Firms know little about trade deals as Canada pushes to diversify: federal survey
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged European partners this week to finalize Canada’s trade deal with the EU, a push that came with his government facing a tough sales job at home: getting domestic firms to use it. A recent government survey suggests the vast majority of small and medium-sized exporters, which are positioned to benefit […]
Canada’s Footprint: How Canada’s loss of the Avro Arrow was NASA’s gain
The Avro Arrow has gone down as one of the great “what ifs” of Canadian history, but its cancellation in 1959 may have also contributed to one of the greatest technological achievements in human history.
Trudeau toughens stance against Trump’s ‘unacceptable’ comments on U.S. congresswoman
Justin Trudeau has toughened his stance against the inflammatory rhetoric of Donald Trump after the Prime Minister was criticized for his conciliatory tone confronting racist comments. “I think the comments made were hurtful, wrong and completely unacceptable,” Mr. Trudeau said Thursday, following a meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk. “I want everyone in Canada […]
The Canadian government has agreed to pay nearly a $1 billion to settle class-action lawsuits from Canadian Armed Forces members who allege rampant sexual misconduct in the military. “While not admitting liability, the government of Canada has agreed to a settlement,” reads a statement Of the $900 million set aside, $800 million will cover current […]
Read MoreA Conservative government will raise the eligibility age for Old Age Security and slash top-ups to benefits for seniors, the federal Liberals warned Thursday. However, the Conservatives accused the Liberals of launching a “fear and smear” campaign against the party in a desperate attempt to cling to power, dismissing their claims as “not based on […]
Read MoreA dead heat among voters over which leader is best suited to steer the Canadian economy appears to breaking in Justin Trudeau’s favor. The Liberal prime minister is pulling ahead of his main rival on the crucial question of economic stewardship in the run up to the October election. According to a survey by Nanos […]
Read MoreThe hashtag #TrudeauMustGo soared to the top of Twitter’s trending list in Canada on Tuesday, perhaps giving some observers the impression that Canadians were taking to social media en masse to express their discontent with the prime minister. But a closer look revealed that much of the activity surrounding the hashtag was actually driven by […]
Read MoreFormer United Conservative Party leadership hopeful Jeff Callaway has been fined $68,000 for irregular campaign contributions during the 2017 race in Alberta. The fines include a $15,000 penalty for colluding with Calgary businessman Robyn Lore in order to “circumvent a contribution limit,” according to details published Tuesday on the provincial election commissioner’s website. They also […]
Read MoreConservative Leader Andrew Scheer is facing criticism from nutrition experts today after he pledged to review the new Canada Food Guide should the Tories win power this fall. Scheer, who spoke at an annual meeting of the Dairy Farmers of Canada in Saskatoon on Wednesday, says the process to craft the new version of the […]
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Could populism take root in Canada? Too late – it already has
Ever since Donald Trump won the American presidency in 2016 with a toxic combination of sexism, vulgarity and the brazen courting of white nationalists, Canadian academics, pundits and pollsters have been obsessed with the question: “Could it happen here?” By “it,” they mean the rumblings of discontent that have propelled right-wing populists to power across […]
Think populism’s on the way out in Canada? Its foremost exponent is just warming up
Dennis Matthews knows a thing or two about the political zeitgeist, having worked as advertising guru for Stephen Harper and Doug Ford. He said on Twitter recently that there is a sense among some Conservatives the populist wave which elected Ford and Donald Trump, and ushered in Brexit, is coming to an end. The dwindling […]
Sorry, Orthodox Jews — Elections Canada should keep our voting day where it is
Save the date, Canadians! We’ll be going to the polls for our federal election this autumn on Monday, October 21. No one chose the date. At least not in the sense of sizing up the options and deciding Oct. 21, 2019 looked particularly propitious for exercising one’s franchise.
