Doug Ford wants consultations on cannabis sales in Ontario
Ontario’s incoming premier says he’s focusing on the idea of selling cannabis in government-owned liquor stores but will consult with municipalities, stakeholders and his caucus on how recreational marijuana should be sold in the province. The outgoing Liberals had planned to roll out 150 standalone government-run pot stores by the end of 2020. Doug Ford […]
Ontario’s Doug Ford strands ‘thousands’ on waiting list for solar, says industry group
Doug Ford’s decision to abandon Ontario’s price on pollution has left “thousands” of Ontarians waiting for solar installations hanging out to dry, the national industry group says. John Gorman, president of the Canadian Solar Industries Association, said Thursday that the shutting down of a rebate agency that had been funded by the cap and trade […]
‘A grievous error.’ Singh slams Trudeau’s silence on pot pardons
The government’s inaction when it comes to issuing pardons for those convicted of soon to be legal cannabis offences is one of the biggest mistakes Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made in the process of legalizing the drug, according to the Leader of NDP. “That is a grievous error that was made by this government,” […]
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna says Canada has no immediate plans to follow Europe’s lead and increase its targets for cutting emissions. McKenna is in Belgium this week for the second ministerial meeting of Canada, European Union and China on their climate change alliance to keep driving forward progress on the Paris agreement. European Union energy […]
Read MoreAnother of Canada’s largest business groups is warning that Ottawa needs to act now to lower corporate taxes or risk a continued exodus of investment and jobs to the United States. The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, which represents 2,500 companies, released a report this week that paints a bleak picture of the business landscape in […]
Read More“Canadians sent us to Parliament Hill with a clear mandate,” Justin Trudeau told a roomful of reporters assembled Wednesday to mark the end of Parliament’s spring sitting. Although that agenda has, in many ways, come to seem more timely — embracing diversity, growing the middle class, fighting climate change — Trudeau’s mandate did not include […]
Read MoreYour beer is about to undergo a government makeover. Federal officials are proposing changes to national beer standards that would widen the number of ingredients permitted in a pint and force brewers to list every ingredient on a can or bottle. Even the Canadian definition of “beer” would change. The changes would mark a major […]
Read MoreThe Canadian government is taking steps to further reduce the number of migrant children and families held in detention centres, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says. “The numbers are low in Canada, but they are getting lower,” Goodale told CBC News. “We’re working very hard to make sure that our system is as secure as […]
Read MoreCanada’s top public servant says Parliament needs to consider legislative changes that would give the government more power to fire public servants for poor performance amid a debate over who to blame for the Phoenix pay system failure that botched the pay of tens of thousands of civil servants.
Read MoreFeatured Ink
Trump’s America an embarrassment to this dual citizen
I’ve always been proud of being born in the U.S.A., even after five decades as a Canadian citizen. Having access to dual citizenship in a country that gave so much to the world economically, militarily and democratically was a bonus branch from our family tree. Not any more.
Without the Safe Third Country Agreement, we’d soon see how liberal on refugees we really are
You must understand, there is never going to be a turning point. People keep expecting, even predicting one: the dramatic “have you no decency, sir” moment when Donald Trump at long last goes too far, even for his supporters, and begins his inevitable decline and fall. But life is not a movie, and resists our […]
The passage of the Cannabis Act is crucial for Trudeau’s credibility
Promise made, promise kept — which is not something this government has been able to say very often. The passage of the pot-legalization bill before the summer recess was crucial for Justin Trudeau, who during his 959 days in power has garnered a reputation as a promise-breaker. After reneging on the pledge to usher in […]
Are issues getting too complex for real debate?
