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Transcription

twenty-Seventh YEAR, online edition
news phoenix pay system
MPs report
no personal
paycheque
problems, under
Phoenix since April
By Rachel Aiello
No MPs have reported paycheque problems under the new problem-plagued Phoenix system which has left more than 80,000
federal public servants with pay issues six
months after it was rolled out.
Some MPs were even unaware their
paycheques are now administered through
the Phoenix pay system, while at least two
MPs—Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen (Kingston and the Islands, Ont.), and NDP MP
Erin Weir (Regina-Lewvan, Sask.)—knew
because staffers in their offices have been
having paycheque issues.
In an interview, Mr. Gerretsen said a
new hire in his Parliament Hill office who
started working on April 18 after finishing
school, just received her first paycheque on
July 27, three months later.
Canada’s Politics and Government Newspaper
news Political conventions
Canadian political
parties should add
more star power to
national political party
conventions: politicos
‘That is absolutely invaluable as a political asset for
the parties and the campaigns. It gives a sense of
continuity, a sense of institution,’ says Robin Sears.
Continued on page 3
news electoral reform
Changing
electoral system
will shift internal,
external party
politics: Carty
By Laura Ryckewaert and Rachel Aiello
Electoral reform will have deeper
ramifications than just changing the way
Canadians elect Members of Parliament
and it will drastically shake up party
politics both within caucuses and between
parties, said several witnesses, testifying
during marathon of meetings last week in
front of the Special House Committee on
Electoral Reform.
MPs from all parties heard from 18 witnesses in as many hours last week, as the
committee continues its sweeping study on
possible alternatives to the current federal
first-past-the-post electoral system, along
with considering electronic and mandatory voting. It has been mandated to report
back to Parliament and to Minister of
Democratic Institutions Maryam Monsef
(Peterborough-Kawartha, Ont.) no later
than Dec. 1, 2016, with its suggestions on
the best way forward.
The House Electoral Reform Committee
is comprised of five Liberal MPs, including
committee chair and Liberal MP Francis
Scarpaleggia (Lac-Saint-Louis, Que.),
Continued on page 4
Monday, august 1, 2016 $5.00
news Conservatives
Conservative
Party to undergo
test of party unity
in leadership
contest, say some
Conservatives
By Abbas Rana
The Conservative Party’s unity will be
tested by the current leadership race, say
some Conservatives.
It’s the party’s second leadership convention since it was formed in 2003 when the
Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party merged and some Conservatives
say it’s unclear if the party can withstand the
stress.
“I would really hope it doesn’t end up
causing a schism in the party because what
you really want is to keep the party, whoever
is involved, you really want the party to be
together so that it can regain power in 2019
with an ideological base that Canadians can
see themselves in,” said Bruce Carson, former senior adviser to former prime minister
Stephen Harper (Calgary Heritage, Alta.).
The party elected Mr. Harper as its
first party leader in 2004 after the now
defunct Canadian Alliance and Progressive
Conservative parties merged to form the
new Conservative Party of Canada in late
Continued on page 13
Making history: U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, pictured July 28, after
officially accepting the party’s presidential nomination. Photograph courtesy of Hillary Clinton 2016
Facebook
By Abbas Rana
Canadian federal political parties should
follow the American-style conventions by
inviting high-profile political personalities,
thinkers, movie stars, singers, and sports
personalities to engage more people in the
political process, say political watchers.
feature terrific 25 staffers list
This just in: PMO’s Butts tops in
The Hill Times’ 15th Annual
Terrific 25 Staffers list in 2016
By Laura Ryckewaert
P
ARLIAMENT HILL—When it comes to
Hill staffers, PMO principal secretary
Gerald Butts is the tops.
Mr. Butts, who is one of the two
most powerful political staffers in the
PMO along with chief of staff Katie
Telford, led this year’s annual Terrific 25
Staffers list. As well as topping the Terrific
25 Staff list overall, Mr. Butts came first in
the Best Access to PMO category, first for
Most Influence, and ranked second for Best
at Spin Control.
Gerald Butts, left, pictured with CTV’s Craig
Oliver, Nov. 5, 2015. The Hill Times photograph by
Jake Wright
Continued on page 6
news Legislation
Liberal MP’s
private member’s
bill will test
backbenchers’
willingness to
exercise free votes
By Rachel Aiello
Government backbenchers’ ability to exercise their independence by voting against
the party line could soon face its first real
test this fall when the House returns.
The government has come out strongly
against Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos’ (London
North Centre, Ont.) private member’s bill,
which seeks to create a Criminal Code offence
for inflicting torture against private citizens—
calling it“symbolic”and“not necessary.”
A torture offence exists in the Criminal
Code under Sec. 269.1 but it only applies
to acts perpetrated by state officials. Acts
of torture committed by private individuals are considered to constitute aggravated
assault under Sec. 268.
Continued on page 5
2
The Hill Times, Monday, august 1, 2016
feature buzz
Heard
on
the
Gov.-Gen.
David
Johnston.
Hill
The Hill
Times
photograph
by Jake
Wright
B y H i l l T i m e s S ta f f
Thibedeau gets
hitched in surprise
backyard wedding
Here
comes
the bride:
Hannah
Thibedeau
and Trevor
Alkins got
married
recently at
a surprise
wedding
ceremony
in their
backyard
in Ottawa.
Photograph
courtesy
of Marc
Robichaud
C
BC Hill reporter Hannah Thibedeau was recently married to Trevor
Alkins in their backyard in Ottawa surrounded by family and close friends. It was
also a surprise for many of the guests.
“We didn’t tell our parents until that
morning. They were completely shocked,”
Ms. Thibedeau told HOH. “After the ceremony, we invited colleagues and other
friends to a ‘house warming party.’To their
surprise, I was wearing a very fancy ‘house
warming dress.’ It was a blast.”
About 35 people were at the ceremony
and there were about 80 guests for the party.
The Hill guests included: CBC Power &
Politics producer Kathleen Harris, Compass
Rose lobbyist Jacquie LaRorocque, who
both helped organize the shindig; the NAC’s
Rosemary Thompson; CBC senior reporter
Julie Van Dusen; CBC cameraman Marc
Robichaud, who was also the photographer;
designer Justina McCaffrey, who made the
wedding dress; CBC Ottawa bureau chief
Rob Russo; CBC senior online writer Susana
Mas; Power & Politics host Rosemary Barton, and Power & Politics staffers Nicole Arams, Christina Lopes, Tyler Buist, and Nancy
Attfield; reporters Margo McDiarmid, Susan
Lunn, David Cochrane, Katie Simpson, and
Murray Brewster; and producers Sharon
Musgrave, Alison Brachman, Jenn Barr, and
Jen Choi, and Heather Spiller.
Foisy leaving Hill for
Québec City reporting
post
Cogeco Nouvelles Hill journalist
Philippe-Vincent Foisy, 27, who is also
vice-president of the Parliamentary Press
Gallery Executive, is leaving the Hill for
Québec City to report on the Quebec National Assembly. Mr. Foisy leaves in a few
weeks and starts his new job on Sept. 6.
Mr. Foisy will take over for Louis Lacroix
in Québec City at FM93 Québec, which is
also owned by Cogeco Média: “I can’t wait,”
said Mr. Foisy in French on Facebook.
The affable Montreal native, who has
worked in the Hot Room for the last years,
said he will miss all the friends he’s made
on the Hill, including all the clerks in the
press gallery. What else will he miss? “My
colleagues who became friends over the
years; they are truly inspiring. The gallery
employees who saved me more times than
I can count, and yelling, ‘En français!’ at a
minister [in a scrum],” Mr. Foisy said.
PhilippeVincent
Foisy.
Photograph
courtesy of
Twitter
But said he’s also looking forward to
covering Quebec politics. “It’s way bigger,
it’s a promotion,” Mr. Foisy said. “For an
outlet like Cogeco, the National Assembly
is more interesting because the issues are
closer to the people.”
A daily reporter, Mr. Foisy said one of
his best stories was when he asked Liberal
Leader Justin Trudeau in a scrum before
the election whether or not he would welcome anti-abortion candidates in the party,
which became a big national story because
Mr. Trudeau said he would not. “It showed
that sometimes asking simple questions
can have an impact,” he said.
And last winter, he also looked over the
Hansards in Question Period and found
most of the French questions were answered in English which also became a big
story. “I think it made a difference.”
Cogeco is one of the largest broadcasters in Quebec. It operates 13 radio stations
and Cogeco News is one of the largest news
agencies in Quebec. Mr. Foisy helped MC
this year’s Parliamentary Press Gallery Dinner along with CBC reporter Katie Simpson.
Young’s book on
Trudeau out in English
Huguette
Young’s
book,
Justin
Trudeau:
The
Natural
Heir, was
recently
on The
Globe and
Mail’s
and The
Toronto
Star’s
bestseller
lists.
Veteran Hill journalist Huguette Young’s
book Justin Trudeau: The Natural Heir, is out
in English. Published by Dundurn, the unauthorized biography looks at Mr. Trudeau’s inner circle and at the path his leadership might
take, based on numerous interviews with his
entourage. The 231-page book, which was on
The Globe and Mail’s and The Toronto Star’s
bestseller lists, was translated by George
Tombs.“Meant for supporters and skeptics
alike,Young’s is a revealing account of one
of Canada’s most compelling and enigmatic
figures,” reads the book’s blurb. The book
was released earlier in French. Ms.Young, a
longtime Parliament Hill journalist, is a freelancer who has worked for Quebecor Media,
La Presse canadienne, The Huffington Post,
Time, and Americas Quarterly. She’s covered
the Brian Mulroney and Jean Chrétien years,
and the rise and fall of Stephen Harper. An
Acadian from New Brunswick, Ms.Young
lives in Ottawa.
GG Johnston headed to
Rio for 2016 Olympic
Games
Gov. Gen. David Johnston, the patron of
the Canadian Olympic Committee, will travel
to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from Aug. 3 to Aug.
8 as Canada’s official representative at the
Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau announced last week. It will
be the first Olympic Games to be held in
South America. Canada will be sending 315
athletes and has qualified in five team sports.
The Rio 2016 Olympic Games will take place
from Aug. 5-Aug. 21 and will include 10,500
athletes from 205 countries.
Summa Strategies
throws a Poké-Mingle
shindig
If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, so
Summa Strategies jumped in on the
Pokémon craze and held a Poké-Mingle
Party last Tuesday in Ottawa at lunch in
the Sparks Street office. Friends of Summa
were invited for light refreshments, snacks,
and Pokémon. All attendees were added to
Summa Strategies’ Pokédex.
No News Is Bad News
coming to a bookstore
near you
Ian Gill’s
new book,
No News Is
Bad News:
Canada’s
Media
Collapse And
What Comes
Next, will be
coming out
soon.
As if the Canadian media need anymore
bad news, but here it comes. No News Is Bad
News: Canada’s Media Collapse and What
Comes Next, by former Vancouver Sun editor and reporter Ian Gill and published by
Greystone Books, will soon be out. The book
takes a look at the global media and how
it’s rapidly transforming, but finds Canada’s
media “asleep at the switch—still beholden
to large, dull, and increasingly unprofitable
‘legacy’ media, including a public broadcaster that is struggling to redefine itself, and
new media start-ups that are long on cause
and short on capital. Corporate concentration, and clumsy adaptations to the digital
age, are leaving Canadians with a gaping
hole in our public square. Our democracy is
the worse for it.”
Mr. Gill takes an “urgent, necessary look
at why Canada’s media is dying—and how
we can save it.” Mr. Gill is the author of
three other books, including most recently
All That We Say is Ours: Guujaaw and the
Reawakening of the Haida Nation. Webster joins Counsel
Public Affairs
Sean Webster recently joined Counsel
Public Affairs as a principal. The hire is
part of the company’s effort to expand its
federal government relations and public
affairs, Counsel president Philip Dewan
announced in a statement.
Mr. Webster has worked in federal, provincial and municipal advocacy, including
in senior national in-house roles at Shoppers Drug Mart, Solvay, and Enbridge.
Counsel specializes in integrated government relations, public relations, communications and strategy services.
The Hill Times 3
news phoenix pay system
Liberal MPs Raj Grewal and Mark Gerretsen at the House Government Operations and Estimates special committee
meeting on the Phoenix pay system problems, Thursday, July 28. The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright
MPs report no personal
paycheque problems
under Phoenix
At least two MPs
say their staff have
been impacted,
meanwhile other
MPs unaware they
too, since April, are
getting cheques
sent through the
government’s
beleaguered new
payroll system.
Continued from page 1
In his office, he said she’s
been dealing with hundreds of
complaints from constituents who
have Phoenix paycheque problems while she’s in the same boat.
“I feel for the situation that
she’s in,” he said. “It makes it real.”
For Mr. Weir, he said a few
staffers in his constituency office
were not paid on time and that
it took much longer than it should
have. He said he ended up giving
one of his staffers a personal loan
in the interim.
Mr. Weir said he hasn’t heard
of any MPs not getting paid, “It’s
mostly our employees who have,
unfortunately, bore the brunt of
the Phoenix debacle. … Everyone
needs to get paid on time, so it’s
unacceptable that 80,000 federal
employees have not been paid
properly and it’s equally as unacceptable for staff at the House of
Commons.”
The government is now projecting that it will take until the
end of October to resolve issues
for the majority of public servants
but Public Services and Procurement Canada, the department responsible for the Phoenix system,
said the “pay centre staff do not
provide preferential treatment,”
to MPs.
Phoenix is the government’s
new and problem-plagued enterprise-wide payroll system. Since
going online in February, more
than 80,000 of the Government of
Canada 300,000 employees have
reported problems with paycheques. The government rolled
it out in two phases, the second
phase in April.
The House of Commons human resources department is
responsible for inputting the pay
information for MPs and their
staff into the Phoenix pay system.
Similarly, cabinet ministers and
their staff have theirs done by
their respective departments.
Public Services and Procurement transferred MPs and ministers over to the Phoenix system in
April 2016, which was the second
phase.
Public Services Minister Judy
Foote (Bonavista-Burin-Trinity,
Nfld.) revealed last week that
she was told the new computerized pay system was ready when
it was not. “I was told things
were ready to go … people
who have been working on this
since 2009 assured me we didn’t
have to worry,” Ms. Foote told
CBC News Network’s Power &
Politics.
Heather Bradley, director
of communications for House
Speaker Geoff Regan (Halifax
West, N.S.), told The Hill Times
that she has not heard of any
issues with MPs receiving their
proper pay.
The Conservative and NDP
whip’s offices said they have not
had any MPs report pay issues,
and the Government Whip’s
Office directed all questions to
the Minister of Public Services
and Procurement Judy Foote
(Bonavista-Burin-Trinity, Nfld.),
whose department said it could
not provide a breakdown of pay
issues by categories.
Mr. Gerretsen’s brought up his
staff pay issues during the special
meeting of the House Government Operations Committee last
Thursday on Parliament Hill to
discuss the situation surrounding
the Phoenix payroll system.
He was subbing in for committee member and Liberal MP
David de Burgh Graham (Laurentides-Labelle, Que.) and has been
vocal about his frustration with
the pay issues taking so long to
resolve.
But during a break in the
meeting, he told The Hill Times
that he was “assured” by what
heard from the first panel of witnesses: Public Services and Procurement Canada deputy minister
Marie Lemay, associate assistant
deputy minister of account-
ing, banking and compensation
Rosanna Di Paola, and associate
deputy minister Gavin Liddy.
Ms. Lemay, earlier in the
day told reporters that top
bureaucrats responsible for the
Phoenix pay system ignored
warnings from PSAC in April
to stop the second phase of the
pay system and couldn’t recall if
they had briefed Ms. Foote on the
problems flagged by PSAC.
The government says the
department underestimated how
long it would take to train staff on
the new Phoenix computerized pay
system. As well, at the time Phoenix went live, there was already a
backlog of more than 40,000 files
that had to be dealt with which the
Public Service Alliance of Canada
had warned the government about.
The new automated payroll program replaces a 40-year-old payment system for all Government of
Canada employees.
The committee, in the nearly
four-hour meeting spent most of
the time peppering the senior officials with questions. It then heard
from Professional Institute for
the Public Service President Debi
Daviau and Government Services
Union President Donna Lackie
who described the situations their
employees are experiencing.
“How could it not impact employee morale?” said Ms. Daviau
who implored Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.)
to pull out his chequebook to get
people paid immediately.
Ms. Lackie, who represents the
Miramichi, N.B., where the Public
Service Pay Centre is located,
described it as a “crisis situation”
where mostly new, inexperienced
staff in the pay centre are crying
at work each day because of the
pressure and workload.
