Clean electricity regs can be tweaked, but no special deal for Alberta: Guilbeault
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says there will be no special treatment for Alberta when it comes to new regulations to make electricity cleaner. Guilbeault is currently consulting on draft regulations published in August that would compel all electricity to be from renewable sources or equipped with carbon capture technology by 2035.
Crowded field of candidates expected in House Speaker’s election on Oct. 3
At least nine candidates are so far running for the House’s top job, which carries a salary of $274,500, after former House Speaker Anthony Rota was forced to resign on Sept. 26. The position opened up after Rota (Nipissing-Timiskaming, Ont.) extended an invitation to Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old guest from his riding, to attend Ukrainian […]
Ottawa poised to make decision on search of Manitoba landfill for human remains: minister
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree says the federal government is on the verge of presenting a plan in response to calls for a search of a Manitoba landfill for the remains of two First Nations women believed to have been murdered by an alleged serial killer. “This is an issue that we’re in for the […]
The Liberal government is looking to cut almost $1 billion from the annual budget of the Department of National Defence (DND) — a demand the country’s top military commander says is prompting some “difficult” conversations within the military. Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre and Deputy Minister of Defence Bill Matthews testified before […]
Read MoreThe prime minister’s public allegation that the government of India was involved in the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia set off international outrage, but may yet prove to be good domestic politics. An iPolitics review of Elections Canada records suggests that Sikhs remain an reliable source of electoral support for the […]
Read MoreThe military is permanently removing Col. Leif Dahl from his post as commander of Canadian Forces Base Trenton a month after he was charged with weapons offences. Ontario Provincial Police say they charged Dahl on Aug. 25 after he was seen shooting at protected wildlife from a boat in Quinte West, Ont. Police allege Dahl […]
Read MoreThe clock is ticking for the Trudeau Liberals to table a national pharmacare bill before the end of this year, but the NDP’s health critic says the last draft bill did not meet his party’s red lines. Don Davies says the NDP has been negotiating with the Liberal government on legislation that would enshrine into […]
Read MorePrime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have a tremendous problem at hand: the Conservatives’ war chest is overflowing with cash, their popularity is soaring, and Canadians appear exhausted with his government that will be approaching a full decade in power by the next scheduled election. With Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre launching daily attacks at the Trudeau […]
Read MoreSaskatchewan’s premier says his government will use the notwithstanding clause of the Constitution and pass legislation this fall to ensure the province’s pronoun policy remains in place. Scott Moe’s comment comes after a judge granted an injunction to pause the policy that requires parental consent when children under 16 want to go by different names […]
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Poilievre picking wrong fights as Liberals struggle under low morale, support
In Justin Trudeau’s rapidly imploding world, everything sucks. In a rare moment of reality-reflecting candour, the usually-scripted prime minister said as much to the New York Times last week. “It really sucks right now. Like, everything sucks for people, even in Canada,” he told the editorial board. “People are mad . . . it’s a […]
The Impact Of The Last Two Weeks
It’s been a headline-making two weeks for Canada on the world stage. First the India story, and then the Speaker’s story. Was it damaging and if so, how damaging? And, what’s next? Bruce and Chantal bring their analysis to the Good Talk table.
