Will Brison soon hear the patter of little feet chez eux?
One of only 34 Grits elected to the new Parliament, Mr. Brison said he and husband Maxime St. Pierre are thinking of starting a family. “I don’t want to have one of Canada’s first same sex divorces,” he said when asked if he is considering another leadership race. “If you’re going to make that commitment, I not only want to be a parent, I want to be a good parent and that’s something we both feel strongly about.” [link]
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Posted in Atlantic, Brison, Federal Politics
Tagged Brison
More commentary from Brian Sanderson on the Health Care issue, after his attendance at the candidates forum the other night. Links included are his also.
Well, wouldn’t you know it, by the time I’d finished cooking dinner I was too late to get my question in. Never mind because the last question of the evening — asked by some intelligent person whose name I can’t recall, sorry — served well enough.
Question: How will you make health care sustainable for the next 10 years?
They all chanted families, families, families. Young families and old families, and most especially, green families, orange families, blue families, and red families. Yes, they have a funding package to buy your family. But there was one guy, sitting aside from the crowd, who looked a little uneasy.
What’s wrong? I asked.
I don’t have any family, says he.
Don’t feel left out, the crowd chanted, you get to pay…
Come on guys, and gal. You were asked a serious question!
Wws comment: Did anyone notice that in the English debate that Harper said quite pointedly that he and his family “used the public system“?
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Posted in Federal Politics
Tagged Brison, election 2011, health care privatization, Kings-Hants, Morse, Richardson, Rogers
Brison hit the campaign trail yesterday. He loves getting his name in the paper so he will be happy he had a mention today.
A trio of Bluenose MPs showed up on the 2010 list of sponsored travel that the federal conflict of interest commissioner released last week.
Three trips were listed for Kings-Hants Liberal Scott Brison, two of them courtesy of Pictou County businessman Donald Sobey, of Sobeys Inc. and the parent Empire Co.
Brison flew to meetings of the trilateral commission, an international think-tank, in Dublin and Mexico on Sobey’s private jet. Brison said the two are friends, both are members of the commission, and the trips had nothing to do with politics, the Globe and Mail reported.
Brison covered his own accommodation costs on the trips.
Previously, Sobey loaned Brison $50,000 toward Brison’s 2006 bid for the Liberal leadership.
Brison’s third trip was to Bogota, Colombia, where he was the keynote speaker at a seminar on the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. Proexport, which promotes tourism, foreign investment and non-traditional exports in Colombia, picked up the $2,856 travel tab and $3,000 for accommodations.
There was another Liberal and a Conservative MP mentioned too, but we aren’t in their ridings; you can read more here.
The Liberal Party’s only hope was for Ignatieff to come out and say categorically that he would not join a coalition with the Bloc. When he did not do so Friday when questioned pointedly on the subject we figured he was going to try to hedge his bets again.
But it appears that on reflection the party saw what we saw. The threat of a coalition of any sort but particularly with a separatist party was the Conservatives big gun in the campaign and the only hope the Liberals had was to take it out of action – and to take it out early before it looked like an act of desperation. Ignatieff’s statement has done that. Our estimation of him (or whoever advised him) has gone up.
If Harper still wins he had better stick to it though. To say his name would be mud for ever after if he reneged would be an extreme understatement. It would be a betrayal of cosmic proportions.
It will be interesting to see how the projections change following this clarification of intent.
Here is the latest from308.com
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Posted in Federal Politics
Tagged Brison, Coalition, election 2011, Ignatieff, Liberal Party
Our ever creative MP Scott Brison is giving the boots to the government over the economy. This is to be expected we suppose.
Liberal MP Scott Brison held a news conference on Friday morning to say Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will unjustly try to take credit for Canada’s sound financial and banking system when he gives a speech in Washington next week.
“This Conservative government wrecked Canada’s finances after inheriting a $13-billion budget surplus from the previous Liberal government and then created a record $56-billion deficit,” the opposition finance critic said.
“Furthermore, it was our Liberal government that ensured our banking system was well-regulated and it was the strong financial prudence and regulatory prudence that protected Canada from the worst of the global financial crisis.”