Yesterday in this space, I called for an election on how Canada should respond to Trump. In a note, public affairs expert Andrew Beattie neatly laid out what I believe is a widely shared fear about such a debate: the issues are too complex, and it would quickly degenerate into bombast and sloganeering. I see […]
War Under the Peace Tower
In the parliamentary calendar, it is inevitable that the subject of Question Period’s dysfunction will emerge, often with a twinge of anger. It’s happening again in these last few days, led by the Toronto Star researching into the veracity and truthfulness of that one time in the House where the government must account for its […]
Reforming Parliament: Time to hear from all the players
Is representative democracy in Canada in trouble? The Samara Centre for Democracy, a Canadian charity working to improve politics thinks so. Their recently released report, Flip the Script, paints a grim picture of Canada’s system of elected representation. Based on interviews with 54 Members of Parliament exiting after the 2105 federal election, it portrays a hyper-partisan House […]
Trudeau needs a calm summer (don’t all laugh at once)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needs a better summer in 2018 than he had in 2017 — and the Chicoutimi-Le Fjord byelection was not exactly the most auspicious start. Publicly, Liberals are casting the Conservative victory as not a big deal — the byelection, they’re saying, was always going to be an uphill struggle against local […]
Canada is turning its back on Central American refugees
Today, on World Refugee Day, Canadians might see yet another news story about the traumas of young Central American girls and boys being separated from their asylum-seeking parents by US immigration officials. As the American Civil Liberties Union recently reported, children who flee to the US unaccompanied are also being brutally mistreated: child immigrants in […]
Jagmeet Singh has a lot of work to do
We keep looking for a politician who’ll stand up and admit failure. Suddenly here was one. There’s a kind of nobility in taking your licking, I guess. “We’re disappointed” in Monday’s by-election results in the Quebec heartland riding of Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, Jagmeet Singh told a knot of reporters outside the House of Commons before Question […]
Relish this moment, Ontario PCs, because on June 29 reality will hit hard
Relief is here, premier-designate Doug Ford told his raucous new caucus at Queen’s Park on Tuesday morning as they prepare to take over the provincial government next week. Ford gave a quickie version of his stump speech from the Progressive Conservatives’ successful campaign before closing the meeting of six dozen Tory MPPs, most of them […]
Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives are not going to allow Justin Trudeau to rebuild a Liberal fortress in Quebec without a fight: that’s just one of the messages from Monday’s Chicoutimi-Le Fjord’s byelection upset. And some of the other messages — in particular for the New Democrats — are more alarming than others. But first some essential […]
Read MoreThe results of the Chicoutimi-Le Fjord byelection suggest the Bloc Québecois chapter in Quebec electoral history is over — and that the NDP’s is closing. The convincing Conservative victory on Monday night may not offer great insights into how the general election will play out next year, particularly given the low voter turnout of just […]
Read MoreJustin Trudeau rose in the Commons this week to accuse New Democrats of playing politics with Donald Trump’s inhumane treatment of children warehoused in cages. Some 99 times out of 100, the prime minister would have been correct. One needs not search very hard before tripping over an outbreak of politics in the nation’s capital.
Read MoreYesterday’s byelection in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord was bad news for the Liberals. That’s aluminum country and Liberals were surely hoping the tariffs would translate into a Trump-bump. They didn’t. Does that kill any chance of a national election? No. There is a serious argument to be made for an election, but it turns on Canadians’ national interest, […]
Read MoreYes, the Conservatives had a popular hockey coach as candidate, but their thumping of the Liberals in Chicoutimi-Le Ford, Monday night, should worry the Grits. Canadian voters are not rallying to the Liberals in solidarity as Justin Trudeau confronts Donald Trump over tariffs and trade. If that confrontation damages the economy, watch out. Next year […]
Read MoreFor twelve exciting hours last week, Parliamentary business was held up by a Conservative procedural tactic forcing a vote on every one of 200 items in the Main Estimates. The marathon voting session was in protest at the Liberal government’s failure to release detailed projections of the cost to Canadian households of pricing emissions of […]
Read MoreForgive me if I don’t get the big fuss around Laura Bush lambasting Donald Trump. The former first lady wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post, castigating the U.S. President’s newly enforced zero-tolerance policy towards asylum seekers that in the past several weeks has officially seen more than 2,300 children separated from their parents. The […]
Read MoreI caught his stare as I was brought into the House of Commons for the first time and just couldn’t read it. It was late-2006, shortly after I had won a by-election as a Liberal in London, Ontario. Paul Dewar had entered the House as a newcomer for the NDP only a few months before. […]
Read MoreIn his address to the UN General Assembly last fall, Prime Minister Trudeau made it clear that Canada’s advocacy on human rights abroad needed to be backed up by greater protections for human rights at home. With the release of the National Housing Strategy last November, the federal government took an important step in that […]
Read MoreThe Conservatives have made clear their preferred ballot question in the 2019 election — the cost to the average family of Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax. They filibustered all night last Thursday to highlight their point that finance minister Bill Morneau won’t release that figure, despite having the analysis to hand. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party’s Twitter […]
Read MoreEntertainment Plus
Here’s What’s Playing On Netflix Canada In July 2018
Netflix Canada welcomes July 2018 with a wide range of new and original titles, including the much anticipated return of Orange Is The New Black Season 6 on July 27.
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