As ‘kamikaze’ scandal grows, so does Kenney’s popularity
In another world, at another time, a government would be in deep trouble over current voting and financing scandals. The UCP leadership vote, allegedly involving bogus email addresses, is being investigated by the RCMP, with a special prosecutor from Ontario appointed. The Mounties have interviewed five UCP cabinet ministers. One leadership candidate, Jeff Callaway, has […]
Dominic LeBlanc’s illness no excuse for taking advantage of his Irving connections
Dominic LeBlanc is a subscriber of the view that politics should be fun — that politicians have no right to be pompous or po-faced. Visitors to the House of Commons are advised to disregard what passes for debate between the leaders and focus exclusively on LeBlanc, constantly taunting and teasing, ribbing and razzing his opponents. […]
Reforming Canadian democracy starts by reforming candidate nomination process
One of the paradoxes of Canada’s pantomime democracy — the meaninglessness of Parliament, the impotence of its members, the wildly unrepresentative process that puts them there — is the impossibility of fixing it. The changes that are most needed, after all, require the consent of the people who stand to lose most from them. No […]
Trudeau should try killing the Conservatives with kindness
Going negative works. The Conservative Party proved it for years with successive attacks on Liberal leaders Stéphane Dion and Michael Ignatieff. Both men had much to offer, but the respective Tory counters of “not a leader” and “didn’t come back for you” had too much truth to be ignored by voters. Indeed, Ignatieff was so […]
Trump is not a racist. He’s simply intolerant of the bad kinds of people: Robyn Urback
To quote the inimitable Sen. Mitch McConnell: The president is not a racist. McConnell should know. He has spent years now working closely with the U.S. president — carrying his glass of Diet Coke from room to room, pressing his pyjamas, enduring his scathing public humiliations. And he knows that Donald Trump is telling the […]
Justin Trudeau, Liberal virtucrat
The Liberal “fear and smear” campaign against Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer orchestrated by Prime Minster Justin Trudeau is nothing new. The Liberals have always campaigned on the basis that the Conservatives are not only wrong, but evil. It’s part of the Liberals’ DNA. Thus, Trudeau and Co. absurdly suggest Scheer is a white supremacist sympathizer […]
Canada’s new business watchdog is already a failure
Child labour in supply chains. Forced labour. Non-existent safety regulations. Rape. The list is tragically longer. Hopes were high that the Trudeau government would act smartly in creating a robust office with the powers to track and investigate Canadian corporations operating abroad after a dismal showing on this issue under the Harper years. The previous […]
When the late Republican leader John McCain ran for U.S. president (and lost) against Barack Obama in 2008, he spent much of the campaign, like any politician, telling people who he was. But he also told them who he wasn’t. “I’m not George Bush,” he said in a speech, referring of course to the sitting […]
Read MoreAlberta’s politics are carved in stone right now. It seems that the UCP dynasty, like the Sphinx, won’t begin to erode for a couple of millennia. That’s the prevailing thought, especially among conservatives. They earnestly believe that with a stark right-left choice the NDP will now start to fade and lose most of its 25 […]
Read MoreA while back I spent a day hanging out in the chuckwagon barns at the Calgary Stampede. It was an eye-opening experience. As the driver and crew of each team started harnessing each of their four horses that would pull their chuckwagon and prepared to saddle up their two outrider horses, a racket ensued — […]
Read MoreLike it or not, and whether it is indeed an accurate assessment, the terms “populism” and “class war” are increasingly creeping into our political language the closer we get to this fall’s federal election. Numerous pundits have spent the past year assuring Canadians that nothing like Brexit or the Trump phenomenon would happen here in […]
Read MoreSometimes Liberals act for the best possible reason and the worst possible reason at the same time. Their move to criminalize conversion therapy is a case in point. Conversion therapy, which is not therapy and converts no one, can be so harmful to LGBTQ patients that some provinces and municipalities have moved to restrict the […]
Read MoreEvery election campaign begins with the pollsters and the pundits attempting to divine the big issues that will decide how people vote. Some even try to predict what THE issue will be: the so-called “ballot box” question on which the election supposedly turns. This is a fool’s errand. The electorate is not a single collective […]
Read MoreJustin Trudeau came to Alberta last week and amidst stoneface employees at the Trans Mountain pipeline terminal just outside Edmonton held what can only be described as an election campaign photo-op. He spoke forcefully about tackling environmental issues while at the same time ensuring jobs in the energy sector by green lighting controversial projects, such […]
Read MoreThe brief get-together of five conservative-minded premiers last week was meant to highlight the divide. Alberta’s Jason Kenney, Ontario’s Doug Ford, Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe and New Brunswick’s Blaine Higgs all gathered before the cameras to flip pancakes at the Calgary Stampede. They were joined by Northwest Territories Premier Bob McLeod who, while technically non-partisan, shares […]
Read MoreConservative leader Andrew Scheer is in a very difficult position. A genuinely decent man, considered by many to be far too timid for the cut and thrust of party politics, he’s a devout and orthodox Roman Catholic leading a party that is divided on socially conservative issues, hoping to govern a country that is largely […]
Read MoreIf the past few months of Canadian politics have taught us anything, it’s that bile works. Weeks of Liberal caterwauling about abortion and hidden agendas have put Prime Minister Justin Trudeau back on top of the polls. Desperate times brought desperate measures and they have, in turn, brought relief. There was a point in April, […]
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Warm memories, hit singles: Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings reunite for charity show
TORONTO — Former Guess Who bandmates Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings reunited on Thursday for a charity concert of warm memories and unforgettable hits that marked their first time performing together in a decade. The on-again, off-again musical partnership reached a high note at Music Under the City Stars, a fundraiser in support of Canada's Walk of Fame at Toronto's landmark Casa […]
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