Parliament

Wednesday March 8, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 8, 2023

Consumers, experts weigh in on supermarket CEO showdown in Ottawa

February 2, 2023

The heads of Canada’s major grocery chains will be tasked with answering questions at the House of Commons this week about the rising cost of food.

While the people paying high prices are hoping for accountability, one industry expert in the Maritimes said that might not be what they get.

Loblaws president Galen Weston, along with the CEOs of Metro and Empire Company Limited — which owns Sobeys — are set to testify before the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-food Wednesday.

While Sylvain Charlebois of the Dalhousie University agri-foods lab was skeptical about this, he said grocery giants have to at least show their faces.

“I think it’s going to be political theatre,” Charlebois said. “Out of respect [to Canadians], I think CEOs needed to explain themselves.”

A seniors advocate in Sydney is among the shoppers looking for answers.

Bernie Larusic says at least 30 per cent of the older population he represents has been hit hard by high grocery prices.

Thursday December 6, 2018

“I don’t know if ‘ripped off’ is the right term, but I can tell you they can’t afford the way things are going,” he said.

On Monday, officials from the Dairy Processors Association of Canada, along with Food and Beverage Canada and Maple Leaf Foods, were expected to be grilled by members of Parliament.

“Certainly, the one thing that I would want to see the committee doing is to understand how to make the Canadian market more competitive to help consumers over the long run,” Charlebois said. “Right now… things are pretty cozy for grocers.”

Back at his home in Sydney, Larusic said seniors organizations in Nova Scotia will bring similar complaints to government.

“I think people should do the same thing,” he said. “They should call their MPs and MLAs indicating that things are tough here. What can you do to help us?” (CTV) 

From sketch to finish, see the current way Graeme completes an editorial cartoon using an iPencil, the Procreate app, and a couple of cheats on an iPad Pro …

 

Saturday February 3, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday February 3, 2023

Ottawa contracts comprise up to 10 per cent of McKinsey Canadian revenue

Global management consulting giant McKinsey and Company says its contracts with the federal government make up as much as 10 per cent of its gross revenue in Canada.

June 17, 2017

The Canadian revenue figures for McKinsey’s Canadian operations, contained in a U.S. court filing, show how integral federal government contracts are to the New York-based firm, which has offices in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.

McKinsey’s contracts with Ottawa are being investigated by the House of Commons committee on government operations and estimates, because of the company’s ties to the Liberal government and the many international controversies in which it has been involved.

The Globe and Mail has reported that the total value of federal contracts awarded to McKinsey since 2015 is at least $116.8-million, up from a previous estimate of $101.4-million provided by the government earlier this month.

The filing was made in May, as part of a court case in Puerto Rico. The document lists many of McKinsey’s significant clients in different countries.

January 15, 2013

The court documents also say that private-sector clients – such as Montreal-based Bombardier, Toronto Dominion Bank, Mastercard, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Canadian Tire, Shell PLC and State Street Corporation – each accounted for 1.01 per cent to 5 per cent of McKinsey Canada’s revenue during the same period.

The filing mentions individual United States government departments. For instance, the U.S. Department of Defence is listed as accounting for 20.01 per cent to 25 per cent of the gross revenue for McKinsey’s Washington branch during the period from March 1, 2021 through Feb. 28, 2022.

Alley Adams, head of external relations at McKinsey Canada, said contracts awarded to the firm represent a small share of the Canadian government’s outsourcing compared to other consulting firms. Deloitte, Ernst and Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers were paid a combined total of about $338-million in 2020-21 and $354-million in 2021-22, according to a Carleton University analysis.

Jennifer Carr, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service, told MPs the growth in outsourcing ends up costing taxpayers and is hurting morale among federal workers. (The Globe & Mail) 

 

Tuesday January 31, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday January 31, 2023

Parliament resumes

Members of Parliament are making their way back to Ottawa ahead of resuming sitting on Monday, as the city prepares to mark the one-year anniversary of the arrival of “Freedom Convoy” protesters.

September 23, 2022

Liberal and Conservative MPs gathered on Parliament Hill Friday for respective caucus meetings, plotting out their priorities for the 2023 sitting of the House of Commons, which kicks off on Jan. 30.

Among the top issues facing federal politicians this winter are the ongoing cost-of-living crunch and risk of a recession; the state of Canada’s health-care systems and the prospect of massive new funding deals with the provinces; as well as the government’s ability to deliver services amid the recent increased reliance on private consultants.

In widely differing but similarly-rousing speeches to their caucuses, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre previewed the lines of attack that are sure to be repeated in question period, both centred around an ongoing debate the two leaders are having over whether Canada is “broken.”

April 8, 2022

“Everything feels broken,” Poilievre said in a speech that questioned what is happening in this country, from the rates of drug overdoses to violent crime.”[Trudeau] gets very angry when I talk about these problems. He thinks that if we don’t speak about them out loud that Canadians will forget that they exist.” 

“You told us that better was always possible, and yet everything is worse, and you blame everyone else,” he said. 

Responding to the claims from his Official Opposition counterpart, Trudeau shot back that Poilievre has “chosen to amplify people’s real anger, and instead of offering them solutions, to offer them more anger.”

June 14, 2022

In his caucus address, Trudeau spoke about how the Liberal “positive vision” for the future “could not be more different than Mr. Poilievre’s version.”

