The right way to think about Maxime Bernier

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 11:43 AM - 0 Comments

The Agenda convenes a panel to sort out the meaning of Maxime Bernier.

Would you like some freedom fries with that?

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, October 25, 2010 at 9:01 AM - 0 Comments

Maxime Bernier addresses the faithful in Quebec City.

Supporters of big government have been in power for fifty years. They have brought us to a constitutional and economic dead end. Every day they endanger our prosperity and freedom a little more. It is high time for supporters of freedom to get together and propose a new realistic vision of Quebec’s future.

Let’s state it loudly and forcefully: we need a smaller, less interventionist and less centralized government in Ottawa; but also a smaller, less interventionist and less controlling government in Quebec City. A new chapter in Quebec’s history is being written beginning today. And together, through the strength of our convictions, we are the ones who shall be its main characters!

As to the question of federal spending power, there is plenty to be read. For the sake of argument, a paper written for the Library of Parliament in 1991 concludes as follows. Continue…

The Backbench Top Ten

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, October 24, 2010 at 1:31 PM - 0 Comments

Our weekly, and wholly arbitrary, ranking of the ten most worthy, or at least entertaining, MPs, excluding the Prime Minister, cabinet members and party leaders. A celebration of all that is great and ridiculous about the House of Commons. Last week’s rankings appear in parentheses. Continue…

The Backbench Top Ten

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, October 17, 2010 at 3:35 PM - 0 Comments

Our weekly, and wholly arbitrary, ranking of the ten most worthy, or at least entertaining, MPs, excluding the Prime Minister, cabinet members and party leaders. A celebration of all that is great and ridiculous about the House of Commons. Last week’s rankings appear in parentheses. Continue…

What would John A. do?

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, October 13, 2010 at 5:02 PM - 0 Comments

Rob Silver has some questions about Maxime Bernier’s preferred reference point.

Of course you can’t pick and choose from the sacred Constitution Act, 1867 so I’m sure Bernier will have no problem with the Governor-General once again using his powers of disallowance and reservation. I mean, Sir John A. Macdonald routinely struck down provincial legislation he disagreed with, it was part of the pact that was struck back in 1867 so surely once we start “respecting the constitution,” future PM’s can pass judgment on any provincial bill he or she chooses per Bernier.

Disallowance was last used in 1943, but the power has never explicitly been revoked. As for John A., his views on federalism were complicated.

Back to 1867

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, October 13, 2010 at 12:16 PM - 0 Comments

Maxime Bernier calls for a return to original intent (or at least original intent as he sees it).

Clearly, our goal should be to bring back the balanced federalism envisioned by the Founders. It should be to restore our federal union, as Wilfrid Laurier and most people understood it back then.

This would be done by putting an end to all federal intrusion into areas of provincial jurisdiction. Instead of sending money to the provinces, Ottawa would cut its taxes and let them use the fiscal room that has been vacated. Such a transfer of tax points to the provinces would allow them to fully assume their responsibilities, without federal control.

The Backbench Top Ten

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, October 10, 2010 at 4:14 PM - 0 Comments

Our weekly, and wholly arbitrary, ranking of the ten most worthy, or at least entertaining, MPs, excluding the Prime Minister, cabinet members and party leaders. A celebration of all that is great and ridiculous about the House of Commons. Last week’s rankings appear in parentheses. Continue…

'Once and for all'

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 5:25 PM - 0 Comments

Maxime Bernier has released a statement intended to clear up any census-related confusion. It reads as follows.

I would like once and for all to set things straight with regard to the many reports that have appeared recently in the media regarding my position on the census.

First of all, the CBC has obtained some internal correspondence through an access-to-information request saying that Industry Canada and Statistics Canada only received a few hundred emails of complaint related to the census in 2006. Some commentators have concluded that this was proof that I had been lying when I claimed to have received about a thousand a day for a couple of days.

But I had clearly indicated when I made this declaration back in July that these emails had been received at my MP office on the Hill and not at my minister’s office. It was a discussion with my MP office staff that had led us to recall receiving these emails. Contrary to the correspondence received by the ministry, which is kept by civil servants, the email correspondence at my MP office has all been deleted.

Continue…

Who's on first?

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 1:18 PM - 0 Comments

Maxime Bernier maintains he received a thousand e-mails per day when he was Industry Minister, but he can’t say for sure how many of those pertained to the long-form census. But that’s besides the point anyway because the change to the census was about the principle.

