Blacklock's Reporter

John Diefenbaker was a folk hero whose very commonness was heroic. Historian Bob Plamondon captures this beautifully. Diefenbaker first held public office as a town councillor in Wakaw, Sask. His favourite pastime was fishing. Making small talk with Pope John XXIII, Diefenbaker asked: “How does it feel to be Pope anyhow?”

“He held the highest office in the land yet he instinctively mistrusted authority, the rich, the powerful, and even some members of his cabinet,” writes Plamondon. As Prime Minister he insisted on sending rent cheques to the treasury, $5,000 a year, for the privilege of living at 24 Sussex Drive.

Diefenbaker was a man of the Prairies, the most egalitarian society on Earth. There was no aristocracy in Wakaw or Oyen or Crystal City.  He ranked 7th of 39 candidates for the 1919 Saskatchewan bar exam. “He had no blue chip clients in his roster,” notes Plamondon.

Liberals if re-elected will make a third attempt at regulating the internet, Prime Minister Mark Carney suggested last evening. Carney made the remark after being heckled at a rally in Hamilton, Ont.: 'Pollution that’s online washes over our virtual borders from the United States.'

New York Consul Tom Clark billed taxpayers thousands for a winter junket to Marilyn Monroe’s favourite Beverly Hills hotel, Access To Information records show. The Department of Foreign Affairs approved the California holiday despite cabinet’s pledge to cut spending on unnecessary travel: "The exercise is extremely important."

Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday said Canadians “can’t believe everything you read” about his contacts with friends of China. Carney denied meeting members of a pro-People’s Republic business group despite photographic evidence: "I certainly never had a set-up meeting."

Parliament must regulate municipal fees blamed for slowing construction of new homes, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday. Any future Conservative cabinet would take up to $50,000 off purchase prices by rolling back development charges, he said: "For the first time in our history an entire generation of young people can’t imagine buying their own house."

People’s Party leader Maxime Bernier yesterday proposed a first-ever national moratorium on immigration until Parliament solves the housing crisis. “The Canadian government should work for us Canadians, not foreigners,” he told reporters: "We were called racists."

The Department of Employment says it tripled spending on consultants in a single year to $311 million because “no employee was available,” according to an internal report. The department has more than 34,000 employees: "What is the rationale?"

Canadians face more than a quarter billion a year in higher costs for heating and cooling after Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson’s department yesterday adopted California efficiency standards for essential home appliances. Costs will be “passed on to consumers.”

Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre yesterday questioned why a public registry of foreign agents approved by Parliament 10 months ago is still not in operation. The Department of Public Safety did not comment: "Find out who is a bad actor."

Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday promised a one-stop permit system for energy projects called the Major Federal Project Office. It followed Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre’s proposal Monday for a one-stop permit system called the Rapid Resource Project Office. Carney said his Project Office was better: "I do things."

A yearly surtax on the wealthiest Canadians would raise tens of billions but have an unpredictable “behavioural response,” the Budget Office said yesterday. New Democrat and Green MPs have advocated a wealth tax on multi-millionaires and billionaires: "It is easy and wonderful to say to people we are going to tax the wealthiest and we are going to do this, do that."

The Government of Canada is such a poor landlord it rates worse than New Zealand, population five million, in managing federal buildings for taxpayer savings, says a Treasury Board report. Managers spend some $10 billion a year without proper oversight, it said: "Property assets continue to deteriorate at an accelerating pace."

Conservatives would require the Canada Revenue Agency to publicly identify corporations that pay little or no federal tax, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said yesterday. Auditors would also be instructed to stop “harassing small businesses and charities,” a longstanding complaint documented through in-house Agency research: "You can't avoid your taxes; global elites shouldn't be able to either."

Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday proposed to reintroduce a tax shelter for property speculators that was abandoned 44 years ago as costly and inefficient. Carney gave no reason for resurrecting the Multi-Unit Residential Building Tax Incentive that cost taxpayers the equivalent of $11,000 for every apartment built: 'The main beneficiaries were developers, promoters and investors.'

Parliament’s temporary curb on foreign purchase of residential real estate should be made permanent with loopholes closed, New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh said yesterday. The  measure due to expire January 1, 2027 was no substitute for a “permanent ban on foreign homebuyers,” said Singh.