Parliamentarians of the Year (most collegial): Peter Stoffer

By Alex Ballingall - Monday, November 21, 2011 at 7:27 PM - 0 Comments

Peter Bregg/Maclean's

Peter Stoffer has laugh lines etched deep in his cheeks, earned from a lifetime of smiling. “Even his enemies like him,” Conservative MP Randy Kamp tells Maclean’s. Indeed, the Dutch-born NDP member from Nova Scotia—who’s known to tip off opposing members on what he will ask them during question period—has been voted most collegial every year Maclean’s has offered the award. Stoffer, to the frustration of NDP brass, eschews a BlackBerry but personally responds to all inquiries he receives from veterans and Nova Scotians. “I take the job seriously, but I never take myself seriously,” says Stoffer. And he doesn’t have a lot of time for divisions polarizing the House. “Like Bob Dylan said in a song, we just sell it from a different point of view. That’s all.”

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL LIST OF WINNERS OF MACLEAN’S PARLIAMENTARIANS OF THE YEAR AWARDS

RUNNER UP: Rodger Cuzner

Who gets to support the troops

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 1:30 PM - 0 Comments

After Question Period yesterday, the House proceeded to the traditional messages on the occasion of Remembrance Day (the House is due to be on break next week). Veteran Affairs Minister Steven Blaney spoke for the government, Peter Stoffer for the NDP and Sean Casey for the Liberals.

Louis Plamondon then rose to offer remarks on behalf of the Bloc Quebecois, but was denied the unanimous consent of the House he needed to do so as the member of a party that does not have the sufficient number of MPs to be recognized in the House as an official party. Bob Rae suggested it was the Conservatives who had objected. Conservative backbencher Stephen Woodworth stood to object to Mr. Rae’s version of events. Government whip Gordon O’Connor then stood to explain.

Mr. Speaker, the Standing Orders say, in response to a minister’s statement, that only members of recognized parties can make statements. The Bloc is not a recognized party.

Thus were the Bloc Quebecois and Elizabeth May prevented from offering remarks.

Ask permission before crossing the floor

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at 12:59 PM - 0 Comments

The private members’ bill set to be debated tomorrow is C-306, put forward by Mathieu Ravignat, the NDP MP for Pontiac.

This enactment provides that a member’s seat in the House of Commons will be vacated and a by-election called for that seat if the member, having been elected to the House as a member of a political party or as an independent, changes parties or becomes a member of a party, as the case may be. A member’s seat will not be vacated if the member, having been elected as a member of a political party, chooses to sit as an independent.

There have been at least a half dozen attempts at similar legislation on floor crossing. Peter Stoffer’s bill is still alive. Jeff Jedras’ objections probably still stand.

Rogers Communications turns 50

By Mitchel Raphael - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 at 9:05 AM - 3 Comments

Rogers Communications  celebrated their 50th anniversary in Ottawa at the Metropolitain Brasserie.

(Left to right) Rogers president and CEO Nadir Mohamed and Rogers Vice Chairman Phil Lind.

(Left to right) U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird.

Liberal MP Justin Trudeau.

Loretta Rogers.

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The Commons: There must be something here to disagree about

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 7:00 PM - 26 Comments

The Scene. First, the unquestionably good news.

“Mr. Speaker, today, myself, the NDP shipbuilding critic from Sackville-Eastern Shore, and all New Democrats celebrate with the workers of Nova Scotia and British Columbia,” Nycole Turmel informed the House.

Alas, this is Question Period and so this much would not suffice.

“But for other workers,” Ms. Turmel continued, “yesterday’s announcement came up $2 billion short. Instead of announcing the full $35 billion in contracts, the government picked winners and losers. The Prime Minister left major shipyards like Davie vulnerable. Why?”

The NDP leader’s lament was not well received.

“This is your angle?” begged James Moore from the government frontbench.

“You’re the loser!” cried a voice from the near corner of the Conservative side. Continue…

Taiwan’s 100th National Day

By Mitchel Raphael - Monday, October 17, 2011 at 11:32 PM - 3 Comments

Reception at the Fairmont Château Laurier for Taiwan’s 100^th National Day: Double Ten Day – put on by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Ottawa.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.

Conservative MP Bob Dechert (left).

The long-gun registry six

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, October 4, 2011 at 10:53 AM - 8 Comments

A footnote to this footnote.

