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Members of Parliament are able to work from home again after passing a motion Thursday to resume hybrid sittings of the House of Commons.

Liberals and New Democrats joined forces to pass the motion over the objections of Conservative and Bloc Quebecois MPs who had wanted to fully return to normal, in-person operations.

The motion gives MPs the option of participating virtually in proceedings, including votes and debates in the Commons and its committees, starting Friday and continuing until the House breaks for the summer in June.

It passed late Thursday by a vote of 180-140 after the NDP supported the Liberals in putting an end to two days of debate on the matter.

MPs first adopted the hybrid format a year ago, aimed at limiting the number of members in the Commons to avoid spreading COVID-19. But the all-party agreement to allow that format expired last June.

Since Parliament resumed Monday after a five-month hiatus, all but one of the countrys 338 MPs have been in the Commons because there was no unanimous agreement to return to hybrid sittings.

The missing MP Conservative Richard Lehoux tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, two days after attending an in-person Tory caucus retreat.

Government House leader Mark Holland welcomed the return of the hybrid format, saying it will allow Lehoux and anyone else who falls ill or has to isolate due to exposure to the virus to continue working remotely.

In an interview after the vote, he said he hopes unvaccinated Conservative MPs also opt to work from home and not cause an issue around public health.

I still would like to know how many there are and I would like the assurance from the leader that hes not going to allow these unvaccinated individuals in the chamber.

Conservative Leader Erin OToole has said all his 118 MPs are either fully vaccinated or have a medical exemption. He has refused to say how many are exempt and Holland has questioned the statistical probability that multiple MPs would have valid medical reasons to not be immunized.

The motion specifies that MPs who choose to participate in person must be fully vaccinated or have a medical exemption based on the limited exceptions spelled out by the Ontario health ministry and the National Advisory Committee on Immunization.

Earlier Thursday, OToole accused the Liberal-NDP coalition of shutting down Parliament.

He argued that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his fellow Liberals were content to call an election and attend campaign events in September and to gather with thousands of people at the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow a few weeks ago.

While they were willing to do those things because it suited them, he said they are today shutting down debate and limiting democratic accountability because it bothers them.

It is hypocrisy of the highest order, OToole charged.

But Holland countered that theres a big difference between people choosing whether to attend events and requiring all MPs, regardless of their health circumstances, to be physically present in the Commons if they want to participate in proceedings.

This is a very different situation. We have people flying in from every corner of the country, spending a week together, commingling in a very, very small space and then going back to every part of the country, he said.

Holland said hes heard from some MPs who are immunocompromised and are afraid to be in the chamber, particularly when the Conservatives refuse to say how many of their members are unvaccinated or whether those members are self-isolating after being exposed to Lehoux last week.

That is absolutely unacceptable in a pandemic to put people who are in a vulnerable health circumstance, to force them to be in a situation where their health is at risk, he said.

During debate on the motion Thursday, Conservative and Bloc Quebecois MPs argued that virtual proceedings allow the government to avoid scrutiny. They noted that in the last session, cabinet ministers frequently didnt turn up in the Commons even though they were in their Parliament Hill offices.

Holland promised that a majority of ministers, including the prime minister, will be in the House in the future.

New Democrat MP Laurel Collins spoke in the chamber while holding her seven-month-old daughter in her arms. She said travelling back and forth from her Victoria B.C., riding with an infant is never easy but its nerve-racking during the pandemic.

Should her daughter catch a mild cold or have a teething fever, Collins said she wouldnt be allowed to board a plane with her. And should that prevent her from travelling to Ottawa, Collins said shed be denied the right to participate in proceedings if there is no hybrid format.

Women deserve the choice to participate, she told the Commons, adding that the chamber was built by men, for men and we have a long way to go if we want equal access.

But Conservative MP Raquel Dancho countered that during the last session there was frequently only one Liberal MP in the chamber, the rest participating virtually.

Not all the other ones had COVID or were having babies, she said.