Both said they repeatedly
asked the government to slow
down on the rollout, but plans
pushed ahead, despite that there
would not have been any immediate consequence to holding off,
the committee heard.
The system was procured
under the previous Conservative
government but the decision to
go online with it back in February was made by senior officials
in the department under the new
federal Liberals.
Liberal MP Yasmin Ratansi
(Don Valley East, Ont.) and
Conservative MP Kelly McCauley
(Edmonton West, Alta.), two members of the House Government
Operations Committee, admitted
they were unaware until asked,
that they had been receiving their
pay through Phoenix.
“We just submit our forms, my
staff gets paid, I get paid, and I don’t
know which system we are on,”Ms.
Ratansi said, adding that she feels
bad for those not getting paid.
PSAC national executive vicepresident Chris Aylward told The
Hill Times two weeks ago that
if Phoenix was first used for
Members of Parliament and top
bureaucrats, the problems would
have been fixed a lot faster.
Mr. McCauley said it is a valid
point, but that it never would have
happened, or solved anything.
“I understand the sentiment
and it’s correct, what we’re saying
is we should have, the Liberals
should have had it ready to go
before they rolled it out,” Mr. McCauley said.
Conservative MP Steven Blaney (Bellechasse-Les
Etchemins-Lévis, Que.) and Mr.
McCauley, and the NDP’s Mr.
Weir teamed up in calling for the
emergency meeting on Phoenix.
Mr. McCauley said the opposition reached out to the Liberal
members on the committee with
no response until after both the
NDP and Conservatives released
statements calling for the meeting to be held. It was then that
four Liberal committee members
asked the chair, Conservative
Tom Lukiwski (Moose Jaw-Lake
Centre-Lanigan, Sask.), to call the
meeting.
Twice during the meeting Mr.
McCauley tried to call Minister
Foote to testify, first at that day’s
meeting, and secondly as part of a
further study on Shared Services
Canada, but both were defeated
by the Liberal majority on the
committee.
Earlier in the day on Thursday
Ms. Lemay held a technical briefing at the National Press Theatre
to update the media on the scope,
plan, and timelines on resolving
the Phoenix pay system.
As of the briefing, 57 employees had been hired on to the
emergency temporary pay unit in
Gatineau, Que., with that number expected to grow to 115 in
the coming weeks. This is where
the bulk of backlogged cases are
being processed, while the new
590-person Miramichi pay centre
is handling the day-to-day and
high-priority cases. As well, officials announced last week they’re
opening three new temporary
pay centres with at least 20 staff
each in Shawinigan, Montreal,
and Winnipeg. As well, 100 people
have been hired at a new call centre in Toronto to take calls from
public servants.
The department is also looking
into setting up with the Treasury
Board, a claims system to reimburse workers for penalties as a
result of inaccurate pay, to cover
things like overdraft charges.
The Phoenix system was
projected to save the government $67.2-million a year, but it’s
costing the government between
$15-million and $20-million to
address the problem and it’s expected to increase as time goes
on. An additional 589 cases were
reported since the last technical
briefing on July 18.
The updated timeline projects
the bulk of pay issues won’t be
resolved until Halloween. The top
priority is dealing with those not
getting paid at all. The government can now deal with those
people within three days and
they should be paid in the next
pay period. The government says
it will take four to six weeks to
address those who are leaving
the government, on or about to
go on maternity leave, or longterm disability leave. The government will deal with the bulk of
public servants with issues like
overpay, underpay, entitlement or
extra duty pay on a sliding scale,
depending on the issue, between
the end of September and Oct. 31,
2016.
As well, the CBC reported
that Phoenix inadvertently made
personal details for all 300,000
employees to 70,000 and senior
officials had learned the flaw in
January, but didn’t stop it. Auditor
General Michael Ferguson’s office
is looking into Phoenix and Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) has asked PCO Clerk
Michael Wernick to make sure the
system is fixed which is supposed
to be by October.
The Hill Times
4
news electoral reform
Changing electoral system will shift
internal, external party politics: Carty
A number of
academics and
election experts
implored the Special
House Committee
on Electoral Reform
to seek public
input, though not
necessarily through
a referendum.
three Conservatives, two members of the NDP, one from the
Bloc Québécois, and Green Party
Leader Elizabeth May (Saanich—
Gulf Islands, B.C.).
The majority of witnesses this
past week were male university
professors, despite Ms. Monsef
imploring the committee at an
earlier meeting to hear from a
broad spectrum of Canadians,
and not just the “usual suspects.”
Testifying in an afternoon session on July 25, R. Kenneth Carty,
a professor at the University of
British Columbia, told the committee that each voting system
on the table will bring changes to
how candidates are selected, who
chooses the candidates, how campaigns are funded, the number of
and character of political parties,
and the way voters decide who to
support.
This was in response to a
question from Ms. May about the
consequence of proportional voting systems.
“Political parties are instruments of war, they’re instruments
of conflict. And the question about
electoral systems is where does
the conflict take place? Does it
take place between the parties?
Between the parties? Amongst the
candidates? Every electoral system
changes where the conflict takes
place, both at the electoral level
and at the governmental level,”
said Mr. Carty, who has worked on
electoral boundary commissions
and other electoral reform issues
throughout his career.
Following up on this, Liberal
member MP Sherry Romanado
(Longueuil — Charles-LeMoyne,
Que.) asked if there was a system
Mr. Carty thought would reduce
volatility. His response to this
was “no,” adding that each system
comes with tradeoffs. For example, he said, more proportionality
could mean less regional representation; or more voter choice
means less ability for parties to
discipline its MPs.
“Our experience cannot tell
us how a change in the electoral
system will actually play out in
practice, that’s because under any
new rules the political parties, the
candidates, and the voters will
have clear incentives to behave
differently than they do under the
first-past-the-post system,” Mr.
Carty said.
Picking up on this, fellow panelist Nelson Wiseman, director of
the Canadian Studies Program at
the University of Toronto, went on
to highlight that “the electoral system is secondary to the underlying political culture.”
He also encouraged the committee to get on with putting
options for changing the system
in the window, so the conversation can switch from hypothetical
impacts, to more concrete consequences of changing elections.
“That’s why you’re elected—
you’re elected to make public
policy, not to stick your finger in
the wind,” Prof. Wiseman said.
On July 26, the committee
heard via videoconference from
Michael Marsh and Michael
Gallagher, a pair of experts in
Ireland’s elections law from
Trinity College Dublin; the Chief
Electoral Officer of the New
Zealand Electoral Commission
Robert Peden; and Australian
Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers. Ireland uses a proportional
representation with a single
transferable vote system, New
Zealand uses the mixed-member
proportional system, and Australia recently transitioned its Senate to the proportional system,
with compulsory voting.
Peter Russell, professor
emeritus at the University of Toronto, circled back to the idea of
electoral reform influencing the
power structures that come with
majority governments, which he
argues could become less predominant under other systems, as
opposed to the “false majorities”
that can come with first-past-thepost elections.
When asked by NDP member
MP Daniel Blaikie (ElmwoodTranscona, Man.) how different
electoral systems could impact
the centralization of power in
the Prime Ministers’ Office, Prof.
Russell said with more minority
governments, the tendency for
the “boys and girls in short pants”
to tell MPs and ministers what to
say will decline.
During the July 27 morning
meeting, Henry Milner, a visiting
researcher and research chair in
electoral studies at the Université de Montréal; former deputy
minister and Privy Council clerk
Alex Himelfarb; and André Blais,
a professor at the Université de
Montréal and the Canada Research Chair in electoral studies,
appeared before the committee
to testify, and all spoke to arguments around moving towards
a proportional representation
system.
Prof. Milner said moving
towards proportional representation would mean a fairer outcome
and would give everyone incentive to participate, as votes would
count equally. He said alternative
voting systems make it harder
for smaller parties to get elected,
leading to less diversity, and that
voters will be tactical no matter
which system in place.
Of the different PR systems,
he said a mixed-member proportional (MMP) system would be
“most appropriate” for Canada,
highlighting it’s an option that’s
already been considered in sev-
Former Privy Council clerk Alex Himelfarb and University of Montreal professor Henry Milner both advocated for proportional representation systems to replace the current first-past-the-post voting system in testimony before the special
committee on electoral reform on July 27. The Hill Times Photo by Jake Wright
eral provinces and would mean
Canadians would continue to
be represented by one person in
Parliament.
Mr. Himelfarb said while PR
systems are often “characterized” as a choice between local
accountability and representativeness of votes, it’s possible
to have both. He advocated for
either a single-transferable vote
(STV) system, or MMP, and said
both would better-reflect voting
and “arguably” strengthen local
participation.
In his testimony, Prof. Blais
said the “biggest decision” is
whether or not to adopt some
form of PR, and said based on
five studies on electoral reform,
he’s concluded that introducing PR is “unlikely” to reduce
strategic voting, “might slightly
increase” voter turnout, would
likely “enhance correspondence”
between the ideological views of
Canadians and voting results, but
ultimately is “unlikely” to make
Canadians more satisfied overall
with their government.
On the question of a referendum, Prof. Blais said he thinks
one is “necessary,” while Prof.
Milner and Mr. Himelfarb said
one isn’t required.
Later in the day on July 27,
committee members met again
to hear from University of Toronto professor Lawrence “Larry”
LeDuc; Université du Québec à
Montréal political science and
law faculty dean Hugo Cyr; and
from Leslie Seidle, a research
director with the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP).
Prof. Leduc emphasized “process over substance” at this stage
of the committee’s work, and
encouraged members to reach a
consensus on one option. While a
referendum “could” be an option,
he said it takes a long time, and
an extensive public education
campaign to actually work. He
suggested that a citizens’ assembly, as has been done in Ontario
and British Columbia, could be
an alternative. Prof. Leduc said he
prefers a list proportional representation system, highlighting its
flexibility.
Prof. Cyr said a new voting
system could lead to more minority or coalition governments,
which many have speculated
could lead to more elections going forward, but he said Scotland
and Wales have demonstrated
it’s possible to update electoral
systems while maintaining the
dynamics voters are used to.
To do this in Canada, he
proposed four changes be made,
including amending the standing
orders to allow for the nomination of the Prime Minister by
House vote, to require constructive non-confidence motions, and
to require parliamentary approval
for a PM to prorogue or dissolve
the House. He also recommended
amending the Elections Act to
allow for early dissolution with
two-thirds approval of the House.
Meanwhile, Mr. Seidle stressed
a need for diversity in representation on the Hill in his testimony,
though he noted, “voting systems
are not determinist” of that,
despite arguments that certain
systems see more women elected,
for example, than others.
“Political parties’ rules and
commitments—particularly at
the candidate nomination stage—
have an important influence on
the representation of diversity,
including women,” said Mr. Seidle.
Wrapping up an intense week
of witness testimony, on July 28,
the committee met again in the
morning to hear from York University political science associate
professor Dennis Pilon; Queen’s
University political studies associate professor Jonathan Rose; and
Maryantonett Flumian, president
of the Institute on Governance.
Prof. Pilon spoke out strongly
against holding a referendum
on electoral reform, and said the
issue of voter equality—which he
argued is what’s at hand—is one
that shouldn’t be put to a vote.
“Normatively, referendums
should be restricted to situations
where voters can become reasonably informed to be able to participate in the discussions, Canadian
provincial referendums on voting
systems have shown this not to be
possible,” said Prof. Pilon.
Selling a new voting system
is like selling a car, said Prof.
Pilon: people need to know about
performance, they don’t need to
look under the hood. If federal
parties are fine with the proposed
change, voters will be fine with
it as well, he argued. However,
he stressed that there will be a
“bumpy road to implementation.”
Prof. Rose stressed the importance of an “honest and robust”
public education campaign, and
public input on electoral reform,
but said that doesn’t always occur
with referendums. As an example,
he said the recent referendum
in the U.K. has given him pause,
after being “high-jacked” by mudslinging and mischaracterizations. He said he thinks the public
needs to be involved in a substantial way, and suggested a citizens’
assembly would be a good forum
to give the public a chance to
engage and weigh in.
Ms. Flumian said she thinks
the work of Parliament and
parliamentarians should reign
supreme in determining electoral
reform. Ms. Flumian also stressed
the need for the committee to
consider the wider implications
of any reform. For example, she
said a model that saw multiple
parties at the Cabinet table would
also change the role of the public
service.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
5
news private members’ bills
Liberal MP’s
private member’s
bill will test
backbenchers’
willingness to
exercise free votes
London MP Peter
Fragiskatos’ bill
would add torture
offence by private
citizens to the
Criminal Code, but
the government says
it’s ‘symbolic’, and
‘not necessary.’
But Mr. Fragiskatos said
he thinks the bill could pass with
support from within his Liberal
caucus and with some help from
the Conservatives and the NDP.
“The proposed reform will
pertain to those acts of brutality
that may be life-threatening and
far exceed instances of aggravated assault, a charge that can
apply to serious and trivial acts
of violence. Sec. 268 is therefore
insufficient,” Mr. Fragiskatos said
in the House on April 21.
Mr. Fragiskatos’ Bill C-242, An
Act to amend the Criminal Code
(inflicting torture), passed second
reading and was referred to the
House Justice and Human Rights
Committee on April 21. It’s expected the committee will begin
studying it when the House returns at the end of September.
The bill would amend the
Criminal Code to create an offence for private citizens who
inflict torture and would open up
the possibility for life sentences
to be given for convicted torturers. Mr. Fragiskatos is arguing
the current charge of aggravated
assault that comes with a penalty
of up to 14 years in jail is insufficient for brutal instances of
torture.
Mr. Fragiskatos, 35, is a rookie
MP who won the riding with 50.5 per
cent of the vote and by 12,437 votes.
Mr. Fragiskatos said in 2006, a
Calgary man was stripped of his
clothes, had his hands and feet tied
with cables, was left to hang from
ceiling joists and was punched, cut,
whipped with a belt and sprayed
with butane over a period of days.
Two individuals were found responsible, including one youth who
could not be sentenced in adult
court. The second pleaded guilty to
assault with a weapon and spent
two years in jail.
In 2008, Mr. Fragiskatos said a
Brampton man had his toe cut off,
was beaten with a bat, cut multiple times with salt rubbed in his
wounds, and had a plastic bag put
over his head. The individual was
found guilty of aggravated assault
and forcible confinement and given
a sentence of less than 10 years.
“I have one final example. I
received a call to my constituency
office recently from a woman who
told me that she lived through
some of the most despicable actions that anyone could imagine.
Her childhood was so terrible
that she felt the need to flee to
the United States, where she now
lives. This was necessary in order
to gain the sense of security that
she so desperately needed. In repeated acts of torture, this young
woman was tied up, hung upside
down, and had objects, such as
a cattle prod, used against her,”
Mr. Fragiskatos said in the House
debate on April 21.
During second reading debate
in the House, Liberal MP Sean
Casey (Charlottetown, P.E.I.),
parliamentary secretary to Justice
Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould
(Vancouver-Granville, B.C.), said
he opposed the bill and called on
MPs to oppose it as well.
Mr. Casey, a lawyer, said the
government believes the current
Criminal Code assault provisions
are sufficient and that the change
would create an inconsistency in
punishment.
“Creating this crime would
likely have immense symbolic
value to some of the most vulnerable persons in our society,” Mr.
Casey said. “However, symbolism
alone is not enough reason to add
yet another offence to the vast
array of offences and sentencing
procedures that already catch the
most harmful kinds of assault.”
He added,“In effect, I believe
there is no gap in the criminal
law that requires the creation of a
new offence of private torture to
provide for a remedy. The proposed
torture offence in Bill C-242 is
therefore not necessary.”
Despite this, Mr. Fragiskatos
says he wants to let the committee “do its work,” and says it’s too
early to count the bill out. The
initiative is something he argues
is needed to bring Canada in line
with the UN Convention Against
Torture. Australia and France
have laws that recognize torture.
Before getting elected last
October, Mr. Fragiskatos was a
professor of international relations and public policy at King’s
University College at Western
University and studied Canada’s
human rights law.
“The cabinet’s voting against
it, that doesn’t mean the rest of
the caucus has to vote against it as
Liberal MPs Ron McKinnon and Peter Fragiskatos both have private members’ bills before House committees. While
the government is behind Mr. McKinnon’s so-called Good Samaritan Drug Overdose initiative, the justice minister’s
parliamentary secretary has spoken out against Mr. Fragiskatos’ torture bill. The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright, and
photograph courtesy of Parliament
well. … I wouldn’t be surprised if a
private member’s bill passes even
if the cabinet is opposed to it,” said
Liberal MP and Justice Committee
member Chris Bittle (St. Catharines, Ont.) in an interview with
The Hill Times.
