned event in the southwestern Ontario industrial city of Cambridge will feature the Prime Minister releasing the government’s report on the effectiveness of government policies at the Armenian Community Centre.

The presentation will be moderated by Senator Mike Duffy, a former television journalist, and feature Harper, flanked by Human Resources Minister Diane Finley and Gary Goodyear, the local MP and Minister of State for Science. It will include a staged interview segment between Harper and Duffy.

The minister of state is kindly asked to leave

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 11:27 AM - 137 Comments

Gary Goodyear makes another friend in the academic world.

Jim Turk, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, said that universities need to be a place where controversial ideas can be debated, and that this kind of political interference to curry favour with a group of voters is unprecedented in Canada and blow to academic freedom.

“The action of the Minister of Science and Technology contacting the president of SSHRC to express political concerns is not something we have seen in this country since the McCarthy period,” he said.

Mr. Turk said that Mr. Goodyear should resign.

The Commons: The interrogation of Lisa Raitt

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 4, 2009 at 6:12 PM - 18 Comments

The Scene. The afternoon’s session began with the rare seven-part question.

“Mr. Speaker,” said Liberal David McGuinty, “I have several questions for the Prime Minister.”

Did the documents, he wondered, belong personally to the Natural Resources Minister? When did she realize they were missing? Did she inform her deputy minister? If so, when? What secret information did they contain? What commercial information may have been revealed? And, finally, would the government be taking action against the television network that was, previously and inadvertently, in possession of said documents?

Not surprisingly, the Prime Minister chose to answer none of these queries.

“Mr. Speaker,” he said, “as I said yesterday, the minister had reasonable expectations that these documents would be kept secret. The minister has acted accordingly, and I support the minister in her actions.”

Even less surprisingly, Mr. McGuinty did not then decide to cease with his examination. “Mr. Speaker, secret documents are those that ‘could reasonably be expected to cause serious injury to the national interest,’” he posited. “We are told these documents contain information on AECL’s financial status, indebtedness, contractual undertakings, obligations, lawsuits and details surrounding its bid for the supply of nuclear power in Ontario. They also deal with the critical issue of medical isotopes for medical testing. Can the Prime Minister explain how the release of this information could not be reasonably expected to cause serious injury to the national interest?”

The Prime Minister returned to his previous point. Then he revived his new favourite trick.

“Let me quote for the member opposite the editorial today in the Toronto Star which says that the minister offered her resignation,” he said. “The Prime Minister rightly refused to accept it. It is time for the opposition to move on to more substantive issues.”

The Conservatives stood to cheer the infinite wisdom of the same editorial board that endorsed Stephane Dion last fall. Continue…

The Commons: So much to answer for

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 7:11 PM - 26 Comments

The Scene. The good news for the Finance Minister was this: a full 45 minutes of Question Period passed this day without a single query about a federal deficit that may now be on track to total upwards of $170 billion. Not until after QP, surrounded by reporters, did the increasingly gaping hole in the national treasury come up. At which point, Jim Flaherty’s response was as follows.

“Well, you know, economists at TD and economists at the other banks are entitled to their view. I’m sure different economists will have different views. All of them were on average more optimistic than I was in the budget in January but they’re on the low side of the private sector forecasters right now.”

Er. Well, don’t get too worried about that $170 billion then. Indeed, it could be worse. For sure, it might be worse.

That though will be for whoever the Finance Minister is in 2014. Mr. Flaherty, no fool, will have surely bequeathed the position to someone else by then. Denis Coderre, say. Or Thomas Mulcair. Or Pierre Poilievre. Or whoever Prime Minister Gilles Duceppe decides to let handle the books.

In the meantime, the bad news for Mr. Flaherty was this: even without, apparently, the time to prepare some questions about our increasing indebtitude, the opposition still arrived for Question Period ready to press all sorts of issues said to demonstrate some failing or another in the minister. Continue…

The Commons: A minor revelation

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 7:17 PM - 20 Comments

The Scene. The Prime Minister and Industry Minister were elsewhere and the latter’s parliamentary secretary had been given a rather short script from which to read so it eventually fell to John Baird to explain the government’s purchase today of a rather troubled automobile manufacturer. Only the Transport Minister didn’t want to talk about what he could do to put Ralph Goodale in a new PT Cruiser, he wanted to talk ominously about what Michael Ignatieff may or may not do if or when he becomes prime minister.

“Boooring! Boooring!” sang a voice from the Liberal side as Baird dutifully repeated a series of lines the Conservatives have been singing for two weeks now.

Switching from faux outrage, the minister next attempted to assuage his audience with comedy. “Mr. Speaker, the one remarkable thing that has happened over the last four or five months is that the Prime Minister has put aside partisan politics,” Baird quipped, the Liberal side loudly recognizing his joke with hearty laughter.

Then it was Jim Flaherty’s turn, the Finance Minister rising to scowl and stew and sigh, grimace and growl and grumble, swatting and swiping as he mocked the Liberal house leader and wondered aloud why the Liberal finance critic wasn’t driving a domestic.

And then, climactically, it was Jack Layton who stood and wondered dramatically about the generous incentives allegedly afforded managers of the Canadian Pension Plan. ”Are you,” he asked, poignantly, “kidding me?”

