giant - the hill times · 2016. 4. 19. · martha ilboudo is a freelance journalist in ottawa whose...

KIRSTEN HILLMAN/THE TRAVERS DEBATES/MAURIL BÉLANGERKIRSTEN HILLMAN/THE TRAVERS DEBATES/MAURIL BÉLANGER

$6.99 Spring 2016hilltimes.com/power-infl uence

GLOBAL FUTUREGLOBAL FUTURE

BIG TENT BIG TENT CONSERVATIVESCONSERVATIVES

EXCUSE THE DISRUPTION:EXCUSE THE DISRUPTION:

Why Hugh Segal’s worried about Why Hugh Segal’s worried about Canada’s foreign policy.Canada’s foreign policy.

Can Stephen Harper’s party Can Stephen Harper’s party rebuild without him?rebuild without him?

>>>> Uber Uber & the sharing economy the sharing economy>>>> Digital governanceDigital governance>>>> Global internet TVGlobal internet TV

GIANTWAKING AWAKING A

SLEEPINGSLEEPINGThe Liberal Party’s legacy will depend The Liberal Party’s legacy will depend on renewing the nation-to-nation on renewing the nation-to-nation relationship with indigenous MPs, relationship with indigenous MPs, says says Jody Wilson-RaybouldJody Wilson-Raybould.

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CONTENTS

Spring 2016Vol. 5 No. 2

On the cover:

Jody Wilson-Raybould Photograph by Blair Gable

KIRSTEN HILLMAN/THE TRAVERS DEBATES/MAURIL BÉLANGER

$6.99 Spring 2016

GLOBAL FUTURE

BIG TENT CONSERVATIVES

EXCUSE THE DISRUPTION:

Why Hugh Segal’s worried about Canada’s foreign policy.

Can Stephen Harper’s party rebuild without him?

>> Uber & the sharing economy>> Digital governance>> Global internet TV

GIANTWAKING A

SLEEPINGThe Liberal Party’s legacy will depend on renewing the nation-to-nation relationship with indigenous MPs, says Jody Wilson-Raybould.

COLUMNSCONNECTING THE DOTS: APEC and mental health innovation 15INSIDE THE POLITICAL TRENCH: U.S. politics, Canadian strategy 16JJ ON GENDER: First Nations children 17CANADA’S BIG CHALLENGES: Innovation and Budget 2016 18COMMONS UNCORKED: Canadian whisky 79

THE AGENDAMeet TPP negotiator Kirsten Hillman 6Parliamentary Poet Laureate 8Protection Charter for Canadians abroad 10Upcoming events 12

IDEASTHE ESSAY: Digital governance 66All politics is local by HUW WILLIAMS 63Canada’s global agenda by GINA COSENTINO 70Protecting Quebec’s English-speaking minority community 72

PEOPLESPOTLIGHT: Veteran Liberal David Smith says goodbye 54VISUAL CV: Mauril Bélanger’s strong sense of community 56

PLACESWHEN IN: NDP MP Niki Ashton talks about her Churchill-Keewatinook Aski, Man., riding 62

CULTURETravers Debates a must-attend event on social political calendar 74THREE WORDS: Hill staffers talk about what their days are like 7820 QUESTIONS: The NDP’s Pierre-Luc Dusseault is still the youngest MP 80

64

50

CONTENTSFEATURES36 WAKING A SLEEPING GIANT There’s an historic number of elected indigenous MPs in the House of Commons. Will there be an influential shift in public policy? ‘Renewing the nation-to-nation relationship with indigenous peoples lies at the heart of a strong Canada. Our legacy as a government will depend on it,’ says Jody Wilson-Raybould, the country’s first indigenous Justice Minister.

20 UBER AND THE CANADIAN SHARING ECONOMY There’s a structural shift happening in the labour force with rideshare company Uber’s rising prominence across Canadian cities. So far, it’s a municipal issue about licenses, but the implications for the economy go further: from the way taxes are collected to how the government funds pensions. It’s time for the federal government to pay attention.

26 IS BAY STREET STILL A MAN’S WORLD?Women make up 65 per cent of all employees at Canadian banks, but female executives in the financial industry are still few and far between. ‘The boardrooms of Canada do not represent Canadians.’

30 GLOBAL INTERNET TVOn its way to becoming the world’s biggest online streaming service, Canada was Netflix’s first international market. But new players such as Shomi and Crave TV are also on the scene and influencing how Canadians consume television in a big way.

46 THE POLITICS OF INFRASTRUCTURE FUNDINGTransit experts warn that the new federal government must demand greater accountability from municipal and provincial partners to ensure politics does not trump thorough research in setting infrastructure priorities and squander an opportunity to reinvent exhausted transportation grids across the country.

‘The number of indigenous MPs, along with our government’s strong commitment to reconciliation with indigenous peoples, speaks volumes to how far we have come as a country. This makes me so very proud to be both indigenous and Canadian,’ says Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould. P&I photograph by Jake Wright

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4—Power & Influence, Spring 2016

CONTRIBUTORSANTHONY MARS JENKINS was born in Toronto where he delivered the Globe and Mail in his youth, then worked at the newspaper as a cartoonist for nearly 40 years. He now lives in bucolic Mono (pronounced Moe-no), Ont. His work can be viewed at www.jenkinsdraws.com.

CHRISTOPHER GULY is a contributing writer to The Hill Times and has

been a member of the Canadian

Parliamentary Press Gallery since 1993.

SHRUTI SHEKAR is a reporter at The Wire Report. She received her MA in journalism from Western

University and her double BA honours in

communication studies and human rights from Carleton University. She was born in India, grew up mostly in Singapore and currently resides in Canada. When she isn’t writing about the telecom industry, she creates lifestyle-related videos and has her own mini talk show series on her YouTube channel.

MARCO VIGLIOTTI is a reporter for The Lobby Monitor, covering business-government relations and advocacy on the Hill. He worked as a journalist in Alberta, Saskatchewan and southwestern Ontario before returning to his hometown of Ottawa. An obsessive political junkie, he can recall exact seat totals from past federal elections, but routinely forgets items on his grocery list.

MARTHA ILBOUDOis a freelance journalist in Ottawa whose work has appeared in the Ottawa Sun, Ottawa Business Journal and Our Homes Magazine. Originally from Ghana, she was five years old when her family moved to Canada and settled in Montreal, Que. When she’s not chasing her next big story she doesn’t mind getting lost in a good book or two.

LAURA RYCKEWAERT, 26, has been covering Parliament Hill for The Hill Times for five years, having joined the paper shortly after graduating from Carleton University in 2011.

KRISTEN SHANE has spent five years as an editor with Embassy and one year before that reporting for The Hill Times. She cut her teeth reporting for a weekly newspaper in the booming metropolis of Kincardine, Ont.—population 7,000—home to what she boasts to be the best sunsets in the world.

JAKE WRIGHT joined The Hill Times in 2002 and has since covered five

federal elections, countless political

conventions and most, if not all, of Ottawa’s political elite through his camera lens. In 2010, he spent three months in Afghanistan embedded with the U.S. military, where he never felt more alive.

ALLY FOSTER is a freelance journalist who previously was a staff writer for The Hill Times’ sister paper, Embassy, for almost two years after graduating from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2012. After hours, she is a very dedicated self-teaching sommelier, and a somewhat less dedicated runner.

MARK BURGESS was deputy editor of The Hill Times for two years, where he regularly reported on lobbying and the public service. He’s now a writer and editor with a magazine in Toronto.

It’s 2016, and there’s lots of change coming. It’s an overused phrase, but apt for the times we’re in. Take, for example, the last election campaign

which had 54 indigenous candidates, 10 of whom were elected. It’s the highest number of elected First Nations, Inuit and Métis MPs in Canadian history, and as Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould says, “It’s a new day for indigenous peoples in Canada.”

Indigenous issues were never ballot-box questions, but “this is changing,” Ms. Wilson-Raybould, Canada’s fi rst indigenous Justice minister, tells P&I in a Q&A (page 37). “The number of indigenous MPs, along with our government’s strong commitment to reconciliation with indigenous peoples, speaks volumes to how far we have come as a country.”

It’s still too early to tell how powerful or infl uential this indigenous caucus will be, but there’s no denying that the momentum coupled with an $8.4-billion investment in the most recent federal budget for indigenous infrastructure, health and education is changing the federal political landscape. Meet the 10 indigenous MPs starting on page 36; and read how Canada can leverage its priorities on the indigenous front to lead a new global agenda by Gina Cosentino (Ideas, page 70).

Speaking of the budget, and change, the federal Liberal government plans to spend $11.6-billion on infrastructure over the next fi ve years. Experts tell Marco Vigliotti that it’s a chance for legislators to ensure that politics don’t trump good investments—a major difference from past infrastructure funding (page 46).

There’s also a change in how technology is affecting governance. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are mainstays of the political world now, but beyond social media, there’s a digital transformation taking place and governments must begin to deal with disruptive innovations such as Uber, Airbnb and Netfl ix and how they affect public policy.

“Governments must rise to the challenge or become increasingly irrelevant to their citizens,” write Maryantonett Flumian and Davide Cargnello (The Essay, page 66). “Rather than burying their heads in the sand, governments should seize the opportunity to provide the leadership that the digital revolution requires.”

Mark Burgess goes deeper into the world of Uber and the rideshare’s lobbying efforts in Canada (page 20) and Shruti Shekar delves into Netfl ix’s impact on Canadian television viewers (page 30).

One thing that hasn’t changed perhaps as quickly as one would hope is the number of women in executive positions in the fi nance industry. “For a country that prides itself on being diverse and inclusive, to think that our boardrooms are amongst the worst, globally, is an embarrassment for us,” says Women in Capital Markets president Jennifer Reynolds (In search of the C-Suite, page 26).

And fi nally, there is one in-house change here at P&I. This Spring 2016 edition is my last as editor as I move onto new adventures. Over the last year, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed bringing loyal readers important stories on the people, places and ideas infl uencing Canada and helping the magazine grow from one edition annually to four. I aimed to make Power & Infl uence a unique platform to set the agenda on public policy and political trends not only on Parliament Hill, but across this amazing country. I hope I’ve succeeded.

Starting with the next edition, Ally Foster will take over as editor. I’ve had the pleasure of working with her as an award-winning reporter for Embassy News, and as a feature writer for P&I. She is smart, creative, dedicated and I know she will continue to make P&I the best it can be. Enjoy the read!

—Bea Vongdouangchanh@bea_vdc

Correction from P&I Winter 2016The story “Star staffers bring political savvy to

Hill” in the Winter 2016 edition of Power & Infl uence incorrectly reported that Vince MacNeil, chief of staff to the Government House Leader, previously worked for Progressive Conservative Senator Lowell Murray, crossing “party lines” to do so. He has never worked for former Sen. Murray, and is “an unwavering Liberal.” Power & Infl uence apologizes for this error.

EditorBea Vongdouangchanh

Copy editorChristina Leadlay

ContributorsMark BurgessAlly FosterBlair GableChristopher GulyMartha IlboudoAnthony Mars JenkinsLaura RyckewaertKristen ShaneShruti ShekarMarco Vigliotti

ColumnistsKeith BeardsleyDavid CraneAsha HingoraniJenn JefferysJacquie LaRocque

Guest columnistsDavide CargnelloGina CosentinoMaryantonett FlumianDan Lamoureux Huw Williams

PhotographerJake Wright

Vice-president, Sales and DevelopmentDon Turner613-688-8825 | [email protected] CoordinatorAmanda Keenan

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Published by Hill Times Publishing 2016 Hill Times PublishingAll Rights Reserved. Power & Infl uenceis published four times a year.69 Sparks Street, Ottawa, ON K1P 5A5613-232-5952 hilltimes.com

The change agendaED I TOR’S N OTE

Power & Influence Spring 2016—5

6—Power & Influence Spring 2016

THE PEOPLE , IDEAS & EVENTS INFLUENCING OUR COUNTRY

THE AGENDA

BY ALLY FOSTER

W hen then-prime minister Stephen Harper announced in 2011 that

Canada wanted a seat at the negotiating table for the Trans-Pacifi c Partnership talks, Kirsten Hillman got the call.

The trade lawyer had just returned from a posting in Geneva, where she was the head of Canada’s legal offi ce at the World Trade Organization.

The ask: put together a team, and strategize how to get Canada welcomed to the largest and most ambitious free trade

agreement the world has ever seen. Over the course of the next four years or so, Ms. Hillman and her team of more than 150 people not only secured a spot for Canada in the partnership, but also negotiated and concluded the deal between 12 Pacifi c nations, stretching from Japan to Chile.

Together, the countries involved in the agreement represent 40 per cent of the global economic output.

On Feb. 4, International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland inked the deal in New

Zealand, but for Ms. Hillman and the other hard-working public servants who shaped the document, the work came to a satisfying fi nale in the fall of 2015, when the negotiations concluded.

“Often, in the public service, there are many things we do that are ongoing in the name of Canadians,” she tells Power & Infl uence. But to have a project that has a tangible start and a successful culmination, you feel a sense of immense satisfaction, she adds.

Kirsten Hillman, International Trade associate assistant deputy minister for trade policy and negotiations, wanted to be a ballet dancer growing up, but now says she has ‘the best job ever.’ She was the lead negotiator on Canada’s entrance into the Trans-Pacifi c Partnership agreement. P&I photograph by Cynthia Münster

Meet the woman who led Canada into the world’s largest free-trade agreement

A labour of love



THE AGENDA

Ballet bar to the legal bar The personable, and smart-as-a-whip

public servant, who is now the associate assistant deputy minister for trade policy and negotiations (meaning she oversees all of Canada’s trade policy and negotiating agenda), didn’t always have her heart set on globe-trotting or international litigation.

As a teenager, she had high aspirations to be a professional ballet dancer—perhaps too high, physically. As she explains, her genes had other ideas about her career.

Once she sprouted a foot-and-a-half taller than her peers—nearing the six-foot mark—she recalls with a laugh that, “people subtly and kindly said, ‘Maybe that’s not going to work out for you.’” After that “heart breaker,” she began considering a range of options, which she explains have remained ever-evolving, and certainly not linear throughout her career.

She studied philosophy at the University of Manitoba, with the inkling of perhaps becoming an academic. Following that, she went to McGill University for law school. It was there that she unearthed a passion that would ultimately lead her to the position of Canada’s top trade negotiator for the world’s largest multilateral trade agreement.

“I articled in a law fi rm in Montreal and we did some very interesting litigation work … on a Charter of Rights case,” she explains. Loving the charter-related work Ms. Hillman secured a job at the Department of Justice.

‘The best job ever’By the time Canada negotiated the

Kyoto Climate Change agreement in the mid-1990s, she was working in environmental law, and was one of the lawyers advising the negotiating team.

“It was about that time that I realized, ‘Oh my gosh, I have the best job ever,’” she says. “And it’s been that way ever since.”

Eventually, Ms. Hillman’s efforts in

environmental law transitioned into working on how Canada’s trade agreements interact with and affect its environmental commitments.

Her litigation experience then allowed her to move into the world of trade law, where she defended Canada in disputes before the World Trade Organization, and was posted to Geneva as the head of Canada’s legal offi ce at the WTO.

When she moved home from Geneva, Mr. Harper announced his interest in Canada exploring discussions at the TPP table. At that time, Ms. Hillman was named as the senior offi cial responsible for securing Canada’s entrance into the talks.

“I was really honoured, and proud,” she says. “I was very familiar with all aspects of our trade rules. … That made me the right kind of person.”

It took her about a year to put together a team and a strategy, and to conduct introductory visits to all of the TPP countries, she recalls.

Over the course of the next several years, she would travel around the globe many times over. She visited Asia more times than she can remember, and also had the chance to explore regions she says she most likely would have never visited, such as Borneo, Brunei and Guam.

Perhaps the best part of the work was leading and watching an immense group of dedicated public servants, from a multitude of disciplines, work towards one vision, she says.

“I’m a huge ‘team person,’” she says, adding that it’s become “the thing I believe in the most.”

“Every single one of those people worked their hearts out,” she says. “There’s no question in my mind that everyone brought the very best they could to this initiative. They did so relentlessly, tirelessly, and over a number of years—sometimes at diffi cult sacrifi ces, social sacrifi ces and family sacrifi ces.”

The toughest moment was towards the

very end, in the Fall of 2015 when there was the added pressure of a federal election looming and the talks in the fi nal stages.

“That’s when we had to bring our job home,” she says. There was a thrill to actually completing a hugely ambitious task as public servants, she adds, explaining that most civil servants work towards an ethereal vision for the benefi t of an entire country.

She says she was amazed to watch people from different departments and with different objectives work creatively and collaboratively on one document. When everyone can represent both their department as well as the overall, mutual goal in a transparent and dedicated way, “magic can happen,” she says.

A passion for public policyShe will take lessons-learned about

teamwork, global ‘big picture’ ideas, and public policy with her in her new role.

Not only does she work on shaping Canada’s trade agenda and new areas of opportunity, but she problem-solves when there’s any trade disruptions or issues.

“I have a very, very strong love for public policy and the creation of public policy,” she says. “My view is that this is the best job I ever could have had.”

The coming year is looking exciting, she says. She will be assisting the international trade minister in ratifying the TPP deal that she worked so hard on, as well as bringing into force the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with the European Union and the bilateral agreement between Canada and Ukraine.

She says she feels “privileged” to be able to represent Canada on the world stage, and continue to work internationally with other nations.

“I think it makes you a very good public servant, and Canadian, and probably a good citizen of the world, to step outside of your environment and to look at the world through other people’s eyes,” she says.

$28.5TRILLION

$4.3BILLION

The 12-country Trans-Pacifi c Partnership agreement represents $28.5-trillion and 40 per cent of global economic output. It spans four continents and 800 million people. The Canadian government has promised to invest $4.3-billion over 15 years to protect current dairy, chicken and egg farm revenues as TPP countries will receive tariff-free access to 3.25 per cent of Canada’s dairy market and 2.1 per cent of its poultry market.

TPP



THE AGENDA

W hen three-year old George Elliott Clarke awoke from his afternoon

nap by the sudden rapture of noise and chaos that was slowly trickling onto the streets of Halifax on Nov, 22, 1963, little did he know that the world he left behind in his childlike slumber would not be the same.

At approximately 3 p.m. news of the assassination of then-U.S. president John F. Kennedy had just broken. In his native home of Nova Scotia, the ripple effect of Kennedy’s death was felt by all, even an impressionable would-be poet, who, while sitting in the front seat of his father’s pick-up, would fi rst learn the truth about death.

“That made a huge impression on me and maybe that’s why history remains so important to me in my poetry. It’s one of the constant themes I go back to. A historical incident, historical event—it’s always been a staple for me,” says Mr. Clarke, Canada’s Parliamentary Poet Laureate.

Appointed to the position on Jan. 5, 2016, Mr. Clarke says he hopes to use his role to “encourage parliamentarians to use playful speech that will make the issues of today more vivid, more comprehensive and more urgent.”

For example, he says, hot-button issues such as climate change can be brought to the foreground by using the ‘treasure house’ of poetry that is available to further propel arguments of persuasion.

“Essentially I have an opportunity now to try to reach out to parliamentarians and ask them to consider poets and their constituencies,” he tells P&I. “One of the ideas I would like to see implemented before my term is up is to have some kind of constituency-by-constituency poetry map of Canada … essentially lines of poetry that would speak to the people.”

Born on Feb. 12, 1960, in Windsor, N.S.,

Mr. Clarke began his illustrious career as a poet at the tender age of four when he recited his fi rst rhyme while waiting for the bus with his brothers and father on Barrington Street in downtown Halifax. He is a writer, poet and playwright, known for work such as Illuminated Verses (2005),

George & Rue: A Novel (2012) and Trudeau: Long March/Shining Path (2007). He graduated from the University of Waterloo and holds a master’s degree from Dalhousie University and a PhD from Queen’s University. In 2013, he was a visiting professor at Harvard University.

Created in 2001, the role of the Parliamentary Poet Laureate is to encourage and promote the importance of literature, culture and language in Canadian society. Mr. Clarke is the seventh Poet Laureate and holds a two-year term.

Mr. Clarke says it wasn’t until he was 15 that he began to appreciate words and diction. He says he was trying to write songs and in his research found that great songwriters were really great poets. “I thought if I wanted to be a really good songwriter I should really be a poet,” he says. “You become an instrument for the language which is for the most part vast, for the most part undying. You serve the language. Language doesn’t serve you.” —By Martha Ilboudo

Canada’s poet laureate gets to work

Parliamentary IncendiaryBy George Elliott Clarke

We do not want Parliament set afi re

By anything but Passion to do right.

What must blaze Commons and Senate are sheets

Of paper, that Wisdom and Justice light.

What happened in 1916—those sparks

That Chance or Choice set charring the public

House of parley (which gives the Throne the Law)—

Proved true, eternal fl ame is the power to speak.

This poem was written to commemorate the 100th an-niversary of the fi re that burned down Centre Block.

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Parliamentary Poet Laureate George Elliott Clarke says he wants parliamentarians to consider the impact poetry has on politics and public policy. Photograph courtesy Library of Parliament

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THE AGENDA

The obligation to provide consular services to Canadians abroad should be

enshrined in law, says journalist Mohamed Fahmy, a Canadian detained in an Egyptian prison for more than a year on unfounded terrorism charges.

“Amidst the despair I felt while locked up in solitary confi nement in an Egyptian jail, I hoped that Canadian offi cials would do everything possible and necessary to secure my freedom,” Mr. Fahmy said. “But at the highest levels of government I was let down and virtually abandoned.”

It’s why he’s working with Amnesty International to bring forward a Protection Charter to help Canadian citizens, permanent residents and others with close Canadian ties who are imprisoned abroad on a more consistent basis.

“It is a 12-step program that can provide consistent, effective and practical assistance whenever Canadians are held abroad. It will help ensure that other Canadians do not go through what I did,” he said, unveiling the plan in Ottawa in January.

The charter calls on the federal government to ensure that consular assistance is equal for everyone who needs it, rather than only those with money or political connections, and that the criteria for help is transparent. An independent commissioner of consular affairs should be established, the charter says.

In addition, for those with dual

nationalities experiencing human rights violations abroad, “it should never serve as an excuse for taking no action or for lesser effort being expended.”

The charter also says that a safety and security code for media outlets should be created in order to protect Canadian journalists abroad.

Mr. Fahmy was an Al-Jazeera reporter in Egypt when he was arrested and charged for not being registered with Egypt’s

journalist syndicate, bringing in equipment without the approval of security offi cials, broadcasting “false news” on Al-Jazeera

and using a hotel as a broadcasting point without permission. He spent time in

three prisons and told P&I that he was not physically tortured, but rather psychologically tortured in solitary confi nement for more than a month and was starved on occasion.

In the fi rst prison he was at, he said there was no access to anything so he started a mock radio show. “I had a small hatch

on a thick metal door that was overlooking the corridor with all the

cells lined up. So I would call everyone at eight o’clock at night to come closer

to their hatch and we would start a radio mock show that we took very seriously every single day,” he said. “We prepared the questions beforehand, we prepared the topics we were going to discuss and it was extremely interesting because we were interviewing Al Qaeda veteran fi ghters, we were interviewing [Islamic State] ISIS sympathizers.”

