Bloc blocks recess, Liberals burn carbon

The Bloc Quebecois, true to its name, has stood in the way of an attempt to shut down Parliament today for the summer through unanimous consent of all parties. Reportedly, Bloc staffers were being booed behind the curtains in the opposition lobby, by MPs and staffers keen to see this session end.

This means that the Commons will sit until Friday (unless some other way is found to get around the Bloc block) -- and that it will be sitting when Liberal leader Stéphane Dion unveils his carbon-tax proposal tomorrow.

Questions were being asked today about why neither Bob Rae nor Michael Ignatieff have been in the House either on the eve of this big Liberal announcement. Are they voting with their feet? Conspicuous with their absence?

Actually, both men have issued statements in recent days, explaining why they are no-shows this week -- at least so far.

Ignatieff is in Amsterdam. He'll be back tonight and presumably around for the big carbon-tax unveiling.

Rae is in Israel. According to a media advisory sent out Friday, he planned to "deliver the keynote address to a conference commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Halbert Centre for Canadian Studies at Hebrew University. Mr. Rae, who was honoured in 2002 with the Scopus Award by the Friends of Hebrew University, will speak on June 16th and spend several days in the country and the region."

Wonder if Rae and Ignatieff bought carbon off-sets?

Clear the tracks, here comes the tax

Well, here's the official announcement of the Liberal carbon tax:

For Immediate Release

June 18, 2008

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion Announces the Liberal Green Shift

Date: Thursday, June 19, 2008

Time: 10:00 10:30 AM

Location: House of Commons

Railway Room

253-D Centre Block

Ottawa, Ontario

Please note that all details are subject to change. All times are local.

UPDATE: In my travels today on the Hill, I ran across three fellows who are putting together the show for the carbon-tax release. They say there will be puppets. I believe they are joking.

Impish hint on the Hill

There seems to be a widespread assumption out there that the Liberals are unveiling their carbon tax tomorrow. We here at the Star have been told, with some certainty and from several senior quarters, that the announcement, complete with a media briefing, will come on Thursday. By Friday, the House of Commons should have risen for the long, summer break and Dion and other Liberals plan to hit the road to sell the carbon tax "shift."

See Garth Turner's blog post yesterday for an impish hint about what the announcement might look like.

Liberal ships in the night, er, afternoon

This afternoon, around 1 p.m. at the Westin Hotel, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty was asked whether he'd be getting together with Liberal leader Stephane Dion while he's in Ottawa this weekend for his party's convention (and leadership review.)

"Nope," said McGuinty.

But then we just got this press release. Now we are a bit confused. Perhaps the two Liberal leaders aren't on speaking terms?

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion will attend the Ontario Liberal Party Annual General Meeting

Date: Saturday, June 14, 2008
Time: 12:00 PM
Location: Ottawa Congress Centre, 55 Colonel By Drive, Congress Hall, Ottawa, Ontario

Dion's next job: Weatherman?

The New Democrats have decided that Liberal leader Stephane Dion is a man of all seasons -- at least when it comes to election avoidance.

They've put out a cute little graphic, featuring a smiling Dion in four parts of the yearly circle. Click on one of the pics and you get a quote from Dion explaining why this season or that season is just not right for a campaign. It's pretty funny when you look at all of them together.

Dion moves planning meeting

As we reported in the Star last week, Liberal leader Stéphane Dion got a pretty rough ride at last Monday's meeting of the priorities and planning committee of caucus. Almost every former leadership candidate, including heavyweights Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff, are now in favour of bringing the government down before summer. Yes, that would mean a mid-July election. Some of my colleagues and I discussed this last night on CBC Newsworld's Politics panel.

There is a confidence vote scheduled for Monday night. That means that Dion would have had to go through another barrage at Monday's P&P. So he's moved the meeting to Tuesday, we hear. That probably won't end the calls for an election, however. Some caucus members were agitating for a meeting tomorrow, as well, but Dion is resisting those calls too.

We will keep you posted if anything changes.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, as Liberals do debate pulling the plug, Conservatives have unleashed a wave of attack ads on Dion's carbon-tax-shift proposal. The website is here.

A game of chicken

Pardon the pun, but it seems that Liberal leader Stéphane Dion has run afoul of some Liberals with his decision to keep propping up the government in tonight's confidence vote, as mentioned in my own humble offering to the Star today.

There's a certain poultry theme to a couple of Liberal blog postings today, here and here.

Grappling during a garden party

A photographer was roaming around Stéphane Dion's garden party Tuesday night and CityNews reporter Richard Madan wanted a shot of himself with the Liberal leader.

He asked whether he could have the photo taken as if he was arm wrestling with Dion.

Yes, he was told — just as long as the photo shows Dion winning.

Liberal leadership debts

Elections Canada has kindly passed along the exact debt numbers filed by former Liberal leadership candidates as of midnight last night.

Contestant	Claims and Loans As Filed	Claims and Loans Paid Before June 3, 2008	Claims and Loans With Partial Payments Before June 3, 2008	Claims and Loans With No Payments
Stephane Dion	$998,707.03	$398,707.03	$250,000	$350,000
Carolyn Bennett	$73,865.04	$73,865.04	$-	$-
Maurizo Bevilacqua	$546,288.23	$323,096	$5,105.57	$218,086.66
Ken Dryden	$403,006.58	$36,612.37	$-	$366,394.21
Michael Ignatieff	$817,235.74	$418,308.52	$200,000	$198,927.22
Hedy Fry	$165,059.66	$16,559.66	$60,000	$88,500
Gerard Kennedy	$762,852.10	$335,013.89	$346,204.97	$81,633.24
Bob Rae	$845,000	$845,000	$-	$-
Scott Brison	$200,095.28	$50,095.28	$-	$150,000
Martha Hall Findlay	$261,214.95	$8,754.82	$75,568.43	$176,891.7
Joe Volpe	$343,199.99	$207,323.65	$-	$135,876.34
TOTAL	$5,416,524.60	$2,713,336.26	$936,878.97	$1,766,309.37

UPDATE — People a lot smarter than me are advising me to read these numbers with caution. First of all, Elections Canada hasn't figured into its calculations whether any of the candidates took out additional loans after the leadership. That's not all that unusual -- sometimes you have to spend money (facilities rentals, for example) to raise money.

Second, this business about loans paid and partially paid seems to be calculated on the basis of vague forms or promises, not actual receipts or evidence.

All this is to say that this is obviously a work in progress and these numbers should be seen as only a very loose, vague guide.

Liberals' plan for December convention

It's now official. The Liberal Party of Canada is holding a convention in Vancouver in early December -- roughly two years since the leadership vote, as is required.

And we might as well throw this out there -- if there is an election before then, this convention must include a vote on Mr. Dion's leadership.

If there's not an election before then, it's just a hunch, but I'm betting that Mr. Dion's leadership will still be a subject of discussion. In some form.