A newbie mentor and Frum’s rainbow

By Mitchel Raphael - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 8:00 AM - 1 Comment

Photographs by Mitchel Raphael

Martha was supposed to do the party

When MP Peter Stoffer entered the NDP’s first post-election caucus meeting, he thought he was in the wrong room. The supersized NDP means there is no longer enough space for tables. “I have no place to put my coffee,” the Nova Scotia MP jokes. Stoffer may find he’s squeezed for space in other places, too. He has always liked to sit in the back row in the House, “seat 308” as he calls it. But he thinks Leader Jack Layton will want him to sit on the front bench (which he would happily do if asked). The good thing about sitting in the back was, “I got a much better view of everything and you get more legroom because the curtains are behind you.”

For the sake of a larger caucus, though, Stoffer is willing to adapt. Aside from landing official Opposition status, there are other benefits to more people in caucus. One is more soccer players. Stoffer is the MP who organizes soccer games between MPs and other groups, including the pages, the media and diplomatic corps. He says he has found at least two new players (one is even a soccer coach) and that the new young people in the party will also be a huge advantage. Quips Stoffer: “Now we have people who can run and breathe at the same time.”

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How Justin Trudeau could have changed electoral history

By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, May 6, 2011 at 1:10 PM - 5 Comments

Mark Blinch/Reuters; Photograph by Mitchel Raphael

Victory moustaches!

At the Toronto NDP victory celebration, which was filled with people sporting fake Jack Layton moustaches, the partiers kept the music playing over Michael Ignatieff’s concession speech as it was broadcast on giant screens. They turned the music down for all of Gilles Duceppe’s, and for half of Green Leader Elizabeth May’s. When Layton acknowledged the campaigns of the other leaders, May got the most applause. Layton was happy about the re-election of his wife, Olivia Chow. There had been a huge battle to keep her riding safe. The week before the vote, Liberals Bob Rae (who won) and Gerard Kennedy (who lost) went to Chow’s riding to support the Liberal candidate there. The NDP claimed it was an attempt to get at Layton by doing everything they could to take down his wife. Chow had her stepson, Toronto city councillor Mike Layton, helping her with door knocking, since the area he represents overlaps with hers. For his efforts, he ended up with a pile of complaints from constituents about local problems, mostly broken sidewalks and potholes.

Mulcair’s strategy

Each day during the election campaign, Thomas Mulcair would have a conference call with all the other Quebec NDP candidates. There were ridings they knew they could win, ridings in which they thought they had a chance, and ridings where the odds were against them. When candidates would report suspicious things like a large number of their signs being removed, Mulcair said that was their way of knowing the competition must be worried and they took it as a signal they should up their game in those areas.

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Gerard Kennedy Maverick Watch

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, April 7, 2011 at 3:35 PM - 8 Comments

Liberal incumbent Gerard Kennedy talks to The Mark about the trouble with Parliament.

How Stockwell Day got crutches and lost his shirt

By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, February 4, 2011 at 2:00 PM - 3 Comments

Was it Gerard Kennedy’s cologne?
Illness and injuries seemed to be the theme of the day as the House of Commons resumed last Monday. Treasury Board President Stockwell Day was on crutches. “There was a puppy on a railroad… ” Day quipped. The truth, he confessed, was that a giant Labrador retriever came out of nowhere and knocked him down while he was on a run. Day now has a severe ankle injury. The dog didn’t just run him down: as he was running, Day was holding his shirt in his hand; after the fall, the dog grabbed the shirt and ran off with it.

Ontario NDP MP Glenn Thibeault slipped on some ice over the break, fracturing his arm and suffering severe hand injuries. Which meant, he says, that he could no longer do his hair. At one point it was looking like a comb-over, so he decided to just shave his head. He returned to Ottawa with a short buzz.

Quebec Liberal MP Alexandra Mendes showed up to question period wearing a medical mask. She was on day six of pneumonia. (It looks like the post-H1N1 trend of not coming to work on the Hill if you are sick is now officially over.) Her seatmate Gerard Kennedy asked whether she was trying to save him or was allergic to him. Later, Ted Menzies, the minister of state for finance, quipped to Mendes: “We thought Gerard just had strong cologne.” Other Conservatives joked about how the Liberals are literally muzzling their MPs.

