NATURAL RESOURCES POLICY BRIEFING: JIM CARR, JAMES BEZAN, RICHARD CANNINGS pp. 23-29 HILL CLIMBERS p. 41 WARREN KINSELLA p. 13 SARAH SCHMIDT p. 12 SHEILA COPPS p. 9 SUSAN RILEY p. 12 GERRY NICHOLLS p. 9 NDP’s Karl Canada’s affection Libs may have A dictator, yes, Trudeau undoes Trudeau conjures Bélanger’s got for Trudeau has just set electoral but Castro was climate change up Cold War a new gig just begun reform ablaze no Hitler promises nostalgia TWENTY-EIGHTH YEAR, NO. 1392 CANADA’S POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT NEWSPAPER MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2016 $5.00 NEWS ELECTORAL REFORM NEWS SECURITY & SYRIAN REFUGEES Canadian security agencies Feds’ electoral ‘consulting’ with U.S. Homeland Security to vet all reform in doubt, Syrian refugees coming to Canada BY ABBAS RANA ered” security check process that includes checking U.S. Homeland Canadian security agen- Security databases. cies responsible for vetting the “On the Syrian refugee decisions, but pollsters say thousands of Syrian refugees who we consulted with the Americans on have been arriving in Canada everyone to make sure there was not since late last year have been somebody identifi ed as a security using a “robust” and “multilay- a broken promise Continued on page 22 NEWS MONEY & POLITICS Liberal MPs want per-vote won’t sink Liberals subsidies for political parties back BY ABBAS RANA “The general consensus is that After six months of work and an almost $700,000 price tag, Democratic it would be one way of avoiding Some Liberal MPs are talking the misconception that you have Minister Maryam Monsef said she was ‘disappointed’ in the House about bringing per-vote subsidies to sell your soul for fundrais- Electoral Reform Committee. She later apologized. Meanwhile, the back for federal political parties, ing,” said Liberal MP Alexandra but deny this has come up be- Mendès (Brossard-Saint-Lambert, government has sent out more than 13 million postcards asking cause of the negative headlines or Que.), in an interview with The Canadians to participate in an online survey on electoral reform. opposition criticism regarding the party’s fundraising events. Continued on page 34 NEWS AG & HOUSE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS House Public Accounts Committee ‘stretched’ in playing ‘crucial role’ of holding departments accountable: AG BY RACHEL AIELLO possibly could,” and says he’d like to see other standing com- Auditor General Michael mittees in both the House and Ferguson says MPs on the House Senate pick up on the systemic Public Accounts Committee issues that his audits continue to responsible for studying his uncover in federal departments, reports are “very challenged and and to do more follow-up. stretched to be able to perhaps have as much infl uence as they Continued on page 30 NEWS POLLING & POLITICS ‘Like a nuclear secret,’ public Publications Mail Agreement #40068926 Is it over: Electoral Reform Committee chair and Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia, third from left, Bloc MP Luc Thériault, left, Conservative MP Scott Reid, and NDP MP Nathan Cullen, right, present the majority committee report polls only scratch surface of what on electoral reform on Dec. 1 at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade political campaign teams know BY LAURA RYCKEWAERT promise on electoral reform alone probably one of the few that the BY DEREK ABMA the results weren’t as surprising to would unlikely sink the Liberal government won’t feel too much those directly involved with each of There are doubts the govern- ship, however, more than one could pain over,” said David Coletto, The victory of Donald Trump the main candidates’ campaigns. ment will keep its election cam- be trouble down the road. CEO of Abacus Data, in an inter- in last month’s U.S. presidential Published polls that indicated paign promise to replace the fi rst- “If you’re looking at this view with The Hill Times. election shocked many, even media just ahead of the Nov. 8 election past-the-post electoral system by through the political cost of inac- people who had been closely fol- 2019, but pollsters say one broken tion of breaking this promise, it’s Continued on page 32 lowing the race. Yet, it’s quite likely Continued on page 6 2 THE HILL TIMES, MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2016 FEATURE BUZZ ance and disrespect.” (It remains to be seen Here’s another fact. If donations were if her screening for Canadian values would made in direct proportion to Twitter popular- ON test whether immigrants spell words like ity, Tony Clement would still be in the race. THE “behaviour” with the letter u.) He had 64,949 