Left to their own devices, six New Democrat MPs who had previously stated their opposition to the long-gun registry subsequently voted to defeat C-391: Malcolm Allen, Charlie Angus, Claude Gravelle, Carol Hughes, Peter Stoffer and Glenn Thibeault.

Four of the six—Allen, Gravelle, Hughes and Thibeault—subsequently increased their total vote and margin of victory in this spring’s election over their 2008 election result. Messrs. Angus and Stoffer saw their vote totals decrease, but still won by 18.7 and 23.5 percentage points respectively.

Conversely, four of the seven Liberals who were compelled to change their votes and subsequently stood for reelection, were defeated this spring.

Make of this what you will.

Orange ribbons for Jack

By Mitchel Raphael - Monday, September 26, 2011 at 10:26 PM - 4 Comments

Last week MPs sported orange ribbons to remember Jack Layton.

Liberal leader Bob Rae.

Liberal MP Mark Eyking (left) and NDP MP Megan Leslie.

The first day back, and two MPs’ ‘messy breakup’

By Mitchel Raphael - Monday, September 26, 2011 at 9:50 AM - 0 Comments

Photography by Mitchel Raphael

Jack Layton’s chair to go to his family

MPs arriving back on the Hill for the first day of Parliament were greeted by black coffins covered in cut-out, pastel-coloured butterflies on which were written the names of murdered and missing Aboriginal women. It was part of an awareness campaign coordinated by Walk4Justice. That morning, there were tributes for Jack Layton, and his green House of Commons chair was left empty for the day. NDP MP Peter Stoffer says his caucus is buying the chair Layton sat in for $950 and presenting to the late leader’s family. MPs wore orange ribbons in honour of Layton, though at question period it was mostly NDP, Liberal and Bloc parliamentarians wearing them. That included both interim Liberal leader Bob Rae and interim Bloc leader Louis Plamondon. On the Hill for the tribute was former NDP leader Alexa McDonough. The day before, she had helped with the orientation sessions for new MPs from all parties, covering issues ranging from office management to how to avoid temptations like the endless supply of booze at Hill functions. Question period started with interim NDP leader Nycole Turmel reading her questions from her papers, which lessened the impact. She was followed by NDP finance critic Peggy Nash, whose voice boomed out. “I’m used to speaking at rallies,” quipped Nash, who is seen as a strong potential NDP leader candidate.

MPs call it splits

Liberal MPs Mark Eyking and Rodger Cuzner were both elected in 2000 and until Parliament resumed on Monday they were also roommates. “It’s a messy breakup,” jokes Cuzner. “Eyking wants visitation rights for the clock radio.” In reality, two of Eyking’s sons have moved to the capital. One sells real estate and the other is at university. That means Eyking’s wife is in the capital more often too. Cuzner jokes he was “tripping over” Eykings at their place. So he moved out and is now living with his nephew.

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David Cameron comes to Ottawa

By Michael Petrou - Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 10:56 PM - 8 Comments

The invitation had been “dangling” for months but, British sources say, plans for British Prime Minister David Cameron’s first bilateral visit to Canada — and the first by a British prime minister since Tony Blair in 2001 — only got under way two weeks ago.

It was then something of a scramble to prepare statements and speeches. Quoting Churchill is always a reliable crowd pleaser on these occasions, and both sides were soon eyeing the great wartime leader’s “Some chicken! Some neck!” speech delivered in the House of Commons in December 1941. Continue…

Who might be in, who’s threatening to stay out

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 2, 2011 at 8:21 PM - 2 Comments

Romeo Saganash is leaving open the possibility of a run for the NDP leadership and Karl Belanger, Jack Layton’s press secretary, is being urged to consider entering the race, but Thomas Mulcair says he’ll stay out if a vote is set for January.

“If what some people seemed to be angling for, which was January, if that ever came to pass, you know, I’d just continue working very hard to do the best we could, but I would never be part of something where there wouldn’t be a level playing field,” he said Friday…

“I have some very strong support for an eventual shot at it from my Quebec colleagues, and I’m honoured and thrilled at that but I’ve also got to build in the rest of Canada,” Mulcair said in an interview Friday. “We’ve got to have time to meet with people, to connect with them, to say who we are, what we do, and that can only be done with a campaign that would be similar to the ’02-03 campaign, which was a 7 1/2-month campaign.”

Mr. Mulcair, along with Pat Martin and Peter Stoffer, also quibbles with setting aside votes for labour unions.