Why’s Peter Kent so far away?
The House’s first day back for 2011 saw Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff ask the first five questions in question period, as opposed to just the first three. He has done this before, but Liberal MPs say watch for more QPs with Ignatieff piling on the first questions. Since this Prime Minister’s press conferences are few and far between, at least Stephen Harper now has to answer more questions in a public forum. Also on the first day back, Green party Leader Elizabeth May says she was not impressed with the remote seating position assigned the new environment minister. Peter Kent is now on the front bench, but is the second-last Conservative seat from the Speaker, down where the NDP sit. “We’ve never had an environment minister way down there,” says May.

Much ado over size
The first day of Parliament saw Speaker Peter Milliken throw his annual Robbie Burns dinner. This year, Ontario Conservative MP Ed Holder had the honour of addressing the haggis. When he pulled out a small knife to cut the Scottish delicacy, there were many chuckles. One MP shouted out, “Bill Blaikie‘s was bigger.” (The former NDP MP addressed the haggis with a sword.) Holder then pulled out a larger knife, to the delight of the crowd. This was Milliken’s 10th Robbie Burns dinner and likely his last as Speaker, since he does not plan to run in the next election. In honour of Milliken, a set of bagpipes was donated to the Rob Roy Pipe Band in Kingston, Ont., the city Milliken represents, for young people who want to learn to play the expensive instrument.

The tartan bazaar
The Cape Breton Highlanders were recently reinstated. (Formed in 1871, in 1954 they were combined with two other Nova Scotia battalions and renamed the Nova Scotia Highlanders.) Cape Breton Liberal MP Mark Eyking helped the brigade get reinstated, and for that he was made an honorary member. He says he now needs to get a kilt, but quips, “Can a Dutchman be a Highlander?” He says his wife, Pamela Eyking, is half-Scottish, so he is going to use her family tartan (the Gordon). Coincidentally, Defence Minister Peter MacKay, through his mother’s side of the family, already has a Gordon family tartan kilt, which he wore to Peter Milliken’s Robbie Burns dinner. MacKay said he would give Eyking his Gordon tartan kilt if Eyking would have a MacKay tartan kilt made up for the defence minister.

Shadow cabinet shuffle

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, September 7, 2010 at 12:20 PM - 0 Comments

Michael Ignatieff has significantly restructured his government-in-waiting. Ralph Goodale is elevated to deputy leader, David McGuinty becomes house leader, Scott Brison replaces John McCallum in finance, Gerard Kennedy takes over environment, Dominic LeBlanc goes to defence, Ujjal Dosanjh goes to health, Marlene Jennings gets justice and Denis Coderre returns to the shadow cabinet as natural resources critic.

Full list after the jump. Continue…

Iggy’s bus stops

By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, August 20, 2010 at 10:07 AM - 0 Comments

Michael Ignatieff is on his Liberal Express tour across Canada. In Toronto, he stopped at a BBQ in Thornhill just north of the city and then a restaurant downtown in Chinatown.

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Gerard Kennedy Maverick Watch

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, January 29, 2010 at 1:07 PM - 25 Comments

The Liberal MP dares champion the notions of “discussion” and “consideration” and even “debate.”

Leading economists, former Finance officials and Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page have all said sales tax increases are required to balance the books. It has not gone unnoticed among some Liberals that in Britain, the Conservative opposition is leading the polls and winning praise for “authenticity” after proposing specific deficit-fighting measures that include some tax increases. ”I think we do need to talk about it,” Mr. Kennedy said yesterday in an interview with The Globe and Mail.

The Liberal Christmas party

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, December 24, 2009 at 11:53 AM - 11 Comments

(Left to right) MPs Navdeep Bains, Mark Holland, Martha Hall Findlay, Mario Silva, Gerard Kennedy and former MP Omar Alghabra.

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MP Mario Silva (centre) with Navdeep Bains (right).

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Year of the Inuit

By Mitchel Raphael - Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 12:37 PM - 9 Comments

National Inuit Leader Mary Simon, below, and her organization Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) kicked off their “2010: Year of the Inuit” initiative with a special reception in Peter Milliken’s dining room.

