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What can Justin Trudeau learn from the Harper and Martin minority governments?
What can Justin Trudeau learn from the Harper and Martin minority governments?
To save his government, Martin struck a deal with the NDP, under former leader Jack Layton, which included $4.6 billion in additional spending on social programs. “Certainly Martin was under enormous pressure and Jack was very good at seizing opportunity,” said Libby Davies, NDP House leader from 2003 to 2011. The episode ended with a dramatic tied vote in the House of Commons, with the Speaker casting the deciding vote that saved the government.
The original article, What can Justin Trudeau learn from the Harper and Martin minority governments? was published on October 30, 2019 in The Star Phoenix. Author(s): Maura Forrest
PM MUST SHOW LEADERSHIP, AGREE TO MEETING WITH FIRST NATIONS LEADERS
Podcast: How the NDP can effect change in a minority government
Podcast: How the NDP can effect change in a minority government
Ed Broadbent and Libby Davies spoke to The Sunday Edition’s Michael Enright following the 2019 federal election.
The original article, How the NDP can effect change in a minority government was published on October 25, 2019 in CBC – The Sunday Edition. Author(s): Michael Enright
Libby's Open Letter to a Minister
Conservative’s Drug Strategy for Canada
Conservative’s Drug Strategy for Canada
Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP): – Mr. Speaker, health and addictions professionals across Canada are bracing themselves for the worst when the Conservative government reveals its so-called new drug strategy that will sacrifice the successes of harm reduction and a balanced approach to drug use, for a heavy handed US style enforcement regime.
Time and again, empirical evidence has proven that harm reduction works. Programs like needle exchanges and Vancouver’s safe injection site, InSite, are reducing the transmission of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C, and increasing the number of people accessing treatment.
I am alarmed that despite this evidence, the government is accelerating the criminalization of drug users. The 2007 budget quietly removed harm reduction from Canada’s new drug strategy. It now reads like a carbon copy of George Bush’s war on drugs- which has seen drug use rise, along with skyrocketing social and economic costs of incarceration.
In 2006, the Conservatives refused to renew the exemption that allows InSite to keep its doors open until pressure from the community forced them to grant a temporary extension. We know the Health Minister and the RCMP are now resorting to propaganda tactics to try and close InSite.
Attacking InSite and adopting US drug policies will fail as dramatically here as it has in the US.
Libby in Question Period - Canada failing international committments on maternal and child health
Nomination opens for Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medals
From the Grassroots to the Commons
From the Grassroots to the Commons
Pick up a copy of Horizons magazine to read Cindy Filipenko’s review and feature story on Outside In. “Libby Davies, Canada’s first out-lesbian MP, was, for six terms, a passionate advocate for the underprivileged, including those she served as MP for Vancouver East, a constituency that includes Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Her new memoir, Outside In, is a fascinating telling of her time in office.”
The original article, From the Grassroots to the Commons was published on October 9, 2019 in Herizons Magazine. Author(s): Cindy Filipenko
AUDITOR GENERAL AGREES TO PERFORMANCE AUDIT ON NUTRITION NORTH PROGRAM
AUDITOR GENERAL AGREES TO PERFORMANCE AUDIT ON NUTRITION NORTH PROGRAM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 30, 2013
OTTAWA – Canada’s Auditor General has agreed to conduct a Performance Audit on the controversial Nutrition North Program, according to a letter written by the AG to six NDP Members of Parliament. The MPs had written the Auditor General in June formally requesting this action.
“Properly functioning food support programs are essential for our isolated communities. The crisis in the cost of living in the north is especially difficult in places that rely on airfreight for their supplies,” said NDP MP Dennis Bevington (Western Arctic). “But we can make a difference in Ottawa if all northerners join together and speak up.”
The Nutrition North Program was put in place by the Conservative government to replace the old Food Mail program. It is intended to subsidize food prices for Canada’s isolated northern communities. Despite the new program however, food security across the North remains a critical issue, with exorbitant prices impacting families and affordability.
In the past 6 months, there have been unanimous motions passed in the three northern Territories’ legislatures asking for this type of examination. Their call was supported by New Democrat MPs, who helped bring the request to the attention of the Auditor General Michael Ferguson. In his letter, Ferguson said the performance audit report will likely be released as part of the 2014 Fall Report of the Auditor General of Canada.
“We thank Mr. Ferguson for recognizing the need to investigate the Nutrition North Program,” said Bevington. “We have a responsibility to ensure that programs designed for the North are adequately servicing its people.”