Alberta energy minister calls out U.S. ambassador over lack of enthusiasm for Canadian oil and gas
The American ambassador’s suggestion that the U.S. is “not really in the market” to expand its oil and gas links with Canada have been called “ill-informed” and “unproductive” by Alberta’s energy minister. David Cohen has been sent north to reassure Canadians that the U.S. is back as a reliable, steadfast ally. But the new(ish) ambassador […]
Liberals to ‘review’ Supreme Court decision on mass murders, but will respect ruling
The Liberal government is promising to review a Supreme Court decision that could lower prison sentences for mass murders, but said they must also respect the high court’s ruling. In a unanimous decision, the court ruled the 40-year sentence imposed upon Alexandre Bissonnette, the shooter who killed six people in a Quebec City Mosque, was […]
Team Canada players raised ‘concerns’ about match with Iran before it was cancelled: Canada Soccer
Players on Canada’s men’s soccer team raised concerns about a controversial friendly match against Iran — and Canada Soccer confirms that pushback factored into its sudden decision to cancel the event. “Canada Soccer heard those private concerns and took them into consideration as part of the decision-making process,” wrote Canada Soccer in a media statement. […]
Canada has tapped into its own strategic stockpile of emergency medical supplies — stored for a national emergency — to help Ukraine. It has donated over 375,000 items of medical equipment and medicines from Canada’s strategic stockpile since the invasion by Russia began. This includes first aid and trauma kits, medicines and surgical instruments, as […]
Read MoreFederal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino will table new firearms legislation on Monday, according to his colleague Justice Minister David Lametti. On the Monday, May 30 “notice paper” — the document where MPs and ministers signal plans to soon table bills and motions — Mendicino has given notice of a new bill titled “An Act […]
Read MoreCanada’s western premiers are meeting in Regina on Friday and they are demanding “sustainable” health-care funding from the federal government. The annual meeting of provincial and territorial leaders from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut was virtual in 2021. At a media availability Friday morning, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and British […]
Read MoreThe federal government has given RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki new marching orders to boost recruitment, review the Mounties’ use-of-force techniques and ask officers to move quickly to remove firearms from potentially dangerous situations of intimate partner violence. In a new mandate letter sent by Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino Friday morning, the top Mountie is […]
Read MoreM. Dion, qui est ambassadeur du Canada en Allemagne depuis 2017, continuera donc sa carrière de diplomate canadien en Europe. Son mandat à Berlin devait prendre fin cet été. Le poste d’ambassadeur du Canada dans la capitale française est vacant depuis presque un an. Dans les coulisses, on s’explique mal pourquoi le gouvernement Trudeau a […]
Read MoreThose concerned about inflation, economic recovery lean heavily toward re-electing PCPO. As a general election campaign in Canada’s most populous province enters its final week, Ontarians themselves are preoccupied with their costs of living. And on this critical issue, no major party leader appears to have the enthusiastic endorsement of the electorate. The latest data […]
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Today in Canada’s Political History: Sophie Grégoire and Justin Trudeau married in Montreal
It is a great pleasure to send out anniversary best wishes to the Prime Minister and his wife Sophie Grégoire, on this, their 17th wedding anniversary. Both hail from Montreal, though Justin spent a few years as a child and youth in another Canadian city. A decade after their 2005 marriage Justin would become Prime […]
YouTube is where autodidacts like Poilievre find rabbit holes
As far as warning signals go, a politician announcing they watch YouTube channels “late into the night” is a big one. Hard to ignore, really. Because the pandemic has shown us that “YouTube” plus “late night” is more often a recipe for falling down a rabbit hole than enlightenment. (See: Taylor-Greene, Marjorie) What to make, […]
Pierre Poilievre’s Pit Bull–Policy Disconnect
Journalists covering the race for the leadership of the federal Conservative party have had one of the problems that had been perplexing them resolved. Since the race started, many of the reporters who have known Pierre Poilievre since he became an MP in 2003 have had to adjust to his presentation as a candidate. They […]
Let’s get rid of all the gatekeepers, not just the ones Poilievre finds convenient to attack
The thing is, Pierre Poilievre has a point about the “gatekeepers.” Only it’s about much more than just a few blinkered municipal bureaucrats standing in the way of needed housing development. If he were serious, and not just test-driving applause lines, he’d broaden the discussion out to the other gatekeepers at work in other areas […]
Can the Minister of Fisheries protect Canada’s Fish?
On February 22, 2022, the Director of the DFO Aquaculture Management Division signed a draft letter to – Marine Finfish Aquaculture operators in British Columbia instructing them to pay for their licences, which expire in a matter of weeks, before Fisheries Minister, Joyce Murray, decides whether to renew them. There is a lot of pressure […]
Would Poilievre fund a Fox News Canada?