Mr. Bittle is one of the bill’s
seconders and, although he said
he was reluctant at first to sign
on, he believes the bill does try to
close a gap in the law.
“Even with the government
being opposed to it, I’m optimistic
that this is the type of legislation that can still come out of
committee,” he said. “And there’s
potentially some minor changes
that can be made to satisfy the
concerns of the government and
maybe, upon hearing the evidence and upon potential changes, the government may change
its position.”
So far, the NDP is supporting the bill, and the Conservatives
supported it moving to committee
but have concerns with inconsistencies in the bill which they
will likely address with amendments at committee, including addressing the definition of torture.
Conservative MP Michael Cooper (St. Albert-Edmonton, Alta.),
his party’s justice critic and a
member of the House Justice Committee, said during debate that he
thinks the bill is well-intentioned.
Mr. Fragiskatos will have to
look to supporters on the opposition benches if he’s unable to drum
up enough Liberal support and
said he is open to amendments.
“We’re talking about human
beings who have suffered over a
prolonged period of time, crimes
that would be difficult for any
person simply to read about,” said
Mr. Fragiskatos. “These victims
must be heard.”
Liberal MP Ron McKinnon
(Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam, B.C.),
another member of the House
Justice Committee, told The Hill
Times that he supports the bill “in
principle” and will be looking at
the government’s position closely
at committee.
Meanwhile, Mr. McKinnon’s
own bill, Bill C-224, the Good
Samaritan Drug Overdose Act,
is likely headed for clause-byclause consideration at the House
Health Committee in the fall. He
said he’s so optimistic it will pass
that he’s already got his Senate
sponsor picked out: Independent
British Columbia Senator Larry
Campbell.
The bill seeks to clear a person
of drug possession charges if they
call emergency officials to report
someone having an overdose.
The aim is to prevent unnecessary drug overdoses that can be
caused by people’s fear of calling
for help, but would not apply
to calls related to trafficking or
impaired driving offences.
After just one panel of witnesses were heard from on the
bill at the committee, Mr. McKinnon said he doesn’t expect any
real impediments.
“It’s well on its way and I
think it’s looking really good,” Mr.
McKinnon told The Hill Times last
week in a phone interview.
He, alongside witnesses from
the Justice Department, Pivot Legal Society, the Waterloo Region
Crime Prevention Council, and
drug awareness advocate Christine Padaric—whose son died of
an overdose in 2013—testified on
June 15. Liberal members of the
committee, satisfied by what they
heard, were angling to move on to
clause-by-clause a few days later,
but the House rose, suspending
progress for the summer.
A number of the witnesses
offered up suggested amendments to broaden the scope of
the bill, and representatives from
the Justice Department suggested
the language be changed to make
those reporting an incident be
considered not guilty of committing an offence, rather than outlining in the law that the police
shall not charge.
But Mr. McKinnon said he’s
communicated to his colleagues on
the committee that he intentionally drafted the bill narrowly, and
would like to see it stay that way to
better its chance of passing.
“It might not be the be-all-endall but it is a significant improvement. It won’t solve all the
possible problems but it will solve
some of the problems, and I will
certainly discourage any amendments, if I can, that might detract
from that,” Mr. McKinnon said.
NDP MP Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway, B.C), his party’s
health critic and a member of the
House Justice Committee, told the
committee that he will be moving
amendments on the three-paragraph bill, likely regarding extending the immunity to parolees,
or to trafficking if the person who
calls was responsible for giving
the person overdosing the drugs.
Fellow NDP MP Jenny Kwan
(Vancouver East, B.C.) is seconding the bill.
However, the government
and Liberal MP Kamal Khera
(Brampton West, Ont.) who is the
parliamentary secretary to Health
Minister Jane Philpott (MarkhamStouffville, Ont.) expressed support for the bill explicitly because
it doesn’t impede on law enforcement’s focus on drug trafficking.
It’s possible the Conservatives
could seek more committee time
to hear from front-line workers,
a major ask from Conservative
MP Rachael Harder (Lethbridge,
Alta.) during the hearing.
“You’re saying we’re going
to throw our commitment to
evidence-based decisions out the
window because it might take too
long, or because we can’t define
where to start and stop. I don’t
think that’s good policy-making…
We need to hear from experts in
this field,” she said.
This story is part of a series
offering a comprehensive look
at MPs’ private members’ bills
and Senate-sponsored public bills
that are most likely to pass, or
are moving the quickest through
their House and Senate and expected to be on the agenda when
Parliament resumes. The Hill Times
6
PMO principal secretary Butts tops The Hill
Times’ 15th Annual Terrific 25 Staffers list
Tommy Desfosses, in the purple shirt, PM Justin Trudeau’s EA.
Gerald Butts, principal secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, hard at it.
It’s Gerald Butts’
debut on the
list, and it’s also
Conservative
Whip staffer Sean
Murphy’s first
year ranking. Mr.
Murphy claims
the title of Best
All-Round Terrific
Staffer this year.
A former principal secretary to
then Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty and former president and
CEO of WWF-Canada, Mr. Butts
has been friends with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.)
since both were students at McGill
University in Montreal, Que. He’s
Mr. Trudeau’s closest adviser, the
architect of Mr. Trudeau’s leadership win and one of the people
behind the party’s majority win in
the last election. Sometimes called
PMB, or Prime Minister Butts, the
Cape Breton wields a lot of power
and influence in the government.
He’s also considered the “policy
ninja” of the party.
Many respondents cited
Mr. Butts’ relationship with Mr.
Trudeau, one calling him the “de
facto PM.” A number of respondents who voted for Mr. Butts in
the Best at Spin Control pointed
to his Twitter account. He has
30,000 followers and has about
41,000 tweets. Another unidenti-
PMO’s Jeremy Broadhurst, Zita Astravas, and chief of staff Katie Telford.
fied respondent who voted for
Mr. Butts for Most Influence said
it was, “Because he helped shape
the party platform and because of
his proximity to the PM.”
Conservative whip staffer Sean
Murphy, meanwhile, has claimed
the top spot in the Best All-Round
Terrific Staffer category, making
his debut in The Hill Times’ 15th
Terrific 25 Staffers Survey.
“You roll with the punches,”
said Mr. Murphy of life as a Hill
staffer. As a senior lobby coordinator and manager of parliamentary affairs to Conservative Whip
Gordon Brown (Leeds-GrenvilleThousand Islands and Rideau
Lakes, Ont.), it’s Mr. Murphy’s
job to work with staffers in other
party whips’ offices and to keep
Conservative MPs up to speed
on when to be in the House for
votes and debates. Mr. Murphy
works closely with Conservative
MPs’ offices and with the Conservative House Leader’s Office.
Along with topping the Best
All-Round Terrific Staffer category
this year, Mr. Murphy, who’s been
working on the Hill since 2011,
came third overall on the Terrific
25 Staff list. He also claimed the
title of Best Conservative Hill
Staffer, and came third in the Most
Knowledgeable category.
An Ottawa native, Mr. Murphy started off working in
2011 for then parliamentary
secretary Robert Goguen who
represented Moncton-RiverviewDieppe, N.B., before joining the
Conservative Whip’s Office about
a year later in 2012. He’s been
there ever since.
Mr. Murphy said when he first
came to the Hill it was “unknown
territory” for him, but that he
adapted and moved forward.
He joked that the results “must
be rigged,” but that it’s “nice of
people to say nice things.”
Said one Conservative respondent of Mr. Murphy: “He is dedicated, friendly, well-organized,
discrete, and highly competent. He
strikes the right balance between
discipline and reasonableness.”
Greg McClinchey, staffer in Liberal
MP Judy Sgro’s office. Photograph
courtesy of LinkedIn
This year’s Terrific 25 Staffer
Survey was once again conducted
online in partnership with Forum
Research between May 25 and
July 4. A total of 170 politicos responded to the Terrific 25 survey
this year. Of those who identified by party: 75 were Liberals,
64 were Conservatives, 16 were
from the NDP, two identified as
Greens, and one independent. The
Hill Times’ Terrific 25 Staff list is
compiled by tallying up the total
number of votes each staffer got
in each category of the survey.
Lorne Bozinoff, president and
CEO of Forum Research, said the
change in federal government has
led to a number of new names in
the Terrific 25 Staff Survey results
this year.
“It’s hard to tell from the outside without looking at a survey
David Prest, a top staffer in the Conservative House
Leader’s Office. The Hill Times photographs by Sam Garcia,
Jake Wright, and Cynthia Munster
result like this who is really the
best and who has the most influence and all that, so it is kind
of a peek behind the curtains in
terms of what goes on,” said Mr.
Bozinoff.
Meanwhile, veteran Liberal
Hill staffer Greg McClinchey,
who is currently the member’s assistant to Liberal MP Judy Sgro
(Humber River-Black Creek,
Ont.), ranked second on this
year’s list overall—his best result
yet after more than two decades
working on Parliament Hill. He
was also voted the Best Liberal
Hill Staffer, claimed the title of
Most Knowledgeable, came second in the Best All-Round Terrific
Staffer category, and placed third
for Most Discreet.
Mr. McClinchey started out as
a staffer in 1993, as a 16-year-old
high school co-op student working for his hometown MP, then
Liberal Paul Steckle, who represented Huron-Bruce, Ont.
Asked about his secret to success, Mr. McClinchey said he, along
with the rest of Ms. Sgro’s office,
has an open door policy to colleagues on the Hill, noting this last
federal election saw “a really big
switchover in staff,” on the Hill with
many needing to get “acclimatized
to their new responsibilities and
their role within the offices.”
“We try and be helpful if
people have questions, I supposed if there’s a secret that’s it:
be ready to be helpful, work hard
and see what you can do to work
as a team,” said Mr. McClinchey.
“It can be a very frustrating environment, so one has to
maintain your positive attitude I
suppose and be prepared to ask
questions and admit when you
don’t have the answer,” he said
adding there’s “a tremendous
level of resources in your colleagues,” including those across
party lines, and it’s a good idea to
reach out and not “get hung up on
party labels.”
Mr. McClinchey’s colleague,
Phil Parsons, constituency assistant to Ms. Sgro, came second
in the Best Liberal Constituency
Staffer category this year.
Katie Telford, chief of staff to
the PM, reached the No. 4 spot
on this year’s Terrific 25 Staff list.
She’s also claimed the title of Best
PMO Staffer and came second for
Best Access to PMO. A number
of respondents who voted for Ms.
Telford said she was well respected
on the Hill and discreet, and some
cited her proximity to the PM.
Vince
MacNeil,
chief of
staff to
Government
House
Leader
Dominic
LeBlanc.
Photograph
courtesy of
LinkedIn
“She’s on top of everything,”
said one Liberal respondent.
Ms. Telford was a national campaign co-chair for the federal Liberals in 2015 and is a former senior
consultant with Strategy Corp. She’s
also a former Queen’s Park staffer,
having worked with Mr. Butts while
at the provincial legislature.
Continued on page 7
7
Vince MacNeil, chief of staff to Government House Leader Dominic LeBlanc
(Beauséjour, Que.), rose to fifth place on
the staff list this year, his highest result
yet after making his debut on the Terrific
25 list in 2011 at sixth place. Mr. MacNeil
came in second place in the Most Discreet
category this year, and in third for Best
Cabinet Staffer.
Sean Murphy, staffer in Conservative Whip Gord
Brown’s office. Photograph courtesy of Facebook
He started out on the Hill as a Senate
page in 1990 and later worked for various
Liberal Senate leaders both in opposition
and government over the years, before
moving over the House side of things to
work for then Liberal whip Rodger Cuzner
(Cape Breton-Canso, N.S.). Respondents
who voted for Mr. MacNeil cited his procedural knowledge and work history on the
Hill, namely, the fact his current and past
roles have made him a key hand over the
caucus’ agenda.
“As a senior staffer who was formally
the CoS [Chief of Staff] to the Liberal whip,
everyone goes to Vince if they need something done,” said one Liberal respondent
Said another Liberal respondent of Mr.
MacNeil: “Does not gossip, yet knows all
the details of the BOIE [Board of Internal
Economy], etc.”
Longtime Hill staffer Colleen Knight,
meanwhile, is sixth on The Hill Times’ Terrific 25 Staff list this year, and also came
second in the Best Liberal Hill Staffer. She
placed third for Best All-Round Terrific
Staffer and tied for third in the Most Influence category.
Ms. Knight started out on the Hill as
an aide to then Liberal leader John Turner
in the early 1980s, but is perhaps best
known from her time working for now
former NDP MP Peter Stoffer. She was
his sole assistant on the Hill, during which
time she helped spearhead and organize
her boss’ annual All-Party Party for all Hill
employees and staffers. A mentor to junior
staff, Ms. Knight was scooped up by Liberal MP T.J. Harvey (Tobique-Mactaquac,
N.B.) after Mr. Stoffer was defeated in the
last election.
Her colleague, Courtney Brennan, who is
an aide in Mr. Harvey’s New Brunswick constituency office, came in first for Best Liberal
Constituency Staffer in a three-way tie.
“[The results] back up what I’ve always
believed, which is that they’re both really
good choices,” Mr. Harvey told The Hill
Times.
After getting elected last fall, he said
he was “looking for somebody with some
experience” and former MP, and mutual
friend, Joe Jordan recommended he try to
hire Ms. Knight.
“It’s made a world of difference in terms
of just getting off the ground and trying to
wrap your head around a lot of the intricacies of getting things done on the Hill. It allows me to really focus on my job,” he said.
Veteran Conservative staffer Garry
Keller, chief of staff to interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose (Sturgeon
River-Parkland, Alta.), ranked seventh
on the list, and also came second in the
Most Influence category and third for Best
Conservative Hill Staffer. Starting out as
a Reform Party staffer in the late 90s, Mr.
Keller was previously chief of staff to former Conservative minister John Baird.
“He’s brilliant, experienced and
dreamy,” said one Conservative respondent
of Mr. Keller.
Meanwhile, veteran Liberal staffer
Kevin Bosch, a senior adviser for research
in the Liberal research bureau, sits at No.
8 this year, along with claiming the title of
Most Discreet staffer.
In ninth place on the Terrific 25 list is
Tommy Desfossés, executive assistant to
the Prime Minister, marking his debut on
The Hill Times’ survey. He also came third
in the Best Access to PMO category and
tied for third in for Most Influence with Ms.
Knight.
“Not just because of his current role at
the PM’s side, but because he’s a smart guy
who knows how to get things done,” said
one Liberal respondent.
Sean Schnell, constituency assistant to
Conservative MP Michelle Rempel (Calgary Nose Hill, Alta.), placed tenth overall
and also claimed the title of Best Conservative Constituency Staffer this year.
PMO director of issues management
and former Queen’s Park Liberal staffer
Zita Astravas claimed the title of Best at
Spin Control this year along with ranking
the No. 11 spot on the top 25 list.
Cyrus Reporter, a former chief of staff
to Mr. Trudeau as third party and now the
PM’s senior adviser, is ranked No. 12.
Ben Martin, member’s assistant to
Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu (SarniaLambton, Ont.), ranked 13th on the overall
staff list, and came second for Best Conservative Hill Staffer. Mr. Martin’s been working on the Hill since 2007, and was previously an assistant to former Conservative
MP Pat Davidson. He made his debut on
the list in 2013, ranking fifth overall.
Jamie Kippen, a former director of operations for the Ontario Liberal Party and
now the Ontario regional desk adviser in
the PMO, ranked 14th, and came in second
place in the Best PMO Staffer category.
Respondents who voted for Mr. Kippen
said he was hard-working, helpful, and
dependable.
