What now?

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 11:39 AM - 4 Comments

Alice Funke looks at Jack Layton’s electoral legacy, while Postmedia and the Star consider the political ramifications.

Still, Bricker said Layton’s long-term legacy appears to be the fact that he built a coalition of supporters — from Toronto urbanites to rural Quebecers — who now vote NDP. And that, said Bricker, has sown the seeds for an outcome that appears inevitable — a two-party system.

 ”When you take a look at the people who did cross over and actually decide to vote NDP, they have a lot in common. Both in terms of the way they think — their world view — and what they look like demographically. He’s actually consolidated a fairly cohesive, coherent political coalition on the left.”

Let’s all hate Ottawa

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 16, 2011 at 10:00 AM - 22 Comments

Mohammed Adam considers the deserted embassy across from Parliament Hill as a symbol of the capital’s plight.

Longtime city watcher Rhys Phillips agrees. “One thing about Ottawa that is probably unique to Canadian culture is that the country almost hates its capital,” he says.

That resentment, Dewar says, has infected decision-makers in Ottawa and created a “paralysis or reluctance” to champion and promote the capital. “Ottawa is used elsewhere in the country as some kind of punching bag, not a capital city we should be proud of,” he says.

The lawsuit is in the mail

By Michael Friscolanti - Monday, August 15, 2011 at 9:44 AM - 1 Comment

Andrew Vaughan/CP

Next to soldiers, few on the federal payroll suffer more wounds at work than mail carriers. According to the latest stats, nearly 2,300 Canada Post employees trip and fall on the job every year, twisting ankles and breaking legs and triggering millions of dollars’ worth of compensation claims. On Valentine’s Day 2007, Beverly Collins joined that long list of casualties, slipping on a snow-covered walkway and shattering her wrist. “I knew there was something seriously wrong,” she later testified. “You could see the bone sticking out of my hand.”

Collins applied for, and received, undisclosed benefits under the Government Employees Compensation Act. Later that summer, a federal bureaucrat mailed a letter to the owners of that icy Ottawa property—demanding reimbursement. “I’ve been doing this for 11 years, and I’d never seen any case like this,” says Jaye Hooper, the owners’ lawyer. “My clients were a little taken aback.”

For most Canadians, the reaction would be something closer to “going postal.” Yet as surprising as it may sound, the federal government quietly targets thousands of homeowners a year in an attempt to recoup the hefty costs of mailman mishaps. “From a public policy perspective, it is a balancing act,” says John Norton, an insurance lawyer in London, Ont. “Certainly it does appear like the big, bad government is going after this little homeowner. But if the homeowners did do something wrong—and it was a significant injury that cost the government a lot of money—taxpayers might expect the government to go after the at-fault party because if they don’t, it’s taxpayers who foot the bill.”
Continue…

The liberal dilemma

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, August 5, 2011 at 11:45 AM - 9 Comments

Stanley Greenberg outlines the trouble for Democrats in the United States.

This distrust of government and politicians is unfolding as a full-blown crisis of legitimacy sidelines Democrats and liberalism. Just a quarter of the country is optimistic about our system of government — the lowest since polls by ABC and others began asking this question in 1974. But a crisis of government legitimacy is a crisis of liberalism. It doesn’t hurt Republicans. If government is seen as useless, what is the point of electing Democrats who aim to use government to advance some public end?

…  it has been the conservatives, the Tea Party members and the anti-immigrant groups who understand the anger with government, and rush in to exploit it. Perhaps now, with the debacle in Washington, liberals will become instinctively angry with this illegitimate government and build their politics from there.

Consider, in this vein, the rhetoric Jack Layton used in the last election. A few excerpts from the speech he gave on the last night of the election. Continue…

Cleaning up the mess

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 6:23 PM - 22 Comments

Stephen Harper salutes Rob Ford for cleaning up the “NDP mess” in Toronto and salutes himself for cleaning up the “left-wing mess” in Ottawa.

http://youtu.be/s8wgfKHHT9I (The video seems to have been removed.)

At the same event, Jim Flaherty was apparently presented with a championship belt.

