Conservative senators need to do their jobs

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at some of the machinations in a Senate committee whereby Conservative senators opted not to do their constitutional duty to amend legislation, but simply alert the government as to a problem with the bill so that they can fix it in separate legislation before the flawed bill comes into force. What is especially curious is that shortly after this was posted, a spokesperson from the Senate Leader's office called me to explain their position as having done their due diligence by ensuring that the Commons could put through corrective legislation. I don't agree, based on my own study of the constitution and the institution, but it's nice to know that it got noticed pretty quickly.

Ego and sore-loserism

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at some of the more contentious nomination contests that we've seen recently, in particular in Ottawa–Orleans, and why it's a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing – particularly the accusations that these nominations aren't open as promised, because green light processes do matter.

Profile: Knubley, the accidental, grassroots senior official

My story on Lobby Monitor today is a profile of the Deputy Minister of Industry Canada, John Knubley. Fortunately he was willing to provide me with an interview, albeit by email, and plenty of others were willing to talk to me about him, which made my job a lot easier.

The AG and the institutional problem

My column this week on Loonie Politics draws from both the recent Auditor General's report on Library and Archives, along with my own pre-Press Gallery experience of doing records management at Health Canada, and shows that there is a larger cultural problem within the public service when it comes to document retention and the responsibility for ensuring that corporate memory is retained. It was nice to revisit this part of my career, and to bring a little bit of light to a chapter of the AG's report that got very little notice otherwise.

October lobbying: CME lobby day drives 93 communications

My story on Lobby Monitor today looks at the October reports uploaded to the Lobbyist Registry to see who are the top lobby groups for the month, as well as to see who some of the top players in the government have been meeting with. I've never done much work with the lobby registry before, so it was a good challenge to learn how to navigate it, as well as to get in touch with these groups on a tight deadline. It's also a great learning experience about some of those communications on the lobby side of government, and how that works.

2014 Parliamentarian of the Year

I worked on Maclean's Magazine's 2014 Parliamentarian of the Year Awards once again this year, both in the survey process and the final interviews with finalists. While the survey process can be daunting and time-consuming, it's always a good way to get to know MPs who aren't in the spotlight, and one of the best events of the year.

Stop referring to MPs as employees

My column this week on Loonie Politics ventures into the choppy waters of the MP harassment issue on Parliament Hill, and takes on some of the aspects of the debate, and specifically to the point that people keep wondering why MPs don't have a policy that mirrors harassment policies for employees in other workplaces. The problem of course is that MPs aren't employees, and they can't fit into these kinds of schemes that other workplaces can, and I try to explore that issue a little more.

Environmental groups looking for amendments to energy bill C-22 in the Senate

I have my first piece for Lobby Monitor
up today, which was looking bill C-22 as it heads toward the Senate. Unlike most of the reporting on bills that I do, I got to focus on lobby groups and their messages on the bill as opposed to talking to the MPs who are doing the debating. It was an interesting exercise, and a good challenge going forward.

Security needs parliamentary oversight

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at Bill C-622, which proposes to create a parliamentary oversight mechanism for national security agencies in this country. Many of the arguments against this bill have to do with the canard of duplication and bureaucracy, but I show why this really isn't the case in Canada.

Private Members' Bills don't mean much for debate

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at some of the arguments being made in the debate on assisted dying, and the claims constantly made that Parliament has been seized with this issue since the Sue Rodriguez decision, and the number of private members' bills placed on the Order Paper in those intervening years as the justification. I show how that simply isn't the case because of the rules of Parliament, and what needs to happen for there to be a real debate.

Pay attention to QP

My column this week on Loonie Politics takes umbrage with a recent CBC Sunday Edition essay that calls for reporters to boycott QP rather than to give MPs and their antics any airtime, figuring that the "observer effect" is at work and depriving them of said observation will force a change in their behaviour. As you can expect, I show why this thinking is not only wrong, but suggest the way to actually have an impact on the way that MPs interact with the press with respect to QP.

The deployment vote trap

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at the demands by the official opposition for a vote on military deployments, and why that is not only bad from the perspective of our system of Responsible Government, but why it's even worse for the Opposition itself. In fact, it's nothing less than a trap set by the government, that the leader of the opposition is running headlong into.