He returned to Canada in October 2015 after receiving a pardon from the Egyptian president. He said he is currently writing a book about his experience, expected out this summer, and is taking every opportunity to speak about the importance of press freedom and human rights violations. “My release comes with a responsibility and a platform,” he said. —Bea Vongdouangchanh

12-step program

We haven’t always gotten it right. We’re a young country, and we’re still learning. But the steady pace of Canada’s progress offers some reassurance,” writes Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Global Progress: New Ideas for the Future of the Progressive Movement, published by Canada 2020 on its 10th anniversary recently. The booklet, presented in partnership with the Center for American Progress, features commentary from former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair, former U.S. president Bill Clinton, Australian Labour Party leader Bill Shorten and German vice-chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, among others.

Mohamed Fahmy calls on federal government to adopt a Protection Charter for Canadians abroad

‘My release comes with a responsibility and a platform,’ says Mohamed Fahmy. P&I photograph courtesy Mohamed Fahmy

Diplomacy and foreign policy just marriedpolitics and government.

Every Wednesday in printEvery day online

Call Chris at 613-688-8822 for a free trial.

www.hilltimes.com/global



THE AGENDA

The Walrus hosts events across the country to inspire conversations between Canadians about big ideas. On April 27, the topic is vice, held in Toronto, Ont. Panelists include Ian Brown, Torquil Campbell, Terry O’Reilly and the University of Toronto’s Jordan Peterson. They’ll discuss whether there can be virtue without vice at the Isabel Bader Theatre (93 Charles St. W).

The talk will then move to Winnipeg, Man., where indigenous

issues from culture to business to politics will be discussed on May 11. CBC’s Unreserved host Rosanna Deerchild will be on a panel with spoken word artist Zoey Pricelys Roy, hip hop artist Lindsay Knight (aka Eekwol) and actor and activist Tom Jackson among others. The event takes place at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (300 Memorial Blvd.).

Energy will be the topic at the May 26 event in Edmonton, Alta., and art on May 30 in Calgary, Alta. On June 2, the topic will be “quality

of life” featuring First Nations Health Authority chief medical offi cer Evan Adams and author Bill Richardson.

Political conventionsThe Liberal and Conservative

parties of Canada will hold policy conventions, both on the same weekend, from May 26 to 28. The Liberals will hold theirs in Winnipeg, Man., while the Conservatives will hold theirs in Vancouver, B.C.

Art in embassies The U.S. embassy has renewed its Art in Embassies program of Contemporary Conversations with the

National Gallery of Canada. American artists are invited to discuss not only their art, but also cross-cultural issues (political or otherwise). Kiki Smith, whose work is exhibited at the National Gallery until April 24, was in Ottawa on March 31 for the Contemporary Conversations event. Up next is Theaster Gates, pictured, who will be at the gallery on May 12. Mr. Gates explores issues of land use, space policy, and race in his work. Theaster Gates, 2015 Photo: Sara Pooley, courtesy of the artist

The Walrus Talks



THE AGENDA

The Parliamentary Press Gallery will hold its annual must-attend and regularly sold out dinner this year on June 4 at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que. The gallery will be celebrating its 150th anniversary where a book on the gallery’s history will also be unveiled.

Politics & the PenThis one is an annual Hill staple for

media and politicians. The Politics and the Pen gala will toast some of the best in Canadian political non-fi ction. Finalists for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing are Greg Donaghy for Grit: The Life and Politics of Paul Martin Sr.; Norman Hillmer for O.D. Skelton: A Portrait of Canadian Ambition; John Ibbitson for Stephen Harper; Andrew Nikiforuk for Slick Water: Fracking and One Insider’s Stand Against the World’s Most Powerful Industry; and Sheila Watt-Cloutier for The Right to Be Cold: One Woman’s Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic and the Whole Planet. The winner will be announced on April 20 at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa.

200 years of Sir John A.The Library and Archives and the

Canadian Museum of History will commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. The two will “present a small selection of unique artifacts documenting the private life, public face and enduring appeal.” The exhibit is ongoing in the Special Exhibits corridor.

Life Refl ectedNational Arts Centre artistic director

Alexander Shelley is bringing the lives of four women to the stage to discuss contemporary issues in music, motion and word. The orchestra will address issues of youth, courage, memory and residential schools among others in four parts. Dear Life by Alice Munro—a reflection on memory, childhood and the formative stages of life—was composed for the NAC by Zosha Di Castri. My Name is Amanda Todd is the story of 15-year-old Amanda Todd who, after

suffering for years from cyber abuse, spoke out against harassment and bullying on YouTube and later committed suicide. The music was composed for the NAC by Jocelyn Morlock. Roberta Bondar’s expertise as an astronaut, physician, scientific researcher, and photographer have been interpreted in Bondarsphere by Nicole Lizée for the NAC through soundtrack and video. I Lost My

Talk by Mi’kmaw elder and poet Rita Joe about her experience at residential school was composed for the stage through music and dance by John Estacio.

“What inspired me was looking at these four remarkable Canadian women who have found through different sacrifi ces and challenges, their voices,” Mr. Shelley said. The event takes place on May 19 at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.

Press Gallery Dinner

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I’m a big fan of nudges … but nudges are a very modest attempt to interfere minimally, often at a very low cost, when you’re politically somewhat helpless, in ways that that help people,” says Eldar Shafi r, a professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University, at a Behavioural Economics for the Public Sector event organized by the Privy Council Offi ce’s Innovation Hub in Ottawa in March. “But there’s a lot more than that. And if you think about what policy does throughout, whether it’s the design of emergency rooms or what it takes to make a nation healthy and happy, there are profound psychological questions that lie at the core of what we do.”


THE AGENDA

There’s a shift t o a more consultative governing style which presents numerous opportunities

for natural resources fi rms to tout their strong track record, despite being seen as potentially the most impacted sector from the Liberals’ commitment to curbing greenhouse gas emissions, says Hill and Knowlton Strategies consultant Ryan Clarke.

The Liberal government recognizes that policy choices do not exist in isolation and there are often overlapping priorities, says the former Hill staffer.

For example, an oil and gas policy is now being studied for how it impacts

the government’s goals regarding the economy, the environment and its

relationship with indigenous peoples. “It’s going to provide

companies with a lot of opportunities to actually profi le the complexities of their businesses … [including] a lot of the positive things they

do that people do not understand about them

because they were always being looked at in isolation

around one specifi c issue or ask,” says Mr. Clarke who previously worked in former International Trade minister Jim Peterson’s offi ce and was a registered lobbyist for Calgary-based Talisman

Energy Inc., prospective liquefi ed natural gas producer Woodfi bre LNG Inc. and multinational mine operator Hudbay Minerals Inc., amongst others.

When he fi rst started lobbying, he says the main focus of his work was social and corporate policy and then the broader regulatory framework. The focus now, he says, is squarely on winning public acceptance or approval for major resources projects, known as obtaining social license.

In essence, local resources projects that require federal approval have become part of the broader national discussion on energy and the environment in what he calls the “trickle-up effect,” as fi rms attempt to gain public support.

“The public has been evolving a little bit. They are defi nitely becoming more aware of these sorts of projects,” he says, noting that this shift has led to an increasing nationalization of local concerns. —Marco Vigliotti

Obtaining social license

Successful political movements bring people together to achieve change, says

American author and renowned feminist Gloria Steinem, pictured right.

“We must realize we are all interconnected, and all movements are interconnected, and I believe we are in that stage now,” Ms. Steinem told a sold-out crowd at the Broadbent Institute’s Progress Summit on April 1. “What we struggle for is that we are, as human beings, linked, not ranked and that we are linked to the environment. And I think that once we have it in our minds, we can never, never unremember it.”

Ms. Steinem, a former journalist and founder of Ms. Magazine, also said that pay equity is important in today’s economy.

“For women of all races and ethnicities and groups to be paid the same as a

white guy who is doing the same job or comparable job would be the biggest economic stimulus we could possibly have,” she said. “In the States it would put $200-billion more into the economy. ”

She explained that equal pay for equal work would go far for single-parent and female heads of households, whose children often rely more heavily on social services. “Equal pay would diminish the need for social services. It is a win-win,” she said.

Her keynote, titled “Bridging movements: Feminism, Anti-Racism and the Intergenerational Fight for Equality” also touched on the racism of U.S. Republican candidate Donald Trump (who she called a con-man); the feminist beginnings of the union movement; and the role of women of colour in pushing social change.

We’re all connected

Photograph by Cynthia Münster


MENTAL HEALTH-C ONNEC TING THE D OTS

Jacquie LaRocque is principal of Compass Rose Group, a

public affairs collective in Ottawa. She is a former senior adviser to a Liberal minister of

international trade, a former public servant, and she has

been involved in the mental health community in various

capacities for much of the past decade.

JACQUIE

LAROCQUE

Last quarter I wrote about Canada’s crucial, yet mostly unknown, leadership role in helping Asia-Pacifi c Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies adopt principles for

ethics in the biopharmaceutical sector. Those exact principles will act as guidelines for industry within the 21-member countries to implement codes of ethics of their own. With Canada’s help we have the potential to revolutionize healthcare systems around the world.

I made a case for a health care system Canada can stand behind, but there’s more to the story still, and again Canada is at the centre.

There truly is no shortage of innovative projects underway for Canadians. These projects will have a clear impact on the Canadian health sector, and the work speaks for itself.

The APEC forum has chosen Canada to become a global centre of excellence in mental healthcare. This will involve hosting an international digital hub to coordinate and promote advanced research from some of the world’s leading universities and health institutes involved in the diagnosis, treatment and public awareness of mental disorders.

The APEC hub, which will be hosted at the University of British Columbia in collaboration with the University of Alberta and the Mood Disorders Society of Canada (MDSC), will serve as a permanent and far-reaching working effort between Canadian mental health researchers across the country and their counterparts in the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and more than a dozen other economies of the Asia-Pacifi c region.

And Canadians stand to benefi t most. Canada’s leadership in the project will benefi t those Canadians suffering with mental disorders by guaranteeing access to world-class research from across Canada and the APEC economies, and to the latest breakthroughs in early intervention and treatments.

As MDSC and others have advocated for before, there is an urgent need to address mental wellness in Canada. Mental disorders are one of Canada’s leading healthcare challenges. Among Canadian military members and veterans, First Nations, Inuit and Métis and youth, depression is the second most frequent cause of death. Over the past decade, rates of post-traumatic stress disorder have doubled in

the Canadian military and among fi rst responders. An estimated two-thirds of indigenous survivors of residential schools have suffered from PTSD.

Not only will Canada’s leading role in this global effort, which will formally be launched later this year, ensure the inclusion of issues important to Canada, such as mental wellness among indigenous peoples, but it will also allow Canadian leaders in government, NGOs and industry the opportunity to be at the forefront of the battle against mental illness.

Canada and its APEC partners face similar obstacles to mental wellness. Family physicians commonly lack the specialized training in the early diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders, while more than half suffering depression-related illnesses will leave their doctor’s offi ce without effective solutions.

Canada’s work at APEC will also address other obstacles such as shortages of specialists, inadequate prevention programs, and limited access to quality care with continuity and effective medications.

As Canadians we tend to be timid in many global policy areas. But mental health is truly an area where Canada has never taken a back seat.

In keeping with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s vow to make the fi ght against mental disorders a priority, this international effort fronted by Canada will help to strengthen ties between Canada and some of our most important trading partners, including China, Japan and South Korea.

Canada’s strong initiative for APEC is a bold move, but it’s a sign of a country that is strong, aligned and proactive.

Too many suffer from mental health disorders without adequate treatment. Health care touches all Canadians in the most personal of ways, but these aren’t personal problems.

Canada’s leadership in this unprecedented program will benefi t Canadians suffering from mental health problems by guaranteeing access to the resulting world-class research, best practices and global breakthroughs in early intervention and treatments for sufferers, and assistance to their families and caregivers.

If there is something our health care system should be proactive about, this is it. Canada’s action on this program warrants national pride and attention.

CANADA STANDING OUT IN MENTAL HEALTH INNOVATION AT APECAs Canadians we tend to be timid in many global policy areas, but mental health is truly an area where Canada has never taken a back seat.


IN SIDE THE POLI TICA L TRE NC H-U.S. STRATEGY

KEITHBEARDSLEYKeith Beardsley was a ministerial chief of staff in Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney’s government, worked in former PC leader Peter MacKay’s offi ce in 1997 and joined Stephen Harper’s opposition leader’s offi ce after the merger of the PC and Canadian Alliance parties. He worked in the Prime Minister’s Offi ce from 2006 to 2008.

W e have all had a lot of fun watching the Donald Trump show in the United States and of course people up here in “politically correct”

Canada have done their fair share of fi nger pointing at him. There has been much said by political pundits, the media and even politicians about how awful American politics has become, but is this a sign of what is to come in Canada?

Over the years we have seen much of what is practiced in the United States slowly blend into the Canadian political landscape. Many of us can remember the introduction of some of the very fi rst negative attack ads in the U.S. The “Daisy Girl” ad used in the 1964 presidential campaign by Lyndon B. Johnson against Barry Goldwater is one of the most famous ones. The George H.W. Bush campaign successfully used attack ads against Michael Dukakis in 1988. In the Canadian election of that year, the Liberals ran one of my all-time favourite ads on the free trade issue showing an eraser wiping out the Canadian border if the Mulroney Conservatives won. When attack ads were fi rst introduced in the U.S., we gloated that Canadians were different, but today such ads are a regular occurrence here. While Canadians still like to say they don’t work here, we know they do—just ask Stéphane Dion or Michael “Just visiting” Ignatieff.

Some readers may remember the presidential debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Today in Canada, we can’t have an election without some type of leaders debate. As boring as they often are, they involve weeks of negotiations between the various political camps and the media spend hours trying to rev up the public’s interest in them.

After the federal election in 2000 (in which the Progressive Conservatives didn’t fare too well) the House of Commons research budget was so small we had to cut costs and that meant cutting staff. The net result was a very small staff that wasn’t able to fi nd the time to do the type of opposition policy research needed. That was the reason we switched tactics and using the example of Bill Clinton’s adviser, James Carville, I set up a permanent war room under the guise of “issues management.” In those days we were an attack

team that created the issues for the Chrétien Liberals to handle. Issues management eventually moved to PMO in 2006, but it switched its focus to a defensive role. Incidentally, Carville was also hired by the Liberals on occasion to help train staff.

The Harper PMO often looked to Australia for examples that could work here. Internally there was a lot of discussion that focused on what and how the Australian parties did things. In addition, we had members of one of the Scottish political parties visit our war room in 2006 to see how we ran a campaign including our rapid reaction team. The Liberals in 2012 held a convention in Ottawa and among the presenters were some of U.S. President Barack Obama’s campaign’s digital experts to explain how to use modern technology to build voter databases and use it to win elections. On the Conservative side, The Manning Conference in Ottawa, which is often viewed as a training ground for Conservatives, also invites political experts and trainers to give lectures.

So while Canadian pundits and media types like to think that we are different, I would be wary of being too smug. For those who think that it couldn’t happen here, we only have to look at the media frenzy generated by one man, who like Trump is not a politician and who aimed a few words at the Premier of Alberta. In this case it was Kevin O’Leary who got the media all worked up, especially when he speculated he might run for the Conservative leadership.

Politics is often described as a blood sport with a winner-takes-all attitude. The strategies and political tactics used south of the border should matter to us as they do have a tendency to cross that invisible barrier.

One last point that might help to illustrate this can be found in the 2008 presidential campaign. John McCain’s Republican Party ran an attack ad aimed at Barack Obama that included the tag line: “But, is he ready to lead?” That’s very similar to the Conservative attack ads aimed at Justin Trudeau which claimed he is “Just Not Ready.” As Canadians, we should be paying very close attention to what works and what doesn’t work in this latest presidential campaign—it does matter to us.

Don’t be smug: importing U.S. political strategy to Canada happens all the time


F IRST NATIONS CHILDREN-JJ ON GE NDER

FIRST NATIONS CHILDREN LEFT OUT TO DRY IN LIBERAL GOVERNMENT’S PRIORITIES

JENNJEFFERYSJenn Jefferys is a strategic communications consultant and writer based in Ottawa. She has managed communications and media relations for the Native Women’s Association of Canada, for Equal Voice National, and has worked in digital communications on Parliament Hill. Follow her on Twitter at @jennjefferys or reach her at [email protected].

Not long ago, I stood just a few metres back from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the day the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released

its fi nal report on the Canadian residential school legacy. The air in the room was heavy, sobering, and rich with sage. Many, if not all, of our eyes, were clouded by tears as we looked on to witness Justice Murray Sinclair, Chief Wilton Littlechild, and Dr. Marie Wilson collectively cap off an historic six-year mandate—one that laid bare the horrifying residential school experience for what it was: a sickening, culturally genocidal institution designed by racists to “kill the Indian in the child.”

Our new PM was given the opportunity to speak, and it quickly became evident that he, too, had been crying. He spoke very plainly and passionately, and expressed his government’s commitment to mend these broken relations (or more accurately, to grow these non-existent relations). He spoke of his desire to implement all 94 of the TRC’s recommendations, and of his government’s grand plans to achieve “reconciliation” between the Crown and all indigenous peoples. Even for a cynical politico, this moment was as moving as it was powerful.

Shortly thereafter, following a decade of fi ghting an uphill battle with little to no resources or staff, Cindy Blackstock and her small but mighty team confi rmed that the Canadian federal government deliberately discriminates against First Nations children living on reserves with regards to healthcare, education and child welfare services. There are more indigenous children in federal care right now than at the height of the residential school period; a staggering 163,000. With a new government more open to working with indigenous peoples, there was much hope for some real action (or should I say Real Change™) that First Nations children might be able to look toward a future of equal opportunity.

The federal budget was tabled in March, featuring $8.4-billion in funding for indigenous peoples. Inadequate housing, lack of healthcare and dental care, lack of running water, lack of adequate education, and sheer and utter lack of social services are all daily realities many First Nations children face. Unfortunately, this budget

falls far below what the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has requested in order to close the funding gap for First Nations children.

According to the federal budget, $71-million will be put forward between 2016 and 2017, then $99-million from 2017 until 2018 toward First Nations children. Blackstock said anything below $200-million annually will barely scratch the surface of the severe socio-economic structural discrimination that has plagued First Nations children for decades.

It’s not easy to criticize a budget that blows the previous government’s so aggressively out of the water in terms of its focus on the plight of indigenous peoples. The Harper government earmarked $200-million a year over fi ve years for First Nations education in and $500-million over seven years to improve First Nation school infrastructure. There’s no denying the difference in priorities between Trudeau and Stephen Harper, but we can’t overlook the criticisms.

During a panel discussion on March 29 on Al Jazeera’s The Stream, Pam Palmater, Isadore Day and Erica Lee illustrated an array of issues within this budget. For starters, the $8.4-billion investment may not actually amount to $8.4-billion. As Palmater outlined, this fi gure entirely hinges on the Liberal Party of Canada’s re-election as only $5.3-million can legally be spent within this government’s elected mandate. Palmater also argues that the vast majority of these public funds are being distributed in a neo-colonial fashion, given that funding will be distributed to Canadian public institutions, to reserves which were created to maintain the Western status quo, and to the Martin Aboriginal Education Initiative.

Clearly our new government, complete with a highly accomplished cabinet of half women and half men have been exceptionally busy, but somewhere between the press conferences, fl ights to Sweden and photo ops with Barack Obama, one extremely important demographic (the fastest growing one in the country according to Statistics Canada) has been left out to dry—First Nations children. Blackstock is right—something must be done to save these children now, before yet another generation is left behind.


CA NA DA’S BIG C HA LLE NGE S-INNOVATION ECONOMY

DAVIDCRANE

David Crane is an award-winning journalist with special interests in the

economics of globalization, innovation, sustainable development and social

equity. He can be reached at [email protected].

In his fi rst budget speech, Finance Minister Bill Morneau promised that within the next year the government will deliver its innovation agenda—“a new vision for Canada’s economy

as a centre of global innovation, renowned for its science, technology, resourceful citizens and globally competitive companies.” This, he said, will set out “our plans for real change.”

The budget documents went further, proclaiming “the government is defi ning a new vision for Canada’s economy: to build Canada as a centre of global innovation. Canada will be propelled by its creative and entrepreneurial citizens; its leading science and technology; its excellent innovation infrastructure; and its globally competitive companies offering high quality products and services, thriving within a business environment that supports commercialization and growth.”

It would be great if they can pull it off, even though the Liberals largely ignored the challenge in their election platform. In fact, it is critical that we develop a more innovative economy.

As the budget explains, we are living in a world of disruptive technological change, shifting centres of economic power and the demographic challenge of an aging society, with more Canadians now over the age of 65 than under the age of 15. This last fact means there will in the years ahead be fewer Canadians of working age to support the older population. “This fact, combined with disappointing productivity gains” the budget said, “will make achieving strong, inclusive growth even more diffi cult.” Innovation does matter because it is probably the only way out of this potential predicament.

But every government, it seems, sets out a lofty agenda to promote innovation, just as every government worries about our disappointing productivity performance, mindful of the reality that it is only through sustained gains in productivity that living standards improve.

Brian Mulroney had his Prosperity Initiative. Jean Chrétien’s government even had two exercises. The fi rst, under the direction of then-Industry minister John Manley, was to develop a federal science and technology strategy. Subsequently, the Chrétien government also pursued, a few years later, a national innovation agenda. The Mulroney and Chrétien government initiatives all included extensive national consultations. Stephen Harper’s government had its Mobilizing Science and Technology for Canada’s Advantage strategy, laid out in its early budgets. They all fell short of delivering what was promised. Will the Justin Trudeau government be any different?

Morneau’s fi rst budget is only a fi rst step, but it does not show any propensity to think outside the

box. What measures it does adopt in the budget refl ect conventional thinking, and some of its proposals may take us in the wrong direction, given that federal dollars are scarce.

To be sure, the budget is right in focussing on education, to the extent that it does, because talent increasingly is the key to innovation and prosperity. As it is, Canada’s tech sector is desperately short of the talent it needs for growth.

Spending on infrastructure and clean technologies could be a spur to innovation. But this will only happen if governments at their three levels get over the big barrier that prevents smaller companies with new technologies from getting a chance to show what they can do in the home market. Today, in infrastructure projects, for example, the focus is on the cheapest price. This is a signifi cant barrier for smaller companies with disruptive new technologies for infrastructure to overcome. And if they cannot sell at home, their export prospects are dim. The same applies to clean technology companies.

Much of the proposed federal spending, on incubators for start-ups and tax credits for labour-sponsored invested funds, is misplaced. Likewise, while the budget recognizes that one of Canada’s biggest problems is scaling up smaller companies with excellent technologies to suffi cient size that they can pursue foreign markets and sustain investment in advancing their technologies, it misunderstands the issue, implying that scaling up is about taking tiny businesses into small businesses. The real challenge is how to scale up to bigger businesses that are in the $500-million to $1-billion-plus business size.

It would be premature to dismiss in advance a Trudeau government innovation agenda. The government deserves the chance to show what it can do—and whether it can really come up with bold new ideas and make painful choices. But we should not over-invest in the rhetoric in Morneau’s fi rst budget. We need to see how his government plans to actually implement his bold words.

Every government, it seems, sets out a lofty agenda to promote innovation, just as every government worries about our disappointing productivity performance, mindful of the reality that it is only through sustained gains in productivity that living standards improve.’

“

MORNEAU’S GOT BOLD RHETORIC ON AN INNOVATION AGENDA, BUT CAN HE DELIVER?

