Ed Broadbent believes most Canadians would be willing to pay higher taxes. He has a caveat: The alleged willingness to pay is based on some assurance that the tax increase would lead to improved government social services. Broadbent is an eminence grise of Canadian social democracy. He comes by his status because he was the […]

This week, OttawaWatch will provide a few information bits about things around The Hill that might otherwise escape the outside world’s attention. *  *  * The two speakers for major events related to the 47th National Prayer Breakfast are Nazanin Afshin-Jam and Raymond De Souza. That happens to be news, if only for the fact […]

I had almost forgotten the time line. But it is now 15 years since Like Father, Like Son: Ernest Manning and Preston Manning (ECW Press, 1997) emerged from my computer, went through an editor’s mind, then a printing press, before turning itself into a book. This was a true story, written from a faith-political interface […]

There it was, in the first paragraph of one of the 20 or so news releases from various corners of Parliament, stacked in my e-mail inbox this morning. There was what? The magic word, of course. Lutherwood. It was like red meat for a faith-political journalistic beast. Like Calvin Institute, Wesley Acres, St. Patrick, Mormon […]

How often do individuals or groups, believing they are on the highest moral ground, fall into ethical lapses that bring harm to their own political or religious stance? That sort of question has been floating around the hallways of Parliament the past couple of weeks, as the “roboscam” and other related issues have been playing […]

How do you get the government to listen, anyway? Or the opposition, for that matter? One way is to very carefully prepare a brief for a standing committee, whose makeup comes from all political parties. The brief may not get much public attention, although the group presenting it may have its own ways of letting […]

Chuck Strahl is one of the new Trudeau mentors. It is quite an honour, and a good way to make use of the experience he gained in the almost two decades he spent in the House of Commons. Strahl was one of the original “class of ’93” Reformers and, in Stephen Harper’s minority government, held […]