Malcolmson makes it official as NDP candidate in Nanaimo byelection
The New Democrats in British Columbia have acclaimed member of Parliament Sheila Malcolmson as their candidate in an upcoming provincial byelection, kicking off her campaign in Nanaimo on Sunday. Malcolmson says her priorities will include making housing more affordable, protecting the coast from oil spills and pollution from abandoned vessels, and helping to bring a […]
Faith Goldy ordered to pay Bell Media more than $43,000 in legal fees
A controversial figure who ran as a Toronto mayoral candidate has been ordered to pay more than $43,000 in legal fees to Bell Media after her lawsuit was dismissed by the Ontario Superior Court. Faith Goldy had sued Bell over its refusal to air her campaign advertisements on a local television station, but the suit […]
Speaker Geoff Regan opens the door to his apartment in Parliament
One of the best-kept secrets inside the main building on Parliament Hill — known as Centre Block — is what’s inside room 202N. Major renovations are about to begin on Centre Block, and just before the storied building is shut for at least the next 10 years, the Speaker has decided to take out his […]
Mark your calendars, and set those countdown clocks: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that the next federal election will not be called early. “We will have an election on the fixed election date of October 21, I believe it is,” Trudeau said during a sit-down interview with Evan Solomon, host of CTV’s Question Period. Almost […]
Read MoreCanadian diplomats have been granted consular access to Michael Spavor, one of two Canadians arrested in China earlier this week. In a statement, Global Affairs says John McCallum, Canada’s ambassador to China, met with Spavor today. The department says Canadian officials will assist Spavor and his family on an ongoing basis, but provided no other […]
Read MoreThe Ontario government is slashing millions of dollars in funding for programs that are aimed at providing students with extra skills and support, leaving school boards to figure out how students will be affected. A spokeswoman for Education Minister Lisa Thompson said $25 million was slashed from the budget after the government reviewed the “Education […]
Read MoreA fist fight broke out during an anti-immigration protest in downtown Edmonton Saturday afternoon, before police moved in to separate protesters and counter-demonstrators. There were only a few police officers present at Churchill Square when the altercation started, but more arrived after the first punch landed. About 20 officers formed a line to separate the […]
Read MoreThe arrest of a Chinese tech executive is yet another example that the U.S. is creating “a new Cold War” in international trade, says economist Jeffrey Sachs, who adds that Canada is abetting its southern neighbour. Canadian officials arrested Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of the Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei, in Vancouver on an […]
Read MoreDonning the same yellow vests as French protesters, crowds came out in Edmonton, Toronto, Winnipeg, Okanagan, Moncton, Calgary, Saskatoon and Halifax with signs that read “Canada first,” a take on U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America first” slogan, as well as “Trudeau the traitor.”
Read MoreFeatured Ink
Scheer’s stance on migration pact a nod to Bernier supporters
Conservative Party of Canada Lleader Andrew Scheer appears to be making a hard right pivot in the leadup to the 2019 election. Scheer is practically shrieking about globalists with his fact-free attacks on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for signing the non-binding UN Pact on Global Migration. He claims that signing the agreement will limit Canada’s […]
Political cheers and jeers for 2018
Two unprecedented elections in Ontario and Toronto made for a memorable political year locally. There were also major federal and international events that captivated the public’s attention. Our Politics Page columnists have singled out politicians deserving of praise for their abilities to succeed in these turbulent times and others who did not. We also look […]
The three big political stars of 2018
This year was a noteworthy one in politics both local and internationally. American President Donald Trump continues to dominate the political agenda. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau managed to finalize a renegotiation of NAFTA despite the critics and naysayers. Elections in Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick saw a sea of change. There were winners and losers. […]
Horgan is bushed, but thinking big, at end of busy year
Premier John Horgan says a busy 2018 wore him out, but he has big plans for next year and beyond. Last year at this time, John Horgan was telling reporters how fired up and excited he was to be the new premier of British Columbia. This year, he’s not afraid to admit the job can […]
UN’s climate circus lumbers on
The United Nations’ annual climate conferences, like the latest in Katowice, Poland — attended by thousands of politicians, bureaucrats, diplomats, scientists, special interest groups and media — are a circus and a fraud. From the first climate summit in Rio in 1992, followed by 24 annual UN “Conferences of the Parties” (COPs) to date, beginning […]
Canada’s political upheaval is not done yet
2018 was a bad year for provincial incumbents in Canada. In Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, voters fired their premiers after single terms in office. Year-end polls suggest the same fate could await the premiers of Alberta and P.E.I. in 2019. In just the past six years, Quebec has disposed of three premiers. None of […]
