Blacklock's Reporter

The film classic It’s A Wonderful Life recounts the story of George Bailey, a frustrated everyman trapped in a small town with unfulfilled dreams of travel and adventure. But what if George left Bedford Falls? He’d have become Conrad Kain. It is a story too poignant for filmgoers. Instead it is a compelling title from University of Alberta Press. Kain is renowned among Canadian mountaineers as a pioneering guide so accomplished they named a British Columbia peak for him, Mount Conrad. He escaped grinding poverty as a miner’s son in rural Austria and travelled the world from Honolulu to Ulaanbaatar. “As far back as he could remember his ‘chief ambition was to travel,’” notes Letters From A Wandering Guide. “As a boy, despite the constraints of unremitting poverty, he never missed an opportunity to speak with tourists who passed through the alpine valleys near his home. ‘I would ask a great many questions,’ Kain wrote. ‘Where he came from, where intended going, what the place was like where he stopped last.’” READ MORE

Opposition MPs yesterday pressed Defence Minister Bill Blair to explain why his office waited 54 days to approve a warrant targeting Liberal Party contacts with Toronto’s Chinese Consulate. “The truth will be revealed,” Conservative MP James Bezan (Selkirk-Interlake, Man.) told the Commons defence committee: "A warrant sat around your office." READ MORE

A Liberal MP yesterday disrupted a hearing of the Commons public accounts committee with a profane rant against Conservative members. “F—k right off,” said MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (Beaches-East York, Ont.): "Come on. Come on. Come on." READ MORE

The carbon tax has an “overall negative economic impact” including a net cost to households, the Budget Office said yesterday. Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault disputed the findings: "That’s not what this report says." READ MORE

The Senate last evening on a voice vote passed cabinet’s pharmacare bill into law. Advocates called it short of its promise but a necessary first step to public prescription drug insurance: "This is not universality. But it is the first step towards universality." READ MORE

Parliament must “clear the air” over allegations of foreign spies on Parliament Hill, former public safety minister Marco Mendicino yesterday testified at the Commission on Foreign Interference. Mendicino complained a damning report by a Liberal-dominated committee could turn Parliament into a “kangaroo court.” READ MORE

Lawyers at the China inquiry last night suggested a cabinet aide tried to obstruct an investigation of Liberal Party contacts with the Chinese Consulate in Toronto. Zita Astravas, former chief of staff to Defence Minister Bill Blair, could not explain why she shelved a warrant application for weeks despite requests by the Department of Public Safety and Canadian Security Intelligence Service: "You saw it was deeply concerned with the operations of your Party." READ MORE