Digital diplomacy spreads through Washington

The Canadian embassy in Washington, D.C., opened its doors last week to the city's digital diplomats for an event where they could brag about their use of social media and pick up some tips.

A dozen embassies and international organizations, including the World Bank and European Union delegation, participated in the "Digital Diplomacy Open House" that was held in partnership with the Digital Diplomacy Coalition. The groups had tables set up with materials and laptops and they gave presentations to showcase how they are using Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms to further their foreign policy objectives.

Digital diplomacy has been evolving quickly over the last three to four years and some countries, such as the United States and Britain, are way ahead of others. But in true diplomatic fashion, embassies in Washington at least, are trying to bridge the gaps by helping each other learn about and leverage the power of social media.

"If we are to be successful in this world of 21st century statecraft we can't stop learning and adapting," Katherine Baird, who is in charge of congressional, public and intergovernmental relations at the Canadian Embassy, told the packed room of attendees in her welcoming remarks.

For foreign ministries of governments around the globe, and their embassies, that adaptation means they now plan how to communicate with the public in 140 characters or less. Twitter has become such an important player that 'Twiplomacy' is common parlance in international affairs circles.

It also means getting ambassadors and foreign ministers themselves to jump on the Twitter train, it means creating videos for YouTube, it means maintaining accounts on Facebook, Flickr and Tumblr – it means a lot more work for public affairs and communications staff. 

Embassies get creative

Some embassies now employ staff who focus solely on digital communications. That's Jed Shein's job – digital director – at the Israeli Embassy in Washington. He's also one of the co-founders of the Digital Diplomacy Coalition, a group that was founded last year by a handful of diplomats from various embassies, meant to serve as a forum for Washington's diplomatic community.

"You see varying levels of use and activity, but people realize they can't not be on it," Shein said about using social media. "They've got to be there. It's missed opportunity if they're not."

Andreas Sandre, left, is in charge of digital diplomacy at the Italian embassy in Washington, D.C. (Keegan Bursaw/Canadian embassy)

Shein said his embassy tends to create social media content that is a little more edgy and political than some of Israel's other embassies. At times their efforts have generated news coverage in traditional media which is an added bonus. Case in point: the fake LinkedIn page the Washington embassy created for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in September.

The bogus page described Rouhani as a "PR professional" and "nuclear proliferation advocate" and listed "illusion" as one of his skills. The profile was posted to coincide with Rouhani's appearance at the United Nations General Assembly. It created enough buzz on social media that news outlets picked up the story.

Social media is changing the way public diplomacy is conducted and it's giving embassies a bit more control over their messaging. It's also extended their reach far beyond local or national media markets.

"No longer do you have to rely on the press to pick up the quote that you want. You can create the messages that you want by putting out the content that you want," said Shein.

Ralph Posner, senior vice-president at Fleishman Hillard in Washington, whose firm does work for the Turkish Embassy, said embassies have to be cautious with their digital diplomacy.

"It's not without risk that's for sure," he said. "Embassies have to be careful and not get too far out in front of their ministries of foreign affairs back home."

Several diplomats at the open house said they are trying to use social media effectively so their efforts aren't wasted and don't backfire. It's not just being on Twitter that matters, for example, it's how it is used, they said. Language, and which one to use, also must be taken into consideration since the messages put out by embassies in America are read by both Americans and the expatriate communities. 

Canada connects on social media

The Canadian Embassy in D.C. has been playing the digital diplomacy game for a few years now. The "Connect2Canada" website was created in 2005 and in 2008 the embassy started tweeting under that name and created a Connect2Canada Facebook page to share news about Canada and bilateral relations.

Ambassador Gary Doer doesn't have his own Twitter account, but the communications team often writes on Twitter about his activities in real time using his name as a hashtag. The team also uses Flickr, YouTube and LinkedIn.

"Digital diplomacy is more than traditional diplomacy adapted to a new medium. Social media allows the embassy to engage, collaborate and share in real time," the embassy's deputy spokeswoman Alexandra Vachon White said. "The reach of accurate information can be expanded instantly."

Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is active on Twitter and so is his department, along with embassies and consulates around the world that use various social media tools.

For Andreas Sandre, the Italian Embassy's press officer in charge of digital diplomacy in Washington, it's all about drawing people together.

"If you've ever been to an Italian piazza, that's sort of the idea," he said while manning his booth at the open house. "That Italian piazza that you can find in Venice, Florence, other small towns, you now find online through social media."

21.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tories, Liberals hold 2 seats each in federal byelections

The Liberals and Conservatives each won two of the four federal byelections Monday night, a result that maintains the electoral status quo but may be seen as a partial victory for Justin Trudeau's party — which nearly pulled off an upset in a Manitoba Conservative stronghold. 

The Manitoba riding of Brandon-Souris had been too close to call all night. At one point, Liberal candidate Rolf Dinsdale had taken a slight lead, but Tory candidate Larry Maguire, a prominent provincial MLA, was able to claim victory, winning by just under 400 votes. Maguire secured 44.1 per cent of the votes compared to the Liberal candidate's 42.7 per cent.

"Thank you Brandon-Souris! Your support tonight is truly appreciated," Maguire tweeted shortly after his victory.

The Liberals did hold on to Toronto Centre, where Chrystia Freeland defeated NDP candidate Linda McQuaig. They also retained Montreal's Bourassa riding, where Liberal candidate Emmanuel Dubourg claimed victory.