An abiding belief in the system

I have a profile piece in the October issue of Canadian Lawyer magazine, my first piece for said publication, and I profiled Senator Mike Duffy's criminal defence lawyer, Donald Bayne, as part of their monthly "Cross Examined" feature. It was a fun and interesting piece to write, and I had great interviews with Bayne and his associates. The only regret was that I wasn't able to get a quote from former premier Dalton McGuinty, who had articled under Bayne. It almost happened, but the timing didn't end up working out until it was too late.

For want of an activist Speaker

I have a bonus column this week on Loonie Politics, which looks at the dispute that erupted this week between Thomas Mulcair and the Speaker, and some of the punditry that has arisen in the wake of it. Of course the problem isn't the Speaker himself – it's a much bigger issue, and we can't simply pretend that we can give him additional powers without addressing those broader problems as well.

The ethics of crowd-sourcing your re-election

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at the incident of MP Charmaine Borg trying to use a crowd-source fundraising page to start funding her re-election, and all of the associated problems that came up not only with her initial reward offers, but with the concept in general, and why it's a problem for our democratic system in general. It may have been an attempt at trying something new, but it certainly fell flat on its face.

Mandatory voting won't solve anything

I have an op-ed in today's Ottawa Citizen, which looks at the recent discussion on mandatory voting, and as I like to do so often with these kinds of pieces is, I work to debunk some of the arguments being made in support of such a proposal. In particular, the argument is that mandatory voting doesn't actually solve the problems that it proposes to, and I lay out why. It's a pleasure writing for the Citizen once again, and once again the story made it onto National Newswatch, which is always a treat.

Some e-voting lessons from Alberta

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at the disaster that was the e-voting system in the Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership contest this past weekend, and takes the broader look at why electronic voting – and in particular online voting – remains a bad idea for a great many reasons that are fundamental to our liberal democratic system, and why we should be sticking with paper ballots for as long as possible.

Term limits and the outsider fetish

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at the proposal that Jim Prentice made in the Alberta PC leadership race about term limits for leaders and MLAs. I not only discuss why it's a fraught proposition in a Westminster democracy like ours, but why it plays into some of the worst thinking about our system, where the fear of "career politicians" ends up making things worse and not better for accountability.

One weird and ignorant trick to restore democracy

My column this week on Loonie Politics is a bit of an object lesson for amateur pundits who believe that they have the answers to a "quick fix" for our democratic woes in this country. As I demonstrate, using one recent example, these kinds of ideas are generally flawed from the outset, ignorant of history, the reality of our system, and in taking the wrong lessons from tales of democratic woe, and as such, should be taken as seriously as spammy Internet advertising.

Candiate, educate thyself

I have an op-ed in the July 31st print edition of the Ottawa Citizen, which asks that candidates running for the 2015 federal election start educating themselves as to the way that Parliament works, and what the roles of an MP really are. It was a good way to tie into a number of other pieces I've been writing lately, along with my recent reading of Tragedy in the Commons, and I hope that it provides some inspiration both to candidates, as well as voters looking to ask them questions in debates as the election approaches.

Co-opting backbenchers

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at the increasing phenomenon of backbench MPs making spending or policy announcements "on behalf of" ministers of the Crown, and how that subverts them from their proper role in our parliamentary system, and co-opts them from being able to do their proper oversight in a rather deliberate way. It's not just bringing home the bacon if it's making your job irrelevant.

Why Parties Matter

My column this week on Loonie Politics takes issue with recent columns by others calling for the abolition of political parties, because I argue that they are looking at the wrong things, ignoring the things they should be paying attention to, and in the end, advocating exactly the wrong solution to the  problems that exist. It was also another excuse to turn to one of my favourite topics, being civic literacy, and to explaining the parts of our system that most people don't realise exist for a reason.

Declined ballots are nonsense

My column this week on Loonie Politics (a couple of days late owing to the holiday) looks at the attention paid recently to the "declined ballot" option available in Ontario and the attempt to get that made a federal option, and why it's not only a bad idea, but a fundamental betrayal of our very system of government.

Democracy, not technocracy

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at the expectations around the expert panel on the options analysis for the fighter jet replacements, along with the various calls for even more Auditor General investigations and the call for other officers of parliament and civil servants to take more of the powers away from the Prime Minister and cabinet, and notes the dangers of ceding power to unaccountable technocrats, which is antithetical to our system of ministerial responsibility and Responsible Government.