followers as of last week, HEARD HILL She asked supporters to donate $5, $15, which was more than three times what Ms. or $25, in an effort raise $25,000 in 24 hours. Raitt had, yet still dwarfed by Mr. O’Leary. BY DEREK ABMA (The campaign said this goal was surpassed.) The Facebook post provided a link to Ms. Leitch’s website to make a donation. On this VP Biden coming to website, the preset amounts—which one could ignore and punch in any amount— Ottawa this week Leitch reaches out to ranged from $35 to the maximum donation allowed by law of $1,525. One has to wonder: is a person in a posi- tion to donate more than $1,500 to a political those ‘ignored and campaign not likely an elite themself? mocked’ by Liberals, elite Raitt leads Tory race in Twitter followers, so far Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch is expressing sympathy for those seen as ‘goobers’ and ‘slaw-jawed U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden is coming to Ottawa yocals’ for not this week. Photograph courtesy of the White House adhering to Liberal and media elitist With less than two months to go in viewpoints. the U.S administration of Barack Obama, The Hill Times Vice-President Joe Biden will be coming photograph by to Ottawa this week, giving Prime Minster Jake Wright Justin Trudeau another chance to interact Lisa Raitt has more Twitter followers than with the U.S. leadership team he’s come to all other registered Conservative leadership know and love. candidates. The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright It’s well documented that Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Obama have great rapport, and we Lisa Raitt has the most Twitter followers assume that extends to the veep. We also know that anything can happen in terms of onservative MP Kellie Leitch’s latest places where that happens. It’s where the of any of the 14 registered candidates in Canada-U.S. relations when Donald Trump effort to raise funds for her federal media relegates those voices, tells us how the Conservative Party leadership race. C takes over on Jan. 20. Conservative leadership bid invites those wrong they are, and derides them as a However, if Kevin O’Leary were to Mr. Biden and Mr. Trudeau are sure to feeling “mocked and ignored by the Liberal joke.” enter the contest, he would bring with him have some fascinating conversations next and media elite” to join what she’s call- Ms. Leitch, the MP for Simcoe-Grey, a Twitter base many times greater than week. Assuming they’re not shy about ing the “Revenge of the Comment Section” Ont., said in her online post that in re- any of the leadership candidates so far. photographs, meme makers will have a lot of movement. sponse to her suggestion that Canada keep The business magnate and panel member material to work with. However, the actual She said in a Facebook post last week a visa requirement in place for Mexicans, on the ABC reality show Shark Tank had talk that occurs between these two might be that it’s “clear that my campaign has The Toronto Star replied: “Can’t we just 573,490 Twitter followers as of last week. stranger than anything meme makers could touched a nerve amongst the Liberal and build a wall, or shoot them all as they pour Ms. Raitt had 20,047. come up with, given the circumstances. media elites who demand adherence to across our defended frontier?” Here’s how the rest of the fi eld looked Mr. Biden will be here on Dec. 8 and 9, their ideas. Anyone who disagrees is dis- Mr. Kouvalis said this was in an email last week in terms of Twitter followers: according to the PMO. His visit will coin- missed as ‘goobers’ and ‘slack-jawed yokels’ from an editor at the newspaper, and not in Kellie Leitch had 18,240; Chris Alexan- cide with a fi rst ministers meeting being and is relegated to the ‘comment section.’ ” an article. der had 13,405; Erin O’Toole had 12,821; hosted by Mr. Trudeau on Dec. 9, which Ms. Leitch’s campaign manager Nick Ms. Leitch said in her Facebook post: Maxime Bernier had 9,861; Andrew also includes First Nations leaders. Kouvalis expanded on the “comment sec- “It’s time to say enough to this condescend- Scheer had 9,835; Michael Chong had The PMO provided no details about the tion” theme in an email to The Hill Times: ing, elitist sarcasm that we get from the 7,606; Steven Blaney had 7,499; Deepak itinerary of Mr. Biden’s visit, beyond the “If you want to read the comments and Liberal and media elites. It is the ultimate Obhrai had 4,400; Brad Trost had 2,238; fact that there will be an offi cial dinner opinions of the two-thirds of ordinary Ca- left-wing hypocrisy: they rally and rail for Andrew Saxton had 2,063; Rick Peterson held in his honour.