"The NDP is no longer the hopeful optimistic party of Jack Layton," Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said in Montreal. "It is the Liberal Party tonight that proved that hope is stronger than fear."

'The NDP is no longer the hopeful optimistic party of Jack Layton.'- Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau

The race in Toronto Centre had shaped up into a contest between two journalists; Freeland, a former Reuters executive and author, and McQuaig, an author and former Toronto Star columnist​. Freeland won over McQuiag by a substantial margin — 49.1 per cent to 36.4 per cent.

In the Liberal stronghold of Bourassa, Dubourg, who won 48.1 per cent of the vote, will be replacing former Liberal MP Denis Coderre, who stepped down to run for municipal office and is the city's newly elected mayor. 

Stéphane Moraille, a former singer in the musical group Bran Van 3000, the candidate for the NDP, came in second with 31.4 per cent.

Dubourg's first post-election tweet reaffirmed his agreement with his party's stance on marijuana legalization.

"I am for regulation and therefore the legalization of marijuana," he wrote.

Conservative candidate Ted Falk claimed victory in the riding of Provencher in Manitoba.

Falk recorded a big victory, winning 58.1 per cent of the vote compared to Liberal candidate Terry Hayward who trailed with 29.9 per cent support.

The longtime Tory stronghold was most recently represented by former cabinet minister Vic Toews, who retired from politics in July after almost 13 years as the area's MP.

Of the four contests, the byelection in Brandon-Souris had become a priority for the party leaders as the normally Conservative stronghold was seen to be vulnerable, in part because the nomination process for Maguire rankled some Tories.

Conservative Ted Falk delivers his victory speech at the legion in Steinbach, Man., on Monday night. (Chris Glover/CBC)

Trudeau had personally visited the riding three times, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair had visited twice and several federal Conservative cabinet ministers have made the trek to the riding.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has for weeks fended off opposition attacks about the Senate spending scandal, took the unprecedented step of sending a personal letter to Brandon constituents — an indicator of what's at stake in this riding.

Since Trudeau was chosen as the federal Liberal leader last spring, the party has risen from third place in the polls, back into first place, with the Conservatives slightly behind. The NDP has sunk back to its traditional third-place slot.

21.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Auditor general to table fall report on Tuesday

The federal government's $39.6 billion national shipbuilding procurement strategy will be in the public spotlight on Tuesday when Auditor General Michael Ferguson tables his annual fall report.

The Canadian navy will retire its aging supply ships and will have to wait at least 18 months before new ones arrive, federal and military officials confirmed last month.

The gap is the result of a bottleneck in the federal government's national shipbuilding strategy which will be at the centre of Ferguson's audit on Tuesday.

The audit report will be tabled in the House of Commons at 10 a.m. ET and will be followed by a news conference 90 minutes later.

CBC News will carry the auditor general's news conference live starting at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The fall audit will examine not only how the federal government has managed the acquisition of military ships to support the financial restructuring of its naval fleet, but it will also look at how the Canada Revenue Agency followed up on a list it received in 2007 of possible Canadians with offshore banking accounts, and whether Transport Canada has adequately overseen the management of rail safety risks, among other things.

Earlier this year, the largest ever leak of data from offshore tax havens included a list with the names of hundreds of Canadians on it. 

CBC News was part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists group that was given access to the data from 10 locales, involving 130,000 people.

Since the train derailment in Lac-Mégantic last July, the federal government has taken steps to increase rail safety and the transportation of dangerous goods across the country.​ 

Transport Minister Lisa Raitt announced two weeks ago that the federal government will require railway companies to inform the communities their trains run through of the dangerous goods they are carrying.

The 2013 fall report of the Auditor General will contain the following nine chapters:

• Follow-up Audit on Internal Controls over Financial Reporting.
• Access to Online Services.
• National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS).
• Canada's Food Recall System.
• Preventing Illegal Entry into Canada.
• Emergency Management on Reserves.
• Oversight of Rail Safety by Transport Canada.
• Disaster Relief for Producers — Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
• Offshore Banking — Canada Revenue Agency.

21.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cleanup attempt on Wright-Duffy deal raises more questions

The prime minister's director of communications hit the talk-show circuit this weekend to explain Stephen Harper's handling of the Wright-Duffy affair, but may have raised more questions about how much Harper knew and what he did with that knowledge.

In question period Monday in the House of Commons, Opposition Leader Tom Mulcair pounced on the fact that Jason MacDonald referred to "the coverup that we now know took place" when he spoke to media interviewers about the repayment of Senator Mike Duffy's inappropriate expenses.

Why has the prime minister not dismissed everyone in his office involved in the coverup, demanded Mulcair.

Speaking for the prime minister, who was not in the House, Harper's parliamentary secretary Paul Calandra pointed out, as he did several times during question period, that only Nigel Wright, the prime minister's former chief of staff, and Duffy are the focus of the RCMP investigation of the repayment of Duffy's expenses.

Both Wright and Duffy are being scrutinized by the RCMP for possible criminal charges because Wright personally paid Duffy's expenses in exchange for certain conditions demanded by Duffy.

Jason MacDonald talked to CTV, Global and CBC Radio's The House on Saturday and Sunday about an email exchange detailed in documents the RCMP released to an Ottawa court last week.

The emails seem to relate to an early attempt by Wright to arrange for the Conservative Party to repay $32,000 of Senator Mike Duffy's inappropriate expenses as well as his legal fees.

