Why do we have an Intergovernmental Affairs Minister?

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, November 8, 2012 at 4:41 PM - 0 Comments

The Scene. It is not necessarily Peter Penashue’s fault that he is the Intergovernmental Affairs Minister. And it is not necessarily Mr. Penashue’s fault that the existence of the Intergovernmental Affairs Minister is something of a mystery. But so long as Mr. Penashue is the Intergovernmental Affairs Minister it is for him to justify that existence.

Indeed, to accept the job is to take on something of an existential crisis. To be the Intergovernmental Affairs Minister is to consider why we have an Intergovernmental Affairs Minister. It has been this way for some years. And it is something Stephane Dion—a former Intergovernmental Affairs Minister, but one who had an identifiable job description—began to ponder a year ago.

“Mr. Speaker, is there a Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs in this Conservative government?” he asked last December.

“Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, if this government even has such a minister,” he sighed last March.

Mr. Penashue might’ve had only to contend with Mr. Dion’s fussiness were it not for the questions about the accounting practices of his election campaign. Such questions have now led to those larger questions. Continue…

Happy Canada Day

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, July 1, 2012 at 11:26 AM - 0 Comments

Canada Day video greetings from Jason Kenney, Ted Opitz, Cheryl Gallant, Peggy Nash, Jinny Sims, Colin Carrie, Joyce Murray, Wayne Marston, Craig Scott, John Weston, Ralph Goodale, Elizabeth May, Robert Chisholm, Claude Gravelle, Christine Moore, Laurin Liu, Ray Boughen, James Lunney, Russ Hiebert, Jack Harris, Peter Braid, Steven Blaney, Randy Kamp and, expressing their best wishes in rather similar words, Daryl Kramp, James Bezan, Randy Hoback, Diane Finley, Ed Holder, Ryan Leef, Bob Zimmer, Dave MacKenzie,John Carmichael, Bal Gosal, Costas Menegakis and Parm Gill.

After the jump, a video from the Prime Minister and statements from Thomas Mulcair and Bob Rae. Continue…

C-38: The opposition

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, May 14, 2012 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

Courtesy of YouTube, a selection of opposition speeches in response to the budget bill.

Robert Chisholm

Don Davies

Francoise Boivin

More from New Democrats Laurin Liu, Ruth Ellen Brosseau, Francois Choquette, Mylene Freeman, Ryan Cleary and Alexandrine Latendresse and, for the Liberals, Judy Foote.

A scouting report on Team Mulcair

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, April 20, 2012 at 8:30 AM - 0 Comments

Here again is the roster for Thomas Mulcair’s shadow cabinet. What to make of it? Here are several observations.

-First, the obviously big promotions go to Megan Leslie (who stays with environment, but becomes a deputy leader) and Nathan Cullen (who becomes House leader). Both are confident, impressive, fresh-faced MPs who are quick on their feet and under the age of 40 (Mr. Cullen’s 40th birthday is in July). Very interesting to see them put not just in prominent positions, but positions of leadership. Your premature, baseless, futile, wild-eyed “next leader of the NDP” speculation probably starts somewhere here.

-That’s a rather large number of people with titles: 78 out of a caucus of 102. Granted, the Conservative cabinet numbers 39 and the Prime Minister named another 28 parliamentary secretaries, so the sides are somewhat close to even. Put the two teams together and they represent just less than half of the House.

-The shadow ministers of finance, justice, human resources, transport, aboriginal affairs, public works, industry, immigration and the environment—nine of the top files—are women.

-All of the elected leadership candidates—Niki Ashton, Paul Dewar, Mr. Cullen, Robert Chisholm, Romeo Saganash and Peggy Nash—were placed in prominent spots. Of the 13 NDP MPs who endorsed Brian Topp, 10 of them—Charmaine Borg, Jean Crowder, Libby Davies, Chris Charlton, Yvon Godin, Francoise Boivin, Jinny Simms, Jasbir Sandhu, Kennedy Stewart and Alexandre Boulerice—were put in critic roles. Continue…

From the magazine

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, March 30, 2012 at 5:30 PM - 0 Comments

From this week’s print edition, the inside story of the NDP campaign, as reported by John Geddes and I.

