The Department of Industry is refusing MPs’ order for terms of billions in federal climate subsidies to manufacturers. Deputy Minister Simon Kennedy called it “highly sensitive confidential information to be safeguarded.”
A federal investigation into lewd workplace harassment prompted the abrupt resignation of a Parole Board of Canada appointee, the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner disclosed yesterday. The appointee was identified by name: “He repeatedly behaved inappropriately towards female employees.”
The Privy Council ordered focus group research on a new logo to boost enthusiasm for Canada Day, documents show. The in-house study followed a 2020 report that found Canadians typically were not flag wavers but shared a quiet pride in their nation as strong and free: “This is where they were born, this is their country.”
There is no chance Housing Minister Sean Fraser will reach his target of 3.9 million new housing starts by 2031, builders yesterday told the Commons human resources committee. Even a costly tax holiday for apartment builders will not avert further slowdowns in construction, MPs were told: “We are staring into a pit.”
Immigration Minister Marc Miller yesterday said he wants no votes from friends of Israel who equate criticism with anti-Semitism. “I don’t want their vote,” Miller told the Commons immigration committee: “Those people who have that type of thinking, I don’t want their vote.”
In-house Privy Council research found British Columbians universally opposed a short-lived cabinet experiment with decriminalization of cocaine and opioids. All residents surveyed including recovered drug addicts called the entire “safe supply” policy a failure: “All believed this was a step in the wrong direction.”
Old Age Security cheques for Canadian pensioners living abroad cost taxpayers more than $686 million last year, records show. Payments were up $66 million or 11 percent from 2022: “These recipients may or may not have non-resident status for tax purposes.”
Federal agencies spent more than a quarter million a month on unused government-issue cellphones assigned to employees working from home, says an internal audit. The investigation by Shared Services Canada, the federal IT department, said the number of dormant telephone accounts jumped 65 percent under pandemic work-from-home orders: “The number of mobile devices that had not been used for three or more months increased by 65 percent.”
Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board has a backlog of 180,000 illegal immigrants and asylum seekers asking to remain in Canada, officials disclosed at a Senate committee hearing. “Good God,” said one senator.
Cabinet ministers have been “drinking wine and schnapps” with Jewish diplomats in Ottawa instead of condemning Israeli war crimes, New Democrat MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.) told the Commons. Angus did not explain the reference to German liquor: “Mom called me last night.”
Cabinet’s pharmacare bill is “like a burlap sack,” the “lowest common denominator with holes in it,” says the 250,000-member Canadian Association of Retired Persons. Testifying at the Commons health committee, an Association director said retirees fear losing superior private prescription drug coverage: “What is being proposed now is more like a burlap sack.”
The Commons today is expected to pass a ban on federally regulated employers’ use of replacement workers in case of strike or lockout. The bill would then proceed to the Senate: “It sends a powerful message.”
Cabinet’s lowering of usury rates from 48 to 35 percent annually is insufficient, says a Liberal-appointed senator. Payday lenders charging ten times the criminal interest rate remain exempt: “Do you find 35 percent not to be an exorbitant amount?”
There’s a restaurant in Warsaw
where the ghetto used to be.
450,000 Jews.
Most died in Treblinka’s gas chambers.
Some of hunger.
Some of typhus.
Some shot in the street.
But
the espresso is superb,
waitresses flattered by their
short skirts,
and the cherry Pierogi
are a must.
By Shai Ben-Shalom
Forty summers ago John Turner lost an election no Liberal leader could have won. Years later he told a friend, “I need your help rehabilitating my reputation.” To his death in 2020 Turner was a caricature who spent a pointless few weeks as prime minister.
“He felt enormous pressure to make something of himself, to be of service to his fellow man in some regard, and at the same time he doubted his ability to do it,” writes biographer Steve Paikin. “It was a contradiction that went to the core of his being. He enjoyed success and privilege, yet he was wracked with insecurity and a certain fragility.”
Paikin’s biography is poignant and funny, affectionate and candid. Hear Turner speaking to his wife in the 1970 October Crisis: “If I ever get kidnapped don’t let anyone pay the ransom.” See Turner giving an inspirational talk to ladies in the office: “You’re a f—king all star!” This is gold.
Paikin is a longtime journalist and tireless researcher. His subject emerges as human and needy. Turner “radiated a confident exterior” yet “frequently battled insecurity,” he writes. Running for the Liberal leadership in 1984 Turner whispered to his sister on the campaign bus: “Do you think I can do this?”
Electors like a scrappy underdog. Turner hit all the wrong marks. His stepfather was lieutenant-governor of British Columbia. Turner was a Rhodes Scholar who attended private school. His favourite lunch was sirloin steak. His favourite drink was Johnny Walker with Perrier. It was all cigars and tennis clubs.
“You are shallow,” one aide cautioned Turner. “You are glib,” said another. Paikin quotes a source: “You need a lot of steel to be prime minister. Did he have it? I’m not sure.”
Turner was the kind of man who wore a jacket and tie to have supper with his children. “If he asked his kids whether they had all washed their hands before dinner and he suspected someone was fibbing, he was all over that,” writes Paikin. “‘Which washroom did you go to?’ he’d ask, before marching down the hall to check to see whether the soap or sink were still dry.”
How could Turner know his moment of glory would appear the one and only time he played the role of scrappy underdog? Paikin suspects he might have appreciated the irony. “God’s will,” he quotes Turner. “That’s what happens in life. Sometimes you’re lucky and you win, sometimes you’re unlucky and you lose.”
His glory was as the articulate opponent of free trade who fought the tide of globalism in the 1980s. Turner did not stand alone – 57 percent of voters opposed free trade in a 1988 general election – but he gave eloquence and dignity to Canadians’ unease. “We built a country east and west and north,” he said. “We built it on an infrastructure that deliberately resisted the continental pressure of the United States. For 120 years we’ve done that.”
The postscript: Canada lost 495,000 manufacturing jobs. The Department of Employment in a 2013 memo warned “the Canadian dream is a myth” for “a middle class that isn’t growing.” And Turner became a caricature. John Turner is an engaging tribute.
By Tom Korski
John Turner, by Steve Paikin; Sutherland House; 300 pages; ISBN 9781-9895-55835; $36.95