Joan Bryden, The Canadian Press

RELATED: Tories who questioned vaccines not in critic roles

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Liberals, NDP pass motion to resume hybrid format in House of Commons - Castlegar News

"The Ingraham Angle" host Laura Ingraham exposed the pivotal ideological flips on the left in her opening monologue Tuesday night.

"Liberals used to believe in more - not less - speech, and they were defenders of the First Amendment and the rights of defendants," she said. "They were suspicious of over-zealous prosecutors. They were wary of elites who pretended to care about the downtrodden. They believed in a color-blind society."

"But now they flipped on so many fronts," she continued. "The new liberals are actually illiberal. They lose all sense of logic where politics is concerned. They are among the most closed-minded, intolerant people youll ever encounter. They disinvite conservative relatives from weddings and bar mitzvahs. Heck, if you voted for [former President Donald] Trump, they nixed you from the holiday party list long ago."

"This intellectual decay didnt happen overnight,"she explained. "It occurred over decades, with liberals subverting the institutions that traditionally nurtured both critical thinking skills and a love of country, turning them all into kind of cheap propaganda outlets."

Instead of teaching "the great works of Western civilization," leftists think United States' history "should forever be defined by two things: slavery and oppression."

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"America thrives when we reward those of all colors and backgrounds who are hard-working, capable and independent instead of those who spend their waking hours waiting for the world to come to themand complaining about how unfairlife is," she said. "We also need dedicated public servants who understand that if they refuse to protect the publics safety, the public will have to protect themselves. Its time to demand better of ourselves and of those we elect to office."

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The new liberals are actually illiberal: Ingraham - Fox News

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A left-wing dark money juggernaut hauled in a jaw-dropping $1.6 billion in cash from anonymous donors to bankroll groups and causes in 2020, tax forms reveal.

The forms further show that the secret money network, managed byWashington, D.C.-based consulting firm Arabella Advisors, pushed an astounding $896 million in contributions and grants to liberal groups last year.

The Arabella-managed network has solidified howDemocratsquietly benefit from massive amounts of anonymous donations as they simultaneously rail against the influence of dark money in the political sphere.

The network's web of groups sits under four Arabella-managed nonprofits: the New Venture Fund, Sixteen Thirty Fund, Windward Fund and Hopewell Fund.

DEMOCRATS' HR1 ELECTION BILL BOOSTED BY LIBERAL DARK MONEY GROUP FINANCED BY FOREIGN NATIONAL

Each of the funds acts as a fiscal sponsor to other liberal nonprofits, meaning they provide their tax and legal status to the nonprofits housed beneath the funds. This arrangement allows the fiscally sponsored groups to avoid filing tax forms to theIRS, which would shed light on their financials.

The funds do not disclose donors on their tax forms.

"Arabella is proud to work for these nonprofits, providing HR, legal, payroll, and other administrative services," Steve Sampson, spokesperson for Arabella Advisors, told Fox News. "They make their own decisions on their strategy, programmatic work, and fundraising."

The New Venture Fund is the network's largest nonprofit incubator in terms of sheer cash. In 2020, the fund raised $965 million in anonymous contributions, itstax formsshow.

The Sixteen Thirty Fund hauled in$388 million, the Windward Fund raised$158 millionand the Hopewell Fund facilitated$150 millionin secret donations, their respective tax forms show.

The funds funneled a combined $1.6 billion from secret donors in 2020 - a drastic increase of $885 million over what the fundshad raked inthroughout 2019.

The Capital Research Center found the four funds have implemented more than 300 "pop-up" projects to boost Democratic causes and attack Republican initiatives since their inception.

The groups push efforts ranging fromhealth careto climate initiatives, work on state-level advocacy and ballot measures, and spent big last year to defeat formerPresident Trump.

As the Arabella-managed funds garnered astronomical donations last year, they passed large sums of cash to nonprofits in and outside its network.

The New Venture Fund disbursed $447 million in 2020, itstax formsshow. The contributions include $44 million to America Votes, $25 million to the election reform group Center for Tech and Civic Life and $1 million to the Center for American Progress, which has produced dozens ofBiden White Housestaffers.

