This past week, I joined New Democrats and Canadians in pausing to remember Jack Layton on the anniversary of his passing just one short year ago. It seems like yesterday. I was shocked to learn of Jack’s second cancer diagnosis in the weeks following the May 2 election, but even […]
John Rafferty – From The House
This past week, Canada received more bad news on the economic front with a significant number of job losses in July. The Canadian economy shed 30,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate edged up to 7.3 percent, which is the same level it was at a year ago. Economists […]
The cuts keep on coming from the federal government—and it would appear the reason we are not hearing announcements about them is because they are poorly thought out, unpopular, and strike at the heart of many essential services we Canadians depend on. This past week, for instance, we learned of […]
From the House By John Rafferty Every so often a person or an event reminds us of something that is important, but not always top of mind. This week a person and an event reminded me that we need to abolish the unelected and unaccountable Senate. While the Senate was […]
Last week in Ottawa saw the marathon voting on the massive Conservative budget bill begin and the Nova Scotia NDP government of Darrell Dexter receive some positive reviews from two credit rating agencies. Earlier in the week, New Democrats decided to table hundreds of amendments to the 425-page Conservative “budget” […]
This past week saw important developments in both the riding and Ottawa. Week 2 of the flooding crisis in and around Thunder Bay saw some progress on repairing the damage to public property, but less so on the private property side. I spent the better part of last Monday touring […]
The Thunder Bay area, including Conmee, Oliver Paipoonge, and Fort William First Nation, recently were hit by record rainfall, which, in turn, triggered extensive flooding. My heart goes out to all affected individuals, families, and businesses, but please know your local, provincial, and federal governments will continue to work together […]
It was another eventful week in Ottawa, with more misspending our tax dollars, the prime minister backtracking on his promise to end Canada’s military commitment in Afghanistan by 2014, and a floor crossing to boot. Yet another example of Conservative incompetence and mismanagement came to light this past week stemming […]
Even though Parliament wasn’t sitting, it was quite an eventful week in Ottawa with two new appointments for me and a shadow cabinet announcement by NDP leader Tom Mulcair. It was a great honour to learn that Tom has appointed me to be our caucus critic for the Northern Ontario […]
Is it possible for a government to cut $10 billion in spending and more than 19,000 jobs without affecting the quality of the services delivered to the public? No. In fact, no one would even argue it was possible except for the Harper government. Let’s take a look at some […]