The last thing anyone expected from Thomas Mulcair in the race for the NDP leadership was a charm offensive. Sharp debating skills, sure. Divisive messaging, more than likely. But the Quebec MP routinely characterized as a tough customer was hardly thought likely to better his rivals in a contest of interpersonal skills. Yet there he was on the last Saturday of January, a couple of weeks before the watershed point when his dominance of the campaign became clear, winning a potential key new backer over breakfast at Halifax’s venerable Victory Arms Pub.

I’ve got a bit more from my notebook that I’ll post here next week. My notes on the Topp campaign are here.

Behind the scenes of the NDP leadership campaign

By John Geddes and Aaron Wherry - Friday, March 30, 2012 at 6:45 AM - 0 Comments

Photoraph by Cole Garside

The last thing anyone expected from Thomas Mulcair in the race for the NDP leadership was a charm offensive. Sharp debating skills, sure. Divisive messaging, more than likely. But the Quebec MP routinely characterized as a tough customer was hardly thought likely to better his rivals in a contest of interpersonal skills. Yet there he was on the last Saturday of January, a couple of weeks before the watershed point when his dominance of the campaign became clear, winning a potential key new backer over breakfast at Halifax’s venerable Victory Arms Pub.

His quarry that morning was Nova Scotia MP Robert Chisholm, who had entered the leadership race, then dropped out early when he realized his inability to speak French was a fatal shortcoming. A former NDP leader in his home province, Chisholm looked like an obvious high-value target for all the main leadership aspirants. His background as a union leader might have suggested an affinity with fellow labour-movement heavyweights Brian Topp and Peggy Nash. But he told Maclean’s that he received just two “casual” calls from camps other than Mulcair’s. “Really, it was only Tom who reached out,” Chisholm said, “and was interested in following up on a regular basis and seeking my opinion.”

The two had barely known each other before the race, but Mulcair now struck Chisholm as “warm, friendly and engaging.” Not adjectives often publicly associated with the hard-driving Montrealer. On that winter weekend when all the leadership contenders rolled into Halifax for the second of their series of six televised debates, Mulcair and his wife, Catherine Pinhas, arranged breakfast with Chisholm and his wife, Paula Simon. They settled in for a relaxed hour at the pub restaurant on the ground floor of the gracious old Lord Nelson Hotel. “We found them both quite charming,” Chisholm said. After mulling his decision, he announced on March 1 that he was endorsing Mulcair.

Continue…

The endorsements

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 12:25 PM - 0 Comments

Thomas Mulcair announces the support of former leadership candidate Robert Chisholm.

Paul Dewar says he’ll have an endorsement to announce tomorrow.

Until then, here are the updated standings. Continue…

The measure of the race

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 8:53 PM - 0 Comments

As part of its latest filing with Elections Canada, the NDP has tabled fundraising data for its leadership race through Dec. 31, 2011. Alice Funke has the headline totals.

Q4$: Topp $157K | Mulcair $146K | Nash $108K | Dewar $94K | Cullen $86K | Singh $49K | Chisholm $35K | Saganash $17.5K | Ashton $10K

Contrib count to #ndpldr‘s: Mulcair 621 | Dewar 456 | Cullen 442 | Nash 347 | Topp 278 | Singh 110 | Saganash 87 | Chisholm  64 | Ashton 58

Glen McGregor has graphed the numbers between September and December to show the trend over the first few months of the campaign.

The Dewar campaign boasts that it is now up to 721 contributors. The Cullen campaign claimed last week to be over $135,000.

This is the week that was

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 4:59 PM - 0 Comments

The NDP leadership contenders made their first impressions. Bruce Hyer napped. Robert Chisholm defended his unilingualism. Paul Dewar proposed a new kind of vote subsidy. Thomas Mulcair pitched cap-and-trade.

