Scheer says Trudeau admires China’s ‘basic dictatorship’ in reference to 2013 remark
In a panel discussion during the Manning Networking Conference Saturday, Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer suggested that the first step in handling Canada’s economic relationship with China is electing a prime minister “that does not admire the basic dictatorship of China.”
Quebec couple’s deaths in Florida being treated as double homicide
A Quebec couple was found dead inside their mobile home in Pompano Beach, Fla., on Friday evening and local authorities are treating the case as a double homicide. Marc Gagne, 80, and Rita Fortin, 78, were from Saint-Côme-Linière, Que., about 100 kilometres southeast of Quebec City. Neighbours, worried about the couple’s absence after a few […]
Opposition wants Wilson-Raybould, Philpott to speak out on SNC-Lavalin in House of Commons
The Conservatives and the NDP say that they’re determined to have former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould and former treasury board president Jane Philpott tell their full side of the story on the SNC-Lavalin affair.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau is pushing back at concerns from business groups that his most recent federal budget “failed to address the fundamental issues” facing Canadian companies.
Read MoreConservative Leader Andrew Scheer says accusations that he panders to groups with hateful or intolerant messaging are unfounded. In his remarks to the Manning Centre networking conference on Saturday, Scheer said he “unequivocally” condemns hateful ideologies. “The criticisms are completely baseless.” Those criticisms have been plentiful in the past few weeks.
Read MoreAnother federal payroll system needs an overhaul after it was put together quickly and on the cheap – and the repair is expected to cost almost as much as the system itself. The system, which converts paper documents into electronic versions, is used to store payroll information needed for the dysfunctional Phoenix program at the […]
Read MoreLong-time Liberal MP Judy Sgro is calling out fellow caucus members Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott, accusing them of targeting their anger and frustration directly at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the SNC-Lavalin scandal. In an explosive interview with Maclean’s — her first media interview since she resigned from the Liberal cabinet on Mar. 4 […]
Read MoreLiberal Minister Melanie Joly is the latest MP to add her name to a growing list of party supporters who are pointing to the House of Commons as the place for former ministers Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott to air any outstanding information they want to share in the SNC-Lavalin controversy. In an interview on […]
Read MorePrime Minister Justin Trudeau continues to affirm that he was trying to protect Canadian jobs when he and his staff spoke with former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould about a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with SNC-Lavalin.
Read MoreFeatured Ink
The delicate craft of caucus management
During the 1981 bitter battle over the Charter of Rights an NDP MP was accused of leaking a confidential set of amendments to a Liberal colleague on the committee, wrestling with daily comma by comma confrontations. He narrowly escaped expulsion from a divided caucus. When Brian Mulroney polled in the low teens, he regularly had […]
Trudeau needs to get this mutiny under control
There is a full-on mutiny happening on the good ship S.S. Liberal and it’s about time its captain, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, started to address it for what it is or he could get tossed overboard. Trudeau and the Prime Minister’s Office should ensure Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott speak and disclose every piece of […]
Trudeau can’t give a straight answer on Lavscam
The reason why the Lavscam scandal continues to erode public support for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government was clearly on display at a Town Hall meeting in Thunder Bay Friday evening. It’s because Trudeau seems incapable of giving straight answers about it. Trudeau was asked two simple, direct questions, in sequence, by one of the […]
It’s time to give House of Commons committees some teeth
House of Commons committees have to be reformed. They have to be made fully independent. Opposition committee members have to have the authority to call witnesses whether the government majority approves or not. We saw what a partisan farce a Commons committee could be when the Liberal majority on the Justice committee voted last week […]
Alberta still the Wild West when it comes to election predictions
You might think a province that can count the number of changes in government in its history on one hand would be one where predicting election outcomes would be easy. But if there is one thing the last three Alberta elections have taught us, it’s that all is not as it appears in the sunshine […]
Morneau budget hit the right notes
The Liberals had a lot to accomplish in the final budget of their mandate as they head into the election this fall. An effective government should be able to do four things at once:
Preparing Canadian students for the future
This past week, the Federal Government laid out some important measures to help post-secondary students find greater success transitioning from their studies to the workforce. Budget 2019 emphasized work placement opportunities, giving students in fields outside of STEM—such as the arts, humanities and social sciences— a chance to access funding to support their growth and […]
Former cabinet ministers have Justin Trudeau in their sights
Had former Treasury Board president Jane Philpott sought to sabotage her government by breathing new life in the SNC-Lavalin saga this week, she would not have acted otherwise. Her first post-resignation interview — given to Maclean’s on the day after the federal budget was presented — raised more questions than it provided factual answers.