In an email dated Feb. 22, Wright contacted Benjamin Perrin, Harper's legal counsel, as well as others in the PMO, and referred to "point three" in a legal agreement that had been worked out between Duffy and the Prime Minister's Office. Wright, as chief of staff, was the head of the PMO.

Keeping Duffy 'whole'

"Point three" was a demand of Duffy's, communicated through his lawyer, that "there be an arrangement to keep him [Duffy] whole on the repayment. His legal fees will also be reimbursed." Keeping Duffy "whole" is thought to mean he wouldn't be personally out of pocket over the reimbursement of his expenses.

In the same email, Wright said, "I do want to speak to the PM before everything is considered final." The RCMP documents relate that less than an hour later, Wright followed up with another email, saying, "We are good to go with the PM."

Once it became known that Duffy's ill-claimed expenses were actually $90,000, the Conservative Party backed out, and Wright stepped in to cover the debt out of his own resources.

MacDonald told several interviewers over the weekend, that "good to go" meant the prime minister was merely agreeing Duffy must pay his own expenses. Asked why the prime minister would need to approve such an obvious question, MacDonald explained it was because Duffy didn't want to co-operate, and Harper's word was necessary to compel him to pay up.

Senator Gerstein's role

MacDonald was also asked if the prime minister knew Senator Irving Gerstein, the Conservative Party's official fundraiser, approached the private accounting firm Deloitte to (unsuccessfully) persuade the auditors to halt their examination of Duffy's expenses.

MacDonald said the prime minister had no knowledge of Gerstein's intervention and also didn't know Gerstein was willing to have the Conservative Party repay Duffy's expenses as long as the amount was $32,000 and no more.

Harper has confirmed the party paid Duffy's $13,000 lawyer's bill, but has never explained what the legal work was for.

When MacDonald was asked why Gerstein still holds the position of party fundraiser, he didn't directly answer. In the House of Commons Monday, Mulcair also asked why Gerstein has not been evicted from the Conservative caucus.

To many of the questions, Calandra kept referring to an incident 17 years ago when Mulcair, then a provincial Liberal MNA in Quebec, was offered a possible bribe by the then mayor of Laval who is now facing charges. Mulcair has said he didn't know what the envelope was, and didn't report it to the police until 2011.

At one point, Calandra intoned "the poor NDP" who had to choose a leader whom he described as a "corrupt Liberal."

The NDP at times heckled Calandra with cries of "coverup, coverup, criminal activity."

Calandra did not provide an explanation why other people in the PMO, other than Wright, have not also been dismissed, given the RCMP documents make it clear they knew of the deal to have Wright pay off Duffy.   

21.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Byelection results: How the Liberals won the showdown

Cue the excuses and the spin.

The Conservatives nearly lost their safe Manitoba seat of Brandon-Souris Monday night and the NDP failed to take either one of the Liberal strongholds in Toronto (Toronto-Centre) and Montreal (Bourassa) while losing substantial ground in Manitoba.  

And before the losers start explaining that byelections are simply opportunities to send the governing party "a message" and that they don't really matter, remember the words of Prime Minister Stephen Harper earlier this month:

"Don't let anyone tell you this byelection doesn't matter — there's a lot on the line," he told Brandon voters in a letter.

Indeed there was — leadership. 

A supporter of Liberal Rolf Dinsdale reacts after Conservative candidate Larry Maguire extended his lead during a tight race in the Brandon-Souris byelection in Manitoba. (Trevor Hagan/The Canadian Press)

This was the first opportunity for all three parties to gauge the impact of the Senate scandal and another chance to test the appeal of NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, neither of whom has led their parties in a general election.

When the prime minister called the byelections he could scarcely have imagined his party would come so close to losing Brandon and see the Liberals in the other Manitoba riding up for grabs, Provencher, do as well as they did.

'Don't let anyone tell you this byelection doesn't matter — there's a lot on the line.'- Prime Minister Stephen Harper

For the Conservatives, the Brandon result probably has many lessons, as it began with a messy nomination race that left many supporters feeling as though the party was rigging the race to install Larry Maguire, the local MLA since 1999. (The mayor of Killarney, a card-carrying Conservative, was angry enough to quit the party and run against Rolf Dinsdale for the Liberal nomination.)

It was also an example, perhaps, of the dangers of intervening so much in a local election when you are a prime minister trying to face down a (Senate) scandal in Ottawa.

Harper personally stepped in to save the riding late last week when he penned a letter directly to voters in Brandon. He poured scorn on Dinsdale for returning to his hometown only to run in the byelection, and he aimed his ire at Trudeau for his plan to legalize marijuana.

Harper also got as close to Brandon as is seemly for a prime minister during a byelection by travelling to Winnipeg last week to attend a Jets game and cut the ribbon on a nine-kilometre stretch of new road. All the while, the Conservative Party produced a national radio attack ad again focused on Trudeau.

The entire effect was to make it clear that the Conservatives see the Liberals and not the NDP as their primary threat. But with all that firepower spent, they undoubtedly expected a better return.

The other Manitoba riding

Things went better for the Conservatives in Provencher, where former cabinet minister Vic Toews last won with 70 per cent of the vote.

Conservative candidate Ted Falk followed the party's time-tested practice of avoiding debates and keeping public appearances to a bare minimum.

