Trudeau, Tusk open talks at EU summit on Canada-EU trade agreement
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and European Council President Donald Tusk have begun their formal talks that will centre on the comprehensive trade agreement between Canada and the European Union. Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU trade commissioner, is joining them today in Montreal after the leaders of the 28-country bloc toured Montreal’s bustling port on Wednesday. Trudeau […]
High court won’t hear NDP expenses case over mailings, offices
The federal NDP may have lost its final legal bid for judicial review of decisions by the House of Commons management body that left the party on the hook for as much as $2.7 million. The Supreme Court of Canada declined today to hear an appeal from New Democrats over the decisions by the Board […]
Stephen Harper speaks at conference held at ‘cult’ Iranian dissident group’s Albanian compound
For a second straight year, former prime minister Stephen Harper spoke at a conference organized by the MEK, a controversial Iranian dissident group that his government once labelled a terrorist organization and has been described as a cult.
Andrew Scheer is accusing the Trudeau government of mistreating Canadian dairy farmers by repeatedly missing its own deadlines to announce compensation to the sector for recent trade concessions. The Conservative leader told the Dairy Farmers of Canada’s (DFC) annual general meeting in Saskatoon today that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau didn’t understand the need to provide […]
Read MoreFederal Conservative leader Andrew Scheer is promising a review of the Canada Food Guide if he becomes prime minister in the next election. Scheer’s concern stems from a lack of consultation, which he argues, leaves the guide in the hands of ideologues and open to bias. But registered dietitian Ali Chernoff says that the opposite […]
Read MoreSenator Joseph Day says a report he authored for the Defence and Security Committee (DSC) of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly that revealed specific locations of American nuclear weapons in Europe was done intentionally.
Read MoreThe Conservative Party is re-editing its fundraising pitch video attacking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s handling of the case of the two Canadian men detained in China after one of their families complained about the clip. The video, which goes after the Liberals’ overall foreign policy record, showed photos of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig with […]
Read MoreImperial Oil says it “took the opportunity” to lobby Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer at a literary gala in May where the oil company paid for everyone’s dinner. In fact, that night both Liberal and Conservative MPs were lobbied by several corporate representatives from various sectors, whose employers paid tens of thousands of dollars to […]
Read MoreThe CEOs of nine Alberta natural gas producers have released an open letter to Premier Jason Kenney asking him to show “bold leadership” in supporting a plan to restrict production to boost low gas prices. The letter warns the province faces a high likelihood of corporate failures, job losses and falling investment levels if the […]
Read MoreFeatured Ink
Dominic LeBlanc’s illness no excuse for taking advantage of his Irving connections
Dominic LeBlanc is a subscriber of the view that politics should be fun — that politicians have no right to be pompous or po-faced. Visitors to the House of Commons are advised to disregard what passes for debate between the leaders and focus exclusively on LeBlanc, constantly taunting and teasing, ribbing and razzing his opponents. […]
Reforming Canadian democracy starts by reforming candidate nomination process
One of the paradoxes of Canada’s pantomime democracy — the meaninglessness of Parliament, the impotence of its members, the wildly unrepresentative process that puts them there — is the impossibility of fixing it. The changes that are most needed, after all, require the consent of the people who stand to lose most from them. No […]
Trudeau should try killing the Conservatives with kindness
Going negative works. The Conservative Party proved it for years with successive attacks on Liberal leaders Stéphane Dion and Michael Ignatieff. Both men had much to offer, but the respective Tory counters of “not a leader” and “didn’t come back for you” had too much truth to be ignored by voters. Indeed, Ignatieff was so […]
Trump is not a racist. He’s simply intolerant of the bad kinds of people: Robyn Urback
To quote the inimitable Sen. Mitch McConnell: The president is not a racist. McConnell should know. He has spent years now working closely with the U.S. president — carrying his glass of Diet Coke from room to room, pressing his pyjamas, enduring his scathing public humiliations. And he knows that Donald Trump is telling the […]
Justin Trudeau, Liberal virtucrat
The Liberal “fear and smear” campaign against Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer orchestrated by Prime Minster Justin Trudeau is nothing new. The Liberals have always campaigned on the basis that the Conservatives are not only wrong, but evil. It’s part of the Liberals’ DNA. Thus, Trudeau and Co. absurdly suggest Scheer is a white supremacist sympathizer […]
Canada’s new business watchdog is already a failure
Child labour in supply chains. Forced labour. Non-existent safety regulations. Rape. The list is tragically longer. Hopes were high that the Trudeau government would act smartly in creating a robust office with the powers to track and investigate Canadian corporations operating abroad after a dismal showing on this issue under the Harper years. The previous […]
