Seeking asylum, selling pot, building pipelines: how politics mattered this week
OTTAWA — It’s been a week of strategizing by all three federal parties, with the Liberal caucus talkfesting in Kelowna, B.C., the Conservatives meeting in Winnipeg, and the NDP leadership candidates thumping their chests with new endorsements.
But against the backdrop of record-breaking hurricanes, a massive earthquake and a tsunami warning touching places where so many Canadians have spent happy days, the machinations of Canadian politics seemed small indeed.
The devastating weather events seeped into the caucus rooms, with the Liberals and the Conservatives scrapping over how or whether environmental protection should be integrated into economic policy.
Most of the politicians’ attention, however, was on tax policy, immigration and positioning for the fall session of Parliament.