Roll call

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 3:34 PM - 1 Comment

Gary Doer, Brian Masse, Ryan Cleary, Wayne Marston, Peter Stoffer and Chris Charlton are staying out of the NDP leadership race.

On the other hand, I’m told that Libby Davies hasn’t ruled anything out.

A preliminary list of potential candidates is thus as follows: Davies, Megan Leslie, Paul Dewar, Charlie Angus, Peter Julian, Francoise Boivin, Pat Martin, Thomas Mulcair and Brian Topp.

MPs and soccer

By Mitchel Raphael - Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 9:50 PM - 0 Comments

As Parliament wound down, MPs engaged in several soccer matches. Below are shots from the game versus the media.

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For the first time the MPs were joined by a Senator. Conservative Senator Don Meredith (left) with NDP MP Peter Stoffer.

This is the week that was

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, June 18, 2011 at 1:17 PM - 12 Comments

The House debated Libya and the meaning of regime change. The opposition demanded to hear from the President of the Treasury Board. Charlie Angus mocked Tony Clement. Then mocked him again. And again.

Jack Layton took his place in Twitter history. A former Liberal MP worried that Parliament wasn’t serving Canadians well. Ruth Ellen Brosseau was applauded. Elizabeth May dissented. Mr. Clement looked on the bright side and clarified what he meant by “anachronistic” and dismissed what he’d said about user fees. The ethics commissioner suggested a code of conduct for MPs. Peter Stoffer proposed a ban on floor crossing. The youngest MP in history made his maiden remarks. Continue…

Rae’s plans and the new Speaker’s muscle

By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, June 17, 2011 at 11:00 AM - 3 Comments

Jake Wright/Hill Times; Photographs by Mitchel Raphael

A special performance by Raffi

In honour of her birthday last week, Green Leader Elizabeth May had Happy Birthday sung to her by famous children’s singer Raffi Cavoukian. Raffi, who was in Ottawa to visit May and see her in action as a new MP, lives in her B.C. riding. The singer and MP met when May hosted an Ottawa TV show, and they have been friends ever since. Raffi had an album out at the time called Evergreen Everblue. The 20th anniversary edition of that album was recently released with two new songs about environmental sustainability, Cool It and Sustainable. Raffi, known for such classics as Bananaphone and Down By the Bay, has not done any new children’s songs for nine years.

That Tory blue is looking fabulous

At the recent Tory convention, party members voted to support any religious organization’s right to refuse to perform same-sex marriages. Meanwhile, a group of gay Conservatives at the convention, held at the Ottawa Westin, hosted “The Fabulous Blue Tent,” a hospitality suite open to all. One of the organizers, Jamie Ellerton, a former aide to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and now a top aide to Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak, rented special pink and blue LED lighting for the occasion and hired hip electronic DJ Trevor Walker from Ottawa’s eclectic Mercury Lounge. The party went on until 3 a.m. Ministers in attendance included Kenney and John Baird. Among the Conservative MPs were Patrick Brown, Rick Dykstra and newly elected Toronto Tory Ted Opitz (who beat Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj by 26 votes in a recount). One Tory attendee quipped: “The Conservatives have made progress clearly by upgrading from a closet to a ‘fabulous blue tent.’ And if you keep throwing fabulous parties they have got to love you.”

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Idea alert

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 16, 2011 at 12:34 PM - 34 Comments

The NDP’s Peter Stoffer is going to try again to ban floor crossing.

“If I pick up the phone right now and call Mr. Harper’s office and if they’re in agreement, within an hour I can become a Conservative member of Parliament,” Stoffer said Monday. “I don’t have to go to my constituents, I don’t have to tell my party, I could just sit tomorrow as a Conservative MP. That’s wrong on every count.”

His bill, if passed, would prohibit MPs from crossing the floor. Instead, if an MP wanted to change parties, they’d have to quit and run for the new party in a by-election, assuming they won the nomination. They could still sit as an independent, but someone elected as an independent couldn’t join a political party after the election.

Mr. Stoffer’s previous attempt, in 2006, was defeated with New Democrats voting in favour, Bloc and Liberal MPs voting against and the Conservatives almost evenly split. If those splits occurred again, the bill would pass.

