Awaz Apni

Yesterday, another House of Commons committee crashed thanks to, yet again, the Conservative chairperson. This marks the second time a House of Commons committee has been shut down since the leak of the handbook for Conservative chairs to shut down committees. This 200-page handbook also outlines how to control witnesses for the benefit of the Conservatives. (Yet another undemocratic habit of the Conservatives.) It is completely unacceptable for the government to be orchestrating a Commons committee's 'malfunction', especially when it has such important work to do (for the environment), which includes hearing witnesses. Well, in the next election, the Conservatives are going to have a lot of explaining to do to sort this all out to the public (especially MP Bob Mills, who was the chairperson who literally walked out from the committee). As was shown in a recent Decima poll, the Conservatives are lagging behind the Liberals; their support is slipping. I doubt there is any...

Yesterday, another House of Commons committee crashed thanks to, yet again, the Conservative chairperson. This marks the second time a House of Commons committee has been shut down since the leak of the handbook for Conservative chairs to shut down committees. This 200-page handbook also outlines how to control witnesses for the benefit of the Conservatives. (Yet another undemocratic habit of the Conservatives.) It is completely unacceptable for the government to be orchestrating a Commons committee's 'malfunction', especially when it has such important work to do (for the environment), which includes hearing witnesses. Well, in the next election, the Conservatives are going to have a lot of explaining to do to sort this all out to the public (especially MP Bob Mills, who was the chairperson who literally walked out from the committee). As was shown in a recent Decima poll, the Conservatives are lagging behind the Liberals; their support is slipping. I doubt there is any...

The Hill Times (a popular weekly Canadian politics newspaper) has now published it's annual survey of MPs . Who and about what did they survey? They surveyed political staffers, MPs and interns (for a total of 102 people) on everything from who's the "hippest" MP to the "Biggest Gossip": Sexiest Male: Peter MacKay (Conservative) Sexiest Female: Ruby Dhalla (Liberal) Best Dressed Male: Scott Brison (Liberal) Worst Dressed Male: Myron Thompson (Conservative) Best Dressed Female: Belinda Stronach (Liberal) Worst Dressed Female: Sylvie Boucher (Conservative) Best Sense of Humour: Peter Stoffer (NDP) Worst Sense of Humour: Stephen Harper (Conservative) Best House Orator: Stephen Harper (Conservative) Best Speeches Outside the House: Michael Ignatieff (Liberal) Most Discreet: Paul Martin (Liberal) Biggest Gossip: Belinda Stronach (Liberal) Hardest Working: Ralph Goodale (Liberal) Hippest: Rahim Jaffer (Conservative) Best Hair, Male: Pablo Rodriguez (Liberal) Best...

The Hill Times (a popular weekly Canadian politics newspaper) has now published it's annual survey of MPs . Who and about what did they survey? They surveyed political staffers, MPs and interns (for a total of 102 people) on everything from who's the "hippest" MP to the "Biggest Gossip": Sexiest Male: Peter MacKay (Conservative) Sexiest Female: Ruby Dhalla (Liberal) Best Dressed Male: Scott Brison (Liberal) Worst Dressed Male: Myron Thompson (Conservative) Best Dressed Female: Belinda Stronach (Liberal) Worst Dressed Female: Sylvie Boucher (Conservative) Best Sense of Humour: Peter Stoffer (NDP) Worst Sense of Humour: Stephen Harper (Conservative) Best House Orator: Stephen Harper (Conservative) Best Speeches Outside the House: Michael Ignatieff (Liberal) Most Discreet: Paul Martin (Liberal) Biggest Gossip: Belinda Stronach (Liberal) Hardest Working: Ralph Goodale (Liberal) Hippest: Rahim Jaffer (Conservative) Best Hair, Male: Pablo Rodriguez (Liberal) Best...

As we all know by now, Bill Casey, a Nova Scotia MP (who at the time of the vote was a Conservative MP), defied his government by voting against its 2007 budget. By doing so, he was kicked out of the Conservative caucus. Here in Saskatchewan, there has been a lot of talk about why the Saskatchewan Conservative MPs also didn't dare to vote against the budget, seeing that many—if not most people (including some members of the media )—people here are upset that Stephen Harper broke his promise to Saskatchewan. While people (particularly the provincial NDP government) have been talking about that for quite some time, this debate has very recently got to be more interesting: If a Nova Scotia Conservative MP can put his province first, why can't a Saskatchewan Conservative MP do the same? Saskatchewan Conservative MPs have clearly shown a lack of leadership; MPs are supposed to put their constituents before their party, just as Mr. Casey did for Nova Scotia (and it did pay off for ...

As we all know by now, Bill Casey, a Nova Scotia MP (who at the time of the vote was a Conservative MP), defied his government by voting against its 2007 budget. By doing so, he was kicked out of the Conservative caucus. Here in Saskatchewan, there has been a lot of talk about why the Saskatchewan Conservative MPs also didn't dare to vote against the budget, seeing that many—if not most people (including some members of the media )—people here are upset that Stephen Harper broke his promise to Saskatchewan. While people (particularly the provincial NDP government) have been talking about that for quite some time, this debate has very recently got to be more interesting: If a Nova Scotia Conservative MP can put his province first, why can't a Saskatchewan Conservative MP do the same? Saskatchewan Conservative MPs have clearly shown a lack of leadership; MPs are supposed to put their constituents before their party, just as Mr. Casey did for Nova Scotia (and it did pay off for ...