News

PUBLICATION: WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
PAGE: A15
SECTION: Top Story
BYLINE: Mia Rabson OTTAWA -- Manitoba's newest senator wants to limit how long he can keep his new job.

Don Plett, the president of the Conservative Party of Canada, was confirmed Thursday as one of nine new senators appointed to Parliament's upper chamber.

"I am honoured and humbled the prime minister would see fit to appoint me," Plett said.

He said implementing the Conservative agenda, including reforming the Senate to include term limits of eight years and elected senators , will be his priority.

PUBLICATION: The Winnipeg Sun
PAGE: 7
BYLINE: ALTHIA RAJ, NATIONAL BUREAU
DATELINE: OTTAWA

Public speaking can be a lucrative business for parliamentarians.

Some of them receive thousands of dollars for delivering a speech to corporate and non-profit groups that lasts anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. Former prime minister Jean Chretien, for one, charges $50,000 a speech.

Liberal MPs Justin Trudeau, Bob Rae, Ken Dryden and Kirsty Duncan, Sen. Romeo Dallaire and junior Tory minister Peter Kent are also listed as clients of paid public speaking agencies.

PUBLICATION: WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
PAGE: A5
BYLINE: Mia Rabson

A Winnipeg MP who has battled for years to get Canada to shut down the asbestos industry hopes the final nail in the coffin came this week from Canada's doctors.

Winnipeg Centre NDP MP Pat Martin said he got "choked up" when he heard the Canadian Medical Association had voted 95 per cent in favour of a motion calling on Canada to change its tune about chrysotile asbestos.

"This may be the tipping point that brings some sanity to Canada's shameful asbestos policies," Martin said Thursday.

PUBLICATION: CBC Radio - World Report

DWIGHT SMITH (NEWSCASTER):

Back here in this country, the federal New Democratic Party is holding its policy convention in Halifax and it's trying to come up with a set of proposals that would translate into more votes. There's talk of changing the Party's name and structure, including eliminating the formal affiliation between the federal and provincial wings of the Party. Alison Crawford reports.

ALISON CRAWFORD (REPORTER):

PUBLICATION: CBC Television - The National

WENDY MESLEY (HOST):

- The NDP considers the future and a new name. -

The NDP national convention got underway today, and with talk of a possible election in the fall, you can be sure the party faithful are looking to the future, asking themselves: What's the winning strategy? The answer, though, may not be as simple as out with the old and in with the new. In fact, quite the opposite. Julie Van Dusen reports.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN (ANNOUNCER):

(Halifax) Premier Darrell Dexter!

JULIE VAN DUSEN (REPORTER):

PUBLICATION: WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
PAGE: A7

By Mia Rabson OTTAWA -- Would a New Democrat by any other name be the same? Canada 's largest lefty party is gathering in Halifax beginning Friday for its annual meeting and one of the items on the agenda is to consider removing the "new" from New Democratic Party.

The party has had that moniker since 1961 when the western-based Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and the Canadian Labour Congress joined forces to form a new national party.

PUBLICATION: WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
PAGE: A5
BYLINE: Mia Rabson

They couldn't beat them, so now they're joining them.

The federal Liberals have started the practice of sending out highly partisan, taxpayer-funded flyers to constituents in Conservative-held ridings after the Grits didn't get anywhere with complaints about the Tories doing the same thing in Liberal ridings.

PUBLICATION: The Toronto Star
PAGE: A11
BYLINE: Richard J. Brennan

Opposition critics are demanding the CRTC identify telemarketers thumbing their noses at do-not-call list rules instead of protecting them from public scorn.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission refuses to name two telemarketers recently issued violation notices or even make public the amount of fines they face.

"We expected real vigilance on behalf of Canadian consumers, not shielding them (the telemarketers) under anonymity,"said New Democrat MP Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre).

PUBLICATION: WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
PAGE: A8
BYLINE: Mary Agnes Welch

Local politicians and peace advocates are chagrined that Manitoba is selling guns to Saudi Arabia, one of the most authoritarian countries in the world.

PUBLICATION: WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
PAGE: A10

Judging by official reports, however, the land is unsuited for sports and recreation because it is adjacent to high-traffic areas, vulnerable to excessive automobile exhaust and much too small for regulation-size sports fields, a veritable brownfield of nightmares.