Jun 7 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — For a few hours, it had all the makings of a classic mid-June cross-aisle cliffhanger — a high-stakes standoff over the legislative package containing many of the big-ticket measures laid out in the latest budget. Accompanied by a full contingent of his front bench critics, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre hit the House of Commons Foyer […]
May 30 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — To start with, the now-standard programming note: This week’s edition was originally going to feature the traditional post-May 24th hiatus rundown of the bills the Liberal government absolutely, positively needs to get through the House — and, in some cases, the Senate — before the legislative circuit shuts d
May 24 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — Those who, not unlike Process Nerd, tuned into yesterday’s press conference fully expecting to hear the prime minister’s handpicked “independent special rapporteur” David Johnston side with those calling for a full public inquiry into allegations of attempted political interference by China can take some comfort in knowing that, back when he first took up the […]
May 16 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — Before diving in, a quick behind-the-scenes programming note: Initially, Process Nerd had planned to take a closer look at just how the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs could investigate the prima facie breach of privilege brought forward by Conservative MP Michael Chong last week. After just a few minutes of pre-writing brainstorming, however, […]
May 9 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — Before we get rolling, let the record show that, if Process Nerd had a vote, she would exercise it — emphatically and enthusiastically — to support New Democrat MP Daniel Blaikie’s backbench pitch to formalize the “confidence convention.” She would not, however, expect it to be a one-click workaround to the inherent instability of a […]
Apr 25 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — Barring a truly exceptional eleventh-hour delay — which, when it comes to parliamentary business, can never be entirely ruled out as a hypothetical possibility — the government’s years-long push to overhaul the broadcasting regime to cover online and streaming platforms is finally going to reach the legislative finish line this week. It will happen a […]
Mar 29 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — For starters, let’s drop the suspense and fast-forward to the seemingly inevitable finale: Barring not just one, but an intricate, interlaced sequence of unexpected events, there’s virtually no chance that the upcoming back-and-forth over Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s latest budget will end on a cliffhanger: namely, the minority Liberal government losing a confidence vote Such […]
Mar 22 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — Unless (or until) one of the key players spills the details in their eventual memoirs, we’ll probably never know just how close the Liberal-New Democrat supply-and-confidence pact came to collapsing on the floor of the House of Commons just one day shy of its first anniversary. We don’t even know for sure whether Prime Minister […]
Mar 14 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — As of Tuesday morning, it hadn’t happened yet, but at some point over the next few days — possibly as early as this afternoon, but more likely later this week — members of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs will vote on whether to expand the witness list for their ongoing probe into […]
Mar 7 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — As even occasional readers of this column have undoubtedly picked up over the years, Process Nerd has accumulated a handful of very particular procedural pet peeves: referring to time allocation motions as “closure,” using “session” and “sitting” interchangeably, and pairing the words “contempt” and “parliament” for dramatic effect when decrying a government’s failure to comply […]
Feb 28 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — Given how swiftly the latest twists in the plot seem to be unfolding, it’s probably not a bad idea to start out by dropping a buoy in the timeline. As of right now, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hasn’t announced his intention to convene a public inquiry into allegations of attempted political interference by the Chinese […]
Feb 22 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — For the first time in nearly 15 years, the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner is vacant. Not, to be c lear, the lower-case office, which (at least, as far as Process Nerd knows) is still open for business as usual, but the capital-O Office of the capital-C Commissioner, which, up until […]
Feb 14 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — Let’s start with what we know: barring a wildly unlikely but still mathematically possible combination of procedural glitches (more on that later, fear not), by this time next week, Justice Paul Rouleau’s report on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s unprecedented decision to invoke the Emergencies Act in response to the rolling cross-country anti-COVID vaccine mandate blockades […]
Jan 24 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — “This sounds like a small point, and of course it is.” So writes Bill Morneau midway through more than 500 words of genteel grumbling over the state of the office in which he took up temporary residence during his tenure as finance minister. “The furniture was dowdy, the walls were bar e and the environment […]
Jan 4 2023 — Kady O'Malley — iPolitics — If the Liberals are worried that publicizing the location details of party fundraisers headlined by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or members of his cabinet could constitute a security risk, they’re going to have to convince Parliament to rewrite the current political financing laws. That, in a nutshell, is the major takeaway from a draft interpretation […]