Articles by Alex Boutilier

Oct 1 2019 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer completed just one of four required courses to become an insurance broker, according to the Insurance Brokers Association of Saskatchewan. Scheer has faced questions over suggestions that he sold insurance before being elected as the 25-year-old MP for Regina-Qu’Appelle. Scheer has repeatedly held up his time at a Regina insurance company, […]

Sep 20 2019 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party are outspending Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives nearly three to one on social media advertising in the lead up to October’s federal election. Data compiled by ad.watch, which comes from Facebook’s own ad library, shows that since July 1 the Liberals have spent $738,715 in advertising on Facebook and Instagram. The […]

Sep 19 2019 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has asked Canadian voters for forgiveness after being exposed for wearing blackface makeup on at least three separate occasions. But have other Liberals under his leadership received the same benefit of the doubt? Since becoming Liberal leader in 2014, Trudeau has had a track record of being decisive when members of […]

Sep 13 2019 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — The Scheer campaign was somewhere around Mississauga when Premier Doug Ford’s absence became conspicuous. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer spent the early days of the federal election campaign stumping in Ford country — Vaughan and Mississauga, Etobicoke and Brampton. All places Ford’s Progressive Conservatives won big in 2018 on their way to a majority government. All […]

Sep 12 2019 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives maintain a slight lead over their Liberal rivals as the federal campaign kicks off, according to new data from Forum Research. In a survey of 1,001 Canadian voters Wednesday, Forum found that 36.3 per cent would support the Conservatives if a vote were held today, while 32.4 per cent would vote Liberal. […]

Sep 9 2019 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer will take the initiative Wednesday and officially launch his bid to become Canada’s next prime minister. Sources tell the Star the Conservatives will kickoff their election campaign Wednesday, rather than wait for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to head to Rideau Hall and officially call the general election. The Conservative move […]

Aug 29 2019 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — While environmental issues are top of mind for Canadians as the federal election approaches, voters are leery of proposals that would see them personally pay more to combat climate change. New data released by the Public Policy Forum’s Digital Democracy Project suggests Canadian voters rank the environment second only to the economy in terms of […]

Aug 24 2019 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — The Conservatives weren’t exactly banking on the New Democrats backing an Andrew Scheer-led minority government this October. But NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s decision this week to close the door on any co-operation with the Conservatives makes Scheer’s path to power more difficult to game out. “Majority or bust” is the way three senior Conservative sources […]

Aug 22 2019 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — The Liberals are challenging Andrew Scheer to end his “boycott” of gay pride events after unearthing a 2005 speech the Conservative leader made suggesting same-sex marriage cannot be considered marriage at all. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale released a video of the speech Thursday that shows Scheer, then 25, explaining why he opposed the Civil […]

Aug 18 2019 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — Kelly Day was warming up the crowd with a theme song she wrote for the People’s Party of Canada. The song was heavy on the patriotism and libertarianism that Maxime Bernier’s upstart party says it stands for. PPC candidates and volunteers, purple lanyards around their necks and buttons on their chests, clapped and shouted encouragement. […]

Aug 16 2019 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — A senior member of Andrew Scheer’s team put his chances at 50 per cent. It was the night before the Conservative leadership vote, and Mike MacDonell was pacing the halls at the Etobicoke convention centre where the federal party’s grassroots were selecting Stephen Harper’s successor. MacDonell shared his assessment of Scheer’s chances with an incredulous […]

Aug 10 2019 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer are neck-and-neck on the question of who Canadians think would make the best prime minister, new data from Forum Research suggests. When asked who would make the best prime minister after this October’s federal election, Scheer and Trudeau are tied at 28 per cent of respondents, […]

Aug 7 2019 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — A new study found Canadians who hold strong partisan beliefs are more likely to be misinformed about key political issues than more politically neutral voters. Data released Wednesday by the Digital Democracy Project found “strong partisan” Canadians were more often incorrect when answering a set of 10 basic questions about current political issues. Those who […]

Aug 5 2019 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — Canada’s domestic spy agency is upping the number of officers and analysts it deploys overseas, telling parliamentarians it has a “growing footprint” internationally. The number of overseas stations the Canadian Security Intelligence Service operates is classified, with the agency only publicly admitting to permanent outposts in Paris, London and Washington. But in a 2018 briefing […]

Aug 1 2019 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — The Five Eyes security alliance is presenting a unified front on the need to keep 5G networks free from “foreign government” control, as Ottawa continues to weigh Chinese telecom Huawei’s participation in Canada’s next generation wireless system. In a joint communiqué issued Thursday, national security ministers from the five countries — Canada, the U.S., the […]