RON KLAIN, BIDEN'S POWERFUL CHIEF OF STAFF, LEADS WHITE HOUSE RIFE WITH DARK MONEY TIES

"In response to the urgent global and nationwide challenges of 2020, we were proud to work on all major issues in philanthropy last year, including addressing climate change, election security, racial justice, youth empowerment and education, and global health and international development," Lee Bodner, president of the New Venture Fund, told Fox News.

Bodner said the New Venture Fund does not engage in partisan activities or support any political campaigns.

Meanwhile, the Sixteen Thirty Fund provided$325 millionto liberal endeavors, according to tax forms. Its lucrative grants went to groups such as America Votes ($128 million), Defending Democracy Together ($10 million), a Bill Krystol-directed group, and American Bridge 21st Century Foundation ($2.1 million), led by liberal operative David Brock.

The Sixteen Thirty Fund also financed attack ads against President Trump and other Republicans,Politicoreported.

Amy Kurtz, president of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, told Fox News that last year the group "helped progressive changemakers quickly and efficiently launch new initiatives to address existential threats of historic proportion: a global pandemic, a long-overdue reconning with racial justice, and a climate crisis that we are now living month after month."

Kurtz said the fund is dedicated to "reducing the influence of special interest money in politics" and "leveling the playing field for progressives." She added that they support the For the People Act, which calls for tackling dark money.

The Windward Fund, which primarily focuses onenvironmentalinitiatives, pushed$44 millioninto causes, its tax forms show. Despite their primary focus, the fund moved money to voter engagement groups such as the Missouri Organizing and Voter Engagement Collaborative and the National Vote at Home Institute.

"As the effects of climate change continue to impact communities across the United States and world, the Windward Fund incubated and supported a range of water, climate, and environmental initiatives last year," the group told Fox News in a statement.

"We are proud that we connected and supported groups across diverse geographies, sectors, and communities like never before in 2020, enabling them to mobilize efficiently and elevate the voices of those impacted most by the environmental crisis," the Windward Fund said.

The Hopewell Fund funneled$80 millionto Democratic causes in 2020, its tax forms show. Its most significant contribution was $8 million to ACRONYM, a progressive-media group.

Tara McGowan, who led ACRONYM, launcheda new project this year called Good Information, Inc. to counter "fake news" and disinformation. ACRONYM funded Courier Newsroom, which has been called a "fake news" site by watchdogs. Good Information acquired Courier Newsroom as part of its operations.

"The Hopewell Fund is proud of the work we did in 2020 to help make the world a more equitable place through fiscal sponsorship, charitable initiatives, and grant making," the group wrote in a statement to Fox News. "Our work last year helped nonprofit projects address some of the most pressing issues our society is experiencing, including income inequality, civic engagement, and health care access."

LIBERAL DARK MONEY GROUPS DRIVE EFFORTS TO PACK THE SUPREME COURT

Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of the watchdog group Americans for Public Trust, attempted to gather the fund's tax forms in person last week but was escorted out by security.

"No wonder Arabella Advisorscalled securityon Americans for Public Trust when we requested these tax returns," Sutherland told Fox News. "They were delaying the release of documents that would show they funneled over $1 billion to liberal and left wing causes."

"After years of railing on the evils of dark money, all while being bankrolled by a Swiss billionaire, it is clear liberals are the main beneficiary of undisclosed donations," Sutherland said.

A host of influential Democratic donors use the Arabella-managed funds as a conduit to funnel cash to projects, including billionairesGeorge Sorosand Hansjorg Wyss, a Swiss national who said in 2014 he did not hold American citizenship.

The Open Society Policy Center, Soros' advocacy nonprofit, was anearly funderof the judicial advocacy group Demand Justice, which the Sixteen Thirty Fund fiscally sponsored until this year.

Demand Justice has been at the forefront of Republican judicial fights, including pushing back against the nomination of now-Supreme CourtJustice Brett Kavanaugh.

