Other News

Feds to rein in spending

From the Tri-City News

By Sarah Payne - The Tri-City News
Published: March 04, 2010 4:00 PM
Updated: March 04, 2010 4:06 PM

The federal government is taking an austere approach to the 2010 budget, coughing up only a fraction of the new spending that has characterized recent years under the Economic Action Plan.

Matthew Furlong
The Telegram
January 14, 2010

Canadians are having two main problems with Stephen Harper’s second prorogation of Parliament.

The first is with members of Parliament wasting government money by not doing the work expected of them. The second is with Harper’s contempt for the parliamentary hurdles necessarily faced by a minority government, and his abnormal use of a normally uncontroversial procedure.

OTTAWA –Newly elected MP Fin Donnelly (New Westminster-Coquitlam) showed up to work today on Parliament Hill along with his fellow New Democrat colleagues.

“The people of New Westminster, Coquitlam and Port Moody elected me to bring their concerns in Ottawa” said Donnelly. “That’s what I am doing here today. Over the past four weeks I have received hundreds of letters, e-mails and phone calls from constituents who oppose this unilateral shutting down of Parliament”.

HIGH-STAKES POKER: PM seems afraid to put it before House, says NDP

Prime Minister Stephen Harper may be getting cold feet about the controversial Harmonized Sales Tax.

That was the suggestion from federal NDP leader Jack Layton, who said on Saturday that the ruling Conservatives may be having second thoughts about introducing a motion to change federal tax regulations to pave the way for HST.

New West-Coquitlam: She's the Invisible Candidate, says frustrated NDP challenger

Fin Donnelly has become pretty adept at shadow boxing during the byelection campaign in New Westminster-Coquitlam.

The veteran Coquitlam city councillor said he feels like he has been battling a shadowy figure in Conservative candidate Diana Dilworth, who has refused to take part in most all-candidate debates or do media interviews.

For the environment, Fin Donnelly's the best bet in New Westminster–Coquitlam by-election

Most politicians say good things about the environment. But only one of them swam the length of the Fraser River twice to raise awareness of salmon populations and was honoured by the Squamish Nation for his efforts with an aboriginal name. Only one in this region has visited more than 100 schools to talk about the environment and been named “environmental educator of the year” by teachers who specialize in this area.

NDP candidate Fin Donnelly was given the Coast Salish name for Orca in a ceremony by the Squamish Nation 10 years ago for twice swimming the length of the Fraser River. (As if his Christian name didn’t already link him to aquatic vertebrates.)

Whether Conservative Diana Dilworth, Donnelly’s main rival in Monday’s New Westminster-Coquitlam byelection, has any unique detail in her personal history remains uncertain.

If she did have a Coast Salish name, an appropriate moniker might be: The Invisible Candidate.

“Resistance to the harmonized sales tax is growing… Not only here in British Columbia, but also in Nova Scotia and, slowly, in Ontario,” NDP leader Jack Layton told The Tyee on Friday.

“So far, Stephen Harper has largely avoided being tagged with this regressive tax increase,” Layton said. “Harper tries to say it’s just a provincial matter. That’s simply not true. And that will become clear when there’s actually a vote in the House of Commons on the harmonized tax.”

New Dems' by-election strategy is to pin the much maligned tax on Harper.

If the Fin Donnelly campaign now underway in New Westminster-Coquitlam says anything about how the New Democratic Party may run in the next federal election, the message is this: Make the HST a federal issue, pin it on Stephen Harper, and keep Jack Layton in the picture.

Fin Donnelly and Peter Julian held a press conference last week calling for a federal government inquiry into the declining sockeye salmon returns.

The Conservative government will announce the conditions of a judicial inquiry looking into why the sockeye salmon stocks off B.C.'s coast are declining at an alarming rate.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the inquiry in the House of Commons today (Thursday).

The conditions of the inquiry will be announced tomorrow by Trade Minister Stockwell Day.