MC Marque de commerce propriété de VIA Rail Canada inc.

1 Les employés du gouvernement du Canada peuvent profiter de tarifs spéciaux pour leurs voyages d’affaires réservés par l’entremise des Services de voyage partagés. Les employés du gouvernement du Canada sont aussi admissibles à un rabais de 10 % sur leurs voyages personnels réservés auprès de VIA Rail.

Liaison Nombre de départs

par jour

Distance Temps productif en train

Temps non productif en voiture*

Coût du voyage en voiture**

Coût du voyage en train (à partir

de seulement)

Économies pour le contribuable

(voyage en train)***

Ottawa Toronto Jusqu’à 16 450 km 4 h 01 min 4 h 34 min 467 $ 44 $1 423 $

Ottawa Montréal Jusqu’à 12 198 km 1 h 47 min 2 h 27 min 227 $ 33 $1 194 $

Ottawa Québec 2 482 km 5 h 23 min 4 h 39 min 488 $ 44 $1 444 $

Toronto Montréal Jusqu’à 17 541 km 4 h 34 min 5 h 30 min 562 $ 44 $1 518 $

* 30 minutes ont été ajoutées à la durée totale du voyage en voiture afin d’inclure les retards dus au trafic et au mauvais temps.

** Le coût du voyage en voiture est calculé selon la formule suivante : coût en $ du voyage en voiture (taux de 0,55 $/km établi par le Conseil du trésor pour l’Ontario pour une voiture conduite par un employé du gouvernement X distance parcourue) + frais en $ d’employé gouvernemental (taux horaire moyen d’un employé gouvernemental de 48 $/h selon un salaire de 100 000 $ par année, y compris les avantages sociaux X durée du voyage) = coût total en $ pour le contribuable.

*** L’économie pour le contribuable associée aux voyages en train est calculée selon la formule suivante : coût en $ du voyage en voiture – coût en $ du voyage en train = économies en $ pour le contribuable.

Les tarifs peuvent changer sans préavis.

En choisissant VIA Rail pour vos voyages d’affaires, vous aidez le

gouvernement à réduire ses dépenses et permettez aux contribuables

d’économiser. De plus, vous maximisez votre productivité.

N’attendez plus, partez en train dès aujourd’hui!

An

uber-sized

The most interest a federal politician has taken in Uber, the ride-sharing service that has given municipal politicians fi ts, was probably back in October 2014 when John Baird, then-minister of Foreign Affairs, tweeted his dissatisfaction with Ottawa’s existing taxi service.

“75 minutes. 5 calls. No cab. Tonight I see the need for more competition with @Uber,” Mr. Baird wrote.

Since Mr. Baird’s social media broadside, the company has received scant attention among federal lawmakers: a few throwaway mentions at parliamentary committees; a speech in the Commons from former MP Maria Mourani calling for regulatory action against a company that “siphons money from Canada but does not pay taxes”; and support for taxi drivers from Liberal MP Raj Grewal when they took to the Hill in February to protest Uber.

But while federal politicians have, for the most part, gladly left the sharing economy quagmire to their counterparts at the provincial and municipal levels (Mr. Baird’s intervention, after all, took place during a municipal election and was seen by some as meddling), the federal bureaucracy has taken a quiet interest. A team of deputy ministers put together a report last year on Uber and other companies operating in the “sharing economy,” the Competition Bureau has written a policy paper and hosted a conference on the topic, and the Canada Revenue Agency briefl y turned to Federal Court to have Uber open its books for an audit.

While Uber has been busy lobbying in city halls and provincial legislatures for more than a year, it only recently added a federal component to its campaign. In January, StrategyCorp partner John Duffy registered to lobby the Prime Minister’s Offi ce on the company’s behalf. The longtime Liberal strategist has advised Paul Martin and Bob Rae at the federal level and worked on provincial campaigns for Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne. The registration is to arrange meetings “to discuss the economic and environmental impacts of the sharing economy and its ability to contribute to solutions for issues around income inequality.” No meetings had been reported at press time.

Ride-share company Uber continues to battle municipal and provincial officials who, for the most part, haven’t warmed to its disruptive service. Although the transportation and labour rules that govern its activity are not regulated federally, there are concerns this new type of worker is eroding ‘traditional jobs’ and affecting the government’s tax base. It’s time the feds weighed in, experts tell MARK BURGESS.


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So what role can the feds take in deciding Uber’s fate? While the ride-sharing company continues to battle municipal and provincial offi cials who, for the most part, haven’t warmed to its disruptive service, the transportation and labour rules that govern its activity are not regulated federally.

Questions to the PMO about the government’s role in regulating the sharing economy were directed to Transport Minister Marc Garneau’s offi ce, which said Transport Canada “has no role to play in regulating ride-sharing services like Uber.”

In an email response to questions about why Uber is lobbying federally, what role the federal government has in regulating it, and how the company contributes to solutions for income inequality, Uber spokesperson Susie Heath only said the company would “welcome working collaboratively with the federal government as they

examine the implications of the sharing economy at a national level.”

But Uber’s approach is about far more than regulatory wins. It’s about winning hearts and

changing minds, and getting involved at the federal level can’t hurt.

AN UBER CAMPAIGN“To date [Uber has] been quite aggressive

in terms of setting up their operations,” said Sunil Johal, policy director at the Mowat Centre at the University of Toronto who co-authored a report on the sharing economy.

“Their general approach is to come in to a city, set up shop with public opinion on their side, and hope that regulators legalize their services. And if not, hope that public opinion puts enough

pressure on regulators to permit them to operate.”

The company is adjusting, though, becoming less combative and looking to engage politicians.

The shift began in the U.S., when image problems led to the 2014 hiring of David

Plouffe, who managed the 2008 Obama campaign, as senior vice-president of policy and strategy. In a statement announcing the hire, Uber CEO

Travis Kalanick likened his company to a “candidate” in the middle of a “political

campaign.” Ian Black, the company’s general manager for

Canada, made this reset offi cial in a December 2014 address to the Canadian Club in Toronto, when he talked about Uber’s “missteps” and becoming “a more humble company.”

In his public statements, Mr. Black has played up Uber’s benefi ts, from reducing drunk driving to creating jobs to lowering emissions by having fewer cars on the road. The company now welcomes regulation, just not the existing ones; it maintains new licensing categories are needed.

Mr. Black, whose father is Alberta Conservative Senator Doug Black, is joined by a number of former politicos in Uber’s Canadian management. Ms. Heath, the senior communications associate, was press secretary to Liberal government ministers, including Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa.

Adam Blinick, Uber’s public policy lead, worked as a special assistant in former prime minister Stephen Harper’s offi ce and for various ministers: he was deputy chief of staff and policy director to Steven Blaney at


Uber, valued at more than $50-billion, has more than 50 full-time Canadian employees in offi ces in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton and Calgary. It has 22,000 drivers across the country

In Toronto, the city’s 5,000 licensed taxis provide

about 65,000 rides per day, compared with 17,000 UberX

rides a day, according to statistics supplied by Uber

Canada.


P&I Illustration by Anthony Jenkins


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Public Safety and Denis Lebel’s policy director at Transport. Jean-Christophe de Le Rue, the company’s senior communications associate, was Mr. Blaney’s communications director. Public policy manager Michael Van Hemmen, based in Vancouver, is another former federal Conservative staffer who manages the company’s lobbying in Western Canada and Colorado.

Uber, valued at more than $50-billion, has more than 50 full-time Canadian employees in offi ces in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton and Calgary. It has 22,000 drivers across the country, many of them operating in a legal grey zone as many municipalities slowly come around to developing new regulations.

The company has heavyweight consultants working various city halls and provincial legislatures to make sure it plays a part in that. At Queen’s Park, Uber has StrategyCorp consultants, including Mr. Duffy, lobbying the Liberal government, as well as National Public Relations consultant Joseph Finkle, the lobbying registry shows. Lobbyists from

StrategyCorp and Campaign Support Ltd. are also registered to lobby municipally in Toronto.

In Quebec, Cohn & Wolfe consultants François Crête and Geneviève Benoit are registered to lobby provincial politicians and offi cials as well as the City of Montreal on behalf of Uber. The taxi industry also has lobbyists engaged on its behalf in Quebec and Ontario.

In Alberta, Uber is registered to lobby in-house and with Impact Consulting’s Elan MacDonald. In B.C., Earnscliffe Strategy Group consultants were lobbying for the company from September 2014 to March 2015. One of them, Brittney Kerr, is now a B.C. adviser in the PMO. Consultants from Maple Leaf Strategies have taken over, including Dimitri Pantazopoulos—a conservative strategist and pollster who advised Mr. Harper and former Toronto mayor Rob Ford before working in Premier Christy Clark’s offi ce.

Uber was also lobbying in-house in Manitoba until January, that province’s registry shows, and before that with consultants from DFH Public Affairs.

UBER SAVINGS COMPARED TO TAXIS ACROSS CANADA

Average City savings

Toronto 50%

Ottawa 44%

Montreal 41%

Kitchener-Waterloo 40%

London 40%

Calgary 36%

Edmonton 31%

Hamilton 29%

Quebec 24%

—Source: The10and3.com


The campaign goes much deeper than its policy team and consultants, though, and into the realm of populist and civic actions. Advertising agency Rethink developed a multiple award-winning campaign for Uber on St. Patrick’s Day 2015, building a breathalyzer into a kiosk in downtown Toronto that automatically ordered free rides for anyone who blew over the legal limit. In July, Uber delivered customers free ice cream; in August, its drivers brought puppies to offi ces for 15-minute play sessions, with money going to animal shelters. The UberEats service in Toronto matched food orders over lunch one day in September, delivering additional meals to those in need. The company has partnered with veterans group True Patriot Love, Mr. Black told the Canadian Club, “empowering” veterans to use the Uber platform “to build their own small businesses.”

Uber also has a knack for using local infl uencers to support its cause, from music producer Deadmau5 picking up passengers in his $300,000 McLaren 650S when UberX launched in Toronto, to former Dragon’s Den investor Brett Wilson in Calgary, to Kate Upton in

New York. Ashton Kutcher, an Uber investor, is known to make appearances at the “Uberversity,” the San Francisco training program where new corporate hires are fl own for training.

WHAT ROLE FOR THE FEDS?Mr. Johal told P&I there are “defi nitely potential

linkages between the sharing economy and many federal government priorities,” including the environment and climate change, with the possibility of lowering emissions by getting more cars off the road. There are also economic opportunities.

“If companies like Uber and Airbnb are giving people a chance to earn an extra couple hundred dollars a week at a time when the economy is struggling in many parts of the country, that’s something the government really needs to look at,” Mr. Johal said in a phone interview. “We should be trying to maximize people’s opportunity to make extra income and this is may be one opportunity to do that.”

That said, the sharing economy is also “probably not one of the top 10 or 20 things [the federal Liberals] have to worry about right now,” Mr. Johal said, and any federal role would likely be a convening one, bringing other governments together to come up with common solutions.

The PCO report on the sharing economy, completed in February 2015 and recently posted on its Innovation Hub website, raised a number of regulatory issues including labour laws, privacy, safety and taxation.

The report said the new type of worker the sharing economy creates could require a redesign of programs such as Old Age Security and Employment Insurance. It raised concerns about how unreported income and “the erosion of traditional jobs” could affect the government’s ability to provide social assistance.

Mark Thompson, professor emeritus at UBC’s Sauder School of Business, made a similar point.

“Uber gets a big edge in their profi t margins by not having employees, by vigorously denying that they’re employees and saying that they’re independent contractors,” he said in a phone interview.

This puts a larger burden on the drivers for everything from health benefi ts to car repairs, he said.

A ride is ordered on the Uber platform in Montreal once every nine seconds.

68 per cent of UberX rides in Montreal are one-way, which means that an alternative means of transportation is used for the return trip.

28 per cent of UberX rides in Montreal start or end near a Metro station – usually between the user’s home and a station.

50 per cent of Uber’s driver-partners work fewer than 10 hours a week and 70 per cent work fewer than 20 hours a week.

Uber says the average hourly income earned by UberX driver-partners in Montreal is $22.40.

UBER IN MONTREAL:

Uber gets a big edge in their profit margins by not having employees, by vigorously denying that they’re employees and saying that they’re independent contractors. That’s a shift in the structure of our labour force and, given the way our taxes are collected, it’s something the federal government should be looking at.”

—Mark Thompson, professor emeritus at UBC’s Sauder School of Business


“


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And as the sharing economy grows, it will mean fewer people covered by federal taxation the way standard employees are.

“That’s a shift in the structure of our labour force and, given the way our taxes are collected, it’s something the federal government should be looking at,” he said.

Among the areas of possible federal government action, the PCO report said it could examine federal defi nitions of full- and part-time employment and how it calculates labour market statistics. It could also review the labour market assumptions used in designing welfare state programs such as the Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security and Employment Insurance to make sure they refl ect “the changing nature of work.”

The Competition Bureau has mostly welcomed the challenge Uber brings to taxi monopolies. In November, it released a white paper calling for looser regulations on taxis rather than increased regulations for Uber.

The bureau also hosted a conference on emerging competition issues in January, where it noted another potential area for regulation: the massive amounts of data companies collect as they monitor users’ transactions. “Big data” has implications for regulations related to privacy and consumer protection, a summary document of the conference said, and regulators could seek access to some of the information for city planning, social policies and law enforcement.

“If companies like Uber are giving more choice and better customer service in an industry, then governments need to take a hard look at whether that’s a sign that some of these industries may not have been meeting customer demand in the best way that they possibly could have,” Mr. Johal said. “If the public interest is our guiding principle, that should help government policymakers address what types of rules should be put in place.”

OTTAWA TAXIS VERSUS UBERXService Initial charge Distance (per kilometer) Time (per minute)

Taxi $3.45 for fi rst 150 minutes $1.86 $0.16

UberX (without surge) $2 plus $1.50 safe rides fee $0.80 $0.18

SHARING ECONOMY-FEAT URE


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In search of the C-SUITEWomen make up 65 per cent of all Women make up 65 per cent of all

employees at Canadian banks, but female employees at Canadian banks, but female

executives in the financial industry are still executives in the financial industry are still

few and far between. Bay Street is still a few and far between. Bay Street is still a

boys’ club, experts tell boys’ club, experts tell ALLY FOSTER.ALLY FOSTER.


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Toronto-Dominion’s Beata Caranci, pictured, is the only female chief economist among Canada’s six largest banks. P&I photograph by Cole Burston


FEAT URE-WOMEN IN F INANCE

In fact, a recent study conducted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics found that Canada ranked in the bottom 10 countries globally in terms of gender diversity in corporate leadership roles.

There are exceptions: women such as Maureen Jensen, the chair of the Ontario Securities Commission; Kathleen Taylor, the chair of the Royal Bank of Canada; Cindy Forbes, the executive vide-president of Manulife; and Mary Turner, the CEO of Canadian Tire Bank and Canadian Tire Financial services.

But many observers say that Bay Street, and its infl uence on federal fi nance policy, is still very much a man’s world.

The silver lining, critics say, is that there is renewed interest in many sectors, including fi nance, to give equal opportunity to women. For many years, this issue has been a priority for organizations such as Oxfam and campaigns such as 30 by 30 (which aims to have 30 per cent of the world’s investable capital managed by women by 2030). However, Mr. Trudeau’s rhetoric on the issue, including forming a gender-equal cabinet, has lent new, widespread interest in the cause.

A LONG WAY TO GO “We’re not at parity, but absolutely there’s

a new enthusiasm for addressing these issues,” says Barb Orser, a vice-dean with the University of Ottawa’s Telfer school of management. She adds that Mr. Trudeau is an example of one potential solution to the inequality: executive leadership that makes no excuses, and actively seeks out capable women from an enormous talent pool, giving them the chance to prove themselves.

Indeed, there is no lack of talent to choose from. In fact, women are now more likely than men to have higher levels of education in Canada, according to Statistics Canada.

And yet, according to a study done by The Globe and Mail, there is only one chief

economist among Canada’s six largest banks—the Toronto-Dominion Bank’s Beata Caranci. Meanwhile, only 19 per cent of senior economic staff are female.

Even Canada’s economic-focused think tanks have a disparity. Twenty-nine per cent of the research organizations’ in-house economists are women, the study found.

Some experts say that social norms, stigmas about gender roles, and uneven distribution of unpaid work (often household chores, and caring of children and the elderly) are to blame for women being passed over for high-level positions.

At a panel discussion held by Hill Times Events on March 8, Brittany Lambert, who leads research and advocacy on gender inequality for Oxfam Canada, told the audience that women in Canada do twice the amount of unpaid work as men, which can affect their choice of pursuing demanding and tenure-driven positions.

BRIGITTE PARENTCompany: Sun Life Financial

Canada Position: Senior vice-president, individual insurance and wealth

since 2012. Company’s worth:

$1.76-billion in net worth A signifi cant (and growing) fi le:

Ms. Parent’s fi le is responsible for retirement planning, an enormous

portfolio, considering that Statistics Canada projects the number

of seniors in Canada to double during the next 25 years, reaching an

estimated 10.9 million by 2036.

MAUREEN JENSENOrganization: Ontario Securities

CommissionPosition: Chair

About the OSC: The Commission is Ontario’s watchdog for capital markets, ensuring that investors

are protected in a fair and effi cient economic environment that has stringent securities regulations.

A fi rst (x2): Ms. Jensen is the fi rst woman to lead Canada’s largest

capital markets regulator, and also the fi rst chair to be appointed from within the agency, according to The

Globe and Mail.

KATHLEEN TAYLORCompany: Royal Bank of CanadaPosition: Chair since Jan. 1, 2014 Company’s worth: $34-billion

A true trailblazer: The former CEO of Four Seasons Hotels is the fi rst

woman to become the chair of the board for a major Canadian bank.

For a country that prides itself on being diverse and inclusive, to think that our boardrooms are amongst the worst, globally, is an embarrassment for us.” —Jennifer Reynolds, Women in

Capital Markets president

“

A self-described feminist, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on March 8—International Women’s Day—that the next series of Canadian bank notes would feature

iconic females. But, while women may soon adorn the currency we use, they are still noticeably absent from the boardrooms in Canada’s fi nance sector, say pundits.


WOMEN IN F INANCE-FEAT URE

Jennifer Reynolds, president of Women in Capital Markets, says relative to other sectors, the fi nancial realm has been putting a focus on gender parity and is faring better than some trades. But, she cautions, the sector still has a long ways to go.

There’s a large number of women, overall, in the fi nancial sector; 60 to 65 per cent of bank employees are women, she says. “The critical problem is getting women into the leadership roles.”

There has been a great deal of talking about creating change over the past several years, she says, but now “we’re at the execution phase.”

CANADA IS NOT A LEADER

Ms. Reynolds adds that there must be a culture shift, but cautions that it’s a tough job.

“Women, typically, are in operational support roles,” she tells P&I, giving examples such as chief of legal, or chief of human resources. “We need to see them in profi t-and-loss roles. We need to see more women leading businesses.”

Many studies globally have shown that corporations with a higher number of women executives far outperform companies that have low female leadership.

A January 2015 report from McKinsey & Company found that companies “in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15 per cent more likely to have fi nancial returns above their respective national industry medians.”

Canada is not a leader in terms of diversity in executive positions and on boards.

Catalyst, an organization that promotes gender diversity in the workforce, reported that in Canada, approximately 40 per cent of companies had no women sitting on their boards of directors.

“For a country that prides itself on being diverse and inclusive, to think that our boardrooms are amongst the worst, globally, is an embarrassment for us,” says Ms. Reynolds. “We need to work on this. It has to be less ‘clubby’ in the boardroom. We need to have

more robust processes around recruitment. We need to have term limits so people can’t sit on a board for 15 years. … The boardrooms of Canada do not represent Canadians.”

‘NO BIGOTRY IN THE BUSINESS’

Ms. Reynolds says that “the single most important thing that can happen around gender diversity is getting men involved and engaged. … They’re the ones sitting in the seats today, and they will ultimately drive the change. They need to question their own governance processes.”

There isn’t “some magical policy” that can fi x the problem, she stresses. “It’s cultural change, and we haven’t had it.”

She emphasizes that the issues revolve around subconscious biases. Men are not intentionally avoiding hiring or promoting women, but they’re unknowingly giving priority to their own types—other men—she says.

At every level, there needs to be diversity in the candidate pool says Maureen Jensen, chair of the Ontario Securities Commission. The job should always be given to the most qualifi ed person, but the group being considered needs to

have gender diversity, and with the number of women graduating with high levels of education in fi nance, business, and economics, there’s no reason that pool should be lopsided, she tells P&I.

Continued on page 60

CAROL BANDUCCI Company: IAMGOLD

Position: Executive vice-president, chief fi nancial offi cer since 2007.

Ms. Banducci manages the fi nancial, information technology and investor

relations portfolios for the mining giant.Company’s worth: $3.25-billion Get out from behind the desk:

Ms. Banducci is a jet-setter, emphasizing in interviews and

speaking engagements that she believes executives should see the work their company does fi rsthand,

on the ground. She has regularly made trips across the globe, hitting six of the seven continents in her

travels over the years.

$1,236.88 The average weekly wage for women in the Professional Occupations in Business and

Finance Industry classifi cation. Men’s wages in the same category, by comparison, are

$1,495.52 on average, according to Statistics Canada.

30The key number in the 30 by 30 campaign,

which aims to have 30 per cent of the world’s investable capital managed by women by the

year 2030.

1The number of major Canadian Banks (there

are a total of six by most standards) that has a woman as the chair of the board of directors, and the number of female chief economists.

65The percentage of employees at all levels in

Canadian banks who are women

40The percentage of Canadian companies

that have no women sitting on their boards, according to the gender equality

organization Catalyst.

$3.2-trillionThe total assets controlled by women in North America, according to Boston

Consulting Group. However, this still only represents one-third of the fi nancial assets

available.

3The number of women, out of 12, that sit on the ‘outside member’ portion of the Liberal

Party’s Economic Council of Advisers.

40The number of economics majors in

Canadian universities who are women.

2014The year that the Bank of Canada appointed

Carolyn Wilkins as its fi rst female senior deputy governor (the second-highest central

banking role in the country).

ISABELLE CÔTÉCompany: CITI Investment Banking

GroupPosition: Managing director,

corporate bankingCompany’s worth: Citigroup is

worth $156.7-billion‘We know what we want’: She

told the Women’s Executive Network: “A headhunter recently called me. He

had a mandate from a big bank to hire ‘women leaders’ without any specifi city

about the position, the role or the business unit. This shows the fi nancial industry is still largely a ‘boys’ club’ at the senior levels. I pointed out that it is not appropriate to reach out to senior women with vague opportunities. We,

like men, know what we want!”

SHELLEY MARTINCompany: Nestlé Canada Inc.

Position: President and CEO since January, 2013

Company’s worth: The Canadian subsidiary of the world’s largest

food company represents more than $2-billion in sales

Helping those in need: Ms. Martin sits on the board of the Grocery Innovation foundation, and has

contributed to the raising of more than $75-million for social causes

including food security.


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THE BIRTH

OFGlobalInternet T


INTERNE T TV-FEAT URE

TVForty-seven per cent of anglophones in Canada have a subscription to Netflix today. The global online-streaming service launched in Canada in 2011 as its first international market and has since grown to 190 countries. New players such as Shomi and Crave TV are also on the scene and influencing how Canadians consume television in a big way.