FILE - In this Sept. 27, 2015, file photo, George Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management, talks during a television interview for CNN at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York. (AP)

Shortly before Demand Justice publicly launched in 2018, Brian Fallon, the group's leader, mingled at an Atlanta Democracy Alliance donor club gathering, which counts Soros as a member. Hewas in attendanceto promote his group, and Soros' donation flowed to the group around that time.

The Democracy Alliance has alsorecommendedthat its members, who largely remain hidden, provide donations to initiatives housed at the Arabella-managed funds in its internal documents.

Sorosaddedmillions more to projects housed at the Sixteen Thirty Fund last year, including the Governing for Impact Action Fund and Trusted Elections Action Fund, an Open Society Foundations database shows.

The Sixteen Thirty Fundalso paidthe Democracy Alliance hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting services in the past.

At least one Arabella Advisors employee, Scott Nielson, its managing director of advocacy,workedwith Soros' nonprofits and the Democracy Alliance before joining the consulting firm.

Meanwhile, Wyss, theSwissbillionaire, is also connected to the Democracy Alliance and is a significant financial backer of the Sixteen Thirty Fund.

Between 2016 and early 2020, Wyss directed $135 million into the Sixteen Thirty Fund through the Wyss Foundation's advocacy arm, the Berger Action Fund, the New York Times reported.

LIBERAL DARK MONEY GROUP 1630 FUND'S ELECTION WISHLIST BOOSTED BY SWISS BILLIONAIRE

Another group closely related to the Sixteen Thirty Fund and Wyss is the Hub Project, a behind-the-scenes group that has received millions of dollars from the Wyss Foundation. The Wyss Foundation is one of the top donors to the Hub Project, which has a history of distributing funds from the Sixteen Thirty Fund to state-level groups.

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 01: Former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg (L) and philanthropist Hansjorg Wyss attend Oceana's 2015 New York City benefit at Four Seasons Restaurant on April 1, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Oceana) (Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Oceana)

One of the state-level groups was Floridians for a Fair Democracy, which received $3.95 million from the Sixteen Thirty Fund to help restore voting rights for more than a million felons through a ballot initiative in 2018.

Another billionaire, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, disclosed giving $45 million to the Sixteen Thirty Fund for a group called the Civic Action Fund last year,Politicoreported.

Arabella Advisors collected large sums from the four funds for administrative, operations and management services in 2020, making it a highly lucrative business.

The tax forms show the New Venture Fund paid nearly$27 millionto Arabella, while the Sixteen Thirty Fund disbursed$9 millionto the firm. The Windward Fund doled out almost$3 millionfor its services, while the Hopewell Fund added$6.6 million to Arabella.

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Arabella was paid $45 million between the funds for their management services.

Eric Kessler, a formerBill Clintonappointee and member of the Clinton Global Initiative, is the founder and head of Arabella Advisors.

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Liberal dark money juggernaut raises $1.6 billion to flood left-wing groups with cash, tax forms reveal - Fox News

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland would like you to know that she will be grocery shopping in Toronto this weekend.

Im going to cook on Saturday, Freeland told reporters at a news conference this week. I go to the grocery store whenever Im home.

Freeland offered this little advance peek at her personal itinerary to prove that she is aware of the price of milk and bacon, bread and chicken.

How much are Canadians paying for chicken these days? Conservative MP Michelle Rempel asked in the Commons on Wednesday.

Her colleague, Conservative Deputy Leader Candice Bergen, was curious about whether Justin Trudeau does his own shopping.

When was the last time he went and filled up his tank with gas? she asked. When has he gone to a grocery store or a hardware store? Does he know what a loaf of bread costs now, or maybe a can of beans or a package of bacon?

Just in time for Black Friday, the political debate in Ottawa has become seized with all matters to do with shopping. It is the product pardon the pun of rising inflation, which is a relatively new and unwelcome development in Canada. The politics of grocery prices, however, are old and familiar.

Its so familiar, in fact, that price of milk question has its own Wikipedia entry, defined as: a tactic for gauging political candidates familiarity with the lives of ordinary voters.

