Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre yesterday said he is “very eager” to return to Parliament. Caucus members expressed no support for selecting a new Conservative leader for the fifth time in 10 years: “If you told me we would get 41 percent of the vote and still not win, I would have said you’re crazy.”
First Nations utilities are so inadequate more than a third of Indigenous people on-reserve use bottled water to brush their teeth, says a report by Indigenous Services Minister Patricia Hajdu’s department. Cabinet had promised to eliminate all boiled water advisories by 2021: “One in five judge the water to be less safe to drink than it was five years ago.”
The Department of Canadian Heritage paid $50,000 for a schoolchildren’s video depicting settlement of the Prairies as an exercise in anti-Black bigotry. The point was “educating Canadians about disinformation,” said a project summary released through Access To information: “The Canadian government did not want them.”
A new federal program promising honesty in contracting will “promote ethical business practices,” says a Department of Public Works briefing note. The initiative followed the ArriveCan scandal that saw two federal managers suspended, a leading contractor raided by police and a $59.5 million charge for taxpayers: “The trail behind you is deleted.”
Auditors are faulting a $157 million military contractor for poor service. The contractor is a former subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management previously chaired by Prime Minister Mark Carney: “This had a negative impact on Canadian Armed Forces morale.”
The Canadian Tourism Commission yesterday said it is hiring U.S. publicists to encourage Americans to vacation here. The Commission made no mention of Justin Trudeau’s February 1 appeal for a cross-border travel boycott: “The United States is Canada’s largest source of international tourism.”
Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly privately praised the United States for taking “a hard stand on drugs” after President Donald Trump threatened 25 percent tariffs in the name of border security, records show. The comments were at odds with cabinet’s public statements and were scripted in notes for a Mar-a-Lago conference: “We are pleased the incoming U.S. administration also takes a hard stand on drugs.”
Canadians should welcome illegal immigrants from the United States in the name of humanity, Amnesty International said yesterday. The U.S. counts nearly 11 million illegal immigrants including hundreds of thousands in border states: “We are calling on Canada to be a leader.”
Judges have dismissed a defamation claim against CTV News over a 2022 exposé on the dog sled industry. One company sued after a W5 cameraman appeared on an owner’s doorstep for an episode called “Dogs In Distress.”
The heritage department paid a consultant six figures to track Twitter and Facebook posts by friends of Israel, Access To Information records show. The surveillance followed Hamas terrorists’ October 7, 2023 killing and kidnapping of Jews in Israel including eight Canadians: “Several influential accounts particularly on Twitter have taken a staunch pro-Israel position.”
Managers of an election fund that paid cash for news coverage will not disclose how much was given individual applicants or why. Known recipients include The Logic, a Toronto website whose publisher David Skok called subsidies “an insult to the audience” before soliciting more than $1.5 million in federal funding: “It will have a direct impact on the daily assigning and editing of a journalism product.”
Liberals have no interest in reviving a vote pact with New Democrats, says Prime Minister Mark Carney. MPs were expected to “do what we need to do as a country,” he told reporters: “We received the highest number of votes in Canadian history.”
Bloc Québécois MPs described as “strange” the Prime Minister’s enthusiasm for having King Charles open Parliament as a symbolic act of sovereignty. Two other British monarchs have attended the Canadian Parliament: “In the time of Elizabeth II one could understand; she was an old lady.”
An Alberta riding picked for a federal byelection has had one Liberal MP in 60 years. Three-term Conservative MP Damien Kurek (Battle River-Crowfoot, Alta.) resigned Friday and asked constituents to put Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre back in the Commons: “Hold the Liberal minority government to account.”
The family huddled under the Blanket,
Warm and safe,
Listening to the wind outside.
Waiting out the storm.
The father, loaded down,
With a season’s worth of furs,
Approached the white man’s post,
Counting on fair trade for his effort.
Three and half centuries,
Treaties and trade,
Heartache and promise,
Woven into the wool.
A town grew around the store,
Families grew around the store,
As a country emerged from the land.
And a people found their voice in the wilderness.
Maps drawn,
Track laid and roads cut,
The citizens working together,
Became a Nation.
Three and half centuries,
History and progress,
The fabric of the country,
Woven into the wool.
Once a Company of Adventurers,
Now sliding into memory,
The fortunes made.
Prosperity hard won.
Once a Country of Adventurers,
Now dwindled in spirit,
Huddle under a blanket,
Waiting to see if they weather the storm.
By W.N. Branson
