Trudeau says he’ll stay focused on Canadians’, and Quebecers’, real priorities
Justin Trudeau says Canada faces a lot of challenges that won’t get addressed if the country gets “bogged down” in another round of constitutional haggling. The prime minister says Canadians, including Quebecers, want the federal government to stay focused on their priorities: jobs, economic growth and climate change. And he says the Liberals were elected […]
New concerns emerge over Conservative leadership voting process
An official from the Kellie Leitch campaign is raising new concerns over the voting process used in the recent Conservative leadership race, fuelling questions over Andrew Scheer’s razor-thin victory. Last week, members of Conservative MP Maxime Bernier’s team publicly called on the party to explain a 7,466-vote discrepancy in the final ballot count. The Conservative […]
Canada keeps terror threat level unchanged after U.K. attacks, but will be extra-vigilant around July 1
Canada’s terrorism threat level remains at medium in the wake of attacks that killed one Canadian visiting the U.K., but police and security agencies will be on high alert to protect revellers during 150th anniversary celebrations across the country. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale promised “seamless collaboration” between police agencies at the municipal, provincial and […]
Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland will put her stamp on Canada’s overarching foreign policy for the first time in a speech Tuesday that urges multilateralism, trade, action on climate change and support for the world’s most vulnerable. In the House of Commons Tuesday morning, just about five months into her tenure, Freeland will take half an […]
Read MoreThe man advising Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on building a new infrastructure financing agency was told the body could take on a “significant” amount of risk to help projects come to fruition. The agency would “help bear a significant portion of the risk” in a project if the government took on an equity stake to […]
Read MoreA government-ordered review of a recent decision restricting access to the networks of Canada’s big wireless service providers is being hailed as potential good news for consumers. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ruled in March that Rogers (TSX:RCI.B) could block customers of Sugar Mobile, a subsidiary of Ice Wireless, from roaming on its network. […]
Read MoreNDP leadership candidate Guy Caron says implementing electoral reform will be his top condition to support a minority government led by either the Liberals or the Tories — or his first act as prime minister if the New Democrats form government in 2019. The Quebec MP and former NDP finance critic plans to make the […]
Read MoreOttawa police are debunking a right-wing American news outlet’s claim that thousands of pro-Trump supporters descended on Parliament Hill Saturday. Breitbart News reported Saturday that up to 5,000 people protested in favour of U.S. President Donald Trump’s conservative agenda Saturday. Protesters, the controversial outlet said, were also angry about Prime Minster Justin Trudeau liberal policies. […]
Read MoreLongtime Liberal Hill staffer and senior researcher Kevin Bosch has left his job to join Hill + Knowlton Strategies in Ottawa as the public affairs firm’s new vice president. Mr. Bosch, a veteran and well-known Grit Hill staffer who initially joined the Liberal research bureau in 1998, quickly earned a reputation for being a savvy […]
Read MoreFeatured Ink
Little evidence Tories experiencing buyer’s remorse over Scheer win
For all the talk about a split party and the possibility that all was not right with the vote count, there is little evidence to date that many Conservatives are having second thoughts about Andrew Scheer’s leadership victory. Those of us who covered the 2006 Liberal leadership campaign and Stéphane Dion’s come-from-behind win know what […]
Prime Minister Ella-Grace Trudeau?
Who’s up for a third-generation Trudeau prime minister? Anyone? Bueller? Always one to think ahead, the current Prime Minister Trudeau, Justin, was on the TV this morning from Niagara Falls, where two visiting American daytime TV hosts, Kelly and Ryan—or as I still call them, Regis and Kathy Lee—asked him which of his three children […]
Christy Clark raises much and donates little
There’s a glaring irony in the phrase “pay-to-play” when it comes to B.C. politics. While developers, oil companies, banks, unions and lobbyists clearly got the memo, B.C.’s fundraiser in chief apparently didn’t. Christy Clark helped raise $7.6 million for the B.C. Liberals in 2016. But the premier and party leader didn’t contribute a dollar of […]
Wonder Woman must save the world, but first she has to fight it
Quashed on the gender front, quashed on the political front, quashed on the racial front, Wonder Woman and the actress who plays the part, Gal Gadot, have had to battle their way to the box office. What is Wonder Woman’s place in the world? Is she a superhero with natural superiority or is she just […]
Scheer is a leader who masks his personal beliefs to succeed
The new federal Conservative Leader, Andrew Scheer, is entitled to a honeymoon, just like every other leadership newbie. Right? Some weeks of nice headlines and pictures of the family and usually an encouraging bump in the polls. Most new leaders feel some love, at least at the start. In Scheer’s case, it might be a […]
CPC = Cheating Party of Canada
Andrew Scheer has begun his stint as Conservative leader with a Howdy-Doody smile — and an epical face-plant. Despite serious questions being raised about whether the vote that put him in Stornaway was rigged, the 38-year-old political lifer maintains it’s a party matter. The logic behind that posture is seriously skewed. It goes something like […]
Scheer’s Path to 2019
On May 27th, the Conservative Party of Canada chose its new leader—and it chose Andrew Scheer. With over 140,000 votes cast, according to the Conservative Party, and the underdog candidate receiving only 50.95 per cent of the vote on the 13th ballot, it is clear that the more than year-long race has been divisive. Andrew […]
How the Great White North can change the world: Canada’s role in global biodiversity conservation
