I bilanci federali, o, più propriamente, la presentazione del piano di spesa del governo, nel “giorno del bilancio”, rappresentavano un gran bel problema. La parola chiave era la segretezza, anche per i parlamentari…
TORONTO – One might convincingly posit that Michele Placido’s film about Michelangelo Merisi of Caravaggio is a work worthy of the Baroque Artist’s approval – were he alive today to view it. Of course, one will never know, and to expect to capture the full context of a man’s life through a two-hour account, four hundred years removed, is both absurd and impossible.
TORONTO – Federal budgets, or, more appropriately, the presentation of the government’s spending plan, on “budget day”, used to be a really big deal. Secrecy was the operative word, even for Parliamentarians.
We publish this article from Blacklock’s Reporter, the only reporter-owned and operated newsroom in Ottawa.
Some months after I left television, a lady tapped me on the chest and said, “Didn’t you used to be Doug Small?” She remembered the 1989 budget leak story. After 40 years in journalism, I think I can predict it will be the one story that will rate a line in my obituary. It’s certainly the only story that saw me arrested and sent to trial. To this day I can’t imagine not broadcasting that leak. It was my job, any reporter’s job.
DRUMMONDVILLE – A few days ago, Francois Legault threatened to call a referendum on immigration (because Quebec wants “more powers, to defend the francophonie”) and “maybe also on other topics”. Then, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal arrived for a visit: hugs and kisses with Quebec’s premier. Immediately afterwards, on Sunday, an announcement: Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon told about 500 party members at the PQ’s national council in Drummondville that Quebecers have one “last” chance to protect their language and culture amid what he called an “existential threat” from Ottawa. And he reiterated his commitment to a third referendum on Quebec independence if his party were to take power in the next provincial elections.