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Simon with senators from The Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples.

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Senator Carolyn Stewart-Olsen.

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MPs and Mental Health Awards

By Mitchel Raphael - Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 11:29 AM - 7 Comments

The seventh annual Champions of Mental Health Awards were held at the Fairmont Château Laurier ballroom. Margaret Trudeau, seen below with son Justin, got an award for being open about suffering from bipolar disorder.

Also on the awards list were Defense Minister Peter MacKay (left) and General Walter Natynczyk, Canada’s Chief of Defense Staff, for their work launching the “Be the Difference” mental health campaign in the Canadian Forces.

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The Commons: 'Tell the truth!'

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 6:55 PM - 45 Comments

The Scene. Ralph Goodale stood, broad and booming, with a particularly provocative turn of phrase.

“The Conservatives,” he said, “are engaged in an orgy of partisan abuse.”

And you needn’t apparently take Mr. Goodale’s word for it.

“Three independent investigations confirm the research of the member for Parkdale-High Park,” he continued. “A shocking part of the stimulus plan is earmarked for partisan Conservative purposes. Will the Conservatives admit this is a threat for those who didn’t vote for them?”

The Prime Minister stood, apparently quite confused by the Liberal house leader’s tone.

“Mr. Speaker, the program for the reconstruction of leisure facilities is a very important measure for the Canadian economy and for communities. I do not understand at all why the Liberal Party of Canada opposes such projects and, even in their own counties. The allegations of the honourable member are quite untrue and, indeed, the Liberal deputy premier of Ontario said so.”

So there. Continue…

At the lonely end of the rink (III)

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 1:55 AM - 82 Comments

The Stars gets Gerard Kennedy’s numbers on hockey rink stimulus in Toronto ridings.

Toronto 23 ridings — all but two held by Liberal MPs — got about 38 per cent less than the average Conservative riding in Ontario, prompting accusations that the government was again playing favourites as it doled out its massive stimulus fund.

The Toronto ridings got an average of $1.3 million, compared with an average of $2.1 million that was approved for Conservative ridings in Ontario — a difference of $777,787, according to Liberal MP Gerard Kennedy (Parkdale—High Park).

Kennedy’s office provides various figures and tables here.

Tonight, dinner's on your local Conservative MP

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 7:59 PM - 43 Comments

Susan Delacourt first wrote about the problematic nature of giant novelty cheques in July. At the time, Gerard Kennedy made a shrewd observation that should perhaps be repeated here for the benefit of those who now find themselves in possession of a giant novelty cheque signed by a government MP.

“The one thing I did learn when I worked for the food bank is you can actually cash those things. It’s a legal document. I think we’re going to try to get hold of those people and tell them they actually got double grants there. They got one from the government and one from Peter Van Loan, who’s apparently so riven with guilt over the time it took to get to them that he wants to make it up to them.”

Idea alert

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, October 5, 2009 at 9:35 AM - 74 Comments

Gerard Kennedy humbly suggests his private member’s bill won’t lead to lawless anarchy.

A generation ago, Canada accepted thousands of “draft-dodgers” and also thousands of resisters who left active military service in the United States because of that conflict.

Today, the Canadian government of the day resorts to smears and innuendo to stifle even a debate on our reaction to the two to three hundred American service people from the Iraq War who are looking for asylum in Canada, with official spokespersons throwing around vile words like rapists and terrorists.  It is sad, the Harper government doesn’t have the courage of its convictions to debate the issue openly on its merits but sadder still if Canadians don’t insist on such a debate.

The facts of my private members bill Bill C-440 are plain: it would create grounds for humanitarian consideration for permanent residence in Canada.  The narrow grounds would be a finding of genuine moral or conscientious objection to leave the armed services in a war not sanctioned by the United Nations (such as the Iraq War), and subject to compulsion by way of return to service or stop-loss (a controversial U.S measure that forced military personnel back into war zones even after their service was concluded).  All the other protections to screen out unwelcome elements remain in place; against anyone who has a prior criminal record would not be considered (eliminating the rapist canard raised by the Harper government). National security or human rights concerns or even considerations health, financial or inadmissible family members would also all be protections of Canadian interests that would remain in place.

