To honour the Jewish holiday of Succoth (Feast of Tabernacles), a special ceremonial succah was set up in the East Block courtyard. Representatives from Chabad and Bnai Brith were on hand for the celebration. Below, Conservative MP James Lunney.

Frank Dimant of B’nai Brith (left) with Liberal MP Joe Volpe by the succah.

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Federal budget 2008. Replacing remaining provincial retail sales taxes (RSTs) with value-added  taxes harmonized with the GST is another area where provinces can contribute  to strengthening Canada’s Tax Advantage … The Government recognizes the significant economic benefits to Canada from sales tax harmonization and is willing to work with the five provinces that still have RSTs to help facilitate the transition to provincial value-added sales taxes harmonized with the GST.

Federal budget 2009. Modernizing these harmful taxes by implementing a value-added tax structure harmonized with the GST is the single most important step that provinces with RSTs could take to stimulate new business investment, create jobs and improve Canada’s overall tax competitiveness.

Jim Flaherty, March 30. Last week, Ontario’s Liberal government, after objecting to the combined tax for years, decided to switch. Ottawa agreed to help Canada’s most populous province with that move by giving Ontario one-time compensation of $4.3 billion. ”I think this is very good economic policy,” Flaherty told reporters in Ottawa Monday. “This is a massive tax cut, a $5 billion tax cut for businesses in the province of Ontario and that means job creation and investment in the province of Ontario. So, this is very good economic policy over time.”

Jim Flaherty, August 4. Ottawa is prepared to cut a cheque to three holdout provinces if they agree to merge their sales taxes with the federal GST, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Tuesday. ”We’ll see what their governments decide to do,” he said. ”But the same proposal – in terms of transition funding – that we made with the province of Ontario followed by the province of British Columbia is available to those provinces as well. The same formula.”

Dick Harris, August 10. Bringing a harmonized sales tax to B.C. isn’t the federal Conservatives idea, Cariboo-Prince George MP Dick Harris is emphasizing … Reached Monday for comment on the issue, Harris said the Conservatives are merely adhering to federal legislation passed by the old Chretien Liberal government that includes a formula to determine how much funding a provincial government should get for making the move … ”The legislation is still there, of course, and even if we wanted to change it, the Liberals and the NDP and the Bloc would not vote to change it and we’re a minority government,” Harris contended. Asked what the Conservatives’ position is on harmonizing the provincial sales taxes with the federal goods and services tax, Harris said the party hasn’t really taken one saying it’s strictly a provincial government decision.

Larry Miller, August 11. “First, I want to make it clear that this was a change initiated by the province of Ontario and was not a decision made by the federal government in any way.”

James Lunney, August 20. As this was a decision of the BC provincial government, I encourage you to contact your MLA Ron Cantelon (ron.cantelon.mla@leg.bc.ca) to relay any concerns you may have.

The Canadian Friends of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Canada-Israel Committee held a special reception on the Hill in honour of Israel’s 61^st year of independence.

Toronto-area Tory MP Peter Kent and Merle Goldman, Associate National Director of the Canadian Friends of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Conservative B.C. MP James Lunney, Chair of the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group.

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The Nanaimo Daily News won’t take no comment for an answer.

Whatever his reasons for bringing creationist theory into the Canadian Parliament, Nanaimo-Alberni MP James Lunney is keeping silent.

He won’t say why he gave a speech in the House of Commons Charles saying Darwin would likely rethink his theory of evolution today, based on new knowledge creationists say disprove evolution. He failed to return numerous calls, and last week he rebuffed questions at a Nanaimo press conference…

“I won’t comment,” he said, pushing away a reporter’s recording device during a funding announcement at the Vancouver Island University library on Wednesday.

The Nanaimo Daily News would like to speak with James Lunney.

Lunney’s brief speech contained references to controversial theories espoused by Robert V. Gentry, a creationist, Seventh-day Adventist Church member and nuclear physicist. Gentry concluded, after studying radiohalos, microscopic zones of damage found around radioactive crystals in rock, that the rock must have been formed in minutes, not the generally accepted millions of years. Gentry’s theory, discredited as pseudoscience by the mainstream scientific community, has spawned a new field of study for creationists who take the story of Genesis literally.

Lunney also made reference to plate tectonic and fossil evidence theories some Christians consider proof of creationism. He gave the speech in Ottawa at 2:10 p.m. Eastern Time but has been unavailable for comment since then, despite repeated calls.

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 Canada Israel Committee and the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee held a special Israeli wine meets Canadian cheese reception on the Hill. Here is Israeli Ambassador Miriam Ziv with Conservative James Lunney, Chair of the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Committee.

Transport Minister John Baird (left) and Adam Chambers, Jim Flaherty’s aide.

Baird with Justin Trudeau.

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Not that anyone’s currently around to hold a vote. Nor that there could be a vote—or at least one that could matter. But for those of you keeping score at home, here’s a breakdown of those MPs who’ve spoken publicly about the appointment of Dr. Morgentaler. Continue…