Capital charmed

By Patricia Treble - Monday, July 11, 2011 at 8:40 AM - 0 Comments

Mark Large/Getty Images

It’s been called a royal tour and a media event, but for Prince William and Kate, it was surely something else: a nine-day “intro to Canada” crash course. The start was to be relatively slow and sombre: some mandatory basics in Ottawa, before peeling off to the regions for the fun stuff, like dragon boat racing and street hockey.

However, while the itinerary in the capital was predictable, the size of the crowds and the couple’s determination to interact with them were not. The mania for Will and Kate started in earnest at the very first event: laying a wreath and a bouquet of flowers on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. After that sombre occasion, the pair spent an unexpectedly long time mingling, talking to scores of veterans and ordinary citizens. (Some 25,000 were there.) The timetable went out the window—the Governor General was left waiting patiently at Rideau Hall—as the couple mixed with the crowds.

And this, it soon became clear, was not an isolated incident but a precedent. The usual rules of royal etiquette were abandoned for the entire Ottawa visit, not only by touchy-feely throngs determined to get face time with William and Kate, but also by the couple, who signalled their approval of the casual exchanges by shaking so many hands that British commentators speculated about the potentially hazardous consequences for the royal digits. No gesture, however casual, was ignored by the 1,300 accredited journalists confined to “media pens.” When William was offered sunglasses by a spectator on the Hill, he laughed, popped them on for a photo op—wild excitement amongst the TV cameramen—then returned them to their owner. It wasn’t just ordinary mortals who succumbed to the fever: two lines of RCMP officers were needed to hold back rows of invited Canada Day VIPs who had morphed into a squealing mob of Bieber-esque groupies.

Continue…

Entertaining Will and Kate

By Paul Wells - Friday, July 8, 2011 at 11:00 AM - 16 Comments

Sean Kilpatrick/CP

From 2003 to 2006, Fox Television carried a strange TV comedy called Arrested Development. It featured a story arc involving a failed actor named Tobias Fünke who auditions for the theatre troupe Blue Man Group because he thinks it’s a support group for depressed men. For several episodes, Fünke wears blue body paint, which comes in handy when he realizes he can blend in with the blue parts of outdoor billboards, allowing him to spy on the rest of his family.

For a while, on July 1, I wondered whether Kate Middleton was inspired by Tobias Fünke when she decided to show up at the big Canada Day celebration on Parliament Hill dressed as a Canadian flag.

In a release to the Ottawa press rabble, “the Press Secretary to TRH the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge” described Kate’s outfit as “a cream dress by Reiss, with The Queen’s Maple Leaf brooch and a hat by Sylvia Fletcher at Lock and Co.” From any distance, however, the most striking thing about Kate’s outfit was that it was red at both ends—hat and pumps—and whitish through the middle, except for the reddish purse where the maple leaf would be if she were flapping sideways from a mast, not that I would ever advocate such a course of action.

Continue…

It’s all fun and games until someone demands an answer

By Erica Alini - Monday, July 4, 2011 at 11:10 AM - 9 Comments

John Allemang profiles Terry Milewski.

“I happen to think that Canadians can be a little too complacent and pacific,” says Mr. Milewski, the lone-wolf outsider slotted in among the power-lunchers at Hy’s Steakhouse. “Our job as reporters is not to meekly accept whatever answer we’re given, but to challenge and provoke and press.”

Mr. Milewski was, somewhat famously, shouted down by Conservative partisans during a media availability with the Prime Minister during the last campaign. He has since been singled out for not showing proper deference to Mr. Harper.

Fans of irony will note that a decade ago it was Conservative MPs—including Stephen Harper—who rallied to Mr. Milewski’s cause when the CBC journalist was hounding Jean Chretien.

This is the week that was

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 8:47 PM - 0 Comments

Happy Canada Day from Stephen Harper and Prince William.

Charlie Angus won at filibustering. John Baird left his mark in Libya. Industry Canada made cuts. Stephane Dion dissected the Senate Reform Act. Michael Ignatieff reemerged. A filibuster deal was denied. The Samara shortlist was announced. Canada’s 150th birthday was considered. The Conservative party protested (too much?). And the newest Canadians pledged their allegiance to the Queen.

