Canada Politics

  • Stephen Harper worshiped Pierre Elliot Trudeau, preferred John Lennon to Paul McCartney, came across as 20-going-on-40, and was troubled by the notion that he had failed his father.

    That's how Frank Glenfield, Harper's boss at Imperial Oil in the 1970's, remembered the prime minister in a 2008 interview with the Edmonton Journal's David Staples.

    When Glenfield passed away earlier this month, Harper fulfilled a promise and delivered the eulogy at his funeral last week in Edmonton.

    The eulogy had thus motivated Staples to recount his interview with Glenfield in an article he published on Tuesday.

    During the interview, Glenfield said Harper was hard working but troubled "boy" who had moved to Edmonton after dropping out of the University of Toronto in 1978.

    "My office boy was Stephen Harper." he told Staples. "He did very well in a very entry level job. He sort of checked the cash, delivered mail and that sort of thing. He wasn't above doing anything."

    "Stephen had broken with his family

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  • Finance Minister Jim Flaherty appears at Commons finance committee in Ottawa on November 1, 2011. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean KilpatrickThe Tories are expected to release a report today that analysts say will give us some insight as to what to expect in the Harper government's 2012 federal budget.

    The Commons finance committee's pre-budget consultation report, to be presented to the House on Wednesday afternoon, is the result of 410 submissions from Canadians across the country, the Globe and Mail reports.

    "For years, this document was merely a hodge-podge of opposition wishes," the Globe's Steven Chase wrote.

    "Now, because Conservatives (have a majority government), they will ultimately telegraph the themes of the next fiscal plan."

    So what can we expect to see in this report?

    In a press release announcing the budget consultations,  finance minister Jim Flaherty said the 2012 budget will "stay squarely focused on economic growth, protecting jobs, reducing the deficit, and returning to balanced budgets in the medium term."

    "Although Canada is not immune to the economic uncertainties still facing the global economy,

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  • It seems Condoleeza Rice and Peter MacKay didn't really have a fling.

    According to the former US secretary of state's new memoir, any chatter of an 'affair' with MacKay was greatly exaggerated.

    The rumour mill began churning in 2006, when Rice and then foreign affairs minister Mackay took part in commemoration events in Nova Scotia, marking the fifth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

    The two single politicians dined together that evening and then appeared to be "friendly" and "smiley" with each other at a Tim Horton's the next morning.

    Later, at a joint press conference, MacKay added grist to the fire by mentioning Rice slept with her window open.

    In her memoir, according to CTV News' Andrea Janus, Rice said she had told MacKay about sleeping with her window open and even tried to make light of his remark when it was her turn to speak.

    "I have to admit it was kind of funny, if misdirected," Rice writes.

    "When I got home, I called Peter. 'A girl can't be seen with you

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  • Canada's former Prime Minister Jean Chretien gives Reuters an interview in Ottawa on November 15, 2011. REUTERS/Blair Gable 'If you can't beat them, scare them' seems to be the latest Liberal Party campaign strategy.

    In a hard-hitting fundraising letter to the party faithful, former Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien lambasted the Harper government for their recent flurry of legislation and warned that bills banning abortion and gay marriages could be in the offing. He even suggested the death penalty may make a comeback.

    "Unless we are bold. Unless we seize the moment. Everything we built will start being chipped away," the former prime minister wrote according to the Globe and Mail.

    "The Conservatives have already ended gun control and Kyoto. Next may be a woman's right to choose, or gay marriage. Then might come capital punishment. And one by one, the values we cherish as Canadians will be gone."

    Chrétien also reminded party members that it was the Liberals that brought-in medicare, the Canada pension plan, the Canadian flag, and the Clarity Act.

    And never afraid to 'toot' his own horn,  Chrétien noted

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  • In recent weeks, Stephen Harper has been criticized for his position on the Kyoto Accord, the omnibus crime bill, and his decision to eliminate the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly.

    Now, he's being called out for the family portrait donning the cover of his 2011 Christmas card (pictured above).

    The Toronto Star is reporting Harper and his children appear to be wearing the same clothes they did in last year's picture.

    "The backdrop is different — a garland-laced fireplace this year, an outdoor scene with 24 Sussex Dr. behind them last year," notes the article.

    "But the Prime Minister is sporting the same grey sweater and red-striped shirt. Son Ben is in a white shirt, daughter Rachel in a similar-looking blouse with the same bracelets adorning her wrist. Only wife Laureen appears to have changed outfits and hairstyle from one year to the next."