But then Falk marked Bullying Awareness Week by asking a local gay teenager whether he'd really been bullied.

Federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, right, made several trips to the riding of Toronto Centre to campaign with star Liberal candidate Chrystia Freeland. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)

Last February, Evan Wiens was promoting a gay-straight alliance at his school when students were caught on tape making derogatory comments. Falk questioned whether the taunts had been staged.

The NDP and Liberal candidates both called on Falk to apologize, to no avail. Falk won the election handily Monday night, but the story in Provencher is the drop in NDP support from 18 per cent of the vote in 2011 to eight per cent yesterday, while the Liberals increased their vote to 30 per cent from seven.

When the byelections were called, the Liberals only had 61 members in Brandon-Souris and 66 in Provencher. They now have roughly 300 and 150 respectively.

Those aren't robust numbers, but the party would be hard-pressed to remember the last time hundreds of Manitobans signed up to become Liberals.

Explaining why the Liberals did as well as they did in these Prairie ridings is more difficult. Sure, the Dinsdale name is a factor. Rolf Dinsdale's father, Walter, was the Conservative MP in Brandon for 30 years.

But when local Conservative screw-ups and the Senate scandal prompted voters to consider an alternative, that tossed open the door for both the NDP and the Liberals.

Mulcair and Trudeau each made several visits to Brandon as well as stops in Provencher, where they attracted large crowds.

People are always curious about the alternatives, but in this case they appear to have preferred the Liberals.

Even the NDP candidate in Brandon, Cory Szczepanski, told the Winnipeg Free Press, "I knew I had an uphill battle, I just didn't expect it would be against a Liberal."

'Not from here'

In Brandon, the NDP were probably hobbled when the provincial NDP government hiked the PST. But Manitoba voters have been good in the past at distinguishing between provincial and federal New Democrats.

So it may be here that we are seeing proof of the Trudeau effect on people outside the party.

Yet in Toronto-Centre, Trudeau had to work far harder than anyone expected to keep the long-held riding Liberal.

He showed up every few days to help his candidate Chrystia Freeland in one of the country's safest Liberal seats.

Now though, the NDP is nipping at the party's heels thanks to it borrowing a successful Conservative "you're not from here" strategy.

Author and journalist Freeland is originally from Alberta and spent 10 years outside Canada before returning to Toronto to run. And she had to rely on others to get noticed while mainstreeting, including her friends former prime minister Paul Martin and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne.

The NDP marketed its candidate, Linda McQuaig, also a well-known author and journalist as "From Toronto. For Toronto." The party also obtained celebrity endorsements and produced slick campaign videos.

For Mulcair, this was a chance to see how well his leadership skills, widely praised by pundits for his prosecution-like handling of the Senate scandal, played with regular Canadians.

But from the outset, he downplayed expectations for Bourassa, in suburban Montreal, calling it a "Liberal fortress."

Of course he is also fond of telling people his riding of Outremont was also a Liberal fortress until he won it in a 2007 byelection.

The NDP wanted to show Quebecers that Mulcair has what it takes to follow through on what Jack Layton achieved in 2011, when his late-hour surge ended up taking 58 of the province's 75 seats.

Instead, the NDP result stayed the same while the Liberal share of the vote grew at the expense of the Bloc Québécois.

21.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

4 storylines to watch in today's byelections

Voters in three provinces are casting ballots in four federal byelections.

Monday's byelections have taken on greater significance thanks to hotly contested races between the opposition NDP and Liberals in Ontario and Quebec and the controversy over the expenses scandal in the Senate.

Here's are four things to know about the races as voters go to the polls.

1. Tory split raises Liberal hopes in Brandon-Souris

This byelection should have been a shoo-in for Tory candidate Larry Maguire, a prominent provincial MLA running in a Conservative stronghold.

But a controversial nomination process disqualified two potential candidates because of incomplete paperwork.

CBC byelection coverage tonight

Return to CBCNews.ca after polls close at 9:30 p.m. ET (8:30 p.m. CT) for full coverage of the results.

When to vote

Bourassa (Quebec):  9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. ET

Brandon-Souris (Manitoba): 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. CT

Provencher (Manitoba):  8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. CT

Toronto Centre (Ontario):  9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. ET

More information and where to vote in your riding at Elections Canada's website.

Maguire was acclaimed and that soured many Conservatives, one of whom left the party to run as a Liberal candidate. (He didn't win the nomination.)

Maguire has since been criticized for not attending two of the four candidates' debates and for a series of attack ads against his Liberal opponent Rolf Dinsdale, whom Maguire paints as a parachute candidate from Toronto, even though Dinsdale's father was the Progressive Conservative MP in the riding for more than three decades.

The Senate scandal in Ottawa isn't helping Maguire either.

Many voters say they're not happy with the Harper government and want to send a message. A byelection is a safe way to do that.

The federal party leaders sense that, and have made this race a priority.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has been here three times, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has visited twice and several federal Conservative cabinet ministers have made the trek to the riding.

Kelly Saunders, a political scientist at Brandon University, says this race could be a game-changer and foreshadow what could happen in the 2015 general election.

"This is Western Canada, where the Liberals haven't been able to build up much support. If they can win this seat in a safe Tory riding like Brandon-Souris, they will use that to build momentum. For Conservatives, they won't be able to take things for granted as they maybe have in the past," she says.

