In a boiling universe of hot gas, new bodies will form. That may not be a cosmic law, but it works in Alberta politics. By next Saturday we should know if the PCs and Wildrose have decided to merge into one United Conservative Party. The PCs will vote over three days, from July 20 to […]

Just last week it was all going so well. Justin Trudeau was strutting the stage in Hamburg with the world’s top leaders. So tall, so trim, so respected! Nothing happened at the G20, but the images were great. Then came the Khadr settlement, which was supposed to be quick, clean and low-key, but turned out […]

Anti-intellectualism in the United States may have reached a new high with this week’s stunning finding from the Pew Research Center: most Republican-leaning citizens now believe that colleges and universities are bad for America. Higher education hasn’t traditionally been a partisan issue in the United States. In 2010, 58 per cent of Republicans and 65 […]

“My son Donald did a good job last night. He was open, transparent and innocent. This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!” U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted, should the “Sad!” not give the source away. “Sad!” is becoming Mr. Trump’s signature sign-off. It is the mirror of Edward R. Murrow’s “Good night […]

For a government that operates as if it were making the movie version of itself, the appointment of Julie Payette as Canada’s next Governor General is perfect: she is straight out of central casting. “She is trained to fly fighter jets, has two engineering degrees, has sung with the Montreal Symphony and became one of […]

Politicians like to pretend they make their own luck but in reality they don’t hold all of the cards. Sometimes in politics you’re dealt a losing hand. Last November Justin Trudeau certainly didn’t come up aces with the election of Donald J. Trump. A right-wing, nether regions-grabbing, protectionist, polluting president? Despite the frantic efforts of […]

Emergencies come in all shapes and sizes. In Ontario, unpredictable weather is a fact of life that can have devastating effects on people and property. Then there are the man-made ones such as gas leaks, chemical spills, terror attacks, and child abductions. You’re either prepared for emergencies or you’re not. Simply put, we are not. […]

“I think it restores a little bit my reputation here in Canada, and I think that’s the biggest thing for me.” That’s the hope of Omar Khadr, speaking about his $10.5 million legal settlement with the federal government. In an interview broadcast on CBC’s Power & Politics, he told host Rosemary Barton, “I never was […]

There’s been a great deal written about Omar Khadr in the past few days and I’m not going to pen yet another column on the subject. What is so revealing, however, is the response to the government’s apology and payment from the Conservative party and its followers. Frankly, Khadr has become a poster boy for […]

Picking a governor general is a challenge for any prime minister. (Yes, yes, it’s the Queen’s choice, but to say the least, she takes advice well.) Which is an odd thing to say, because the governor general’s formal role in the legislative process is pretty limited. The privy council offers up bills from Parliament for […]

The turning point in the 2015 federal election campaign in Quebec came in mid-September, a month before voting day, when the Federal Court of Appeal struck down a Conservative government ban on face coverings at citizenship ceremonies. For New Democratic Leader Tom Mulcair, it was the moment of truth that ended his party’s long run […]

First they came for Pepe the Frog. And I said nothing because, to be honest, I didn’t much care that alt-right trolls and white supremacists had co-opted an innocent cartoon frog meme for their own foul purposes. But now they’ve come for the Red Ensign. On Canada Day, a small group of alt-right agitators who […]

This month, Washington Post writer Jonathan Coppage made a statement that surprised no one: “Kids are living with their parents longer.” But Coppage took this idea one step further into territory few are willing to go. “It’s a good thing” that adult kids are living with parents longer, he argues. Kids and parents can pool […]

In the fall of 2016, the Ontario Liberals signalled they were gearing up for the 2018 provincial election. Pat Sorbara, a key strategist in Premier Kathleen Wynne’s office, was moved into party headquarters as CEO and director of the Liberal campaign. This was 20 months before the actual election date, set for June 7, 2018. […]

How could so many Canadians protest the government’s apology and compensation to Omar Khadr, when the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that Canada violated some of his most fundamental rights? The Supreme Court unanimously stated in 2008 that “by making the product of its [post-torture] interviews of Mr. Khadr available to U.S. authorities, Canada participated […]