Trudeau Says 2019 Canada Election Is Fight Against Polarization
Justin Trudeau said the 2019 Canadian election will be a contrast between his Liberal Party’s push for a cleaner environment and fighting inequality, and Conservatives who’ll attempt to exploit divisions created by a global wave of populism.
New Brunswick jumps into election season days ahead of writ drop
New Brunswick political parties have leaped into campaign mode, days before the writ drop that kicks off the official start of the election period. Brian Gallant, leader of the governing Liberals, launched his campaign Sunday, saying the party is running on the themes of fairness and opportunity in its bid for re-election in the fall. […]
Prime Minister Trudeau, Premier Couillard march in Montreal’s Pride parade
Thousands of cheering spectators lined the streets of Montreal on Sunday as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continued what has become a yearly tradition of walking in the city’s colourful Pride parade. Wearing white pants and a pink button down shirt, the prime minister yelled “Happy Pride” as he marched alongside his wife, Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, as […]
Buyers who have to provide personal information to purchase recreational pot online after legalization this fall should be able to rely on existing laws to protect their privacy but the issue needs to be watched closely to ensure regulations are obeyed and mistakes are avoided, experts say. The matter is important given the stigma many […]
Read MoreThe federal government’s intention to enact a statutory holiday aimed at remembering the legacy of Canada’s residential school system has drawn mixed reactions from Indigenous Canadians, with responses to the plan ranging from cautious optimism to open disdain. Many have expressed concern that such an occasion — dedicated to reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples — could […]
Read MorePrime Minister Justin Trudeau and his newly shuffled cabinet will focus squarely on next year’s election at a two-day retreat this week — including a hard look at the very laws governing elections. Last spring the government introduced Bill C-76, aimed at preventing foreign interference in elections and regulating third-party advocacy groups, as well as […]
Read MoreTORONTO — Police in Toronto have made an arrest in an alleged assault on a newspaper photographer in the city’s downtown. It happened last Saturday during competing rallies at Nathan Phillips Square, a major public plaza in front of Toronto City Hall. Toronto Sun photographer Stan Behal says one protester lunged at him and hit […]
Read MoreA few decades ago there was hype around hydrogen because of how one day it may replace gasoline and diesel as the fuel most use to fill up their tanks. The use of hydrogen is still in its infancy, but it’s growing in Canada. The potential is significant for how the most abundant element in […]
Read MoreFor the second time in two days, Premier Doug Ford has requested that Mayor John Tory take up “guns and gangs” at a special council meeting on Monday. As it stands, the meeting’s agenda is centred on how, or whether, to fight the province’s move to cut the size of council almost in half.
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After years in the wilderness, the Greens are well-positioned to gain in 2019
Never mind all that scuttlebutt about snap elections. It could happen I suppose, but it would be easier for Justin Trudeau to simply jump off the Peace Tower. More relevant speculation? What will Parliament look like when the next electoral hurly-burly is done? And what might that tell us? Trudeau became prime minister in a […]
Liberals and Tories use identity issues to distract from their failings
Over 80% of Canadians say the growing gap between the rich and everyone else is unacceptable. And two-thirds say the Trudeau government needs a hard push to address poverty, according to a recent Angus Reid poll. But to the exclusion of any effort on these fronts, Canadians get served nothing but identity politics from the […]
Maxime Bernier offers a disappointing and distracting diversity diatribe
As someone who has previously suggested that the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) ought to embrace the ideas of Maxime Bernier, I should add that this advice does not necessarily apply to everything that comes out of his mouth — or his Twitter feed.
Canada’s Conservatives are having a mini-meltdown
Tracking the recent antics of members of the Conservative Party of Canada, you’d be forgiven for thinking that someone had spiked the water in their caucus. And not with the sort of substance that changes who you are but the sort that amplifies who you are — the sort that makes you more of yourself. […]
Those finger-wagging know-it-alls who are sticking up for the Saudis
In 2012, in one of his last posts before he was locked up, Saudi blogger Raif Badawi quoted Albert Camus: “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” Badawi, a brave man standing up against tyrants, was convicted of […]
Can the drifting Liberals find a future in their past?
When politicians start talking a lot about their old promises, it’s safe to bet that they’re in the midst of making new ones. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been hauling out some of his greatest hits lately, or at least what he views as signature achievements of a government that just passed its 1,000-days-in-office milestone.
