Politics Insider for Sept. 17: Canada's former ambassador in Washington gets a wrist slap, COVID testing capacity is a nightmare in Ottawa and the feds are selling an electric guitar

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The federal ethics commissioner, Mario Dion, has ordered nine Liberal politicians, senior staffers and top public servants notto conduct any official dealings with David MacNaughton, Canadas former ambassador to the U.S. and a longtime Trudeau government insider, for one year. The order applies to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland andIndustry Minister Navdeep Bains, as well as two ministerial chiefs of staff andthree deputy ministers. Rick Theis, the PMs director of policy and cabinet affairs, is on the list. So is General Jonathan Vance, the outgoing chief of defence staff.

The commissioner found that in the pandemics early days, MacNaughton pitched thepro bono services of Palantir Technologies Canada, the software company he now heads up in Ottawa. Dion ruled that the former ambassador had broken the rule against taking improper advantage of a previous government gig, but also concluded that Palantir did not benefit from the meetings. Back in April,The Logic first reported on MacNaughtons claimsduring a private event that hed lined up meetings with top federal officials(Read the full report.)

Erin OToole and his family got tested yesterday for COVID-19. One of OTooles staffers had come back positive, so the Tory leader and his brood took no chances. It wasnt a banner day for testing capacity in the nations capital. Families eager to get tested faced hours-long outdoor lines.Macleans own Ottawa bureau chief, Shannon Proudfoot, endured a logistical testing nightmare. She gave up on a suburban testing centre when a security guard warned of a six-hour wait. After a wasted trip to a testing centre in Winchester, an hours drive away, she ended up lucking into an appointment at the citys drive-in centre tonight. These ordeals may, she writes, foreshadow a frightening fall. Either well all muddle along, missing work and school

or average, well-intentioned people with busy families and lives that need living are going to start fudging their answers to screening questions, sending kids off to school or daycare or themselves off to their workplaces even when they know symptoms have cropped up in their households, because they cant handle the hassle or outright impossibility of getting tested. After the nightmare I experienced today, I cant say I blame them.

What is Ontarios testing capacity?Every premier sent a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that outlined how theyd spend their share of the $19-billion federal-provincial Safe Restart Agreement. Premier Doug Fords letter boasted about Ontarios increased capacity, per capita testing rate and overall tests administeredall the highest in Canada. Ford also committed to future capacity well beyond the near-term goal of 50,000 tests a day, and surge testing capacity of up to 78,000 tests per day. Theyll use $1.28 billion in federal payola to make it happen in the coming months. Meanwhile, in the real world, lines grow longer.

The Canadian Press scored an interview with Peter MacKay, the Tory leadership runner-up whos contemplating his next move back home in Nova Scotia. MacKay identified his campaigns fatal flaw:The plan was in retrospect too much focused on the next steps and not enough on winning the party. As he tried to win over soft Liberals and lapsed Tories, his rivals were shoring up their core voteand chipping away at MacKays lead.

Did the WE scandal make charitable Canadians think twice about donating? Yes, says a new Angus Reid Institute poll. Charitable giving was already trending down before the scandal, says the pollster: 37 per cent of respondents have donated less in the past six months (49 per cent remain unchanged and only 9 per cent have increased donations). Fifty-five per cent of Canadians say the scandal is seriousand a similar majority say its raised questions about the whole sector. While most Canadians say WEs troubles havent had an impact on their donations, a solid 38 per cent still say theyre rethinking their giving.

Parks Canada has declared a caribou herd in Jasper National Park locally extinct. On Sept. 3, the agency snuck an update on the population of the maligne herd onto its website. That declining herd was last observed in 2018 and is considered extirpated. Two other herds, the tonquin and brazeau, do not have enough female caribouto be able to grow the herds. That update marked a stark change to the same webpage earlier this year. The Rocky Mountain Outlook quotedthe Alberta Wilderness Association saying the extirpation was a tragic, predictable result of decades-long habitat and wildlife errors.

Need an electric guitar? The federal government would be happy to sell one to you. The federal surplus website is auctioning off a used Dean Hollywood axethe closing date is today at 2 pm ETthats replete with scratches, and comes with no strings, no power cable and a damaged case. Full functionality, reads a description, is unknown. That hasnt stopped bidders, whove ratcheted up the price from $75 to, at this writing, a cool $89.70. Theres still time.

Link:

The ethics czar rules on another Liberal conflict of interest of interest - Maclean's