Harper Government

Wednesday August 27, 2014

Wednesday August 27, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday August 27, 2014

Canada’s premiers running out of excuses for inaction: Hébert

Every summer the country’s premiers converge on some picturesque spot in Canada for their annual gathering.

Last year it was Niagara-on-the-Lake. This year it’s Prince Edward Island. The backdrop changes as do some of the characters but the script, for the most part, remains the same.

Year in and year out the premiers usually find one or more apples of discord with the federal government of the day to chew on.

Some years they are unanimously aggrieved over some action of their federal partner. Last summer it was Ottawa’s labour training scheme.

On other occasions it is perceived federal inaction — as in the case this year of infrastructure spending — that is in their sights.

Over the past decade Stephen Harper’s lack of interest for convening first ministers’ conferences has been a recurring theme.

This is not to say that some of the concerns raised by the premiers are not real.

Their grievances over the initial federal labour training reform were serious enough. The proposition stood to cause more systemic problems than it would have solved. And a united provincial front did go some way to bring the federal government to the table.

But it also seems that when the premiers spend time in the same room they conveniently forget that they are not, as a group, devoid of the power to do more than tear up their shirts in front of the cameras.

(Brian Simpson/Government of Prince Edward Island)

(Brian Simpson/Government of Prince Edward Island)

When repeatedly faced with what they collectively see as a federal leadership vacuum it apparently does not cross their minds to fill it with more than empty words. By all indications, thinking outside the federal-provincial box does not come easily to this generation of premiers.

It is not that they are not equal partners with the federal government in the federation but that they don’t often act like they are.

(Source: Toronto Star)

Fathers of Confederation

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Thursday, March 6, 2014Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday, March 6, 2014

Dead Hamilton soldier’s mom sent one-cent cheque

A Hamilton mother whose son killed himself after serving in Afghanistan was devastated when she received a federal government cheque cut for him in the amount of one cent.

“It just tore her heart out,” said Keven Ellis, speaking on behalf of Wayne and Denise Stark, whose son Justin died Oct. 29, 2011 at the John W. Foote VC Armoury on James Street North. “It was just horrible.”

Tuesday, February 4, 2014But rather than wallow in pain after receiving the cheque last Friday, the couple set out to make sure it does not happen to other families.

Hamilton East-Stoney Creek New Democrat MP Wayne Marston — who called it “inexcusable” — raised the issue in the House of Commons Tuesday and Defence Minister Rob Nicholson agreed, calling it “absolutely ridiculous.”

The minister pledged to take “immediate steps” to ensure “this never happens again,” and he also offered the Stark family an apology.

“I extend the apologies of everyone in the government to his mother and we thank this individual for the service that he gave his country,” Nicholson told MPs.

Justin Stark was a corporal in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders when he killed himself in his barracks on a Saturday evening. He was 22.

He served in Afghanistan for seven months, starting in May 2010, after being associated with the military since 2006. His duties included patrols around Kandahar, where Canadians had their main base.

His death was the subject of several tribunals to determine whether it was related to his tour of duty, but Marston understood it was finally ruled not work related. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Tuesday, February 4, 2014Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Julian Fantino insults veterans so he blames union: Tim Harper

When my cell phone rang last week, the voice on the line was agitated and somewhat incoherent.

It took a couple of minutes, but it became clear that Daniel was a military veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, feeling frustrated and abandoned by a political and court system he has battled over the years.

He figuratively pointed his finger at me and the rest of the media for not helping our veterans.

A veteran’s war story

“Please exercise patience and tolerance with me,’’ he subsequently wrote in an email.

I didn’t snap back at him. I didn’t hang up the phone and I didn’t accuse him of being a pawn of a big union.

That’s the Julian Fantino playbook and Stephen Harper is again watching what happens when the messenger, not the message, becomes the story in the protracted slanging match between the veterans affairs minister and those who served our country.

Ottawa hasn’t seen a communications fiasco of this magnitude since then public safety minister Vic Toews accused his Liberal opponent of standing with the child pornographers by questioning his stillborn electronic surveillance bill.

Fantino appeared bereft of empathy and respect when he belatedly encountered the veterans who were in Ottawa last week to protest the closing of eight Veterans Affairs offices on Friday.

They did close Friday, as some demonstrators shed tears and others vented their anger at their government. (Continued: Toronto Star)

SOCIAL MEDIA

This cartoon appeared on a number of blogs and news sites. Among them, the Royal Canadian Legion and Yahoo Canada News.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Wednesday, October 23, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Mike Duffy’s lawyer says $90K cheque was a deal with PMO

Senator Mike Duffy’s living expenses were “cleared from Day 1” by then Senate government leader Marjory LeBreton’s office, and when they later became controversial, Duffy was pressured to take a deal from the Prime Minister’s Office, his lawyer told a news conference Monday.

Lawyer Donald Bayne on Monday read from emails between Duffy and LeBreton’s office as well as Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff Nigel Wright and others to support his claim that Duffy did not knowingly break Senate rules.

Bayne said that when the growing scandal became politically explosive Duffy was “in effect” told by the PMO not to co-operate with auditors, Bayne said.

Bayne said the PMO told Duffy “the Tory base” was offended by his residency claims and he would have to repay money for all four years of secondary housing claims for his Ottawa home. Duffy’s objections to repaying money he did not believe he owed, said Bayne, were greeted by “threats and pressure from the PMO.”

One of those threats, said Bayne, was that senators David Tkachuk and Carolyn Stewart Olsen, who held the majority on a Senate subcommittee, would declare Duffy’s Senate appointment constitutionally invalid if he refused to co-operate with accepting a payment from Nigel Wright.

“The PMO decided they wanted to sweep a political embarrassment to their Tory base under the rug, and they threatened Senator Duffy with wholly unconstitutional and illegal procedures of throwing him out of the Senate without a hearing if he failed to go along with it,” Bayne said.

The PMO, Bayne said, came up with a “scenario” and communication lines for Duffy to use with the media about how to explain why he was paying back the expense money. “It was a political tactic forced on him by the PMO,” Bayne said. (Source: CBC News)