Time for a rethink on leadership contests

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at the collapse of the PC leadership contest in Newfoundland and Labrador, and the various other leadership contests underway in provincial parties across the country and posits that the chaos and bad choices that have resulted after months-long contests with millions of dollars spent, combined with the loss of accountability, means that perhaps the time has come to finally have the adult conversation about returning to a system of caucus selection with our party leaders.

Choosing a Minority

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at the absurd editorial board endorsement that the Globe and Mail gave for the Progressive Conservatives in the Ontario election, in which they called for a minority government – as though it were possible for voters to consciously choose that. Along the way, I suggest ways to change the endorsement system to better reflect our system of elections, and wonder about the kind of civic illiteracy that these kinds of columns promote.

A looming Senate crisis is history repeating

My column on Loonie Politics this week looks at the announced early departures of two Senators – three shortly after it was published – and how the growing number of vacancies in the Upper Chamber is building a repeat of the problems caused in 2009 when that glut of 18 appointments were made at once, and how it stressed the system. Plus, I got to make reference to a Dame Shirley Bassey song, so that was fun.

Not the "Master of QP"

My column on Loonie Politics this week takes the moniker that everyone seems to be throwing around lately – that NDP leader Thomas Mulcair is the "Master of Question Period" – and challenges it, being as I am probably the only journalist who hasn't missed a QP in five years. I also rate the performance of the other leaders while I'm at it (and in case you haven't figured it out, no, Mulcair really isn't the "Master of QP").

Chong’s Reform Act is a step but not a panacea

My column this week on Loonie Politics turns to the forthcoming debate on Michael Chong's Reform Act, and gives a timely reminder that while a lot of people are looking to this bill as the saviour of our democratic system, the bill doesn't address some of the root causes of the problems around leadership, and that even some of the proposed solutions are not going to be the solution to the problems.

NDP satellite offices and expanding the definition of "parliamentary" work

I have an additional column on Loonie Politics this week, which looks at the committee appearance by NDP leader Thomas Mulcair with regards to the party's "satellite offices," and how a combination of the slow expansion of what is perceived to be an MP's job, and a healthy dose of self-aggrandizement, created this situation, leaving us all desperate for a reality check.

Showing up for QP

My column this week on Loonie Politics takes the party leaders to task for their increasing absences from the Commons when it comes to QP, and the boasts by some that they're doing more work by getting out on the road rather than their actual jobs as an MP. This includes a reminder about what those jobs are, which one would think is an important consideration if they're campaigning to get re-elected.

Mandates and the names on the ballot

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at the electoral canard of conferring mandates upon political leaders at the ballot box and about voting for leaders directly – a timely consideration given some of the rhetoric around the recently called Ontario election. It's another column that serves as a bit of a reminder about our system of Responsible Government, and what it actually means when we mark a ballot, no matter what our calculation is at the time when we do so.

Beware making Parliament more "efficient" for MPs

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at some recent talk about how to make Parliament more accessible for new parents – talk which inevitably leads to people talking about how to make Parliament more "efficient" with things like electronic voting. While it all sounds good, I point out some of the ways in which previous changes to make things more "family friendly" had some pretty major unintended consequences, which is why we want to think twice before we start changing things.

A victory for the reality of the constitution

I have a special column on Loonie Politics after the Supreme Court's decision on the Senate Reference, where I wanted to go a little beyond the fact that it really wasn't a surprise outcome, but to comment on the populist calls for a referendum and how the referendum proposals to date have been rather half-baked and maybe this reference will make the would-be reformers get serious.

A bastion of desk-thumping — Question Period in Alberta

As a special vacation column for Loonie Politics, I took in Question Period in the Alberta Legislature and compared it to how things proceed in Ottawa. It was an interesting exercise to engage in, and a lot of fun to really think about how the dynamics are different, and how the lack of French exposes some of the ways in which Ottawa pays to the cameras a lot more.

We don’t need MPs in short pants

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at a rather bewildering column by Lawrence Martin in which he suggested that the PMO be stuffed full of backbench MPs, for some inexplicable reason. Because such a suggestion betrays a complete lack of civic literacy, I took the opportunity to not only correct Martin, but to provide a refresher on the real job of a backbench MP.