The Hill Times’ Terrific 25 Staffer Survey
Results of The Hill Times’
Terrific 25 Staffers Survey: 2016
The Top 25 List
1. Gerald Butts, principal secretary, Prime Minister’s Office
2. Greg McClinchey, member’s assistant, Liberal MP Judy Sgro
3. Sean Murphy, manager of parliamentary affairs,
Conservative Whip Gordon Brown
4. Katie Telford, chief of staff, Prime Minister’s Office
5. Vince MacNeil, chief of staff, Government House Leader
Dominic LeBlanc
6. Colleen Knight, parliamentary assistant, Liberal MP T.J. Harvey
7. Garry Keller, chief of staff, Conservative interim Leader
Rona Ambrose
8. Kevin Bosch, senior adviser for research,
Liberal Research Bureau
9. Tommy Desfossés, executive assistant to the PM,
Prime Minister’s Office
10. Sean Schnell, constituency assistant, Conservative MP
Michelle Rempel
11. Zita Astravas, director of issues management,
12. Cyrus Reporter, senior adviser to the PM,
13. Ben Martin, member’s assistant, Conservative MP
Marilyn Gladu
14. Jamie Kippen, Ontario regional desk,
15. David Prest, parliamentary affairs adviser, Conservative
House Leader Andrew Scheer
16. Rob Sutherland, chief of staff, NDP Whip
Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet
17. Cyndi Jenkins, Atlantic regional desk,
18. Anthony Salloum, lobby officer, NDP Whip
19. Roberta Webster, member’s assistant,
NDP MP Fin Donnelly
20. Cory Hann, director of communications, Conservative
Party of Canada
21. Mélanie Lauzon, committee coordinator, Liberal Whip
Andrew Leslie
22. Kate Purchase, director of communications,
23. Mike Storeshaw, director of media relations,
Conservative interim Leader Rona Ambrose
24. Jake Enwright, senior communications officer,
Conservative Research Bureau
25. Anne Marie Keeley, chief of staff, Conservative Whip
Gordon Brown
Category Results
Kevin Bosch, who works in the Liberal Research
Bureau, pictured with Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau. Photograph courtesy of Twitter
Longtime Conservative staffer and
Terrific 25 survey fixture David Prest,
currently senior parliamentary affairs
adviser to Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer (Regina-Qu’Appelle, Sask.),
ranked 15th on the list this year. Mr. Prest,
an expert on parliamentary procedure and
tactics, has frequently been voted one of
the best staffers on the Hill since the Terrific 25 Staffers Survey started.
Mr. Prest first started on the Hill more
than 40 years ago when he worked as a
janitor while he was a student. He officially
began work as a political staffer in 1982
when he joined the Progressive Conservative Whip’s Office. He’s been working for
conservative House officers on the Hill
ever since.
Rob Sutherland, chief of staff to NDP Whip
Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet (Hochelaga, Que.),
ranked No. 16 this year and won second place
in the Most Knowledgeable category.
Best All-Round Terrific Staffer:
1. Sean Murphy, manager of parliamentary affairs to
2. Greg McClinchey, member’s assistant to Liberal MP
Judy Sgro
3. Colleen Knight, parliamentary assistant to Liberal
MP T.J. Harvey
Most Knowledgeable:
Judy Sgro
2. Rob Sutherland, chief of staff to NDP Whip
Most Influence:
1. Gerald Butts, principal secretary to Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau
2. Garry Keller, chief of staff to interim Conservative
Leader Rona Ambrose
MP T.J. Harvey, and Tommy Desfossés, executive
assistant to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Best at Spin Control: 1. Zita Astravas, director of issues management in the
office of the Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau
3. Mike Storeshaw, director of media relations to
interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose
Best Access to PMO:
Justin Trudeau
2. Katie Telford, chief of staff to Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau
3. Tommy Desfossés, exécutive assistant to Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau
Most Discreet:
1. Kevin Bosch, senior adviser for research in the
Liberal research bureau
2. Vince MacNeil, chief of staff to Government House
Leader Dominic LeBlanc
Judy Sgro
Best PMO Staffer:
1. Katie Telford, chief of staff to Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau
2. Jamie Kippen, Ontario regional desk adviser in the
3. Cyndi Jenkins, Atlantic regional desk adviser in the
Best Cabinet Staffer:
1. Allie Chalke, special assistant for the Atlantic region
to Finance Minister Bill Morneau
2. Josh Bragg, special assistant for regional economic
development to Innovation, Science and Economic
Development Minister Navdeep Bains
3. Vince MacNeil, chief of staff to Government House
Leader Dominic LeBlanc
Best Conservative Hill Staffer:
2. Ben Martin, member’s assistant to Conservative MP
Marilyn Gladu
3. Garry Keller, chief of staff to interim Conservative
Leader Rona Ambrose
Best Conservative Constituency Staffer:
1. Sean Schnell, constituency assistant to Conservative
MP Michelle Rempel
2. Kaylie Kuipers, constituency assistant to
Conservative MP Karen Vecchio
Best NDP Hill Staffer:
1. Karl Bélanger, principal secretary to NDP Leader
Thomas Mulcair
2. Anthony Salloum, lobby officer to NDP Whip Marjolaine
Boutin-Sweet; Audrey Moey, special assistant to NDP MP
Sheri Benson; and Nasha Brownridge, member’s assistant
to NDP MP Linda Duncan
3. Roberta Webster, member’s assistant to NDP MP
Fin Donnelly
Best NDP Constituency Staffer:
1. Eric Demers, constituency assistant to NDP MP
Alexandre Boulerice
Best Liberal Hill Staffer:
Judy Sgro
MP T.J. Harvey
3. Shane Mackenzie, member’s assistant to Liberal MP
Sonia Sidhu
Best Liberal Constituency Staffer:
1. Courtenay Brennan, constituency assistant to
Liberal MP T.J. Harvey; Frederick Larouche,
constituency assistant to Liberal MP Steven
MacKinnon; and Jamie Zuffa-Kniert, constituency
assistant to Liberal MP Kent Hehr
2. Phil Parsons, constituency assistant to Liberal MP
Judy Sgro
8
Editor Kate Malloy
Deputy Editor Derek Abma
Managing Editor Kristen Shane
Deputy Editor Peter Mazereeuw
The Hill Times, monday, august 1, 2016
Assistant Deputy Editor Abbas Rana
online Editor, Power & Influence Editor Ally Foster
Publishers Anne Marie Creskey,
Jim Creskey, Ross Dickson
General Manager, CFO Andrew Morrow
Editorial phoenix
Letters To The Editor
Phoenix fiasco is still one hot mess
I
Not many ‘ordinary’ Canadian
voters raging over electoral
reform question, says HT reader
t’s another week and there is still no
solution to what’s now being called the
“Phoenix fiasco,” the federal government’s
new computerized and problem-plagued
payroll system which has affected the pay
of 82,000 federal public servants.
Public Services Minister Judy Foote,
who said she wants to fix the massive
problem as soon as possible, was in
Ottawa last week to do some damage control, however, it appears she also needs to
get better control of her department. She
revealed that she was told the new computerized pay system was ready when it
was clearly not. “I was told things were
ready to go … people who have been
working on this since 2009 assured me we
didn’t have to worry,” Ms. Foote told CBC
News Network’s Power & Politics.
Her deputy minister Marie Lemay,
meanwhile, told reporters that top bureaucrats responsible for the Phoenix pay
system ignored warnings from PSAC in
April to stop the second phase of the pay
system and couldn’t recall if they had
briefed Ms. Foote on the problems flagged
by PSAC. And the CBC reported that Phoenix inadvertently made personal details for
all 300,000 employees to 70,000 and senior
officials had learned the flaw in January,
but didn’t stop it. This is not good.
But the problem remains. More than
five months after the government’s new
payroll system went online, more than 80,000
Government of Canada employees have
reported issues, inconsistencies, or absences
of pay. Some 720 employees had not received
any pay since February, but 486 of those employees have received emergency back pay.
The remaining 234 require more information from their departments to complete, but
will be the priority. The 1,100 with long-term
disability, maternity, paternity, or other leave
issues were scheduled to have their cases resolved and there are an estimated 80,000 ad-
ditional cases of other pay issues on overtime
pay, extra duty pay, or salary adjustments.
The Hill Times has been told some public
servants are using their credit cards and lines
of credit to pay for their mortgages because
they haven’t been paid.
The government says the department
underestimated how long it would take
to train staff on the new Phoenix computerized pay system. As well, at the time
Phoenix went live, there was already a
backlog of more than 40,000 files that had
to be dealt with which the Public Service
Alliance of Canada had warned the government about. The new automated payroll
program replaces a 40-year-old payment
system for all Government of Canada employees and was rolled out in two phases
beginning in February. It encompasses the
total of an estimated 300,000 employees
as of May. The decision to go with the new
Phoenix model was made by the Conservative government back in 2009. The program
was designed by IBM. The new system is
said to have cost $300-million, and ahead of
the widespread pay issues, was expected to
save the government $67.2-million a year,
according to the department. But that’s
not going to happen this year, Ms. Foote
acknowledged last week.
The House Government Operations
Committee met for an emergency meeting
last week to ask questions, Auditor General Michael Ferguson’s office is looking
into Phoenix and Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau has asked PCO Clerk Michael
Wernick to make sure the system is fixed
which is supposed to be by October.
The federal government was unnecessarily caught off guard by this one, but
it’s taken too long to fix this problem.
People need to get paid. This is wrong and
it doesn’t make sense. The government
should treat this as a top priority. It’s
gone on too long.
Democratic Institutions
Minister Maryam
Monsef, pictured with
PCO’s Isabelle Mondou,
testifying before the
Special House Electoral
Reform Committee on
the Hill recently. The Hill
Times photograph by Jake
Wright
T
his summer, I’m wondering how many
burgs and hot dogs will be burned beyond
recognition while the debate among “ordinary” Canadian voters rages over the electoral
reform question. Not many I suspect.
The vast majority of our citizens are not
political junkies, journalists, or academics
who are following this debate: they neither
have interest nor time for the politics of the
day. Sadly, most are not equipped with even
a basic knowledge about how our democracy works. But they are voters who vote—or
don’t—every four years.
I lament that the result of the current
“town hall” strategy of Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef will want
for this lack of time, interest, and education,
especially in the summer. I fear that this
reality, not to mention political partisanship,
will skewer the result of these summertime
town hall “consultations.”
Is it even necessary?
Canadians made a choice last October.
We have a majority of four out of five political parties who support electoral change.
We already have had an exhaustive study
conducted by the Law Commission of
Canada which supported making every vote
count through proportional representation
(PR). The entire issue has been debated for
years. Lately, AV, the preferential voting
system, has been thoroughly trashed and
discredited as being unfair and unbalanced.
Are we not at a point to act?
Parliament should adopt a PR system in
time for 2019 and for two successive elections. Included would be an immediate national initiative through Elections Canada for all Canadians
to be educated about the new voting system. In
the legislation, if PR is found wanting, a referendum question could then be attached to the vote
in 2027 to see if it should remain as our electoral
system—just as New Zealand did.
To me, this would be a quintessential
Canadian solution that voters would duly
accept—not to mention the resources and
time that are about to be fruitlessly wasted. More importantly, Parliament would be
challenging all voters to adopt a new mind
set to become interested and educated
about their democracy as never before: we
need that.
In the Speech From the Throne, this
government made a promise to correct the
democratic distortions of our present system
and to make every vote count. Parliament
has the overwhelming legitimacy—not to
dither on this file—but to act, be bold and assertive with a measure of caution thrown in.
It’s 2016: let’s just do it.
Patrick J. Mullin
Windsor, Ont.
With support of ‘angry’ blue collar
white men, Trump could win: reader
T
he success of Donald Trump in the
Republican primaries stemmed from
his ability to connect with mainly bluecolour white workers who are the most
disgruntled group in the United States. They
blame unfair trade agreements for the loss
of well-paid factory jobs. They blame the
nation’s elites for exporting these high-paid
jobs to low-wage countries like Mexico and
China for their own profits at the expense of
American workers. And they blame illegal
immigrants for putting downward pressure
on wages at home.
Editorial
senior reporters Tim Naumetz and Laura Ryckewaert
REPORTER, POWER & INFLUENCE ASSISTANT
EDITOR Rachel Aiello
News ReporterS Chelsea Nash, Marco Vigliotti
Photographers Sam Garcia, Andrew Meade,
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Advertising
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Production
By promising to rewrite these “unfair”
trade deals and building a wall to keep illegal
immigrants out, Mr. Trump has successfully
tapped into this discontent and he is likely to
win in a landslide with the support of “angry”
blue colour white men (and women) in the
coming election. Mired in email controversies,
Hillary Clinton cannot match Trump’s popularity among a large segment of the American populace. However, it remains to be seen
how he delivers on his promises.
Mahmood Elahi
Ottawa, Ont.
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9
opinion terrorism
‘Just lock them up’ is not a solution to terrorism
While we must
do everything
possible to identify,
monitor, disrupt,
try, convict and
incarcerate those
with violent intent
we must also come
up with creative
solutions to head
the radicalisation
beast off before it
gets its hooks into
our fellow citizens.
There is no other
option.
phil gurski
O
TTAWA—Another attack
has hit France—this one is
particularly heinous, the murder
of an 85-year old priest—and the
critics are out in full force, all
of whom know what is wrong
with France and what the French
should do about it. I certainly
would not want to be French
President François Hollande or
Prime Minister Manuel Valls or
anyone in the French police or
security services. The sheer number of attacks and the horrific
casualty toll has sapped whatever
confidence France’s citizens have
in those who are supposed to
keep them safe.
I am not interested in rehashing the arguments put forward
purporting to explain “Why
France?”—none of which by the
way are comprehensive—but I
do want to look at one aspect of
the latest attack. According to
The New York Times, one of the
terrorists was not only known to
French security agencies—he had
tried to travel to Syria twice—but
had been jailed. He was released
in March of this year, despite
the objections of the prosecuting lawyers and subject to strict
conditions, including the wearing of an electronic monitoring
bracelet. Nevertheless, he and an
accomplice were able to enter the
church in St. Étienne du Rouvray,
take hostages and cowardly kill
Fr. Jacques Hamel. As a side note,
how can the Islamic State, which
has claimed the attack state that a
“soldier of Islam” bravely killed a
defenceless octogenarian?
In light of this information
the hue and cry is all about why
a man with this pedigree was
allowed out of prison. Surely,
French authorities should have
known better and kept him
behind bars. If they had done so,
Hamel would still be alive.
I have no insight into why
the terrorist was let out but I do
know that French penal authorities have a Herculean task before
them. Between 60 and 80 per cent
of France’s prison population of
68,000 are Muslim (wildly disproportionate to their six per cent
and eight per cent of the general
population) and there are thousands of inmates convicted of terrorist offences. France has an out
of control prison radicalisation
problem and is struggling with
what to do. Prisons have in effect
become radicalisation incubators.
The old debate on whether to
keep all the terrorists together—
where they reinforce each other—
or spread them around —where
they infect others—is ongoing.
There is no simple solution.
It would be easy to suggest
that terrorist prisoners remain
locked up for life. Their crimes
and plots are designed to cause
fear and terror and we cannot
allow these people to undermine the societies we have built.
Incarceration comes with a cost
however. I don’t know how much
it takes to keep a prisoner jailed
in France but in Canada the annual expense is CDN$113,000
per inmate (in the U.S. it is
US$117,000). Do the math—with
68,000 prisoners the burden on
the public purse is enormous.
Then again how do we measure
the value of someone killed by a
terrorist? This is a debate worth
having.
What about rehabilitation
and rehabilitation? There are
programs out there which have
claimed success at treating terrorists and “undoing” their radicalization. I commend these efforts
but it is far too early to determine
whether these approaches work.
In any event there are far too few
people engaged in these programs.
Look, I have no problem with
putting the worst of the worst in
prison, throwing away the key
and ensuring that they never
threaten society ever again. On
the other hand, I have also met
and spoken at length with two
convicted terrorists in Canada
whom I believe are actually on
the path to reform. They deserve
a chance, carefully monitored of
course, to prove their good faith.
Decisions must be made on a
case by case basis and that too
requires resources and funding.
As with most things in life
there is no black and white answer. Many people with impressive backgrounds have stated
repeatedly that we cannot arrest
our way out of this problem. So
while we must do everything possible to identify, monitor, disrupt,
try, convict and incarcerate those
with violent intent we must also
come up with creative solutions to
head the radicalisation beast off
before it gets its hooks into our
fellow citizens. There is no other
option.
Phil Gurski is president/CEO
of Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting.
www.borealisthreatandrisk.com
The Hill Times
global affairs solar impulse
Solar Impulse makes its remarkable journey
So congratulations
to Bertrand Piccard
and Solar Impulse’s
other pilot, André
Borschberg. Maybe
we will have electric
airliners one of
these days, if only
somebody can come
up with the right
battery—but in the
meantime we should
be working hard
on making carbonneutral fuel.
Gwynne dyer
L
ONDON, ENGLAND—As
I write this, Solar Impulse is
already in the air on the last 48-hour
leg of its remarkable journey: the
first round-the-world flight by an
aircraft that uses no fuel except
sunlight. By the time you read it,
pilot Bertrand Piccard will probably
have landed in Abu Dhabi, to global
acclaim. And you can’t help wondering: is this the future of flight?
There are about 100,000 commercial flights per day, and the
aviation industry burns just under
300 billion litres of fuel each year.
Commercial aircraft are responsible for about two per cent of
the human race’s carbon dioxide
emissions.