But may we point out this writing from when the shoe was on the other party foot?
PAUL MARTIN-A PC VIEW Scott Brison
Paul Martin is widely credited for having presided over a period of economic expansion and deficit elimination, but these advances in the Canadian economy were more the results of the decisions and policies of the Mulroney government.
Meanwhile, Martin neglects to counter serious economic problems that developed during his watch, including a flagging dollar slow productivity growth and elevated household debt. These oversights should be seen as his true legacy
…The deficit did disappear under Martin’s watch, but that had more to do with the bold initiatives taken by his predecessors than anything done by his government. Whereas the Mulroney government focused on policies to prepare Canada to prosper in the 21st century, the Chretien-Martin government has focused on short-term politics, not long- term policies for growth and prosperity. …
Mr. Brison is a party animal. We do not therefore believe him whatever he says.
Casey never did endorse Baillie’s leadership, never provided a friendly salute upon his ascension, unchallenged, to the leader’s post. They are not friends, to put it mildly.
On Monday, Casey told me in an interview that she had not been considering a run for the permanent leader’s job. “No, I was not,” she insisted, tossing it off as being unable to take a stand one way or the other while she held the interim post.
I don’t believe that. I think she was organizing and getting ready to go when the waves of innuendo hit.
We have a question. Is there any credible conservative leadership in this province?
In an article in the CH a few days ago Dan Leger wrote:
On Oct. 2, Brison gave a little-noticed speech to the Construction Association of Nova Scotia which could serve as a wake-up call to those who believe everything’s fine the way it is. It’s aimed at the provincial complacency caucus, which refuses to understand that our little almost-island is living beyond its means.
Complacency caucus. Its a nice term. [Complacency Council has a nice ring to it too. We’ll keep that in our toolbox.] And, as Leger points out, our populace is also sleep-walking which makes politicians lazy and unwilling to risk waking them up with disturbing news. Which is why Leger thinks Brison has been bold to say that we in NS can’t go on this way [although he only said it to the Construction Association].
The details are not exactly secrets. They are there for any thinking man to see.
Offshore revenues currently contribute $400 million to the budget, but they are shrinking and will vanish altogether in 10 short years.
Government’s role in the economy is way too big. Federal spending accounts for 34.5 per cent of our total economic activity. Provincial public spending is equal to 30 per cent of our total gross domestic product of $29.2 billion. And people think we’re not dependent? [emph. ours]
Wasn’t Harper criticised for saying that?
With a total provincial debt of $13 billion, second highest per capita in Canada, the situation has become urgent. But there is no plan to deal with it beyond the horizon of the next election.
“The reality is, our situation is unsustainable.”
And no “honest public dialogue”, no ” public awareness” . The fiscal equivalent of fiddlling while Rome burns. Only a few voices crying in the wilderness. Is Wolfville any different?
One wonders if Brison would have spoken up if there was Liberal government in power, but skewering the NDP can’t hurt him. He made suggestions apparently. Privatising the NSLC, pay cuts to MLAs and wage control in the public service , a green energy corridor, bringing down provincial trade barriers and “streamlining regional bureaucracies by sharing services.”
That last one hits home doesn’t it? They have already done this in Ontario. The Councils of small towns have been eliminated, absorbed into a larger regional municipality. There are savings to be had but, in our view, often at the expense of the one small town which watched its budget but lost local control because of the greater number of nearby towns that didn’t.
But none of this is going to happen until people understand the kind of commitment it requires to get these things done. People need to know what’s really going on.
Brison feels that once they have that information, Nova Scotians will see that strong measures are needed to fix our fiscal house. They’ll see we can no longer bask in our complacent notion that seaside beauty and lifestyle make up for our economic inefficiency.
For too long, “we have ignored the reality that both our quality of life and standard of living are being eroded by economic irresponsibility, incompetence and political cowardice.”
We don’t doubt Brison means this, although we are unsure of his motives. Is he planning on running for Premier? In any case, Brison’s riding woud not be a bad place for people to take his warning to heart. Wolfvillians must wake up. We need to insist that Wolfville tackle its fiscal mess and not by raising taxes.