Statistics Canada says it received 138 complaints about the content of the 2006 census, but if that seems a small number, Industry Minister Tony Clement reminds that anyone worried about state coercion obviously wouldn’t take their complaint to the state. But that’s beside the point anyway because even one complaint can be enough.

And indeed, on that count, Mr. Clement has a record of one such complaint: a letter sent by a Liberal MP in 2006 registering the concerns of a few of his constituents. But then that Liberal MP has a copy of Mr. Bernier’s response, in which the former industry minister assures that ”information collected by the census is needed and is used only for statistical purposes,” that “questions are designed to meet important information requirements that would be extremely difficult to satisfy efficiently from other sources” and that “these questions continue to be essential for providing the information needed by governments, businesses, researchers and individual Canadians to shed light on issues of concern to all of us—employment, education, training, transportation, housing, immigration, income support, pensions for seniors, transfer payments, aboriginal issues and many more.”

The Backbench Top Ten

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, October 3, 2010 at 1:38 PM - 0 Comments

Our weekly, and wholly arbitrary, ranking of the ten most worthy, or at least entertaining, MPs, excluding the Prime Minister, cabinet members and party leaders. A celebration of all that is great and ridiculous about the House of Commons. Last week’s rankings appear in parentheses. Continue…

The Backbench Top Ten

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, September 26, 2010 at 2:37 PM - 0 Comments

We resume our weekly, and wholly arbitrary, ranking of the ten most worthy, or at least entertaining, MPs, excluding the Prime Minister, cabinet members and party leaders. A celebration of all that is great and ridiculous about the House of Commons. Last week’s rankings appear in parentheses. Continue…

Team Bernier

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 11:08 AM - 0 Comments

Conservative MP Andrew Scheer voices some concerns.

“I think there certainly is a reaction,” said Regina Qu’Appelle MP Andrew Scheer in an interview Tuesday. ”I am hearing — and I have been from the get-go — I have been hearing from a lot of constituents who have a great deal of concern with tax dollars being spent on these types of facilities.”

… Scheer said he had read Bernier’s blog post on the subject and “I thought he made some very good points.”

'We cannot continue in this way'

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 10, 2010 at 6:15 PM - 0 Comments

Maxime Bernier states his categorical opposition to public funding for the Quebec City arena.

We cannot continue in this way to pass on to our children the bills for all the projects that we cannot afford to pay ourselves. We cannot continue to distribute ever larger amounts of money to please everyone and buy social peace, while refusing to face the consequences. We cannot ask governments to manage our money in a responsible manner while at the same time demanding that they devote some more money to an irresponsible venture that will benefit us.

I too share the dream of again seeing a professional hockey team come back to play in our region and I sincerely hope that a way will be found to make this dream come true. But dreaming does not make the hard financial reality go away. It’s nice to have dreams, but when you use borrowed money to achieve them and act as if money grows on trees, you may have a brutal awakening. For all these reasons, I cannot in good conscience support this project.

Maxime Bernier Maverick Watch

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 10, 2010 at 12:48 PM - 0 Comments

The honourable member for free market ideals isn’t so sure about federal funding for this Quebec City arena.

Conservative MPs from Quebec stoked speculation about federal support when they posed this week for a group photo in vintage Nordiques jerseys. Bernier, who represents the riding of Beauce, was noticeably absent from the photo op.

“If we offer this money to Quebec City, other cities will ask for money too,” Bernier said in his radio interview. “In the end, it’s a decision that involves $1 billion or $800 million, to be fair to other regions.”

One entirely optional question about the census

By Paul Wells - Monday, July 19, 2010 at 7:03 PM - 0 Comments

Now that Maxime Bernier has spent a week as the Harper government’s point man on the hotly-contested census changes, does anyone still believe he’s a maverick speaking his mind in defiance of the PMO’s wishes?

More notes on a brouhaha

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, July 19, 2010 at 5:16 PM - 0 Comments

Maxime Bernier blogs a defense. Conservative MP James Rajotte writes to Industry Minister Tony Clement seeking explanation. The chief statistician calls StatsCan employees to a town hall meeting. Tony Clement and Stephen Gordon exchange more tweets.