BY SHRUTI SHEKAR


Since it launched in Canada in 2011, the company has been building to create it into a service that’s available globally, said Anne Marie Squeo, director of corporate communications at Netfl ix.

“Canada was our fi rst international, all-streaming market … and we’ve been building our service globally from there,” Ms. Squeo told P&I in an exclusive email interview. “We work with lots of companies and creators in Canada to provide content not just for our service in Canada, but for distribution globally.”

According to a report from the Media Technology Monitor, (a project of the CBC/Radio-Canada), in 2015, 47 per cent of Canadian anglophones had a subscription to Netfl ix, up from 39 per cent in 2014.

Since Netfl ix’s inception in 1997 as an online movie rental company, it has slowly grown, and in January, Netfl ix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings announced at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Conference in Las Vegas that the company’s service is currently available in 190 countries.

“Today you are witnessing the birth of a new global internet TV network,” Mr. Hastings said according to a press release from the conference. “With this launch, consumers around the world—from Singapore to St. Petersburg, from San Francisco to Sao Paulo—will be able to enjoy TV shows and movies simultaneously. No more waiting. With the help of the internet, we are putting power

in consumers’ hands to watch whenever, wherever and on whatever device.”

Last October Netfl ix partnered with Rogers’ CityTV and Shomi to premiere a new show on Shomi, but globally it would be seen by consumers on Netfl ix.

One wouldn’t think that the internet TV service that’s taking over globally it would partner with its competitors to create an even bigger presence and infl uence on consumers, but for Netfl ix, it was a no-brainer.

“Teaming up with Rogers … is a tremendous opportunity to work with a creative partner in Canada to bring our global viewers top-notch content,” Erik Barmack, vice-president of global independent content at Netfl ix, said in a press release last October.

The site’s appearance is altered depending from which country it is accessed. This is because Netfl ix works with content distributors and studios to gain rights to different TV shows and movies. In the course of time as well, the company began creating and producing its own content known as a Netfl ix Original.

“Our goal is to grow our own original programming to allow for greater creative and business control and to ensure global access to content,” Ms. Squeo said. “We are currently actively managing productions spanning the globe from Canada to Cambodia to Colombia.”

By trying to make Netfl ix Originals

available everywhere, the international library will begin to look similar for everyone.

“We now release Netfl ix Originals globally and increasingly as negotiating global arrangements for licenced content,” Ms. Squeo said.

A service like Netfl ix isn’t the only reason why there is a shift in the way people consume content. There are multiple facets and variables that have played a factor in the change of consuming TV.

But, since its emergence, new players such as Shomi (a joint venture between Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc.) and CraveTV, (owned by BCE Inc.), have joined the game and changed the industry—in the process, affecting the way Canadians consume content.

But has growing local competition in Canada affected Netfl ix’s ability to provide content to Canadians and to position itself as an infl uential medium?

“We welcome competition because it means consumers are more likely getting better content and better service at an affordable price,” Ms. Squeo added. “We know that consumers only have a certain amount of time and we’re not competing with video providers, but also other activities like reading, going to dinner or taking a nap. Competition drives us to be better and to win those critical moments of truth.”

David Asch, senior vice-president at Shomi, said in a phone interview that while Netfl ix’s objective is to become a global service, Shomi’s focus is to have a strong Canadian presence. Mr. Asch said the company is in its “toddler stage” because it’s such a new service and has different objectives compared to Netfl ix.

A bout fi ve years ago, U.S. online-streaming service Netfl ix slowly made its way into the Canadian

market eventually to become the world’s largest internet over-the-top (OTT) television provider of its kind.



“One of the big differences is, and I consider it an advantage, is that we are a Canadian service, we are all about Canada, and we program our service for Canadians,” Mr. Asch said. “Netfl ix has global ambitions and that’s fi ne and they’re in Canada and that’s fi ne. … We are every bit talking to the same content suppliers and programs and networks that Netfl ix is [and] … we compete with them for programming and we like what we have to offer.”

Mr. Asch noted that it is in the way Shomi markets TV shows to its audience and how the service presents itself that makes the service different from Netfl ix in the way it has shaped the way Canadians view television.

In October last year, Shomi launched a show called Einfi eld Haunting. The fi rst episode was available to watch for free on Shomi’s Facebook page. Consumers who wanted to watch other episodes, however, had to subscribe to the Shomi service.

“That was a hugely successful promotion for us, the results of the fi rst time that it was done in Canada. So

when we talk about thinking beyond a traditional marketing mean, we are using social marketing to expose great content to Canada,” Mr. Asch said. “And that series … it had almost 1.8 million video starts, it not only exposed people to Shomi and to that show, but helped really expose the platform to a bunch of new folks.”

He added that not only in the U.S., but also in Canada, people were watching TV differently because the internet has become a more mature platform on which to watch content.

Ms. Squeo added that the concept of internet TV has changed the way traditional cable TV providers offer content as well. She said that over time, consumers will have a range of program options to choose from and added that “successful linear TV networks are already introducing such apps.”

“Internet TV—which is on-demand, personalized, and available on any screen—is maturing and will eventually replace the linear TV experience,” she said. “We’ve increasingly seen linear TV networks offering similar programming through

apps on phones and smart TVs, and that provides consumers with more choice and freedom to make their own decisions about where and when to watch their favourite shows and movies.”

But in the changing Canadian television environment, Mr. Asch said he doesn’t

Our goal is to grow our own original

programming to allow for greater creative and business control and to ensure global access to

content. We are currently actively managing

productions spanning the globe from Canada to Cambodia to Colombia.”

—Anne Marie Squeo, Netflix director of corporate

communications

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think that traditional TV will die, but instead thinks OTT services will be an addition to households and present itself as a complimentary service to linear TV.

“People are still going to watch linear TV. A lot of what we do is a compliment to that. … What we see is [OTT] helps promote the linear broadcast of a show and that linear broadcast drives people to the [subscription video-on-demand] service like us to watch that,” Mr. Asch said. “So people may be able to watch a certain episode [on TV], but then they can come to Shomi and watch the entire fi rst season. To me it’s a very complimentary relationship than a replacement relationship.”

Gord Hendren, president at Charlton Strategic Research, said in a phone interview that the emergence of Netfl ix in the Canadian space has been a good “disruptive force” and a “great infl uence.” He said it has produced good content, has given consumers a different way to watch

content and has created a new price point. “It doesn’t necessarily replace all

content. So I’d say it’s been good. … I’d say at the moment it is more complimentary,” Mr. Hendren said. “[Netfl ix is] changing the way that [Canadians] watch TV in that particularly younger Canadians, millennials [aged 18-34], are watching more content via OTT and that trend continues to grow.”

Mr. Hendren added that the smartest thing Netfl ix has done as a player is created itself as a channel that’s similar to other channels.

“It’s a new channel and it has content just like other channels do. It’s a subscriber model and it is to a great degree still complimentary to much of the TV content that is available today,” Mr. Hendren said.

It took years for a company that is not based in Canada to shake things up, but this doesn’t shake Mr. Asch’s view that Shomi really is the driving force to infl uencing the way Canadians are viewing content.

“I came from the U.S. and it’s a very different market there. Here in Canada, we are one of the companies that is driving— not just following—a trend, but we are helping drive the trend to how people will consume content,” Mr. Asch said. “We are only one of the two Canadian companies that has a truly national service and one of the things we have seen is that this is clearly the wave of the future. Canada is consuming content very differently.”

When asked whether Netfl ix has had an infl uence in the way Canadians view television and how it compares to Canadian services like Shomi and CraveTV, CRTC spokesperson Patricia Valladao said in an email that the questions are speculative and could not comment.

P&I reached out to Bell’s CraveTV, but did not receive comment by deadline.

Mr. Asch said, however, that Shomi will continue to grow its service for Canadians. “I think you need to push the envelope, you need to be willing to take risk,” he said. “We need to expose people to the content, but also how they can watch TV or how they can watch content on services like this and that’s what helps drive it.”

The concept of internet TV has changed the way traditional cable TV providers offer content


FEAT URE-INDIGENOUS MPS

The October 2015 federal election was momentus for the 10 indigenous people elected as MPs—a record-

breaking number in Canadian history, and a game changer for federal public policy.

Although there are likely many complex societal shifts that contributed to the overwhelming engagement of what has historically been a politically-indifferent demographic, many say the previous Conservative government was the main incentive for increased activism among indigenous peoples.

Grand Chief Sheila North Wilson of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak told reporters: “I believe that [Stephen] Harper, when he was prime minister, woke a sleeping giant in our people.”

That giant is now conscious and hungry for change. As Canada’s fi rst indigenous Justice minister, Liberal MP Jody Wilson-Raybould, says: “It is a new day for indigenous peoples in Canada.”

She tells P&I that the lack of engagement over the last 10 years spurred indigenous people across the country to act.

BY ALLY FOSTER & BEA VONGDOUANGCHANH

The 2015 election featured 54 indigenous candidates, 10 of whom were elected to the House of Commons. It’s the highest number of First Nations, Inuit and

Métis Members of Parliament in Canada’s history. What does it mean for federal public policy? ‘Renewing the nation-to-nation relationship with indigenous

peoples lies at the heart of a strong Canada. Our legacy as a government will depend on it,’ says the country’s first indigenous Justice Minister.

FOR

INDIGENOUS PEOPLESIN CANADA’

‘A NEW DAY

JODY WILSON-RAYBOULD, KWAKWAKA’WAKWCAUCUS: LIBERAL

RIDING: VANCOUVER GRANVILLE, B.C.Canada’s fi rst indigenous Justice Minister and Attorney General is a former crown prosecutor who spent many years working in Vancouver’s notoriously troubled Downtown Eastside, has been a treaty commissioner, and served as the regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations. Throughout Ms. Wilson-Raybould’s successful and varied career, her passion for demanding diversity and equality has remained. A self-described “bridge-builder,” she has written that Canada has “a culture based on shared values we spent years fostering as a nation; it is one of the best countries in the world to live in and raise a family.” On her website, she added that these fundamental tenets of our country have been left “at risk” after the Conservative government. “Changes to policies governing the economy and the environment, and everything in between, have transformed our country into a place that is hard to recognize,” she said.

This Q&A has been edited for length.

The 2015 election saw the highest number of Indigenous MPs elected to Parliament. What does this mean for

you?

I am very proud to be the Member of Parliament representing Vancouver Granville and part of

a record number of indigenous Members of Parliament who were elected in 2015. The number of indigenous MPs, along with our government’s strong commitment to reconciliation with indigenous peoples, speaks volumes to how far we have come as a country. This makes me so very proud to be both indigenous and Canadian.

What does it mean for a shift in power or infl uence on the federal public policy landscape?

Indigenous issues are probably one of the single biggest public policy issues of our time, issues that in the past were not big ballot box winners. Today, I feel this is changing. Most Canadians realize that resolving long-standing grievances and achieving reconciliation with indigenous peoples is not just a moral and social justice issue, where Canada’s international reputation is at stake, but is also absolutely necessary for the economic success of our country moving forward.

Accordingly, Canadians supported our government’s vision of a renewed, nation-to-nation relationship with indigenous peoples, based on recognition of aboriginal and treaty rights, respect, co-operation, and partnership. And personally, as an

indigenous leader who has worked to help First Nation communities rebuild, I have great hope and optimism knowing what can be accomplished working together and building on our success, including developing new mechanisms to support reconciliation.

Q&A continued on page 40P&I photograph by Blair Gable



HUNTER TOOTOO, INUITCAUCUS: LIBERAL RIDING: NUNAVUTMr. Tootoo represents Canada’s youngest territory, Nunavut, and has served in the Northern region’s legislature since the day of its inception, when it separated from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999. Now, the newly named Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, Mr. Tootoo says he brings a collaborative style of governing to the table, fostered by Nunavut’s rare consensus-style government. Mr. Tootoo says he’s had “a lot less sleep” since being elected to the House of Commons, but is excited by the busy agenda, which has already taken him on an East-to-West Coast tour. Mr. Tootoo says he had interesting sit-downs with some of the First Nations groups in Manitoba and Quebec, with many of the participants saying it was the fi rst time they’d ever had the chance to speak with a federal minister. “We’re committed to having a renewed relationship with the aboriginal people in the country,” he says.

Mr. Tootoo says he will work to remind Canadians that there is a third coast in the North, and that the needs of northern communities are very unique.

“It’s diffi cult to fathom the realities when you’ve never been there,” he says, pointing out that the cost of living is three times greater than in the South, and that it’s a territory that covers three time zones. The benefi t of investing in the North, he stresses, is that it has an immense trickle-down effect on many other Canadian provinces because the northern communities often rely on outsourced materials, expertise and people.

“During the last election, there was also a sense of urgency that galvanized indigenous peoples, and Canadians generally, that our country was going backwards, away from a vision of inclusiveness and respect for diversity,” Ms. Wilson-Raybould says.

“So 2015 became a critical election for indigenous peoples, who got engaged, and went out and voted. For many, including [Assembly of First Nations] National Chief Perry Bellegarde, it was the fi rst time they voted. Perhaps his admission he had never voted but was going to this time was a game changer. In any case, in many ridings indigenous peoples, along with a general increase in voter turnout, and particularly among young voters, certainly made a difference. The results speak for themselves.”

A record-breaking 54 indigenous people stood for election as candidates in 2015 and voter turnout among the indigenous population also increased from 44 per cent in 2011 across the country by 36 per cent on average.

Threehundredeight.com’s Eric Grenier explained in an analysis for CBC that while there is “imperfect data” from Elections Canada on indigenous voter turnout, “In the top 10 per cent of ridings with the largest proportion of Canadians claiming aboriginal identity, according to the 2011 National Household Survey, the increase in turnout between the 2011 and 2015 elections averaged 22 per cent. In the 10 per cent of ridings with the smallest proportion of Canadians with aboriginal identity, the increase in turnout averaged 13 per cent, matching the national average. This phenomenon was repeated in every province, with the average increase in turnout in ridings with a high proportion of residents claiming aboriginal identity being greater than the province-wide increase in turnout.”

Some indigenous communities had a voter turnout increase of up to 270 per cent and six polling stations in indigenous areas spanning from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario ran out of ballots on election day. It was reported that voters patiently waited until more ballots arrived from Elections Canada; not just eager, but resolute to have their voices heard.


P&I photograph by Jake Wright


INDIGENOUS MPS-FEAT URE

GEORGINA JOLIBOIS, DENECAUCUS: NDP RIDING: DESNETHÉ-MISSINIPPI-CHURCHILL RIVER, SASK.Like many people, Ms. Jolibois was asked in high school what she wanted to ‘be’ when she ‘grew up.’ While some hesitate and mumble a non-committal response, Ms. Jolibois had no hesitation. She wanted to be the mayor. The interest started with something small; a lack of physical education programming in her community. Ms. Jolibois says she saw areas that needed to change, and she wanted to be an active part of that discussion.

Ms. Jolibois didn’t lose sight of that dream, and served four terms as mayor of La Loche, Sask. She now represents the wider community of Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River (a huge swath of territory that spans across almost half of the province). This new position comes with increased opportunity to provide improvements to her region, she says. But it also comes with an incredibly long commute. In order to get from her home base to Ottawa, Ms. Jolibois must drive six and a half hours to the Saskatoon airport, and then lift-off for a roughly six-hour fl ight.

But travel is necessary to accomplish the goals she has set out: reforming the Employment Insurance system, securing renewed funding for Canada Post, encouraging the discussion amongst policy makers about First Nations and Métis inclusion, bolstering industry in Northern Saskatchewan, and highlighting environmental issues.




Certainly it helps to have the perspectives, experiences, and values that indigenous MPs bring to Parliament. It is very clear to me that all Canadians want to be more engaged in how their nation is governed and on the substantive policy issues that affect them, including government’s policy with respect to indigenous peoples. And they want us to do it on a less partisan basis. Working with all Canadians to better inform Parliament and Cabinet creates better policy and enriches all of us.

Will the attention on issues affecting indigenous peoples last to be able to make a difference?

It has to last and we must ensure it makes a difference. Indigenous peoples must be full partners in confederation and enjoy the same quality of life all Canadians expect. Our economy, our reputation as a caring and just society, indeed our collective future depends on it. To this end our prime minister has been quite clear: renewing the nation-to-nation relationship with indigenous peoples lies at the heart of a strong Canada. Our legacy as a government will depend on it.

We do not see this as simply a problem to be overcome, but one of the fundamental aims of a progressive government: economic and social inclusion. In the past, governments may have made excuses for not taking action or simply thrown their hands up saying the problems were just too complicated or hard to resolve. But our government has a plan, understands what needs to be done working in partnership with indigenous peoples, and has already begun to take signifi cant steps.

How will your background in law and as a former regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations inform your role as a legislator?

As a crown prosecutor, I worked in Vancouver’s downtown eastside, which gave me fi rsthand knowledge of some of the most serious social issues affecting both indigenous and non-indigenous people. That has shaped my views on the need for restorative justice and innovative approaches to solving some of our most pressing social issues.

My time as the regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations gave me a broad perspective on the bigger issues facing First Nations across B.C., as well as leadership experience in a political environment. It also provided me the opportunity to appreciate what was working in communities and what was not, and where new mechanisms are needed to achieve reconciliation and assist communities in the transition that is occurring from governance under the paternalistic and inappropriate Indian Act to self-government.

My upbringing, education, personal and professional experience all shape my worldview and the way that I work, as well as the approach and perspective that I now take as minister.

Can you talk briefl y about the We Wai Kai Nation? What are some of your traditions? Is there a way to bring these traditions to your work as a Parliamentarian?

We Wai Kai is part of the Laich-Kwil-Tach Nation of the Kwak’wala speaking peoples of northern Vancouver Island and adjacent mainland. The indigenous political system I was raised in is the big-house where our laws are made and important decisions taken. In this system, there are no political parties, but rather a belief in consensus. The issues are debated and, while everyone may not agree with every aspect of a decision, compromise and consensus are sought to achieve balance in society. This helps ensure that decisions are legitimate and durable—they survive the test of time. Maybe we did this because we all lived together in small villages and people did not simply leave, but I like to think it is because we valued everyone’s opinion and everyone’s voice counted—not just the few.

This is a markedly different environment to the House of Commons and certainly to Question Period. That said, I truly believe most parliamentarians do want to work together. When we work with a common purpose and vision, we can achieve amazing things. And, as we heard on the doorstep, Canadians want politicians of all political stripes to work together with less partisanship, in Parliament, and also between and among the various levels of governments.

What are you reading these days?

[Laughs] Briefi ng notes! Cabinet documents and Supreme Court decisions.

What’s on your iPod?

Hits from the ’80s.

What’s the best thing about your riding?

The people. It is a microcosm of the diversity of Canada. We have a thriving medical corridor and business districts along Broadway, south Granville, Main and Cambie streets. We have a wonderful mix of ethnicities and languages. We have students, recent immigrants, along with some of the wealthiest enclaves in Vancouver. It is a brilliant mix that refl ects our country.

Who are some of your big infl uences?

My mother, Sandy Wilson. She raised my sister and I while my father traveled for work.

My father, Bill Wilson (Hemas Kla-Lee-Lee-Kla)—a well-known Native leader and hereditary chief of our clan, that instilled in me a passion for the law, justice and the place of politics.

My grandmother Ethel Pearson. Her traditional name was Pugladee, the highest-ranking name in our clan, meaning “a good host.” She ensured that my sister and I knew our culture, our values, the laws of our big house, and how to conduct ourselves as leaders. She taught us we all have an important role to play in ensuring our community fi nds balance. All voices need to be heard.

Paul Martin. We have known and worked together for years and I consider him a mentor. He has taken a leadership role in the relationship with indigenous people since the Kelowna Accord and continues that leadership through the Martin Aboriginal Education Initiative.

Q&A continued from page 37

‘When we work with a common purpose and vision, we can achieve amazing things,’ says Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould. P&I photograph by Jake Wright

‘Indigenous issues are probably one of the single biggest public policy issues of our time’



DON RUSNAK, ANISHINAABECAUCUS: LIBERALRIDING: THUNDER BAY, RAINY RIVER, ONT.Equality amongst diverse populations will likely be a relatable issue for Mr. Rusnak, the Liberal MP who comes from a Ukrainian and Anishinaabe (Ojibway) background. Mr. Rusnak has had an eclectic career that has ranged from the forestry and the natural resource industry, to working as a crown prosecutor, to gaining experience in shaping healthcare policy, and as the interim executive director for Grand Council Treaty in Kenora. The new MP was recently appointed to the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development committee. A major issue in his constituency has been the ongoing softwood lumber dispute between Canada and the U.S. Mr. Rusnak has recently voiced hope that Justin Trudeau’s friendly relationship with U.S. President Barack Obama might help reinvigorate discussions on resolving the trade issue.

DAN VANDAL, MÉTISCAUCUS: LIBERAL RIDING: SAINT BONIFACE-SAINT VITAL, MAN.Mr. Vandal has a passion for cities—the way they work, their infrastructure, and the various complex backgrounds that make up the population. This likely comes, he says, from being a city councillor and deputy mayor in Winnipeg for almost 20 years. One of his proudest moments was in 1998, when he got to raise the pride fl ag at city hall after Winnipeg elected Glen Murray as Canada’s fi rst openly gay mayor.

Now, the MP looks forward to championing social causes such as access to education and equal opportunity for work. Winnipeg has the largest indigenous population of any city in Canada, and he says he wants to represent them. The former chair of the board of directors for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network says that indigenous Canadians were “living under a dark cloud” during the Conservatives’ time in power, and that he is proud the Liberal Party is inclusive and proactive when it comes to addressing indigenous issues.

“As a party we have to do some old fashioned grassroots organizing [to] keep people engaged and involved.”

VANCE BADAWEY, MÉTIS CAUCUS: LIBERAL RIDING: NIAGARA CENTRE, ONT.Mr. Badawey comes to the Hill with 18 years of experience as a mayor and a regional councillor. He says his biggest strength is that he’s learned how to truly listen. When someone voices a concern, he says he no longer just hears an ‘ask’ or a problem; he also hears the “how to” for fi xing it. He describes himself as results-driven, and says he’s eager to start making positive changes.

His priority is to create economic expansion in his region, but in a sustainable way that will put his constituents on a long-term trajectory of success. He wants to strengthen the labour market, fi nd investments into innovation, increase value-added manufacturing exports, and ensure people in his riding are working together on shared goals.

He says his modus operandi as an MP was the same formula he’s always followed: “Just be honest, and work hard.”

With a laugh, he says he has workaholic tendencies, but when he manages to loosen the tie, he enjoys sitting quietly “with no one around, having a nice glass of tea, putting on some soft jazz, and reading a good book.”

YVONNE JONES, INUIT CAUCUS: LIBERALRIDING: LABRADOR, NFLD.Ms. Jones is one of two indigenous incumbents on the Hill. After being elected to the House in May 2013, she served as the Liberal critic for Northern Development and the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency. She was also in charge of the search and rescue fi le. Ms. Jones’ roots were not always planted in politics; her early career was in journalism, working as a reporter across the country before becoming mayor of her hometown, Mary’s Harbour, in 1991. Now, Ms. Jones is the parliamentary secretary to the minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs.