So electric airplanes that burn
no fossil fuel would be very helpful, and Bertrand Piccard thinks
that this is indeed the future. “I
make the bet that in 10 years we
will have electric aeroplanes flying with 50 passengers for shortto medium-haul flights,” he said.
“You can fly with no pollution
and no noise, and land in urban
airports, making no disturbance
for the neighbours. … And maybe
sometime people will say this
all started with a crazy idea of
flying around the world in a solar
aeroplane, and the outcome was
useful for everyone.”
But Solar Impulse, with the
wing-span of a jumbo jet, can carry
just one person. Photoelectric
cells on the wings power it during
the day, and recharge the batteries that take it through the night
(barely)—but its average speed is
only 75 km/hr, and it took 17 flights
and 15 months to travel around the
world, so we are still a long way
from the Promised Land.
You can’t just scale Solar
Impulse up and get an electricpowered commercial aircraft that
carries 50 people, let alone the
500 passengers that they can jam
into a long-haul 747 or A380. The
basic problem is coming up with
light-weight, high-capacity “trac-
tion” batteries—ones designed to
provide the main power for large
vehicles for a period of hours—
and progress on this front has
been very slow.
Traction batteries are still nowhere near the weight-to-power
ratio that would be needed for an
airliner, and there are no signs
of an imminent breakthrough.
Solar Impulse may equal a Boeing 747 in size, but it weighs only
2 tonnes. (The empty weight of a
747 is 129 tonnes.) So we should
not expect electric airliners any
time soon, and people are not
going to stop flying voluntarily. Is
there any hope out there?
Maybe so. Aviation fuel has
always been derived from petroleum because no other energy
source provides as much power
for the same weight. (There are
no coal-fired aircraft.) But what
the engines need is just a highoctane fuel; they don’t care where
it comes from.
There are two other places it
might come from. One way is by
growing oil-rich algae in giant vats
(salt water or waste-water will do),
and crushing it to separate the oil,
which can then be refined in the
usual way to extract an octane fuel.
Exxon Mobil and Synthetic Genomics have spent $100-million on
this project since 2009, but they still
have much work to do in creating
the fast-growing, high-oil-content
algae that would make it commercially viable.
The other way is by taking carbon-dioxide directly out of the air,
and using a catalyst to combine it
Solar Impulse,
pictured
landing in
Brussels on
May 13, 2011.
Photograph
courtesy of the
Brussels Airport
with hydrogen to create an octane
fuel. Several teams have working
prototypes of machines that will
extract the carbon dioxide from
the air at a modest cost in energy,
and the hydrogen can be obtained
just by splitting water molecules.
In both cases burning the fuel
will, of course, produce carbon
dioxide, but it will be precisely
the same carbon dioxide that was
originally taken from the air to
combine with hydrogen or grow
the algae—so the process as a
whole is carbon-neutral. Since
this approach would not require
replacing or even modifying the
entire 25,000-strong fleet of commercial aircraft, it is certainly
more promising for the short and
medium term.
There is another potential
environmental problem linked
to fuel-burning aircraft, and that
is the “contrails” (condensation
trails) they often leave behind
them. The contrails are formed
by water vapour from the engine
exhaust that freezes when the
humidity is high and the air
temperature is low, usually in the
upper troposphere. They can last
a long time and spread out until
they turn into cirrus clouds covering large parts of the sky.
Such clouds let most sunlight
pass through inbound, but reflect
heat back to the surface in the
night-time. How big an impact
contrails have on global warming is still not settled, but it may
be as big as the effect of carbon
dioxide from aviation fuel. Conventional aircraft can only avoid
contrails by flying lower, which
means higher fuel consumption
and much more turbulence—but
electric aircraft would not leave
contrails at any altitude.
So congratulations to Bertrand
Piccard and Solar Impulse’s other
pilot, André Borschberg. Maybe
we will have electric airliners
one of these days, if only somebody can come up with the right
battery—but in the meantime we
should be working hard on making carbon-neutral fuel.
Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are
published in 45 countries.
The Hill Times
10
inside politics justin trudeau
PM on a
high-stakes
mission, set
against idyllic
backdrops
Trudeau’s PMO and
senior ministers are
preoccupied with
the firms and the
entrepreneurs who get
their start in Canada
and make their
fortune elsewhere.
They’re concerned
about recent raiding
expeditions by Google
and others to recruit
Canadian leaders in
the field of artificial
intelligence.
paul wells
T
he appointment was right
there July 22 in Justin
Trudeau’s public itinerary, which
the Prime Minister’s Office sends
daily to every Ottawa reporter
who cares to sign up. “The prime
minister will attend the Dock Innovators Retreat,” it said. “Closed
to media.” Attend the what?
Googling the mysterious term
provided no further information.
I was finishing a vacation and
assumed some other reporter
would ask what the PM had done
with his day—normally an interesting question. But by this week
nobody had asked. So I did, and
here is what I’ve found.
The retreat was a real thing.
The dock in question is attached
to a sprawling cottage somewhere
north of Toronto. Dock and cottage
belong to Magna CEO Donald
Walker, who welcomed 30 corporate CEOs and tech leaders for a
two-day gathering whose correct
and somewhat precious name is
the “Dock (Un)Conference.”
The, uh, Dock was held under
the auspices of the C100, an
association of Canadian expats
working in Silicon Valley. Since
2010 the C100 has been the organized expression of a kind of
yearning: that a rising generation
of innovative Canadian entrepreneurs won’t have to leave Canada
to build the next billion-dollar
startup.
The C100 website calls the
Dock a “highly curated event ...
on the future of tech and where
Canada can lead.” John Stackhouse, a former Globe and Mail
editor now working at the Royal
Bank, did the curating.
Guests included GE Canada
president Elyse Allan, Jordan
Banks from Facebook, Tiff
Macklem, who left the Bank of
Canada to become dean of the
Rotman School of Management,
Nadir Mohamed, a former Rogers
CEO who now runs a venturecapital firm called Scale Up
Ventures that gets half its money
from the Ontario government, Air
Canada CEO Calin Rovinescu.
And a mostly younger cohort
of rising stars in technologyintensive companies in Canada
and California, including Angela
Strange, Jennifer Holmstrom and
Brendan Frey.
Trudeau appeared in the conference agenda as “Special Guest”
and spoke at lunch on Friday. But
he also wanted to hear from his
hosts because they share a goal:
to encourage entrepreneurs and
tech companies to stay in Canada
in a bid to boost economic growth
and enhance Canadians’ standard
of living.
This was the second time in
three weeks that Trudeau has
showed up at a tech conference
in an idyllic locale. At the beginning of July he was at Sun Valley
in Idaho for an annual retreat
where he met a succession of
blue-chip CEOs: Facebook’s Mark
Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos,
Apple’s Tim Cook, GM’s Mary
Barra, IBM’s Ginni Rometty.
Justin Trudeau’s goal here
extends well beyond schmoozing.
As he said in Davos in January
(more billionaires! More scenery!), attracting foreign investment will be “a key priority” of his
government. He does not want an
increase on the scale of a rounding error. He wants a massive
increase in the amount of investment coming into Canada. The
country saw such a thing once
before, after the Second World
War, when Europe was levelled,
America ravenous, and Canada’s
national resources desperately
needed by both. What would drive
another investment boom now,
I asked a Trudeau adviser—resources again?
“Talent.”
Trudeau’s PMO and senior
ministers are preoccupied with
the firms and the entrepreneurs
who get their start in Canada and
make their fortune elsewhere.
They’re concerned about recent
raiding expeditions by Google
and others to recruit Canadian
leaders in the field of artificial
intelligence.
Among people who could
work anywhere in the world, size
and coolness matter when they
decide where to move or whether
to stay. Waterloo has managed
to become a magnet for global
expertise in theoretical physics
and quantum computing. Over
the next year the Trudeau government will seek to reinforce or
shore up Canada’s advantage in
three emerging fields: quantum
tech; artificial intelligence; and
big data and analytics.
Four big themes will drive the
Trudeau economic policy through
next year’s budget: innovation,
infrastructure, immigration and
foreign investment. Where will
the money come from? Trudeau
has been talking to executives at
Blackrock, the world’s largest asset
manager, which controls $5-trillion
in investments worldwide.
Increasing Canada’s share of
that titanic portfolio would make
a lot of things possible. Trudeau
is devoting more and more of his
time to figuring out how to make
that happen. So are his senior
economic ministers—Bill Morneau, Chrystia Freeland, Navdeep
Bains. This is how the government
is spending its summer.
Paul Wells is a national affairs
columnist for The Toronto Star. This
column was released on July 27.
The Hill Times
opinion syrian refugees
Syrian refugees are doing Canada a favour
They have come for
one and only one
reason: to avoid
death. Offering
them menial jobs
that locals will not
take and providing
them with substandard housing
is no great act of
charity.
DEMETRIS GEORGIADES P
aphos, CYPRUS—One of the
benefits of being an expatriate
of Canada is being able to view
Canada through an unbiased,
discriminating vantage point.
As such, I take it upon myself
to advise most Canadian mainstream media to conduct thorough
research on pre-war Syria from a
socio-economic perspective.
Once this is done, hopefully then
the result will be a cessation of the
insinuation that Canada, apparently
the only place in the world willing
to accept refugees with gracious
hospitality, is doing Syrian refugees
a favour. They, in fact, are doing
Canada a favour. Canada would do
well to stop the sanctimony it so
clearly identifies with.
Canada’s low birth rate,
demand for cheap labour, unattractive climate, high taxation,
geographic isolation and very
high housing costs are only a few
factors that contribute to the welcoming embrace offered to new
immigrants. Granted, there are far
worse places in which to relocate,
but it would be highly beneficial
to take a very close look at what
Canada has to offer newcomers.
More specifically, Syrians.
The uniform manner in which
Canadian media portray the Syrian refugees is powerful proof
of the deleterious power of mass
conditioning. Relying solely upon
the media to form an opinion of
Syrians allows the stranglehold
on public perception to fester and
prosper. As someone who has travelled extensively throughout Syria
before the war, I feel that I am in
a position to make an attempt at
enlightening the public perception
of the people of this tragic nation.
The key to understanding the
Syrians is to accept the fact that
very few had ever lived in poverty.
Food was abundant, the soil very
fertile and the cuisine very rich. The
poor were kept well housed and
A group of
refugees
pictured
landing in a
north beach
of Lesvos
Island, Greece,
after crossing
the 10 km
from the
Turkish to the
Greek coast.
Photograph
courtesy Fernando
Del Berro
nourished. The middle classes had
very little to be envious when making comparisons of their lifestyle.
Their counterparts in Europe and
Canada had no better access to
health care or consumer goods. Fast
food, American movies, and Western fashion were readily accessible
to all. University education, home
ownership and holidays, I dare
say, were affordable to a greater
percentage of the population than in
many Western countries which look
down on Syria.
Canada’s media, in an effort to
uphold the national mantra with
its manipulative predication on
the nonsensical idea of “work ethic,” successfully fester the impression that Syrians are recipients of
generous alms by receiving entry
into Canada. This is not the case.
If this were true, many of these
people would have applied for entry far before the civil war. They
have come for one and only one
reason: to avoid death. Offering
them menial jobs that locals will
not take and providing them with
sub-standard housing is no great
act of charity.
The truth of the matter is
that most of these people own
multiple assets and hold great
wealth in their home country,
often inherited through a socioeconomic system that Western
minds have not been equipped to
understand. Their ambitions very
unlikely included employment in
a country known for a very unappealing climate, high taxation and
geographic isolation.
Demetris Georgiades was
born and raised in Canada and
owns a language school in Cyprus, called Learn Greek. The Hill Times
11
opinion energy east
Opposition to
Energy East
growing in Canada
and U.S.: it’s time
for a moratorium
on oil tankers on
East Coast
Hearings on
Energy East are
about to start, and
a new process has
been put in place.
If the process is
legitimate, it can
only lead to a
rejection of this
risky proposal.
KEITH BROOKS
T
ORONTO—Oil spills don’t
care about borders. That’s
why there is growing concern
about the proposed Energy East
pipeline bringing a massive increase in tanker traffic along the
Canadian and U.S. East Coast. If
built, Energy East would triple
tanker traffic in areas like the Bay
of Fundy—and with it the chance
of a devastating oil spill.
That’s one of the key findings
from a report Environmental
Defence released a few days
ago with the U.S.-based Natural
Resources Defense Council and
other environmental groups.
Together, we highlighted the risks
Energy East would pose to the
Canadian and U.S. East Coast.
The threats to fragile marine ecosystems and local communities
are one more reason to oppose
the risky project.
TransCanada likes to pretend
that Energy East is about meeting
Canadian demand for oil. But this
is complete fiction. Up to 90 per
cent of the oil shipped via Energy
East will wind up in tankers for
export. TransCanada’s application to the National Energy Board
estimates that over 280 tankers
per year will be needed to ship oil
from Energy East. Up to 900,000
of the 1.1 million barrels pumped
through Energy East each day
would be shipped abroad unrefined. This isn’t oil for Canadians.
Energy East won’t stop imports
of oil. Irving Oil, the refinery at
the end of the proposed pipeline
route, has said even if Energy East
is built, it will still import oil from
Saudi Arabia. Energy East would
increase oil tanker traffic by 300
per cent in the Bay of Fundy – and
by 500 per cent along parts of the
U.S. East Coast.
Most of those tankers will head
down the East Coast because
that’s where the refineries are
located that can take tar sands
oil. And that has environmental
groups in the U.S. concerned. Special technology is needed to refine
heavy oils like diluted bitumen.
And the greatest concentration of
refineries with the capability to
process tar sands oil is along the
U.S. Gulf Coast. Sound familiar?
That’s where TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline was intended
to terminate. Energy East would
allow tar sands oil to reach those
same refineries.
Essentially, Keystone XL and
Energy East are the same plan,
but a different route. Except
Energy East is bigger, longer, and
potentially more dangerous.
Not only will Energy East
mean more tankers: it will mean
more dangerous tankers, at least
if you listen to the U.S. National
Academy of Sciences (NAS). Diluted bitumen behaves differently
than other types of oil when it’s
spilled into water, the NAS found
in an authoritative study earlier
this year. Dilbit sinks and sticks
to things. According to the NAS
study, regulators haven’t appreciated the unique properties of tar
sands oil, and there isn’t effective
emergency planning in place but
“there must be a greater level of
concern associated with spills of
diluted bitumen.”
There should be concern for the communities along
the East Coast—in Canada and in
the U.S. Those waters, including
Canada’s iconic Bay of Fundy, are
notorious for extreme tides, dense
fogs, and treacherous weather.
A spill could devastate local
ecosystems and put lobster, scallop and other fisheries at risk. Oil
tankers also threaten endangered
species in the Atlantic, like the
North Atlantic right whale, whose
population is estimated at only
450 individuals.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
has promised to put a moratorium
on crude oil tanker traffic on
British Columbia’s northern coast
in recognition of its sensitive ecosystem and the devastating effects
any oil spill would have. It’s the
right decision. But a spill on the
East Coast would be just as bad.
And the tankers are just
one reason the stop the project.
Energy East would cross nearly
3,000 lakes, streams and rivers.
The pipeline would threaten the
drinking water for over 5 million
Canadians. The recent Husky oil
spill into the North Saskatchewan
River shows how vulnerable
our drinking water sources are.
Authorities estimate that it will
take months before communities
can draw drinking water from the
North Saskatchewan River. The
contamination has spread over
500 km already.
The risks that Energy East
would pose to communities along
the pipeline and tanker routes are
real. The prime minister is right
that northern B.C. is no place for
a tar sands pipeline and tankers.
Neither is the East Coast. Hearings on Energy East are about
to start, and a new process has
been put in place. If the process
is legitimate, it can only lead to a
rejection of this risky proposal.
Keith Brooks is campaigns director at Environmental Defence. The Hill Times
opinion medical marijuana
New medical marijuana
regulations should allow
pharmacist dispensing
By amending the
Marijuana for Medical
Purposes Regulations
to allow pharmacists
to dispense medical
marijuana, Canadians
would have a
safe, reliable and
convenient alternative
to mail-order service,
in compliance with
the Federal Court’s
access requirements
set out in Allard v.
Canada.
PERRY EISENSCHMID
H
ealth Minister Jane Philpott
has a golden opportunity later
this month to improve access and
safety for medical marijuana patients and Canadian pharmacists
hope she will take it. By amending
the Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR) to allow
pharmacists to dispense medical
marijuana, Canadians would have
a safe, reliable and convenient
alternative to mail-order service,
in compliance with the Federal
Court’s access requirements set
out in Allard v. Canada.