Let’s call China’s detention of Canadians by its proper name — kidnapping
Canadian authorities might have guessed how China would respond to the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei executive accused of violating U.S. sanctions on Iran. In 2014, after Canada arrested Chinese businessman Su Bin, wanted in the U.S. on espionage charges, China seized Christian aid workers Kevin and Julia Garratt. They were held in isolation […]
National debate on carbon tax makes allies of Horgan, Trudeau
The thorny issue of taxing carbon has split this country’s political leaders and has further pushed B.C. Premier John Horgan and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau into each other’s arms. Just days after his government released its ambitious and far-reaching plan to tackle climate change and wean much of B.C. off fossil fuels, Horgan found himself […]
Don Martin’s story of the year: The plight of Alberta
The imminent rollout of Canadian news stories of the year will be predictable. The puff that was pot legalization; the dairy industry tweak that was the new NAFTA deal; the carbon tax resistance by premiers and perhaps the escalating Chinese retaliation for the Huawei CFO arrest. All important. All nation-defining. All second rate considerations to […]
Why Trudeau is such a lightning rod in Alberta politics
OK, let’s just make it official and put Justin Trudeau’s name on the ballot for Alberta’s 2019 provincial election. I mean, Premier Rachel Notley and United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney seem to be campaigning as much against Trudeau as they are against each other. The latest swipe at Trudeau came Wednesday night in the […]
Canada is currently caught in vice between observing the demand of justice and the rule of law and the volatile practice of the rule by men in the U.S and China. Canada had a legal obligation under the extradition treaty with the U.S. to arrest Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou when she was in Vancouver changing […]
Read MoreThe timing was admittedly not the best. Shortly after the premier of Quebec, Francois Legault, declared his opposition to reviving the mothballed Energy East pipeline, which would have transported western Canadian oil through Quebec to refineries in New Brunswick — there was no “social acceptability” for such “dirty energy” in Quebec, Legault sniffed — the […]
Read MoreAndrew Scheer’s schadenfreude is showing. You don’t need to speak German to understand the malicious pleasure the official Opposition leader is taking from the misfortunes suffered by the Trudeau government. The problem is the government’s fiscal problems could boomerang back on him, as he gears up for next year’s election. In question period on Wednesday, […]
Read MoreThe end of the last full parliamentary year before a general election finds the NDP in dire straits, the Conservatives in dubious company and the Liberals in worse shape than many of them would like to believe. It will make for an eventful campaign year.
Read MoreMassive home renovations can test even the best of relationships. So it could be a bit of a democratic-relationship experiment to see who and what gets tested when a very long renovation gets under way soon in the home that belongs to all Canadians — Parliament Hill’s Centre Block.
Read MoreMPs were told that parliamentarians and the public will finally be consulted on the Centre Block rehabilitation. The details of the process are still hazy. There are lot of 11th-hour trips up the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill this month, a lot of group photos being taken in the halls and one-last-meals among colleagues in […]
Read MoreEnvironment Minister Catherine McKenna and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have finally outlined in recent media interviews what Canada’s carbon pricing/tax policy will look like if the Liberals win next year’s election. McKenna told The Canadian Press last week that by the end of 2020, a re-elected Trudeau government will introduce tougher industrial greenhouse gas emission […]
Read MoreSound familiar? Just ask our American friends, who have been wrestling with the spectre of obstruction of justice ever since Donald Trump won the presidency — and trampled on the FBI by firing its director, James Comey. Now, Ontarians are facing their own moment of truth as the layers of deception are peeled back from […]
Read MoreLast week, a two-decade old recording of Jason Kenney, Alberta’s United Conservative Party leader and one of the most prominent figures in Canadian conservatism, came to light. It contained some deeply disturbing comments. The tape reveals Kenney boasting of his helping to organize a petition demanding a referendum to repeal an ordinance that gave hospital […]
Read MoreI doubt Andrew Scheer is old enough to have much first-hand memory of George H.W. Bush, whose death produced a surprising outpouring of U.S. national emotion. Scheer was born in 1979. By my calculation that takes him half-way through his second year on the planet when Ronald Reagan, with Bush as his running mate, clobbered […]
Read MoreEntertainment Plus
‘SNL’ shows world without Donald Trump as president in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ spoof
“Saturday Night Live” took us to a world without Donald Trump as president in a send-up of the classic Christmas film “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The show started with the classic black-and-white open and Trump on the balcony of the White House. “I don’t think I can do this anymore,” Alec Baldwin, making another cameo […]
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