Conservatives bow to Chinese pressure and ratify FIPA behind closed doors OTTAWA, ON – Ever since September 2012, when news of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Hu Jintao of China witnessing the signing of the Canada-China Investment Agreement in Vladivostok Russia, Green Party MPs Bruce Hyer [Read more]
Accountability is best assured by dismissing scrutiny. That is the message the Harper government inadvertently makes every time they rush legislation through the House of Commons. How else can they justify their incredible run of closure used on debate? The sad fact is the Conservatives set a [Read more]
Among the defining issues of the Conservative’s time in government is the constant march toward self-regulation for industry. In the past Canada relied on strong public regulation and oversight to ensure risks are managed to protect the public. The move away from that time-tested method has [Read more]
Green Party caucus doubles with Thunder Bay-Superior North MP’s membership THUNDER BAY, ON – Bruce Hyer, Member of Parliament for Thunder Bay-Superior North, will sit as the second Green Party MP in the House of Commons. “Becoming a Green Party MP will allow me to maintain my independence and [Read more]
The ever ballooning Senate spending scandal has been instructive for political watchers as it highlights how our democratic institutions operate in a self-policing manner that can be secretive, self-serving, and difficult for people to make sense of. Amidst the understandable public outrage there [Read more]
It’s been quite a week on Parliament Hill with most of the attention being paid to the Senate while the House of Commons largely evaded the headlines. That might change with another omnibus budget implementation bill. With time allocation immediately put in place, there is no chance this [Read more]
The Prime Minister is once again showing his contempt for the work of parliamentarians SUDBURY, ON – The Conservative government’s decision to shut down Parliament will impact the lives of Canadians, says NDP MPs Glenn Thibeault (Sudbury) and Carol Hughes (Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing). [Read more]
Abuses of confidence to end with restriction on PM’s ability to declare matters of confidence OTTAWA, ON — The Prime Minister’s prerogative to declare any vote a matter of confidence is an excessive power open to abuse and must be reformed, contends Bruce Hyer, Independent MP for Thunder [Read more]
An access to information request filed by Greenpeace turned up a letter sent by the oil and gas industry to the Ministers of the Environment and Natural Resources in December of 2011 that helps explain much of the contentious content in the budget bills C-38, and C-45. The letter laid out [Read more]
When Ed Broadbent was stepping down as leader of the New Democrat Party in 1989 he committed to one last campaign that brought about a unanimous parliamentary motion pledging to eliminate child poverty in Canada by the year 2000. Unfortunately, the will of parliament was not matched by the will [Read more]
Thunder Bay-Superior North MP to sit without party affiliation in Parliament OTTAWA, ON – Bruce Hyer is dropping his caucus affiliation with the New Democratic Party to sit as an Independent in Parliament. “I was honoured when the voters of Thunder Bay-Superior North chose me to be their voice [Read more]
Will Manitouwadge remain in Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing? Every 10 years, after the census is conducted, the number of electoral districts and their boundaries are revised to reflect population shifts and growth. Your electoral district – which is where you live and vote for your member of [Read more]
It was good news when the House of Commons unanimously passed a New Democrat motion this past week that took aim at another economic downturn. The document contained a number of measures intended to help Canada weather its second bout of recession in the last half-decade. It focused on job [Read more]
You may have heard that you catch more flies with honey. It is a simple axiom promoting civility that rings true time and again, yet it is so often missing in politics. When parliament resumed after the last election, people questioned whether the New Democrats would be able to deliver on the [Read more]
It is hard to know when the rights of an individual are important to the Conservative government. If you will recall, the official reason they abandoned the long-form census was that it was too intrusive into the lives of Canadians. The policy was apparently based on one complaint they received to [Read more]