ROMEO SAGANASH, CREECAUCUS: NDPRIDING: ABITIBI-BAIE JAMES-NUNAVIK-EEYOU, QUE.Well-versed with the political circuit, Mr. Saganash was the fi rst indigenous MP elected in Quebec when he won his riding in 2011. Mr. Saganash served as the deputy aboriginal affairs critic, and contributed to the drafting of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Now the NDP critic for Intergovernmental Aboriginal Affairs, and the Northern Economic Development Agency, Mr. Saganash has long been an advocate for indigenous issues. He has publicly spoken out about his experience of being taken from his family at the age of six, and enrolled into a residential school. At the age of 23, he founded the Cree National Youth Council. Between 1990 and 1993, he was Deputy Grand Chief of the Grand Council of the Crees, and then vice-chair of the Cree Regional Authority. Eventually, he went on to become the director of Quebec Relations and International Affairs for the Grand Council of the Crees.

When Mr. Saganash took his most recent oath to the Queen in November 2015, he earned applause and chatter by adding on his own line to the end of his vow: “And I solemnly affi rm, that in the carrying out of my duties, I shall honour and respect the treaties signed with indigenous peoples.”




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MICHAEL MCLEOD, MÉTIS CAUCUS: LIBERAL RIDING: NORTHWEST TERRITORIESAs a former cabinet minister in the Northwest Territories, Mr. McLeod is a seasoned political vet. In fact, a deep knowledge of regional issues—and shouldering some responsibility for addressing them—started at a very young age for Mr. McLeod, who was hired and trained as a band manager at 18, and became mayor of his hometown, Fort Providence, at 22.

These positions “allowed me to learn about governance and leadership,” he says. Now, the 56-year-old MP says he plans to prioritize two issues that were repeatedly brought to his attention during his campaign: job creation and housing solutions in the North.

Homelessness has recently become a major issue in his region that needs remedying, he says. When working on securing investment in Canada’s North, Mr. McLeod says it’s his job to remind decision-makers that “funding can’t come on a per capita basis,” due to the very small population-to-land-mass ratio.


ROBERT-FALCON OUELLETTE, CREECAUCUS: LIBERALRIDING: WINNIPEG CENTRE, MAN.Mr. Ouellette is many things: a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, a current Naval reservist, a Liberal MP, a father, a proud Cree, and the holder of a PhD.

Mr. Ouellette says he has several priorities in his new position as MP, including ending poverty and bettering access to social services—especially for families. He wants to help Canadians, not just members of the indigenous population, “break through the prison of the mind.” When asked to elaborate, Mr. Ouellette explains that many people let self-doubt and stigma hinder their confi dence and personal empowerment. Mr. Ouellette has also been championing a renewed look at “guaranteed income” which would see all Canadians get a set, minimum income (based on their employment earnings) that would replace other social assistance programs.


John Burrows, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Victoria and Anishinabe/Ojibway member of the Chippewa of the Nawash First Nation in Ontario, says that the election result shows how frustrated indigenous Canada was in terms of their relationship with the federal government. “The presence of indigenous MPs signals that national politics is not a closed shop, as it once seemed,” he tells P&I. “At the same time, I believe it generally signals the depth of their dissatisfaction with the status quo. They want to change how they are governed.”

For Ryerson University professor Pamela Palmater, a Mi’kmaq lawyer from the Eel River Bar First Nation in northern New Brunswick, the election of more indigenous people is “signifi cant for Canada,” but not necessarily for First Nations. “From the government’s perspective, this helps them build the perception of legitimacy in the eyes of Canadians, especially around indigenous issues; however, I do not see more indigenous peoples in Canada’s Parliament as signifi cant for indigenous nations and our struggles related to our sovereign identities and rights,” she tells P&I in an email. “As each indigenous person is elected, they are sworn to abide by Canada’s asserted sovereignty and laws. Worse is that they are limited in their ability to advocate outside the scope of their specifi c political party’s policies and mandates even if they were inclined to advocate on our behalf.”

She points to indigenous Senators such as Sandra Lovelace and Lillian Dyck who advocated for First Nations rights and issues but were outnumbered on committees and were up against governments that were not taking those issues seriously. “No one speaks outside of the party line,” she says. “To me the real game changer in the last election was not the number of indigenous peoples elected into government—but the growing partnership between grassroots indigenous peoples and Canadians in holding federal

and provincial governments accountable for ongoing injustice against indigenous peoples. Their collective voices helped educate and empower others to turf an oppressive prime minister out of offi ce, oust a pro-hydro-fracking government in New Brunswick and unseat the Conservative-oil industry choke hold on Alberta. This is where the real promise lies—in the growing relationship between indigenous peoples and Canadians to put these governments in their places.”

Ms. Wilson-Raybould says that as the Justice minister, she is the “steward of the Canadian justice system for all Canadians,” but “we must recognize that Canada’s justice system was built, and our nation created, largely without the voices of indigenous peoples. Now we have the opportunity to reset this relationship and I am honoured to be part of it.”

Some of her top priorities as minister include moving quickly on the inquiry into murdered and missing indigenous women and girls and “beginning a broad review of the criminal justice system. Some of the issues we will consider include the use of restorative justice processes and other initiatives to reduce the rate of incarceration amongst indigenous peoples. We will also look at addressing gaps in services to indigenous people and people with mental illness throughout the criminal justice system.”

She also notes she’s working with Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett on implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. “One of the biggest legal questions we face as we work towards true reconciliation will be how to implement the UNDRIP,” she says. “We need a ‘made in Canada’ approach.”

The federal government endorsed the UNDRIP in 2010, but called it an “aspirational document” and has not moved to implement it.

“It is the only human rights instrument created with the participation of the rights holders themselves. This participation is at the heart of the declaration’s concept of free, prior and informed consent:

that indigenous peoples must be able to participate in making any decisions that will affect their lives,” Ms. Wilson-Raybould says. “There are many facets to this challenge, many differing perspectives and a number of options. All require a relationship that has been redefi ned in a fundamental way.”

The level of engagement from aboriginal and First Nations communities across Canada has been building over the past couple of years, with the Idle No More grassroots revolution being referred to as the largest Canada-wide social action campaign since the civil rights movement.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau campaigned heavily on working to close the gap between First Nations and non-indigenous Canadians. In the Liberals’ fi rst budget, tabled on March 22, the government said it would provide $8.4-billion over fi ve years “to improve the socio-economic conditions of indigenous peoples and their communities and bring about transformational change.” Finance Minister Bill Morneau called it an “historic investment.”

This funding will “be supported by changed policy and new legislation,” Ms. Wilson-Raybould says. “There is enormous opportunity in more effectively engaging and including indigenous peoples in the economy of Canada.”

On the Hill to provide feedback, insight and accountability as Mr. Trudeau works to implement this list of commitments are the 10 indigenous MPs from both the Liberal and NDP caucuses (there are no Conservative First Nation MPs, with several of them losing their seats in the last election). Most of these elected offi cials are rookies, however, each one of them brings an extensive and eclectic background in everything from public administration, health care, natural resources, law, indigenous issues and environmental sustainability.

Mr. Burrows says it remains to be seen whether the indigenous MPs will wield power or infl uence, or stand out as political stars; however, he adds, “If they make a difference, more will likely run in the future. If not, then we’ll likely see a search for other political outlets. In all likelihood, if this trend grows, it will more prominently highlight the diverse schools of indigenous political thought and practice.”

He adds: “That’s a good thing.”



‘The real game changer in the last election was the growing partnership between grassroots indigenous peoples and Canadians’

Continued from page 38

Local transit, federal lessonsThe federal Liberal government plans to spend $11.6-billion on infrastructure over the next five years. Experts say it’s an opportunity for federal legislators to learn from the upheaval in places like the Greater Toronto Area in order to ensure that politics doesn’t trump sound infrastructure investments.

BY MARCO VIGLIOTTI

TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE-FEAT URE

‘There’s always a preponderance for governments to want to fund expansion projects so that you can cut that ribbon, show that new line on a map. While that’s really important … the piece that is always forgotten, which is fairly less sexy, is the state of good repair and maintenance and ongoing upkeep of these systems,’ says Toronto city councillor and Toronto Transit Commission chair Josh Colle. Toronto Star photograph by Tara Walton


But after years of intransigence, route battles and political squabbles, the Greater Toronto Area is currently awash in makeshift fencing and hardhats as the provincial government charges ahead on a sweeping overhaul of regional transportation infrastructure, envisioning an ambitious plan for commuter train service GO Transit and fi nancing expansions to Toronto’s teeming subway system.

The federal Liberals are also targeting the region for new investments, with the GTA expected to reap the lion’s share of an additional $20-billion earmarked for national transit infrastructure over the next decade.

In the Liberals’ fi rst budget, tabled in the House of Commons in March, the government pledged $11.6-billion in new infrastructure spending over the next fi ve years, framing it as the fi rst section of a two-phased scheme to push out an additional $60-billion in the next decade.

Public transit was allocated $3.4-billion over fi ve years, with the province of Ontario set to receive roughly $1.5-billion of that total. Although specifi cs were sparse, the federal budget mentions fl eet replacement for the Toronto Transit Commission, hinting at potentially new subway trains, buses or street cars.

The Liberals also promised to cover up to 50 per cent of the costs for certain infrastructure projects, as opposed to the more conventional three-way split between Ottawa, the provinces and the municipalities.

But transit experts warn that the new federal government must demand greater accountability

from municipal and provincial partners to ensure politics does not trump thorough research in setting infrastructure priorities and squander this historic opportunity to reinvent an exhausted transportation grid.

“The good news is our decision-makers have recognized that we missed a generation of infrastructure and there’s a dramatic need to start building,” says Matti Siemiatycki, a geography professor at the University of Toronto specializing in transit policy. “The question is now that you have the recognition, what do you actually spend money on? On that front, that’s where this region has really had challenges over the years.”

Founded in 2006, provincial Crown agency Metrolinx has taken the lead in coordinating and managing mass transit developments across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

The guiding blueprint for the agency has been the Big Move, an overarching regional transportation strategy adopted in 2008 that lays out plans to spend $2-billion annually on transit projects—including building 1,200 kilometres of rapid transit—over the next 25 years.

Metrolinx is actively laying the groundwork for the centerpiece of the strategy: an ambitious regional express rail scheme that would see electric trains run every 15 minutes or less across the most heavily travelled sections of the GO system to replace the relatively sluggish service offered by its conventional diesel powered fl eet.

It is also managing construction of new additions to the Toronto rapid transit system, continuing to direct the sweeping renovations of historic Union Station and providing fi nancing to countless other projects, while operating the recently completed express train connecting downtown Toronto to the airport.

Bruce McCuaig, Metrolinx president and chief executive offi cer, says he believes the agency’s efforts will “change the way people move around this region,” citing specifi cally the ongoing overhaul of GO Transit from a primarily rush-hour service into a two-way, all-day commuter line.

“We need to have a transit system that refl ects the complexity of the urban region that we have in the Toronto area,” he says, calling the regional express rail plan for GO, set to take shape over the next fi ve to 10 years, the “most signifi cant expansion of the system” since its inception in 1967.

The spate of new projects is also indicative of changes in regional planning priorities, Mr. McCuaig says, with Metrolinx now working on integrating the various employment and residential hubs across the GTA instead of merely connecting downtown Toronto with the suburbs.

He credits the provincial Liberals, regional stakeholders and residents for supporting these historic investments to reinvent transit in the area.

FEAT URE-TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE

Plastered along temporary blockades, meant to

blunt the intrusion of hectic worksites, sleek,

boldface font posters advertise the benefi ts

commuters will soon enjoy from the currently under-

construction light rail line set to stretch across Toronto’s

main east-west throughway.

Slated to open in 2021, the $5.3-billion Eglinton

Crosstown remains on pace to close out what critics have

assailed as the lost decade of transit in the city following

the completion of the Sheppard subway in 2002.

Since that time, Toronto has failed to add a single

kilometre to its rapid transit system despite welcoming

more than a million new residents to the broader

metro area, stoking widespread commuter frustration

at increasingly swamped roadways and packed subway

trains.


“We’re blessed right now in this region of having governments that are very much aligned with the need to invest and build our transportation services,” Mr. McCuaig says.

Long relegated as a provincial and local issue, transit funding roared into the national consciousness during the 2015 federal election campaign as the three major parties all touted expensive plans to invest in municipal infrastructure.

The federal Liberals promised to quadruple existing municipal transit funding in the next decade and were awarded with huge seat gains in each of the country’s largest metro areas.

Mr. Siemiatycki advises the federal government to avoid spending lavishly on transit projects that appear politically lucrative but lack solid business cases, warning that with billions on the table, the margin of error will be razor thin.

The failure, he says, to reap the promised ridership and congestion alleviation benefi ts from these costly projects could erode public trust and support for years—potentially pulling the region back into the transit stasis of the past decade.

“The real risk in the big picture is we’re going to lose the public confi dence and trust in the abilities of governments to select projects and solve real problems,” Mr. Siemiatycki says. “It’s a long-term risk for our infrastructure at a time when we know we have to be spending.”

While provincial and federal governments typically fork over capital funding for construction, Mr. Siemiatycki cautions that the far more onerous annual operation costs fall on the laps of municipal authorities, meaning poor investments can hamstring transit providers for decades.

The 5.5-kilometre Sheppard subway draws so few riders it is estimated to require a roughly $10 per ride operating subsidy, which has cooled local politicians on future expansion plans, according to the Toronto Star.

Frustrating commuters in the region could also have major political consequences for both the provincial and federal Liberals, who largely owe their recent electoral success to strong showings in the 416 and 905 region.

The federal Grits swept every riding in Toronto, Brampton and Mississauga in last year’s election, while their provincial counterparts won all but three seats in those cities in 2014.

To prevent unwise investments, Mr. Siemiatycki calls on Ottawa to establish an “infrastructure bank” that would set clear and concrete standards for any project vying for money from the federal government as opposed to continuing to distribute funding on an ad-hoc basis.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau toured the New Flyer manufacturing plant in Winnipeg, Man., in February 2015. In its fi rst budget, the Liberal government promised $11.6-billion in new infrastructure spending over the next fi ve years, framing it as the fi rst section of a two-phased scheme to push out an additional $60-billion in the next decade. Photograph courtesy PMO


MAINTAINING

After a decade in power and what looked like increasing momentum in the demise of the ‘Laurentian elite,’ the Conservative Party is left to do some soul searching after its electoral loss last fall.

‘If you want to form government, you have to be reflective of the

interests and values of Canadians, and you do that with a big-tent

approach,’ says Joe Oliver.

BY CHRISTOPHER GULY

THE BIG TENTTHE BIG TENT


FEAT URE-CONSERVATIVE PART Y FUTURE

As Canada’s new Leader of the Offi cial Opposition, Ms. Ambrose has also adopted a sunnier approach in her role of keeping the government accountable. She supports Mr. Trudeau’s commitment to hold an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. Ms. Ambrose also dispatched her environment and climate change critic, former international trade minister Ed Fast, to Paris for the United Nations mega-summit on climate change, an issue not perceived as a priority for her former boss, Stephen Harper, who withdrew Canada from the Kyoto Protocol four years ago.

But as with any successor to a leader of a party unseated from power by an election poll, Ms. Ambrose is faced with the task of working with other Conservatives to determine whether an image rebrand and a strategy rethink is necessary.

When she ran for the interim leader’s job, Ms. Ambrose said in a memo to her caucus colleagues that their focus should be on “challenging the Trudeau government by defending and promoting the conservative values and policies that so many Canadians embraced and voted in favour of.”

“The most absolutely critical” priority is that the party remain united, says former federal Conservative Finance minister Joe Oliver, who lost his Eglinton-Lawrence riding to Liberal Marco Mendicino.

“The sure way for continued losses is to divide the party, and that’s what happened during the Chrétien years, and we absolutely cannot let that happen. We have to have a big tent to be welcoming of social conservatives and libertarians, of red Tories and blue Tories,” Mr. Oliver explains in a telephone interview from his home in Toronto. “I don’t think we have

to betray our core conservative principles. We just have to make sure we communicate effectively and not send the wrong signal that somehow we’re not inclusive and welcoming.” (He supported the Conservative’s policy regarding niqabs that “when you join the Canadian family, you

should show your face” at the citizenship ceremony.)

Mr. Oliver adds: “Rebuilding is not an insurmountable issue. But it has to be handled intelligently and done in a collaborative way.”

He says that when the Conservatives were in power, the party had a “much more diverse caucus than any other party, which refl ected both the philosophy of the party and its reaching out to cultural communities.”

“If you want to form government, you have to be refl ective of the interests and values of Canadians, and you do that with a big-tent approach.”

Mr. Oliver, who served as Natural Resources minister prior to being named Finance minister in Mr. Harper’s government, says Conservatives need to determine how their party can broaden its appeal and capture the 7.5 per cent spread lost to the Liberals in last October’s election. “I’m not suggesting it’s an easy thing to do,” he says. “But it does involve policy and communication, broadly defi ned.”

Mr. Oliver, who believes he and others on Mr. Harper’s “front bench” could have played a bigger role in articulating the party’s policies in the last federal election campaign, says the results were “signifi cant, not devastating,” and that the “overwhelming political impetus was the desire for change that was more related to style and tone” not a “repudiation” of the Harper government’s policies.

“We held our core. The problem is that we didn’t build on it,” says Mr. Oliver, who points out that despite losing Eglinton-Lawrence, his total vote actually increased from 22,652 in 2011 to 23,788 in 2015.

“As a party, we had about the same percentage [39] of votes last time that the Liberals had this time. But there was a different dynamic this time because of the desire for change, so people voted more strategically, and NDP and Green voters switched to the Liberals.”

He notes the Conservatives still hold 99 seats. “So we’re in a much stronger position after this election.”

Summa Strategies senior adviser Michele Austin agrees. She said the Conservative base is “rock solid, smart and focused on fi scal policy,” and the party overall is healthy following the last election.

“I would say the party is healthy, but

With so much focus on Canada having its fi rst

Generation X Prime Minister in the form of a

fresh-faced scion of sunny ways, it’s important

to remember the party Justin Trudeau’s Liberals defeated last

October also has a Gen-X leader, albeit on an interim basis.

Rona Ambrose is less than three years Mr. Trudeau’s senior

and brought Cabinet experience (eight portfolios) to her

current job compared to the Liberal leader, who never before

served in government.

After winning three consecutive elections, a certain degree of complacency settled in. So one really important task for both the interim leader, and most importantly, for the permanent leader is to rebuild the grassroots organization and go at it again with a high level of passion and determination.”—Former Conservative PMO communciations director Dimitri Soudas

“

certainly not at fi ghting weight,” she tells P&I. “There’s a lot of training to be done. … It’s like a boxer after a fi ght, it doesn’t quite want to go into another fi ght again, but it will eventually be prepared to make a comeback.”

Ms. Austin says there’s no doubt the “big tent” the Conservative Party tried to create over the last decade is united, but there’s a need to make a broader appeal in cities and downtown cores.

“I think the last election proved that the policies were on target and were well received, but people didn’t understand the marketing and the sale, and we weren’t relatable to city folks. That’s one of the things we have to spend some time looking at,” Ms. Austin says. “We’ve never had Montreal or Vancouver, ever, and we lost Toronto, and so clearly we have to look at what it is that makes the Liberals and the NDP appealing in those areas that we have not been able to communicate or leverage to a certain extent.”

Veteran Conservative Member of Parliament Deepak Obhrai, who was fi rst elected to the House of Commons in 1997 and who now serves as the party’s international development critic, also agrees while Canadians sought change in the last election, “I don’t think our policy needs to be changed. … Our core policies resonate well with Canadians.”

He believes the niqab ban and the Syrian refugee crisis, in which The Globe and Mail reported that the Prime Minister’s Offi ce had been involved in processing immigration fi les and which Mr. Harper denied, became “signature issues” that presented the party “not as open as Canadians want it to be, despite the fact that it was. “It was a total distraction.”

Mr. Obhrai blames that disconnect on “those running the campaign who were trying to control the message and muddled it up completely.”

Not only was his advice not sought, it wasn’t welcomed.

“They told me to stay away, and I said, ‘Absolutely not, I’m not a new guy.’ This was my seventh election,” he tells P&I.

Mr. Obhrai was part of the unite-the-right movement that brought together the Alliance and the Progressive Conservative parties to create a “very big tent” of members who adhere to conservative principles of fi scal balance and small government. Keeping it all together was

Mr. Harper, whose message was “that we all work toward the same goal,” explains Mr. Obhrai.

Now the party takes a pause as it prepares for its national convention this May in Vancouver, B.C., followed by a leadership race that will culminate with a vote on May 27, 2017.

Perhaps, by then, the party will have come up with an “overarching vision” absent from the last federal election campaign and be more welcoming to potential members, says Matthew Cressatti, a 22-year-old, fi rst-year law student at the University of Toronto and former vice-president of the Conservative Association at McGill, where he studied political science.

“One of the biggest successes we had over the last nine years is that we moved away from the hidden-agenda narrative

put out by the Liberals under Paul Martin about soldiers in the streets with guns, and that the Conservatives, whether heading a minority or majority government, don’t present radical rightwing ideas.”

He explains that it “normalized” the idea of Tories in power in Ottawa that started with John Diefenbaker ending a long Liberal run in the late 1950s and Brian Mulroney forming the next, post-Diefenbaker majority for the Progressive Conservatives in the mid-1980s.

At the PCs’ campaign kick-off rally in Winnipeg on Feb. 12, 1958, The Chief spoke of “a new soul for Canada,” and some 58 years later, Prime Minister Trudeau tries to de-normalize the idea of Tories in power with his declaration that “Canada is back,” as Mr. Cressatti points out.


Interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose has adopted a sunnier approach on certain issues, but her party is still rebuilding and needs to re-earn Canadians’ trust. P&I photograph by Jake Wright


He helped two Liberal prime ministers win or hold onto power four times; served in the federal Cabinet for two; and got up close and personal with some of the world’s political heavyweights.

After serving in the Senate for nearly 14 years, David Smith ends a Parliamentary career that began a half-century ago when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 75 on May 16.

“I’m going to slow down,” says Senator Smith, whom former prime minister Jean Chrétien appointed to the Upper Chamber to sit as a Liberal in 2002. “I may take on

a cause or two, but I’m not rushing into it.”Some of the causes he embraced—from the rights of

the disabled to helping Soviet Jews immigrate to Israel—gave him the greatest personal satisfaction. But Toronto-born Sen. Smith is best known on Parliament Hill as the brains behind Mr. Chrétien’s electoral trifecta.

He joined the Liberal Party while studying political science and history at Carleton University in the early 1960s as an undergrad and quickly rose up the junior ranks as national president of the Young Liberals, national youth director of the Liberal Party of Canada and assistant to the legendary Keith Davey, a future

goodbyeA legendary Liberal says

After 14 years in the Senate, David Smith ends a Parliamentary career that began a half-century ago. ‘I’m going to slow down,’ says the veteran backroomer.

Best known as the brains behind Jean Chrétien’s electoral trifecta, David Smith is packing up a more than 50-year political career in the Liberal backrooms and as an MP, Cabinet minsiter and Senator. P&I photograph by Jake Wright

BY CHRISTOPHER GULY


SPOTLIGHT-PEOPLE

Liberal Senator who served as the party’s long-time national campaign director.

Mr. Smith worked on the federal Liberals’ 1965 campaign and watched how Mr. Davey—known as “The Rainmaker” for his deft use of polling, advertising and keeping the Liberals focused on campaigning as “liberals” to win at the polls—secure the party’s re-election under Lester Pearson.