Chuck Strahl complicated John Duncan’s timeline. The citizens of Attawapiskat turned away the auditor, who’s costing them $1,300 per day. Peter MacKay had a history with helicopter rides. The Liberals double-checked. A retired major came to the minister’s defence. And the minister threatened to sue. Peter Goldring became an independent. MPs failed in their duty. And Jim Hillyer celebrated (and then kind of tried to sort of apologize). Continue…

‘This is not a language contest’

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 at 11:36 AM - 6 Comments

The Chisholm campaign responds to concerns about the candidate’s French.

“I admit I was a bit nervous about speaking French for the first time in front of a national audience. It was tough but I’m proud of the fact that I was able to do it”, said Chisholm, who continues to work daily with a tutor. “A real leader has to deal with difficult challenges and never give up. That’s what I did yesterday. Those are the qualities I will bring as leader of the party”, he said.

Responding to some of the negative comments from pundits, Chisholm pointed out the fact that it was pretty ironic that some people would want to exclude him from the leadership race because he is not yet bilngual following a debate that spoke to the need for inclusion. “I do believe it’s important for our next leader to be able to speak French and I will learn it. However, let’s not forget that this is not a language contest, it’s a leadership contest”, he replied. “Our party needs someone who is ready to lead right now. I might be the only unilingual candidate but I’m also the only one who has the real leadership experience we need”, Chisholm said.

The release is also available en francais.

The Commons: First impressions hastily made

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 7:11 PM - 29 Comments

Early on in the first NDP leadership debate, one of the moderators admonished the audience for applauding. There was apparently no time for such stuff. Indeed, there was barely any time to say much of anything.

The nine individuals arrayed before us, setup before a backdrop of fidgety humanity, took turns talking fast. Blessed were those who finished their sentences before the moderators, talking fast themselves, demanded that someone else start talking. Within this two-hour lightning round was something called “rapid fire,” in which each candidate was given 15 seconds to explain how they’d revolutionize the national economy or balance the federal budget. It was a perfect blur for the Twitter age, everything made to be answerable in 140 characters or less. Poor Romeo Saganash, suffering from bronchitis, spent the afternoon struggling to catch his breath. Continue…

This is the week that was

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 6:41 PM - 1 Comment

We tried to save the House of Commons.

Brian Topp pitched higher taxes (and considered equality). Nathan Cullen pitched democratic reform. Martin Singh pitched a national pharmacare plan. Paul Dewar prioritized. Robert Chisholm talked leadership.

Elections Canada tried to figure out kids these days. The Department of National Defence tried to keep the cost of its new headquarters quiet. The NDP bought billboard space. The omnibus crime bill went unaccounted for. The House voted to keep curtailing debate. The Harperization of Canada was confirmed. The Conservatives peddled rumours and defended their right to do so. Tony Clement explained his verbal typo. And the Speaker ruled John Williamson and Geoff Regan out of order. Continue…

On leadership

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 11:53 AM - 1 Comment

Robert Chisholm talks to the Chronicle-Herald.

Q: After the 1998 breakthrough, your party came very close to forming government in 1999. Then of course came the newspaper interview and the drunk driving revelation. What did you learn from that experience and from coming so close but falling short?

A: I learned a lot. We maintained 30 per cent of the vote in 1999, 18 months after we had made a huge breakthrough. In the history of the province of Nova Scotia, the NDP has never been close. Twenty per cent might have been a high-water mark for us. So, not only did we make the breakthrough in 1998, (but) 18 months later, under enormous pressure and scrutiny, we still hung on to 30 per cent of the vote. And that meant that we had arrived and we weren’t going to move from there.

It was a huge amount of stress. You’ve got to be able to function under fire and I did that. The thing about being a leader is it’s not all good times. That’s why I say that I’ve been through the good, the bad and the ugly. I feel I’ve come through that and I’ve learned a lot. It’s not all a bed of roses. Being a leader means you’ve got to take the good with the bad.