2. Liberals, NDP square off in Montreal

Voters in North Montreal's diverse Bourassa riding are choosing a new MP to replace Denis Coderre, who stepped down to run for municipal office and is the city's newly elected mayor.

Both of the perceived lead candidates were born in Haiti, which is seen as an advantage in a federal district where one in every five voters identifies as Haitian.

Though the district is comprised of varied ethnic groups and socio-economic statuses, employment is the dominating priority for voters, as the average annual income in Bourassa is $26,000 and the unemployment rate exceeds 13 per cent.

To replace Coderre, the Liberals chose six-year Quebec National Assembly MLA Emmanuel Dubourg.

"We will set up a roundtable consisting of elected municipal, provincial and federal governments to address issues of youth employment, as well as safety," said Dubourg. "The district's police commander said that the biggest problem he sees is domestic violence."

Dubourg's main opponent is the NDP's Stéphane Moraille, a former singer in the musical group Bran Van 3000.

"The NDP wants to introduce a tax credit for hiring young people," said Moraille. "We are on a crusade against the costs of credit cards that eat away at incomes. We want to attract investors to employ people."

The Bloc Québécois candidate, Daniel Duranleau, has also tried to appeal to the Haitian community in this historically federalist riding by promoting the work of the Quebec government during Haiti's 2010 earthquake.

"The Quebec government was very proactive and Ottawa worked at a much slower pace. In the end, those who have suffered are the people," said Duranleau.

The Conservative candidate, Mahmoud Rida, was absent during the candidates' debate.

The Green Party's candidate was former NHL player Georges Laraque, but he dropped out to address criminal fraud charges and was replaced by Danny Polifroni.

3. Media stars lead polls in Toronto Centre

The race for former interim Liberal leader Bob Rae's riding of Toronto Centre will likely be decided by two journalists. The riding has been Liberal red for 20 years and was vacated by Rae in June.

Polling suggests Liberal candidate and former Wall Street Journal reporter Chrystia Freeland is leading NDP candidate Linda McGuaig, an author and journalist. Veteran reporter John Deverell is running for the Green Party. 

McQuaig, a former Toronto Star columnist, was visited in her riding by Mulcair on Friday.

"It's a Liberal stronghold. We've known that since the beginning," Mulcair said while campaigning at a downtown subway station. "But people want to send the message that there is an option, that they're tired of alternating between Liberal corruption and Conservative corruption."

Trudeau has also visited what he hopes will remain his party's riding. Freeland has said the big issues for residents are the economy and jobs.

"People keep coming back to that," Freeland said. "A lot of people are worried about how Canadian politics is working."

At least one analyst believes the unfolding scandal in Ottawa might overshadow local issues at the ballot box.

"I would say the Senate scandal is now reverberating, so that's going to have an effect," said University of Toronto professor Nelson Wiseman. "Then the question becomes: is it going to benefit the NDP or the Liberals?"

Interest in the byelection appears high in Toronto Centre, with hundreds packing a high school gym last week. Conservative candidate Geoff Pollock told the crowd that if elected his party would "continue to create jobs, and that's something this government has done under the leadership of Stephen Harper."

But people here seem to be more concerned with the lack of affordable housing, public transit and federal subsidies.

"I hear constantly about the housing crisis in downtown Toronto — that is the number one issue," McQuaig said. "People are just overwhelmed by the lack of decent housing."

4. Conservatives appear safe in Manitoba stronghold

Manitoba's Provencher is widely expected to remain Conservative territory.

The longtime Tory stronghold was most recently represented by former cabinet minister Vic Toews, who retired from politics in July after almost 13 years as the area's MP.

The campaign leading up to Monday's vote has been relatively quiet compared to Manitoba's other byelection race in Brandon-Souris.

For the most part, Conservative candidate Ted Falk kept a low profile. He did not participate in any public debates, prompting his opponents to accuse him of hiding.

"We're busy trying to get the message out to our constituents," Falk told CBC News on Thursday, after a reporter tracked him down at a public event following numerous interview requests.

Still, polls and political observers, as well as many voters in the area, suggest he's the one to beat.

"Most of the area is Conservative-minded," said Frank Toews, a resident of Steinbach, Man.

But Falk caused a stir at the end of the campaign when he suggested in a newspaper interview that an openly gay teenager in Steinbach may have staged his own bullying incident earlier this year for a CBC News report about Manitoba's anti-bullying legislation.

Evan Wiens, 17, said he was hurt by Falk's suggestion and called on him to apologize.

Falk has stood by his questioning, but said he is "100 per cent against bullying."

21.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

How the RCMP mapped the Wright-Duffy money trail

A deal between suspended Senator Mike Duffy, left, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, right, is being investigated by the RCMP. (Adrian Wyld and Sean Fitzpatrick/Canadian Press)

RCMP investigators have already pieced together an almost-complete picture of how $90,000 from the prime minister's former chief of staff ended up in Senator Mike Duffy's bank account. But they want more information to finish the narrative.

The money from Nigel Wright's personal resources was used to repay inappropriate housing and living expenses filed by Duffy over a four-year period.

The origin, purpose, deliverance and acceptance of that $90,000 could result in charges against Duffy and Wright. Court documents released this week show both men are being investigated by the Mounties for bribery, fraud and breach of trust. No charges have been laid and the allegations have not been proven in court.

In an affidavit filed in an Ottawa court Wednesday, RCMP Cpl. Greg Horton laid out how the money travelled from Wright to Duffy.