Three decades later, Mr. Smith would work the same type of campaign magic and help Mr. Chrétien win three consecutive elections and form majority governments in 1993, 1997 and 2000.

The fi rst victory particularly impressed Bill Clinton.Sen. Smith recalls Mr. Chrétien introduced him to the 42nd U.S.

president at a state dinner in Ottawa 21 years ago. “Chrétien told Clinton that we only won 98 out of 99 seats in Ontario in the 1993 election, and Clinton looked at me and said, ‘I’d settle for that—do you want to come down to Washington and work for me? Could you start next Monday? How about a week Monday?’”

As it turned out, Mr. Smith found work elsewhere. After graduating with a law degree from Queen’s University in

1970, he served on Toronto City council for three two-year terms, the last of which he also held the deputy mayor’s post. While Mr. Smith was unsuccessful in his 1978 bid to become Toronto’s mayor, he found success in 1980 when he won the Toronto riding of Don Valley East for the Liberals and became a Member of Parliament.

That year, then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau appointed Mr. Smith to chair a House of Commons Special Committee on the Disabled and the Handicapped to mark the United Nations’ International Year of Disabled Persons in 1981.

The committee travelled the country and heard from more than 600 witnesses whose testimony resulted in a report entitled Obstacles. Demand was so great (particularly from high schools and nursing schools) that more than 400,000 copies of the report had to be printed.

Jeanne Sauvé, the House Speaker at the time, initially balked at the cost. Mr. Smith recalls telling her that most Parliamentary reports were considered a “cure for insomnia, and all of a sudden we have a Commons committee that does a report everybody wants and you’re complaining! Boy did she back down.”

He had another challenge: convincing Mr. Trudeau to include the rights of the physically and mentally disabled under the section 15 equality-rights provision of the about-to-be-unveiled Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Mr. Smith made numerous pleas to the Liberal government caucus, and on his fi fth attempt, he got lucky.

“I was just starting to speak and Trudeau got up and said, ‘David, we don’t need to hear your speech again. We’re putting it in,’ and I was just a bucket of tears—but they were tears of joy,” Sen. Smith recalls.

“It probably helped me wind up in Cabinet.”Whatever the reason, Mr. Smith was sworn in as minister

of small business and tourism in 1983, a position he also held in John Turner’s brief government until Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives swept the Liberals from power in the 1984 federal election that cost Mr. Smith his House seat.

He would return to Parliament almost two decades later after, as he says, “putting a lot of hay in the barn” from a lucrative law practice in Toronto. Mr. Smith became chairman of Fraser

& Beatty and its successor fi rms, Fraser Milner Casgrain, and Dentons Canada LLP, until his 2002 appointment to the Senate when he was named chairman emeritus.

He leaves a Senate he hopes will become more like the “less partisan” British House of Lords and have members from currently underrepresented societal sectors, such as science.

Sen. Smith, who is married to Ontario Superior Court Chief Justice Heather Smith with whom he has three children, also leaves the Hill with plenty of stories.

There was the time legendary British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, whom he escorted around Toronto during her 1983 visit to Canada, told him at No. 10 Downing Street that she considered Pierre Trudeau to be in “a league of his own” as an intellectual among G7 leaders.

Or when after meeting Ronald Reagan, Mr. Trudeau told Mr. Smith that, “you can’t help but like the man” whom he considered to be “warm,” “genuine” and “made you feel relaxed.”

Or when he, a former chair of the Senate’s special anti-terrorism committee, had been singled out several times in 2012 for additional airport screening because his name appears on a no-fl y list.

(It might have been the result of a late 2011 incident on Long Island, New York in which 21-year-old David Smith was arrested for pointing a red laser at a private jet and a police helicopter and later investigated by a joint terrorism task force.)

Some of Sen. Smith’s memories also represent signifi cant achievements, such as the time the Canadian Jewish Congress asked him and two other MPs (former PC secretary of state for external affairs Flora MacDonald and the NDP’s Ian Deans) to travel to the Soviet Union in 1982 and persuade government offi cials to allow Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel as part of the human rights clause under the Helsinki Accords that the U.S.S.R. had agreed to in 1975.

The trio’s long meetings in Moscow and Leningrad paid off. In early 1983, some so-called refuseniks were given the green light to move to Israel, and later that year Mr. Smith was invited to be the keynote speaker at a conference in Tel Aviv celebrating the breakthrough.

“People who had come from the Soviet Union hugged me and thanked me for Canada making this happen,” remembers Sen. Smith.

“It was one of the most satisfying things I ever did.”

Chrétien told Clinton that we only won 98 out of 99 seats in Ontario in the 1993 election, and Clinton looked at me and said, ‘I’d settle for that—do you want to come down to Washington and work for me? Could you start next Monday? How about a week Monday?’”

“


PEOPLE-VISUAL CV

maurilbélANGER

Longtime Liberal lauded by MPs of all stripes after devastating ALS diagnosis.

BY KRISTEN SHANE

Mauril Bélanger takes Parliament seriously. Representing Ottawa-Vanier in the House of Commons for 21 years, he’s

mentored MPs, helped organize an annual party for parliamentary administrative staff and worked with African parliamentarians to bolster democracy on the continent. It’s a job he’s continuing despite being diagnosed last fall with a disease that within a few years could kill him. For that, and for his years of public service, he’s received a wave of support from parliamentarians of all stripes and an unprecedented honour.

1994 POLITICAL BEGINNINGSGrowing up in the northern Ontario town of Mattawa, Mr. Bélanger says he was convinced from an early age of the virtues of public service.

“My family instilled in me a strong sense of community involvement and it’s that spirit that brought me to Ottawa so many years ago,” he tells P&I.

He started in student politics at the University of Ottawa in the late 1970s while studying for a bachelor of arts. In the 1980s and early 1990s, he worked behind the scenes as a political attaché to elected officials on Parliament Hill and at the City of Ottawa.

When longtime Ottawa-Vanier Liberal MP Jean-Robert Gauthier was appointed to the Senate, Mr. Bélanger threw his hat in the ring to replace him. In late 1994 he won the local nomination to be the federal Liberal candidate for a February 1995 by-election that first made him an MP. The Hill Times file photograph

2003 INTO GOVERNMENTAfter supporting Paul Martin in the Liberal leadership race in 2003, Mr. Martin named Mr. Bélanger to his cabinet as chief government whip and deputy House leader. When the Liberals won the 2004 election, Mr. Bélanger returned to Mr. Martin’s cabinet, leading portfolios including official languages, democratic reform and internal trade. Though the party lost power in 2006 and remained in opposition for nine years, Mr. Bélanger kept winning elections, owing to his hard work for his constituents in a diverse part of Ottawa that includes both Rockcliffe Park elites and Vanier’s working-class francophones and immigrants. His years in both government and opposition, he says, have fine-tuned his knowledge of Parliament and government as a whole. P&I photograph by Jake Wright

2003 AFRICAN CONNECTIONSMr. Bélanger co-founded the Canada-Africa Parliamentary Association in 2003, and he’s been its co-chair ever since. It’s a group of both senators and MPs from all political parties that seeks to build relationships with parliamentarians from and learn about the issues facing the continent’s more than 50 countries. The group has worked to help African legislators “entrench democratic principles and to share best practices in our dual roles of overseeing government and legislating,” Mr. Bélanger said in 2014. Through that work, he has crisscrossed most of the continent. He’s also built strong ties with many ambassadors from African countries, such as Angola’s former ambassador Agostinho Tavares da Silva Neto, pictured here with him in 2014. P&I photograph by Sam Garcia

�


VISUAL CV-PEOPLE

� 2016 SPEAKER FOR A DAYWhen the Liberals returned to power in 2015, Mr. Bélanger saw his chance to realize a dream: become speaker of the House of Commons. With parliamentary knowledge gained over two decades as an MP, he was thought to be a shoo-in for the job, which involves refereeing the heated daily Question Period.

But the 60-year-old was forced to drop out of the race last fall after he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS and Lou Gehrig’s disease. The incurable disease causes mobility and speech loss as well as respiratory failure. The average life expectancy after diagnosis is two to five years.

After he went public with the news, MPs of all stripes expressed sympathy and agreed unanimously to name Mr. Bélanger honorary House speaker, something that’s never happened before.

A few months later, he donned the speaker’s black robe and tricorne hat to sit in the speaker’s chair for a day. Using a walker, he shuffled alongside a ceremonial guard for the speaker’s daily parade in the halls of Parliament as parliamentarians including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau watched and applauded, some with tears in their eyes. The PM lauded Mr. Bélanger’s “dignity and grace” as he continues as an MP despite his diagnosis.

“I must admit it has been a challenge to adjust to the loss of my voice, as I now only communicate through writing,” says Mr. Bélanger in an emailed response to questions.

Technology helps. In January, he introduced a private member’s bill in the House using a program on his iPad that reads aloud selected text.

He says he’s been “honoured and humbled” by his colleagues’ support.

“It shows they share with me my determination of raising awareness of ALS. I am forever grateful to them.” P&I photograph by Jake Wright

�

2009 PROMOTING LINGUISTIC DUALITYGrowing up as a Franco-Ontarian and representing an Ottawa riding with many French speakers, Mr. Bélanger has long advocated for francophone minority communities. MPs have widely praised him for this.

“In my youth, I was influenced by the community activism of my mother, Yolande Bélanger, who was an active member of the French-Canadian Women Federation,” says the bilingual MP, pictured here with Official Languages Commissioner Graham Fraser in 2009.

As minister responsible for official languages, he says he strongly supported a bill that required the government to work proactively to develop official-language minority communities in Canada. When the people of Quebec were deciding whether to separate from the rest of Canada in 1995, the MP said he helped organize 15,000 Ottawa-area residents to attend a national-unity rally in Montreal. P&I photograph by Cynthia Münster

2012 CO-OPERATIVES ADVOCATEWhile opposition parties usually establish shadow cabinets made up of critics, Mr. Bélanger says he was asked by his leader in May 2012 to become the Liberal “advocate” for co-operatives, which are businesses or groups owned and operated by the people who work there or use their services.

The United Nations declared that year the International Year of Co-operatives. The MP is pictured here with Ottawa city councillor Eli El-Chantiry (right) and Ottawa MPP and Ontario cabinet minister Yasir Naqvi at an Ottawa ceremony marking the occasion in January 2012.

“The government of the day had no one specifically responsible for the co-operative movement and I saw an opportunity to advocate within that vacuum, on behalf of the Liberal Party of Canada,” explains Mr. Bélanger.

In that job, he worked with MPs from different parties to create a special House committee on co-ops and a multi-party co-operatives caucus. P&I photograph by Sam Garcia

�


FEAT URE-TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE

The idea is that clearly-defi ned rules would reduce political infl uence in transit funding procurement, while still maintaining the exclusive authority for the municipalities and provinces to set infrastructure priorities.

“The challenge here is when these … technical processes abut with political considerations,” Mr. Siemiatycki explains, arguing that the politicization of transit in the Toronto region has often led to technical evidence being disregarded or completed far too hastily.

University of Toronto economics professor Jonathan Hall also underscores the importance of reducing political interference in setting transit priorities, expressing disappointment with the limited role technocratic expertise currently plays in the procurement process.

In the United States, he says proponents must justify that their infrastructure proposals are credible investments in order to receive federal funding, but notes the same requirement does not exist north of the border.

“That means sometimes we fund incredibly expensive political giveaways,” Mr. Hall says, citing the Scarborough subway

line that opened in 1985 and has struggled since to attract strong ridership.

He says the subway was not the “best idea” and predicts it “would not have happened in a U.S-type system,” but refuses to outright dismiss it as a giveaway.

The future of the Scarborough line had been debated intermittently for more than a decade by city politicians before Premier Wynne said in 2013 her government would fund an extension of the Bloor-Danforth subway route that would replace current rapid transit service in the area and lead to the eventual closure of the line.

Jennipher Moritsugu, a spokesperson for Infrastructure Canada, tells P&I in a statement that the federal government is committed to working closely with other levels of government to develop the details of its 10-year infrastructure investment plan.

“As we begin to invest in infrastructure, we also propose to make investments that can enhance municipal planning, asset management, and data collection capacity,” she says, noting that more details would be released in the coming months.

“This will help all orders of government make evidence-based decisions and put us on a more sustainable path,” she adds.

Toronto Transit Commission chair and Toronto city councillor Josh Colle agrees the infrastructure bank proposal could be good, saying transit projects in the city would easily pass any assessment because of strong anticipated ridership numbers.

But he stresses that municipalities should remain the sole arbiters of local funding priorities, warning the federal government could no longer expect local politicians to fall in line with the priorities etched out in the nation’s capital.

“The days of the federal government imposing its will and saying ‘this is a project we like for our political reasons’ and then we kind of go along with it, is not effective,” Mr. Colle says.

While conceding that a “certain amount of rigour” should be expected from municipalities when pitching projects to the federal government, he argues politics, not necessity, frequently determines the scope of participation from Ottawa.

According to Mr. Colle, federal governments have historically chosen to fund splashy new projects over “critical” upgrades to existing infrastructure, a concerning trend with the Toronto rapid transit system beginning to show its age after more than 60 years in operation.

“There’s always a preponderance for governments to want to fund expansion projects so that you can cut that ribbon, show that new line on a map,” he says. “While that’s really important …


The days of the federal government imposing its will on infrastructure projects is over

By Stefania Capovilla

167 Sparks StreetOttawa, ON K1P 5B9

613 462 6949

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the piece that is always forgotten, which is fairly less sexy, is the state of good repair and maintenance and ongoing upkeep of these systems.”

Despite these shortcomings, Mr. Colle expresses optimism about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise to embark on a new era of intergovernmental relations by affording the provinces, territories and municipalities greater authority in setting infrastructure priorities.

Heralding this call, Mr. Colle says local governments should assume more prominent roles in the funding conversation as the burden to prove the merits of their infrastructure proposals ultimately rests with the municipalities.

“There’s always going to be a certain political element of it. That’s what we’re supposed to do [as elected offi cials]. What’s needed, though … is letting local municipalities, local communities make those decisions of what those priorities are,” Mr. Colle says. “It then becomes incumbent on those municipalities to have a more rational, defensible set of reasons of why a project is a priority.”

Alberta Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Brian Mason, federal Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi and Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson announced in Edmonton Dec. 21, 2015, the completion of the Queen Elizabeth II Highway and 41 Avenue Southwest Intermodal Access project. The $205-million project was completed on time and on budget. The Government of Canada contributed up to $75-million through the Asia-Pacifi c Gateway and Corridor Transportation Infrastructure Fund. The Province of Alberta invested $57.5-million and the City of Edmonton provided $72.5-million. Photograph by Chris Schwarz, Government of Alberta


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Both Ms. Jensen and Ms. Reynolds argue that there is a lack of sponsorship opportunities for women in the corporate fi nance world. A sponsor is someone who believes in you within an organization, explains Ms. Jensen. “Women call them sponsors, men call them golf partners,” she adds with a laugh.

“Men have been much more able to gain sponsorship throughout their career, sort of organically,” says Ms. Reynolds, who points out that males form natural bonds between each other, and typically, because of social norms, have avoided building these business alliances with women.

Ms. Forbes, the executive vice-president of Manulife, has announced that the fi nancial services group has “set up a mentoring program

for female actuaries to help them develop the leadership, communication and presence skills they need to advance in the organization.”

Ian Lee, an economist and associate professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, says that he doesn’t believe it’s bigotry in the business, but rather, an ‘old school’ mindset that persists because there is slow turnover in the sector, and the upper echelons are fi lled with an aging demographic that still hasn’t retired.

However, he points out that he sees an incredible amount of talented, ambitious women graduating from Canadian fi nancial and business programs, and is optimistic that they are entering into a sector that is beginning to show promising signs of change on gender diversity.

WENDE CARTWRIGHTCompany: Savira Cultural + Capital

Projects Position: President & CEO since 1995 About the company: Savira plans

and executes enormous building projects for cultural icons, like the Royal Conservatory of Music, the

Vancouver Olympics, the Royal Bank of Canada and Nike.

A career highlight: Ms. Cartwright was director of performing arts for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. In this role, she delivered—to an audience of more than 5.8 million—1,438 contemporary

performances, and co-ordinated 60 venues, 116 community partnerships, and 7,000 volunteers over a 60-day-period, all on time and on budget.


FEAT URE-WOMEN IN F INANCE

Women make up 19 per cent of senior economic staff. ‘The boardrooms of Canada do not represent Canadians.’

The last hold out, he says, are the boards— they tend to have a ‘boys club’ mentality.

Ms. Jensen recalls her experiences sitting on corporate boards. When she’s been the only woman, she says she’s sensed that her fellow board members view her—and her opinions—fi rst and foremost as feminine. However, she says as soon as there has been a second woman sitting on the board alongside her, that attitude disappears and their male counterparts seem to view them as simply peers and fellow board members.

As Ms. Reynolds explains, this “boys’ club” mentality that seems to exist at the top—even when there is gender diversity throughout other ranks of an organization—is still a major issue.

“People who sit in leadership roles, in the CEO chairs or on boards, make decisions every day that impact our economy; the places we work in, and places we live in. They impact our environment when we walk out the door,” she says. “We need to care, and we need to make sure that women are represented in those roles, because we have an immense value to add there and we have a unique perspective that isn’t being refl ected right now in Canada.”


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ELYSE ALLAN Company: GE Canada

Position: President and CEO since 2003

About GE: The company is known to be the appliance manufacturer

of washing machines and dish washers, but has expanded to become a global technology

innovator, producing machines in everything from transportation, to healthcare, to home products, to major industrial power sources.

A sought-after expert: Ms. Allan has sat on a handful of federal and

provincial government advisory boards in areas such as national competitiveness, transportation

strategy, economic development, energy strategy, and access to credit.

WOMEN IN F INANCE-FEAT URE


PLAC E S-NORTHERN MANITOBA

DO go to the polar bear capital of the world. Churchill is known to be the most accessible place in the world for humans to see them in the wild. Tour operators keep you safe high off the ground in a monster-truck-like Tundra Buggy from which you can see the white-furred creatures every fall. Or watch beluga whales in Hudson Bay in the summer.

DO paddle the world-renowned Bloodvein River canoeing circuit, which runs from northwestern Ontario to Lake Winnipeg in central Manitoba.

DO have your fi ll at Creighton’s Pizza, in Saskatchewan, just across the border from Flin Flon, Man. You won’t go hungry with George’s Special. Named after the owner’s dad, you can spend days at a time just feasting on it. Its many toppings (pepperoni, shrimp and bacon, don’t mind if I do!) will sustain you.

DON’T say the name of the town The Pas “the pass.” It’s pronounced “the paw.”

DO check out the quirky competitions at the Northern Manitoba Trappers’ Festival, a winter pastime in The Pas that includes dog races, a fur-queen pageant, axe throwing, tea boiling (sponsored by Tim Hortons, of course) and even moose calling. Everybody wears plaid fl annel shirts all weekend, which is actually not too different from what locals normally wear in winter to keep warm in temperatures that dip to -30 degrees Celsius.

DON’T call them parties or stag and does. In Manitoba, they’re socials. These fundraising parties aren’t just held for engaged couples. They also raise money for community groups and charities. Almost every weekend in big communities across northern Manitoba, you’re bound to fi nd a social. No invitation necessary. Just buy a ticket, bring money for liquor and raffl e draws, and head to the local legion or community hall with your dancing shoes to bust a move.

DON’T be caught in summer without mosquito repellent. That joke about Canada’s national bird being the mosquito? It applies here.

DO head to Nickel Days, a festival celebrating the region’s mining history every June in Thompson. There are midway rides, a parade and a mining contest featuring skill competitions simulating work done underground.

DO spend a summer day at a powwow, taking in the drumming and dancing. Or participate in a First Nation’s Treaty Day, which features events often including an arrow shoot, where participants race to be the fi rst to fi nd an arrow shot into the distance to win a whack of money.

DO try jigging, traditional Métis dancing to the sound of fi ddles.

DO eat at Gypsy’s Bakery and Restaurant in Churchill, where locals and tourists alike dine on home-cooked meals including everything from regional specialties like pickerel to Portuguese-style chicken (the family that runs the place is Portuguese). They cook for everyone who comes through Churchill, including domestic diva Martha Stewart, who bought their famous apple fritters.

DO respect First Nations traditions and territories. This part of Canada, like many others, has a dark history when it comes to people coming to First Nations uninvited and thinking that they know best. So taking the time to understand where people are coming from and appreciating their culture in culturally appropriate ways is important.

When In … Churchill-Keewatinook Aski, Man.From jigging to plaid shirts, NDP MP Niki Ashton

explains northern Manitoba’s rugged charm

Niki Ashton’s northern-Manitoba riding covers wilderness roughly the size of Sweden speckled with small towns and First Nations reserves. Living off the land is key: mining, forestry, fi shing and trapping. It’s got

everything from boreal forest to arable land and tundra. “The climate can be harsh, the living conditions are defi nitely harsh. People are tough, but they come together and they certainly try and make the most of it. We’re proud to celebrate who we are,” says the 33-year-old MP born and raised in Thompson, population: 13,000, one of the riding’s largest communities. The NDP employment critic has represented the region since 2008. It’s the kind of place where you can wear camoufl age, a jean jacket or plaid to the bar and won’t look out of place. Here, she shares with KRISTEN SHANE a few of her riding’s gems.

P&I Illustration by Anthony Jenkins


REMEMBER THE RIDING- IDEAS

H U WWILLIAMSHuw Williams is the president of Impact Public Affairs and author and co-author of four books including Government Relations for Canadian Associations: How to Be the Voice of your Members with Government.

When I fi rst started out in political life I thought the local riding was everything. Having served as a senior political assistant at

the federal level for Members of Parliament and senior cabinet ministers in addition to working for a United States congressman and provincial elected representatives, I have learned many times over that staying in tune with local politics is critical to the success of any MP, staffer or even government relations professional.

From prime ministers to backbench opposition members, staying in touch with the riding is pivotal for true success in Ottawa. It is easy for MPs and their staff to get distracted by the demands of committee work and government departments, but carving out scheduled time to connect with local groups, media and individuals is always time well invested.

Longtime speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Tip O’Neil coined the phrase “all politics is local” and wrote a highly infl uential and widely-read memoir of the same name. The phrase best refl ected his decades-long political career as one of the most respected congressional leaders in history. While his book over-emphasizes the “district fi rst” mentality that can paralyze Washington, it should be required reading for all MPs and staffers on Parliament Hill, who too often focus on the Ottawa Bubble that has little bearing on what’s going on back home with regular voters.

The great thing about Canadian democracy is that the electorate has an effective way of correcting things when politicians lose sight of what matters most to their constituents. Being a great constituency MP is no guarantee of re-election, but over the last 30 years I have learned it is a great buffer. The perceived “fi ckleness” of the electorate notwithstanding, over the long haul, remaining well-connected to voters at home is key to longevity and effectiveness in offi ce.

Representing the riding cannot come at the expense of leadership and national vision, however. That is the tricky part. We live in a large and diverse country, and our complex democracy requires real compromise to achieve big things. Canada is founded on the balance of listening to the people that send leaders to Ottawa and leaders doing the right thing for the country. I

don’t pretend to know all the answers or the right formula to balance these elements, but I do know that tilting too far away from the touch point of constituency consensus is a guaranteed path to trouble for elected representatives at all levels of government.

