Just when I think I’m stuck for a blog idea, Shawn Graham, bless his little heart, comes out with another gem. On Thursday, what should come on the radio but a story about how New Brunswick’s premier is finding himself under a little bit of media pressure. He feels that the media is giving him a hard time, henpecking him and ignoring the opposition. He’s feeling bruised and battered, and he’d like all those reporters to be a little bit more accommodating.

Mr. Graham has been on a bit of a tear since his government took office, and he now finds himself the least popular premier in Canada. One recent survey put his popularity at 15%, and we are now only seven months away from what might be the most eagerly awaited provincial election in New Brunswick history. In his short time in office, Mr. Graham has managed to tamper with post-secondary education, the health care system, and French immersion. The biggest gaffe, though, was when he broke a major election promise by attempting to sell the provincial power utility. It is this – the proposed sale of NB Power to Hydro Quebec – that might be the final nail in the popularity coffin.
(more…)

Simcoe-Grey MP Helena Guergis. Photo credit: Canadian Press.

Flying can be stressful, and I suppose that being an MP is stressful as well. While most of us have experienced the former, few have the opportunity to live through the latter. In late February, Helena Guergis had the misfortune of experiencing both.

For those of you who were caught up in the Olympics and missed the news, Helena Guergis, MP for Simcoe-Grey, apparently threw a diva fit at the Charlottetown airport on February 19. The incident became public when someone sent an anonymous letter describing the tantrum to Liberal MP Wayne Easter.

According to the letter, Ms. Guergis and her aide arrived very late for an Air Canada flight. While clearing security, her footwear set off an alarm so security staff asked that she remove it. In response, Ms. Guergis allegedly removed her boots, chucked them in a bin, swore, and then declared PEI a hellhole (or shithole, depending on the source). After abusing the staff but still clearing security, she ordered her aide to fetch her boots for her. She then discovered that the glass doors leading to the tarmac were locked. She reportedly beat on the doors and tried to force her way out. Of course, the whole time the plane was being held for her. She finally boarded and left the hellhole behind.
(more…)

A hoop dancer performing at the announcement of the 2010 Aboriginal Pavilion. Photo from www.canada2010.gc.ca

This is somewhat after the fact, but I’ve been thinking about the Olympic opening ceremonies over the past few days, and the topic came up again at a recent dinner with friends. This was the first time we had gotten together since the start of the games, and we were reviewing our overall impressions of the festivities. The consensus was that the ceremony was technologically impressive and that K.D. Lang’s performance was the highlight of the evening.

My dinner companions and I thought that the opening ceremonies didn’t show the world anything about Canada that they didn’t already know (wheat, whales, plaid, fiddles, snow) and that it was biased toward Western themes.   As easterners – and by “easterners” I mean Atlantic Canadians, and not Ontarians or Quebecers – we felt that the east was not as well represented as it could have been.
(more…)

A prorogation rally on Parliament Hill. Photo Credit: Sean Kilpatrick, CP

In all the excitement about prorogation it has become fairly obvious that the vast majority of the Canadian public—present company included—don’t know much about what it actually is. Normally, I use this space to share my opinion, but this time I will preface it with something a little less subjective. Today I would like to present a brief prorogation primer, with a few personal opinions tossed in for good measure.

The fine folks at the Table Research Branch of the House of Commons maintain the House of Commons Compendium, an excellent source of information on how the House and its committees work. If you visit their web page discussing the Parliamentary Cycle, you will find this simple introduction:

“A Parliament is summoned following a general election and continues to exist until it is dissolved (ended) by a proclamation of the Governor General at the request of the Prime Minister. This is followed by another general election. The Constitution sets the maximum lifespan of a Parliament at five years; however, recent changes to the Canada Elections Act provide for fixed date elections every four years.

Each Parliament is made up of one or more sessions, each consisting of a number of separate sittings (meetings), separated by periods of adjournment. Each session, except the final one, ends when Parliament is prorogued by the Governor General. The final session ends with the dissolution of Parliament and the calling of a general election.”

So you see, dear readers, prorogation is not the rare beast that some people believe it to be. It is constitutionally valid and is not morally dubious in and of itself. In fact, Parliament has been prorogued over 100 times. Still though, we are unfamiliar with it and because of that, it makes us a bit edgy. In a perfect world, all Canadians would take a mandatory high school civics class – anything the school system ever taught me about our government is long gone. Yes, the topic can be dry, but so is algebra and they made us learn that too.
(more…)

The must-have accessory for Canadian voters.

Dear Canadian Politician,

I am an average voter, quietly paying my taxes and trying to get through the recession. I have voted in almost every election – federal, provincial and municipal – for which I was eligible. Politics is kind of a passion for me and I worry that many of my contemporaries are completely uninterested in what you (and their tax dollars) are doing in Ottawa. In spite of my own interest in politics, I hope that we are not subjected to a federal election any time soon. It is not that I totally approve of the minority government’s performance. Voting for any of you right now would require the largest clothespin my nose could accommodate and I don’t know that it could stand the pinch.

