Security expenses for the FIFA Men’s World Cup cost taxpayers a quarter billion, records show. “We made history,” Liberal MP Adam van Koeverden (Burlington North-Milton West, Ont.), Secretary of State for Sport, earlier told reporters.
Foreign Minister Anita Anand’s department billed taxpayers millions to give away free motorbikes in Ghana but failed to provide funding for parts or fuel. There were “several areas of relative weakness” in the $135 million program, said a consultants’ report released yesterday through Access To Information: ‘Funding was unavailable to fuel our motorbikes.’
Canadians are eating less meat and skipping meals altogether due to rising food prices, says in-house research by the Department of Agriculture. Data follow figures showing the typical household is no longer able to meet the Canada Food Guide: “During the last six months, have you skipped meals?”
Immigration Minister Lena Diab’s department in an internal report questioned the point of a program that allowed thousands of jobless foreign actors, comedians and artists to enter Canada in the name of cultural enrichment. “The program’s purpose is ambiguous,” said the report: “Its intent remains unclear.”
Parliament must maintain secret subsidies for the Toronto Star to “promote ethical governance,” its publisher has written MPs. Payroll rebates worth $29,750 per newsroom employee are set to roll back to pre-Covid rates of $13,750 this winter: “Priority should be given to maintaining the journalism labour tax credit at current rates.”
Parliament would fund a permanent, keyword searchable database of every historic building nationwide under a Commons petition tabled yesterday by Liberal MP Yasir Naqvi (Ottawa Centre). Parks Canada has threatened to delete its online record of 13,554 properties dating from 2004: ‘Historic places deserve to be preserved.’
The Department of National Defence polled Canadians on whether they were afraid of U.S. President Donald Trump. The in-house research followed repeated statements by cabinet that Trump sought to “break us so America can own us.”
Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson will not say how much taxpayers stand to lose under toll concessions at the Gordie Howe International Bridge. A symbolic opening of the Bridge Friday in Windsor, Ont. was disrupted by a fresh demand for more tolls by U.S. President Donald Trump: “Can you outline how much money Canada expects to give the United States?”
The RCMP says investigators have been reassigned to target foreign interference activities in Ontario. No surveillance subjects were named though public inquiries have documented wrongdoing by agents working out of the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa and Consulate in Toronto: “The RCMP has established dedicated capacity in Ontario.”
A cabinet decision to dispense with public hearings on sweeping cuts to mail delivery breaches a Postal Service Charter, says the post office’s largest union. Cabinet confirmed its decision in a Commons tabling: ‘It is essential that Canadians’ voices are heard.’
A federal judge has ordered the Canadian Human Rights Commission to reopen an investigation on whether denial of a mortgage to a marijuana user is discriminatory. The latest ruling follows years of legal challenges over cannabis and property rights: ‘At the heart of the complaint was why Scotiabank called a loan.’
In Washington D.C.
the Redskins football team
is asked to change its name.
Strong arguments are called up.
The term is offensive,
hurtful,
completely inappropriate;
does not inspire tolerance,
respectfulness.
I hardly disagree.
And yet,
considering the Ottawa Senators…
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israel-born biologist, writes for Blacklock’s each and every Sunday)
A friend of mine, a federal contractor, recalls visiting his MP for help on a local issue. The MP grew increasingly irritable and finally threw up his hands, exclaiming: “What’s in this for me?” The meeting ended badly.
This collision of two worlds – the aggrieved petitioner and harassed legislator – is the core of The Effective Citizen. Author Graham Steele, a former Nova Scotia finance minister, acknowledges both petitioner and legislator have legitimate points, albeit on different frequencies, and explains how to tune dialogue to problem-solving.
“The best meetings were the ones where my visitors understood the environment I was working in, and helped me understand the environment they were working in, and together we had a constructive discussion about what was possible or not possible, and why,” writes Steele. “Those meetings were too rare.”
Steele has an unaffected writing style that’s enjoyable for readers, and an unvarnished view of the politician’s world. Many Canadians at some point interact with officialdom over a school closure or traffic light, arena grant, a disallowed pension or hire-a-student subsidy. “A hammer won’t help you if you need a screwdriver,” writes Steele. The Effective Citizen lays out all the tools.
“I’m not giving you secrets for working with politicians,” says Steele. “I’m giving you tools that will put you on a level playing field with politicians.” Among Steele’s practical guidance:
“Take half a loaf, and go back for the rest one slice at a time,” says Effective Citizen; “If the politician has previously taken a stance against you, all is not lost. Times change. Minds change. When a politician says no to you, understand it as meaning, ‘Not yet.’”
The Effective Citizen provides candid insight into the world of caucuses and backbenchers, useful even to readers who could not imagine petitioning their MP for anything, but remain intrigued by the many shortcomings of political discourse.
Why don’t we have a national poverty reduction strategy? Steele thought of that. “Passion is not a substitute for public support,” he writes.
“For example, anti-poverty activists believe that poverty is a vote-moving issue,” says Steele. “I am very sympathetic to them, but they’re wrong. The fight against poverty does not sway many votes in a Canadian election. One of my former colleagues criticized me for having said so in a caucus meeting. Our former party went on to make poverty a central part of their platform in the Nova Scotia provincial election in 2017. They had their worst result in almost twenty-five years.”
By Holly Doan
The Effective Citizen: How to Make Politicians Work for You, by Graham Steele; Nimbus Publishing; 280 pages; ISBN 9781-7710-85311; $29.95
Prime Minister Mark Carney faces a parliamentary hearing regarding his misrepresentations over toll-sharing concessions on the Gordie Howe International Bridge. The chair of the Commons government operations committee yesterday summoned MPs to a special hearing to “get to the bottom of the matter.”
The nation’s largest labour federation yesterday shamed Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem for unlawful practices. Macklem was censured for hiring replacement workers in a five-week dispute with striking security guards: “It is especially troubling that this conduct is coming from the Bank of Canada.”