A pharmacy-based distribution system would immediately provide another option for
Canadians to access medical
marijuana, alongside the existing system of licensed producers who provide their product to
patients through the mail. CPhA’s
proposed changes to the MMPR
would authorize pharmacists to
obtain medical marijuana from a
licensed pharmacist and dispense
it to an individual with a medical
document.
Pharmacists have the necessary expertise to mitigate the
potential risks associated with
medical marijuana, includ-
ing harmful drug interactions,
contraindications, and potential
addictive behaviour. A simple
regulatory amendment would
empower Canadian patients to
access the product in urban, rural
and remote locations across Canada, under the supervision of a
licensed health care professional,
through an established distribution system proven to protect
patient and public safety.
Medical and recreational
marijuana are fundamentally
different products, intended for
use in very different ways. When
Canada makes recreational
marijuana legal next year, it will
be critical to have a safe and
secure distribution system for
medical marijuana already in
place. By amending the regulations immediately, a sophisticated
pharmacy distribution system
equipped to handle narcotics and
controlled substances will help
limit the emergence of a grey
market and protect the medical
system against abuse by recreational users. This is an important
lesson learned from U.S. states
where medical and recreational
marijuana streams coexist; a fact
Health Minister Jane Philpott has a golden opportunity later this month to
improve access and safety for medical marijuana patients and Canadian
pharmacists hope she will take it, argues Perry Eisenschmid. The Hill Times
photograph by Jake Wright
which has been recognized by the
federal government’s Task Force
on Marihuana Legalization and
Regulation, and public health
experts like the Canadian Centre
on Substance Abuse.
In Israel and Germany, regulators have already recognized the
benefits of pharmacist involvement in the management and
distribution of medical marijuana.
Canadian licensed producers
have demonstrated their capacity to supply pharmacies directly,
with Canada’s largest producer
announcing recently that it will
export medical marijuana for sale
to patients in German pharmacies—Canadian patients should
have the access to the same pharmacist education and oversight.
Canadians are strongly in
favour of pharmacist dispensing
of medical marijuana, and an independent assessment by KPMG
confirms it is in the best interest of patient access and safety.
The federal government has a
limited window to bring Canada’s
medical marijuana in line with
international best practices—the
Canadian Pharmacists Association urges the health minister to
seize this opportunity.
Perry Eisenschmid is CEO of
the Canadian Pharmacists Association. The Hill Times
12
copps’ corner hillary clinton
I don’t get
Hillary Clinton’s
‘likeability’ issue,
she’s dynamite
What puzzles me is
that people attribute
her perceived lack
of likeability to her
longevity in public
life. But that doesn’t
square with the fact
that her partner,
former president
Bill Clinton, has
her baggage and
then some and for
some reason, he is
still a much-beloved
public figure in the
United States.
sheila copps
O
TTAWA—I just don’t get it.
Call me feminist, maybe
even radical, but I cannot understand the likeability ‘issue’ facing
Democratic presidential nominee
Hillary Clinton.
I have actually had the benefit
of meeting the woman on several
occasions, and in person, she is
dynamite.
What puzzles me is that
people attribute her perceived
lack of likeability to her longevity
in public life.
But that doesn’t square with
the fact that her partner, former
president Bill Clinton, has her baggage and then some and for some
reason, he is still a much-beloved
public figure in the United States.
If anything, his marital infidelities might be more inclined to
evoke a backlash from women.
Even on that count, people forgive him.
I have American women
friends who dislike Hillary with a
passion. One of the reasons they
cite is the fact that she stayed
with a philandering husband, a
sure sign of weakness. For some
reason, the victim is once again
deemed responsible for the actions of the philanderer.
Perhaps the likeability factor
is simply code for the sexism that
women face when they step out of
their traditional role of supporter
to actually believe they can do the
top job.
Hillary got clobbered during
her husband’s first presidential
campaign, when, in response to
criticisms, she retorted that she
could have just stayed home and
baked cookies, but chose to pursue a career.
She was attacked on all sides
for the cookie comment. For some
reason, nobody deems it necessary to expect a male politician to
be responsible for any activity in
support of the home.
That is a woman’s job.
But the question of likeability is
one that haunts women in a unique
way. During my time as a minister,
a volunteer once confided in me
that he was absolutely shocked at
how ‘nice’ I was. He was driving me
around a rural riding for the day,
and when I asked him to elaborate,
he said my image was one of a
real ball-buster. He fully expected
to spend the day with a raving
feminist who was anti-men and not
afraid to say so.
The volunteer was merely
articulating what a lot of people
thought of me. My public image
was one of a fighter, but that image comes with a lot of baggage
for women. The implication was
that I had spurned my femininity
for feminism and I was a manhater. Nothing could have been
further from the truth.
I struggled to find anything in
my political history to reinforce
the nasty ball-buster image that
I had acquired. But once a public
image is embedded, it is very difficult to reverse.
When Rodham Clinton
marked her tenure as America’s
Hillary Clinton
weathered
bumps in her
marriage, and
is still pilloried
for it. Is there a
double standard
that still applies
to politics?
Ms. Clinton’s
likeability deficit
seems to point
in that direction.
Photograph courtesy
of Hillary Clinton
2016 Facebook page
first lady, she focused on realpolitik, national health care plan for
all. Her vision was grand, but it
was ultimately unsuccessful.
U.S. President Barack Obama
succeeded in introducing a slimmed
down version of the Rodham Clinton
proposal. Thanks to Clinton rival
Bernie Saunders, beefing up access
to health care is now part of the
Democratic platform.
The Democratic National Convention focussed on rounding out
the hard edges that have come to
be identified with the candidate.
Speaker after speaker spoke
to her humanity and her commitment to families and children.
From disabled advocate Anastasia
Somoza to the Mothers of the
Movement who lost children to
gun violence, presenters reflected
on their personal connection with
Hillary Clinton.
The United States has never
had a woman president. Last
time, when she lost to Barack
Obama, Clinton alluded to ‘about
18 million cracks’ that had been
made in the glass ceiling.
This time round, there is almost
no emphasis on the historic opportunity to elect a woman president.
Fearful of the ever-present
feminist backlash, advisers seem
to be reinforcing her standing as
a strong leader with a soft place
in her heart for families and
children.
Politically speaking, it is probably the right strategy.
The only way Clinton can
sway the doubters is by reassuring them that she is a mother,
wife and leader.
That may be sexist, but it too
is reality. Success for a woman in
public life means baking cookies
and being Commander-in-chief.
Her Republican opponent has
experienced two ugly marital
breakups with little backlash.
With his kids in tow, Donald
Trump symbolizes the embodiment of the devoted family man.
Hillary weathered bumps in her
marriage, and is still pilloried for it.
Is there a double standard that
still applies to politics?
Clinton’s likeability deficit
seems to point in that direction.
Sheila Copps is a former Jean
Chrétien-era cabinet minister and
a former deputy minister. She is a
registered lobbyist today. The Hill Times
the war room twitter & politics
Get off Twitter, go and actually do something
My free advice to
political people
stands: save your
puny ‘our thoughts
and prayers go
out to [fill in the
day’s victims].’
Save your tweets,
Twitter warriors.
Get off Twitter and
go and actually do
something. Because
what you’ve been
doing, to date, hasn’t
worked—for us, the
people you have
sworn to protect.
warren kinsella
T
ORONTO—Ah, the Twitter
warriors.
Sirius XM’s Charles Adler first
drew it to my attention, on his
popular satellite radio program.
An octogenarian Roman Catholic
priest was slaughtered by ISIS subhumans in France, his throat slit at
the altar. Charles read out the Twitter response of Stéphane Dion, our
minister of Foreign Affairs: “Saddened to hear of hostage taking
in #Normandy church resulting
in death of priest. Canada stands
together with #France #Rouen.”
Then Charles read aloud what
Jason Kenney tweeted, the guy
running for the Alberta PC leadership while drawing a federal
MP’s salary: “A ‘hostage taking
resulting in death?’ It was a premeditated terrorist murder: Priest
forced to kneel, throat cut.”
Charles wanted to know what
I thought about that exchange.
So I told him Dion’s words were
wholly inadequate. The murder
of a frail old priest, in a sanctuary that provides only love and
fellowship? That wasn’t merely
something to be “saddened” about.
It was a disgusting, despicable,
diabolic crime. It wasn’t just
“sad.” It was Satanic. It was, per
Shakespeare, the actual thing of
darkness.
So, Charles asked, was Jason
Kenney—again, an Alberta politician drawing a generous federal
salary—right in what he said?
I guess so, I told Charles. But, I
added: “Jason Kenney is full of
crap.”
Let me explain. Kenney, back
when he was somewhat relevant,
was often referred to as Stephen
Harper’s Minister of Everything.
Perhaps he was. He was minister of Employment and Social
Development; he was minister
of Citizenship, Immigration and
Multiculturalism; he was minister of Defence. In his day, he had
armies and tanks at his disposal.
He had billions of dollars and
thousands of public servants
to deploy as he saw fit. He had
power, real power.
But what happened when
tough-talking Jason had the
power to do something about terror? Well, on just one day, an ISIS
fanatic carried a gun to the War
Memorial, murdered a soldier,
jogged across Wellington Street,
commandeered a minister’s car,
drove it to Centre Block, shot up
the place, and then got into a gun
battle with some guards and cops.
What did Jason Kenney do
to prevent that from happening? Nothing. But he certainly
kept tweeting away about it.
Before Cpl. Nathan Cirillo’s
family could be properly notified—while the crisis was still
unfolding, in fact, and when the
Department of National Defence
had declared “there will be no
public release of his name or
condition until it is certain all
information is accurate and the
family has agreed to do so”—
Kenney tapped out a tweet that
disclosed that a soldier, later
identified as Cirillo, had been
killed.
Ah, the Twitter warrior, I said
to Charles. The cyber-combatant.
The one who dispenses John
Wayne tough-guy talk from the
safety of the sidelines—and occasionally violates DND rules, so
as to look like he’s in charge, à la
Alexander Haig.
Charles Adler asked why I was
so exercised about all this.
Here’s what I said, almost
word for word: “I’ve written a lot
of words for politicians over the
years. So I tend to be skeptical
about a lot of things they say. And
I’m particularly skeptical about
Twitter tough talk. Donald Trump
has built a career on Twitter. What
matters is what Bill Clinton did
[after the Oklahoma City terror
attack]: he hunted them down,
applied justice, and he put them
to death.”
So Charles let me go on: “I
don’t think we should be taking
any lessons from Jason Kenney.
And, you know, I’m just kind of
sick of political people, and a lot
of cops, talking tough about this
stuff—but, every day, bad things
keep happening, like what happened in France. So, you know
what, guys? Maybe you should all
get off Twitter, and get your heads
out of your asses, and maybe you
should start doing something
different from what you’ve been
doing—because your little Twitter
wars really aren’t protecting us,
the citizens. Because Twitter wars,
about who can express themselves with a tougher adjective?
They’re all crap.”
Charles Adler told me that I
should share my words with you,
and now I have. My free advice to
political people stands: save your
puny “our thoughts and prayers
go out to [fill in the day’s victims].” Save your Jason Kenneystyle tweets, Twitter warriors.
Get off Twitter and go and
actually do something. Because
what you’ve been doing, to date,
hasn’t worked—for us, the people
you have sworn to protect.
The Hill Times
13
News Conservative Party Leadership
Five Conservative MPs, including Kellie Leitch, top left, Maxime Bernier, Deepak Obhrai, Tony Clement, and Michael
Chong are declared leadership candidates for the leadership convention scheduled for May 2017. Conservative MPs
Michelle Rempel, above left, and Lisa Raitt are considering a run. Former justice minister Peter MacKay, Saskatchewan
Premier Brad Wall, businessman Kevin O’Leary and Conservative MP Brad Trost are also said to be considering a run
for the top job in the Conservative Party.
Conservative Party to
undergo test of party
unity in leadership
contest: Conservatives
It’s the party’s
second leadership
convention since it
was formed in 2003
when the Canadian
Alliance and
Progressive
Conservative Party
merged and some Conservatives say
it’s unclear if the
party can withstand
the stress.
2003. The merger between the two
wings was approved overwhelmingly by rank-and-file members of
both parties.
But a number of high-profile
parliamentarians, mostly the Red
Tory Progressive Conservatives,
refused to support the merger.
They feared that the new party
would ideologically become too
far right wing or dominated by
social conservatives from the old
Canadian Alliance and Reform
Party and would leave little space
for moderates.
Former PC leader Joe Clark,
then-PC MPs John Herron and
André Bachand and then-PC Senators, Norman Atkins, Lowell Murray and William Doody, were some
of the most outspoken critics of
the merger and decided not to join
the new party. After the merger,
PC MP Scott Brison (Kings-Hants,
N.S.) crossed the floor to join the
Liberal Party. Former Manitoba
MP Rick Borotsik also opposed the
merger and did not seek re-election
in 2004.
Led by Mr. Harper, who kept
an iron grip on the caucus and
who did not allow the socially
conservative groups to push their
agendas, the new Conservative
Party won the 2006 federal election and continued to win every
subsequent election, finally winning a majority government in
2011. It remained in power until
the last October when Liberal
Leader Justin Trudeau’s (Papineau, Que.) Liberals won a landslide
majority government.
Over the Conservatives’ 10
years in power, some Conservative MPs and senior political
staffers have complained privately that the party was not a
“big tent” and that moderates felt
uncomfortable. Some Conservative staffers and MPs quietly left
the party but did not speak out
publicly because they didn’t want
to be blamed for negatively affecting the party.
In interviews with The Hill
Times last week, Conservatives
said power was the glue that kept
the party together between 2006
and the last federal election. Now,
they said the party has started the
politically tough process of electing
the next leader and along with that
redefining and rediscovering itself.
They said some fissures are likely
to occur and that it remains to be
seen how the party holds itself
together in this test.
“The threat of a split has
always been a reason to promote
unity,” said a long-time Conservative Hill staffer, on a not-for-attribution based interview so that
he could speak candidly. “There’s
a potential for divisions to show
themselves. There are divisions
that still exist.”
Johanne Brownrigg, Ottawa
lobbyist for the Campaign Life
Coalition, a national pro-life organization, told The Hill Times that
the party was currently undergoing a transformative process and
would want to expand its base.
But she hoped that during this
process, the party leadership
would not forget its loyal base.
“This is a difficult part of political work,” said Ms. Brownrigg.“I
hope they don’t forget who they
represent. I know they need to
broaden their base and that can be
done but it doesn’t have to be done
at the expense of those who have
been with them for a long time.”
Ms. Brownrigg said the Campaign Life Coalition intends to
play an active role in the leadership contest and that once all
candidates officially enter the
race, they will endorse one or
more candidates.
She declined to provide specifics of her organization’s active
participation in the contest other
than to say it’s providing information to its members about leadership candidates.
However, based on the voting
record of MPs in Parliament on
pro-life issues, Ms. Brownrigg said
her organization rates MPs on her
organization’s website. MPs are
placed in three categories: the ones
who get a green light, or are “supportable,” are the pro-lifers; the red
lights, or are “not supportable,” are
not pro-lifers; and the amber light
are for MPs who have a mixed
voting record and are still under
evaluation by the Campaign Life
Coalition.
Based on the Campaign
Life Coalition’s rating system,
Conservative MPs Brad Trost
(Saskatoon-University, Sask.)
and Andrew Scheer (ReginaQu’Appelle, Sask.), who are two
potential leadership candidates
for the Conservative Party leadership, are green light candidates.
Conservative MP Deepak Obhrai
(Calgary Forest Lawn, Alta.) and
Conservative MP Kellie Leitch
(Simcoe-Grey, Ont.) are “amber
light” candidates for their mixed
records. Conservative MPs Michael Chong (Wellington-Halton
Hills, Ont.), Lisa Raitt (Milton,
Ont.), Maxime Bernier (Beauce,
Que.) and Tony Clement (Parry
Sound-Muskoka, Ont.) are red
light candidates.
Conservative sources told The
Hill Times that the two key divisions that could crop up during the
leadership campaign and could test
the party unity are between social
conservatives and moderates or
between the PC and the Alliance
wings of the party and that more
issues could also come up as the
campaign progresses.
But seven-term Conservative
MP Deepak Obhrai (Calgary
Forest Lawn, Alta.), who was
originally elected in 1997 as Reform Party MP and who recently
entered the leadership contest,
dismissed the notion that the current leadership contest will test
the unity of the party. He said the
party has been together for about
13 years and said he does not
believe there are any issues that
could cause any serious rifts within the membership.
“This [the merger] has worked
out very well, there are no fissures, as many would like to
say there are,” said Mr. Obhrai.
“No, it doesn’t exist, they’re gone
because it’s been 10 years that the
party has been working together.”