Dec. 21 – update
“I’ve had so many positive e-mails, calls over the last few days from across the riding, across Canada and around the world,” Scott Brison said Sunday from his home in Cheverie, N.S. “Everybody is saying the same thing: It’s just a Christmas card. It should not create a controversy’.”
—————————-
The Brisons’ Christmas card has gone out. We didn’t get one [why?!] but we thought some of our readers would like to see it.
We saw the card ’cause Jane Taber wrote a story on it in the Globe and Mail [why?!!]
The Liberal MP says the card has gone out throughout the rural riding. And there have been no negative comments or raised eyebrows. “What could be more rural Nova Scotian than two guys and their dog standing in front of the Minas Basin,” Mr. Brison says. “It’s almost got a Norman Rockwell quality to it. It’s kind of Canadian Gothic.”…
It was sent to about 5,000 friends and constituents. …
The card, which is not posted on Brison’s website we notice, may not have generated comment but Jane Taber’s article did.
Comments have been disabled: Editor’s Note: Comments have been closed due to an overwhelming number of hateful and homophobic remarks. We appreciate that readers want to discuss this issue, but we can’t allow our site to become a platform for intolerance.
So there isn’t even one comment that could be approved? Odd.
What do we think? Nice dog. And it would be better with snow.
Later: More at the Star.
Since word began to spread about the card, calls have come into Brison’s office to ask for copies. Supporters have told him they shared a link to the post with friends and family in the United States to boast about Canada’s progressive attitude to same-sex marriage.
For Scott watchers: The recent Macleans has a photo spread of Brison takes, including one with his spouse Maxime. Were the rumours we heard about a new partner and a new dog unfounded? We had to laugh at Mitchel Raphael’s commentary on Brison’s garb at “Fashion Cares“, the “glamourous fundraiser for the AIDS Committee of Toronto” hosted by David Furnish where the pics were taken.
Also at Fashion Cares was Grit MP Sott Brison, who says he will not run for the leadership this time around. Brison was dressed for the occasion in a smoking jacket ‘from my Conservative days.”[Source Macleans NOv. 17th p. 10. text isn’t online.]
We are trying to imagine Steven Harper in said jacket with difficulty. Perhaps Joe Clark.
It is good to see that some Liberals are using their time in opposition for their benefit and can laugh at their present predicament.
Liberal MP Mario Silva, who has just finished a masters in international law that he has been working on through Oxford University for the past 21/2 years, was at the fundraiser as well. He says being in opposition allowed him to complete the degree, and that he is hoping to embark on a PHD.
We guess that’s what we pay opposition members of Parliament to do, eh? It would be a shame if the government fell and he couldn’t get his Doctorate but do the constituents of Toronto Davenport ( Silva’s riding) know? “Working for you in Davenport!” ha ha.
No mention of Conservatives at the fundraiser but Jack Layton was there wearing an Obama baseball cap. Guess he knows a socialist when he sees one. The NDP are plotting an early non confidence vote in hopes of a coalition government under Ralph Goodale.
Just in case a few people have forgotten, or maybe never knew, here is a reminder of a time [which seems long, long ago] when Brison switched horses in mid stream. But he didn’t leave the Conservative camp empty handed, remember?
The cabinet minister who has mounted the vigorous defence of the Liberal government over Adscam is himself snared in a nasty money dispute with his old Conservative riding association that prompted a complaint to the RCMP, Sun Media has learned. For more than a year, Public Works Minister Scott Brison has been asked to provide receipts or invoices to the King-Hants Conservative riding association to account for a $4,400 cheque given to him in 2003, while he was a Tory MP.
“It’s still not properly accounted for,” said Debbie Janzen, who sat on the board of Brison’s old Progressive Conservative Party riding association.
The cheque, which Brison assistant Dale Palmeter says was used to help pay down debts from his failed bid for the PC leadership in 2003, was made out to Brison on July 31 that year.
But it wasn’t cashed until Dec. 11 – the day after he defected to Paul Martin’s Liberals.