Notes on a brouhaha

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, July 19, 2010 at 1:03 PM - 0 Comments

Kevin Milligan looks at what Statistics Canada has to say about the accuracy of voluntary surveys. Mike Moffat says drop the threat of prison. Stephen Gordon wonders why the outrage Maxime Bernier was hearing wasn’t registered in the census review or the House of Commons. Tracey Lauriault lists some of the federal legislation that requires census data. Alice Funke explains how census data is used in elections. And Wikipedia details the Jedi census phenomenon the Prime Minister’s Office now cites.

Civil liberties are in the eye of the beholder

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 6:52 PM - 0 Comments

On Monday, the Conservatives filibustered an attempt to by opposition parties to start hearings into the biggest mass arrest in Canadian history.

On Sunday, the Conservatives demanded hearings into their own decision to change the census, in part so that, in the words of Maxime Bernier, the opposition parties can “explain to Canadians why they want the state and the government of Canada to know lots of details from their private lives.”

The Backbench Top Ten

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, June 20, 2010 at 4:15 PM - 15 Comments

One last time before pausing for the summer: our weekly, and wholly arbitrary, ranking of the ten most worthy, or at least entertaining, MPs, excluding the Prime Minister, cabinet members and party leaders. A celebration of all that is great and ridiculous about the House of Commons. Last week’s rankings appear in parentheses. Continue…

The Commons: A day like any other

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 8:35 PM - 40 Comments

The Scene. As Bob Rae began the first question of the last Question Period before this third session of the 40th Parliament pauses for the summer, a respectful silence took hold.

The subject matter was this morning’s release of the final report from the inquiry into the Air India bombing. Mr. Rae commended the government and the inquiry’s commissioner. The Prime Minister stood and added his thanks to Justice Major. Mr. Rae probed for specific details of the government’s expected response, Mr. Harper offered assurances. The two danced quite delicately on the edge of combativeness, this adversarial system at its most sensitive.

Not until the Speaker called on the polarizing member for Ajax-Pickering, the Liberal Mark Holland, did the noise return to the chamber, government members groaning and moaning as Mr. Holland abruptly and loudly changed topics. Continue…

The Backbench Top Ten

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, June 13, 2010 at 3:55 PM - 10 Comments

Our weekly, and wholly arbitrary, ranking of the ten most worthy, or at least entertaining, MPs, excluding the Prime Minister, cabinet members and party leaders. A celebration of all that is great and ridiculous about the House of Commons. Last week’s rankings appear in parentheses. Continue…

The Commons: Lawrence Cannon explains everything

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 10, 2010 at 6:19 PM - 47 Comments

The Scene. This is surely not the worst of times, but it is perhaps nearly the dumbest. For sure, this is a time of witless woe.

We have no doubt been sliding for some time, but when we got to Guergis we should have realized we had taken a wrong turn, crossed some threshold. Now here we are, stuck in this place with this fake lake and a phoney merger and a theoretical coalition. The threats are only ever exaggerated, the questions are facetious, the crises are manufactured. There is flailing and wailing, faux outrage and bad acting, adult human beings reduced to live-action press releases or made to demonstrate like the characters of professional wrestling. Hearsay leads the news. Bad jokes carry the day. Everyone claims patriotism. Everyone is accused of treason. All seemingly see intellectual dishonesty as the path to power. Few looking on seem to find anything here to believe in.

And so here today was a spectacle for this era, the Foreign Affairs Minister rising in the House of Commons to explain at length the government’s choice of wallpaper. Continue…

The Backbench Top Ten

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, June 6, 2010 at 4:00 PM - 40 Comments

Our weekly, and wholly arbitrary, ranking of the ten most worthy, or at least entertaining, MPs, excluding the Prime Minister, cabinet members and party leaders. A celebration of all that is great and ridiculous about the House of Commons. Last week’s rankings appear in parentheses. Continue…

The QP 20

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, May 31, 2010 at 12:12 PM - 13 Comments

Michael Chong’s motion on Question Period reform is seconded by no less than 20 MPs. Those seconders include 14 Conservatives (Mike Allen, Dona Cadman, Maxime Bernier, Larry Miller, Gord Brown, Nina Grewal, James Rajotte, John Cummins, Peter Braid, Rick Casson, Greg Thompson, Merv Tweed, Brian Storseth and Bruce Stanton), four Liberals (Frank Valeriote, Martha Hall Findlay, Glen Pearson and Siobhan Coady) and two New Democrats (Denise Savoie and Brian Masse).