iPolitics: NDP print edition - Saturday, June 18, 2011

Saturday, June 18, 2011www.iPolitics.ca

‘I see the future of our country,’ Layton tells delegatesLayton avoids a #stagefail as he shows off 103 MPs

Go to iPolitics.ca/ndp to find ...

Behind this handout is a website dedicated

to political junkies and party enthusiasts.

People like you.

Your guide to VanCon2011.

NewS of the daY, PluS aNalYSiS that tellS

You where it’S GoiNG

InteractIve features and up-to-the mInute

poLItIcaL coverage

PhotoS, GallerieS, aNd PhotofilmS

a specIaL subscrIptIon offer

Visit us Monday for yourdownloadable souvenir booklet

of VANCON2011KYle hamiltoN

COLIN HORGAN

flanked by the biggest ever fed-eral New democrat caucus,

NdP leader Jack layton reiter-ated his campaign promises to delegates in Vancouver friday.

“You are the reason the New democrats are Canada’s offi-cial opposition,” layton told the crowd assembled at long tables in Vancouver’s Convention Cen-tre. he praised the grassroots

organizers and volunteers for their time and for opening their wallets, quipping, “apparently i’m trusted with people’s wallets, so if you could pass those down.”

as he did during the election campaign, layton repeated the core policy points of the NdP platform. health care, pensions, a cleaner environment, and sup-port for small business all amount to “an alternative that amounts to leadership the Canadian people can trust,” he said.

layton also repeated what is quickly becoming a mantra: New democrats are not only in ottawa to oppose the government, but to propose new legislation and new

ideas.The NdP are ready to “take the

next step and be ready in four years to become the government of Canada,” layton said, to cheers from the crowd.

over the weekend, delegates will debate a number of resolu-tions, including a change to the preamble of the party’s constitu-tion. delegates will also vote on a resolution about Canada’s in-volvement in libya.

if the party’s constitutional preamble is changed, it will eliminate the words “demo-cratic socialism” from the docu-ment. at a press conference on friday, former NdP leader ed

Broadbent declined to comment on the change, saying he would “discreetly withdraw” from the question.

layton will also face a leader-ship vote on Sunday, though the outcome is hardly in question.

on twitter, delegates and NdP supporters expressed their excite-ment in 140-character bursts, and uploaded pictures of layton on stage backed by the 103 elected mPs.

“it’s wonderful to see so many familiar faces and so many new ones, too,” layton said. “i just hope this stage is strong enough to hold all our caucus members.”

it was.

iPolitics-ndpconvention-saturday.indd 1 11-06-17 8:43 PM

Good Saturday morning to you. So it’s like the end of school on

Parliament hill, what with the all the end-of-year reports and excuse making.

ethics Commissioner mary dawson used her annual report to flag obstacles her office has run into as it investigates ethics com-plaints against public office hold-ers. “i have encountered some difficulties in receiving timely or adequate access to relevant docu-ments,” she explains.

duff Conacher of democracy watch says dawson is just making excuses. “her enforcement record is as bad as the former disgraced integrity commissioner,” he said with a nod to the work of Chris-tiane ouimet. “her disclosure re-cord is worse.” dawson is just past the midway point of her mandate.

Christiane ouimet pledged to educate Canadians and civil ser-vants about the newly established

Public Sector integrity Commis-sion when she took its helm in 2007. it now appears she did so — just not in the way one might have anticipated. in its first an-nual report to Parliament since ex-commissioner ouimet was chased from office, PSiC says it has re-ceived an unprecedented number of disclosures, reprisal complaints, and public inquiries. also up? The number of people looking to work for the commission.

Canada’s information watchdog used her annual report to call for a rehaul of the access to information act. Suzanne legault promised to report back with more details on the deficiencies of the access law.

Public servants are clearly wor-ried about the “hardening rhetoric” of the government toward pub-lic sector workers. according to a memorandum issued friday to Public Service alliance of Canada members, PSaC national president John Gordon met this week with treasury Board President tony Clement to relay “concerns and anxieties” and to press for details

about the government’s plans. Clement did not offer details, but Gordon urged him to respect the principles of collective bargain-ing and consultation. he advised Clement that members would con-tinue to mobilize against deep cuts. The federal government is conduct-ing a sweeping operational and strategic review to slash $4 billion annually from program spending.

Six names and counting as the Progressive Conservatives in al-berta invite paperwork from those with a mind to replacing alberta Premier ed Stelmach. on the unof-ficial list of so far: Gary mar, rick orman, doug Griffiths, alison redford, doug horner and ted morton.

more on spending … a report from dean Beeby of the Canadian Press friday afternoon suggests the Privy Council broke its own rules on hospitality expenditures.

Some key numbers from the in-ternal report:

2,100: Number of hospitality claims considered.13: Number of months reviewed.

$340,000: amount spent on hospitality. $160: average claim.Bottomline? as the government

has made repeatedly made clear, it expects employees to get the oK before they even think of running up a tab. it didn’t happen.

Every weekday morning, The Morning Brief goes beyond head-lines to start conversations about the legislative, regulatory, political and policy developments that mat-ter most to businesspeople, profes-sionals, politicians, public servants, political activists, and the people who just enjoy all things political. To sign up for a free trial of our daily bulletin, go to www.ipolitics.ca.