For lobbyist and advocacy groups it is also critical to remember the riding. If you want to yield true power and infl uence as an advocacy group you have to own the consumer or public argument. You can’t ask our elected leaders to go against the public view or the consumer interest. An industry group may well represent thousands of jobs across the country and be an important player on government policies relevant to their members. But there are 36 million Canadian consumers, and no industry’s voice is more important than theirs. You must take time to understand the voters’ views before asking MPs to act. Too often, advocacy groups fail because they only put forth their lobby facts and fi gures and ignore why it connects to the riding and the public.

The greatest untapped resources of most association and nonprofi t groups is the grassroots advocacy of their members based in ridings across the country. Mobilizing an educated and informed membership to meet with MPs is sound democracy in action.

It is worth noting that “grassroots” is the authentic voice of local members connecting with elected offi cials on real issues of concern. It is not “AstroTurf” lobbying where issues are manufactured. Any good MP or staff member can spot the difference right away.

MPs tell me all the time that they would rather hear from a well-informed constituent about an issue than a paid lawyer, lobbyist or debate team captain. Authenticity from the riding is what they are looking for. Conversely, I frequently brief local groups coming to Parliament Hill that they don’t have to be experts in Parliamentary procedure in order to get their message across because they are already experts in their own local issue. This is what really matters for groups and industries seeking to wield power and infl uence.

Lobbying done right always has a grassroots connection that matters and that is part of what democracy is all about. We will all be better off if we remember the riding.

All politics is local, even in lobbying


THE Q&A-HUGH SEGAL

BY LAURA RYCKEWAERT

A MUDDLED FOREIGN POLICYFormer Conservative senator Hugh Segal talks to P&I about his new book Two Freedoms, and why he’s worried about the under-spending, under-commitment and lack of clarity in Canada’s foreign policy.

‘Whether you’re a right wing government or a left wing government or a centrist government, what really matters are the two freedoms which defi ne how people get to live their lives, both at home and around the world—freedom from fear and freedom from want,’ says Hugh Segal, a former Conservative senator and now master of the University of Toronto’s Massey College. Photograph courtesy Dundurn Press


HUGH SEGAL-THE Q&A

With a new Liberal government in power, Canada is said to be “back” internationally—but Hugh

Segal, a former Conservative Senator now master of the University of Toronto’s Massey College, says while he’s seen a change in tone, there’s not much change in substance so far.

The “real question,” he said, will be the govenrment’s ability to set priorities and “commit the resources necessary to achieve” them. His new book, Two Freedoms: Canada’s Global Future, might help provide “a constructive path” forward.

“Under-spending, under-commitment and lack of clarity—those are the three things I’m worried about the most [when it comes to Canada’s foreign policy approach],” said Mr. Segal in an interview with P&I in March.

Having a values-based foreign policy is about engaging constructively and with purpose, he said, and history has proven that unless a country is prepared to stand up for values, “the forces of darkness just get stronger and stronger.”

With a forward by Tom Axworthy, Mr. Segal’s book, published by Dundurn Press, includes a chapter on defence procurement as part of the foreign policy picture, and also examines Canadian foreign policy in Russia and China. Two Freedoms was informed by Mr. Segal’s experience in Parliament and as a special envoy for Canada.

This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

What prompted the idea for this book? “My view has always been that there

are two real dangers in Canadian foreign policy: one is the attitude that says our job is just to muddle through, not achieve any signifi cant goals, not have any real purposes, just kind of get from crisis to crisis and hope that no damage is done. And the other real risk is that we lurch back-and-forth from a right wing view to a left wing view and every time a government changes we end up with that kind of back-and-forth in a way that is actually not helpful to Canadian foreign policy and the way in which Canada is viewed in the world.

“Whether you’re a right wing government or a left wing government or a centrist government, what really matters

are the two freedoms which defi ne how people get to live their lives, both at home and around the world—freedom from fear and freedom from want.

“Putting those two freedoms at the centre of our foreign policy would make our foreign policy more coherent and would make the change of government from left to right not that important quite frankly because what we stood for as Canadians would be clearly understood and actually nonpartisan in its appeal.”

Why do you describe Canada’s current foreign policy approach as more about muddling through? How has this impacted Canada internationally?

“I think in many respects both in terms of foreign aid and international development, and also in terms of doing our fair share militarily, we really haven’t done what a country our size, with our capacity, our geography, our population should be doing. We’re not doing enough. We spend too little in those areas, and even Great Britain, which went through a very diffi cult economic time, still kept its foreign aid expenditures at the 0.7 per cent level, which is what we’re supposed to be devoted to but in fact our numbers have been much lower.

“I think it’s because rather than have a serious discussion about what our purposes should be and how best to achieve them in different countries in different ways, we’ll instead have a debate about whether government A was too much on the right or government B was too much on the left—which was an interesting domestic debate, but really doesn’t interest the world very much and the world will not wait for Canada to sort things out. Canada has to have a clear and focused approach which is consistent, well understood and broadly perceived and well executed, and that’s what this book is really about.

“Despite some very hard-working, great foreign service offi cers and ambassadors and policy people and all the rest, you have this kind of layered birthday cake approach where the priorities of one government get replaced by the priorities of another government, and they pile on each other to the point where there’s 40 or 50 different priorities, all of which are underfunded, which means we can’t really make the kind of contribution we need to make.”

Why isn’t a values-based foreign policy already Canada’s approach?

“I think we have gone through different segments of our history where we have had a values-based approach. When Mr. [Louis] St. Laurent was the prime minister in the late 1940s, early 1950s, we had a very values-based approach in terms of deployment in NATO, in terms of doing our fair share around the world, in terms of engaging fully. I think it’s also true for example when Pierre Trudeau was prepared to test the cruise missile in Canada, in Alberta, because it was part of our duty to NATO to ensure that we had the technical capacity to defend various NATO countries around the world as may be necessary during that period of the Cold War. I think when we deployed under Mr. Pearson in terms of peace between the Arabs and the Israelis in Sinai in the mid-1950s that was clearly refl ecting a Canadian value: that if there’s a peaceful way to sort something out, Canadians want to be part of that and we want to help.”

Our greatest foreign policy issue is how to

maintain peace and security in a way that is in

our economic and social

interest and will preserve

life and opportunity for a vast majority

for people worldwide.”

‘‘



IDEAS-THE ESSAY

Governments must recognize that their institutions, bureaucracies and policy frameworks designed for the 19th and 20th centuries are no longer meeting the needs

of the 21st. The digital era represents an exponential shift in the pace of social, political and economic transformation. How governments respond to the radical changes brought on by the sharing economy and other digital age innovations will be a litmus test for the continued relevance of governing institutions, as well as their legitimacy and authority in a networked era where no single actor has an undisputed monopoly on public trust. Governments must rise to the challenge or become increasingly irrelevant to their citizens.

In the space of a few decades, the digital revolution has transformed how we work, how we connect with friends and family, and how we educate, inform and entertain ourselves. Increasingly, digital culture permeates our social interactions, our business transactions, our lives. It is forcing virtually all the sectors and institutions it touches to evolve—and this includes our public institutions. Through the pressures it creates, the new governance tools it offers us, and the new possibilities it generates, the digital revolution promises to transform the very nature of Canadian democracy and governance.

Canada’s Westminster parliamentary system of government is adaptable and has long been recognized for its ability to evolve in keeping with the demands of new eras and new challenges. But changes are occurring faster and are more widespread than ever, and many of our traditional governance tools and approaches are in danger of losing relevance.

Consider the ‘sharing economy,’ which encompasses the interactions enabled by disruptive technologies that provide alternatives to traditional services like taxis or hotels, for example. Sharing economy disruptors are posing challenges to all levels of government that could not have been imagined, let alone anticipated, a few years ago when the rules governing their sectors were developed. Governments need to rethink some of the fundamental premises of public governance, and the role of citizens and governments both in

making and enforcing rules and in developing and implementing policy.

The Silicon Valley tech giant Uber may be the highest profi le example of digital era disruption in this context. As the California-based ridesharing company makes waves across Canada and around the world, the established taxi industry has been organizing to defend itself from the threat that Uber presents. In Paris, cab drivers have torched car tires and rioted in the streets. In Montreal, industry vigilantes have hunted down Uber drivers to turn them in to municipal authorities. Similar protests have arisen in jurisdictions far and wide, from

Toronto to Sao Paulo, Ottawa to Berlin. Against this backdrop, governments are understandably feeling pressure to act. The City of Toronto brought the ridesharing company to trial, arguing that Uber Canada should have applied for a taxi brokerage licence before commencing operations. The mayor of New York City has been forced to back down under intense pressure from imposing a controversial cap on new Uber drivers. Many city halls across the globe have been opting to crack down on Uber’s operations.

Attempts to enforce an unworkable status quo ante aren’t the answer. The sharing economy isn’t going anywhere, and enforcing out-dated rules won’t solve the governance challenges it presents. Governments should ask a simple question: what do citizens really want? They know the public is dissatisfi ed both with the service it is receiving from public transit and from often expensive and uncompetitive taxi systems because they

MARYANTONETT

FLUMIANDAVIDECARGNELLO

Maryantonett Flumian is president of the Institute on

Governance and a former deputy minister in the federal public service.

Davide Cargnello is chief research offi cer at the

Institute on Governance leading the Institute’s

applied research program on digital governance.

&

DIGITAL GOVERNANCERETHINKING THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN AN ERA OF DISRUPTION

Many of our traditional governance tools and approaches are in danger of losing relevance.”

“


THE ESSAY- IDEAS

are voting with their thumbs to use apps like Uber instead. If players in existing industries are losing out to nimbler digital competitors, in a democratic context, it’s tempting to say ‘tough luck.’ Such is the nature of a competitive marketplace. But some municipal governments have instead been responding with heavy-handed and shortsighted enforcement of out-dated rules that ignore what citizens really want.

Governments have a responsibility to help us understand the profound changes that are upon us, including the benefi ts and the dangers of the disruptive innovations characteristic of the emerging sharing economy. How governments deal with companies like Uber matters for at least two reasons.

First, the growth of the sharing economy and other digital age innovations raises issues that go far beyond the regulatory. These are ultimately policy issues that reframe the dialogue between government,

citizens and other actors with regard to economic activity and development, safety and protection of rights, including privacy, as well as the relationships between levels of government.

Second, governments’ response to early sharing economy providers like Uber will infl uence how society deals with other emerging disruptors that are shaking up industries far beyond taxis and limousines. From Airbnb’s potential transformation of the hospitality industry and Netfl ix’s alternative to traditional television broadcasting, to the coming disruption of the fi nancial sector by services like Kickstarter or TransferWise, Uber is merely the crest of a wave of digitally disruptive services that has been on the horizon for some time.

Governments have a choice: do they adapt and help channel these innovations into socially benefi cial outcomes? Or, by forcing a dynamic and changing landscape into the static

The digital era represents an exponential shift in the pace of social, political and economic transformation. Governments must rise to the challenge or become increasingly irrelevant to their citizens.”

“


IDEAS-THE ESSAY

categories of yesterday’s governance, will they risk getting swept away into irrelevance? What will best serve the public good?

Governments should not make important policy decisions in a vacuum, in which established industry players may claim the lion’s share of a government’s attention, obscuring what the broad citizenry actually wants. Citizens may feel that Uber should be allowed to operate freely, for example, but have neither the time nor the means to put their interests before governments in an organized way.

In the absence of citizen input, some recalcitrant cities and jurisdictions have proven out-dated in their infl exible and unimaginative approaches.

There are other ways to respond. Some municipalities, both in Canada and abroad, have begun to recognize that services like Uber are ‘here to stay,’ and that citizens demand new and creative ways to respond to the need for regulation. The city of Boston, for

example, has entered into a data sharing partnership with Uber that will use rider information to identify underserved areas, manage road repairs, and analyze traffi c fl ows. Edmonton’s city council recently passed new regulations that apply to both taxis and Uber drivers, and allow Uber drivers to operate so long as they possess adequate commercial insurance. In California, when the state transportation commission was faced with the task of deciding whether Uber was a technology company or a traditional taxi brokerage, it decided to invent a new category, that of the Transportation Network Company, that better fi ts Uber’s unique business model. Now a new regulatory ecosystem is growing around a new business model for a new era, instead of forcing twenty-fi rst century business to comply with 20th-century rules.

Such constructive engagement will

provide better long-term results than denial of a changing reality. The sharing economy raises real and pressing issues. How, for example, are workers on sharing economy platforms to be categorized for tax purposes? What workplace protections and safeguards are they entitled to? How can users and consumers of sharing economy services be adequately insured? Are local industries being disrupted by digital newcomers entitled to transition assistance from the state? What is the role of local, provincial and national governments in regulating global platforms that may be headquartered on the other side of the globe while delivering services locally?

Thorny questions like these highlight some of the areas where we need all levels of government to safeguard the public good through constructive, far-sighted action. The digital era requires rethinking traditional governance boundaries. Policymakers, for example, have an opportunity to question some of their fundamental assumptions—from recognizing the need to expand traditional parameters of effective monitoring, to ensuring that the lifecycle of regulatory renewal begins moving at digital speeds. Relatedly, in the face of increasingly complex, cross-cutting policy issues, governments in the digital era have to learn to better consider and anticipate system-wide ramifi cations in a context where risks spill over quickly from one sector to another. And for this to happen, public institutions will have to learn to share information more effectively and to collaborate meaningfully, both internally and externally, all the while duly considering both the privacy and security of citizens’ information.

In Canada’s unique federal context, all this also necessarily means rising to the challenges of multi-level governance and learning to work effi ciently and pragmatically across levels of government. The struggle of municipal governments to come to grips with new enterprises like Uber foreshadows the struggle that all levels of government will soon be experiencing. It signals the advent of radical digital change. Rather than burying their heads in the sand, governments should seize the opportunity to provide the leadership that the digital revolution requires. Citizens will thank them for it in the end.

Rather than burying their heads in the sand, governments should seize the opportunity to provide the leadership that the digital revolution requires.”

“


However, McKenzie Kibler, 22, the former president of McGill’s Conservative club who worked on both Mr. Oliver’s campaign last fall and in his offi ce as an intern, says the party needs to move away from “elite-driven policies” embedded in the Toronto-Montreal axis of the so-called Laurentian Consensus that meets “the needs of only a few, urban, bilingual and privileged in Canada and neglects regional, suburban, rural and aboriginal ways of life and economic opportunities.”

“There is a certain orthodoxy and loyalty that need to go if we are to rebuild and re-earn Canadians’ trust,” he says.

Mr. Kibler believes the next Conservative leader will need to be “empathetic and open,” hold small-c conservative values and “articulate a vision for Canada” that focuses on the individual, not the state. “I disagree with how narrow and internally conforming the party has become recently,” he says, noting the niqab issue emphasized “fear over choice, and the role of the majority in polls rather than principle on this issue.”

“We should have learned from the debate in Quebec over the Charter of Values, where the ban on religious symbols in the public service was at issue, and moved on. Instead we were, wrongly, pigeonholed into being perceived as anti-Muslim.”

Ms. Austin says while there needs to be a focus on cities, the next leader doesn’t necessarily have to come for a metropolitain area. “I think what will distinguish the next leadership campaign will be the candidate who knows exactly who he or she is, who’s truthful with the voters in terms of their image and their policies, and how they interact with Canadians,” she says.

“They’re going to have make sure they just reach out and touch Canadians in a much more tangible way than Stephen Harper did.”

Mr. Harper’s former communications director Dimitri Soudas said that the Conservative Party must reclaim the energy it had a decade ago when it formed government.

“After winning three consecutive elections, a certain degree of complacency settled in. So one really important task for both the interim leader, and most importantly, for the permanent leader is to rebuild the grassroots organization and go at it again with a high level of passion and determination,” explains Mr. Soudas, who also served as the federal party’s executive director.

“The next leader needs to also remain a conservative, and not move the party to competing with the Liberals,” says Mr. Soudas, managing partner of international trade and business development company Stampede Group Inc. “If that were to happen, you might as well vote for the Liberals and not those pretending to be them.”

CONSERVATIVE PARTY FUTURE-FEATURE

Conservatives must reach out to Canadians ‘in a much more tangible way than Stephen Harper did.’

REGISTER NOW: www.af.ca/ottawa | 613-234-9470

WANT TO LEARN FRENCH?

SINCE 1905


‘Rebuilding is not an insurmountable issue. But it has to be handled intelligently and done in a collaborative way,’ says

former Finance minister Joe Oliver. P&I photograph by Jake Wright

�


IDEAS-SUSTAINABLE GLOBAL AGENDA

In the world of international cooperation, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Climate Change Agreement, and the Outcome Document of the fi rst World

Conference on Indigenous Peoples which reaffi rmed global commitment to the full realization of the rights of Indigenous peoples were landmark policy achievements. This presents an historic opportunity to make the world more equitable, just, healthier, and secure from the unacceptable risks posed by climate change, lack of respect for human rights, unfettered natural resource development, extreme poverty, confl ict and corruption.

Where Canada can have the most leveraged and scalable impact is by taking its indigenous policy priority global.

Canada’s global indigenous policy should address some of the key issues affecting indigenous peoples today such as climate change (mitigation, adaptation and disaster risk reduction), tenure insecurity, food and water insecurity, health inequity, sustainable resource and infrastructure development on or near their territories, and a lack of awareness, recognition or understanding of indigenous peoples’ human rights. This would improve the well-being, livelihoods, and natural resources of the world’s 370 million indigenous people.

Indigenous peoples account for fi ve per cent of the world’s population, but they own, occupy, or have a claim to a quarter of the planet that represents 80 per cent of the world’s remaining biodiversity. As a result, indigenous territories have become hotspots for activities related to natural resource exploitation, infrastructure development, climate action and biodiversity conservation. Despite their resource-rich environments, indigenous peoples account for at least 15 per cent of the world’s poorest.

The lack of clear rights to own and use land and other natural resources has driven millions of indigenous peoples to poverty, and has encouraged widespread illegal logging, fi shing and forest loss and resource degradation. This has also resulted in the loss of traditional livelihoods, exacerbated food and water insecurity, engendered confl ict, threatened culture and language, among other adverse impacts.

Moreover, as the demand for more food, water, energy, and other commodities continues to rise, the rights of indigenous peoples to their lands, territories, and natural resources are increasingly ignored or downplayed by courts, governments, and industry when they clash with economic

development, foreign investment, infrastructure development, aid policy, trade objectives, or climate goals. Canada has a role to play to ensure indigenous peoples are part of global decision-making in the development and climate agenda.

For starters, Canada’s pledge to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is in itself path-breaking as no government has committed to its implementation as a matter of policy and priority. The UNDRIP sets out the human rights and minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of indigenous peoples around the world.

Often touted as being merely aspirational—especially by governments who refuse to acknowledge indigenous peoples or their rights —the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples affi rmed the declaration as a part of international law to which countries are obligated to respect and implement. As such, Canada’s human rights commitments to indigenous peoples extend outside our borders as well. A clear commitment to implement the UNDRIP abroad can infl uence other governments to do the same.

So what can Canada do in the near term?Indigenous Climate: Endorse the Geneva Pledge.

This is a voluntary initiative where states pledge to collaborate between national representatives in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the UN Human Rights Council. Second, commit to implementing the provisions related to human rights, indigenous rights, gender equality and related principles in the climate agreement. Climate projects and programs Canada funds abroad should also include explicit reference to indigenous peoples’ rights and an accountability and monitoring mechanism to ensure this is enforced. At the next climate meeting in Morocco, Canada can play an active role in galvanizing commitments by all states to implement the rights and safeguards provisions in the agreement as part of their environmental and climate diplomacy. Human rights and just environmental action are interrelated.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals: The SDGs ushered in a new paradigm of global cooperation to address sustainable development by 2030. Canada should support investments in generating indigenous disaggregated data so that development programs meaningfully address the rights, needs and priorities of indigenous peoples, and ensure indigenous peoples’ rights are mainstreamed across all 17 goals. Canada should

Canada poised to lead on new global agenda

Gina Cosentino is currently a consultant at the World Bank

in Washington, D.C. in the Indigenous Peoples Advisory

in the Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice.

She is also a visiting scholar at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia

University. She has held senior leadership positions such as

global director of indigenous and communal conservation

at The Nature Conservancy in Washington, D.C., and

the former chief adviser of government relations and

international affairs to former Assembly of First Nations

national chief Phil Fontaine. Her comments refl ect hers

alone.

GINACOSENTINO


SUSTAINABLE GLOBAL AGENDA- IDEAS

also support capacity development and inclusive initiatives so that indigenous peoples can be full and effective partners in advancing the development agenda at the national and global levels. Canada should ensure development (or climate) projects funded by Canada provide technical assistance and training to those countries that require assistance with operationalizing and safeguarding Indigenous peoples’ rights.

Responsible Businesses: Ensure Canadian corporations and industrial activities operating abroad respect Canada’s human rights commitments to indigenous peoples, including but not limited to respecting the principle of free, prior and informed consent, and good social and environmental safeguards and practices. This includes ensuring effective monitoring, oversight, reporting, and redress and grievance mechanisms. As governments are primarily responsible for upholding human rights, Canada should play a proactive role to ensure meaningful accountability, transparency and due diligence of Canadian corporate activities on or near indigenous territories.

Responsible Global Governance: Ensure all Canadian representatives across the UN system, including in multilateral and bilateral fi nancial development institutions have a clear mandate and requirement to promote, respect and protect the human rights of indigenous peoples, especially those working in development, climate, conservation and fi nance sectors. This also includes investing in human rights training for Canadian representatives who negotiate on behalf of Canada on how to operationalize the UNDRIP. In addition, as many states still refuse to respect or recognize the existence of indigenous peoples in their territories,

Canada’s commitment to implement the UN Declaration should inform negotiations.

Support indigenous-led conservation and development: The United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Equator Initiative, for example, seeks to support local solutions “to mitigate and adapt to climate change as well as advance innovative solutions to sustainable development challenges.” Similarly, UNDP’s World Indigenous Network (WIN) facilitates community-community exchanges and learning opportunities among indigenous land and sea managers. Programs like these facilitate good practices in managing ecosystems, protecting the environment and supporting culturally appropriate sustainable livelihoods.

Canada’s domestic indigenous policy agenda has garnered global attention, especially Canada’s commitment to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The impact of such a commitment can have very tangible outcomes for indigenous peoples around the world whose rights, lands, and life chances are precariously insecure. A sustained cooperative and proactive effort through multilateral action is needed at all political levels—local to global—joined by civil society, indigenous peoples, the private sector, and global institutions.

Indigenous peoples have been an overlooked and undervalued constituency in the fi ght against climate change, environmental conservation, and sustainable economic development.

The opportunity for Canada to export a new brand of diplomacy and global leadership rooted in indigenous rights based on climate, conservation and development has never been more bright.

Do you or your child have any of these symptoms?Snoring loudly or nightly?Excessive sleepiness during the day?Problems falling asleep?

Then you need to read this article!Sleep apnea has severe effects on people of

all ages. But although you might think only the elderly and overweight are affected, SRBD’s also have severe effects on children, and this can be as early as 6 years of age. It can be fatal to adults and cause permanent intelligence loss in children. But sleep apnea is only the tip of the iceberg. There is a host of related conditions that fall into the group of conditions known as “SRBD”; sleep-related breathing disorders. All can become hazards for our health and intelligence.

