Feb 11 2019 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — The Liberal government has “utterly failed” to respond to the threat of climate change, says Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, and the lone Green MP is hopeful that voters in Quebec and British Columbia will respond by giving her some company in the House of Commons in the fall.
Jan 29 2019 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — Five environmental non-profit groups are pushing back against a Conservative proposal to send the Senate Environment Committee on a tour of Canadian cities as part of its study of the government’s sweeping environmental assessment bill, C-69. Those groups “strongly oppose this proposal as it is in our view, a clear attempt to defeat Bill C-69 […]
Aug 13 2018 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — The Conservative Party will begin clawing back money from its electoral district associations after the next election, to make up for money lost when the former Conservative government eliminated the per-vote subsidy. The Conservative Party will ask the EDAs to hand over half of the money they receive when Elections Canada reimburses candidates for 60 […]
Jul 30 2018 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — It’s a week before her well-publicized Immigration Committee showdown with Border Minister Bill Blair and Safety Minister Ralph Goodale. Conservative MP Michelle Rempel is sitting in her sixth floor Valour Building office in Ottawa, fielding questions about the no-holds barred approach to politics that has helped to make her one of the most visible and […]
Jul 2 2018 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — Canada is changing its asylum system in response to the thousands of would-be refugees pouring across the Quebec-New York border, says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, while a spokesperson for Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen (York South-Weston, Ont.) says the feds’ efforts to deter economic migrants from using the asylum system are now starting to pay off. […]
Jun 11 2018 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — Republican lawmakers are pushing back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., likely making the case that the move could pave the road to his impeachment, say a former trade adviser to U.S. politicians and a Canadian lobbyist tracking the trade battle. “The only hope there is the Republican leadership […]
May 14 2018 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — But opposition MPs are up in arms over the tight timeline set by the Liberals on the House Environment Committee for reviewing hundreds of proposed changes to the bill. Liberal MPs have proposed more than 100 changes to the government’s wide-ranging Impact Assessment Bill, including to the role of energy regulators in the new environmental […]
May 7 2018 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — The government’s major new elections bill will scrap the rising cap on spending by political parties during long election campaigns, a move that could limit how the opposition Conservatives can capitalize on their long-held fundraising advantage in the 2019 election. Bill C-76, the Elections Modernization Act, will also establish a spending limit for at least […]
Apr 9 2018 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — The Senate Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committee won’t be able to examine all the ways the government’s cannabis legalization bill will affect Canada’s international treaties before reporting back to the Senate by May 1, says Saskatchewan Conservative Senator Raynell Andreychuk, who chairs the committee. “It is going to be very difficult to accomplish what […]
Apr 2 2018 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — Anonymous and illegal political ad campaigns are probably already running in Canada, thanks in part to Facebook and other online advertising platforms that make it easy to skirt laws around political advertising, say political digital marketing specialists. “If you want to influence around the rules, it’s pretty straightforward to do so,” said Stephen Carter, a […]
Apr 2 2018 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — The Senate is breaking new ground with a sweeping study of the marijuana legalization Bill C-45, with five committees tackling the legislation that would fulfill a key Liberal campain promise, and Senators are expected to lobby peers on the Senate’s Social Affairs Committee who will decide which amendments to include or leave out of a […]
Mar 20 2018 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations is calling on Senators to consider sanctioning unaffiliated Senator Lynn Beyak over racist letters posted on her website. Perry Bellegarde made the request in a March 16 letter addressed to Senate Speaker George Furey (Newfoundland and Labrador), Conservative Senator Raynell Andreychuk (Saskatchewan), who chairs the Senate […]
Mar 12 2018 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — The federal Liberal government hasn’t done enough to expand trade ties in Asia, say a top Trudeau-appointed Senator and a prominent Ottawa trade analyst, despite signing the CPTPP, an 11-country trade agreement for the Asia-Pacific region, last week. “They get high marks for ambition, but low marks for execution,” said Independent Senator Yuen Pau Woo […]
Mar 5 2018 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — MPs from Saskatchewan aren’t speaking out enough about racial tension and problems with the justice system in the wake of the Gerald Stanley trial, says Alvin Baptiste, the uncle of Colten Boushie, the young Indigenous man shot to death in Saskatchewan in 2016 by farmer Gerald Stanley. “These MPs in Saskatchewan here, I think they’re […]
Feb 26 2018 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s personal approval rating has dropped nearly 10 points since last May, but the Liberal Party of Canada has yet to take a hit, polling as strongly as it did when the Grits won a majority in the 2015 federal election, according to the latest poll from Campaign Research. The poll showed […]