Meanwhile, some Conservative insiders are saying that their
party’s leadership contest is not
creating any buzz because there
are no exciting or inspirational
candidate in the race so far and
because most believe the Liberal
Party will win the 2019 election
and that the real contest will take
place after the next election.
By deadline last week, five
Conservative MPs had so far
announced their candidacies to
run for the party’s leadership for
the May 2017 contest: Ms. Leitch,
Mr. Bernier, Mr. Chong, Mr.
Clement, and Mr. Obhrai. Some,
including Ms. Raitt, Michelle
Rempel (Calgary-Nose Hill, Alta.),
Mr. Scheer, and Mr. Trost, are said
to be considering their options.
Former Conservative MP and
justice minister Peter MacKay,
as well as Kevin O’Leary, a TV
personality, are also believed to
be testing the waters. Manitoba
physician Dan Lindsay has announced that he has set up an
exploratory committee to explore
a possible Conservative Party
leadership run.
Recently, seven-term Conservative MP Jason Kenney (Calgary
Midnapore, Alta.) announced he
is leaving federal politics to seek
the leadership of the Alberta Conservative Party. He was believed
to be one of the highest profile
and most organized potential
candidates for the Conservative
Party leadership. To many Conservatives, Mr. Kenney’s decision
reinforced the message that the
party’s senior MPs and strategists
do not believe they can win the
next election.
But Mr. Carson said that it’s a
mistake to think the party will not
win the next election. He cited the
example of the 1968 federal election
in which Pierre Trudeau won a landslide majority government with 154
seats and the second-place Progressive Conservatives won 72 seats.
But in the 1972 election, the Liberals
were reduced to 109 seats while the
PCs won 107 seats.
Mr. Carson said the Conservatives should not give up and
should aim to defeat the Liberals
in 2019.
He added that in the last election, Conservatives were doing
well until about two weeks before
the election, but that things
changed dramatically in favour of
the Liberals in last two weeks.
“There’s always a possibility
of things changing and changing
very quickly,” said Mr. Carson.
“Look at the last election and the
way things changed in the final
10 to 15 days.”
Mr. Carson also pointed out
that although the Conservatives
lost the last election, they still
they won 99 seats and hold the official opposition status. The Conservatives are also raising more
money than the other parties.
Mr. Carson said if the Conservatives try hard enough, they could
perform well in 2019.
The Conservatives won 99 of
the 338 seats and 31.9 per cent of
the vote nationally compared to
39.5 per cent for the Liberals who
won 184 seats. The NDP won 44
seats with 19.7 per cent of the vote.
Last year, the Conservatives
raised a record-breaking $29-million and the Liberals raised
$21-million. In the first financial
quarter of this year, the Conservatives raised $5.7-million,
more than the combined total of
the Liberal Party and the New
Democratic Party. The Liberals
raised about $4-million and the
NDP $1.3-million during the same
time frame.
The Hill Times
Conservative list
Who is
Supporting Who
in Conservative
Party Leadership
Conservative leadership
candidate Michael Chong
• Conservative MP Peter Kent
• Former Conservative MP
Chungsen Leung
Mike Wallace
• Ontario PC MPP Ted Arnott
Conservative leadership candidate Deepak Obhrai
Julian Fantino
Corneliu Chisu
14
news democratic party convention
Canadian
political parties
should add
more star power
to national
political party
conventions
Conservative Sen.
David Wells likes
Canadian political
conventions better
than American ones.
“That is absolutely invaluable as
a political asset for the parties and
the campaigns,” said Robin Sears, a
seasoned public affairs consultant
at Earnscliffe Strategy Group, who
once served as national director of
the federal New Democratic Party
in the 1970s and chief of staff to
then-Ontario NDP leader Bob Rae
in the 1980s.
The U.S. Democratic Party
concluded its highly successful,
four-day national convention on
Thursday, July 28, to officially
nominate former secretary of
state Hillary Clinton as the
party’s presidential candidate
and Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim
Kaine as vice-presidential candidate, for the Nov. 4 presidential
election. The convention was held
at the Wells Fargo Centre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania July 25-28
and an estimated 50,000 people
attended it.
It is the first time in U.S.
political history that a major national political party has chosen
a female candidate as the presidential candidate. In 2008, the
Democratic Party also made
history by nominating an AfricanAmerican—Barack Obama—as
the presidential candidate.
The Democratic Party’s convention started on a sour note with
the news based on leaked emails
revealing that top Democratic
Party officials had plotted ways to
undermine Vermont Sen. Bernie
Sanders’ campaign to win the
Democratic Party nomination and
to ensure that Ms. Clinton wins
the party’s nomination. This story
confirmed the complaints of Sen.
Sanders supporters’ longstanding
complaints that the Democratic
Party leadership was unfairly supporting Ms. Clinton’s campaign. As
a result of this controversy, Democratic Party chairwoman Debbie
Wasserman Schultz stepped down
from her position at the end of the
convention.
The controversy overshadowed the first two days of the
convention but the mood of the
convention delegates started to
change after hearing calls for
unity and passionate endorsements for Ms. Clinton from
high-profile speakers such as Sen.
Sanders, Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, First
Lady Michelle Obama, President
Obama and former U.S. president
Bill Clinton, along with a string
of Hollywood stars and singers,
including Snoop Dogg, Lady
Gaga, Katy Perry, Beyonce, Alicia
Keys, Meryl Streep, Lena Dunham, Lenny Kravitz, and Sarah
Silverman.
Overall, the convention won
plaudits from political observers
for the way the Democratic Party
convention showcased the party’s
biggest event compared with the
Republican Party convention held
two weeks ago which was marred
by one controversy after another.
In addition to entertainment
industry celebrities, a number
of former U.S. administration
officials, high profile Democratic
Party politicians, veterans and
parents of veterans gave speeches
at the conventions
At the Republican Party
Convention, controversial businessman and real estate mogul
Donald Trump was officially nominated as the party’s presidential
candidate and Indiana Governor
Mike Pence as vice-presidential
candidate in Cleveland, Ohio.
Some pundits described Mr.
Trump’s nomination acceptance
speech at the convention as
“deeply disturbing” for its divisive
approach.
Other controversies that
engulfed the convention included
Melania Trump, Mr. Trump’s wife,
plagiarized passages from Ms.
Obama’s speech eight years ago
at the Democratic Party convention and Texas Republican Sen.
Ted Cruz’s refusal to endorse Mr.
Trump as presidential candidate.
Mr. Cruz came second in the
Republican Party Presidential
nomination contest.
Compared to the U.S. political
parties’ convention, the Canadian federal party conventions
are focused more on the policy
discussions, party constitution
debates, political training for
party workers and rarely invite
entertainers or national or international celebrities to speak at
their conventions. Also, spouses
of party leaders and former party
leaders or former prime ministers
are traditionally not given big
It’s showtime: Hillary Clinton, top, pictured July 28 at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia; U.S. President
Barack Obama and Ms. Clinton on July 27 after Mr. Obama endorsed her candidacy in a rousing speech; and U.S.
Democratic vice-presidential running mate Tim Kaine and his wife Anne Holton. Canadian political players say the
Americans know how to throw political conventions and suggest Canada’s federal parties should copy some things,
including the glitz and glam. Photographs courtesy of Hillary Clinton 2016 Facebook
roles at Canadian conventions.
“It gives a sense of continuity, sense of institution,” said Mr.
Sears. “Why we don’t do that
more effectively, I don’t know.”
Alex Holstein, a senior director with Geopolitical Monitor, an
international consultancy firm
that provides its clients analysis
on events of international significance, said that he’s in support
of giving more prominence to
former party leaders, spouses of
party leaders, and other Canadians of national and international
prominence. He added that it’s
important to get more Canadians
involved in the political process
and if that can be achieved by
spicing up the party conventions,
political parties should consider
adding more celebrity power at
their national party meetings.
“If that’s not been the tradition, then, sure, break tradition,”
said Mr. Holstein, an American
who now lives in Canada.
“It’s always good to evolve
these things and do something
different,”
Newfoundland and Labrador
Conservative Sen. David Wells,
vice-chairman of the CanadaU.S. Inter-Parliamentary Group,
attended both Republican and
Democratic Party conventions
this year. He said that he does
not agree with the notion that
more star power or entertainment
should be added to Canada’s national political party conventions.
Sen. Wells said he likes Canadian
national conventions better than
American ones because of their
relevance to Canadian politics.
“I find the Canadian ones
more interesting because they’re
more germane to the things that
I’m involved in on a day to day
basis,” said Sen. Wells.
“My base is in policy, it’s not in
celebrity. I don’t necessarily see
the need for star power or glitz.”
In comparing the two American political conventions that he
attended in two weeks, Sen. Wells
said that the Republican Party
convention was a “love-fest for
Trump,” but at the Democratic
Party convention, delegates were
not “as vocal and vociferous
supporters” of Ms. Clinton as Mr.
Trump’s were. In his view, he
said, the reason for this lack of
enthusiasm is that Sen. Sanders’
supporters were unhappy about
the bias demonstrated by the
Democratic Party leadership in
the nomination contest. Another
difference between the two conventions, Sen. Wells said, was that
at the Republican convention, the
police presence at the airport, hotel and the convention arena was
a lot more visible compared to the
Democratic Party convention.
Even though Mr. Trump is a
polarizing figure and is known
to be in favour of protectionist
economic policies, Sen. Wells said
he’s not concerned if the billionaire businessman gets elected as
the U.S. President. He explained
that no matter who becomes the
next U.S. president, the CanadaU.S. relationship will stay strong
because of geography, the trade
relationship and shared democratic values between the two
countries.
“Part of his [Mr. Trump] persona is rhetoric and in the light
of day, he will see that business
needs to act freely, we’re in a
global marketplace now,” Sen.
Wells said. “Protectionist policies
are part of the failed past.”
Liberal MP Salma Zahid
(Scarborough Centre, Ont.), who
also attended the Democratic
Party convention last week as
a member of the Canada-U.S.
Inter-Parliamentary Group, told
The Hill Times that it was the
first time she had attended a
U.S. political convention and
she enjoyed it. She said she was
excited because it was an historic
convention.
“It’s a great turning point,
and it’s a moment for people like
me who are involved in politics
because of ideas and looking for
change,” said Ms. Zahid. “It’ll be
a great moment in the history of
politics of the world.”
The Hill Times 15
hill climbers political staffers
Hill Climbers
B y L aura R yckewaert
Foreign Affairs
Minister Dion
hires a new PSA
Heritage Minister
Mélanie Joly has
also hired two more
assistants to her
ministerial office this
summer.
F
oreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion, who has been
busy this summer meeting with
his international counterparts and
responding to a number of global
incidents, recently hired a new
parliamentary secretary assistant,
also known as a ‘PSA,’ in his ministerial office.
Francis “Josh” Grehan is now
working in Mr. Dion’s office as
a special assistant to Liberal MP
Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, parliamentary secretary to Foreign
Affairs Minister Dion.
Originally from Prince Albert,
Sask., Mr. Grehan first came to the
Hill as a fellow with the Parliamentary Internship Programme last
fall. The non-partisan program was
first established in 1969 through
a House of Commons motion and
is open to university graduates as
an initiative of the Canadian Political Science Association.
Mr. Grehan has in recent years
been living and working in the
United States, most recently as
director of business operations at
OpenBiome—a non-profit stool
bank working to make fecal transplants easier, safer and cheaper—
in the greater Boston area, as
indicated by his LinkedIn profile.
Before that, he was an associate
consultant with The Bridgespan
Group, also in Boston, Mass. The
Bridgespan Group describes itself
as a “non-profit adviser and resource for mission-driven organization and philanthropists.”
He also worked as a development associate with KickStart
International for year starting in
September 2012. KickStart is a
non-profit social enterprise that
designs “low-cost, high quality irrigation pumps for poor farmers in
Africa,” as described on its website.
Mr. Grehan studied an undergraduate degree in public policy
at Princeton University in New
Jersey and obtained a master’s
degree in economic and social
history at Oxford University in the
United Kingdom. While at Oxford,
he worked for a time as an evening
shift editor at Oxford Analytica, a
“global analysis and advisory firm,”
according to its website. He also
attended the Lester B. Pearson
United World College, a two-year
pre-university school.
Julian Ovens is chief of staff to
Mr. Dion, while Christopher Berzins is director of policy, Jamie
Innes is director of parliamentary
affairs, Dahlia Stein is director
of operations, Joseph Pickerill
is director of communications,
and Chantal Gagnon is the press
secretary.
Also working in Mr. Dion’s
ministerial office are: Jocelyn
Coulon, senior policy adviser;
Jean Boutet, policy adviser;
Pascale Massot, policy adviser;
Jenna Renée Martinuzzi, special
assistant for parliamentary affairs; and parliamentary secretary
assistants Maria Lamani and
Jillian White. Along with Ms.
Goldsmith-Jones, Liberal MP
Omar Alghabra is also a parliamentary secretary to Foreign
Affairs Minister Dion.
In belated but as yet unreported staff news, Alexandre
Bellemare has been working in
the Liberal Research Bureau, also
known as the LRB, as a communications adviser since March 1. Mr.
Bellemare tackles both French
and English communications
work, but is the final approval for
all French content coming from
the LRB.
Originally from Montreal,
Que., Mr. Bellemare is a former reservist who served as an
armour officer with the Régiment
de Hull infantry reserve unit in
the Canadian Armed Forces from
May 2014 up until last March, as
indicated by his LinkedIn profile.
During roughly the same period, before joining the LRB, Mr.
Bellemare worked for Elections
Canada as an outreach adviser.
Before that, Mr. Bellemare
spent a number of years working
in the office of the secretary to
the Governor General of Canada,
David Johnston, starting in
2010—the year Gov. Gen. Johnston was appointed by Queen
Elizabeth II to serve as her representative in Canada—as a web 2.0
communications agent.
Mr. Bellemare became a marketing, web, and media relations
assistant at the beginning of 2011,
and in spring 2013 became a program officer, helping manage the
Meritorious Service Decorations
program’s civil division, among
other tasks, in this role.
He has a bachelor degree in
communications and politics from
the Université de Montréal and a
master’s degree in international
relations and affairs from the
University of Ottawa.
Brett Thalmann is managing
director of the LRB, which serves
the Liberal caucus on the Hill and
is funded by Parliament. John
Delacourt is director of communications for the research office.
Other communications staffers in
the LRB include: Marine Detraz, communications assistant;
Jennifer Kuss, communications
strategist; and Kait Laforce, communications writer.
Foreign Affairs
Minister
Stéphane
Dion, pictured
in this file
photo on the
Hill with his
press secretary
Chantal
Gagnon.
Ministers Joly and
Philpott hire new
assistants
Heritage Minister Mélanie
Joly has two new assistants
working as part of her ministerial
staff team, including Anne Carty,
who joined the office in July as a
scheduling assistant and aide to
the minister’s chief of staff, Leslie
Church, who is currently away
on maternity leave with senior
adviser Soraya Martinez filling in
during her absence.
Ms. Carty has a master’s
degree in museum studies from
the University of Toronto and
worked as an archives assistant
at the Trinity College Archive during her time at the school. After
graduating, she spent almost a
year, beginning in August 2009, as
a curatorial and arts administration intern with the Smithsonian
Centre for Folklife and Cultural
Heritage in Washington, D.C., according to her LinkedIn profile.
In the summer of 2010, she
returned to Canada and once again
worked as an archives assistant at
Trinity College until the fall of 2012,
as indicated by her online profile.
She then became an administrative
assistant at George Brown College
in Toronto and most recently was a
graduate teaching assistant, focused
on anthropology and heritage conservation, at Carleton University in
The Hill Times
photograph by
Jake Wright
Ottawa. Ms. Carty is also a former
administrator to the board of directors for the Enoch Turner Schoolhouse Foundation in Toronto.
Mathieu Genest also recently
joined Ms. Joly’s ministerial office, which sits across the Ottawa
River in Gatineau, Que., and is
focused on coordinating strategic communications. Christine
Michaud is director of communications to the minister, while
Pierre-Olivier Herbert is press
secretary.
Meanwhile, Health Minister
Jane Philpott, who is also the Liberal MP for Markham-Stouffville,
Ont., has hired Ashleigh White to
serve as a special assistant for the
western desk, providing regional
advise to the minister and her
staff team. Ms. White joined the
minister’s office as a political aide
in early July.
Ms. Philpott has been busy this
summer: attending an international
AIDS conference in Durban, South
Africa; announcing new funding
for First Nations in Alberta; and
launching a task force on marijuana legalization that will seek
public consultations until August
29, among other work.
