Heritage minister says Ottawa not ruling out helping newspaper industry
Heritage Minister Melanie Joly isn’t ruling out offering financial support to the struggling newspaper industry. Joly made the comments today after giving a speech to the Montreal Board of Trade. She says her government hasn’t reached a decision regarding the recent request by a coalition of Quebec-based newspapers for funding.
Watch: Woman throws pumpkin seeds at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to protest pipelines
A woman who threw pumpkin seeds at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Hamilton today is being questioned by the RCMP. Trudeau was leaving city hall after meeting with the mayor, when the woman hurled the seeds at him, shouting, “Keep your promises!” She was immediately tackled to the ground by security. Earlier, she had been […]
Peter Van Loan: Liberals ‘Dishonouring’ Soldiers Killed In Terror Attacks
Conservatives are accusing the Liberal government of trying to forget about terror attacks on Canadian soil that claimed the lives of two soldiers. Tory MP Peter Van Loan rose in question period Friday to note that Saturday will mark two years since the shooting on Parliament Hill, when “a jihadist terrorist struck at the heart […]
Legal experts are criticizing a decision by Supreme Court of Canada nominee Malcolm Rowe to deny a new trial to a sexual assault complainant who was subjected to “gratuitous humiliation and denigration” in court. The decision, which is being appealed by the Crown to the Supreme Court on the grounds that Rowe made several legal […]
Read MorePrime Minister Justin Trudeau has handed the duty of enforcing new rules for lobbying and political fundraisers to a department that directly reports to him, meaning that exclusive Liberal Party fundraisers with senior cabinet ministers as the prize attraction escape the scrutiny of the ethics commissioner. The Liberals have come under fire in recent days […]
Read MoreMoney can’t buy happiness. But it would sure go a long way in pleasing the provinces as their negotiations drag on with the federal government for a new health care accord. Provincial health ministers wrapped up meetings this week with their federal counterpart without much to show for all the hours spent talking behind closed […]
Read MoreAbout half of Ontarians do not believe Premier Kathleen Wynne will stick around to lead the Liberals into the 2018 election, a new poll suggests. The Forum Research survey, which found Wynne’s Grits continuing to lag well behind Patrick Brown’s Progressive Conservatives, revealed 49 per cent think “someone else will lead the Liberals” by the […]
Read MoreQuebéc MP Maxime Bernier is leading the pack in a national survey of card-carrying Conservatives eligible to vote when the official opposition party selects a new leader next May, a Forum Research poll indicates. Twenty-three per cent of Conservatives across the country would select Mr. Bernier as the best person to become the permanent leader […]
Read MoreSix months before Justin Trudeau’s recent suggestion to Montreal’s Le Devoir newspaper that the public’s enthusiasm for electoral reform had dissipated in the wake of his own government’s arrival, the prime minister said the same thing to an audience of students at the University of Ottawa. “A lot of people I’ve talked to have said, […]
Read MoreFeatured Ink
The true ‘first year’ test for Team Trudeau is still to come — and it concerns #elbowgate
Let’s start by getting one thing straight: Oct. 19 was not, in any way at all, the anniversary of Team Trudeau’s era in government. It marked one year since voters across Canada elected a majority of Liberal MPs. Two weeks later, some of those MPs – including Justin Trudeau – made the trek to Rideau […]
Don’t act surprised that the Liberals are flip-flopping on electoral reform
To realists — not cynics, realists — the likeliest outcome of the Liberals’ electoral reform consultations was always obvious: a lack of electoral reform. The precedent for holding a referendum was too strong; the arguments against holding one were too laughably weak (it’ll be like Brexit! Somehow!); the potential for blowback from a population that […]
A trade deal worth saving
In a fictional-sounding – but very real – place named Wallonia, the future of free trade is reeling badly, with potentially graver consequences for Canada than those we fear from the presidential race south of the border. Wallonia is a sub-region of Belgium that continues to hold out against the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement […]
Youth study shows parties may have it wrong
Advertisers, at least the ones who buy spots on TV, clearly don’t believe that young people are interested in politics. Tune into any one of the daily political broadcasts on Canadian all-news networks and you’ll see an array of pitches for stair lifts, walk-in baths or retirement-planning tools — not exactly items on any young […]
Remembering Oct. 22, 2014: How we overreacted to a lone gunman’s assault
Two years ago Parliament Hill was stormed by a gunman — and since then we’ve done too much about it. I apologize if that sounds glib or disrespectful. Certainly, that’s not the intention. I’m among the many Canadians who will take time this weekend to remember Cpl. Nathan Cirillo’s senseless murder. I’ll think of his […]
Remembering Oct. 22, 2014: How we didn’t overreact to an awful day
What words to describe the feeling as you watch, helplessly from across an ocean, as a terrorist storms your former place of work and threatens your former colleagues, including the prime minister of Canada? “Surreal” and “impotent” are the best I’ve come up with in the two years since Michael Zehaf-Bibeau launched his slapdash assault […]
Poor Maryam Monsef held town hall meetings on electoral reform all summer, and for what?
