New Democrat Peter Julian, the Member of Parliament for Burnaby-New Westminister will be hosting the launch of the film tour for Paul Manly's You, me and the SPP: Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule.
It is going to be tonite in Room 200, West Block, Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
SPP stands for the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.
WFDS
Showing posts with label Parliament Hill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Parliament Hill. Show all posts
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
912...Political Staffers Make Too Much Money
From the Regina Leader-Post comes the story that NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter is calling for political staffers' wages to be rolled back.
If you work on the Hill, a constit office, Mr. Lingenfelter is gunning for you and your pay cheque. And you know how this stuff works, if one province decides to freeze pay for you, they all will. Soon that 7 dollars an hour you are making [add it up, how many of your friends outside of politics are on call 100 hours a week?] will seem like the good old days.
In his first official press conference since being elected as an MLA in a byelection Monday night, Mr. Lingenfelter took particular aim at salaries received by some of those who work for cabinet ministers.
You know, I think that Mr. Lingenfelter, like the people who brought in donation and spending limits for elections, I think that his heart is in the right place. His brain though is not.
It is really undemocratic to pay those of you who work on the Hill less than the rates paid off the Hill. And it is elitist. If Mr. Lingenfelter de professionalizes the industry the only ones who will be available to work for politicians are those who don't really need the money: young adults who come from a background of privilege, trust funders, members of the elites. From the look of the young staffers on the Hill we may actually be at that point in Ottawa now.
In the same way that professionalizing the Olympics made the Olympics more open to all classes of people and made sport more egalitarian, offering careers and proper wages to those who support MPs, MLAs, MNAs etcetera is the best way of ensuring that the people who support our elected members are more representative of the community as a whole.
Ditto election spending limits; Obama couldn't happen in Canada.
WFDS
If you work on the Hill, a constit office, Mr. Lingenfelter is gunning for you and your pay cheque. And you know how this stuff works, if one province decides to freeze pay for you, they all will. Soon that 7 dollars an hour you are making [add it up, how many of your friends outside of politics are on call 100 hours a week?] will seem like the good old days.
In his first official press conference since being elected as an MLA in a byelection Monday night, Mr. Lingenfelter took particular aim at salaries received by some of those who work for cabinet ministers.
You know, I think that Mr. Lingenfelter, like the people who brought in donation and spending limits for elections, I think that his heart is in the right place. His brain though is not.
It is really undemocratic to pay those of you who work on the Hill less than the rates paid off the Hill. And it is elitist. If Mr. Lingenfelter de professionalizes the industry the only ones who will be available to work for politicians are those who don't really need the money: young adults who come from a background of privilege, trust funders, members of the elites. From the look of the young staffers on the Hill we may actually be at that point in Ottawa now.
In the same way that professionalizing the Olympics made the Olympics more open to all classes of people and made sport more egalitarian, offering careers and proper wages to those who support MPs, MLAs, MNAs etcetera is the best way of ensuring that the people who support our elected members are more representative of the community as a whole.
Ditto election spending limits; Obama couldn't happen in Canada.
WFDS
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
904...Lansdowne Park
A park in Ottawa about 3 kms south of Parliament Hill, Lansdowne has been a park since 1868 and has had a stadium since 1889. Last refitted completely in the mid 1960's the time has come to redo Lansdowne.
My friend and Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi sent me a note with a list of meeting places next week that will be dealing with this issue, an issue that doesn't just impact Ottawa but also impacts the country.
Monday, September 28, 6 to 9 p.m.
Lansdowne Park, Salon A
1015 Bank Street
Tuesday, September 29, 6 to 9 p.m.
Ron Maslin Playhouse, Lobby
1 Ron Maslin Way, Kanata
Wednesday, September 30, 6 to 9 p.m.
Ottawa City Hall, Jean Pigott Place
110 Laurier Avenue West
Thursday, October 1, 6 to 9 p.m.
Jim Durrell Complex, Elwood Hall
1265 Walkley Road
Monday, October 5, 6 to 9 p.m.
Tom Brown Arena, Hall
141 Bayview Road
Tuesday, October 6, 6 to 9 p.m.
Shenkman Arts Centre, Lower Lobby
245 Centrum Boulevard, Orléans
My friend and Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi sent me a note with a list of meeting places next week that will be dealing with this issue, an issue that doesn't just impact Ottawa but also impacts the country.
Public Consultation Schedule
Monday, September 28, 6 to 9 p.m.
Lansdowne Park, Salon A
1015 Bank Street
Tuesday, September 29, 6 to 9 p.m.
