Monday morning visitor

What do our federal politicians do when parliament is prorogued?

Attend Hamilton council meetings, of course.

Lisa Raitt, the MP for Halton and Minister of Labour, was sitting about 15 feet away from me at Committee of the Whole this morning. She wasn't here on any formal business - instead, she came to listen to a presentation by the Hamilton Port Authority.  Raitt, the former president and chief executive officer of the Toronto Port Authority, told me she came to support her "old friends."

Many of you will remember MP Raitt from a couple scandals last summer involving the loss of secret documents and a misplaced tape-recorded conversation, in which Raitt referred to cancer as "sexy." 

On her way out of the meeting this morning, Raitt told me she's going to spend the rest of the day in Hamilton. Her plans include a tour of the Port, lunch, and time to "hang around." I guess now that her boss has shuttered parliament, she doesn't have any pesky government business to worry about.

Comments

[Tom Robertson]

Imagine if your boss told you to take some paid time off to support old friends,have lunch and hang out? As a cabinet minister isn't she supposed to be working to recalibrate the economy? I guess she is playing hooky for the day from that obligation.

[Dan Jelly]

I guess wasting other peoples' money is sexy too.

[Rene Gauthier]

I can't believe that Halton chose her over Garth Turner! He was more prominent in the community and represented the riding well. He did his job better than she has. It only shows how mindless people in Halton are. You could put a Conservative tag on a piece of crap and they would gladly vote for it! Time to clean the house!

[Markalanwhittle]

You must mean past Hamilton Port Authority Chairman Mayor Fred Eisenberger?

I hope he thanked Minister Raitt for the $58 million dollars worth of stimulus funds the conservative government bestowed on Hamilton, which is fixing municipal facilities and infrastructure across Hamilton and Hamilton mountain.

As to showing her around, too bad she missed Matt Jelly and Cal DiFalco's By-Law Crawl the other day, documenting the rot and decay downtown, not a single downtown Alderman (Bratina, Morelli and McHattie) bothered to show up or send any representatives.

Not a single Municipal Law Enforcement Officer was in attendance either, despite at least ten new MLEO deputations in January.

That's Hamilton, get used to it or get out and vote the bums out this fall at the ballot box.

[Rick]

Perhaps Mrs. Raitt could also visit the Juravinski Cancer Centre - I think she owes patients there an apology for her callous "sexy" remark.

[wayne]

Ya people. When i have free time and want to have fun i go and sit in a city hall meeting.
This is why people shouldn't vote, they have no clue. When you sit in parliament seats (that small room located in the huge country of CANADA) you talk about issues. When your not sitting in that small room your finding out about the issues you will be talking about when you are in that small room. your supposed to do it back in the riding you represent to be sure you are addressing your voters needs and you can't find them out sitting in Ottawa (unless thats your riding)
She is doing her job, as she should be doing. good for her.

[wayne]

and as usual the paper prints half truths to sensationalise. She didn't say cancer was sexy. She said a topic of spending tax payers money to solve a cancer problem is sexy. HUGE DIFFERENCE. And she was correct. Pretty sad when someone gets hyped up about solving our problems, no matter how terrible they are.