‘Justinflation’ can’t be said in the House of Commons, but MPs are trying anyway
The Conservatives’ cheeky term for inflation under the Liberals has got some MPs into trouble in the House of Commons, where saying “Justinflation” has been deemed verboten. Speaker Anthony Rota repeatedly chastised Tory MPs this week for breaking the rules, asking them to “correct the error” when their “play on words” was indirectly violating procedure. […]
Canada headed for ‘severe’ and ‘inevitable’ recession in 2023: economist
Canada is headed for a recession in early 2023, according to one economist. “I don’t think that we’re in a recession just yet, but I do think that one is on the horizon,” David Doyle, the head of economics at Macquarie Group, told BNN Bloomberg. “Our baseline is that Canada will enter a recession in […]
Liberals to launch Indo-Pacific strategy this year, shaped by looming China assembly
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says she will release Canada’s long-delayed Indo-Pacific strategy this year. She says the strategy will be shaped by a major meeting the Chinese government is holding in two weeks. The strategy will include co-operation on climate change, she said in an interview with the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, […]
While Canada’s reconciliation project with Indigenous people is showing signs of progress, it’s moving much slower than many had hoped. When the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its final report in 2015, it came with 94 calls to action demanding action by governments across Canada on a wide range of reconciliation initiatives. Seven years later, […]
Read MoreAs the United Conservative Party prepares to name a new leader – and premier – Albertans look ahead to the near political future with much pessimism. New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds Albertans more likely to believe the impact of a win by any of three UCP leadership frontrunners – Danielle Smith, […]
Read MoreThe Green Party is downsizing its leadership contest following an exodus of people from the party’s leadership organizing committee. A news release from its press secretary, Fabrice Lachance Nové, states the party will reduce the planned two rounds of voting to one. Voting for the single round will now begin on Nov. 12 and end […]
Read MoreThe RCMP says Jeremy MacKenzie’s arrest was not influenced by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s request to have the Mounties look into comments about his wife. The founder of the online group “Diagolon” was arrested on Wednesday in Cole Harbour, N.S., on a Canada-wide warrant related to charges laid by the Mounties in Saskatchewan in July. […]
Read MoreSenator Vern White has resigned from the Red Chamber, effective Oct. 2, and will be rejoining his wife and 10-year-old daughter in Finland, where the family spent the past summer. White’s wife Sari hails from Finland and has family there. White told The Hill Times that his daughter is fluent in Finnish and already attending […]
Read MoreCanada’s national police force, which was heavily criticized for using Clearview AI software, has signed contracts to use multiple facial recognition tools. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) revealed these details in documents recently tabled in Parliament, though it says it has stopped using facial recognition technology pending an internal review sparked by public outcry […]
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Today in Canada’s Political History: Arthur Meighen writes the Foreword to Sir Robert Borden’s Memoirs
Most historians will agree that Lester B. Pearson, Brian Mulroney and Sir Robert Borden wrote the most comprehensive political and personal memoirs of our past national leaders. Borden’s two volumes, published after his 1937 death, were a decade-long project for Canada’s 8th Prime Minister. They remain a treasure trove for students of the Borden period […]
The ‘freedom convoy’ will keep driving our politics
The so-called “freedom convoy” that blocked Parliament Hill and several Canada-U.S. border crossings may have dispersed earlier this year, but it won’t be leaving our political conversation anytime soon. At least, not if opponents of the federal Conservative Party and their new leader, Pierre Poilievre, have anything to say about it. The most recent polling […]
Trudeau and Poilievre face a similar challenge in attracting voters
Plus ça change. It should not come as a surprise to any Canadian political watcher worth their salt that the Conservative Party of Canada appears to have a little wind in its sails after the election (well, coronation really) of leader Pierre Poilievre. After years of being essentially locked in a statistical tie with the […]
Ottawa has neglected some of Canada’s problems — and now we’re all paying the price
Call it political slow-walking, or over-promising and under-delivering — this was the week it all caught up with us. Sluggish progress on confronting climate change left our infrastructure vulnerable on the Atlantic Coast. Years of hand-wringing on housing affordability has left our economy vulnerable to recession. And incremental progress on long-standing and well-known Indigenous wounds […]
Electoral reform can save Canada from Pierre Poilievre’s politics
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. When it comes to electoral reform, that ought to be the attitude of both Justin Trudeau’s Liberals and Jagmeet Singh’s NDP. After failing to reach an agreement on the best way to replace Canada’s first-past-the-post system, both sides have since moved on to other priorities. But […]
Veteran NDP MP Bill Blaikie was dean of the House during seismic times in Canadian politics