    The columnist, appropriately,  concludes that the Prime Minister was unable to get everyone together for the annual holiday snap, so may

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  • The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) building is shown in Winnipeg on Wednesday, December 7, 2011. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Trevor HaganThe federal Liberals are urging Governor General David Johnston to block the Harper government's bill to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board.

    In a letter delivered to Rideau Hall on Monday, the Liberals have asked the Queen's 'representative' to withhold Royal Assent to Bill C18 in light of last week's Federal Court decision which said the existing rules required the government to consult with farmers before eliminating the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly.

    According to an article in the Globe and Mail, however, a Governor General not giving Royal Assent to a law passed in Parliament is unprecedented in Canadian history.

    "In 1849, the colonial government of Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin introduced legislation that would compensate French Canadians for losses suffered during the 1837 rebellion. Lord Elgin, the Governor-General of the day, hated the bill. But he was the first governor-general who believed that the fledgling administration of the Province of Canada should be

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  • Surgery wait times for elective medical treatments in Canada are on the rise according to a new report released Monday by the Fraser Institute.

    This year's version of the right wing think-tank's annual report, titled Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, notes the median surgical wait time jumped to 19.0 weeks from 18.2 weeks in 2010, exceeding the previous all-time high of 18.3 weeks recorded in 2007.

    By comparison, in 1993, the average wait time was 9.3 weeks which equates to a 104 per cent increase in 18 years.

    Among the various specialties, the shortest total waits exist for medical oncology (4.2 weeks), radiation oncology (4.6 weeks), and elective cardiovascular surgery (10.3weeks).

    Conversely, the report notes, patients wait longest between a GP referral and plastic surgery (41.6 weeks), orthopaedic surgery (39.1 weeks), and neuro surgery (38.3 weeks).

    "Canadians are being forced to wait almost four-and-a-half months, on average, to receive surgical care,

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  • NDP leadership candidate Paul Dewar takes part in the first round of debates in Ottawa Sunday, December 4, 2011.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred ChartrandYahoo! Canada News spoke with veteran MP Paul Dewar, on Friday, about his NDP leadership bid and about the future of his party.

    Prior to being elected to parliament in 2006, Dewar worked as an elementary school teacher and was Vice President of the local teacher's union.  He also worked as an aid worker in Central America.

    Here are some excerpts from his interview with Yahoo! Canada:

    Yahoo!: It's a crowded slate of candidates running for the leadership of the NDP. What do you bring to the table that perhaps others don't?

    Dewar: My experience in parliament as well as my experience in doing grass roots politics is an advantage and something I think our party needs right now.

    I have been elected since 2006, [and have] been the foreign affairs critic since 2007 and that's a portfolio that carries with it a lot of difficult issues. ... My experience outside of parliament in doing grassroot politics since I was knee high [also helps]. My mother was mayor of Ottawa, was a member of

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  • There has been a lot of press lately, about the Harper Conservatives' penchant for using heavy-handed tactics to govern the country.

    Vancouver Sun columnist Barbara Yaffe cited several examples of what she calls the Harper government's "mean streak", in her column Thursday.

    The respected journalist writes about how, in recent weeks, Opposition MPs have complained about the repeated use of closure by the Conservative government as it moves to get several bills passed by the Commons before the Christmas break.

    She wrote about the their decision to deny Green Party leader Elizabeth May accreditation to attend the Durban conference on climate change.

    And she opined about the Harper government's preoccupation with accountability, rather than compassion, in the continuing saga at Attawapiskat.

    Yaffe's column is certainly a good overview of the authoritative nature of the Harper government.

    But this is  nothing new.

    For decades, opposition parties,  journalists, and those that disagree with

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  • NDP leadership candidate Paul Dewar takes part in the first round of debates in Ottawa Sunday, December 4, 2011.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred ChartrandNDP leadership candidate Paul Dewar says he'd like to bring back the voter subsidy for federal parties - but only for parties that nominate an acceptable number of women candidates.

    Parties would get the full $2 per vote if 50 per cent or more of their candidates were women, $1.75 for 40-49 per cent, $1.50 if they beat 30 per cent, and nothing if they nominate less than 30 per cent.

    "It is appalling we are 38th in the world in terms of women's representation in parliament. We're below countries where go out and do development for — Afghanistan comes to mind," Dewar told Yahoo! Canada News.

    "This is a very straightforward way to providing incentives for parties to nominate more women."

    According to Dan Arnold, of the National Post, if Dewar's plan was in place for the last election, women candidates would be worth $188,000 per head to the Tories, $145,000 to the NDP and $90,000 to the Liberals.

    Kelly McParland, Arnold's colleague at the Post calls the plan  a "classic little piece of

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