National Newswatch

Moe says Saskatchewan to use notwithstanding clause over school pronoun policy

Sep 28 2023 —

Saskatchewan’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 […]

Sep 28 2023 — Rachel Aiello

Canada’s Gov. Gen. Mary Simon says Parliament’s recognition of a man who fought for a Nazi unit during the Second World War was “a shock and an embarrassment,” and she’s considering personally reaching out to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Simon, as the representative of Canada’s head of state King Charles III, welcomed Zelenskyy and the […]

Sep 28 2023 — Peter Zimonjic

The University of Alberta is returning a $30,000 donation it received from the family of Yaroslav Hunka, saying it regrets any harm it may have caused by accepting the endowment in his name. “The university recognizes and regrets the unintended harm caused,” Verna Yiu, interim provost and vice-president of the university, said in a statement. […]

Sep 28 2023 — John Paul Tasker

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that Canada has made contact with Ukrainian officials in the days since Parliament celebrated a veteran of a Nazi unit in the presence of Ukraine’s president. Trudeau said Canada is one of Ukraine’s “strongest allies” and Ukraine’s leaders “full well know that,” despite the embarrassing episode. He said Canada […]

Doug Ford’s office says it is severing ‘formal’ ties with key aide amid Greenbelt scandal

Sep 28 2023 — Robert Benzie

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?

Sep 28 2023 —

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 […]

Sep 28 2023 —

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 […]

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Sep 28 2023 — David Coletto

From 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 […]

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Sep 28 2023 — Murray Brewster

Prime 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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Featured Ink

Being Speaker isn’t easy — and it just got a lot harder

Sep 28 2023 — Aaron Wherry

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

Sep 28 2023 — Max Fawcett

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 […]

Today in Canada’s Political History: Future MP and cabinet minister Milton Gregg earns the Victoria Cross

Sep 28 2023 — Arthur Milnes

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

Sep 26 2023 — Fred DeLorey

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 […]

The colonial project called Canada is outdoing itself

Sep 27 2023 — Erica Ifill

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 […]

Sep 26 2023 — Andrew Potter

Up 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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Sep 24 2023 — Michelle Rempel Garner

Over 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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