Nearly everyone who speaks about Bill Blaikie talks, somehow, about bigness. There was the towering intellectual and moral reputation he acquired over three decades representing Winnipeg for the NDP in the House of Commons, where even those who ferociously disagreed with him always listened when he spoke. He exerted a gravitational pull, so that people […]
Letter from the United Nations: A World of Problems
The 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly began two weeks ago. We are meeting at a time of major disruption in the global economy, geopolitics and politics, the sustainability of the planet, global public health, the pace of technological change, and the inevitable human consequences of all of the above. The situation does […]
Will the coming recession be ‘mild’? Maybe. But painless? Don’t count on it
A fourth forecaster has projected a little recession for Canada, and this time it’s supposed to start next week. Deloitte Canada joins economists at Bank of Montreal, Desjardins and Royal Bank in seeing two straight quarters of “mild” economic contraction in our near future — perhaps as soon as the fourth quarter of 2022 which […]
Ontario has become an unaffordable dystopia. Time to move to Alberta
Jason Kenney’s right — Alberta offers more opportunities for young people than Ontario. “Actually, I love Calgary.” This is the sort of statement that, when uttered to other Toronto-based millennials, used to earn me blank stares and dubious eye rolls. Most could never see themselves leaving the city for nearby Hamilton, let alone Alberta. I […]
NDP puts minority rights aside as it courts Quebec
For a party that prides itself on standing up for minority rights, supporting a Quebec law that strips the rights of non-francophones is a head-scratcher. The federal NDP and the Green Party’s Elizabeth May voted to endorse the use of the notwithstanding clause and Quebec’s controversial Bill 96 Wednesday, by supporting Bloc Québécois legislation that […]
For Justin Trudeau, the idea is more interesting than the implementation. He’s always more excited about “what’s new” than absorbed in executing decisions already made. The Liberal government’s proposals for a national dental-care program are a case in point. The Liberals have become converts to the idea of subsidized dental care for lower-income Canadians not […]
Read MorePierre Poilievre did not win the Conservative leadership by using the subtle arts of diplomacy. But in his first couple of weeks on the job, Poilievre has been making some choices — especially on the hiring front — that seem to reveal an interest in building as many bridges as the new leader had been […]
Read MoreFor many travellers weary of pandemic restrictions, the Canadian skies just got a lot friendlier. Last week the federal government announced that it will be lifting COVID-19 restrictions, including mask mandates on planes and mandatory use of the ArriveCAN app, at the end of this month. Cue the cheers not just from a weary travelling […]
Read MoreThe prime minister has called it a genocide. The National Inquiry’s Final Report into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) offered a roadmap for action. Yet more than three years after its release, the crisis of violence against Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people continues unabated. We cannot have meaningful reconciliation in this […]
Read MoreFor decades, Prestwick Airport was the only airport in Scotland offering transatlantic flights — hundreds of thousands of Scots flew to their new home in Canada from the west-coast hub. Now, Canadians are going the other way. In March, the military set up a facility at Prestwick to receive and redirect cargo aid to Ukraine. […]
Read MoreAmerica’s First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, was in Ottawa on this date in 1999 joining our Prime Minister’s spouse, Aline Chrétien in advocating for young children in North and South America. Clinton delivered a passionate address calling attention to children’s needs, particularly in the developing nations part of our hemisphere. “Every two seconds another child […]
Read MoreIt has been two weeks since the Conservative Party of Canada chose Pierre Poilievre as its new leader in a resounding first-ballot win where he secured nearly 69 per cent of the points available. This was probably the most unsurprising win for a leadership contest since 2013, when Justin Trudeau won the Liberal leadership on […]
Read MoreMichelle Rempel Garner may be the MP for Calgary-Nose Hill, but for a brief moment in the House of Commons the other day, she represented millions of Canadians beyond her own riding. Her seating assignment on the Conservative bench one row behind and just a bit to the right of fellow Albertan Garnett Genuis put […]
Read MoreOnly two days before he recommended (successfully) to the Governor General that Parliament be dissolved to make way for the famed 1988 free trade election, Canada’s 18th Prime Minister addressed the UN General Assembly in New York City. And in doing so, Brian Mulroney took his case for needed action by the Americans to combat […]
Read MoreNow that the Conservative leadership campaign is over, naturally, the armchair quarterbacks have a platform to pontificate on Jean Charest’s motivations for running, his age, and his initial lack of social media savvy, as if these had any impact on the outcome of the race. Writing in the Post recently, André Pratte, who was a […]
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Blue Jays clinch post-season berth with Orioles’ loss to Red Sox
The Toronto Blue Jays have clinched a playoff spot. The team is idle today but secured a wild-card berth when the Baltimore Orioles dropped a 5-3 decision to the Boston Red Sox.
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