Ron Maslin Playhouse, Lobby
1 Ron Maslin Way, Kanata
Wednesday, September 30, 6 to 9 p.m.
Ottawa City Hall, Jean Pigott Place
110 Laurier Avenue West
Thursday, October 1, 6 to 9 p.m.
Jim Durrell Complex, Elwood Hall
1265 Walkley Road
Monday, October 5, 6 to 9 p.m.
Tom Brown Arena, Hall
141 Bayview Road
Tuesday, October 6, 6 to 9 p.m.
Shenkman Arts Centre, Lower Lobby
245 Centrum Boulevard, Orléans
WFDS
Monday, September 21, 2009
892...The Colder It Gets In The Hotter It Gets
Mid morning in Ottawa, last day of summer, and even though the high is going to be 23 right now it is a drafty 5.
As a veteran of this town I know that the colder it gets in Ottawa the hotter it gets in Ottawa.
This week is going to be warmish during the days and coldish at night therefore I predict that it will be a mellow week, a week that is spent doing the end of summer things but next week when it snaps cold the Hill will get hot.
WFDS
As a veteran of this town I know that the colder it gets in Ottawa the hotter it gets in Ottawa.
This week is going to be warmish during the days and coldish at night therefore I predict that it will be a mellow week, a week that is spent doing the end of summer things but next week when it snaps cold the Hill will get hot.
WFDS
Sunday, September 20, 2009
889...Elizabeth May: This Time I Mean It
The leader of the Green Party has been strangely absent from the on going crisis on the Hill in Ottawa.
At least that is what I thought.
Wrong again, World Famous, wrong again.
Ms. May was absent because she was relocating to her new home, in Saanich-Gulf Islands, the riding that she had to fight the whiny Stuart Hertzog in a nomination process that culminated in her victory yesterday on Vancouver Island.
She told Brian Hutchinson of the National Post that ‘‘'I'm getting kind of a bad rap. Oooh, she moves here, she moves there.'" But this time, she says, she has found a riding that she will stick to. To that end on Monday, the furniture arrives and the Green leader will move into her new home. The house is rented, but the move, she insists, is quite permanent.
Although I am the farthest thing from a fan of either the Green Party or Ms. May and I think Ms. May is a kamikaze pilot and her campaign is going to crash going against the Minister of Sport, Gary Lunn, if she sticks around, puts down roots, becomes a local community activist, well, y'never know, do you? I mean, it ain't going to happen this time for her, I will bet you any money honey, any, but if she sticks around for the election after the next election it may happen for her.
WFDS
At least that is what I thought.
Wrong again, World Famous, wrong again.
Ms. May was absent because she was relocating to her new home, in Saanich-Gulf Islands, the riding that she had to fight the whiny Stuart Hertzog in a nomination process that culminated in her victory yesterday on Vancouver Island.
She told Brian Hutchinson of the National Post that ‘‘'I'm getting kind of a bad rap. Oooh, she moves here, she moves there.'" But this time, she says, she has found a riding that she will stick to. To that end on Monday, the furniture arrives and the Green leader will move into her new home. The house is rented, but the move, she insists, is quite permanent.
Although I am the farthest thing from a fan of either the Green Party or Ms. May and I think Ms. May is a kamikaze pilot and her campaign is going to crash going against the Minister of Sport, Gary Lunn, if she sticks around, puts down roots, becomes a local community activist, well, y'never know, do you? I mean, it ain't going to happen this time for her, I will bet you any money honey, any, but if she sticks around for the election after the next election it may happen for her.
WFDS
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
739...Pride Week Continues
Don't forget the parade this Sunday, rolling by Parliament Hill.
Look for me in the rainbow sombrero marching with our great MPP Yasir Naqvi, fellow CKCUer Emily O and other positive members of our community.
Clay Aiken was not available for comment.
WFDS
Look for me in the rainbow sombrero marching with our great MPP Yasir Naqvi, fellow CKCUer Emily O and other positive members of our community.
Clay Aiken was not available for comment.
WFDS
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
733...Pride Week In Ottawa
The gay kind.
The parade by the way is this Sunday; look for me marching with Yasir Naqvi, with my rainbow colour sombrero, with sequins of course. The parade basically goes down Wellington Street past the Hill and meanders down Elgin Street to City Hall.
Clay Aiken was not available for comment.
WFDS
The parade by the way is this Sunday; look for me marching with Yasir Naqvi, with my rainbow colour sombrero, with sequins of course. The parade basically goes down Wellington Street past the Hill and meanders down Elgin Street to City Hall.