Although Duffy owned his Ottawa suburban home before he was appointed to the Senate, he declared that his P.E.I. winterized cottage was his primary residence, allowing him to charge secondary expenses for his house in the nation's capital.

The money route

Once it was established that Duffy had to repay his expenses, he took out a $91,600 mortgage loan from the Royal Bank. In his affidavit, Horton says, "I believe this loan was an effort by Senator Duffy to create a paper trail so he could show that he obtained the loan to repay the money, if ever asked."

Duffy would later tell reporters he voluntarily paid back the inappropriate expenses on his own, although he didn't believe he had done anything wrong. "It was the right thing to do," he said, explaining he'd taken out a bank loan to make the repayment

On the same day Duffy obtained the mortgage loan, he took $80,000 from his private account and put it into a line of credit he said was being used for renovating his cottage.

According to Horton, "He now had $91,600 from a mortgage loan, so having no need for it for the repayment, he put $80,000 of that money on his line of credit."

The officer believes Duffy knew a bank draft from Wright was on its way.

Three days later, on March 25, Wright arranged for a bank draft worth $90,172.24 to be delivered to the office of Janice Payne, Duffy's lawyer. The figure was the exact amount Senate administration staff calculated Duffy owed in inappropriately claimed expenses.

On March 26, a branch-to-branch transfer put $90,172.24 into Duffy's private RBC account.

On that same day, a personal cheque from Duffy for $90,172.24 made out to the Receiver General was delivered to the Senate.

Horton says in the affidavit that he believes this was Nigel Wright's money. One purpose of the 81-page affidavit is to persuade a judge to allow him access to bank records showing who transferred the money into Duffy's account, and from where.

That information would complete the picture of a complex routing of money designed to hide the source of the funds, and a plan to make it seem Duffy had used his own resources to repay his expenses.

Why Duffy's Senate debt jumped from $32K to $90K

A question that rises out of the RCMP documents is how the amount of money Duffy owed the Senate for inappropriate expenses escalated from $32,000, a figure Wright, in early February, initially thought was the correct amount — which the Conservative Party was apparently willing to pay — to $90,000.

The party balked at the higher figure, which Wright wound up covering since Duffy either couldn't, or wouldn't.

The smaller figure may have come from a Deloitte audit on Duffy's expenses, conducted in February, that concluded the P.E.I. senator charged about $34,000 in living expenses for the 18-month period the independent accounting firm was tasked to examine.

The audit shows Duffy collected a private accommodation allowance for his house in Kanata, an Ottawa suburb, because presumably he didn't have a mortgage.

The private accommodation allowance is $28 per day, amounting to about $10,000 a year. Had Duffy been able to show Senate administration he had a mortgage or a lease, he could have charged double that amount

But the the allowance for per diems or meals is much higher — $86 for every day an out-of-town senator is in Ottawa on Senate business.

Wright, an independently wealthy man who never personally charged expenses, didn't seem aware Duffy was charging per diems. When he found out, he told the RCMP, he was incensed that Duffy was getting paid for meals he ate in his own house in Ottawa.

Once the Senate looked back at the entire four years of Duffy's Senate tenure, his ineligible private accommodation costs and per diems jumped to $80,000 with another $10,000 for interest, as well as the payback of claims Duffy said he mistakenly made while on vacation in Florida.

Wright ended up reimbursing the entire amount out of his own pocket, saying in an email obtained by the RCMP, "I am beyond furious ... the money will be repaid."

21.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Iran nuclear deal gets 'deeply skeptical' response from Canada

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird says he is "deeply skeptical" of the newly brokered nuclear deal with Iran and says Canada's sanctions will remain in "full force" against the country.

"We will evaluate the deal reached not just on the merits of its words but more importantly, on its verifiable implementation," Baird said at a news conference in Ottawa on Sunday.

He said that because of previous Iranian leaders had made hostile comments toward Israel, "we're deeply skeptical of the deal and the work that's brought us to this stage."

Obama reassures Netanyahu

U.S. President Barack Obama attempted to reassure a skeptical Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday and said he wants to begin consultations with Israel immediately.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Air Force One that the two leaders reaffirmed the shared goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

"Consistent with our commitment to consult closely with our Israeli friends, the president told the prime minister that he wants the United States and Israel to begin consultations immediately regarding our effort to negotiate a comprehensive solution," Earnest said.

The agreement reached in Geneva during talks between Iran, the United States and five other world powers commits Tehran to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for limited and gradual relief from crippling economic sanctions.

Baird also said Canada will maintain sanctions against Iran. Those sanctions include:

• Restrictions on financial transactions.
• A ban on bilateral trade (worth about $135 million).
• No Iranian diplomatic representation in Canada.

"Past actions predict future actions and Iran has defied the United Nations Security Council, and simply put, Iran has not earned the right to have the benefit of the doubt," Baird said.

Baird said he would like to see Iran abandon its plutonium enrichment program altogether and to shut down all its centrifuges.

'Increased transparency'

South of the border, Obama hailed the deal's provisions as key to preventing Iran from proliferating. "Simply put, they cut off Iran's most likely paths to a bomb," he said.

A White House statement said the deal limits Iran's existing stockpiles of enriched uranium, which can be turned into the fissile core of nuclear arms.

The statement also said the accord curbs the number and capabilities of the centrifuges used to enrich and limits Iran's ability to "produce weapons-grade plutonium" from a reactor in the advanced stages of construction.