We kept reading the Afghan detainee documents. Kathleen Petty signed off. Matthew P. Harrington argued against Senate reform. Tom Hawthorn eulogized Frank Howard. Brian Topp championed the filibuster. Nick Taylor-Vaisey championed the filibustering House of Commons. Alex Himelfarb considered crime policy. JJ McCullough blamed the founding fathers. Kyle Crawford considered politics and professionalism. And Tabatha Southey questioned Internet surveillance.

The royal tour in pictures: William and Kate arrive in Ottawa

By macleans.ca - Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 4:42 PM - 1 Comment

Not much of a spectator sport

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, June 27, 2011 at 3:11 PM - 0 Comments

Kathleen Petty signs off as host of CBC Radio’s The House with a few final thoughts.

Hugh Segal, with whom I spoke at the beginning of the show, once wrote an editorial in support of a set of rules we implemented on this program: no more personal attacks, people talking over each other, politicians being allowed to freely throw around talking points unchallenged. That set of guiding principles meant MP panels were few and far between. We reached out more often to individual federal politicians, but we interviewed fewer of them. In part, because fewer of them were willing to agree to in-depth, one-on-one interviews. We wanted more policy discussions instead of political discussions…

I didn’t think we were really asking for much. If, in response to a question, a politician hesitated, even a little, I was reasonably confident that the answer required some thought, instead of tired talking points that require none. That in Ottawa is a victory. And that is, in my view, a problem. We talk AT each other, not WITH each other. We keep score, assign penalties, and generally treat politics as a sport. But as sports go, politics might be a great a game for participants, but not spectators or listeners. I sense a great disconnect. Why don’t Canadians vote? Perhaps, because we’re not treating them as participants – but as spectators.

Caravaggio does Ottawa

By Sara Angel - Friday, June 17, 2011 at 11:05 AM - 0 Comments

Photographs by Blair Gable

He was a fighter, rebel and murderer. He wore his clothes until they were rags, ate off his paintings, chased women and men with equal vigour, escaped from prison, and died at age 39 in a fit of fever. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, best-known simply as “Caravaggio,” is one of 17th-century Rome’s most scandalous figures. He is art’s original bad boy—and 400 years after his death we still can’t get enough of him.

Centuries before Twitter and PR agents, word of Caravaggio’s talent spread so fast within his lifetime that legions of imitators (known as Caravaggisti) in Germany, France, Flanders, Spain, Holland and Italy started to paint just like him. Single-handedly he not only changed the course of art, his influence was so profound that it is still being felt today. How Caravaggio’s style impacted so many other artists—including superstars Georges de La Tour, Jusepe de Ribera, Artemisia Gentileschi and Peter Paul Rubens—is the story behind the National Gallery of Canada’s major exhibition Caravaggio and His Followers in Rome, which opens this week. For all sorts of reasons, the exhibit is a coup for the National Gallery. There has only ever been one other major show of the artist’s work in North America, and that was over 25 years ago at New York’s Metropolitan Museum.

According to Marc Mayer, the gallery’s director, throughout the next two months (the exhibition closes in September) 75,000 visitors will make a pilgrimage to Ottawa for what promises to be “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see one of the most influential artists who ever lived.” But if recent findings are any indication, Mayer’s estimate might just be on the conservative side. According to a study last year by University of Toronto art historian Philip Sohm, Caravaggio has surpassed the Renaissance genius Michelangelo in popularity, making him a close second to Leonardo da Vinci as the world’s most celebrated Old Master.

Continue…

Idea alert

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, June 17, 2011 at 9:31 AM - 18 Comments

Ethics commissioner Mary Dawson wonders whether we might need a code of conduct for MPs.

Dawson said she regularly gets complaints from people who think politicians are abusing their positions or behaving inappropriately.

“Misleading statements, personal attacks and the like that come with the partisan nature of political life are often distasteful to many Canadians,” Dawson wrote in her reports on both the Conflict of Interest Code for MPs and the Conflict of Interest Code Act. ”Some assume that this sort of behaviour must be covered by one or another of the various accountability regimes in force. In fact, there is no comprehensive regime that governs political conduct in general.”