Anne McLellan’s appointment: one more bumbling bid to bury SNC-Lavalin
This week’s appointment of former Liberal cabinet minister Anne McLellan as a “special advisor” to the Prime Minister continues the government’s bumbling campaign to wrest control of the SNC-Lavalin narrative so they can bury it six-feet under. Here, it appears, the goal is to magically switch the SNC-Lavalin conversation from discussion of political interference in […]
The Liberal caucus isn’t worthy of Jane Philpott
To know Jane Philpott is to understand the devastating impact her condemnation of the government’s SNC-Lavalin behavior registers on the prime minister and his foot soldiers. This medical doctor turned Liberal rookie MP is not a coattail-clinging, talking-point-reciting lightweight in the caucus. She was extremely popular and has consistently displayed lofty principle and public service […]
Jane Philpott has been quietly getting out the word in recent days that she will be doing interviews within the coming weeks. It’s a good idea, because the former minister has only hinted in her newest interview with Maclean’s magazine about what led her to quit Justin Trudeau’s cabinet at the beginning of March.
Read MoreWhen the Liberals brought down the federal budget earlier this week, I was genuinely curious as to whether it would allow the prime minister and his party to move past the SNC-Lavalin scandal that has now dogged them for … uhh, let me count … the last 42 days (as I write this). A budget […]
Read MoreThose who read my columns regularly will have already surmised that my politics lean centre, centre-rightish, depending on the day. To use the banal stereotype, one might class me as closer to the right on fiscal issues, and to the left on social ones. But, like most voters, it’s all a touch a la carte […]
Read MoreWithin a day of the official launch of the 2019 Alberta election, the Alberta NDP had already dropped a nasty negative ad. The ad attacked United Conservative Party (UCP) leader Jason Kenney for comments he made 20 years ago about a campaign he was involved in 30 years ago, in which he challenged the idea […]
Read MoreOctober 2018 was less than two years after a madman named Alexandre Bissonnette opened fire in a Quebec mosque, killing six people. And October 2018 was the same month a gunman walked into a Pittsburgh synagogue and opened fire, killing 11. By that time, reported hate crimes in Canada had reached an all-time high, with […]
Read MoreOver the course of the SNC-Lavalin affair, Justin Trudeau’s feminist credentials have been seriously challenged — and rightly so. Every time the Prime Minister has had the opportunity to do the right thing and support the women in his caucus who are speaking truth to power – he fails. Let’s look at the facts. Last […]
Read MoreAndrew Steele is a vice-president at StrategyCorp and worked in election war rooms for the Liberal Party of Canada and the Ontario Liberal Party. If you are reading this, you are probably not the intended audience of Tuesday’s federal budget. In fact, the primary focus was on demographic groups united by one thing: They don’t […]
Read MoreIf you weren’t careful, you might have missed it: a brief 160-word item, tucked deep inside the budget, labelled Supporting Canadian Journalism. Mostly it was a rehash of the measures already announced in November’s Fall Economic Statement: a labour cost subsidy (in the form of a tax credit — presumably this sounds more palatable) for […]
Read MoreIn the Canadian prime minister’s Montreal base the Lavscam imbroglio has taken a toll on previously staunch support Nicola Papadakis says he is done voting for Justin Trudeau. The decision clearly bothers the retired cleaner, 76. Like many Greeks in the Montreal neighbourhood of Park Extension, Papadakis has a nearly unshakable loyalty to Trudeau’s father, […]
Read MoreA burning question for observers of the SNC-Lavalin affair is whether former cabinet ministers Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott, who publicly opposed actions of their government, will be cut loose from the Liberal caucus. While some, including former deputy prime minister Sheila Copps, urge retribution, others in the party admire these MPs and want them […]
Read MoreEntertainment Plus
Here’s What’s Playing On Netflix Canada In April 2019
Spring is in full bloom as Netflix Canada unveils its new lineup of titles dropping on the popular streaming service through the month of April 2019.
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