In addition Iran's nuclear program will be subject to "increased transparency and intrusive monitoring."

In return, the statement promised "limited, temporary, targeted, and reversible (sanctions) relief" to Iran, noting that "the key oil, banking, and financial sanctions architecture, remains in place." And it warned that any sanctions relief will be revoked and new penalties enacted if Iran fails to meet its commitments.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry joined forces with foreign ministers of the nations negotiating with Iran to push the deal through early Sunday, as the talks entered their fifth day.

Kerry said the first-step deal will make Israel — an arch enemy of Iran — safer.

Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz, who is responsible for monitoring Iran's nuclear program, said there is no reason for the world to be celebrating. He said the deal reached in Geneva is based on "Iranian deception and self-delusion."

21.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Canadian banks to be compelled to share clients' info with U.S.

Starting next July, Canadian banks will be required to ask anyone opening a new account if they are now, or ever have been, an American "person."

It comes at the behest of the U.S. government and its efforts to "smoke out" tax dodgers.

The Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, was passed by the U.S. Congress in 2010 and comes into force July 1, 2014.

The law forces all banks and other financial institutions outside the U.S. to search for customers who have certain "indicia." Those are markers that show the person may be a U.S. citizen or a former permanent resident who, under U.S. law, must file income tax returns to Uncle Sam no matter where they reside in the world.

The only other country with similar tax rules for expats is Eritrea.

When announcing the law, U.S. President Barack Obama said, "if financial institutions won't cooperate with us, we will assume they are sheltering money in tax-havens and act accordingly."

The threat is a withholding tax of 30 per cent levied on every transaction a non-compliant bank has coming from, or even passing through, the U.S.

"Bottom line is: there is absolutely no way that a large, modern financial institution like a Canadian bank or a large credit union could escape FATCA," says Marion Wrobel, vice-president of policy and operations at the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA).

Wrobel says his organization has been fighting FATCA since it was announced, calling it the "extra-territorial" application of American law.

"The only reason the Americans can do it is because it is a large economy, financial markets are integrated globally," Wrobel adds, "and it is virtually impossible for a large institution like a Canadian bank, an insurance company, a securities dealer, a large credit union to avoid being caught up in a FATCA net."

Starting July 1, 2014, banks will be required to scour the records of all of their customers with more than $50,000 in an account.

They will be looking indicators such as: place of birth, alternate addresses and phone numbers, and past residency in the United Sates. Every file with at least one indicia marker will be flagged as a "U.S. Reportable Account."

At the same time, anyone wanting to open a new account will be asked directly if they are a "U.S. person" as defined by the IRS. Anyone saying who answers affirmatively will be flagged.

Wrobel says refusing to answer the question could also land any Canadian in trouble.

"If you refuse to answer it you could be considered recalcitrant and your information could be reported."

So far the banks' protests have changed little. The best they have been able to do is take some of the heat off themselves directly. Canada is close to negotiating an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with the U.S. to implement FATCA.

Once in place, the bank would no longer be required to send private customer information directly to a foreign government agency. Instead, Canadian banks will flag their customers to the Canada Revenue Agency, and — under the terms of the agreement — the CRA will be the one that automatically transmits all the information to the IRS.

To enact the IGA, the Canadian government would almost certainly need to introduce a new law or amend existing ones to allow financial institutions to breach the privacy of Canadian citizens and residents.

It's not clear how that can be done without running afoul of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Constitutional lawyer and expert Peter Hogg wrote to the Finance Department to express his concerns about the proposed deal.

In a copy of the letter released under Access to Information, he says: "To impose on financial institutions the duty to report to CRA (en route to the IRS) the names, addresses, place of birth and date of birth and details of the bank accounts of account-holders identified only by their place of birth in or citizenship of the United States, and all under the implicit threat of taxes, penalties or prosecutions by the IRS, seems to me to be a clear case of discrimination in contravention of [Section] 15 [of the Charter]."

He goes on to say: "There is no mechanism in the Model IGA whereby individuals who are suspected to be U.S. citizens would even know that their personal information was provided, " Hogg's letter argues, "thus there may be no opportunity to provide additional information or take other steps in order to prevent the transmission of this information from Canada."

At best, Hogg believes, it is an infringement "of liberty and privacy," but possibly also violations of at least three sections of the Charter.

The plan has critics around the world.

"I don't think it's pejorative to use the term 'fishing expedition,' that term has been used by the U.S. government already and people talking about FATCA — that's exactly what this is," says Allison Christians, the Stikeman Chair of Tax Law at McGill University.

She points out Canada and the U.S. already have a tax treaty that's been in place for almost 20 years, which allows the IRS to obtain information on specific individuals from the CRA automatically.

"But FATCA wants more," Christians adds. "They want not just the ones we have already identified; they want to, in the words of a former treasury secretary, 'smoke out' the Americans who are hiding."

And this is where many experts believe FATCA might not just be unconstitutional, but also misguided.

"It's not risk-based, it's not targeting known tax havens. It's looking at places like Canada, you know — Americans do not come to Canada for the low taxes," says Wrobel.

Perhaps to add insult to injury, the individual Canadian financial institutions being deputized by the IRS to sniff out wayward U.S. taxpayers need to cover the cost of the added scrutiny, monitoring, and reporting themselves.