A year and a half ago, the House passed a motion that recommended the government allow conscientious objectors to seek asylum here.

The Commons: You can have it both ways or no way at all

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 8:45 PM - 54 Comments

The Scene. To evidence of the Prime Minister’s particularly brand of genius, you can add this, the first exchange of Question Period on this, the last day of September.

Michael Ignatieff opened with some cause for concern. “Mr. Speaker, Statistics Canada reported that the economy stalled in July,” he said.

The Conservatives across the way groused loudly as he proceeded to report the afternoon’s news.

“While the government spent millions of dollars telling Canadians that everything is fine, experts do not agree,” the Liberal leader continued. “The chief economist at the Bank of Montreal stated that the economy’s flat performance is a shocker. ‘It is not just a shot across our bows,’ said the bank, ‘it is more like a torpedo through the hull.’ ”

The Conservatives yelped.

“Can the Prime Minister advise,” Mr. Ignatieff finished, “when he and his ministers plan to start bailing?”

The Prime Minister pretended not to notice this question of proper seafaring. Continue…

The Commons: Gerard Kennedy has some questions

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at 5:45 PM - 86 Comments

The Scene. The Prime Minister was pleading humble competence, all shrugs and up-turned palms. But then Michael Ignatieff, having tried his first two questions in French, had to go and repeat his accusations in English.

“Mr. Speaker, Canadians should be able to count on their government to help them find jobs no matter how they vote and no matter where they live, but instead we have a government that is using infrastructure money like a rewards program,” the Liberal leader alleged.

Mr. Ignatieff leaned forward and put his fingers together. The Conservatives groaned.

“Quebec’s unemployment rate is higher than the national average, yet Quebeckers are receiving the lowest per capita infrastructure funding in all of Canada,” he continued. “How does the Prime Minister explain this? How does he explain his own numbers?”

Turns out he explains it quite simply.

“Mr. Speaker,” Mr. Harper reported, “of course, that is completely false.”

“Your numbers!” a Liberal cried in confusion.

And soon enough, Mr. Harper’s pointy finger was back out, poking a hole in the air before him. Continue…

A pain in the butt

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 1:10 PM - 74 Comments

Gerard Kennedy may be the first Liberal to figure out what it is to be an opposition backbencher.

The Liberals are rejecting claims by Prime Minister Stephen Harper that 80 per cent of the $4-billion set aside for immediate job-creating infrastructure projects are underway. Instead, the Liberals say, their research shows only 12 per cent of the projects were underway and generating jobs … Gerard Kennedy, the Liberal critic for infrastructure and communities, said he conducted an analysis of 946 infrastructure stimulus projects out of a total of 1,697 announced. He said his research also indicates Conservatives are directing projects to Tory ridings

For example, Kennedy said, in British Columbia, Conservative ridings had been allocated 13 times as much money as opposition ridings. In Quebec, 2.7 times as much money went to Tory ridings, he claimed. In Ontario, Conservative ridings got 11 per cent more than opposition ridings, he said. He said 14 of the 16 announcements the prime minister has made were about infrastructure projects previously planned or won’t be built for years.

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…

Mitchel Raphael on who wore jeans under his tuxedo

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, September 3, 2009 at 12:00 PM - 0 Comments

The ring bearer had issues
Liberal MP Mark Holland married Cindy Fournier in Ottawa last weekend. At the ceremony, most of Holland’s fellow Liberal MPs, including Navdeep Bains, sat in the back benches of the church. Bains said it was in case the children got rowdy. Gerard Kennedy’s young son, John-Julien Kennedy, clearly did not want to wear a suit. There was much grumbling, and then during the ceremony he kept untucking his dress shirt and removing his clip-on tie. (Though during the exchange of vows, John-Julien suddenly fixed his shirt and put his tie back on.) Holland’s son and ring bearer, Riley Holland, also had issues with formal wear—because he didn’t want to get out of his jeans, he wore them under his tuxedo pants. At the dinner in the West Block, Fournier’s aunt brought to the head-table microphone two dolls that sang Sonny and Cher’s hit I Got You Babe. Only the female doll’s head moved to the beat of the song because, noted the aunt, “Women do all the work.” Fournier had two maids of honour, Chanel Watts and Susan Goss, who recalled the time the three worked at Swiss Chalet and Fournier forgot the cheese on a customer’s burger. She took some grated cheddar, microwaved it because she thought it should be melted, and then went to the customer’s table, removed his top bun and scraped the cheese onto the burger. Also on the microwaved-food-testimonials front, Fournier’s father said he discovered that both he and Holland like to microwave ice cream a bit before eating it.