Registered division

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 12:35 PM - 3 Comments

The long-gun registry splits the NDP leadership contenders.

Brian Topp, the Montreal-born Toronto union leader considered by many as a front-runner, said as prime minister, he would attempt to revive the controversial program to register all long guns … Two other urban MPs seeking to replace the late Jack Layton — Peggy Nash of Toronto and Paul Dewar of Ottawa — are also in favour of bringing back the registry…

A fourth big-city candidate, Thomas Mulcair of Montreal, said through a spokesman that he wasn’t at this point taking a position on the issue. Cullen and three other candidates — Niki Ashton of the remote Churchill riding in Manitoba; Robert Chisholm of Dartmouth, N.S.; and Martin Singh of Musquodoboit Harbour, near Halifax — said they wouldn’t bring it back.

Mr. Topp says reestablishing the registry would have to be cost effective. Ms. Nash says it would have to be less onerous. Mr. Dewar says he would register weapons “in a way that consults with stakeholders and finds solutions.”

And then there were eight

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, October 30, 2011 at 12:35 PM - 0 Comments

Robert Chisholm joins the NDP leadership race.

These are times that call for real leadership, for our caucus, for our party, and for our country. Leadership that seeks to unite, not divide. Leadership that breaks down barriers rather than creating new ones. Leadership rooted in integrity, engagement and transparency.

If the New Democratic Party is to win the support and confidence of Canadians, and get our country on the right track, we must show a clear, progressive vision for the future. I have the real leadership experience to get that job done. It is time we came together to think, to talk, and to take action. This is how we will re-energize our democracy, make it more accessible to all people, and build a better Canada. We can shape the future together.

Alice Funke reviews the early maneuvering.

Everybody wants to be NDP leader

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 30, 2011 at 11:15 AM - 9 Comments

While Brian Topp picks up the endorsement of Libby Davies, Nathan Cullen will be announcing his candidacy later today.

“We have a chance to reach beyond those who are already onside,” he said in an exclusive interview. ”I think there is a much broader progressive movement that is more open to us than in our entire history because of Jack’s legacy, because of some things that have happened to the other parties, the door has opened in Quebec and right across the country.”

Topp, Cullen and Romeo Saganash will be joined by Paul Dewar and Nova Scotia businessman Martin Singh on Sunday. Some or all of Peter Julian, Peggy Nash, Robert Chisholm and Niki Ashton may yet join the race as well. Allowing for the possibility of another candidate or two to emerge and the field could easily total ten contenders.

NDP fantasy league update

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 4:21 PM - 2 Comments

I am told that former Toronto mayor David Miller, who had been the subject of some theorizing, has no interest in seeking the leadership of the NDP.

The NDP’s federal council will meet tomorrow to set the rules and timetable for a leadership campaign. Nathan Cullen is still thinking about a run. Robert Chisholm, depending on which quote you prefer, is either in or still thinking about it as well.

Who might be in, who’s definitely out

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 11:57 AM - 15 Comments

Joe Comartin won’t seek the NDP leadership. Robert Chisholm is thinking about it.

Chisholm, who was elected to the House of Commons for the first time in May after serving as an MPP and opposition leader in Nova Scotia for many years, said he was “seriously thinking” about running.

“There’s important work to be done and I think that how the leadership of the party and of the caucus moves forward is very important, so yeah, I am thinking about it seriously,” he said in a telephone interview. ”These are early days. I’m giving it some thought and will see how things develop.”

What it sounds like

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, April 2, 2011 at 1:50 PM - 1 Comment

Below the audio of the NDP rally inside the bingo hall of the Dartmouth Sportplex here in Nova Scotia this afternoon. Jack Layton was preceded to the platform by Robert Chisholm, the NDP candidate for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour, and Pat Stogran, the former veterans ombudsman.