The Commons: Humble brag

By Erica Alini - Friday, June 10, 2011 at 11:14 PM - 18 Comments

Across the street and behind a metal barricade, a young man in a bike helmet, holding a pink sign that read “contempt,” was yelling at Conservative delegates as they filed into the giant glass orb that is the Ottawa convention centre. He yelled about the G8 and the $50 million. He yelled about Bev Oda. He yelled about the defeated candidates now in the Senate. He yelled the word “mockery” more than a few times. Most of the delegates ignored him. Some smiled and laughed and waved.

The man in the bike helmet was eventually joined by about 300 others waving various signs for various reasons. “Beat Back The Tory Attack On Reproductive Justice,” read one. “Whither Joe Clark,” read another. The noisy gathering eventually settled on a simple enough chant: “Hey Har-per! You! Suck!” Later there was something about no one being illegal or some such sentiment. Somewhere in the middle of it all was apparently the rogue Senate page.

Inside the orb, the proceedings were running rather late. Eventually, about a half hour behind schedule, Veterans Affairs Minister Steven Blaney and Senator Pamela Wallin turned up to play host. After throwing to “floor reporters” Mike Duffy and Jacques Demers from interviews with various members of the crowd, Mr. Blaney and Ms. Wallin got around to expounding on how fondly they regarded Stephen Harper. Continue…

He'll have the cold cut combo

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, June 6, 2011 at 3:33 PM - 4 Comments

The NDP apparently rejected a deal that would’ve made Lee Richardson the new Speaker. As a result, we now have a Speaker who will give you the business card off his back.

After completing my master’s degree, I drove the Escort up to Ottawa to work in the federal public service. Walking down Bank Street one evening, I saw a sign on Subway restaurant stating it was the last day that Sub Club stamps would be accepted. I ran to my apartment to get my pile of stamps before Subway closed.

Upon returning to the Bank Street franchise, I found myself in line with Andrew. The Subway cashier informed me that he could not accept a handful of loose stamps; they had to be affixed to cards. I asked if he had any blank Sub Club cards. The cashier explained that he did not because the program was ending, but that he was prepared to accept any type of card. Without missing a beat, Andrew pulled out his business cards and offered that I could use them. So, I stood there sticking Sub Club stamps onto “Andrew Scheer, MP” cards while he ordered his sandwich. That’s my best story about Andrew being a good guy.

Ottawa shouldn't go overboard on life jackets

By the editors - Monday, June 6, 2011 at 9:15 AM - 5 Comments

Getty Images; Darryl Dyck/CP

Coureurs de bois were Canada’s original action heroes. These rebellious bushrangers of New France rejected official efforts to control the entire beaver trade. Ignoring the need for a government fur licence, they took to canoes and sought adventure and profit on their own in the deepest woods. That freedom so many Canadians find in a summer spent camping or canoeing can be traced back to the coureurs de bois and their spirit of independence. Not to mention their lack of a mandatory life-jacket law.

It is once again boating season in Canada. And once again Canadians face the prospect that the federal government may decide to force every boater in the country to wear a life jacket.

Both the National Recreational Boating Advisory Council and the Canadian Safe Boating Council have been discussing mandatory life jackets for recreational boaters for many years. The CSBC is devoting an entire day to the subject at its annual meeting this September. A recommendation to Ottawa favouring a new law now seems inevitable. And the Ontario Provincial Police, Canadian Red Cross and Canadian Lifesaving Society all regularly demand mandatory personal flotation devices for anyone in a power boat or canoe.

Continue…

On the way out

By Erica Alini - Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 3:27 PM - 1 Comment

The CBC talks to Mark Holland on his exit from Ottawa.

