David Akin's On the Hill

Harper and the press gallery: We still have questions...

2009-11-21T17:00:28-05:00

I can't recall the last time Prime Minister Stephen Harper took questions in Ottawa from the Parliamentary Press Gallery (PPG) at an open-ended press conference. He took a question or two from the PPG when Obama was in town and I think he took a few at the National Press ...

RCMP taser tales, Afghanistan torture allegations, and football: Saturday's top newspaper headlines

2009-11-21T10:11:10-05:00

RCMP taser tales, Afghanistan torture allegations, and football: Listen to my four-minute audio roundup of what's on the front pages of the country's newspapers plus highlights from Friday's Parliamentary daybook by clicking on the link below.

You can also get these audio summaries via podcast from iTunes or via an RSS feed by subscribing to my AudioBoo stream. Both the iTunes link and the RSS link are at my profile at AudioBoo.fm. Look under my picture on the left hand side of the page.

Listen!

Tags: national post, globe and mail, toronto star, colvin, rcmp

New Agassi book seems like a must-read

2009-11-20T20:15:00-05:00

New York Times book review editor Sam Tanenhaus reviews tennis star Andre Agassi's Open:

"“Open” is one of the most passionately anti-sports books ever written by a superstar athlete — bracingly devoid of triumphalist homily and star-spangled gratitude. Agassi’s announced theme is that the game he mastered was a prison he spent some 30 years trying to escape . . .

"Equally hard-won self-knowledge irradiates almost every page of “Open,” thanks in great part to Agassi’s inspired choice of collaborator, J. R. Moehringer, author of the memoir “The Tender Bar,” with its melody of remembered voices. Agassi says he read it in 2006, at his last U.S. Open, and then recruited Moehringer to help him write his own book. The result is not just a first-rate sports memoir but a genuine bildungsroman, darkly funny yet also anguished and soulful. It confirms what Agassi’s admirers sensed from the outset, that this showboat, with his garish costumes and presumed fatuity, was not clamoring for attention but rather conducting a struggle to wrest some semblance of selfhood from the sport that threatened to devour him."

Be sure to watch the video of Tanenhaus interviewing Agassi about the book. Terrific.

Big computers tackle the problem of climate change and, in doing so, cause climate change

2009-11-20T07:46:01-05:00

The new TOP500 list is out. Geeks, like me, get excited about this. The semi-anual TOP500 ranks the world's biggest, fastest supercomputers.

At the top right now is Jaguar, a Cray XT5-HE Opteron Six Core 2.6 GHz, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

Jaguary was upgraded this year ...

Colvin's claims, HST break in BC and $16,000 hospital bill: Top newspaper headlines for Friday

2009-11-20T06:30:08-05:00

Colvin's claims on Afghanistan torture, an HST break for B.C., and a $16,000 hospital bill: Listen to my four-minute audio roundup of what's on the front pages of the country's newspapers plus highlights from Friday's Parliamentary daybook by clicking on the link below.

Strangest burger pitch you've ever seen

2009-11-19T18:10:09-05:00

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PM's message at Gandhi memorial

2009-11-18T08:27:37-05:00

Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited Raj Ghat, Gandhi's memorial, in New Delhi Tuesday. On the way out, he signed the visitors book:

India's media takes a dim view of Canadian coverage of PM visit here

2009-11-18T07:52:35-05:00

Apparently, we -- the Canadian media travelling with Prime Minister Stephen Harper this week -- ruffled a few feathers during our three days here. Here is a review of our coverage written by Sarabjit Jagirdar and distributed by the Indo-Asian News Service . . .

India puts nuclear facilities on alert over suspected terror threat

2009-11-17T01:42:24-05:00

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MP Bob Dechert explains why Harper is in India

2009-11-17T00:11:15-05:00

Our government has been working to repair this long-term damage to our relationship. That is why the Prime Minister is in India this week, rebuilding relationships and deepening our economic ties with an emerging economic power.

Conservative MPs, business leaders join Harper for India trip

2009-11-16T05:56:39-05:00

Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived in Mumbai this evening for a three-day visit to the country. There are more than 1 million Canadians who have their origins in India including several in the House of Commons. For his visit to India, some MPs, all Conservatives, have joined the the Prime ...

APEC Leaders dinner: The Menu

2009-11-14T22:09:50-05:00

The leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries and their spouses, including Prime Minister and Mrs. Harper, gathered for a formal dinner Saturday evening here with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong as host. Here is the menu

The Harpers make the papers, thanks to Laureen

2009-11-14T20:53:21-05:00

At the annual leaders summits of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, it's mostly all work with leaders sitting around a conference room talking about trade treaties, economics, tax policy and, increasingly, climate change. But the program also includes a social event -- an evening of entertainment aimed at showcasing the host country which, this weekend, is Singapore.

TD: Canada's economic "cruising speed" to slow post-recession

2009-11-13T04:50:08-05:00

TD Economics released a report Thursday which tackles an issue that's been broached by the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Office and some other private sector forecasters: What will the 'new normal' be for Canada's economy once it and the world emerges from the recession?

This is not an exercise ...

Dining with the PM: What's for dinner on his plane and at leaders' summits

2009-11-13T04:47:25-05:00

The organizers of the leaders summit for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit are promising "a gastronomical adventure of Singapore" when we get there after our 27 hour plane ride from Ottawa. I, for one, welcome this attention to the gustatory needs of political leaders, delegates, NGOs, and journalists.