As a northern nation that was mostly covered by glaciers only 10,000 years ago, Canada has fewer species than tropical countries where the evolution and emergence of new species has been operating in stable environments for hundreds of thousands of years. Tiny Panama has 10 times more tree species than Canada. Brazil has hundreds of […]
Agenda to improve women’s lives finding success
We’ve seen great waves of progress on women’s issues in Ontario and Canada, and progress intensifies as we make more room at the table for diverse perspectives. Eliminating barriers for women and women of colour entering politics is an important step in the process. We have a long road ahead. Transformational change is needed to […]
Sunny ways for the Conservative Party
The Conservative leadership election has come to a close, but it has opened a new chapter for a party that needed renewal. Any party that has served in government faces challenges following an election defeat. Its brand has been buffeted by years of criticism from the opposition parties and from the media. Its players are […]
“Keep Your Dirty Government Fingers Off My Medicare,” said a sign waved at Sarah Palin’s “Death Panel Tour” events. It was roundly mocked by progressives for its ignorance of who delivers assisted health services in the U.S. We should have listened more carefully to the subtext. The death panel nonsense was among the creation moments […]
Read MoreWaves of nostalgia, waves of dread, waves of ennui: to read the government of Quebec’s new list of old demands for constitutional change is to return to a world I had thought we left behind. I lost a good part of my youth to the Twenty Years War over the constitution, 1980-2000; the thought of […]
Read MoreSometimes the universe unfolds as it should. And sometimes, when you least expect it, the wheels fall off. The wheels fell off for Justin Trudeau this week. Just when he thought this pipeline mess had finally been resolved, along came Andrew Weaver to mess it up again. Mr. Weaver, the leader of B.C.’s Green Party, […]
Read MoreImagine the Pittsburgh Penguins had left Sidney Crosby home for the Stanley Cup finals. The guy who told his teammates “We can win this again,” before the champagne had even run dry during last summer’s Stanley Cup celebrations. Their best offensive force, now entering the legacy-building stage of his career, who some nights seems to […]
Read MoreThe Strategy Session panel discusses whether the languages commissioner appointment will cause political damage to the Liberal government.
Read MoreFor nearly the first time since she won a majority government three years ago, Kathleen Wynne is in her comfort zone. The Ontario Premier’s re-embrace of her left-of-centre activist roots, culminating in this week’s announcement of new labour provisions highlighted by a $15 minimum wage, may not be enough to keep her in office past […]
Read MorePierre Trudeau once said, “the essential ingredient in politics is timing” and right now his son Justin must appreciate that wisdom more than he ever wanted. Just months ago Prime Minister J. Trudeau’s green version of the New Deal, his great Carbon Pact, was all set to go. A national price on carbon in exchange […]
Read MoreOn Wednesday morning Donald Trump tweeted, “I will be announcing my decision on the Paris Agreement on climate change over the next few days. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” That’s right, America, your President was teasing pulling out of the historic and vital Paris agreement like it was a possible lesbian kiss coming up on a […]
Read MoreBack in 2011, when the Conservatives appointed Michael Ferguson, a unilingual New Brunswicker, as auditor general, Graham Fraser, then Canada’s commissioner of official languages, spoke out about the need for senior federal officials to be bilingual. “I think it’s a pretty critical leadership competency for senior jobs in government agencies and in government departments,” Fraser […]
Read MoreAutomation is expected to replace millions of Canadian jobs in the future, and for all we know, even political jobs could be carried out by robots. Yes, I know what you’re thinking; maybe some already are, especially the jobs that require mindless repetition of talking points or applauding on command. In fact, the robot revolution […]
Read MoreTitled “Being Québécois: It’s our way of being Canadians,” Quebec’s most comprehensive paper on its place in the federation in more than 20 years is little more than a bottle thrown in the ocean. Premier Philippe Couillard has no real expectation that it will be fished out any time soon, if ever. He would probably […]
Read MoreBack in the day, when Karla Homolka was testifying at the murder trial of her former husband Paul Bernardo, I fantasized that if I were independently wealthy, I would spend the rest of my life documenting the rest of hers. It would be called Karla Watch, and sometimes there’d be nothing to report — just […]
Read MoreWelcome to the first week of our post-Conservative leadership race lift, Vice readers! Before getting to your (pointed) questions on the affable-seeming Saskatchewanian who ultimately prevailed on the 13th round of vote-counting, I must sheepishly return to a question that was — most awkwardly, as it turned out — left waiting in the queue last […]
Read MoreYou would need a heart harder than the Canadian Shield to object to the arrival of the world’s largest rubber duck in our waters to celebrate the country’s birthday. The 12-storey-high bit of whimsy is expected in Toronto’s harbour on July 1, as part of a waterfront festival marking Canada 150. Politicians in Ontario have […]
Read MoreOf course it was stunning … and foolhardy … and troubling. But Donald Trump’s decision yesterday to pull out of the Paris climate change accord was, ironically, a democratic promise. Throughout one of the most divisive and damaging election campaigns in American history, Donald Trump had repeatedly promised that he would do exactly what he […]
Read MoreEntertainment Plus
As Bill Cosby sex assault trial starts, “O.J. hangover” possible
More than a decade after Bill Cosby invited a college basketball manager to his home to discuss her career, the 79-year-old comedian goes on trial on Monday in a sexual assault case that is sure to define his legacy. Cosby’s image as a father and family man, on screen and off, helped fuel his extraordinary […]
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