Adults who don’t breathe easily have problems that range from mild drowsiness all the way to obesity, diabetes and heart attack. Snoring always comes to mind when we think of sleep related breathing problems. It is a common problem for adults, but for children; it is always considered absolutely abnormal and pathological. Adult snoring can be as loud as a chain-saw, but a child’s snoring can be difficult to recognize and is often described as a “purring” sound.

Why is this important?Well…..consider the following; when we sleep,

we relax. Relaxation is restful and very important for the repair needed after our stressful daily activities. Also; it is in deep REM sleep that we transfer our daily experiences into long-term memory.

But relaxation of our airway muscles allows our airway to soften and close slightly. If this relaxation is accompanied by other breathing constraints; we are in danger!

Anything that prevents us from easily getting air into our lungs is a breathing constraint. It could be large tonsils blocking a child’s airway, or, fat deposits that do the same for a sixty-year old adult. When we don’t have adequate oxygen as we sleep, we struggle to awaken. This brings us out of the deep, restful sleep we need and floods our body with adrenaline; the toxic stress response that creates disease.

Children who do this all night long do not sleep well, do not remember well and cannot learn well. Children who haven’t slept well, are not able to sit quietly and pay attention in school. Some studies show that 55% of those diagnosed with ADD or ADHD have sleep-related breathing problems.

Most disturbing of all; researchers consider that for children, the loss of intelligence

associated with insufficient deep sleep is permanent and non-recoverable.

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IDEAS-OFFIC IAL LANGUAGES

D A NLAMOUREUX

Dan Lamoureux is president of the Quebec Community Groups Network which brings together 48 English-language community organizations across the province. The QCGN is a centre of evidence-based expertise and collective action on the strategic issues affecting the development and vitality of English-speaking Quebec.

Canadians are blessed with the opportunity to live, play and work in two offi cial languages. Ensuring this gift is a defi ning characteristic of our nation’s history.

Long ago, we discarded the notion that English and French would be geographically limited, and we have constitutionally guaranteed the presence of our national languages from sea to sea to sea. The government of Canada’s commitment to this ideal is expressed through the Offi cial Languages Act, advancing the equality of status and use of the English and French languages in Canadian society. A key element of this commitment is the support the federal government provides to enhancing the vitality of English and French linguistic minority communities.

A vital community is self-aware, possesses a critical mass of people and capacity that permits a degree of self-reliance, and is able to perpetuate its identity and culture. In the case of a linguistic minority, a vital community is able to provide its members with a space in which their language can live and thrive. This means having economic opportunities, public services, community meeting places and institutions like hospitals and schools available in the minority language. It also means ensuring an environment where youth and newcomers see a future.

Because we defi ne offi cial language minority communities in terms of provincial and territorial boundaries, Canada’s English linguistic minority communities are located in Quebec. English-speaking Quebec is Canada’s largest offi cial language minority community—there are more than one million residents whose fi rst offi cial language is English. This unique and diverse community is unsurprisingly Canada’s most bilingual group of English speakers. And although 84 per cent of our community lives within the Montreal Census Metropolitan Area, more than 210,000 community members live in other Quebec regions, away from English-speaking Montreal’s institutional base.

The government of Canada is committed to developing a new offi cial languages plan to support English and French linguistic minority communities. The English-speaking community of Quebec has not equitably benefi tted from previous strategies, nor does our community have an equal voice in the national offi cial languages discussion. Policy makers and leaders have often relied upon unsupported presumptions that because English is safe, English linguistic minorities need less attention. In reality, many English-speaking communities across Quebec are struggling to survive; we are fi ghting to ensure the sustainability of regional communities, and working

hard largely on our own to alleviate the social and economic challenges faced by most minorities.

Additionally, federal support of offi cial language minority communities is built on the cooperation of provinces and territories, in whose jurisdiction lie most of the areas that ensure community vitality. Quebec does not recognize English-speaking Quebec as a linguistic minority, and so our community must frequently approach Ottawa for support. Perceptions of federal government infringement on Quebec’s powers are especially sensitive, since this directly triggers national unity concerns.

The history of Canada’s English and French linguistic minority communities is very different, and so we are dissimilar in structure and capacity. The English-speaking community of Quebec is fi ghting to maintain a disappearing institutional base that it has built over centuries. We are not protecting a language, but communities that possess an identity and culture unique from Canada’s English majority. And because we are located within one province, our community sector organizations are local or provincial in nature and scope, as are most sector umbrella organizations. Very few have the capacity to engage at the national level, and fewer are funded to do so. And so, even when our community is present at the national table, it often lacks the policy background and support to effectively engage.

Despite these challenges, we remain optimistic. Canada’s offi cial languages strategies since the 2003 Action Plan have increasingly attempted to address the needs of English-speaking Quebec. Awareness of our community, and the obligation of all federal institutions to take positive measures that enhance our vitality is growing. The levels of support we receive from some institutions and individuals within the government of Canada and organizations subject to the Offi cial Language Act such as Via Rail, Air Canada, and Canada Post is, on the whole, outstanding. We know there is a sincere wish to help us in most federal institutions.

The government of Quebec is also showing an interest in our community and willingness to help, fuelled by the realization that English-speaking Quebec is a valuable asset and that regional communities in particular must be nurtured.

We encourage political and policy leaders to get to know English-speaking Quebec, and understand its unique challenges. And we look forward to participating in the upcoming public consultations to help shape a new offi cial languages plan tailored to equitably support Canada’s English linguistic minorities.

Quebec’s English-speaking community fighting to maintain disappearing institutional base built over centuries


HUGH SEGAL-THE Q&A

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What caused us to move away from that approach?“I would say in the Chrétien era … the Team Canada approach—

sending groups of Canadian business people and politicians around the world to build trade—became the dominant thematic.

“When you’re doing that then of course you don’t want to offend anybody, you don’t want to take any unpleasant stands, you don’t want to in any way shape or form come apart from someone like China or Russia or the Middle East, for example, because you’re looking to advance trade relations.”

The new Liberal government is faced with the pressing need for defence procurement—what do you think the government should do?

“Canada should probably have an Armed Forces of 150,000, of which 100,000 are regular force and 50,000 are reserves, rather than our present number which is in the 50,000-60,000 range. We need, in my judgment, a 60-ship fi ghting navy. Not one that has 15 or 20 or 30 ships, but one that can deploy on a bunch of humanitarian, diplomatic and other missions around the world to send a clear message about Canadian values.

“I think it’s important that we do not confuse procurement of what our armed forces need with generating jobs in the regions, because when you do that, for example, you end up spending more money to help shipyards that aren’t really up-and-running build their ship yards before you’ll actually get ships. Whereas if you look at what the Australians and others are doing: the Australians are ordering ships and submarines from other countries because they can produce them more quickly, more effectively and more effi ciently.

“When you confuse defence procurement in support of our core values and our diplomatic stance with generating jobs in the regions, then what happens is you begin to rob Peter to pay Paul and the procurement process is slowed down, made more expensive and the Canadian Forces don’t get what they need to do the job properly.”

Did the former Conservative government do that?“I think that the Conservative government made a mistake in

the way in which it went about its naval procurement by making

regional economic development in B.C. and in Nova Scotia and elsewhere more important than actually getting the ships we needed at the most reasonable price and as quickly as possible and that is why the projects are very much delayed.

“The truth of the matter is, the concept of launching a 20- or 30-year program to get supply ships doesn’t make any sense at all in the world in which we live.”

What do you think overall is the biggest foreign policy issue currently facing Canada?

“I think our greatest foreign policy issue is how to maintain peace and security in a way that is in our economic and social interest and will preserve life and opportunity for a vast majority for people worldwide. That challenge to peace and security is real: it’s real in Crimea, it’s real in terms of the borders of Ukraine, it’s real in the Middle East and it’s real in the South China Sea, and Canada should be prepared to work with our allies to produce stability in those areas and to make it perfectly clear there are rules, there are principles, there are freedoms to be protected and Canada will be a willing partner in that process.”

Who do you want to read this book?“To the credit of the present government (by the way, who I

think are doing many things that are righ) they have initiated a defence review and a foreign policy review, all which is supposed to be fi nished sometime in the coming fall. So the notion that this book might contribute to that debate or discussion in some constructive way would be my fondest hope.”


Canada needs a non-partisan foreign policy, says Segal


W hen it comes to witnessing a great debate, there is nowhere in Ottawa quite like the House of Commons—

freedom of speech at its very best. However, like with most things, there are exceptions to every rule. For one night each year politicos gather to throw rules of civility and decorum out the window and instead throw jabs at each other at the annual Travers Debates.

“There are a lot of debate events that take place in Ottawa. Ours is fun as well as important,” says Peter Calamai, a long-time friend and colleague of former Toronto Star columnist Jim Travers who also sits on the debate steering committee. “The whole

purpose of it is to remind people of Jim Travers, to keep the memory of Jim Travers alive and to raise funds for the fellowship and for people to have an enjoyable time.”

A unique and fun-fi lled event, the Travers Debates was created in 2012 to honour Travers, who died in 2011 from complications after surgery on his spleen, and to raise money for the R. James Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellowship created by his family and friends and overseen by Carleton University. So far, the Travers Debates has raised $155,000 for the fellowship, which annually awards a journalist with $25,000 to cover international stories that affect Canada beyond its borders.

Forget Question Period or budget debates on ways and means motions. On May 17, parliamentarians, journalists, lobbyists and public servants will throw decorum out the window and take in a unique and fun-filled night of uncivilized banter over thought-provoking topics, all for a good cause.

Be it resolved that the

is a must-attend event on the political social calendar.

BY MARTHA ILBOUDO

Travers Debates honorary co-chairs former Liberal

cabinet minister John Manley, left, and former

Conservative cabinet minister and journalist

Peter Kent, pictured at the 2013 debate.


Travers Debates


TRAVERS DEBATES-C ULT URE

This year’s Travers Debates is set to take place on May 17 at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Guest and attendees will be treated once again to the light-hearted banter from crowd favourite and comedic gem, debate moderator Bob Rae; host Rosemary Barton; honorary co-chairs Peter Kent and John Manley; and honorary timekeeper Kevin Page.

There will be two debates, but as of deadline, the topics were not yet announced. The fi rst debate, usually with a light-hearted topic, features Maclean’s columnist Scott Feschuk and NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau in favour of the motion, and CTV reporter Katie Simpson and Liberal MP Rodger Cuzner against the motion. Conducted in standard debate format, each participant will be allocated fi ve minutes to speak on their motion. Each team will be given three minutes for a rebuttal. At the end, Mr. Rae will summarize the remarks and ask the crowd to vote yay or nay for the winner. A second, more serious debate will take place after this one.

Last year’s debate was cancelled because of the election campaign, but past years’ debate topics included whether Senators should be selected in reality TV style with winners chosen by the public, voting in real time via Twitter; whether Canada has lost its way in the world; whether journalists and politicians should be banned from practicing each other’s professions; and whether Canada is a democracy in name only.

“We were feeling our way the fi rst time,” says Mr. Calamai of the fi rst debates in 2012. “I don’t think anybody had tried that before. Not just in Ottawa but anywhere else. It was an experiment on our part. The fi rst couple of years most of the people that came knew Jim personally but as the time passed … it’s evolved and spread the circle wider of people who came to include people that never met Jim Travers but were interested in his ideas and his work as a journalist.”

Now entering its fourth year, the Travers Debates has attracted top politicos to its sold-out doors every year.

“I think it’s because we position it as a non-partisan event, you get all the different parties being there and I think that’s a good thing. The serious debate is not really staged to try and infl uence policy—it’s to take an important issue in the public discourse and get a couple of people who have some real background and interest in it and its really more for the audience to absorb the argument, pros and cons, for the resolution,” Mr. Calamai tells P&I. “It’s designed to take a topic of interest and take two different points of view and hopefully the audience will learn something that night.”

The fellowship was created to help increase foreign reporting from a Canadian perspective, something that Travers loved doing as a foreign correspondent for Southam News. He believed it was important for Canadian reporters to “bear witness” to their world fi rst hand because what was happening abroad also affected Canadians locally. Travers was posted in Harare, Zimbabwe from 1982 to 1985 and later in Nicosia, Cyprus for another three years. He covered violence in Lebanon, survived trench battles during the Iraq-Iran war and the ongoing changes happening globally during that time.

Over the last decade, Mr. Calamai notes, the number of foreign correspondents has decreased signifi cantly because of the decline in news revenue. “Partly it’s a result of people thinking that they can get news about war zones and other areas through social media or the internet,” he says.

Past winners of the Travers Fellowship include Katie DeRosa, Mike Blanchfi eld, Marco Chown Oved, Laura Payton and adding to the list of recipients is this year’s winners Michel Huneault and Sarah R. Champagne, who through their work will examine the impact of remittances to

developing countries from migrant workers in Canada.

Travers returned to Canada in 1988 and in 1991 he served as editor of the Ottawa Citizen, a position he held for fi ve years before resigning as a result of differences with the paper’s owner, Hollinger Corp. In 1997, he was hired as the managing executive editor at The Toronto Star and in 1999, he began writing for The Star’s Ottawa bureau. In 2010, Mr. Travers won the National Newspaper Award for column writing for a piece titled “The quiet unraveling of Canadian democracy.” In 2005, Mr. Travers was honoured with the Charles Lynch Award from the parliamentary press gallery.

“Jim was a true gentleman whose rumpled presence concealed a sharp mind, a lovely sense of fun and a great pen,” Mr. Rae said in the House of Commons after Mr. Travers died. “He would have been annoyed with me for not being able to get through this without crying. … We will all miss his keen mind and shrewd analysis, but even more, we will miss the warmth and kindness he showed to so many of us.”

Mr. Rae also said that Travers “had a deep love of our country and a profound respect for the importance of our democratic institutions and traditions.”

For Al MacKay, one of this year’s debates committee co-chairs, “Jim had a great sense of humor and loved puns. The fun debate plays to that side of it, the serious debate plays to what he was—an award winning journalist who really enjoyed a good argument, a good discussion with people on both sides.”

Jim Travers was a foreign correspondent for Southam News, Ottawa Citizen editor and a Toronto Star columnist. Following his death in 2011, friends and family created a fellowship in his name for Canadian reporters to ‘bear witness’ to what was happening outside of Canada’s borders. P&I photograph by Jake Wright

NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau and journalist Katie Simpson will go head-to-head on a debate on May 17 at the National Arts Centre. P&I photographs by Jake Wright

Politics, up close and personal. In print eveMonday and Wednesd

www.hilltimes.com

ry

day.

The Hill Times is online every day on a new website, call Chris at 613-688-8822 for a free trial.


THREE WORDS-A STAFFER’S LIFE

5

3

7

10

2

6

9

4

8

11

1. Jordan Owens, press secretary to Defence Minister: “Exciting. Interesting. Real privilege.” 2. Saro Khatchadourian, OLO communications adviser: “Unpredictable. Satiating. Emotional.” 3. George Smith, media and executive assistant to the NDP Leader: “News. Messaging. Repeat.” 4. Mathieu R. St-Amand, Bloc Québécois press secretary: “French. Team. Different.” 5. Debra Eindiguer, chief of staff to the Green Party Leader: “Inspired. Engaged. Intense.” (Or alternatively: “Not. Enough Time.”) 6. Cody Jones, assistant to Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux: “Challenging. Stimulating. Fun.” 7. Theresa Kavanagh, assistant to NDP Whip Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet: “Dynamic. Hopeful. Inspiring.” 8. Heather Bradley, director of communications to the House Speaker: “Unpredictable. Busy. Unique.” 9. Matthew Conway, member’s assistant to Conservative MP Tony Clement: “Unpredictable. Invigorating. Passion.” 10. Colleen Knight, parliamentary assistant to Liberal MP T.J. Harvey: “Adventure. Humour. Privilege.” 11. Alanna Makinson, parliamentary assistant to NDP MP Niki Ashton: “Diverse. Unexpected. Engaging.”

P&I photographs by Jake Wright, courtesy of PMO archives, and courtesy of Twitter.

What three words would describe a day in the life of a staffer?

T here are thousands of staff working on Parliament Hill. From the “exempt” political staff working for Cabinet Minister offi ces—exempted from provincial labour laws and considered public offi ce holders under the law—to the parliamentary, legislative and members’ assistants hard at work in offi ces across the Parliamentary precinct, many say there’s no such thing as a “typical day” on the Hill. Often working 12 to 15 hours daily starting sometimes before

sunrise, staffers are an integral part of making sure government runs smoothly, and for those in opposition, making sure it remains accountable. P&I talked to eleven staffers to ask:

BY LAURA RYCKEWAERT

1


WHISKY-C OMMON S UNC ORKED

ASHAHINGORANI

Asha Hingorani is the editor of Parliament Now, which closely

covers the business of the House and Senate. She is a

certifi ed sommelier and hopes to use her writing and wine training to expose Canada’s

great wine treasures.

In his famed Whisky Bible, leading English whisky writer Jim Murray awarded a Canadian malt whisky, Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye, 97.5 marks out of

100, earning it the title of World Whisky of the Year.

As a sommelier, I know a lot about wine and I campaign for Canadian wine whenever I can (chardonnay, riesling, pinot noir and gamay are our stars). But when it comes to whisky, spirits made in Canada certainly do not cross my mind as being the best in the world.

For one reason, our regulations are shoddy when it comes to adding artifi cial fl avouring, as many of our rye whiskys have dominating maple, apple or pumpkin overtones and aromas, with little or no information provided to the consumer about its authenticity.

Don’t get me wrong—for $30 a bottle, Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye is a great value. But for a nightcap or throwing in the wine towel for the evening, I’d prefer a wee dram of Jameson or—if my budget permits—I may go for a single malt scotch whisky from Islay, Scotland, preferably aged in ex-bourbon casks, sticking to what a region champions for the best expressions.

Mr. Murray’s crowning recognition of the Northern Harvest Rye might have confused many whisky enthusiasts, but it also shed light on a Canadian industry that is watching its popularity and interest grow.

We saw Canadian whisky make a cameo appearance on the menu at the 2016 White House State dinner. The main course served to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was lamb from Colorado served with Yukon Gold potatoes and spring vegetables drizzled with Yukon Jack Canadian whisky.

Back in Ottawa, newly-minted House Speaker Geoff Regan has the task of picking the Speaker’s Scotch, a relatively new tradition in the Commons, which was adopted following former Liberal House Speaker Peter Milliken’s fi rst visit to his counterpart at Westminster—Speaker Michael Martin—where there is a long tradition of a Speaker’s Scotch.

Mr. Milliken’s choices came from the Talisker and Dalwhinnie distilleries in Scotland. Due to the Scotch Whisky Act of 1988, it is illegal to produce whisky in Scotland other than Scotch whisky, therefore scotch is only made in Scotland,

like Champagne is only produced in Champagne, France.

Mr. Regan’s offi ce would not comment on the tradition, but former House Speaker Andrew Scheer spoke with Power & Infl uence about the process of choosing a whisky and his thoughts on going Canadian.

“I put together the list myself. I knew what kind of scotches I enjoy, and I tried and go for variety so it’s not all from Highland or too peaty,” explained Mr. Scheer. “I picked an example from every category I am familiar with or that I’ve had. I would also take suggestions from other members for the list. There are anywhere from eight to 12 to choose from.”

After the list was assembled, then-Speaker Scheer held a taste test for MPs to vote on which one to use as the House Speaker’s scotch, which would be served at events and to give to dignitaries as gifts. Mr. Scheer’s fi rst choice was a single malt from Scotland’s Glenmorangie and his second choice was a Balvenie 12-year-old DoubleWood single malt.

Regardless of how the current Speaker makes his choice, the selected whisky will bear the Speaker’s custom label.

So why not pick Canadian, eh?“I know there was discussion about picking a

Canadian rye, after I already selected mine,” said Mr. Scheer, who served as House Speaker from 2011 to 2015. “There was a discussion of whether the speaker should repatriate this and make it a Canadian whisky or a Canadian product. I think that’s interesting and should be explored. Perhaps it’s something the new speaker will think about.”

At deadline, Mr. Regan had not made public his whisky choice, however, in a 2015 Huffi ngton Post interview, he answered the following question: What would be the Speaker’s scotch? “Glen Breton, single malt whisky.” It is made in Mabou, N.S., Mr. Regan noted—his home province.

If I had my pick, Pike Creek Double Barrelled Canadian Whisky would be a good choice. It has caramel, clove, prune and baking spice aromas; on the palate it is full-bodied and warming on the soul, with a fi nish of spiced caramel. Although, frankly, I’d bend tradition and pick a Speaker’s wine—an Ontario pinot noir that shows earthy and ripe fruit aromas and has proven to be great company on any occasion.

CANADIAN WHISKY MAKING GLOBAL APPEARANCES(And how the House Speaker chooses his scotch)


PEOPLE-THE BACK PAGE

20 QUE STI ON S

PIERRE-LUCDUSSEAULT

What is your idea of perfect happiness? Being healthy and having people that I love around me. What is your greatest fear? The state of our planet. Which living person do you

most admire? My mother. For everything she has done for me. What is your current state of mind? Curiosity. Which words or phrases do you

most overuse? Obviously. Obvious. Which talent would you most like to have? Playing a musical instrument. If you could change one thing about

yourself, what would it be? Being able to ignore the judgements of others. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Being the youngest Member of Parliament in Canadian history. Where would you most like to live? At the same place every day. What is your most treasured possession? Books. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Being hopeless. What is your favourite occupation? Politician. What is your most marked characteristic? Calm. What do you most value in your friends? Loyalty. Who are your favourite

writers? I don’t consider that I have read enough in my life to choose one. The last books I read went from The Highs Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel (a novel), to Red Notice by Bill Browder (a true story), to Economic Substance and Tax Avoidance: An International Perspective

by Robert McMechan (which is academic). Who is your hero of fi ction? Tintin. Who are your heroes in real life? Mothers. Which historical

fi gure do you most identify with? Jack Layton. What are your favourite names? Laurence and Émile, the names we want to give to our kids. What is your motto? Pax et Justitia (Peace and Justice).

NDP MP Pierre-Luc Dusseault made headlines when he was first elected in May 2011 as the Member of Parliament for Sherbrooke,

Que., as the youngest MP ever. Then just 19 years old and a first-year political science student at Université de Sherbrooke, Mr. Dusseault defeated an incumbent Bloc Québécois MP

and was part of the youthful NDP orange wave that swept over Quebec. Unlike many of his caucus colleagues, Mr. Dusseault beat off the Liberal challenger in his riding last

fall to return to his seat in the House of Commons. Today, at 24 years old (he’ll turn 25 at the end of May),

he continues to be the youngest MP on the Hill, but Mr. Dusseault is no longer a rookie—and there are almost 200 around this Parliament. He’s the former chair of

the Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics Committee—not bad for a first term MP—and in this Parliament serves as the NDP’s national revenue critic. He talks to P&I about his most prized

possession and his personal motto.

P&I illustration by Anthony Jenkins

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Canada’s airports keep economies growing.

Yairports are great for the economy:

They supportover 400,000 jobs

CUTAACTU.CA

CANADIANS WANTMORE EFFICIENT CITIES.THE CANADIAN URBAN TRANSIT ASSOCIATION WANTS TO HELP.VISIT LETS-MOVE.CA

giant - the hill times · 2016. 4. 19. · martha ilboudo is a freelance journalist in ottawa whose...

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