It is by such standards that Leona Aglukkaq has emerged as something of a star this week. Continue…

The Commons: Retro Wednesday

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 5:36 PM - 7 Comments

The Scene. Ralph Goodale stood to applause and chants of his first name, a garish tie hanging from his neck. With Michael Ignatieff away, it was the Liberal house leader’s privilege to lead the official opposition’s interrogation of the government side.

Goodale is, in various ways, the epitome of a parliamentarian, or at least the living embodiment of the sort of politician many must imagine when they think of this place. First elected in 1974, three months shy of his 25th birthday, he was defeated in 1979, 1980 and 1988, only to return in 1993. Reelected another five times, his service now stands at some 7,445 days. He’s held seven ministerial portfolios and, for the past two years, possessed the title of house leader for Her Majesty’s opposition. He is a blustery, partisan, fast-talking Prairie boy from Wascana, a frequent heckler well-schooled in the ways and means of legislation and procedure and equipped by now with a long memory for otherwise forgotten votes and policies.

But if Mr. Ignatieff operates here with a scalpel, Mr. Goodale tends to prefer a sledgehammer. And so the absence of the former and prominence of the latter surely made what followed foreseeable and ultimately familiar. Continue…

About those taxes (IV)

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at 3:29 PM - 34 Comments

Meet John K. Bell. He’s the Cambridge businessman who asked Michael Ignatieff a question yesterday that prompted an answer that may or may not be the single most controversial thing any Canadian politician in recorded history has ever said.

John and I chatted this afternoon. Our conversation after the jump. Continue…

James Lunney v. Evolution

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 6:03 PM - 106 Comments

From the Conservative MP’s statement before QP.

Mr. Speaker, recently we saw an attempt to ridicule the presumed beliefs of a member of this House and the belief of millions of Canadians in a creator. Certain individuals in the media and the scientific community have exposed their own arrogance and intolerance of beliefs contrary to their own. Any scientist who declares that the theory of evolution is a fact has already abandoned the foundations of science. For science establishes fact through the study of things observable and reproducible. Since origins can neither be reproduced nor observed, they remain the realm of hypothesis.

In science, it is perfectly acceptable to make assumptions when we do not have all the facts, but it is never acceptable to forget our assumptions. Given the modern evidence unavailable to Darwin, advanced models of plate techtonics, polonium radiohalos, polystratic fossils, I am prepared to believe that Darwin would be willing to re-examine his assumptions.

The evolutionists may disagree, but neither can produce Darwin as a witness to prove his point. The evolutionists may genuinely see his ancestor in a monkey, but many modern scientists interpret the same evidence in favour of creation and a creator.

The Commons: Greg Gutfeld, and other less important matters

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, March 23, 2009 at 6:37 PM - 19 Comments

The Scene. The Conservatives have identified a loophole in the Speaker’s recent ruling against the use of Parliament’s time to launch personal attacks against political rivals—namely that it’s not a personal attack if you don’t immediately identify the individual you are defaming.

So it was that Mike Wallace, another of the government’s enthusiastically obedient, if relatively interchangeable, backbenchers, was sent up before Question Period to air various allegations against “someone.” Only at the final moment did he reveal that this “someone” was, in fact, the Liberal leader. Suffice it to say, the Prime Minister found this quite hilarious.

In related news today, this first day back for Parliament after a week off, the Conservatives also made use of another gap in the Speaker’s prohibition—namely that it does not cover little-known and generally irrelevant late-night television hosts who say rude things about us on American cable news network shows that are watched by fewer people than live in Windsor, Ontario.

So it was that two Conservatives were sent up before Question Period to bemoan the besmirchment of this country’s honour done by one Greg Gutfeld, an American TV personality who once apparently edited the erudite current affairs journal, Maxim. Continue…

Coyne v. Wells on Gary Goodyear

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 6:15 PM - 61 Comments

Coyne v. Wells on Gary Goodyear

By macleans.ca - Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 5:11 PM - 44 Comments

HQ Version

Belief v. understanding

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 5:03 PM - 11 Comments

Scientists assess Gary Goodyear’s views on evolution.

Elizabeth Elle, a biology professor at Simon Fraser University, said it’s good to hear the minister accepts the theory of evolution, but she was concerned about the example he provided.

“I think it demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of how evolution by natural selection works,” she added.

The fundamental premise is that genetic variation among organisms results in differences in their “fitness” — a biological term referring to the number of offspring they have. That ultimately leads certain characteristics to become prevalent among their descendents. However, the types of characteristics that result in more offspring change over time as the environment changes.

Elle acknowledged that humans are evolving every day, being naturally selected for characteristics such as resistance to certain diseases.

“The kind of shoes that you wear and the surfaces that you walk on — I don’t understand how that would translate into differences in fitness from a biological sense,” Elle said.

Do the evolution (V)

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, March 17, 2009 at 11:21 PM - 21 Comments

Gary Goodyear gets some support from, well, pretty much the last person you’d expect to be defending him at this moment.

On Tuesday, Liberal science critic Marc Garneau said that believing in evolution is not a job requirement for the science minister.

“It is a personal matter. It is a matter of faith.… I don’t think it prevents someone from being a good minister,” said the former astronaut, who has been a vocal critic of the government for its cuts to the three granting councils that fund university-based research in Canada.

It is perhaps time to wonder whether this isn’t all just an elaborate production to punk Dan Gardner.