The New Democrats gathered on Parliament Hill last week for their pre-House strategy session. In a statement on Friday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said that his caucus plans to leverage its supply-and-confidence deal with the minority Liberals to “to fight for relief from the crushing cost of living, and rebuilding and protecting public universal free health care.” (CTV) 

 

Friday January 6, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 6, 2023

Canada and the U.S. both have House Speakers. For one of them, the stakes are a lot higher

It’s being called the “battle for the gavel,” a historic fight in the U.S. over who will hold the title of Speaker, the presiding member of the House of Representatives.

Angry Washington – available at the boutique.

For nearly two full days, bitter partisanship within the Republican party, now the majority in the House, has turned what’s normally a swift affair into a protracted stalemate over who from their ranks ought to hold the job.

Multiple rounds of voting so far haven’t meaningfully moved the needle, and it is holding up the start of the next Congress for the first time in 100 years.

“The rest of the world is looking,” said U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday of the chaos.

“They’re looking at, you know, can we get our act together?”

By contrast, the drama that’s attached to what might be called the “race for the mace” in Canada — the election of a Speaker for the House of Commons — pales in comparison.

The job of Speaker hearkens back over 600 years to the formative Parliaments in Britain, and an agreed-upon need for someone to oversee and guide the work of the legislature.

That a Speaker is required for Congress as well as for the House of Commons and Senate is part of the constitutions of both countries.

Still, with the two countries having different systems of government, the jobs have developed differently over time and with contrasting political dynamics.

December 16, 2020

In the U.S, the evolution has given the House Speaker a number of powers which — depending on the makeup of Congress — can allow a Speaker to derail a president’s agenda, drive their own party’s legislative goals and reward or punish fellow elected representatives with plum committee posts.

That makes the person in the job — normally chosen from the majority party — exceptionally influential; among other things, should the president not be able to fulfil their duties, nor the vice-president, it is the House Speaker who is on deck.

Former House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer used a sports analogy to describe the difference between the post in Canada versus that in the U.S.

“In Canada, it’s far more of a referee, where in the U.S. it is more like a quarterback,” he said when reached by the Star on Tuesday.

What Speakers referee is the House of Commons itself, ensuring the rights and privileges of MPs are respected as is the decorum and work of Parliament — there’s rarely a day, for example, where the Speaker doesn’t intervene to ask MPs to mind their manners as they joust.

They do it from a largely neutral position as the job is understood by all parties to place the business of Parliament above that of partisanship. Speakers only cast a vote in the event of a tie, don’t participate in debates, stay away from partisan party caucus meetings and even have to watch their words when they campaign for seats during general elections. (The Toronto Star) 

rom sketch to finish, in 30 seconds, see the current way Graeme completes an editorial cartoon using an iPencil, the Procreate app, and a couple of cheats on an iPad Pro … These sped up clips are posted to encourage others to be creative, to take advantage of the technology many of us already have and to use it to produce satire. Comfort the afflicted. Afflict the comforted.

 

Friday September 23, 2022

September 23, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday September 23, 2022

First salvo between Pierre Poilievre, Justin Trudeau proves pair will be formidable opponents in Parliament

When Stephen Harper first appeared in the House of Commons as opposition leader in 2002, prime minister Jean Chrétien offered his congratulations, adding: “I want the new leader of the Opposition to have many, many years to learn how to do the job, on the job.”

December 7, 2012

Mr. Harper, in reply, said he was only four years old when Mr. Chrétien entered the House, and even then he remembered telling his mother: “Someone has to do something to stop that guy.”

On Thursday, Pierre Poilievre confronted Justin Trudeau for the first time as Leader of the Official Opposition. The Conservative Leader said “it is good to see the Prime Minister here, visiting Canada, to fill up the gas on his private jet.” (Mr. Trudeau was in Britain for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth and in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. On Saturday he flies to Japan to attend the funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.) Mr. Poilievre then launched into a sharp attack on Liberal increases in carbon and payroll taxes, even as inflation continues to soar.

Having offered perfunctory congratulations, Mr. Trudeau soon went after Mr. Poilievre. “If Canadians had followed the advice of the Leader of the Opposition and invested in volatile cryptocurrencies in an attempt to opt out of inflation, they would have lost half of their savings.”

We live in harsher times.

June 14, 2022

Mr. Poilievre displays a level of confidence, command and control in debate that both of his predecessors, Erin O’Toole and Andrew Scheer, noticeably lacked. He speaks largely without notes, keeps his questions focused, presses his points relentlessly.

But after seven years as PM, Mr. Trudeau is every bit his equal, parrying the Conservative Leader’s thrusts and confidently promoting the Liberal record. These two will be formidable opponents in the House

Mr. Poilievre has been targeting inflation – or Justinflation, as he likes to call it – almost since the pandemic began. We can debate the merits of the economic supports that governments put in place when the pandemic arrived – to my mind, they saved the day – and whether those supports should have been wound down sooner.

But what matters politically is that people are hurting, and Mr. Poilievre has been pounding the inflation issue for years. High inflation, rising interest rates, a possible recession – these are not afflictions that a government this long in the tooth can easily survive.

May 20, 2016

But Mr. Trudeau has cards of his own to play: the cryptocurrency nonsense, Mr. Poilievre’s support for the protesters who occupied Ottawa, his tendency to play footsie with conspiracy theories.

The Prime Minister clearly believes that Mr. Poilievre is not simply a political opponent, but a threat to peace, order and good Liberal government. He sees the Conservative Leader as a wrecker. He aims to stop him. Historical precedent suggests he will fail. (Continued: The Globe & Mail) 

From sketch to finish, see the current way Graeme completes an editorial cartoon using an iPencil, the Procreate app, and a couple of cheats on an iPad Pro …