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Showing posts with label Canadian Parliament. Show all posts

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Will Obama Run For His Third Term?

President Barack Obama receives a standing ovation in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, June 29, 2016.

Photo by Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press/AP

Canadian Parliament to

Obama: ‘Four more years!’

06/30/16 09:24 AM—UPDATED 06/30/16 09:27 AM

By Steve Benen

If you missed President Obama’s address to the Canadian Parliament

yesterday, it was a rather extraordinary event in which the American leader

received a rapturous welcome. Given the warmth of the reception, it

became quite easy to believe that if Obama decided to seek public office

north of the border, he’d win in a landslide.

6/29/16, 9:28 PM ET

Obama hears chants of

'four more years' from

Canadian parliament

But as Rachel noted on the show last night, one of the memorable moments of the president’s appearance in Ottawa came, oddly enough, after Obama was done speaking.

It was Obama’s third round of public remarks Wednesday during a series of talks dubbed “The Three Amigos Summit” by Canadian media, and as he concluded, the building erupted in a chant unlikely to be heard south of the border:

“Four more years! Four more years!”

Obama shook his head, waved and sat down, a wide grin across

his face.

It was heartening, to be sure, to see an American president receive

such an outpouring of support in a foreign country. For all the Republican

rhetoric about the lack of respect Obama enjoys on the international stage,

even among our allies, yesterday was a reminder that complaints from the

president’s detractors couldn’t be more wrong.

But it also got me thinking about whether those cheering the president were

bringing attention to an under-appreciated argument.

Back in March, Vox’s Matt Yglesias raised a provocative point: President

Obama is probably the best available candidate, even now, and if

Americans want to vote for him again, we should have the opportunity

to do so.

“The 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, prohibits presidents from serving

more than two terms,” Matt wrote. “But though it can’t be repealed in time

for the 2016 election, term limits clearly have to go. We should return to the

democratic practice that served our country well for 150 years: Let the

parties nominate whom they like, and let the voters choose their favorite.”

Americans aren’t accustomed to thinking this way, because we know, as

a constitutional matter, that presidents are only allowed to serve two terms.

But there’s a case to be made that this limit serves no legitimate purpose:

if a president enjoys broad support and the public wants to vote for him or

her, why should there be an arbitrary mechanism in place that blocks

voters’ choices?

Indeed, Rachel noted a new PPP poll last night that found, in a hypothetical

match-up with Donald Trump, Obama would win easily. Why shouldn’t

Americans have the ability to cast that vote if we want to? Why artificially

block voters’ choices, disqualifying a candidate simply because he or she

has already done the job effectively?

Remember, there’s nothing partisan about this. In November 1987,

then-President Reagan said he intended to “start a movement” to repeal

the constitutional amendment establishing presidential term limits.

Six months later, Reagan spoke at Moscow State University in Russia and

was asked about whether he wishes he could “stay for another term.”

Reagan began by talking about Congress seeking “revenge against

Franklin Delano Roosevelt” when lawmakers changed the Constitution,

which Reagan apparently saw as a mistake. The Republican president

added:

“When I get out of office – I can’t do this while I’m in office, because

it will look as I’m selfishly doing it for myself – when I get out of office,

I’m going to travel around what I call the mashed-potato circuit –

that is the after-dinner speaking and the speaking to luncheon

groups and so forth – I’m going to travel around and try to convince

the people of our country that they should wipe out that amendment to

the Constitution because it was an interference with the democratic

rights of the people. The people should be allowed to vote for who

they wanted to vote for, for as many times as they want to vote for

him; and that it is they who are being denied a right.”

This is largely a thought experiment, since there’s no apparent political

appetite for changing the U.S. Constitution to eliminate presidential term

limits. But hearing Canadian officials yesterday shout “Four more years!”

with such enthusiasm served as a reminder: maybe they have a point.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Are We Seeing A Pattern Here? Muslims Attack Canada, Kill One.

Canada Parliament Suspect Identified as a Convert to Islam

Wednesday, 22 Oct 2014 02:07 PM

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A gunman attacked Canada's parliament on Wednesday, with gunfire erupting near a room where Prime Minister Stephen Harper was speaking, and a soldier was fatally shot at a nearby war memorial, jolting the Canadian capital.

The gunman in the parliament building was shot dead, and Harper was safely removed.

Witnesses said a flurry of shots were fired after a gunman entered the parliament building, pursued by police.

The assault took place very near the room where Harper was meeting with members of his Conservative party, a government minister said.

"PM (Harper) was addressing caucus, then a huge boom, followed by rat-a-tat shots. We all scattered. It was clearly right outside our caucus door," Treasury Board Minister Tony Clement told Reuters.

The incident, shocking in Canada's normally tranquil capital, began shortly before 10 a.m. ET.

Canadian police were investigating a man named Michael Zehaf-Bibeau as a possible suspect in the shootings, a source familiar with the matter said. Two U.S. officials said U.S. agencies had been advised the suspect was a Canadian convert to Islam.