GENERIC DRUGSSAME QUALITY

BETTER PRICE

CGPA

CANADA’S GENERICPHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY

www.canadiangenerics.ca

MANUFACTURING FOR EXPORTGeneric pharmaceutical companies export more than 40% of domestic production to more than 115 countries worldwide. Most of the pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity in Canada is owned and operated by the generic pharmaceutical industry.

INVESTING IN RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENTThe generic pharmaceutical industry employs approximately 10,000 Canadians and invests $615 million annually in scienti�c jobs, research and development.

INNOVATING FOR SAVINGS Generic drugs are dispensed to �ll 58 percent of all prescriptions in Canada, yet account for only 26 percent of the $22 billion Canadians spend annually on prescription medicines.

wake up to the morning Brief.

saturdaY, June 18, 2011

The most important email of the day.


COLIN HORGAN

Step aside, Preston manning. ed Broadbent has announced the

formation of a new social demo-cratic institute.

Broadbent, who led the NdP from 1979 to 1989, says the institute will be a way to reach out to people for more ideas while bringing to-gether practicality and idealism. with the NdP sitting as the official opposition in a majority Parlia-ment, Broadbent says it is time to

develop long-range ideas.he hopes to have the institute

up and running by the fall. it will operate as an NGo, raising funds from organizations but initially drawing start-up money from the NdP.

on its face, the Broadbent in-stitute appears to be the social democratic answer to the manning

institute, founded by former re-form leader, Preston manning.

asked if the new Broadbent insti-tute would train staff for the NdP, Broadbent dodged. “we can devel-op certain ideas, certain policies for the future,” he said. “it’s the party that has to decide, not me, not the institution.”

Broadbent said his institute will focus on how Canada can retain the benefits of a market economy while solving the growing social and eco-nomic equality in the country.

on his way out of the press con-ference, a reporter asked Broad-bent for his thoughts on suggested changes to the party’s constitution-al preamble.

replied Broadbent: “i think there are some questions that i will dis-creetly withdraw from.”

James BaxterEditor and Publisher

Jim AndersonDeputy Publisher

Susan AllanExecutive Editor

Jessie WillmsGraphic Designer

Kyle HamiltonPhotojournalist

Head officeWorld Exchange Plaza45 O’Connor St., Suite 530Ottawa, K1P 1A4613.216.9638

What’s on

11 a.m.: Campaign 20111:30 p.m.: darrell dexter

Sundaynoon: Jack layton speech

Mission: iPolitics is independent, non-partisan and committed to providing timely, relevant, insightful news coverage to those whose professional or personal interests require that they stay on top of political developments in Ottawa and the provinces.


Saturday9 a.m.: Speech by Ken Georgetti

4:15 p.m.: The Next Generation of leadership

2:15 p.m.: Stephen lewis

Ed Broadbent announces formation of new social democratic institute

KYle hamiltoN

NDP looks to outrun Conservatives in fundraisingkAtHLeeN HARRIS

the NdP fundraising machine is gearing up to catch up with

the Conservatives — and ulti-mately outpace them.

outlining the party’s finances at the Vancouver convention, nation-al treasurer rebecca Blaikie said the NdP will reap a 40-per-cent increase in public funds this year thanks to last month’s electoral breakthrough. But she warned the party must devise new ways to re-place these funds as the Conserva-tives move to phase out per-vote public subsidies by 2015-2016.

“The goal is clear: match the Conservative Party donor for donor, and dollar for dollar un-til we’ve not only closed our

fundraising gap, but reversed it,” she said.

The party received 4,508,474 votes may 2, which means more than $9 million in the bank through $2-per vote subsidy.

Blaikie said these funds will be used prudently. The party will take steps to capitalize on wins in Quebec, building a network of do-nors across the province.

Blaikie stressed the need to build on existing successes, pointing to a fundraising initiative in which the federal party matched 50 cents of every dollar raised at the local level. more than 130 riding asso-ciations took part and raised hun-dreds of thousands of dollars.

“it was a strong signal that the federal party supports the

grassroots – and because of this initiative our local campaigns were the best resourced in our party’s history,” she said.

Blaikie also reported the NdP raised $3.1 million in the course of the five-week election cam-paign — an increase of 50 per cent from the 2008 campaign. about $1.4 million of that was raised online.

while final bills and invoices are still being tallied and pro-cessed, total forecast spending for the campaign was $21.35 million, with forecast fundraising revenues at $23.19 million.

The NdP’s legacy debt now sits at about $6.35 million.

[email protected]

KYle hamiltoN


WHEREENERGYMEETSNATURE

We will plant a tree for every tree we remove.

It’s a bold promise but one that will play an integral role for our company into the future. For every tree we remove to expand our operations we will plant a tree as part of our Neutral Footprint program. It’s commitments like this that will help ensure that future generations continue to enjoy our natural spaces.

Enbridge delivers more than the energy you count on. We deliver on our promise to help make communities better places to live. It’s part of the reason we were named one of the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World.

Visit www.enbridge.com/NeutralFootprint to learn more.

KM YC

3

sg/di

PROJECT: 0836101 May/June Ads FILE NAME: 0836101 Planters_ipolitics_7.5x10.indd EXECUTION: 0836101 Planters_ipolitics_7.5x10.pdf TRIM SIZE: 7.5x10” BLEED: .5”INSERTION DATE: ??

0836101 Planters_ipolitics_7.5x10.indd 1 16/06/11 1:40 PM



iPolitics: NDP print edition - Saturday, June 18, 2011

Documents

Transcript of iPolitics: NDP print edition - Saturday, June 18, 2011