Alberta NDP asks ethics commissioner to review Jason Kenney’s trip to India
Alberta’s NDP caucus has asked the ethics commissioner to look into opposition Leader Jason Kenney’s trip last week to India. During the trip, Kenney, his energy critic Prasad Panda, and trade critic Devin Dreeshen toured the massive Jamnagar oil refinery on India’s west coast. Kenney has since talked about the refinery, owned by Reliance Industries, […]
U.S. will continue trade talks with Canada if deadline missed, Trump’s top negotiator says
The Trump administration will continue trade negotiations with Canada even if there is no deal by the U.S.-imposed deadline of this weekend, President Donald Trump’s top trade official said Tuesday. In a largely pessimistic public appearance, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Canada is “running out of time” to sign on to a trade deal […]
U.S. trade chief casts doubt on Canada joining new NAFTA deal
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Tuesday cast doubt on the prospects of the U.S. and Mexico reaching a deal with Canada on an updated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by the Sunday deadline. “The fact is, Canada is not making concessions in areas where we think they’re essential,” Lighthizer told the Concordia Summit […]
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is demanding major changes to federal environmental assessment legislation, arguing the current bill before the Senate extends Ottawa’s reach into provincial jurisdiction and undermines energy industry competitiveness. In a speech to the energy pipeline industry in Calgary Tuesday, Ms. Notley said her government is pushing the federal Liberals to rapidly re-start […]
Read MoreCanadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says she’ll meet with her counterpart from Saudi Arabia on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The goal of the meeting would be to begin to mend fences between the two countries after an explosive dispute this summer following Canadian criticism of the kingdom’s […]
Read MoreThe morning after the closest election New Brunswick has seen in nearly a century, bleary-eyed political scientist Mario Levesque was not optimistic that either the Liberals or the Progressive Conservatives will form a long-term government. “We may be back at the polls within six months and definitely two years,” Levesque, who teaches at Mount Allison […]
Read MoreThe new Doug Ford government has “gutted” most of Ontario’s climate change programs with no replacement, Environmental Commissioner Dianne Saxe says in a damning new report. The report slams the Progressive Conservatives for axing the previous Liberal government’s cap-and-trade program to limit greenhouse gas emissions — which Ford branded a carbon tax that was doing […]
Read MoreBallot – The latest Nanos federal ballot tracking has the Liberals at 39.0 per cent support, followed by the Conservatives at 31.2 per cent, the NDP at 17.0 percent, the BQ at 2.4 per cent and the Greens at 5.5 per cent. Accessible Voters – Asked whether they would consider voting for each of the federal parties, […]
Read MoreAccording to a recent National Post report, Gov. Gen. Julie Payette has dramatically slowed her participation in public events and is reportedly quite unhappy and frustrated with the post. However, Payette is said to be fully committed to the role and in a statement said she was looking forward to sharing accomplishments and new initiatives […]
Read MoreFeatured Ink
Even if Julie Payette steps down as governor general, she’s set for life
Julie Payette is said to be unhappy with her role as governor general, but she can have no complaints about the pay and perquisites that come with the office. An overview of benefits and personal considerations provided to Payette by the Privy Council Office just before her appointment in July 2017, shows that she earns […]
All eyes on New Brunswick’s tiny kingmakers
The most interesting election result in Canada this year is unfolding in a province too often mocked as the least interesting one in the federation: New Brunswick. Now embroiled in a fascinating tug of war between Liberals and Conservatives — over nothing less than who will end up as premier — the province’s political drama […]
New Brunswick: Over to you, Lieutenant Governor [checks notes] Jocelyne Roy-Vienneau!
Oh good, a confidence crisis. The good people of New Brunswick having voted in Monday night’s election, the results are entertainingly not decisive. Even if you didn’t know which parties had received which seat totals, the numbers 22-21-3-3 would gladden the hearts of parliamentary geeks everywhere. And some of what happens next will depend on […]
‘Line by line audit’ shows Liberals spent most on, er, health care and education
Reining in the Ontario government’s budget will mean spending less on the services people use most, the Progressive Conservatives’ “line by line audit” of provincial operations says, and this can best be achieved by running the government better. So that’s settled. Treasury Board President Peter Bethlenfalvy hired Ernst & Young to produce the study of […]
Sunny Ways? It’s Up to Us
A lot has changed in the three years since Justin Trudeau’s government came to power, promising to deliver on the “sunny ways” he promoted during the campaign. A few big things got in the way – a court ruling on Trans Mountain pipeline, struggles with the provinces, including the Doug Ford victory, carbon pricing troubles, […]
Luck is nearly impossible to beat, and Justin Trudeau’s has no end
Because we need a horse race, (and because we are so deeply in love with clichés), news organizations have been pushing the idea that the bloom is off the Trudeau rose, which of course is doubly clever, given that flower’s famous place on the lapel of our prime minister’s father. The corollary is obvious: that […]
It’s not the governor general’s fault, the Liberals are to blame
It all rather has the sense of a dam having burst. In recent days a spate of stories has appeared in the nation’s media, notably the National Post’s weekend magnum opus, describing the many ways in which the current Governor General of Canada, Julie Payette, is said to be failing to do her job. Official […]
A sign the government is looking for an off-ramp for the governor general?