“Canada will never be intimidated,” and will redouble efforts to combat terrorism, Harper said in a televised address tonight. “We will learn more about the terrorist and any accomplices he may have had” in the days ahead, Harper said

Security in Ottawa came under criticism after the gunman was able to run through theunlocked front door of the main parliament building. Police said an operation was under way to make parliament safe.

"It caught us by surprise. ... If we had known that this was coming, we would have been able to disrupt it," Gilles Michaud, assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, (RCMP) told a news conference.

It was unclear whether there was any connection between Wednesday's shootings and an attack on Monday when a convert to Islam ran down two Canadian soldiers with his car, killing one, near Montreal, before being shot dead by police in the first fatal attack on Canadian soil tied to Islamic militants.

Canada's prime minister called the Ottawa shooting the country's second terrorist attack in three days.

No group, Islamic or otherwise, claimed responsibility for either the attack in Ottawa or the one near Montreal. Monday's attacker, 25-year-old Martin Rouleau, who converted to Islam last year, was among 90 people being tracked by the RCMP on suspicion of taking part in militant activities abroad or planning to do so.

Canada announced this month it was joining the battle against Islamic State fighters who have taken over parts of Iraq and Syria.

From witness accounts it appeared the suspect dashed into parliament, ran past the room where Harper was speaking and was gunned down outside the entrance to the library, only about 60 feet away.

Dramatic video footage posted by the Globe and Mail newspaper showed police with guns drawn inside the main parliament building. At least a dozen loud bangs can be heard on the clip, echoing through the hallway.

Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino, a former policeman, told the Toronto Sun that parliament's head of security, Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers, shot dead a suspected gunman.

Canadian cabinet minister Jason Kenney said a guard in the parliament buildings was also wounded in the incident.

Harper stressed that government and parliament should continue its work, a spokesman said.

"While the prime minister stated that facts are still being gathered, he condemned this despicable attack," the spokesman said.

Canada said on Tuesday it had raised the national terrorism threat level to medium from low because of a rise in "general chatter" from radical groups such as Islamic State and al Qaida but said there had not been a specific threat.

The RCMP's Michaud said the threat level on Parliament Hill had been on medium for some time.

The soldier who died in the shooting at the War Memorial was identified as Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, according to his aunt.

Cirillo was a member of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, a regiment of Reserve Forces based in Hamilton, and was training to join the Canada Border Services Agency, a federal agency responsible for border and immigration enforcement, his aunt told The Globe and Mail.

It was not clear if Cirillo was armed or not when he was shot.

As the drama in Ottawa unfolded, police in dark bulletproof vests and carrying automatic rifles flooded the streets near parliament, clearing several blocks of downtown Ottawa. Some took cover behind vehicles and shouted to people to clear the area, saying: "We do not have the suspect in custody. You are in danger here."

When the shooting started, most members of parliament were in the two caucus rooms past which the gunman ran. Members were told to lock or barricade themselves in their rooms or offices, and stay away from the windows.

A tweeted picture sent from the room where the opposition New Democrats were holding a weekly caucus showed a pile of chairs jammed up against the main door to prevent anyone from entering.

In Washington, a White House official said U.S. President Barack Obama had been briefed on the situation. He said the United States had offered assistance to Canada.

Mass shootings are relatively rare in Canada, which has stricter gun laws than the United States, and the regulations at one point included a national registry of rifles and shotguns. Legislation was passed in 2012 to abandon the registry.

Ottawa also has a low murder rate. There were nine homicides in 2013 and seven in 2012, in a city of 885,000 people. Compared with Capitol Hill in Washington, security on Parliament Hill is also fairly low key. Anybody could walk right up to the front door of parliament's Centre Block with arms and explosives without being challenged before entering the front door, where a few guards check accreditation.

Centre Block is the main building on Parliament Hill, a sprawling complex of buildings and open space in downtown Ottawa. It contains the House of Commons and Senate chambers as well as the offices of some members of parliament, senators, and senior administration for both legislative houses. A construction worker who was on the scene in Ottawa when the shooting began told Reuters he heard a gunshot, and then saw a man with a scarf over his face running towards parliament.

"He was wearing blue pants and a black jacket and he had a double barrelled shotgun and he ran up the side of this building here and hijacked a car at gunpoint," construction worker Scott Walsh told Reuters.

The driver got out safely, then the man drove the car to the Centre Block, where construction work is under way, Walsh said.

The Canadian military closed its bases across the country to the public following the events in Ottawa, CBC TV said.

The attacks in Ottawa and Quebec took place as the Canadian government prepared to boost the powers of its spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said last Thursday the new legislation would let the agency track and investigate potential terrorists when they travel abroad and ultimately prosecute them.

Story continues below video.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Canadian View of US and Europe Finances

This Canadian Parliament member (Pierre Poilievre)
explains the world economy clearly and explains
what has crippled the United States economy. Every American should be required
to listen intently to this, as he provides a 9 minute education many have
never heard or understood. (Unfortunately, many even after hearing this would not understand, as they are the "low information" folks that watch Dancing With The Stars and America Idol and turn off information shows. These people don't want to know what is destroying America and the future of your children? Open the link below and learn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=wWkUaJId7pM#t=30s