Politics on TV: Brazeau, Mulcair, CETA

Here are the three things you should not have missed:

1. Senator Patrick Brazeau
2. Thomas Mulcair
3. CETA’s progress

Senator Brazeau:

With the news of Senator Brazeau’s arrest and expulsion from Conservative caucus, Power & Politics spoke MPs Charlie Angus and Ralph Goodale about Brazeau’s many issues, and the Senate itself. Angus said that Brazeau was controversial from even before his appointment, and that he was personally chosen by Harper, who wanted a spokesperson on Aboriginal issues. Angus also repeated his call for Brazeau to be expelled from the Senate, despite the fact that a Prime Minister cannot remove Senators arbitrarily, for good reason. Goodale noted that the larger question is that of Harper’s judgement with his appointments, with numerous controversial ones that go beyond just Senators Brazeau and Duffy, and wondered about PCO’s vetting process.

Thomas Mulcair:

Power Play spoke with NDP leader Thomas Mulcair, who called the Senate a “vestigial organ” and that there were other ways of addressing proportionality of representation. Mulcair also said that the government has tried to discredit the Parliamentary Budget Officer and has been undermining its own Accountability Act at every turn, and he termed the Saskatchewan push-poll as “electoral fraud.”

European Free Trade Agreement update:

Evan Solomon hosted an MP panel of Gerald Keddy, Don Davies and Wayne Easter to discuss progress on CETA negotiations. Keddy said that the agreement was still under negotiation, and was evasive on details other than the fact that it would create 80,000 new jobs, and he debuted a new buzz-word of it being a “third generation” agreement. Davies said the government was trying to manipulate information around the process and lamented being unable to get a progress report. Easter similarly noted that European parliamentarians were being briefed, but not Canadian MPs.

Worth Noting:

• Andrew Tyrie, chair of the Treasury Select Committee in Westminster, talked about Mark Carney’s appearance before his committee earlier today.