How do you solve a problem like Julie? The Prime Minister’s Office won’t even admit there is a problem with the Governor General, Julie Payette. Rideau Hall insists that the Queen’s representative in Canada is “fully committed to the responsibilities” of her office. “I look forward to sharing our accomplishments to date and to presenting […]
Doug Ford and Faith Goldy — what’s wrong with this picture?
Say what you will about Doug Ford, he is a man of the people. He is premier of Ontario’s “First Government For The People.” All kinds of people. Like Faith Goldy. That would be the fringe journalist who famously appeared on the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website, and whose shameless white nationalism has gone viral — […]
Québec Solidaire has the Parti Québécois on the ropes
Three years ago, millennial voters helped Justin Trudeau’s Liberals vault from a distant third place in the House of Commons to a majority government. Next Monday in Quebec, that same cohort could deal a lethal blow to the once mighty Parti Québécois. PQ Leader Jean-François Lisée spent the past month trying to restore his party’s […]
Forget the midnight flights to Washington and the clumsy presidential threats, the phoney deadlines and blatant negotiating ploys. If Canada is to achieve a renewed continental trade agreement under viable terms, it has to shrug off American pressure tactics and stay focused. There is no rush to get a new NAFTA because there are no […]
Read MoreIt is true that governments in Canada do not technically have “mandates” to govern, as scholar Philippe Lagassé has pointed out. But for lack of a better term, let me use it to describe the four-year period a majority federal government is given to achieve particular policy objectives and otherwise govern the country before it […]
Read MoreAsk any Canadian conservative about federal politics during the mid-’90s, and you will be met with a grimace. Just when right-of-centre provincial parties were making substantial headway across the country, the Reform, Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties were insisting on a futile battle for voter support that saw them languish in second, third or even […]
Read MoreWe all know if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. That’s the case with a new report by Canadians for Clean Prosperity. It claims the Trudeau government will implement a carbon tax where “the vast majority of households, regardless of income level, would receive more money in the form of carbon […]
Read MoreVoters have a right to feel betrayed by floor crossers. It is time to reform. When Parliament reopened last Monday, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals were jolted by the unaccustomed sting of political betrayal. Leona Alleslev, the Liberal MP for Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill, elected in 2015, crossed the floor to the Conservative party, switching parties without any […]
Read MoreThere is an ancient, deadly virus quietly spreading across the land. It has been mostly latent for decades, but we have endured earlier regional outbreaks. This time is more threatening for two reasons: how it spreads and who is responsible for it. It goes by the euphemistic name “identity politics.” It is more properly called […]
Read MoreYou’ll never guess what: There’s a new Ontario government, and it claims to have found glaring incongruities between the previous government’s financial reporting and reality, and we might all have to make sacrifices as a result. It’s like The Mousetrap of political theatre: it’s more than a bit hammy, and everyone knows how it ends, […]
Read MoreDavid Johnston, who stepped down as governor-general a year ago, has written a book called Trust. Julie Payette should read it. On Oct. 2, Ms. Payette will mark her first anniversary as Canada’s 29th governor-general. The year has been controversial, not because of what she has done, but because of what she hasn’t done. The […]
Read MoreThis is the time in past election campaigns when the Quebec Liberals would set aside their platform to focus single-mindedly on the Parti Québécois’s referendum agenda. Forcing the question of whether voters wanted to risk a return to referendum politics on the ballot did not always result in a Liberal victory but it did make […]
Read MoreThe strength of the relationship between the BC NDP government and the B.C. Greens may about to be tested on two fronts. While the two parties disagree on some issues, there has been little of any consequences from any of those disagreements.
Read MoreEntertainment Plus
Cosby sentenced to 3 to 10 years in state prison
Bill Cosby has been sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison for drugging and molesting a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home. Judge Steven O’Neill sentenced Cosby on Tuesday, five months after his conviction in the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era. Prosecutors were seeking a sentence of five to 10 years […]
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