Canada
column for Sunday, Feb. 2/14
THE CANADIAN REPORT
(c) By
Jim Fox
Canada’s Senate has been purged of its 32 Liberals who are now “independents”
in the non-elected upper house.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau took the action to remove the senators
from the party’s caucus in a move to reform the scandal-plagued Senate.
The
now-former Liberal senators say they’ve been “set free” but suggest not much
will change.
“We have agreed that we will style ourselves as the Liberal Senate caucus,"
said James Cowan, leader of the official Opposition.
The senators “will remain Liberal party members” and friends with
elected Liberal Members of Parliament, he added.
Trudeau said the move, called “bold and courageous,” will reduce
partisanship that should restore the Senate’s role as “an independent chamber
of sober second thought.”
He
has challenged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to do the same with the 57
Conservative senators.
Harper said Canadians want an elected Senate, not “a better unelected
Senate.”
---
Alyn Smith, a Scottish member of the European parliament, has mockingly
suggested a “retaliatory ban” on Canadian-born singers Justin
Bieber and Celine Dion.
That’s because a shipment of food products from the United Kingdom was
detained by Canadian inspectors.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said it rejected products beloved by
British expats, including soft drink Irn-Bru, the spread Marmite and hot drink
mix Ovaltine.
They were being shipped to Brit Foods that has stores in Saskatchewan,
Alberta and British Columbia.
It’s not an outright ban, the agency said, noting now the situation that
caused uproar on both sides of the ocean happened because there wasn’t the
proper paperwork for all of the products in the shipment.
Smith now says he was joking about Bieber and Dion.
“As a gesture of goodwill, I've sent Mr. Bieber and Ms. Dion a crate of
Irn-Bru, so they can sample our other national drink,” he said.
---
News in brief:
-
Canadian military veterans are calling for the resignation of Veterans Affairs
Minister Julian Fantino over Conservative government plans to close eight
offices. Those veterans’ office services are being shifted to Service Canada
centers and online to improve access, he said. Centers being closed are in
Kelowna, Saskatoon, Brandon, Thunder Bay, Windsor, Sydney, Charlottetown and
Corner Brook while the office in Prince George closed earlier.
-
The Ontario government will raise the minimum wage by 75 cents to $11 an hour on
June 1. It’s the first increase in four years, but Premier Kathleen Wynne said increases
will now come each year at the pace of inflation. Anti-poverty groups had been
lobbying for a $14 an hour minimum wage.
---
Facts and figures:
Canada’s
dollar remains lower at 89.90 cents U.S. and the U.S. dollar returns $1.1123 in
Canadian funds, before bank exchange fees.
The
Bank of Canada’s key interest rate is steady at 1 percent while the
prime-lending rate remains at 3 percent.
Stock
markets are lower, with the Toronto exchange index at 13,687 points and the TSX
Venture index 945 points.
Lotto 6-49: (Jan. 29) 17, 29, 36, 39, 46 and 49; bonus 30. (Jan. 25) 6,
15, 22, 23, 41 and 43; bonus 37. Lotto Max: (Jan. 24) 7, 10, 15, 23, 30, 36 and
44; bonus 45.
---
Regional briefs:
-
Ontario seniors 80 and older will have to take two screening tests in a
revamping of the driver’s license renewal program. The written knowledge test
that must be taken every two years to keep driving is being replaced with the
tests, including one of a driver’s vision.
-
One person was injured when huge rocks slid onto Highway 3 near Standing Rock,
British Columbia. Heavy equipment was brought in to remove large boulders, some
of as large as pickup trucks, police said. Earlier in the month, an avalanche
rolled over Highway 16 near Mount Robson but there were no injuries.
-
Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil wants the provincial auditor to investigate
the two-year delay and over-spending to rebuild the historic schooner Bluenose
II. The high-profile project, initiated by the previous New Democratic
government, has been bogged down by lawsuits, management infighting and
political theater, he said. The Nova Scotia icon was to have cost $12.5 million
to rebuild by 2012 but the bill now has reached $16.7 billion.
-30-
Jim Fox can be reached at canadareport@hotmail.com
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