Ottawa bureau chief Brian Laghi on federal politics

by The Globe and Mail — May 7, 2008

On Tuesday, we learned from the Auditor General that Canada's border agency has lost track of 41,000 illegal immigrants ordered to leave the country .

In her latest report on how Ottawa spends its money, Sheila Fraser also said Ottawa has been letting down native children through years of poorly funding child-welfare programs.

Also, the Auditor-General says the federal government has not figured out how to effectively detect and monitor the spread of deadly diseases, five years after the SARS outbreak killed 44 people in Canada and tore billions of dollars out of the economy.

The report also says Canada's official residences are falling into a desperate state of repair.

Although the Auditor General delivers a report on how well, or badly, Ottawa spends its money, there are plenty of other people willing to offer their opinions on how well, or badly the federal government is doing in all sorts of departments.

So what are they saying? What's the mood right now in the nation's capital?

We are pleased that The Globe's Ottawa Bureau Chief Brian Laghi will be online Thursday at noon ET to take your questions, on The Hill_Live, our regular discussion on federal politics. Send your questions now and return later for the discussion.

Your questions and Mr. Laghi's answers will appear at the bottom of this page.

Mr. Laghi began his journalistic career 25 years ago as a reporter for a small daily newspaper in Fort McMurray, Alta, and also worked as a reporter in Saskatoon, Sask., before moving to The Edmonton Journal, where he covered politics and served as that paper's legislative bureau chief.

He moved to The Globe and Mail in 1995, covering Alberta and the Arctic for the paper until 1998, when he moved to Ottawa.

Mr. Laghi spent much of the next six years covering the conservative movement in Canada and the merger of the Progressive Conservative Party and the Canadian Alliance. He became The Globe's bureau chief in Ottawa in October, 2004.

Source:The Globe and Mail