Philippe Couillard picks a bad time to break a promise
The provincial riding of Marquette, in Montreal’s West Island, is one of the safest Liberal seats in Quebec. It has been a party fortress since its creation in 1980. Its current MNA, François Ouimet, first ran in 1994. Since then, in bad times as in good, his re-election has been little more than a formality. […]
So what if Justin Trudeau cries at work? That makes him human
We’ve come a long way, the Canadian people. Women can vote, gays can get married, Ontarians can buy beer at select supermarkets and marijuana will soon be legal and, God willing, available at a store near you. However, some of us are still eons behind schedule in one significant area. We cannot abide a man […]
How One City’s Rally Becomes Our Own
Along with many other Londoners shocked by the events in Charlottesville, Virginia a year ago, our family joined the rally in our city’s central park to speak out against the racist and neo-Nazi behaviour that had so troubled that American city. But we came away feeling that it wasn’t enough. And, so, this past week, […]
Who’s playing identity politics? Everyone
Maxime Bernier’s controversial tweets are stirring up a storm. Just a few days before the Conservative Party policy convention begins next week, he wants everyone to pay attention to him. He’s trying to remind people that they should have made him leader of the party, instead of that nebbish, Andrew Scheer. In Mr. Bernier’s view, […]
Andrew Scheer is clearly facing a challenge to his leadership. So far, his response reminds us the Conservative Party leader made a fine Speaker of the House of Commons. The problem for Scheer is that a Speaker could take his time and make a sage ruling based on arcane rules and precedent, but a leader […]
Read MoreOne week before the first Conservative national convention on Andrew Scheer’s leadership watch — and the last such gathering before the next federal election — one would not normally expect Conservative MPs to be debating each other on social media about whether to draw a line on Canada’s diversity.
Read MoreHow poor has Justin Trudeau’s delivery been on Indigenous files? Well, let’s just say it wasn’t from a position of strength that the Liberals this week floated the creation of a new holiday to commemorate the shocking history of Canada’s residential schools. By giving their tentative backing to an opposition bill. Anonymously. With the date […]
Read MoreThat’s why the president revoked my security clearance: to try to silence anyone who would dare challenge him. When Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s internal security service, told me during an early August 2016 phone call that Russia wasn’t interfering in our presidential election, I knew he was lying. Over the previous several years […]
Read MoreHere’s a proposed Canadian reply to the escalating Saudi temper tantrum. Call in the kingdom’s ambassador and tell him: Sorry, Mr. Ambassador, but Canadian universities will never again accept Saudi medical residents. The government could explain that cancelling orders for relatively piddling amounts of wheat and maple syrup is the kingdom’s perfect right, subject of […]
Read MoreAfter watching a video of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau giving a speech in which he reiterated one of his favourite statements about “diversity being what makes Canada strong,” Conservative MP Maxime Bernier lost his marbles and went on a Trump-like Twitter rant about diversity and the dangers of promoting it too much.
Read MoreIs Canada a national security threat to the United States? President Donald Trump’s administration says it is. In June, it invoked a seldom used national security provision in the 1962 Trade Expansion Act to impose tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum imported from Canada, contending that rising imports could endanger […]
Read MoreMaxime Bernier probably wasn’t trying to make life easier for Justin Trudeau when he put his fellow Conservatives on the hot seat by speaking out against the prime minister’s alleged “radical multiculturalism.” And NDP leader Jagmeet Singh likely wasn’t thinking too much about boosting Liberal fortunes when he decided to shoot back at some insults […]
Read MoreThis is the time in the life of a majority government when minds usually turn to the drafting of a final throne speech. For a ruling party going into its last year before a general election, the occasion is an opportunity to try to articulate an auspicious ballot-box question but also, if need be, to […]
Read MoreThe Trudeau Liberals are reportedly giving serious thought to a speech from the throne to launch a new session of Parliament in the fall. That is a discussion for next Tuesday’s summer meeting of the Liberal caucus in British Columbia, after which a decision will be made. Whether they choose to prorogue or move ahead […]
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‘Queen of Soul’ Aretha Franklin has died
Aretha Franklin, the long-reigning “Queen of Soul” who sang with matchless style on such classics as “Think” and her signature song, “Respect,” died Thursday at age 76, said her representative, Gwendolyn Quinn. The cause was advanced pancreatic cancer.
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