I remember coming to this place on a Gr. 8 class trip, it was my first time in these buildings, and just being filled with a sense of awe and wonder and looking at them for all the possibility they held: a place where you could change the country, a place where you could make a difference. It was a little bit hard coming up here today and looking at those same buildings and feeling pain, that the experience, maybe for now, maybe forever, is at an end. I tried to let go of that as fast as I could and reconnect with that sense of awe, because these are the same buildings, they hold the same promise. They can do fantastic and remarkable things. It’s all in how you look at it. And that’s a choice. I choose to look at it through the same eyes that I looked at it when I was that kid coming through here for the first time. I don’t ever want that to change, because this is a remarkable place, amazing things can happen here and I can never lose sight of that.

Other exit interviews are here.

It's their parties

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 9:15 AM - 11 Comments

Alison Loat talks to Steve Paikin about Samara’s latest report.

The power imbalance

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, May 16, 2011 at 10:16 AM - 7 Comments

Peter Milliken repeats his concerns about the state of Parliament.

“And if your views aren’t in accordance with the leader’s position on an issue, you will not be speaking on that issue in the House and you won’t be asking questions on that issue in the House,” Milliken said, in the interview broadcast Saturday on CBC Radio’s The House.

He proposed giving party caucuses more say in such matters and more say in choosing party leaders. He also said that parties should not be so fixated on unity, and that it’s OK if differing opinions are made public.

This new Parliament

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, May 5, 2011 at 1:30 PM - 31 Comments

Alison Loat considers the ramifications of our 110 new MPs.

The good news in this is we have a more diverse background in our politicians than we usually give ourselves credit for. Most MPs are not lawyers or former political staffers (although some are). It’s good to have fresh, diverse minds, and a relatively open political system.

However, this may also mean that our Parliament is too transient to do its job properly. As I’ve argued elsewhere, what to do about this is less clear, but at a minimum, it’s encouraging to hear that training and orientation is taking on a greater priority this year.

The trouble in Ottawa

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, May 5, 2011 at 12:20 PM - 5 Comments

Speaker Peter Milliken offers a few parting words.

Canada’s longest-serving Speaker of the House of Commons says federal politics have become more partisan and less democratic than they were when he first arrived in Ottawa as a rookie MP. This erosion is due mainly to the increase in the power of party leaders, Peter Milliken told Postmedia News in an exclusive interview at his rural home in the Kingston area.

“The leader says you vote this way or else you’re out, and bango, you have to do it, or else. I don’t think that’s the way our democracy was intended to function,” said Milliken, who was first elected to the Ontario riding of Kingston and the Islands in 1988.

Parliament to resume "shortly"

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, May 4, 2011 at 3:40 PM - 4 Comments

In keeping with tradition, Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with Governor General David Johnston on Wednesday to announce that he’s going to form a government. It’s going to be a straightforward process for Harper, whose Conservative party won 167 of 308 seats in Monday’s election. However, Harper didn’t set a date for when Parliament will resume, saying only that it will take place “shortly.” In the meantime, Harper will decide who will fill a handful of cabinet openings, including Foreign Affairs minister, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister, Veteran Affairs Minister and State for Sport Minister.

CTV News

The Commons: Anything is possible

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, April 30, 2011 at 12:05 AM - 81 Comments

So where are we? What are we doing? Where are we going? Where is this going?

Strictly speaking, we are in Courtenay, British Columbia. And Jack Layton is on a platform in the middle of a high school gymnasium. And he is claiming that “change is possible.” “We can do better,” he says. “We do have a choice.” He is surrounded on all sides by people holding signs that read “Together” and “We Can Do This.”

At present, it is 6:40pm by Pacific Standard Time on Friday evening. Polls here will open in 60 hours and 20 minutes. They will close 12 hours after that. And maybe a few hours after that we will know what is. But right now we can only know what might be.

And right now, anything is possible. Continue…

A guide to democracy

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 12:56 PM - 12 Comments

The Public Policy Forum has released a summary of a roundtable conducted in March to discuss the loosely agreed upon rules by which we govern ourselves. This follows a workshop organized by constitutional scholar Peter Russell in February.

The contributors to each are esteemed and varied. And the overarching objective would seem to be to codify much of what is presently unwritten or poorly understanding: essentially to create something like New Zealand’s Cabinet Manual, an idea Mark Jarvis considered in his essay for our continuing series on the House.