...

Revised citizenship guide, Remembrance Day, and recession in Regina: Listen to top newspaper headlines and the Parliamentary daybook

2009-11-12T07:57:40-05:00

A new citizenship guide, Remembrance Day, and recession in Regina: Listen to my three-minute audio summary of these leading front page headlines plus highlights from Thursday's Parliamentary daybook by clicking on the link below. You can also get these audio summaries via podcast from iTunes or via an RSS feed ...

Mr. Harper goes to Amritsar: The PM's Asia itinerary

2009-11-11T19:34:17-05:00

I will be off on a very long plane ride beginning at 11 a.m. Thursday morning to cover Prime Minister Harper's visit to Singapore, Mumbai, New Delhi and Amritsar. If you'd like to play along -- and I hope to be tweeting (follow @davidakin or click here to get my Twitter RSS feed ) , blogging, and writing as often as I can -- here's our rough itinerary.

Thatcher has died. No, not that Thatcher.

2009-11-10T23:08:29-05:00

With lightning speed, it spread from Blackberry to Blackberry among the 2,000 or so Conservatives in black-tie this evening at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre for the first ever True Patriot Love Tribute Dinner: Thatcher has died.

Leduc on byelection results: BQ slippage and where the heck were the Greens?

2009-11-10T22:53:13-05:00

" I am a bit surprised that other parties didn't seem to make any impact in these elections. By-elections are a natural stalking ground for Green parties, for example. But they seemed to be almost invisible this time. Wonder why. Didn't look like they even made an effort. Where was Elizabeth May over the past few weeks?"

Taliban prisons are not getting H1N1 shots, DND says

2009-11-10T21:49:01-05:00

Major Jason Proulx, of the DND media liason office at national headquarters in Ottawa, just provided the following statement to my colleagues at Global National in response to reports (not ours) that Taliban prisoners captured by the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan were receiving H1N1 shots even as many in Canada were told they can't get one for weeks.

Taliban prisoners are not getting Canadian H1N1 shots, DND says

2009-11-10T20:42:32-05:00

Maxime Bernier, Nunavut hunter, and Remembrance Day: Top front page headlines and Tuesday's Parliamentary Datebook

2009-11-10T07:42:07-05:00

Maxime Bernier's taken on a national securities reguator; a Nunavut hunter's 'drama in real life' and Remembrance Day features: Listen to my five-minute audio summary of these leading front page headlines plus highlights from Tuesday''s Parliamentary daybook by clicking on the link below.

Political twits react to byelection wins

2009-11-10T01:11:26-05:00

A sampling of the reaction on Twitter to tonight's byelection wins. Your new MPs are Conservatives Scott Armstrong in Nova Scotia and Bernard Genereux in Quebec; New Democrat Finn Donnelly in New Westminster, B.C., and Pequiste Daniel Paille in Hochelaga.

Worried about paying for libel in the UK, foreign media could withdraw

2009-11-08T22:31:26-05:00

Now, the Guardian reports that some U.S. newspapers, including the New York Times, the L.A. Times, and others may cease distributing the few hundred copies a day there for fear that such distribution exposes them to millions of dollars in libel liability. Simlarly, those papers may block Web site access to those trying to dial in with a British I.P. address

Liberal lines on H1N1

2009-11-05T17:10:58-05:00

The federal Liberal Party was distributing the following this afternoon: "Both the Auditor General and the Chief Public Health Officer have said that pandemic planning falls under general emergency preparedness. The Conservatives have failed to plan and this is a national disgrace."

Ontario not seeing co-operation from feds on H1N1

2009-11-05T16:39:24-05:00

"I've stressed to her how important it is that we at the provincial level know how much vaccine we're getting and when we're going to get it, so we can plan. So far we're not seeing that cooperation that we need. I hope that it will be better as time goes on." Mathews said.

Tory MP gets what I'm pretty sure is the wrong answer from constitutents

2009-11-05T13:07:58-05:00

James Bezan, the Conservative MP for the Manitoba riding of Selkirk Interlake, put up an online poll at his Web site.

He wanted his Web site visitors to sound off on the record of his government, asking them: "Do you think Stephen Harper and the Conservative Government should be commended for doing a great job at managing our economy through the current fiscal crisis?"

Nanos ends CPAC relationship, turns to "free agency"

2009-11-05T13:01:32-05:00

For the last little while, Nanos Research has been the pollster for CPAC, the public affairs channel. This relationship had evolved to the point where the affable Nik Nanos was hosting a 30 minute weekly television show on CPAC. That relationship -- and the TV show -- has now ended and Nanos is a "free agent" so far as media partners go.

Facebook follies: Canadian diplomat leaves Facebook wall wide open - and he ain't so diplomatic

2009-11-05T08:49:55-05:00

Steven Rheault-Kihara is a 46-year-old veteran diplomat and Canada's public relations attache in Bangkok who may soon be an ex-veteran diplomat. As my friend Greg Weston reports in this morning's Sun papes, Rheault-Kihara did not put up any privacy fences on his Facebook account. Weston had a flip through the 36 pages of musings and exchanges posted there over the last 18 months.

Where's the cash? Doctors tell Flaherty to cough up promised $500 million

2009-11-05T08:18:49-05:00

Health-care professionals called on the federal government Wednesday to proceed with shelved plans to give $500 million to Canada Health Infoway, a federal agency that this week, received a clean bill of managerial health from Auditor General Sheila Fraser.