The premier of New Brunswick looks eager to
sign off on Harper’s disastrous Senate reform plans, and he’s willing to table
some “consultative elections” legislation like Alberta’s (which, I will remind
you, is a giant farce). Of course, we’ll see how he feels once it occurs to him
that under said law, his province would be required to pick up the tab for such
a meaningless gesture of a “consultative election” – which is one of the reasons
Saskatchewan opted not to put its own “consultative election” legislation into
action. (Also, here is Stéphane Dion’s speech as to why the Liberals are not
supporting the reform bill, which lays out some very good constitutional arguments against it).
The CBC has learned that the government
will be laying out a small-business tax-credit program aimed at job creation
on Tuesday.
Alberta is about to have a new premier: Alison Redford,
the province’s first female premier. Maclean’s
Colby Cosh gives a great analysis of the leadership race here.
In case you missed the news, Paul Dewar has announced his intention to run for the NDP leadership. In a piece in the Ottawa Citizen, Dewar credits his
Catholic faith for his interest in politics.
Brian Topp, meanwhile, gained the endorsement – and campaign contributions – of several high-profile Canadian
actors, thanks to his work with their union, ACTRA.
Michael Geist breaks down some of the issues with the re-tabled copyright bill.
Criminologist Justin Piché looks at the
provincial capacity for new jails, which are trying to deal with their current
overcrowding before the new tough-on-crime legislation comes into play. Many provinces haven’t looked at what the impact of the new
bills will be for them. This could prove to be a problem.
A newly released book about the Afghan conflict lays
out some of the secretive games the PMO was playing – even keeping Peter MacKay
out of the loop on some of it.
And Mitchel Raphael of Maclean’s posts some pictures of the politicians at the Egale
Canada gala, including Senator Nancy Ruth.
