VANCOUVER – Former Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan has won the nomination to represent the B.C. Liberals in the May election in the riding of Vancouver-False Creek. Sullivan beat out Lorne Mayencourt, who is a former Liberal MLA, and Vancouver lawyer Brian Fixter. The Liberal nomination for the riding came open after MLA Mary McNeil decided [...]
JERUSALEM – Israel says it has given the go-ahead for a gas exploration project in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau it captured from Syria in the 1967 war. Israel’s Energy and Water Resources Ministry said Wednesday it has issued a permit for the American-Israeli company Genie Energy to drill for oil on the plateau. [...]
Sprinter case gets weird — Polar bear extinction gets weirder — Ministers have busy day ahead — PS cuts ‘cruel’ and ‘inhumane’ — Pentagon takes page from Bob Rae playbook — Europe contracting; Portugal crippled by austerity and taxes double whammy…
Your browser does not support the video tag. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government is facing calls to change the way it is carrying out its public service job cuts, with critics calling the existing system “cruel” and “inhumane.” In particular, critics would like to see a change to the way the government is thinning its [...]
If you identify yourself as a Liberal or NDP voter, there’s a good possibility you’re worried right now. After seven years of Stephen Harper, the majority of you see the Canadian zeitgeist shifting right — or at least holding steady — and those of you who believe the opposite are few and far between. Conducted [...]
VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Liberal government introduced its long-awaited plan to create a senior citizens advocate Wednesday as part of a flurry of legislation that included amending the Clean Energy Act to accommodate liquefied-natural-gas proponents and officially honour Pacific salmon as the provincial fish. Fifteen pieces of legislation — the majority of which are amendments [...]
A new report warns of the perils to the Canadian economy of relying too much on the oilsands. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives study says Canada is heading towards a “staples trap,” whereby the more quickly bitumen is exported, the less diversified and productive the economy becomes. The study’s authors also warn of a [...]
REGINA – A Saskatchewan NDP leadership candidate is withdrawing from the race and throwing his support behind a competitor. Economist Erin Weir announced Wednesday that he is backing Saskatoon-based doctor Ryan Meili. Weir said the two share many of the same ideas on resource revenues, climate change, retirement security and workers’ rights. “His book, his [...]
This ought to stir the pot.
Opposition leader Thomas Mulcair is planning a visit to Washington next month to sit down with top U.S. officials to discuss issues like energy and the environment.
It’s his first official visit to the U.S. capital as NDP leader and it comes at a particularly sensitive time. Mulcair’s positions on environmental issues and the oilsands might find a more welcoming audience in the liberal Obama administration than they do in the Harper government.
In a surprise move, David Jacobson, the U.S. ambassador in Ottawa, applied pressure of sorts on the Harper government earlier this month by suggesting progress by Ottawa on the environment file likely would affect Washington’s decisions on oilsands imports.
Observers will no doubt be looking closely at the type of reception Mulcair receives for further clues as to where the Obama administration stands on issues like the Keystone XL pipeline. The White House is not used to dealing with NDP leaders because the party never enjoyed official opposition status until the 2011 election.
The Mulcair agenda in the U.S. capital is yet to be finalized. “Planning is in progress,” said a Mulcair adviser. “Democrats seem busy these days. We’ll see what we come up with.”
In the past, Canada’s opposition leaders have been warmly welcomed in Washington, sometimes even getting an audience with the president. This was true in the case of then-opposition leader Brian Mulroney — who had a meeting with President Ronald Reagan — and Liberal leader Lester Pearson, who sat down with President John F. Kennedy.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. deficit that should concern us most right now has to do with time, not money. Money can be recouped. Time just disappears.
And time is what Washington is wasting now on an utterly artificial crisis driven not by economics but by ideology, partisan interest and an obsession over a word — “sequester” — that means nothing to most Americans.
Here is the most important thing about the battle raging in the capital over $85 billion in automatic spending cuts: Republicans are losing the argument but winning the time war.
The more time we spend on pointless disputes about budget cuts no one is expected to make soon, the less we spend trying to solve the problems that confront us right now — and, God forbid, thinking about the future.
Moreover, the 2012 election gave President Obama new authority and new energy. Republicans want to place as much distance between themselves and that election as they possibly can. From their perspective, the more months we fritter away on these dumb, fake emergencies, the better. As Obama’s clout slowly diminishes, so will his opportunities to press his own priorities.
If Washington can be kept in a state of partisan paralysis, Republicans stand to gain more. The voters hoped that by settling certain questions in 2012, they could push the politicians toward problem-solving. Some Republicans in their heart of hearts even want this to happen. But if gridlock retains its icy grip on government, the president will ultimately suffer because it is members of his constituency who will be most demoralized by the failure of their votes to change anything.