Who lives in the peace tower?
Parliamentary tour guides say they’ve seen more Ontarians than usual in their groups this summer. Four-year veteran guide Mark Palmer, who famously took Kiss rocker Gene Simmons on a tour recently, says when he started doing the tours there were more Europeans in the groups. The most popular questions asked include, “What are the red buttons at the Senate seats for?”—they are the lights that go on when a senator is speaking—and “Where are the washrooms?” At the end of the tour, folks are shown the expanded gift shop set up for the summer in the railway committee room. The most popular items are maple syrup products. Among the more unusual questions about the Parliament Buildings that come up, says Palmer, are: “What denomination church is this?” and “Who lives in the Peace Tower?” (There is no Quasimodo.) Once, in July, a group came on the tour with ice skates; they asked where the Rideau Canal was. During a recent tour taken by Capital Diary (not one of Palmer’s), a guide pointed out to a group “the famous staircase,” explaining, “This is where the Prime Minister always comes down.” Unfortunately, Stephen Harper almost never comes down that way, preferring to enter the Commons from the back. Continue…

Wedding bells ring in Ottawa as Liberal MP Mark Holland ties the knot

By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, August 28, 2009 at 12:44 PM - 19 Comments

Ontario Liberal MP Mark Holland recently tied the knot in Ottawa with Cindy Fournier.

Continue…

Mitchel Raphael on three rain miracles

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, July 16, 2009 at 10:20 AM - 0 Comments

Bow if they bow
Japan’s Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko arrived in Ottawa last week and were greeted at the airport by International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda and Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon. Oda, the first Japanese-Canadian ever elected as an MP, joked to Cannon before the royals’ plane landed that in ancient times no one’s head could be higher than the emperor’s, “so you better lean down.” Oda said Canadian officials explained that the protocol with the Japanese royals was to take your cue from them. Bow if they bow or shake their hand if they extend it. Oda noted the rain stopped just as the emperor and empress got off the plane and did not start again until they were in their car. Both royals spoke English but at times the emperor would turn to the empress for the right English word. Oda speaks a little Japanese and understands most of it from having her Japanese-speaking grandparents living with her while growing up. At a special reception for the royal couple on Tuesday, the minister was allowed to bring a guest. She chose her 86-year-old mother Kaye Oda as her date. Continue…

Toronto Pride: So this is what the Conservatives helped fund!

By Mitchel Raphael - Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 1:50 PM - 25 Comments

There’s been much  drama over this year’s announcement of the Conservative government funding Toronto Pride. But just who was at this mega gay parade? Men in leather jockstraps, drag queens and  porn stars, naturally. But also pro-Israel groups, anti-Israel groups, gay Anglicans—and the Canadian Armed Forces doing recruitment. Several on-duty police forces wore festive gear. While politicians from the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, the Liberals and the NDP were out in full force. And Rick Mercer.

Iggy at Toronto Pride.

Toronto Liberal MP Bob Rae shows off his huge umbrella.

NDP leader Jack Layton, with his MP wife Olivia Chow, shows off his huge rainbow umbrella.

Continue…

If only Ed McMahon were still alive to deliver them

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, July 3, 2009 at 11:38 AM - 23 Comments

Susan Delacourt investigates the government’s use of giant novelty cheques.

There’s an old saying about politicians using your own money to buy your vote. In Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government this summer, that adage comes with a visual aid: huge blue cheques emblazoned with the maple leaf logo of the Canadian government, the signature of a benevolent MP and, in some cases, Conservative sloganeering…

The political props were reportedly the brainchild of Transport Minister John Baird when he served as Treasury Board minister in the first year of the Harper government.

Gerard Kennedy suggests that, should you receive such a cheque, you go ahead and try to cash it.

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…