The money was deposited into Brison’s personal bank account in Wolfville, N.S., and the contribution does not show up on the list of contributors to his campaign.
You can even see the copy of the cheque and the take a look at the handwriting on it. [We are thinking of asking for Brison’s autograph when we see him glad handing on Main Street so we can compare]
This from the local PC press release:
The fact remains that there was no discussion, debate, or resolution of the Kings-Hants PC Association Executive to authorize this $4,400 cheque. As noted by Mr. Palmeter, this cheque was mentioned in a treasurer’s report for September 2003 that was read to a meeting of the Executive and not circulated to those present. Many members of the Executive thought the line item referred to subsidies paid for convention delegates’ fees, when they heard it mentioned. In reality, this expense was completely different. In the House of Commons this morning, Mr. Brison suggested that the treasurer’s report accounted for the funds. This is like suggesting that Paul Martin could write “$250,000,000” on a piece of paper and say that the sponsorship funds are fully accounted for.
The Conservative members here must have forgotten all about this press release by the party by now but perhaps Rosemary can ask Scott about it when they next meet.
PS- Check out Jordan’s run down of the candidates night the other evening. Interesting. For example:
One Hants county man got POed by Brison’s mere prescence, and after a back and forth with the candidate, stormed out of the room. I spoke to the man afterward, and he stated that he didn’t trust Mr. Brison. He said the incumbent lies through his teeth and isn’t fit to be an MP. ”I could cut the political career out from under him if I told what I know about him,” stated the man.
Bet you there is a story there.
If you’ve been playing “Where’s Scott?” [similar to Where’s Waldo] we have an answer for you as to where he was Wednesday. He was not out knocking on doors, nor was he at a local town hall meeting. He wasn’t in the riding at all. He was in Winnipeg at the Asper Jewish Community Centre backing up Stephane Dion.
We know this because he appears in a photo in the Globe and Mail [Sept 27th P. A12] where he is shown standing next to Lesley Hughes as Stephane speaks at a podium. Brison may have found Hughes an interesting campaign companion. On Friday, just two days after the picture was taken, Ms Hughes was fired dropped as a Liberal candidate in a Winnipeg riding for her far left wing, wacky views which include a belief that 9/11 was an American government and Jewish conspiracy [ Was this perhaps pointed out by someone at the Asper Jewish Community Centre?] . Ms. Hughes is the subject of a scathing article by Christie Blatchford [Sept. 27 p. A2 ].
…in an interview, Ms. Hughes told the writer Morley Walker, “Both U.S. and Canada have become quasi-security states” because of laws passed since the Sept. 11 attacks.
“We just haven’t found that out yet,” she said. “And the mainstream media in North America are doing little to challenge this.”
Then came the story she wrote called “Get the Truth” and which cost her the candidacy, and which read, in part, “Israeli businesses which had offices in the Towers, vacated the premises a week before the attacks, breaking their lease to do it. About 3,000 Americans working there were not so lucky.”
It was no one-hit wonder, either. According to one of the many 9/11 conspiracy websites, Stop Lying, Ms. Hughes was part of a “push for truth” about 9/11 in Winnipeg in the spring of last year.
At an evening called “Code of Silence” hosted by Barrie Zwicker, who has written a book and produced a documentary on the “media coverup” of 9/11, Ms. Hughes was part of a panel discussion on the same subject.
All three parties have now had to drop candidates because of embarrassments of various sorts. What is worryng for the voter is the lack of quality of many of those stepping up to run for public office and government service. Until this changes Canadians and democracy will not be well served.
Later: For more on the Lesley Hughes issue see : Stephen Taylor’s post
And Angry’s and Lorne Gunter “given her far-left resume, what was she doing as a Liberal candidate anyway?”
and here for the internet’s role [blame Al Gore?] and here
and it ain’t over yet.
 | Ww on Congratulations |
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| Ww on POTHOLES |
| Ww on A letter to Wolfville’s… |
 | Brian Sanderson on A letter to Wolfville’s… |
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Wolfville watch 
