Thoughts on BC Politics and More

  ...  Investigations that would normally be conducted by a commissioner are on pause until a permanent replacement is found.  Dion said the role serves as a good safeguard to detect corruption, and Canadians should care that the instruments it has are being used.   "It's a little bit like judicial appointments. If you don't appoint judges, it will be hard to deliver justice," Dion said in an interview.   "So it means that things can go essentially unpunished and unnoticed for a period of time until a new person has been appointed" ...   CLICK HERE to read the full story

Julie Payette's controversies could be a big problem for Rideau Hall . As GG and PM consider how to move forward, the weight of the institution is bearing down on them (Aaron Wherry ~~ CBC News ~~ Aug 08, 2020) "Prime minister," the clerk of the privy council is reported to have advised, "your biggest problem is in Rideau Hall." That was in 2006, when Stephen Harper was Prime Minister and Michaëlle Jean was Governor General.  Fourteen years later, amid a run of unflattering stories, Justin Trudeau and Julie Payette might try to find some solace in the fact that this is not the first time the vice regal office has been said to be the location of a sizeable problem.  But the potential stakes of such a problem cannot be taken for granted. And the pressing question for both Trudeau and Payette is whether the former astronaut can continue to represent the Queen without doing significant damage to one of the foundational institutions of Canadian democracy....

This is the third in a series ... on the Executive Branch of the Canadian government.   You can CLICK HERE to read Part #1 ... and CLICK HERE to read Part #2   In previous commentaries, I outlined the constitutional arrangement of the Executive Branch and some reasons why the Privy Council must be returned to the domain of the Governor General. I have also indicated that the Privy Council must be politically neutral. All legislation, whether initiated by the House of Commons, the Senate, or a Private Member is referred to the Privy Council for review. Since the Privy Council should include opposition members and may include other experts, Privy Council confidentiality is ironclad. Materials forwarded to the Privy Council and discussion related thereto cannot be used or discussed outside of the Privy Council. Members cannot take what they have learned in Privy Council proceedings back to their political parties. That would end the usefulness of the body.  Our ...

This is the second in a series ... on the Executive Branch of the Canadian government. Part 1 was an outline of the structure of the Executive Branch .   Today we will start to examine the structure more closely. The key element is in section 11 of the constitution: 11 There shall be a Council to aid and advise in the Government of Canada, to be styled the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada; and the Persons who are to be Members of that Council shall be from Time to Time chosen and summoned by the Governor General and sworn in as Privy Councillors, and Members thereof may be from Time to Time removed by the Governor General.      It is the Queen’s (Governor General’s) Privy Council, not the Prime Minister’s Privy Council. The Governor General, not the Prime Minister decides who will sit on the Privy Council. There are several reasons for that. For the Privy Council to “aid and advise in the government of Canada” it must include members of Opposition Par...