Keeping Tabs on Lloyd

Travelling down to city council every week to keep tabs on the members of our local government is easy, but what about keeping tabs on Guelph's Member of Parliament from a few hundred kilometres away? It's tricky, but not impossible thanks to online tools. So if you feel like keeping tabs on Lloyd, that is to say, if you want to know what our MP, Lloyd Longfield, is up to in the House of Commons, here's how you can do it.

LISTEN: Chong and May Talk about Government Reform and Turning Parliament Inside Out

As you may have heard, electoral reform is a hot button issue in Guelph, which is why when Fair Vote Guelph decided to bring a couple of high-profile federal figures to town to talk about it, a few hundred people were interested in hearing what they had to say. So if you happened to have missed the talk featuring Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May and Wellington-Halton Hills MP Michael Chong on Tuesday, this is your chance to hear it. And if you did happen to the be there, this is your chance to hear it again.

The "Made in Guelph" Electoral Reform Solution Workshopped

In the basement of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, as the music from the rehearsal organ echoed nearby, about two dozen people gathered to parse the so-called "Guelph Model", an electoral reform proposal that's meant the thread the eye of several different needles in order to meet a whole lot of different expectations. But does it work?

VIDEO - Valeriote Will Not Seek Re-Election as Guelph's MP

"Representing the people of Guelph is a great privilege. Service is an honour, but family is paramount. Indeed, fatherhood is a greater honour. It is for that reason that while I will continue to represent Guelph as its Member of Parliament until the next election is called, I will not be seeking re-election."

With those words, Frank Valeriote, the Liberal Party Member of Parliament for Guelph, laid out the new political reality for the Federal Election here in Guelph next year. It is now an open race with no incumbent running in the Royal City, as Valeriote in an emotional address shared with the media his desire to re-focus his attention to his family and find new ways to serve the Guelph community here are home.

Local Reactions to Events on Parliament Hill

Today's events in Ottawa, which are still unfolding, is a startling reminder that shocking acts of violence can happen anywhere, even Centre Block on Parliament Hill. Even where we are, several miles away from the nation's capital, Guelphites are affected by events, glued to social media, glued to TVs, digesting any update great or small, rumor or fact. Here's some local reaction to the events.

Valeriote Fights to Kill the Bureaucracy of Death

As Guelphites, and other Ontarions, go to the polls, their local MP Frank Valeriote will be sitting through the second debate of his private members bill, Bill C-247. While not a pressing matter of urgency, Bill C-247 does aim to make life easier for people going through a very difficult time: the loss of a loved one. The aim of Valeriote's bill is to expand the scope of Service Canada to be a one stop shop for all Canadians coping with the death of a citizen or resident, and all the paper work that comes with it. Is dying in Canada a red tape nightmare, and can Valeriote's bill save people that extra grief in the midst of their actual grief?

In Case You Aren't Getting Enough Elections...

I guess all of Kathleen Wynne's tough talk regarding Stephen Harper and his negative effect on Ontario has made the Prime Minister itchy for some election action of his own. That might be why four federal by-elections are now scheduled for June 30, just over three weeks after the Ontario general election on June 12.

Confusing Process for Democracy

As Toronto City Hall went into meltdown earlier this week, many looked to a higher power to do something about the pending situation with Rob Ford and his stubborn refusal to step down, and that higher power was the Ontario Legislature led by Premier Kathleen Wynne. This is where politics get even more political though because when you have a left-leaning politician threatening to sanction a right-leaning politician, no matter how justified, fur is going to fly.

Of course, I think Wynne is far too shrewd to put herself in a position to set a precedent like having a Premier turf a duly-elected and sitting Mayor of Toronto, but that didn't stop Ford's allies from playing defense. Still, twice this week, I've heard both Cllr. Doug Ford and the Toronto Sun's Joe Warmington use the phrase "unelected premier," when talking about Wynne. It's a phrase I hadn't heard in a while, but it does two things, suggest that Wynne has no power, and if she does, then she has no authority to use it. I had thought we were past this because it's both silly and incorrect, but here we go again, confusing process for democracy. 

Game of Thrones Speech

This afternoon, Governor General David Johnston delivered the Speech from the Throne, a Hail Mary of oratory, with which Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants to put a summer of scandal behind him. Proroguing Parliament in mid-August, the government said they need an extra month and half to prepare a new list of objects they wanted to tackle in the fall session, and the result was a veritable recital of Conservative talking points on the issues of budget, economy and law and order. But the question remains: are the opposition and Canadians willing to hear the government out on their new wish list, or continue to fight the battles already in progress?

Guelph Politicast #2.2 - Frank Valeriote

So it's taken a while to get to episode two, but we're here now for what I hope is the first of a string of regular Guelph Politicasts. In this edition, I talk to our local Member of Parliament Frank Valeriote.

