'Party of One' Author Michael Harris Coming to Guelph

April is shaping up to be the cruelest month for Prime Minister Stephen Harper: the Mike Duffy trial begins this week, the knives are already out for the federal budget coming April 21, and author Michael Harris will be hitting the road to talk about his takedown of the Harper years, Party of One. Fair Vote Guelph is bringing Harris to the Royal City on April 19, but Open Sources Guelph will have the reporter, columnist and author on the show later this week.

Looking Back on Crazy in 2014

Although in politics there always seems to be someone sticking their foot in their mouth, 2014 seemed particularly problematic on a number of levels. Whether it was a key member of the prime minister's party going way off track during Question Period, or a politician's supporter predicting doomsday scenarios because their candidate lost, 2014 was a prime year for crazy in politics. It seemed weird to not comment on it before the year was through, so let's relive the madness of some of the most truly bizarre political moments of the 2014. 

By-Elections: Low Turnout Yields Predictable Results

Prime Minster Stephen Harper's gambit to hold four by-elections on the day before Canada seems to have yield the results he wanted: low turnout and predictable returns on all four ridings. However, a closer look at the numbers may given pause to the leader, at least for the moment, that Justin Trudeau's Liberals still have the momentum with the electorate as we barrel into the 2015 general election.

SCOC Says Senate Reform is More Complicated Than the Commons

Stephen Harper laid all his senate reform hopes on the Supreme Court of Canada ruling his way, but given his history with the SCOC maybe that was the wrong move. Indeed, the Supreme Court has tossed the senate reform hot potato back into the hands of the Prime Minister, which is as good as not doing anything considering the options now in front of the government and the PM. All the chips Harper had left in regards to senate reform were bet on the Supreme Court to give him the wiggle room he needed to do what he had always promised to do, but didn't, and had to after the expense scandal. He lost.

Robocalls: Case Closed

And just like that, it was over. Elections Canada let it be known far and wide yesterday that “the evidence gathered in the investigation does not lend support to the existence of a conspiracy or conspiracies to interfere with the voting process" as a result of their investigation into fraudulent robocalls made on Election Day 2011. And that, as they say, is that. I guess.

Chinks in the Armour? Conservative In-Fighting Makes Headlines

Frankly, it shouldn't be this surprising that a large group of people can differ in their political opinions, but this is the Conservative Party of Canada, and for the last 10 years they've been a nearly homogeneous force that speaks across Canada with one voice. That's why a pair of events lately have highlighted why a Conservative dynasty continuing through 2015 and beyond may be difficult to achieve, and may speak to larger divisions brewing under the surface of the Party's united front. We're seeing a fracturing on the right becoming increasing apparent in the United States, but will Canada's right-wing soon be following suit?

Busy News Day in Review

Our 24/7 news cycle sometimes makes it seem like more is going on than what really is, but yesterday was one of those news days where it seemed like everything was happening at once. In case you missed anything, I decided to put together this helpful recap of the day's events because the news of the day on April 10, 2014 was breaking over itself to get broken....

Editorial: Farewell Flaherty

In one of those surprise/not-surprising announcements yesterday afternoon, Jim Flaherty resigned as the federal finance minister. Citing ongoing health issues, and a desire to make bigger bank in the private sector, Flaherty will stand as MP for Whitby-Oshawa until the 2015 election. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver is expected to segue into the finance portfolio in an announcement later today, but Flaherty will cast a long shadow as the government looks to enter a black phase in the budget and re-election mode next year.

Guelph Politicast #2.5 - Michael Keefer, U of G Prof

Although the scandals in Ottawa continue to compound, it's worth noting that the scandal that literally kicked off the Federal government's first majority term in office is still very unresolved. The 2011 robocall controversy does still occasionally swim in and out of the media consciousness, but despite a singular arrest, the case is far from closed, and a great many questions remain unanswered. One of those truth seekers though is Michael Keefer, an emeritus professor at the University of Guelph. He's doing a talk in Guelph on March 13 outlining his case and what he's uncovered so far.

Highlights from the 2014 Federal Budget

Booooooooooring. It's called the "Boring Budget," but the 2014 Federal Budget has a great many interesting implications for the nation was he head into an election year in 2015.  