Famous politicians who have been tripped up by this question, Wikipedia goes on to say, include U.S. president George H.W. Bush and British prime minister David Cameron. Long before he became Donald Trumps lawyer, Rudy Giuliani stumbled over the price of milk when he was running for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, saying a gallon cost about $1.50 when the actual price was closer to three times that. But wily Margaret Thatcher, the daughter of a grocer, reportedly kept a list of prices of common shopping-list items among her briefing papers when she was prime minister of the U.K.

That rich history explains why all those questions were flying around Parliament this week about the price of bacon, milk and chicken.

Inflation is not a great thing for Canadian consumers, but it is a good issue for the Conservatives as Parliament resumes this week for the first time since the election. The focus on rising prices keeps the party focused on matters in which it traditionally has some credibility with the voters: budget management and consumer-friendly policies.

As a bonus, it also gives the Conservatives another way to cast Trudeau as a member of the privileged, out-of-touch elite, another now-familiar trope in Canadian politics. Justinflation is the term that finance critic Pierre Poilievre introduced to the Commons this week, with his trademark dramatic pause, and a few hours later, the made-up word had its own hashtag on Twitter.

The Liberals reply, at least so far, is that inflation is a global phenomenon, created by the pandemic and worldwide problems in supply chains. Freeland stood in the Commons on Thursday and rattled off a list of all the countries where inflation is rocketing up faster than it is in Canada.

Yes, everyday affordability is a growing concern, the government acknowledges, but this is why the Liberals are barrelling ahead with $10-a-day child care and initiatives to make home ownership more attainable.

All of this may be true, but inflation may be shaping up to be a bigger political problem for the Liberals than the pandemic was. Those are abstract answers to very real, tangible problems in Canadian households as 2021 draws to a close.

The government had an array of fixes immediate ones for the economic damage of COVID-19. Despite some Conservative attempts to lay blame for the pandemic at the feet of the Liberals, most Canadians were aware that the Trudeau government didnt actually bring the coronavirus to this country.

That case may be harder to make with this global phenomenon, especially if Conservatives keep insisting as Poilievre repeated on Thursday that inflation here is a homegrown result of too much spending during the pandemic.

Inflation, in short, is the very definition of a populist, pocketbook issue, which is why the Conservatives have rushed to make it their own. People are being priced out of their own lives, Conservative Leader Erin OToole told reporters on Thursday.

An Ipsos poll for Global News this week reported that four out of five Canadians are now worried or very worried about inflation, their anxiety rising along with prices. Expect Freeland and other members of the Trudeau government to be talking a lot more about the shopping theyre doing.

Correction Nov. 26, 2021: This article was edited to correct that Candice Bergen is the Conservative Deputy Leader, not House Leader.

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Whether its inflation or Justinflation, Liberals are keeping a careful eye on grocery prices - Toronto Star

Most Democrats support Powell and hes expected to win Senate confirmation because broad Republican support will offset defections by some progressive Democrats.

Why am I not picking fresh blood or taking the Fed in a different direction? Biden said Monday as he addressed progressive concerns about Powell, a Republican who was first appointed to the Fed by Barack Obama and elevated to chairman by Donald Trump. Put directly, at this moment of both enormous potential and enormous uncertainty for our economy, we need stability and independence at the Federal Reserve.

Biden tried to appease progressives by also announcing Monday that he would nominate Lael Brainard, the only Democrat on the Feds board, to be vice chairwoman, a promotion that would enhance her influence on monetary policy and regulation. But that wasnt good enough for Warren, who in September called Powell dangerous because of his regulatory stance. She later hammered Powell for ignoring what she called a culture of corruption at the Fed over financial trading by top officials, including Eric Rosengren, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, who retired this fall in the wake of the controversy.

Its no secret I oppose Chair Jerome Powells renomination, and I will vote against him, Warren said in a written statement Monday. Two other Senate Democrats, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, also said last week they opposed Powells renomination. Warren and Merkley voted against Powells confirmation as Fed chair in 2018, two of the 13 senators including four Republicans who opposed him then.

