Occupying a gaffe

Playing up on the whole “Occupy” movement
as she did during QP yesterday, NDP interim leader Nycole Turmel went on Power & Politics last night to suggest that Canada look at capping CEO salaries and bonuses. Wow – that just
invited a whole new series of mailouts to Conservative supporters asking for
donations to protect our industries from the NDP menace, not to mention
government shutdowns for QP later today. Meanwhile, the numbers show that our
top earners did not get richer during the recession, and the “99 percent” did
comparably better, contrary to the narrative. Not that facts or data will

change “gut feelings” about fairness.

The outgoing interim auditor general is
looking at ways to voluntarily cut his own office budget by some five or 10
percent (like everyone else is doing as part of the strategic operating
review). But will that mean fewer audits? Does this actually seem like a wise
idea?

The NDP was holding training sessions on
parliamentary committees for its new MPs – hosted in part by Judy
Wasylycia-Leis. She of the six-and-a-half-minute rants followed by a rhetorical
question during seven-minute rounds. Oh dear…

The Hill
Times
looks at what caucus support means in a one-member/one-vote leadership
race like the NDP’s. Meanwhile, this particular piece seems to paint Thomas
Mulcair as trying to out-Bloc the Bloc Québécois, with his hatred of English
road signs and a particular view of the patriation of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, after more snafus with Elections
Canada, the NDP is being forced to return all those donations made in Layton’s
memory on behalf of the still unincorporated Broadbent Institute.

And Dan Gardner eviscerates the logic behind
mandatory minimum sentences – especially as they relate to pot. Terry Milewski
of the CBC travels to Texas, meanwhile, to look at how it’s looking at alternatives to the mass incarceration that has nearly bankrupted the state, and how
many of those solutions are more effective at a much cheaper rate – something

 

our government seems to be ignoring.

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