Top 10 National/International Stories of 2013

Last week, I looked at the Top 10 Local and Provincial stories of 2013, and, as promised, we now open our scope wider to the national and international stages. I believe I said that last week's list was easier to compile than this one, but the struggle with the National/International Top 10 was a "Sophie's Choice" of which stories make the cut and which to leave off. A couple of the stories below could be easily separated into their own categories, but since the year was jam-packed with activity, I can be understandably forgiven to fold a couple of things together in order to create a more inclusive picture of the year that was. So, without further ado, let's look at the national and international news that made the head of the headlines in 2013.

Robocalls - The "We Just Kidding" Excuse

The legal action around the 2011 robocall scandal is another reminder that real-life legal proceedings are nothing like Law & Order; one hour and you're done! The bad guys are in jail, and it's on to the next case. The comparatively glacial pace of real-life legal matters as compared to their fictional TV counterparts in understandable - We want justice, and we want it now! - but the wheels of jurisprudence grind slowly and deliberately. Every once and a while though, news breaks and we get somewhat closer to a resolution.

In the news this week were the details of a partially lifted publication ban on the case thus far against Michael Sona, director of communications for the Guelph campaign of Marty Burke during the 2011 election. Sona is charged with wilfully preventing or endeavouring to prevent a voter from casting a ballot, and the court placed a publication ban on the case this past August. After petitioning by various media sources, including PostMedia and the CBC, the ban was partially lifted in September, but the full ban coming off this past Wednesday. As for Sona himself, court proceedings have been held over till June at which point it will be decided whether or not Sona will be taken to trial, but the new papers suggest that he maybe somewhat less than the innocent pawn he's been selling himself as since he was thrown under the bus by the party he so loyally served last year.

Now That's Some Good Bloviating

Stephen Harper's first Question Period of the fall didn't go the way he wanted, I think. Despite a strong attempt to pivot away from the ongoing senate expense scandal (including new revelations that Senator Mike Duffy and members of the PMO beyond Nigel Wright colluded on Duffy's sweetheart deal) by harping - pun intended - on the new free trade deal with Europe, the opposition smelled blood in the water and wanted to track it back to the source: Stephen Harper.

Still, Harper left some of the heavy lifting in Question Period yesterday to the new new parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, Tory MP Paul Calandra. When NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus hit the floor to ask again about Duffy, it was Calandra that unleashed a rhetorical flourish that made his fellow Conservatives proud and left everyone else confused.

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?

PM's Hockey Book Ready for Release

 Toronto Mayor Rob Ford gets a lot of flack for his love of coaching football, a hobby that seems to eat up a lot of his time, including time he should be working on important city matters. Well apparently other politicians aren't immune to sports-related hobbies either, as Prime Minister Stephen Harper's hockey book, a tome 10 years in the making, will finally be released on November 5th according to the Globe and Mail.

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? 

Of Pantywaists and Politics

At this point, I think maybe Marty Burke likes to write letters to the editor as a way to irk those of us still sore about his campaign of silence back during the 2011 election, a soreness that remains stinging in the wake of the robocall scandal for which Guelph was the epicentre, and on which Burke has yet to really comment on the record. And that brings us to Burke's latest screed to be published in the storied pages of the Guelph Mercury, and it's nice to see that in spite of everything that Burke is still doing the good work of the Harper political machine, which is to pile on Justin Trudeau.

And That's a Month of Scandal

Oh what a hectic month for political scandals. Seriously, one of things you notice doing a weekly radio show on politics is that there's really not enough time to cover it all, and it just keeps getting worse too. Happening at all levels of government, let's rundown what I like to call the Month of Scandal.

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. 

Election Week in Canada

It's a big week for Canadians who love the thrill of victory, the scorching sting of defeat, or maybe just enjoy the competition and challenge of the game in all its facets, and no, I'm not talking about the NHL playoffs. 

There are two big elections this week, literally from coast to coast. On Monday, Peter Penashue gets to find out if he's going to keep his job as MP of Labrador, while on Tuesday British Columbia voters go to the polls to decide if they want a new provincial government, or keep the one they have in Christy Clark's Liberals. Both are locally focused, but the results will likely have broader implications nationwide.