Geneviève Hinse is chief of
staff to Ms. Philpott as minister,
while Caroline Pitfield is director
of policy, Peter Cleary is director
of parliamentary affairs, David
Clements is director of communications, and Andrew MacKendrick is press secretary. Kathryn
Nowers is a policy adviser to
the minister, as is Jesse Kancir.
Ms. White is likely now working
closely alongside Mark Livingstone, special assistant for the
Atlantic region in the office, and
Christina Lazarova, special assistant for the Quebec region.
Also working for Ms. Philpott
is Adam Exton, special assistant
for parliamentary affairs; Cindy
Dawson, scheduling assistant to
the minister; Danielle Boyle, executive assistant to Ms. Hinse as
chief of staff; and Jordan Crosby,
assistant to the Health minister’s
parliamentary secretary, Liberal
MP Kamal Khera, who represents
Brampton West, Ont.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
Cabinet communications chart
cabinet chiefs, directors of communications, press secretaries
Minister
Portfolio
Chief of Staff
D. Comms
Press Secretary
Trudeau, Justin
Prime Minister, Katie Telford
Kate Purchase
Cameron Ahmad, Intergovernmental Affairs, Youth
Andrée-Lyne Hallé
Bains, Navdeep
Innovation, Science and
Elder Marques
Pauline Tam
Philip Proulx
Economic Development
Bennett, Carolyn
Indigenous and Northern Affairs
Rick Theis
Carolyn Campbell
Sabrina Williams
Bibeau, Marie-Claude International Development and
Geoffroi Montpetit
Louis Bélanger
Bernard Boutin
La Francophonie
Brison, Scott
Treasury Board
Sabina Saini
-
Jean-Luc Ferland
Carr, Jim
Natural Resources
Janet Annesley
Laurel Munroe
Alexandre Deslongchamps
Chagger, Bardish
Small Business and Tourism
Rachel Bendayan
James Fitz-Morris
Vahid Vidah
Dion, Stéphane
Foreign Affairs
Julian Ovens
Joe Pickerill
Chantal Gagnon
Duclos, Jean-Yves
Families, Children and
Josée Duplessis
Mathieu Filion
Emilie Gauduchon
Social Development
Duncan, Kirsty
Science
Rob Rosenfeld
Michael Bhardwaj
Véronique Perron
Foote, Judy
Public Services and Procurement
Gianluca Cairo
Annie Trépanier
Jessica Turner
Freeland, Chrystia
International Trade
Brian Clow
-
Alexander Lawrence
Garneau, Marc
Transport
Jean-Philippe Arseneau Marc Roy
Delphine Denis
Goodale, Ralph
Public Safety and
Marci Surkes
Dan Brien
Hilary Peirce*
Emergency Preparedness
Hajdu, Patty
Status of Women
Monique Lugli
Nadège Adam
-
Hehr, Kent
Veterans, Associate Defence
Christine Tabbert
Norbert Cyr
Sarah McMaster
Joly, Mélanie
Canadian Heritage
Leslie Church
Christine Michaud
Pierre-Olivier Herbert
LeBlanc, Dominic
House Leader, Vince MacNeil
-
Sabrina Atwal
Fisheries, Oceans and the
George Young
Mike Murphy
Patricia Bell
Canadian Coast Guard
Lebouthillier, Diane
National Revenue
Josée Guilmette
Cédrick Beauregard
Chloe Luciani-Girouard
MacAulay, Lawrence
Agriculture and Agri-Food
Mary Jean McFall
Guy Gallant
-
McCallum, John
Immigration, Refugees
Mathieu Bélanger
Bernie Derible
-
and Citizenship
McKenna, Catherine
Environment and
Marlo Raynolds
Frédérique Tsai-Klassen Caitlin Workman
Climate Change
Mihychuk, MaryAnn
Employment, Workforce
Matthew Mitschke
John O’Leary
-
Development and Labour
Monsef, Maryam
Democratic Institutions
Ali Salam (acting)
Jennifer Austin
Jean-Bruno Villeneuve
Morneau, Bill
Finance
Richard Maksymetz
Daniel Lauzon
Annie Donolo
Philpott, Jane
Health
Geneviève Hinse
David Clements
Andrew MacKendrick
Qualtrough, Carla
Sport and Persons with Disabilities Matt Stickney
Sherri Moore-Arbour
Ashley Michnowski
Sajjan, Harjit
National Defence
Brian Bohunicky
Renée Filiatrault
Jordan Owens
Sohi, Amarjeet
Infrastructure and Communities
John Brodhead
Kate Monfette
Brook Simpson
Wilson-Raybould, Jody Justice
Lea MacKenzie
Michael Davis
Joanne Ghiz**
* communications officer. ** senior communications adviser.
Prime Minister’s Press Office: 613-957-5555
Kate Purchase, director of communications
Olivier Duchesneau, deputy director of communications
Cameron Ahmad, press secretaryAndrée-Lyne Hallé, press secretary
—Updated on July 29, 2016.
Main Office Telephone
613-957-5555
343-291-2500
819-997-0002
343-203-6238,
(PS) 343-203-5977
613-369-3170
343-292-6837
343-291-2700
343-203-1851,
(D.Comm) 343-203-5938
819-654-5546
343-291-2600
819-997-5421
343-203-7332
613-991-0700
613-991-2924
819-997-2494
(Veterans) 613-996-4649,
(Associate Defence)
613-996-3100
819-997-7788
613-995-2727
613-992-3474
613-995-2960
613-773-1059
613-954-1064
819-938-3813
819-654-5611
613-943-1838
613-369-5696
613-957-0200
819-934-1122
613-996-3100
613-949-1759
613-992-4621
16
feature terrific 25 staffers
feature events
Parliamentary
Calendar
Green Party
Leader
Elizabeth May
will speak
at the Green
Party’s policy
convention in
Ottawa this
week. The Hill
Times photograph
by Jake Wright
Cyrus Reporter. Photograph
PMO’s Kate Purchase. The Hill
Conservative Cory Hann.
courtesy of LinkedIn
Times photograph by Jake Wright
Photograph courtesy of Twitter
Green Party
to hold
its policy
convention
in Ottawa
Aug. 5-7
MONDAY, AUG. 1
Conservative staffer Gary Keller.
NDP staffer Rob Sutherland.
NDP staffer Anthony Salloum.
The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright
Photograph courtesy of LinkedIn
Photograph courtesy of Twitter
PMO principal
secretary Butts tops The
Hill Times’ 15th Annual
Terrific 25 Staffers list
Rob Sutherland has been
on the Hill since 1981.
He worked for various
NDP MPs before joining
the NDP House Leader’s
Office in 2003. He’s been a
senior staffer in the NDP
Whip’s Office since 2012.
Aside from a five-year break in the
1990s, Mr. Sutherland has been working
on the Hill since 1981, working for various
NDP MPs before joining the NDP House
Leader’s Office in 2003. He’s been a senior
staffer in the NDP Whip’s office since 2012.
“[He is] So adept at parliamentary procedure he should be added to next edition
of O’Brien and Bosc,” said one respondent,
referring to the parliamentary procedure
book named after former House clerk
Audrey O’Brien and acting House clerk
Marc Bosc.
Cyndi Jenkins, PMO Atlantic regional
desk adviser, placed 17th on the Terrific
25 list and came third for Best PMO
Staffer behind her colleague Mr. Kippen.
Ms. Jenkins has been on the Hill since
January, and before that was an aide in
Liberal New Brunswick premier Brian
Gallant’s office.
Former NDP union president and long
time staffer Anthony Salloum, a lobby officer to the NDP Whip’s Office, has claimed
18th place this year and came second for
Best NDP Hill staffer.
Roberta Webster, the member’s assistant to NDP MP Fin Donnelly (Port
Moody-Coquitlam, B.C.), ranked the No.
19 spot. Ms. Webster has been working for
NDP MPs on the Hill since 2000, including
for former MPs Jean Crowder and Chris
Charlton, and respondents cited her hardworking and “no-nonsense” approach.
Cory Hann, director of communications
for the Conservative Party of Canada, is
20th on the Terrific 25 Staffer list.
Veteran Liberal Whip staffer Mélanie
Lauzon, a committee coordinator in the
Government Whip’s Office and a staffer on
the Hill for more than two decades, ranked
No. 21 this year.
PMO director of communications Kate
Purchase reached 22nd on the Terrific 25
list, while Mike Storeshaw, director of
media relations to Ms. Ambrose as interim
Conservative leader, earned the 23rd spot.
“Always on the ball and spins faster
than a top,” said one Ontario Conservative
respondent of Mr. Storeshaw.
Meanwhile, his colleague Jake Enwright, senior communications officer for
the Conservative caucus, ranked 24th on the
list this year.
Finally, Anne Marie Keeley, chief of
staff to Conservative Whip Gord Brown,
rounded out the list in 25th place.
Also of note: Allie Chalke, special assistant for the Atlantic region to Finance Minister Bill Morneau (Toronto Centre, Ont.),
claimed the title of Best Cabinet Staffer in
this year’s Terrific 25 Staffer Survey, but
just missed out on a spot on the top 25 list.
[email protected]
The Hill Times
World Press Photo 16—Some of the best photojournalism in the world is on display at the The World Press
Photo 16 exhibition at the Barney Danson Theatre at the
Canadian War Museum, 1 Vimy Place, Ottawa until Aug.
17. Featuring 155 large-format photographs that depict
everyday life and headline news from 2015. warmuseum.ca
FRIDAY, AUG. 5
Green Party of Canada Convention—The Green Party
meets for its convention Aug. 5-7. Delta City Centre Hotel,
101 Lyon St., Ottawa. This year’s keynote speaker, James
Shaw, co-leader of the Green Party of New Zealand and
Member of Parliament, will discuss New Zealand’s shift away
from the first past the post electoral system to a system of
proportional representation. Other speakers include: Frank
Graves, founder and president of EKOS Research Associates
Inc.; David Coon, Green Party of New Brunswick MLA; Peter
Bevan-Baker, Green Party of Prince Edward Island MLA;
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May; Évelyne Huytebroeck,
member of the Global Greens European Green Party Committee; Sonia Theroux, campaign manager for Campaign
to Elect Jo-Ann Roberts, and former campaign manager for
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps. For additional information, please
contact press secretary Dan Palmer (613) 614-4916.
GG Heads to Rio—Gov. Gen. David Johnston, the
patron of the Canadian Olympic Committee, will travel to
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from Aug. 3 to Aug. 8 as Canada’s
official representative at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games,
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced last week. It will
be the first Olympic Games to be held in South America.
Canada will be sending 315 athletes and has qualified
in five team sports. The Rio 2016 Olympic Games will
take place from Aug. 5-Aug. 21 and will include 10,500
athletes from 205 countries. For more information, call
the PMO Press Office at (613) 957-5555.
Ship for World Youth Leaders Recruitment—This program
will take 242 youth leaders from around the world on a threemonth journey across the sea, including 11 Canadian youth
between the ages of 18 and 30 and one national leader
between the ages of 30 and 39. The voyage will depart in
January 2017 aboard the Nippon Maru Japanese cruise
ship and will include stops in Japan, Fiji, and New Zealand.
The Canadian Ship for World Youth Alumni Association is
organizing recruitment for Canadian delegates. The deadline
for general participants is Sept. 1, and the deadline for the
national leader is Aug. 15. The Embassy of Japan will be
hosting an information session on Aug. 5, 5:30-6:30 p.m.
255 Sussex Dr., Ottawa. Reservation is required: https://shipforworldyouthinfo.eventbrite.ca. More information about the
program: http://swycanada.org/
TUESDAY, AUG. 9
World Social Forum 2016—Downtown Montreal
plays host to this gathering, which bills itself as the
largest gathering of civil society in the world. More than
50,000 people will be present and 1,500 activites
offered, according to organizers (both online and in
person). $40. Until Aug. 14. https://fsm2016.org/en/
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 24
Hastings Plowing Match and Farm Show—Wednesday,
Aug. 24, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., 2431 Queensborough Rd., Queensborough, Ont. Hastings-Lennox and Addington, Ont.
THURSDAY, AUG. 25
Liberal Caucus Retreat—The Liberals will hold a
two-day caucus retreat Aug. 25-26 in Saguenay, Que.
For more information, please call Liberal Party media
relations at [email protected] or 613-627-2384.
SUNDAY, SEPT. 4
G20 Leaders’ Summit—Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau is expected to attend. Hangzhou, China. Sept.
4-5. For more information, call the PMO Press Office at
613-957-5555.
TUESDAY, SEPT. 13
Conservative Caucus Retreat—The Conservatives will
hold a two-day summer caucus retreat Sept. 13-14 in
Halifax. For more information, contact Cory Hann, director of communications, Conservative Party of Canada
at [email protected]
NDP Caucus Retreat—The NDP are gathering Sept.
13 to 15 in Montreal. Please call the NDP Media Centre at 613-222-2351 or [email protected] FRIDAY, SEPT. 16
Leap to Where? Elements of a Canadian Climate Policy That
Could Be Both Feasible and Enough: Thomas Homer-Dixon—
Friday, Sept. 16, 2016, 7 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.),
Carleton University, River Building Theatre (RB 2200).
Registration: carleton.ca/fpa For more information, call Cassie
Hodgins, Carleton University, 613-520-2600 extension 2995.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 17
Canadian Press/CBC Parliament Hill Open—Mont Cascades
Golf Club, Cantley, Que., (30 minutes from Ottawa). Tee
times start at 11 a.m.; best-ball format, with prizes for first
place, second place and “most honest” scores, plus closestto-the-pin and long drive prizes for both men and women.
Sign up as a complete foursome or as a single or pair. Cost:
$95, includes green fee, power cart and steak dinner. Email
CP Ottawa’s James McCarten ([email protected]) or the CBC’s Paul MacInnis (paul.macinnis@
cbc.ca) for more information or to hold your space, or reach
James at (613)231-8602 or (613)794-0848 and Paul at
(613)288-6611 or (613)293-3494.
MONDAY, SEPT. 19
House Resumes Sitting—The House resumes sitting
on Sept. 19 at 11 a.m. after a 13-week break. The
House adjourned June 17.
TUESDAY, SEPT. 20
Cabinet Meeting—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is
expected to hold a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Sept.
20 on the Hill. For more information, call the PMO
Press Office at (613) 957-5555.
2016 Canadian Inland Ports Conference—On Sept.
20-21, 2016, the Van Horne Institute will be hosting the
2016 Canadian Inland Ports Conference in Winnipeg,
Manitoba. This conference will bring together leading
experts from around the world to discuss inland ports and
their importance to their local, provincial, and national
economies. It will showcase five of Canada’s Inland Ports
located across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and BC;
as well as major Canadian ports, airports, and stakeholders. Early bird registration before Aug. 22: $495.
Registration after Aug. 22 $600. Please contact Bryndis
Whitson at [email protected] or 403-220-2114 for
more information. http://www.vanhorneinstitute.com/
event/2016-canadian-inland-ports-conference/
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 21
Liberal Caucus Meeting—The Liberals will meet in
Room 237-C Centre Block on Parliament Hill. For more
information, please call Liberal Party media relations at
[email protected] or 613-627-2384.
Conservative Caucus Meeting—The Conservatives will
meet for their national caucus meeting. For more information, contact Cory Hann, director of communications,
Conservative Party of Canada at [email protected]
NDP Caucus Meeting—The NDP caucus will meet
from 9:15 a.m.-11 a.m. in Room 112-N Centre Block,
on Wednesday. Please call the NDP Media Centre at
613-222-2351 or [email protected] THURSDAY, SEPT. 22
TD Presents The Walrus Talks Arctic—The Walrus
Talks returns to the Canadian Museum of Nature on
Sept. 22, at 7 p.m. TD Presents The Walrus Talks
Arctic features leading Canadians giving short, focused
Walrus Talks exploring the issues and opportunities that
make the North unique. Featuring Natan Obed, Jeffery
M. Saarela, Fibbie Tatti, and more. Full event details
and tickets available online at thewalrus.ca/events
TUESDAY, SEPT. 27
Senate Resumes Sitting—The Senate is expected
to resume sitting on Sept. 27 at 2 p.m. The Senate
adjourned June 22.
The Parliamentary Calendar is a free listing. Send
in your political, cultural, or governmental event in a
paragraph with all the relevant details under the subject
line ‘Parliamentary Calendar’ to [email protected] by
Wednesday at noon before the Monday paper or by Friday
at noon for the Wednesday paper. We can’t guarantee
inclusion of every event, but we will definitely do our best.
[email protected]
The Hill Times

pdf - The Hill Times

Transcription

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