Ottawa

Politics on TV: Mind the price gap

The three things you need to see

Here are the three things you should not have missed:

  1. The Senate reports on the price gap with the U.S.
  2. Jason Kenney on revoking dual-citizenships
  3. The Saskatchewan push-poll

The Canada-US price gap:

Power Play spoke with Senators Larry Smith and Joseph Day about the Senate report released today that examined the price gap between Canada and the United States, despite our dollars hovering at parity. Senator Day said that they found no real examples of gouging, but there are a number of factors that influence prices that the government can address – things like tariffs, copyright rules, and safety regulation harmonization. Senator Smith cited the example of compact cars being near parity as opposed to upscale models, and said that there are four main categories of tariffs that they recommend the government look at.

Revoking citizenships:

Power & Politics spoke with immigration minster Jason Kenney about his plans to take Devinder Shory’s private member’s bill to strip citizenship from dual citizens who commit acts of war against Canada, and to expand it to those who commit terrorist acts. Kenney said that most Western democracies have similar provisions. Responding were MPs Jinny Sims and Kevin Lamoureux, where Sims said that this was a knee-jerk reaction, and tweaking a private members’ bill is not well thought through. Lamoureux pointed out that merely amending this bill would mean a mere couple of hours of debate and committee study, which is insufficient for such a controversial measure.

Power Play got a reaction from immigration lawyer Chantal Deslogues, who pointed out that Kenney will run up against the Charter and possibly international law.

The Saskatchewan push-poll:

Evan Solomon hosted an MP panel of Pierre Poilievre, Charlie Angus and Ralph Goodale to discuss the revelation that the Conservatives were indeed behind the push-poll in Saskatchewan on the boundary redistribution, and that Tom Lukiwski fingered Jenni Byrne as the one ultimately responsible. Poilievre dutifully repeated the lines that there was an internal miscommunication relating to the call which they publicly acknowledged, and that otherwise the calls were lawful. Angus said that input to boundary changes were a good thing, but these robocalls were not. He also equivocated on the robocalls his party made into Lise St-Denis’ riding, and said that Byrne was in the PMO, when she is fact at party headquarters. Goodale said that he has put in a complaint to the CRTC regarding the calls, and that the real issue is attempt to misinform and interfere with the electoral redistribution process.

Worth Noting:

  • CBC found a new Correctional Services directive that changes double-bunking from being an exception to something that can be done with consultation. Correctional Investigator Howard Sapers said that it speaks to the capacity pressures that CSC is under.

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