On memories of Iggy and a Tory fashion showdown

By Mitchel Raphael - Monday, June 13, 2011 at 10:20 AM - 0 Comments

They’re back: Jack Layton with bartender Julie McCarthy

Rae encourages May

On the first day back, Green Leader Elizabeth May found herself in the last seat of the House. Seat 308 is where NDP MP Peter Stoffer used to sit. Liberal Leader Bob Rae turned around to May and told her that when he was first an MP decades ago it was his seat and that “in 32 years you can be where I am.” Last week also saw MPs busy moving offices. NDP deputy leader Libby Davies is getting a bigger office and is taking her desk with her. It once belonged to former prime minister Joe Clark and has a secret drawer. “I’ll drag it down the corridor myself if I have to,” said the Vancouver MP. Some parliamentarians were still being sworn in the day before the House resumed. One of them was Bloc MP Maria Mourani, who saw her party reduced to four seats. She jokes that at least she can say that 25 per cent of her party is female and a visible minority. (Mourani is Lebanese.) She feels the Bloc is now like cartoon characters Astérix and Obélix, two Gauls in a small village battling the Roman Empire. The day of his swearing in, the daughter of NDP MP Malcolm Allen went into labour. That meant his wife and family stayed with daughter Gillian Sheldrick and all Allen had for a supportive audience was a lone staffer. Keegan Sheldrick is Allen’s first grandchild.

NDP needs a bigger bar

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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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MPs in kilts

By Mitchel Raphael - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 8:30 AM - 7 Comments

Speaker Peter Milliken’s held  his 10th annual Robbie Burns dinner. Below, Defense Minister Peter Mackay (left) and NDP MP Pat Martin bring in the haggis.

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Ontario Conservative MP Ed Holder

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MPs meet city folks

By Mitchel Raphael - Tuesday, November 30, 2010 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities held their Ottawa reception at the Fairmont Château Laurier. Below, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty (right).

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NDP MP Yvon Godin (left) and NDP leader Jack Layton (second from left).

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MPs and veterans book

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 7:00 AM - 0 Comments

The Historica-Dominion Institute recently launched We Were Freedom: Canadian Stories of the Second World War, a collection of 65 of the veteran stories collected in a book as part of the Institute Canadian oral history project. Below, Heritage Minister James Moore.

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Liberal Senator Terry Mercer.

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NDP MP Peter Stoffer.

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The book.

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The food.

Mitchel Raphael on moustaches—and MPs worth a Halloween visit

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, November 11, 2010 at 11:20 AM - 0 Comments

NDP MP Peter Stoffer has his 'stache shaved for Movember | Sean Kilpatrick/CP

Scott Brison’s lonely night
Two of Glen Pearson’s adopted children arrived from Sudan three years ago, knowing nothing about Halloween. After explaining the concept, the Liberal MP woke up on his kids’ first Halloween in Canada to find them in costume, all set to trick or treat. When he broke the news that they’d have to wait until dark, “They both burst into tears because they thought they got to go out all day to people’s houses and get candy.” They felt better that night, once they had sacks of treats. “It was something they never dreamed of as possible,” says the MP. Now, Pearson’s Halloween tradition is to stay home handing out treats while his kids hit the streets. Newfoundland Liberal MP Siobhan Coady has fine-tuned her Halloween handouts. “My sister is allergic to nuts so I always make sure I have a nut-free option. I also give out chips, chocolate, and Play-Doh. It’s a little surprise.” Minister for International Co-operation Bev Oda, when at home for Halloween, knows all six kids who come to her door in the sparsely populated area. Her tradition is to give them presents, including MP3 players and video games. Halloween is a lonely time for Liberal MP Scott Brison and spouse Maxime Saint-Pierre. “There are three houses on our road,” he says. “We own two, and the other belongs to my 90-year-old aunt Margie [Faulkner].” They keep candy on hand just in case, but no one ever knocks. “It kinda reminds me of my fifth birthday party,” says Brison. “My mother had this great party. Nobody showed.”

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Navy Appreciation Day on the Hill

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 6:55 AM - 0 Comments

Defense Minister Peter MacKay addressed a packed room of Navy personnel as part of Navy Appreciation Day on the Hill. The event also celebrated the service’s 100^th anniversary.

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NDP MP Peter Stoffer (centre).

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Remembering Mario Lagüe

By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, October 8, 2010 at 10:09 AM - 0 Comments

A remembrance night was held last week for Liberal communications director Mario Lagüe, who died in a motorcycle accident in August.

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Liberal MP Stéphane Dion.

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Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and his wife Zsuzsanna Zsohar.

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