By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: 

In the House of Commons Monday, Jason Kenney denied that the Harper Conservatives implemented the 15% wage rule, the cornerstone of the scandal-ridden federal Temporary Foreign Work Program. The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration denied that the government implemented this colonialism-style policy, which gave companies “greater flexibility” to hire cheap foreign workers while denying Canadians the jobs they are entitled to.

As if that wasn’t foul enough, the Conservatives have also tried to erase from the Internet some of the official government communication relating to this policy.

By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive:

Tex of NDP leader Thomas Mulcair‘s prepared speech, delivered to delegates to the New Democrats’ biennial policy convention in Montreal on Saturday.

Thank you very much.

Look at this crowd. What energy.

Thousands of New Democrats from coast-to-coast-to-coast.

From the Northwest Territories to Southern Ontario.

From Victoria to the coast of Labrador.

From the centre of Manitoba to all across Quebec.

This is the party that speaks for Canadians.

This is the party that fights for Canadians.

And this is the party that gets results for Canadians.

By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive:

Oh, crap! The looming NDP-Liberal battle to replace Stephen Harper and the Conservatives in 2015 is only a family feud. Soon-to-be Liberal leader, Justin Trudeau and Thomas Mulcair, the leader of the New Democrats, are distant cousins, according to Ancestry.ca.

Their connection goes back 400 years to Mathieu Amiot and Marie Miville, their shared eighth great-grandparents.

The Official Opposition leader’s private members’s bill seeks to reign in the belligerent Harper Conservatives.

By Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive, Feb. 25, 2013:

PBO Kevin Page. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

The CBC News is reporting that NDP leader Tom Mulcair will table a private member’s bill on Monday evening calling for the strengthening the mandate of the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

“The Opposition leader will squeak in the bill in the hours ahead of a Monday evening deadline to get his PMB to the Order Paper,” the CBC reports.

On Friday, the CBC had reported that this bill “will almost certainly be Mulcair’s only opportunity to present a bill to the House before the next federal election.”

by Obert Madondo:

Chief Theresa Spence (Centre) on Parliament Hill, Day 1 of her hunger strike

Pressure is mounting on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to tear down his stubborn wall of silence over hunger striker Chief Theresa Spence. First Nations leaders, the opposition, unions, the media, grassroots movements and individuals are urging Harper to meet with the Attawapiskat First Nation chief  as her indefinite protest reaches the mid-point of its second week.

Jack Layton

Conservative MP Rob Anders is “a politician who isn’t afraid to speak his mind”. Supposedly. He once called South African anti-apartheid icon, Nelson Mandela, a “terrorist“.  But this time, the Calgary West MP went too far. During an interview with iPolitics’ Laura Stone, Anders suggested that NDP Leader, Thomas Mulcair, helped push Jack Layton into an early grave.

This is what Anders said:

I actually think one of the great stories that was missed by journalists was that Mr. Mulcair, with his arm twisted behind the scenes, helped to hasten Jack Layton’s death.

 

It was very clear to me watching the two of those gentlemen in the front benches, that Jack Layton was ill and that Mr. Mulcair was making it quite obvious that if Jack wasn’t well enough to fight the campaign and fight the election that he should step aside, and that because of that, Mr. Layton put his life at risk to go into the national election, and fight it, and did obviously an amazing job considering his state of health, and that he did that partly because of the arm-twisting behind the scenes by Mulcair and then subsequently died.

Of course, as politicians always do, Anders has apologized for the insult. And Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office has distanced itself from the comments:

To be clear, Mr. Anders’ comments regarding Jack Layton in no way represent the views of @pmharper or the Government.

— Andrew MacDougall (@PMO_MacDougall) October 1, 2012

Read more from iPolitics.

The poll by Toronto-based Forum Research Inc is bad news for Tom Mulcair and the NDP. Real bad news for Canadian democracy.

According to the National Post:

With these voting intentions, an election today would see the Tories take 140 seats for a minority in Parliament while the NDP would grab 114 seats. Just last month, those surveyed would have handed the NDP 128 seats, giving them a minority, while the Conservatives would have gotten 114 seats.

Still, there’s the option of a strategic electoral pact with the Liberals (22%). In fact, such a pact could include the NDP’s ideological brethren – the Bloc Quebecois (6%) and the Greens (4%).

Harper has overstayed his welcome. He cannot be allowed to stay in power beyond the 2015 federal election.

Finally, British Columbia Premier Christy Clark has taken a public position on the Northern Gateway pipeline!

Enbridge, the company behind the condemned pipeline through her province “has some pretty important questions to answer” following revelations of its inept handling of a July 2010 spill in Michigan. The spill dumped more than 3-million litres of crude oil into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River and adjoining wetlands.

Clark’s words:

“I think the company should be deeply embarrassed about what unfolded. If they think they’re going to operate like that in British Columbia – forget it. That kind of spill that happened in Michigan is not acceptable in British Columbia.”

What took Clark so long? The provincial NDP is strongly against the pipeline. Federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair just made his position clear: the report is the “final nail in the coffin” for the Northern Gateway Pipeline. He wants it killed.

Still, the Premier has put Enbridge on notice. That’s a good thing. That’s leadership.