Canada column for Sunday, Aug. 16/15
THE CANADIAN REPORT
(c) By
Jim Fox
Stephen Harper continues to insist that he was unaware of any
arrangements to have suspended Sen. Mike Duffy’s contested expense claims paid.
Duffy, a former national TV news commentator, is on trial on 31 counts
of breach of trust, fraud and bribery.
Senior officials in Harper’s prime minister’s office were said to be
among those who knew in 2013 that Duffy didn’t pay back the $90,000 in disputed
housing and travel expense claims.
Nigel
Wright, who was then the prime minister’s chief of staff, wrote a personal
check to repay the money for Duffy, who had been appointed to the Senate by
Harper.
The
payment was described as a “deliberately deceptive scheme” concocted by the
prime minister’s office to quell a political scandal, Duffy’s attorney Don
Bayne said.
Emails
showed that Harper was briefed as his staff attempted to manage the scandal.
On
the campaign for the Oct. 19 federal election, Harper said the information he
received was that Duffy was going to repay the money and would “explain his own
story.”
---
Montreal
Mayor Denis Coderre showed his disdain at the Canadian post office’s decision
to end door-to-door delivery by blasting apart a group mailbox cement base with
a jackhammer.
“The message we’re sending today is that Canada Post will respect us,”
Coderre said in objecting to plans to erect the mailbox at the entrance to a
nature park without consulting area homeowners.
Canada
Post issued a statement saying it would work with communities to find mailbox
locations that are “safe, accessible and practical.”
The post office is switching to community mailboxes in an effort to cut
costs by $500 million a year as mail volumes plummet.
---
News
in brief:
- Polls
show it remains a three-way race as the Canadian election campaign enters its
third week. After the first election debate, polls show a drop in New
Democratic Party (NDP) support and a slight boost for the Liberals. Forum
Research put the socialist NDP at 34 percent support, down five percentage
points, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives unchanged at 28 percent and the Liberals
up two percent at 27 percent.
-
Toronto has joined Regina and Winnipeg on Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.’s list
of troubled markets. The agency said that rapid and overvalued price increases
put the cities at high risk of a housing-price correction. The average price of
a detached house in Toronto is up 14.2 percent from last year at an average of
$1.052 million. Vancouver is rated as low risk even as prices hit an average of
$1.1 million for a detached house.
---
Facts and figures:
The
Canadian dollar is slightly higher at 76.44 cents U.S. while the U.S. dollar returns
$1.3080 in Canadian funds, before bank exchange fees.
The
Bank of Canada’s key interest rate is 0.50 percent while the prime-lending rate
is 2.7 percent.
Markets
are lower with the Toronto Stock Exchange index at 14,257 points and the TSX
Venture index 571 points.
The
average price of gas is higher at a national average of $1.18 a liter or $4.49 (Canadian)
for a U.S. gallon.
Lotto 6/49: (Aug. 12) 20, 24, 27, 28, 38 and 48; bonus 2. (Aug. 8) 21,
26, 30, 31, 32 and 48; bonus 18. Lotto Max: (Aug. 7) 5, 13, 20, 37, 39, 40 and
41; bonus 28.
---
Regional briefs:
-
An aggressive wildfire forced hundreds of people to flee to safety in British
Columbia’s Southern Interior. The evacuees included about 200 campers who ran
from Kettle River Provincial Park near Rock Creek with no time to collect their
belongings including tents and trailers. The British Columbia Wildfire Service was
also asking people in 240 homes in the area to leave.
-
There was a lot of alligator and crocodile wrestling going on at a Toronto
house where someone’s pet collection got out of hand. Volunteers with the
Indian River Reptile Zoo near Peterborough, Ontario removed about 150 pet
crocodiles, alligators and caimans, all of them in good health. The owners had
asked for help with their horde of reptiles. City officials said they were
unaware of the situation and there had been no complaints from neighbors.
-30-
Jim Fox can be reached at canadareport@hotmail.com
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