How are those open nominations going anyway?

My column this week on Loonie Politics revisits the issue of open nominations, and of four recent nominations that have taken place or are ongoing, three of them are showing problems that not a lot of people are talking about. That the Anders nomination has taken most attention is a good start, but there are issues in some of these other nominations that should be better explored and contextualized.

The 180: Should more Canadians join political parties?

I was on CBC Radio One's "The 180" today, where I spoke with host Jim Brown about the importance of open nominations. They were interested in speaking to me thanks to a column I wrote in January on the subject, and we had a great conversation about the topic.

Chong's Reformed Reform Act still misses the main mark

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at the second iteration of Michael Chong's Reform Act, and where he took the right cues, where he took the wrong cues, and how despite it all, he still misses the overall point about leadership selection and removal in this country. Unless that is actually addressed, Chong's bill becomes a half-measure that just muddies the water further.

Take heed with Senate transformation proposals

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at another Senate transformation proposal, this time from a Senate Liberal, which is largely fixated on turning the chamber into a collection of regional caucuses. In taking a look through said proposal, I compare it to the way things operate currently and the reasons why things exist the way they do in order to see if it would indeed be an improvement. (Spoiler alert: I'm not sold).

There are no interim first ministers

My column this week on Loonie Politics not only looks at the confusion left in people's minds in the wake of Alberta premier Alison Redford's resignation and the appointment of an interim leader to become premier in her wake, but broadens it to look at how the Reform Act could further muddy the waters around leadership and accountability in our politics.

No, we don't need any more Officers of Parliament

I have a second column this week on Loonie Politics, in which I respond to Independent MP Brent Rathgeber's suggestion that we make the Speaker an Officer of Parliament. I have done a lot of reading by scholars of our political institutions who have made the case that the proliferation of Officers of Parliament have weakened the role of opposition in our parliamentary system, and I've witnessed this with the creation of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, and felt the need to respond to that suggestion.

Sun News Network - March 19 appearance

I made an appearance on "Straight Talk with Pat Bolland" on Sun News Network this morning, where I spoke about my Loonie Politics column this week and the issue of Alison Redford and her caucus dynamics given the way the leadership process works. It sounds like they were pleased with the appearance, and they sound keen to have me back when the Reform Act moves ahead.

Redford vs Caucus

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at the situation of Alberta premier Alison Redford and the unrest in her caucus, and I tie it into the ongoing problems we're seeing in the Canadian party system with the methods of leadership selection in this country. Until we take a serious look at those methods of selection rather than how to deal with leaders once they're in place, I'm certain that we're likely to continue finding problems with keeping leaders accountable.

Inviting her to run

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at the Liberals' social media campaign over the last weekend designed to encourage more women to run for office, and how it compares to past efforts by that party and others to try and make get that engagement. It was fun to write, and to try and engage some of the scholarship on that particular topic, along with tying it into the Samara study from a few weeks ago to put it into better context.

Government is Not Both Sides

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at the wrong notion in Canadian politics that government involves "both sides" of the aisle, when in fact government and opposition each have their own vital roles to play. My thanks to Don Martin of Power Play for giving me the jumping off point to write this column.

What is the real disconnect with political parties?

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at the recent Samara Canada report on how Canadians engage with political parties, and I offer some analysis of my own, both of the propositions put forward in the report, the responses therein, and what I feel may be a diagnosis of the disconnect based on my own reading of Canadian political history and institutions.

Sackcloth and ashes for everyone!

My column this week on Loonie Politics takes a look at the current spate of stories about spending, either by Senators or with retired General Andrew Leslie's moving benefit, and even though all were within the rules, they are still being decried as wrong. Given the way with which such stories are being covered, and how the smell of blood in the water turns it into a frenzy, I wonder about the long-term damage of this particular obsession on our political culture.

MPs’ Written Speeches

My column this week on Loonie Politics looks at the political scandal in the UK where leaked emails show attempts by the Tories to stage manage their MPs in PMQ – though they at least largely resisted that attempt – and why we here in Canada need to return to the rules where written speeches were banned in the House, given the way that the quality of debate in our Parliament has declined.