It’s not often coups get planned in broad daylight, much less with coverage by the media, but that seems to be what’s unfolding in Hungary right now. In a special meeting of the U.S. Conservative Political Action Conference, better known as CPAC, America’s aspiring autocrats are taking lessons from Europe’s most successful one: Viktor Orbán. […]
Conservatives Must Offer a Bold Growth Agenda for Canada
The next Prime Minister must unleash a growth agenda for Canada. The sad reality on the ground today is that we are being failed by the politics of distraction. With a Liberal government that is more focused on photo ops than ribbon cuttings – credit to Scott Aitchison for that line – Canada is not […]
Conservative candidates should quit feuding on Twitter and talk to us more
More debates, please. With more than three-and-a-half months remaining in the Conservative leadership, surely this isn’t the end of debates among the six people who aspire to be the next prime minister of Canada? Wednesday night’s debate in French marked the last of the formal, party-organized debates for the Conservative leadership. But that shouldn’t stop […]
Quebec could again play kingmaker in a Conservative leadership race
Despite electing just a handful of Conservative MPs, Quebec has played a deciding role in recent Tory leadership campaigns. Both Andrew Scheer, in 2017, and Erin O’Toole, in 2020, successfully courted single-issue Tories in the province to win their respective leadership races. Mr. Scheer wooed Quebec dairy farmers, vowing to protect supply management; Mr. O’Toole solicited […]
The Emergencies Act under scrutiny
Canadians remain starkly divided by the Trudeau government’s use of the Emergencies Act to end the trucker convoy protests. According to a recent poll conducted by the Angus Reid Institute, Liberal voters overwhelmingly supported the use of the act (79 per cent) while a majority of Conservative voters were against it (51 per cent, with […]
It’s not great when the two high points of a debate are the moments when the video signal from Laval cuts out. Looks like the Conservative Party of Canada hasn’t mastered the internet, any more than three of its leadership candidates have mastered French. Three or four: Patrick Brown was sometimes surprisingly effective, sometimes incomprehensible. […]
Read MoreI’m with Conservative leadership hopeful Pierre Poilievre: fire the gatekeepers. Banish them from Canada. As Mr. Poilievre says, it’s time to make this country the “freest on earth,” and the only way to do that is through an incoherent collection of restrictions on certain individuals, groups or institutions, such as banning the Bank of Canada […]
Read MoreThe Conservative Party of Canada leadership race is adhering to the Newtonian laws of political physics in ways the last federal election campaign did not. The 2021 election campaign can be recalled as the trajectory of Justin Trudeau as he justified the campaign while attempting to remain in motion while fending off the chaos of […]
Read MoreHere are some of the things certain candidates for Conservative leader think, or want Conservative voters to think, threaten Canada and Canadians. Candidate Pierre Poilievre warns his followers that the government of Canada “has been spying on you everywhere. They’ve been following you to the pharmacy, to your family visits, even to your beer runs.” […]
Read MoreJason Kenney made the most common mistake. He mistook Alberta’s conservative disposition — our propensity to delight in what is present — for conservative ideology. Alberta has a disposition to appreciate the present while preserving traditions. We have a healthy skepticism of radical change. It’s a key reason we take so bloody long to change […]
Read MoreToday we celebrate the anniversary of a past Prime Minister’s official portrait being unveiled on Parliament Hill. The date was May 27, 2008 and it was Joe Clark’s turn to be publicly hanged. His was a unique portrait as Mr. Clark chose to be portrayed on his feet in the House of Commons, the first […]
Read MoreConservative leadership challenger Pierre Poilievre shifted his policy on Bill 21 — the Quebec law that bars those wearing religious symbols from holding certain public-sector jobs — during the party’s French-language debate Wednesday. Poilievre had tried to side-step the topic before. The only Quebec MP backing him, Pierre Paul-Hus, had assured Quebec reporters that Poilievre […]
Read MoreNo one is going to accuse Pierre Poilievre of practising restraint in his campaign to be the next leader of the federal Conservatives. Show him an institution and Poilievre will knock it down — the Bank of Canada, the media, anyone deemed a “gatekeeper,” or the World Economic Forum. He doesn’t just disagree with his […]
Read MorePrior to the pandemic, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney was arguably the most powerful and influential conservative leader in Canada. Andrew Scheer, when he was federal opposition leader, had Kenney campaign for him in Ontario, while at the same time staying away from Ontario Premier Doug Ford. When Erin O’Toole was seeking to replace Scheer, he […]
Read MoreDoug Ford is heading toward a second majority at Queen’s Park — not that anyone is paying attention. In the unlikely scenario all the polls released in Ontario ahead of its June 2 election turn out to be wrong, or if tens of thousands of voters do indeed vote strategically to deny the premier his […]
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Oilers knock off Flames in OT to advance to Western Conference final
The Edmonton Oilers are off to the Western Conference final. Connor McDavid scored at 5:03 of overtime as the Oilers defeated the Calgary Flames 5-4 on Thursday to win their second-round playoff series 4-1. The Edmonton captain fired his seventh goal of the post-season past Jacob Markstrom off a pass from Leon Draisaitl to send […]
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