The repair job at Immigration – The department’s top bureaucrat answers a critical report, with rare candour
Seven months ago Neil Yeates, a retired former deputy minister of immigration, submitted a report on the organization of the department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to the current deputy minister, Christiane Fox. Yeates’s 28-page report was blunt, plainspoken, critical but constructive. It said “the current organizational model at IRCC is broken.” At a […]
Justin Trudeau’s apology for the Nazi controversy is a start — but it’s not enough
It is extremely unlikely that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was tuned into Justin Trudeau’s public apology on Wednesday, when the prime minister finally said sorry for the Nazi-tribute spectacle in Parliament last week. The two leaders have not yet spoken directly since the House stood and cheered for a Second World War veteran who fought […]
Mark Carney jumpstarts Trudeau death watch
It’s been another grim week for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Nazi-gate continued to dominate the headlines and another poll came out showing the Liberals 12 points behind the Conservatives. As Trudeau flails, speculation mounts about his potential departure, and about possible alternatives. One name on a lot of people’s lips this week was that of […]
The 1 Million March shows how one minority can unite all haters
The so-called 1 Million March 4 Children was, in part, a sequel to the Freedom Convoy occupation, with many of the same players organizing the marches that happened across the country—but they were also something new. More than just a conglomerate of far-right agitators, conspiracy theorists, grifters and grievance tourists, these marches also featured a […]
Being Speaker isn’t easy — and it just got a lot harder
The address to a joint session of the House of Commons and Senate last week by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was among the most solemn and poignant moments in the history of Parliament. Everything since then has been anything but. When the House convened on Wednesday afternoon for question period, the proceedings began with Deputy […]
Mark Carney and how we all win
Over the last 83 million years, the Earth’s magnetic poles have reversed 183 different times. Political history is measured in much shorter time frames, but it too has seen its share of these sorts of dramatic inversions. Take the U.S. Democratic Party’s evolution in the wake of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which turned its […]
Alberta’s mad plan to break up the CPP, and why it (deliberately) misses the point
Sovereignty, as we used to say about the Parti Québécois, is what you can get away with. In the run-up to the 1995 referendum the Péquistes issued all sorts of lunatic explanations of how the province would go about seceding, in which a stupefied rest of Canada would respond to Quebec’s formal and final raising […]
Today in Canada’s Political History: Jean Chrétien and Joe Clark pay tribute to the late Pierre Trudeau in the Commons
There was a sombre atmosphere in the House as MPs gathered on this date in 2000 to pay tribute to Pierre Trudeau. The 15th PM had passed into history the day before. The late PM’s long-time colleague and friend, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien spoke first as House business got underway. Former PM Joe Clark offered his […]
How much worse can things get for the Liberals? Does Justin Trudeau have a plan to recover from the “Nazi in the parliamentary gallery” story? If so, will it be enough to make people forget the national embarrassment caused by last Friday’s incident. Bruce Anderson on that, plus his thoughts on how two polls done […]
Read MoreNew Brunswick Liberal MP Milton Gregg served with great distinction in the cabinets of Prime Ministers Mackenzie King and Louis St.-Laurent between 1947 t0 1957. But long before he entered public life, Gregg served in the First World War. On September 28, 1918 his bravery was recognized with the Victoria Cross, the highest award for […]
Read MoreIn the typically calm domain of Canadian politics, the unsavoury spectacle orchestrated by House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota has jolted the political and public conscience. The misstep of inviting and acknowledging a World War II veteran for fighting against the Russians, only to later unveil that his fight was as a member of the […]
Read MoreIt is clear a price will have to be paid for the spectacle of Canadian parliamentarians standing and applauding last Friday for a man who fought with the Nazis during the Second World War. The man who should not pay that price is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Read MoreDid the prime minister just gaslight the entire country by claiming the Second World War history we all learned, and were tested on in school, is Russian propaganda? We need a ctrl-alt-delete restart on this colonial project we call Canada. Speaker Anthony Rota has apologized and subsequently resigned for inviting Yaroslav Hunka, who fought with […]
Read MoreDavid Dodge was like the grown-up handing out black coffee and aspirins the morning after a night of teenage bacchanalian excess. The former Bank of Canada governor was testifying before the House of Commons finance committee on Monday and his message was unequivocal: The party’s over. Article content The Liberal government has rarely encountered a […]
Read MoreOn Monday, Liberal Government House Leader Karina Gould attempted to move a motion to erase all records of the Speaker of the House of Commons recognizing a veteran of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (a Nazi division), during the address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s to Canada’s House of Commons. This decision […]
Read MoreThe Speaker of the House of Commons is not supposed to be the problem. The Speaker of the House is the individual chosen by their fellow members to preside over their business, check their behaviour, protect their privileges and represent the institution. The Speaker is the officer in robes overlooking the proceedings from his throne, […]
Read MorePutin’s propaganda about “denazifying Ukraine” thus got a major boost, complete with slo-mo video footage of our MPs rising to their feet to applaud a beaming Yaroslav Hunka, who served in the SS 14th Waffen Division, which committed numerous atrocities against Poles during the Second World War. Article content Meanwhile, our Five Eyes allies are […]
Read MoreUp until the fiasco of Parliament giving a standing ovation to a 98-year-old Ukrainian-Canadian named Yaroslav Hunka, who, it turned out, had fought with the Waffen SS against the Soviets in the Second World War, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s North American tour had gone reasonably well.
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