The CBA estimates it will likely cost the big banks $100 million each to comply with FATCA.

21.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Middle-class votes sought for 1 big reason in today's byelections

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau can't stop talking about the middle class. In ads, speeches and in question period, the two party leaders refer repeatedly to middle-class families.

In a recent ad, Trudeau refers to them as his priority.

"Because my priority is the Canadians who built this country: the middle class, not the political class," he said

Mulcair also referred to the middle class in his speech to caucus at last spring's policy convention.

"Today, our country faces levels of income inequality not seen since the Great Depression, and the middle class is struggling like never before," he said in April.

"Middle-class wages are consistently on the decline. Yet the Conservative solution is to demand even more from you and to leave even less to our children and our grandchildren."

Despite that, it isn't all that easy getting politicians to define what they mean by the term.

"I think that the key thing to consider when we're talking about the middle class is the self-definition and our expectations around being in the middle class," said Chrystia Freeland, the Liberal candidate in the Toronto Centre byelection and author of Plutocrats.

"I think that that sort of combination of working hard, expecting that your own hard work will translate into a comfortable and secure lifestyle for you, and then a belief that if your children work hard and get a good education" they'll do well, she said.

93% say they're middle class

Nathan Rotman, national director of the NDP, said the middle class isn't easily definable.

Byelection coverage tonight

Return to CBCNews.ca after polls close at 9:30 p.m. ET (8:30 p.m. CT) for full coverage of the results.

When to vote

Bourassa (Quebec):  9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. ET

Brandon-Souris (Manitoba): 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. CT

Provencher (Manitoba):  8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. CT

Toronto Centre (Ontario):  9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. ET

More information and where to vote in your riding at Elections Canada's website.

"Certainly I think it's people who are struggling to make ends meet today," he said.

"People are saying well I hear that the economy is doing well, but I don't feel that it's working for me. I don't see the fruits of that strong economy in my day-to-day life... Certainly [people who are] not in the top one per cent and certainly not in the bottom five."

In fact, a specific definition of the middle class might be the 60 per cent of Canadians who make more than the bottom 20 per cent (more than about $10,000 individual income) and less than the top 20 per cent (less than about $60,000), 

Average annual individual income in Canada in 2011 was $39,300, with $29,000 clocking in as median income, the income around which half of households earn more and half of households earn less.

Average family income in Canada in 2011 was $66,200 and median family income was $48,300.

But the vast majority of Canadians identify as middle class, despite there being specific numbers to help people figure out where they fall.

That's an enormous pool of voters to try to attract. 

"Between lower middle class, middle class and upper middle class, you have 93 per cent of Canadians self-identifying," said Tony Coulson, group vice-president of corporate and public affairs at Environics Research. 

Parties direct policies to attract middle class

It's no wonder the Liberals and NDP want those middle-class votes. When politicians directly address the middle class, they're addressing almost everyone. 

Coulson says people may feel they're being reached out to when a politician says they're speaking to the middle class.

"When they hear, you know, I'm working for the middle class, I'm concerned about the middle class, those kinds of statements, they likely will feel some, some affinity toward that," he said.

The NDP and Liberals have both focused policies on appealing to the middle class, including the New Democrats' emphasis on household debt and lowering credit card fees, and the Liberals' references to making ends meet and affordable education.

One Conservative strategist says it's not only the opposition that's trying to appeal to those voters — it's just that the government does it more subtly.

Liberal candidate Chrystia Freeland, left, and NDP candidate Linda McQuaig are facing off over the middle class in Toronto Centre. (Handout photos)

"It strikes me that it might detract from your credibility a little bit if you put it out there publicly that you are targeting a major demographic group like the middle class. It sounds tactical and it sounds kind of manipulative," said Yaroslav Baran, a principal at Earnscliffe Strategies.

"You'll see the Conservatives talking about families, families with children, consumers, taxpayers, seniors, seniors on fixed income, our brave men and women in uniform, etc. These are groups that it's easier for people to identify with or identify themselves as being a part of. They're more specific communities."

Coulson agrees that the strategy may not be targeted enough, since there are so many sub-types within the group of Canadians who call themselves middle class.

"Young urbanites, multicultural suburban households, aging folks in the inner suburbs and older people in small towns and rural areas," are all included, he said.

"So it's really a diverse group that falls within middle-class definitions and as a result the tactical outreach might need to be more tailored to those groups."

Byelections a rehearsal for 2015

NDP candidate Linda McQuaig has written several books about income inequality, including last year's The Trouble with Billionaires. Because so many people identify as middle class, she says it's better to look at income inequality as a measure. 

"In the last 30 years, virtually all the income gains have gone to the top. Particularly to the top 10 per cent, particularly the top one per cent. And when you get below that, what you find is incomes have actually stagnated or even declined," McQuaig said.

The four byelections on Monday allow the parties to rehearse their general election campaign messages.

Toronto Centre is particularly interesting with Freeland and McQuaig, two middle-class champion heavyweights, facing off.

It's so far led to fights over which candidate bought a more expensive home and has worked harder to keep professional jobs in Canada.

As Canada's politicians refine their messaging in the two years leading up to the next federal election, the focus on "middle-class priorities" is bound to get sharper.

"I think the middle class is one that encompasses most people and certainly is around, that talks to, to both the struggles that people have and how they see themselves, and I think that's an important way of reaching out and engaging voters," Rotman said.

21.17 | 0 komentar | Read More