Doug Ford’s office says it is severing ‘formal’ ties with key aide amid Greenbelt scandal
The Progressive Conservatives are severing “formal” ties with one of Premier Doug Ford’s most trusted confidantes in the wake of the $8.28-billion Greenbelt land swap scandal. Amin Massoudi, Ford’s former principal secretary and an aide so respected the premier described him as “like family,” is the latest casualty of a controversy that has roiled the […]
From Harper to Poilievre: what is the Conservative vision for Indigenous Peoples?
When Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks about what his party’s relationship with Indigenous Peoples would look like should he become prime minister, it’s often about “economic reconciliation,” or the idea that Indigenous Peoples should be included in all aspects of the economy without barriers. He also speaks about public safety, charging that Prime Minister Justin […]
Sovereignty act may be used to fight 2035 net-zero electricity plan: Alberta premier
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she would use her province’s sovereignty act as a last resort to challenge any attempt by the federal government to impost a net-zero electricity grid by 2035. Smith says achieving net-zero 12 years from now is not realistic, adding that it could lead to power blackouts because Alberta wouldn’t have […]
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Quebec Premier François Legault are in Montreal Thursday to announce that a multibillion-dollar electric vehicle battery plant will be built east of the city. Executives with the Swedish company Northvolt, a battery manufacturer and the largest integrated battery maker in Europe, will join the political leaders in Montreal at 11 […]
Read MoreWhile Russia continues to blast Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for venerating a Nazi combatant in Parliament, Ottawa’s main website designed to fight Russian disinformation hasn’t been updated since the day before the incident. During a visit to the House of Commons by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, the Speaker of the House led a […]
Read MoreThe Conservatives are pushing for a House of Commons committee to summon federal police agencies and someone from the Prime Minister’s Office to explain the “international embarrassment” caused when Parliament applauded a man who fought with a Nazi unit in Ukraine in the Second World War. The motion Alberta MP Stephanie Kusie said she intends […]
Read MoreFrom September 19 to 25, 2023, Abacus Data conducted a representative online survey of 500 adults living in Newfoundland and Labrador. The survey asked questions about both federal and provincial politics. This is the first report looking at federal politics in the province. On Monday, we will look at the state of provincial politics in […]
Read MoreThe federal government is coping with apparent cyberattacks this week, as a hacker group in India claims it has sowed chaos in Ottawa. The Canadian Armed Forces says that its website became unavailable to mobile users midday Wednesday, but was fixed within a few hours. The military says the site is separate from other government […]
Read MorePrime Minister Justin Trudeau has called the decision to invite an elderly Ukrainian Second World War veteran who fought for Nazi Germany an “egregious error” that “deeply embarrassed Parliament and Canada.” On Wednesday, he offered what he called “unreserved apologies” on Canada’s behalf for the hurt it caused. Many experts say they’re skeptical about the […]
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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 […]
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 […]
Has The Ex-Speaker Put The Liberals In An Even Deeper Hole?
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 […]
Today in Canada’s Political History: Future MP and cabinet minister Milton Gregg earns the Victoria Cross
New 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 […]
Rota’s gavel falls — the undeniable case for the speaker to resign
In 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 […]
Canada embarrassed itself when it honoured a man who fought for the Nazis. But that’s hardly the worst part
It 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.
The colonial project called Canada is outdoing itself
Did 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 […]
A sober David Dodge informs the Liberals their fiscal bender is finished
David 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 […]
On 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.
Read MoreJews across Canada were preparing for the holiest day on the religious calendar on Sunday, as word was spreading about a major snafu in Ottawa two days earlier. Ahead of a 24-hour fast to atone for sins committed in the previous year and ask to be inscribed into the Book of Life for the year […]
Read MoreBritish Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was in Canada on this date in 1983 to address members of Toronto’s storied Empire Club. Ontario Premier William Davis welcomed Mrs. Thatcher to the podium. “It is an honour for me to introduce to you,” he said, “not only a distinguished lady, not only a person who is head […]
Read MoreTrans people are currently in the crosshairs of some Canadians who are following a pattern set in the United States: Extreme commentators and their political enablers distort and amplify anecdotes to depict trans people as a threat to our children, and other people follow along.
Read MoreHere’s what we know about the hottest issue in Canadian politics. Two out of three Canadians see housing affordability as a “crisis”. Even most Liberals (59%) agree. But expensive houses don’t affect everyone the same way. Rising prices have been only bad news for half the population, but only good news for 17%. Others see […]
Read MoreAfter the first week back in Parliament, it is obvious that all three leaders of the national parties have their work cut out for them. The prime minister has the most obvious problem. Justin Trudeau’s press these days reads like a savage review of a Broadway flop. Maybe he’s playing rope-a-dope with Conservative Leader Pierre […]
Read MoreOver the summer, something remarkable happened. Women, across every voting demographic, started migrating their voting intention away from the Liberal government. But that trend shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that economic data from that period suggests that high interest rates and sustained high inflation – particularly in the cost of fuel and groceries – […]
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