Obama Is a Climate Hypocrite. His Trip to Alaska Proves It.

On Monday morning President Obama headed to Alaska—the front lines of climate change—for a trip the White House is calling "a spotlight on what Alaskans in particular have come to know: Climate change is one of the biggest threats we face, it is being driven by human activity, and it is disrupting Americans' lives right now."

Problem is, those words fall flat when compared with Obama's mixed record on climate. The widely publicized trip comes at a delicate moment for the president. Barely two weeks ago, his administration gave Royal Dutch Shell final approval to drill for oil offshore from Alaska's northwest Arctic coast—not exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from someone who professes to be "leading by example."

‘Joe Where?’ Missing finance minister attracts NDP jibes on campaign trail

OTTAWA — Former Progressive Conservative prime minister Joe Clark may remain the most famous Joe in Canadian election annals, but the "Joe Who?" moniker that followed the underdog Clark may be about to get a run for its money from current Finance Minister Joe Oliver.

With the 2015 election trail ablaze with talk of recession and the significance of Tuesday's latest economic growth numbers, Oliver is being ridiculed by New Democrats as "Joe Where?"

Oliver, 75, has been all but absent from the Conservative party's campaign so far, although he's running for re-election in Toronto, the country's media and financial mecca. He cancelled scheduled talks at two Toronto clubs last week and this week without explanation.

Harper deflects StatsCan recession report as NDP and Liberals pounce

OTTAWA - It was either a few weak months or a lost decade.

That distinction was carved into the federal election campaign trail on Tuesday after Statistics Canada reported the economy met the technical definition of a recession at the end of June.

The agency said the economy contracted at an annual pace of 0.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2015 — a second straight quarter of contraction — and it laid down a key marker for the leaders of the three main federal parties.

Harper: New GDP Numbers Show Canada's Economy Rebounding

SAULT STE MARIE, Ont. — What's a few bad months ahead of an election?

That summed up Stephen Harper's approach Tuesday to new Statistics Canada data showing the country fell into a technical recession in the first half of the year.

Rather than focus on those numbers, Harper instead saw a silver lining, which was that GDP actually rose 0.5 per cent in June — proof, he said, of the renewed growth upon which a Conservative government is basing most of its own economic projections.

The World on Fire: Record-Breaking Wildfires, Greenland Melting and Earth's Hottest Month Ever

When I go up into the mountains, I'm used to being afforded magnificent views of alpine meadows filled with wildflowers, crystal-clear mountain streams, glaciers tucked under the shoulders of high valleys, stratified ridges arcing into the sky, and views so far into the distance one can sense the curvature of earth.

But on August 22, as I carefully climbed my way toward one of the high summits of Eastern Olympic National Park, the solace of the mountains eluded me due to an ominous sign. The view east - toward what has now officially become the largest complex of wildfires in history for Washington State, where over one-quarter million acres have burned - was dominated by a large, greyish-white plume of smoke that stretched as far north and south as I could see.

IF YOU visit south-western Ontario and the Niagara peninsula you will see scenes of industrial decay. Steel mills, vehicle-parts factories and food processors sit abandoned, their car parks studded with tufts of grass. The region has the look of a rustbelt, and that has Canadians worried.

Manufacturing took a beating in the late 2000s and early 2010s, when high oil prices drove up the value of the Canadian dollar, making factories less competitive. But Canada should now be recovering from that bout of Dutch disease. The “loonie”, as Canadians call their currency, has been dropping along with oil prices. On August 25th it fell to its lowest level in a decade against the American dollar. That, plus the strong economy in the United States, the market for three-quarters of Canada’s exports, should have scraped off much of the rust.

Harper avoids recession talk on eve of report

Conservatives are distancing themselves from their own definition of a recession on the eve of a key Statistics Canada report that will show whether the country’s economy shrank for a second consecutive quarter.

Stephen Harper sidestepped questions Monday about how to define a recession as the Conservative Leader noted that broader factors should be taken into account when looking at the economy.

Conservatives have to tie themselves in knots to sustain their narrative about Alberta's fiscal situation

Given the history of this province and its current goings on, our various stripes of conservative really had to tie themselves in knots yesterday to put their complicated spin on the state of Alberta's finances after Finance Minister Joe Ceci delivered his first-quarter fiscal report.

Having found themselves in the unexpected position of dealing with a New Democratic Party majority government early in a strong and unequivocal mandate, the Wildrose Opposition and its Progressive Conservative sibling have three fundamental problems with their preferred narrative:

1) It's pretty hard to blame the NDP for the mismanaged state of the province when the government of Premier Rachel Notley has been in power for less than four months and it was self-evidently one of the two conservative parties, which trade members like baseball cards, that set the province up for the financial troubles it now faces.

One Fine Dropped, One Upheld for BC Lobbyist

Brad Zubyk, a lobbyist with ties to the federal and BC Liberals and Vision Vancouver, had a $2,000 fine rescinded by the provincial lobbyists' registrar, but still must pay $1,500 by Sept. 29.

Registrar of Lobbyists Elizabeth Denham found that Zubyk failed to register as a lobbyist for Urban Impact, a Richmond-based recycling company, within the required 10 days.

Denham upheld the initial finding by investigator Tom Mots on Zubyk's failure to register. But she rejected Mots' finding that Zubyk had named the wrong client. Mots had found that Zubyk should have identified Recycle First, a coalition of 11 companies including Urban Impact, as the client.

Ex-Tory Senator Segal: Why I Fought Anti-Labour Bill C-377

Bill C-377 was a Private Members Bill touted as one to provide transparency and accountability to the public and union members relating to the business of unions and where and how money was spent.

My opposition to this bill, when it reached the Senate of Canada, reflected several serious concerns expressed by various expert witnesses who appeared during Senate Committee hearings after second reading.

The Canadian Bar Association questioned its constitutionality, as it sought to circumvent normal provincial jurisdiction over labour relations and trade unions by imposing Canada Revenue Agency reporting requirements via federal statute.