While she said she supports Brainard, Warren added that Powells failures on regulation, climate, and ethics made it crucial for Biden to quickly nominate a strong regulator to a second Fed vice chair position, currently vacant, focused on supervising financial firms. The slot is one of three seats coming open on the Feds seven-member board in the coming weeks, giving Biden an opportunity to put his stamp on the independent central banks leadership.

But the most influential job is chair and after months of deliberation, Biden decided to stick with Powell, a lawyer and former investment banker who served as a Treasury official under President George H.W. Bush.

Unlike most Fed leaders, Powell is not an economist. But hes earned wide support across party lines for his extensive financial experience, clear communication, and ability to withstand sharp criticism from the left and right. Trump quickly turned on him in 2018 as the central bank began slowly raising interest rates as the economy improved, unleashing unprecedented public criticism of a Fed chair by a president.

Senator Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, said Monday he supported Powells nomination despite concerns that the Fed has been too slow in removing emergency monetary policy measures that were put in place to deal with the pandemic. Powell has also been criticized for not acting more quickly on rising inflation this year, asserting as the White House did that the increased prices would be temporary.

Inflation, however, has proven to be more persistent and the annual rate by one government measure in October jumped to its highest level in three decades. The Fed is mandated by law to promote maximum employment and stable prices, and its apparent misread of inflation might have given pause to Biden on Powells re-nomination, said Greg Valliere, chief US policy strategist for AGF, an asset management firm in Toronto.

But despite those concerns, Biden decided that Powell was a safer bet on the economy than naming a new chair some liberals had pushed for Brainard a move that could have unsettled financial markets, said Valliere, a longtime Washington analyst of the Fed and economic policy.

I think Biden probably felt the last thing he needs right now is a grouchy stock market, and the market could have been displeased if the pick had not been Powell, Valliere said. Major stock indices reacted positively to the news Monday morning.

Powell pledged on Monday to deal with inflation while saying other priorities included vigilantly guarding the resilience and stability of the financial system and addressing evolving risks from climate change.

The unprecedented reopening of the economy, along with continuing effects of the pandemic, led to supply and demand imbalances, bottlenecks and a burst of inflation, Powell said after Biden announced the nominations. We know that high inflation takes a toll on families, especially those less able to meet the higher costs of essentials, like food, housing, and transportation.

The Fed has a difficult task in the coming months in trying to pull back economic stimulus to reduce inflation without moving so quickly that job and economic growth is slowed, said Diane Swonk, chief economist at the accounting and advisory firm Grant Thornton.

You dont want a knee-jerk reaction. You want a pirouette. Thats a harder thing to accomplish, Swonk said of Fed monetary policy under Powell. I dont want to say hes been behind the curve, but hes been underestimating inflation and so has the Fed. Thats, something that a lot of people did.

Although inflation has jumped on Powells watch, progressives generally dont have problems with him on the economy. In a public letter this summer raising concerns about his leadership, Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez, and three other progressive House Democrats said they thought the Fed has made positive changes to its approach to full employment. Nonetheless, they urged Biden to nominate a new Fed chair because they said Powell had taken very little action to mitigate the risk climate change poses to our financial system and had weakened regulatory reforms enacted after the 2008 financial crisis.

Progressives have been happy with most of Bidens picks for financial regulators, including Gary Gensler as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Rohit Chopra, a Warren ally, to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and regulatory scholar Saule Omarova to be Comptroller of the Currency. Gensler and Chopra were narrowly confirmed, while Omarovas nomination is pending and under fire from Republicans.

But in renominating Powell, Biden placed economic policy over regulation and picked someone expected to easily be confirmed, said Valliere.

It looks to me as if Biden has other regulators who will be pretty tough on financial regulations, Valliere said.

Jim Puzzanghera can be reached at jim.puzzanghera@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter: @JimPuzzanghera.

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Biden crosses liberals to renominate Powell as Fed chairman, keeping a crisis-tested veteran to tackle inflation - The Boston Globe