Prime Minister Harper, with the consent of the Governor General, recently made the decision to prorogue Parliament until March. In spite of vigorous hand wringing by the opposing parties and the media, half of Canadians do not care. The other half might care but realize there is nothing to be done about it. Some say that Canadians are lazy and apathetic; they simply do not care about politics or voting. I think that the truth is more depressing. The average voter is just tired of the scandals, failures, in-fighting, pork-barreling, sniping and naked self-interest of most career politicians, regardless of political stripe. We are overcome with the futility of it all, sick of watching the same old game show. We’ve tuned you out until there’s a programming change.
(more…)

The yellow-bellied turtle

On December 30th, two weeks after the House of Commons ended its last sitting of 2009, the Conservatives presented themselves with a belated Christmas gift, unexpectedly proroguing Parliament until March 3rd. It was to resume sitting on January 25th. As a result, the House of Commons will be vacant for nearly three months. The Conservatives assert that this is to allow them time to consult with Canadians, particularly regarding their economic action plan, before releasing their budget on March 4th. Is this what hockey fans would call “a turtle”, or is it a brilliant strategic move that once again demonstrates the Conservatives’ ability to outfox the Liberals?

Most Canadians have seen a few hockey fights. First there’s some verbal sparring, maybe some shoving, and then two guys go at it, sometimes by prior arrangement. It’s a good way to vent frustrations and stir up the crowd. Other times, a player is a pest or has done something that deserves some retribution. In this case, when the first punch is thrown the guy on the receiving end (the pest) refuses to fight back, unwilling to take the thumping he might richly deserve. He won’t put his money where is mouth is and either skates away or falls cowering to the ice, gloved hands covering his head – he is a turtle. The net result is that someone who deserved some payback doesn’t actually get much of it, and his team, in fact, gains an advantage.
(more…)

The Christmas Card

The House of Commons has adjourned until January 25th, so the well of political intrigue might be a bit dry for the next few weeks. In the spirit of the season, though, one of the things that stirred up some political watchers this week was a Christmas card. Not the economy, torture in Afghanistan, nor the mess in Copenhagen. No, the issue that had (some) Canadians rushing to the blogosphere was Nova Scotia MP Scott Brison’s Christmas card.

The photo on the front of Mr. Brison’s card is a family portrait. It shows him and his husband, Maxime St. Pierre, posing against the pleasant backdrop of a rural Nova Scotia landscape in the company of a golden retriever. The marriage itself is old news (it happened in 2007) and Mr. Brison has been “out” for several years. Being openly gay has not hurt his political fortunes in the least, and even after crossing the floor to join the Liberal Party, his constituents happily returned him to office.
(more…)

Agnes Macphail - First Canadian woman elected to the House of Commons. Photo Credit: Wikipedia

In a recent CBC online article Audrey McLaughlin, former leader of the NDP, mused that Canadians may not be ready to be led by a woman. The article itself received little attention from readers, drawing only 24 comments and no play in the print or television media. The article and the muted response to it raise a number of interesting questions. Do people see another article about women and inequality and just tune out? Do they feel that the playing field has been leveled and there are no longer barriers to women’s equal participation in Canadian society? Is it true that Canadians are not prepared to be led by a woman?

Although women make up more than 50% of Canada’s population, they hold only 22% of the seats in the House of Commons. According to the United Nations the benchmark number for a “critical mass” of elected females is 30%. It has been less than a century since Canadian women were given the right to vote and run for elected office. In the first election for which they were eligible to run, held in 1921, four women ran as candidates and one, Agnes Macphail, was elected. Figure 1 below shows our progress from 1921 to 2008. Between 1921 and 1979, the number of women elected held steady at fewer than ten per election. The mid to late seventies marked the beginning of a significant growth trend: the number of women elected climbed to 62 by 1997. The less encouraging part of the graph is between 1997 and 2008, which shows a definite flattening of the strong growth experienced in preceding decades.
(more…)

Literacy is critical to the transmission of the ideas that shape our world.

Some people might wonder what an article about literacy is doing on a political blog, but a literate population is crucial to a fully-functioning, informed democracy. According to ABC Canada, “Greater understanding of social and political issues means a more informed opinion at the ballot box, better understanding of issues, and greater confidence in discussing them. This, in turn, encourages leadership and engagement in public debate.” Poor literacy is a huge challenge for those who wish to keep the public informed on prominent issues and what their politicians are up to. Although many of us find power and information in the written word, others may find only confusion.
(more…)

Shawn Graham and Jean Charest announce the proposed sale of New Brunswick Power

In the past few weeks New Brunswick has been lucky enough to enjoy a break from the regularly scheduled swine flu hysteria. Thanks to Premier Shawn Graham we have been jolted from our H1N1-induced torpor. While everyone’s attention was focused on fighting over vaccines, Premier Graham and Quebec Premier Jean Charest were working out a deal that would see New Brunswick give up total control of its power assets by selling NB Power to Hydro Quebec. In spite of Premier Graham’s mantra of “self-sufficiency” for our little have-not province, he is selling out our energy future and doing it for a fraction of what the assets are actually worth. The vast majority of rate cuts will benefit only large industrial users, cutting small businesses and residential users off from the spoils, all by government design.
(more…)