Calm QP. Liberal leaving. Indian apathy.  May 2nd 2024

Chaos to calm: Question period subdued as Poilievre returns to House of Commons after ejection

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and the rest of his caucus have returned to the House of Commons, after Poilievre was kicked out for using language that...Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and the rest of his caucus have returned to the House of Commons, after Poilievre was ejected for refusing to retract a statement calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a "wacko." On Global National, David Akin looks at how the first Question Period since that ejection was way more civil, and why the tranquility likely won't last.

Is ‘wacko’ an unparliamentary word? A look at the rules on decorum

Crucially, those rules say “personal attacks, insults and obscenities are not in order,” while those same attacks and insults may sometimes be allowed “when applied ‘in a generic sense’ or to a party.”

Conservatives continue to out-fundraise all other federal parties

The Opposition Conservatives continue to out-fundraise other federal parties, bringing in millions more than all the others combined in the first three months of the year. *$10m in one quarter in a non-election year?? I'll have more analysis of the significance of this number in a future newsletter.**

Budget 2024 won’t have much effect on inflation, Bank of Canada head says

Tiff Macklem Macklem testified at a Senate committee that the spending plan hasn't changed the federal government's fiscal track by much.

'Shocked' public service unions promise to fight new 3-day in-office mandate

Unions representing public servants say they are blindsided and outraged by new rules forcing federal employees to work from the office at least three days a week. The new requirements, which take effect Sept. 9, also stipulate executives will have to be in the office at least four days a week.

Blair says he couldn't sell Canadians, cabinet on 'magical threshold' of NATO target

Defence Minister Bill Blair says it's hard to convince cabinet and Canadians that meeting the NATO spending target is a worthy goal, because "nobody knows what that means." Instead, he said Wednesday, he's tried to argue that Canada must do more to defend itself — and that will require more money.

Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny

"Unfortunately, the toxic drive for social-media likes and clips among elected officials has hindered constructive conversations, exacerbated difference between us and diminished our capacity to show empathy towards each other," Pam Damoff said in the statement.

Liberals nominate candidate for Toronto-St.Paul's

Leslie Church is the new Liberal candidate for Toronto-St.Paul's. Michelle Mackey has how she's vowing to serve her community and the legacy she hopes to continue. In 2021, Carolyn Bennett won nearly 50 per cent of the vote and racked up a 14,000-vote margin. Now, by-elections are a little harder to model but if a general election were held this month, I would expect Church to prevail by about 2,700 or 4.5 points. That's close enough that the Conservatives -- who finished second in 2021 -- have already been out campaign hard with their candidate in the riding, Don Stewart.

Voter Information Service - Find your electoral district

This is one my favourite tools at the Elections Canada Web site: A riding finder. Type in your postal code and (in most cases) it will tell you the riding that postal code is in. You can also look up a riding by community name. But with the adoption this week of new federal electoral map that will be in use in the next general election, this tool has now been updated: You have the choice of looking up a ED based on the map used at the 2021 general election (your current ED) or looking up your ED based on the next electoral map.

Strengthening Canada's Diplomatic Capacity in an Increasingly Turbulent Age

The text in this box was written by Claude-3-Sonnet based on this FAAE report. The text was reviewed by Akin

Canada's diplomatic capacity needs major boost, parliamentary report finds

Canada's ability to promote its interests abroad has seriously eroded and needs a major overhaul, according to a new parliamentary report calling for boosting the country's diplomatic ranks and developing a clear foreign policy strategy.

The House of Commons foreign affairs committee's report paints a picture of an increasingly turbulent world where Canada's influence is diminishing due to under-investment in diplomacy and a lack of long-term vision. Released Monday, the study builds on recent Senate findings about the need to revamp Canada's foreign service.

"Canada's governmental machinery must keep pace with significant changes and transformation," said the report by the multi-party committee, chaired by Liberal MP Ali Ehsassi. "Foreign policy objectives cannot be advanced without diplomatic capacity."

Among the key problems cited is a staffing drought, with the government failing to hire any new foreign service officers for a full decade between 2009 and 2019.

"That's when the chain came off the bicycle," testified one witness quoted in the report.

Three-quarters of Global Affairs Canada employees are not even considered part of the rotational foreign service, leaving "an inadequate foreign service contingent" alongside a larger group lacking career prospects abroad.

Benefits and allowance rules for diplomats abroad also remain outdated, unaltered since 1981 despite long-standing issues like spousal employment. More broadly, the report decries the absence of a comprehensive public foreign policy plan since 2005. It argues Canada needs a new strategy that balances realism about its middle-power status with an aspiration to project influence - guided by coherent principles on human rights and international law.

The committee heard evidence that Canada's cultural, linguistic and parliamentary diplomacy are underfunded assets that could amplify the country's voice abroad. The review also calls for more collaboration between Global Affairs and outside experts. Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly told the committee the world's "rules-based system...is cracking" amid a "growing international security crisis." She pledged a plan to boost Canada's diplomatic workforce and presence worldwide. The report quotes testimony that in the post-war era, "Canada had never been so alone and the international environment so hostile to its interests and values."

Intergenerational housing outcomes in Canada: Parents’ housing wealth, adult children’s property values and parent–child co-ownership

• In 2021, around one in six residential properties owned by people born in the 1990s (17.3%) were co-owned with their parents.
• Higher rates of co-ownership between parents and children were found in more expensive urban markets, such as Toronto, Guelph, Abbotsford–Mission, Vancouver and Victoria.
• Parents’ housing wealth is most strongly associated with children’s property values in Toronto, Kelowna, Vancouver and Victoria.