Clay Aiken was not available for comment.
WFDS
Thursday, August 13, 2009
666...Inside Baseball
In yesterday's Globe and Mail Adam Radwanski warns the Liberals against, my turn of a phrase here, playing too much inside baseball this political cycle.
By that term I mean to say that I interpret Mr. Radwanski's article, headlined Perception Versus Reality, to mean that the Liberal Party of Canada has to be careful in how it perceives that it is perceived by the electorate. On Parliament Hill and in Toronto, where a ton of Liberal MPs come from, the Tories are thought of as uber partisan, off putting and ineffective. To a sentient person it is a no brainer who to support at the ballot box next time out. That is the folly of playing inside baseball. Sure this may be the reality but the fact of the matter is Canadians, especially those off the Hill, don't pay that close attention to the day to day activities in government and are not driinking the same Kool Aid as members of the Big Red Machine.
PVR.
WFDS
By that term I mean to say that I interpret Mr. Radwanski's article, headlined Perception Versus Reality, to mean that the Liberal Party of Canada has to be careful in how it perceives that it is perceived by the electorate. On Parliament Hill and in Toronto, where a ton of Liberal MPs come from, the Tories are thought of as uber partisan, off putting and ineffective. To a sentient person it is a no brainer who to support at the ballot box next time out. That is the folly of playing inside baseball. Sure this may be the reality but the fact of the matter is Canadians, especially those off the Hill, don't pay that close attention to the day to day activities in government and are not driinking the same Kool Aid as members of the Big Red Machine.
PVR.
WFDS
Monday, July 13, 2009
504...Give The People What They Want
Jennifer Ditchburn scribbles in this morning's Winnipeg Free Press that the people, that is you and I, are sick of minority governments and that a Harris-Decima Poll shows that 64 per cent of us what a majority.
Let's get with it folks, vote Red, make it happen.
In a related story, Harris MacLeod in the Hill Times, a fish wrap that caters to those on Parliament Hill, reports that "A Léger Marketing poll taken in Quebec between June 25 and June 27 had the Bloc and the Liberals tied at 35 per cent support, with the NDP at 15 per cent, and the Tories at 11 per cent."
So there is hope for us after all.
WFDS
Let's get with it folks, vote Red, make it happen.
In a related story, Harris MacLeod in the Hill Times, a fish wrap that caters to those on Parliament Hill, reports that "A Léger Marketing poll taken in Quebec between June 25 and June 27 had the Bloc and the Liberals tied at 35 per cent support, with the NDP at 15 per cent, and the Tories at 11 per cent."
So there is hope for us after all.
WFDS
Monday, June 22, 2009
349...We Love To Talk In Canada
Talk.
And talk.
And talk some more.
In my town, Ottawa, we have been talking about moving the Central Canada Exhibition, The Ex, since the middle of World War Two. Still at Lansdowne Park. We have been talking about building rapid transit, a subway, something something, in this town since, minimum, the 1974 mayoralty eleciton. Still no rapid transit.
Parliament Hill is in my town and on the Hill they have been talking about buliding a superfast supertrain from Quebec City to Windsor as long as I can remember and I can remember back into the 1960's.
Here we go again.
Mike De Souza of Canwest News Services writes this morning that Joe Volpe, the Liberal Party transportation critic, says that now is the time for such a train and that it would aid in nation building. Even though they are separatists, the BQ follows the Canadian way and to that end the Bloc Quebecois transportation critic, Mario Laframboise dit "no way", unless of course, the nation you are talking about is Quebec and then what do we need a train for anyhow?
Oy f'ing vey.
Do something already.
WFDS
And talk.
And talk some more.
In my town, Ottawa, we have been talking about moving the Central Canada Exhibition, The Ex, since the middle of World War Two. Still at Lansdowne Park. We have been talking about building rapid transit, a subway, something something, in this town since, minimum, the 1974 mayoralty eleciton. Still no rapid transit.
Parliament Hill is in my town and on the Hill they have been talking about buliding a superfast supertrain from Quebec City to Windsor as long as I can remember and I can remember back into the 1960's.
Here we go again.
Mike De Souza of Canwest News Services writes this morning that Joe Volpe, the Liberal Party transportation critic, says that now is the time for such a train and that it would aid in nation building. Even though they are separatists, the BQ follows the Canadian way and to that end the Bloc Quebecois transportation critic, Mario Laframboise dit "no way", unless of course, the nation you are talking about is Quebec and then what do we need a train for anyhow?
Oy f'ing vey.
Do something already.
WFDS
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