Maple Leaf Politics

Professional hockey is back, and so is the idea that being Canadian and being a hockey fan are the exact same thing, synonymous and inseparable. This time last year though, there was no pro-hockey, and no one had any idea when there might be hockey. People were ticked, but that anger went away pretty quick when the millionaire athletes they both loved and hated finally took to the ice.

No place was that more true than a few miles down the road in Toronto, where Maple Leaf worship is devote and absolute, yet with far fewer miracles required to placate the faithful. In fact, Toronto is coming up on nearly half a century without a championship, and as teams in the United States, some of whom are recent champions, struggle to fill arenas, the Leafs remain the NHL's most profitable team. Actually, they're a quarter of a billion dollars more profitable than the number two team, the New York Rangers.

So what does any of this have to do with politics? Well, I would argue that fans of the Maple Leafs don't get a lot of return on their annual investment of $1 billion; no Stanley Cup in 46 years, one playoff bearth in 10, and even then they were put it out in the first round. It seems that if you're a Maple Leafs fan, you've not only come to expect a lot of disappoint, but you've become comfortable with the fact that you're going to get it. It sort of reminds me a lot of politics.

Valeriote Gets Parliamentary Promotion

Parliament may be prorogued, but when it comes back in session in October our local MP Frank Valeriote will be sitting with a new role in the Liberal caucus, Deputy Whip.

...And Then I Had to Defend John Baird

It's probably a terribly kept secret that a lot of my own personal political views don't line-up with those of the Conservative Party of Canada, or many of it's members, including those who currently serve in the Government of Canada. But today, I want to come to the defense of Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, who had the audacity earlier this week to be vocal in his condemnation of new anti-gay laws that recently came into effect in Russia. So first of all, thanks to REAL Women of Canada for sponsoring this moment of bipartisanship.

Do the Shuffle

In an effort to refresh his fortunes in the national polls, and to put the scandals of the first half of 2013 behind him, Prime Minister Stephen Harper re-shuffled his cabinet today. Only four of the previous cabinet's ministers kept their portfolio or saw their responsibilities unchanged, but in the end, the 39 member cabinet seeks to promote the feeling of steady leadership with a mixture of new faces to inject some new energy and fresh ideas. The cabinet is still as big as ever, and the number of women in cabinet did increase (from 11 to 12), but the question remains: is this enough for Harper to change the optics and come out into the fall session on the offensive rather than the defensive? 

Slow News Day

This is the problem with a long weekend, it feels like you have twice as much work to deal with once you get back to the office after the weekend's over. 

And There's Still a Senate, Why...?

There's been no shortage of scandal involving the Harper government, from robocalls to high-priced fighter jets to back-bench revolts and that $3 billion to combat terrorism that got lost in the cushions. I wonder though, when we look back at the prime ministership of Stephen Harper will it be the actions of the senators he appointed that will reflect the most badly on him?

The Global Bore on Terror

Two weeks ago Monday, following the tragic events of Boston, CTV interviewed Tom Ridge as part of their coverage. Now Ridge is the former Secretary of Homeland Security, and aside from being the first man to hold that title and helping to manage the largest re-organization of the U.S. government in its history, his tenure in that post was largely unremarkable.

But Ridge, and this is how I took his appearance on the news, is a symbol of the immediate reaction post-9/11, a reminder that sweeping action was taken without a lot of thought about the consequences following a terrorist attack on American soil. Looking back on those events, it's easy to see where things might have gone wrong, and where other things might have gone too far, which is why it's a relief that any kind of visceral and emotional overreaction has been avoided - for the most part.

Cracks in the Caucus?

One of the incredible successes of the Conservative government is its whip, it's ability to get the members of it's caucus to tow the party line and present a united front from the Prime Minister's Office on down. For seven years, the governments of Stephen Harper have presented a united front, one message under the PMO, with liberty and speaking rights to all who get clearance from a Harper underling before hand. But what happens when the someone says no more?

Highlights from 2013 Federal Budget

Everybody was expecting the worst. This was going to be an austerity budget: no handouts, no tax breaks and no sugar coating. But instead it seems that there was room for some sugar, or at least the government had the ability to make the budget a little sweet for some.

Valeriote Calls PBO Politics on Harper

There's been discussion in the news recently about the Harper government's stifling of environmental scientists, forcing them to handle all their press communications through the Office of the Privy Council, but obviously, if you know anything about the way Prime Minister Stephen Harper handles his business, that's not the only section of government affairs that needs the proverbial royal seal of approval.

In a press release set out yesterday, Guelph MP Frank Valeriote addressed the matter of the next Parliamentary Budget Officer, quoting his recent comments in the House of Commons. It's the kind of thing that seems like inside baseball, matters of procedure that only matter much to parliamentarians and politicos, but as the saying goes, the devil's in the details.