The Liberals look like they’re going to demand the statement of operational requirements (SOR) that led to the F-35 purchase decision. Meanwhile, Embassy‘s Carl Meyer looks into the military’s claim that the SOR is classified. He questions this designation when there are a number of other SORs (for equally sensitive projects) listed on the military’s website that are marked as unclassified. The Liberals also say the government is hiding the costs on a bill to limit conditional releases; it costs $2,400 a year to monitor a prisoner on conditional release versus $88,000 to keep them in federal prison.
The government has announced it will train more than 100 doctors in rural areas – oh wait, not doctors. It’s actually third-year residents who the government hopes will stay in these rural areas once they complete their training. That’s totally going to make a dent in the shortfall of family doctors in this country. Incidentally, the NDP says the announcement is not going to satisfy that particular item on their list of demands.
The government’s talk about building democracy seems to be just that. They’ve either sabotaged or cut the funding to existing democracy-building organizations and refused to fund the new one that Peter MacKay developed and Stephen Harper touted in his last throne speech. But hey, as long as you talk the talk, why does it matter if you walk the walk?
Aaron Wherry considers four options for empowering MPs. Some are good, such as strengthened committees (but not to the point where a government can simply lay blame on a committee for legislation drafted from their recommendations as that reduces accountability), and some are not so good, such as mixed-member proportional representation. In this case, MPs would have zero accountability to the public and party mechanisms would have too much power. But hey, at least they’re ideas worth discussing.
An anonymous Conservative MP posits that people don’t care about the Bev Oda situation because fewer people have signed the petition to call for her resignation than have clicked the YouTube video for the girl from Winnipeg who sang Lady Gaga’s latest single. If this statement were correct, it would mean that only Canadians watched the video. Given that it has had more than 13 million views, I don’t think so.
Kairos is carrying on in the wake of all the controversy surrounding their funding cut in the infamous Bev Oda memo.
This post details some of the pushback against Jason Kenney’s attacks on the judiciary and his abuse of process when it comes to refugees.
Susan Delacourt continues her comparison of the American conservative movement and the Canadian Conservative government with posts comparing the use of governing by sabotage and defunding the left.
Up today, in advance of a possible election, we are expecting numerous announcements by Conservative MPs and cabinet ministers who are eager to show how much wealth they’re spreading across the country. That is, at least in Conservative ridings.
Why you can trust Xtra