Andrew Scheer will have a hard time shaking Doug Ford. He’d better get started
When the late Republican leader John McCain ran for U.S. president (and lost) against Barack Obama in 2008, he spent much of the campaign, like any politician, telling people who he was. But he also told them who he wasn’t. “I’m not George Bush,” he said in a speech, referring of course to the sitting […]
UCP solidarity, never a sure thing, shows some early cracks
Alberta’s politics are carved in stone right now. It seems that the UCP dynasty, like the Sphinx, won’t begin to erode for a couple of millennia. That’s the prevailing thought, especially among conservatives. They earnestly believe that with a stark right-left choice the NDP will now start to fade and lose most of its 25 […]
Rodeo animals love what they do and wouldn’t exist otherwise
A while back I spent a day hanging out in the chuckwagon barns at the Calgary Stampede. It was an eye-opening experience. As the driver and crew of each team started harnessing each of their four horses that would pull their chuckwagon and prepared to saddle up their two outrider horses, a racket ensued — […]
The Power of Declining Expectations
Like it or not, and whether it is indeed an accurate assessment, the terms “populism” and “class war” are increasingly creeping into our political language the closer we get to this fall’s federal election. Numerous pundits have spent the past year assuring Canadians that nothing like Brexit or the Trump phenomenon would happen here in […]
Sometimes Liberals act for the best possible reason and the worst possible reason at the same time. Their move to criminalize conversion therapy is a case in point. Conversion therapy, which is not therapy and converts no one, can be so harmful to LGBTQ patients that some provinces and municipalities have moved to restrict the […]
Read MoreEvery election campaign begins with the pollsters and the pundits attempting to divine the big issues that will decide how people vote. Some even try to predict what THE issue will be: the so-called “ballot box” question on which the election supposedly turns. This is a fool’s errand. The electorate is not a single collective […]
Read MoreJustin Trudeau came to Alberta last week and amidst stoneface employees at the Trans Mountain pipeline terminal just outside Edmonton held what can only be described as an election campaign photo-op. He spoke forcefully about tackling environmental issues while at the same time ensuring jobs in the energy sector by green lighting controversial projects, such […]
Read MoreThe brief get-together of five conservative-minded premiers last week was meant to highlight the divide. Alberta’s Jason Kenney, Ontario’s Doug Ford, Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe and New Brunswick’s Blaine Higgs all gathered before the cameras to flip pancakes at the Calgary Stampede. They were joined by Northwest Territories Premier Bob McLeod who, while technically non-partisan, shares […]
Read MoreConservative leader Andrew Scheer is in a very difficult position. A genuinely decent man, considered by many to be far too timid for the cut and thrust of party politics, he’s a devout and orthodox Roman Catholic leading a party that is divided on socially conservative issues, hoping to govern a country that is largely […]
Read MoreIf the past few months of Canadian politics have taught us anything, it’s that bile works. Weeks of Liberal caterwauling about abortion and hidden agendas have put Prime Minister Justin Trudeau back on top of the polls. Desperate times brought desperate measures and they have, in turn, brought relief. There was a point in April, […]
Read MoreJustin Trudeau wants Quebec seats so badly in this fall’s election that he doesn’t care what he does to Alberta, as long as it brings him votes in Montreal. On Wednesday, there was the prime minister and Liberal leader hoisting clutched hands high with long-time anti-oil activist Steven Guilbeault who had just become Trudeau’s nominee […]
Read MoreWith 98 days to go before the Oct. 21 federal election, the pollsters say human-induced climate change will be high on voters’ minds. Given that, voters should understand the election debate about this issue will be entirely about political perception as opposed to political reality. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna want […]
Read MoreOntario Premier Doug Ford was met with a lot of nods of agreement at this week’s Council of the Federation (CoF) conference in Saskatoon and elsewhere when he suggested there are more interprovincial trade restrictions within Canada than our country faces internationally. That one of those nodding in agreement was federal Liberal Public Safety Minister […]
Read MoreDoug Ford couldn’t help himself from taking shots at Justin Trudeau this week. First, while in Calgary, the Ontario Premier accused the Prime Minister of not co-operating with the provinces, slammed federal carbon pricing policy, and punctuated it with a “God help us if Trudeau is re-elected.” Later, in Saskatoon, Mr. Ford proclaimed that a […]
Read MoreEntertainment Plus
Emmys 2019: ‘Game of Thrones’ earns record number of nominations — but are they deserved?
The Emmy nominations announced Tuesday included a record-breaking 32 for “Game of Thrones.” Considering just how outstanding the final season of the massive hit was, and how many high-profile shows moved their premieres to June to get out of the way of what was expected to be the show’s victory lap, this is not a […]
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