Poor Maryam Monsef must wonder what she did to deserve the last few months. As the Minister for Democratic Institutions she was supposed to spend the summer presiding over town hall sessions at which engaged Canadians shared their views on the matter of Canada’s electoral system. Instead, Monsef found herself blindsided by her mother, who […]
Liberals taking a gamble by reversing election promises
What’s a government to do when promises start to unravel? We’re about to find out. The Trudeau Liberals’ 2015 platform took quite a knocking this month. Electoral reform? Not if Canadians don’t want it, says Justin Trudeau, while continuing to resist the obvious mechanism — a referendum — for finding out whether they do. More […]
With cash-for-access, Justin Trudeau picks up where Kathleen Wynne left off
Is no one in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office paying attention to what is going on in Ontario? Here we have Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne backed into a corner and forced to reform her province’s political financing laws because of the conflicts of interest exposed in her party’s cash-for-access scheme. And now Mr. Trudeau’s party […]
The double helix of entitlement and political favouritism
After the year of the non-stop honeymoon, voters may have cause to demand an early counselling intervention for their poll-topping Liberal government. While even the harshest critic would likely give the Liberals decent marks for their post-election performance so far, there’s an irritant with the history-proven capacity to morph from a quibble to disappointment to […]
It looks like a pants-on-fire moment for Canada’s very own Sun King. A year ago, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was making this sweeping promise in his campaign literature as he prepared for victory in last year’s election: “We will make every vote count. “We are committed to ensuring that 2015 will be the last federal […]
Read MoreI’ve decided I’m basically anti-values. There’s nowhere else to go. At first I thought I was just against the kind of race-based, Trump-echoing version of “Canadian values” that Kellie Leitch is building her run for the Conservative leadership on, and which she advocated while backing the “barbaric cultural practices tip line” last election. Our variation […]
Read MoreA new poll from Lethbridge College, which is apparently a thing that exists, has created a stir in Alberta politics this week. Its content is perhaps not so much surprising as it is an overdue reminder: the province that voted for Progressive Conservative governments in 12 consecutive elections did not suddenly disappear overnight in May […]
Read MoreNot so surprising Albertans are not buying what the NDP are selling. Most folks still hate the NDP’s carbon tax plan. A month ago, a ThinkHQ nosecount pegs the disapproval at 63%. Now a Lethbridge College poll puts the naysayers of the carbon tax at 67%, more than two out of three asked the big […]
Read MoreAt her state of the province address in Calgary on Wednesday, Premier Rachel Notley insisted her NDP are “the do-something party — the fundamental reformers, the change agents, the people who believe if we act together, things will get better.” Gag me. If anything, the NDP are the destroy-everything party – the fundamental demolishers, the […]
Read MoreThe head of the Ontario Medical Association and a property developer paid $5,500 each to have lunch with Premier Kathleen Wynne as a fundraiser for a posh women’s golf club two years ago, the Toronto Sun has learned. Wynne’s wife, Jane Rounthwaite, is a member of the club and was on the board of directors […]
Read MoreIf there’s one thing bullies can’t stand, it’s being mocked. Humour is the tool anyone can wield, a shiv that can be hidden on the smallest body. It’s the reason dictators throw cartoonists and comedians in jail. So it’s no surprise that the thing that made Donald Trump lash out and label Hillary Clinton “such […]
Read MoreMuch celebration — for the most part justified — is attending the first anniversary of Justin Trudeau’s election victory. Twelve months later, polls elicit no buyer’s remorse. Many voters who did not support Trudeau last year are on balance happy he won. The alignment of the stars continues to favour the prime minister. With the […]
Read MoreLook, maybe it’s nothing. Maybe, when Justin Trudeau told Le Devoir that “if we’re going to change the electoral system, people have to be open to it,” he meant to suggest nothing more than respect for the public’s wishes — no bad thing, in a democracy. Maybe when he explained how he was “not going […]
Read MoreIn June, 2015, when the NDP was ahead in the polls and Justin Trudeau was looking like he might be a dud, he held an event in the big ballroom at the Chateau Laurier to try to gain some traction, put some policy on the table and remind everyone that he was also an important […]
Read MoreSoaring electricity rates are sending Liberal support tumbling. Wind and solar are down and out. Carbon pricing is looming. Nuclear power remains radioactive. Is there a silver bullet to rescue the Ontario government from its energy morass? Here’s a hint: Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard is in town Friday with his top ministers for a joint […]
Read MoreWe’ve actually lived to see the day when a candidate for president, at a debate witnessed by tens of millions of viewers, would not promise to respect the result of the election. “I will look at it at the time,” Donald Trump said Wednesday, when asked by moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News whether he […]
Read MoreAs Canadians watching U.S. politics, there is always a temptation to look for competitive advantage. What good policy will our politics allow that U.S. politics seemingly never will? Historically, the examples have been definitive—and as diverse as universal health care and a national value-added tax. But watching this fall’s U.S. presidential election, including tonight’s debate […]
Read MoreIt doesn’t matter where you live: Donald Trump will find you. Not literally, of course. (Even if he is elected president of the United States next month, world domination is not likely in the cards for the Donald.) Rather, he will find you virtually, in your newsfeed and anywhere you browse online. The rabid Republican […]
Read MoreIn Canada, we’re tinkering with the heart of democracy—as Donald Trump stokes fears of the false majority. While a passel of politically minded folks were in Iqaluit on Monday busying themselves with concerns about fair elections, roughly 2,600 km to the south Donald Trump was in his gilded Manhattan tower with related worries. “Of course […]
Read MoreEntertainment Plus
‘There’s a big problem’: Two-thirds of Tragically Hip tickets weren’t sold directly to fans
Machines may have spoiled the Tragically Hip’s Man Machine Poem tour for a lot of fans this summer. Two-thirds of the tickets for the band’s landmark tour were snapped up by brokers and automated software, known as bots, CBC Marketplace has learned. As a result, actual fans were able to buy less than a third […]
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