Blacklock's Reporter

To read this delightful account of wartime eating is to comprehend for the first time our mothers’ odd fascination with liver.

Livestock organs have today vanished from most supermarkets including items that butchers once creatively marketed as “variety meats”: calves’ brains, tongue, tripe and kidneys. None blighted so many childhoods as liver: liver loaf, minced liver, liver sauté, and most appalling, fried liver and onions, a dense, grey, mealy dish that could only be choked down with ketchup.

“Eat liver frequently” was the decree of the 1944 Official Food Rules. An entire generation of homemakers took the admonishment to heart long after victory was ours.

Food Will Win The War is a fresh and lively account of the Canadian dinner plate. It peers into the corners of the historical cupboard to uncover the most intriguing details of the home front experience.

The latest pandemic relief bill will cost billions more than originally estimated, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland disclosed last night. The revelation came minutes after the Commons passed the bill and adjourned for Christmas: "We're tired of this."

Liberal MPs yesterday said any federal boycott of China-made pandemic masks might breach trade treaties. Opposition members on the Commons government operations committee tried and failed to pass a motion recommending federal agencies use only Canadian-made products: "Get rid of the Chinese masks, okay?"

An 1880 railway agreement yesterday dubbed a “sweetheart deal” will be reconsidered by Parliament. Prairie legislators appealed for help in countering a Canadian Pacific Railway claim for a perpetual tax holiday: "The railway did pretty well at the time."

Cabinet must introduce new gun controls, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said yesterday. Guns were “causing the loss of too many innocent lives,” he said: "We believe we have more steps to take around gun controls."

Individual Canadians and private companies “need to do their part” in surrendering confidential information to Statistics Canada, a federal advisory panel said yesterday. StatsCan said it would respect privacy rights: 'There is a lack of willingness by public, private and other sectors to work with Statistics Canada.'

MPs last night ordered hearings into the Prime Minister’s promises to a United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow six weeks ago. “Is there a plan?” asked a member of the Commons natural resources committee: "The Prime Minister is making promises."

CBC television advertising revenues fell another ten percent last year even as the network claimed housebound Canadians watched more TV than ever. Management had no explanation in an Annual Report tabled in Parliament: "You have to buy this dog over here that nobody wants."

Cabinet yesterday ruled out any assistance for Canadians who leave the country in breach of a pandemic travel advisory. “Like it or not, we must therefore adjust to this new reality,” Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told reporters: "We are afraid for what could happen."

Tens of thousands of migrant labourers were granted work permits to enter Canada at the height of the pandemic even as unemployment hit a postwar high, records show. The Department of Employment also reimbursed employers’ fees for workers unable to enter the country due to the Quarantine Act: 'We are requiring employers to provide credible evidence they tried to hire Canadians.'

An environmental group that sponsored partisan campaign advertising for the carbon tax breached the Canada Elections Act, regulators said yesterday. Canadians for Clean Prosperity of Toronto in 2019 sponsored website posts, Facebook ads and YouTube videos questioning opponents' integrity: "They contained messages that opposed the Conservative Party and the Bloc."

Favouritism for friends should be forbidden under a Conflict Of Interest Code For MPs, Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion said yesterday. The current Code prohibits influence on behalf of family members but not longtime pals: "That is something I am concerned about."

Cabinet yesterday asked that MPs clear the House of Commons due to fear of Omicron infection despite parliamentarians' full vaccination and mandatory masks. Omicron infections to date have resulted in mild symptoms or none at all, according to the Public Health Agency: "I wouldn’t go to any large gatherings."

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland yesterday proposed to cut the federal deficit by more than $180 billion next year. Actual results may vary, Freeland added: "The government remains committed to unwinding Covid-19 related deficits."

Cabinet organized a pre-election poll on whether the Supreme Court’s carbon tax ruling was popular with voters. The unusual research commissioned by the Privy Council Office came weeks before the Prime Minister dissolved Parliament: "Several participants felt the decision set a dangerous precedent."