Aug 11 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — It began with a story in Saturday’s Toronto Star. The Prime Minister, it said, was thinking of ways to seize the “once in a century opportunity” of the COVID-19 pandemic to radically expand the scope and reach of government. “Now is the time,” the story said, summarizing the views of those close to him, to […]
Aug 7 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — Until about the middle of June, the pandemic had been proceeding along roughly similar lines in the United States and Canada. To be sure, the U.S. had peaked higher and fallen slower: from about 100 new daily cases per million population at its spring high to 60 by the second week in June, versus 50 […]
Aug 1 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — He had no option. The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, buttressed by his chief of staff, Katie Telford, went before the House of Commons finance committee Thursday to tell the same implausible story he has told for weeks: The civil service made him do it. The novelty in their testimony was the assurance, never heard before, […]
Jul 29 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — The first principle of investing is diversification. Every adviser will tell you: Diversify your portfolio across different investments, asset classes and countries, such that any gains in the one are offset by losses in the others, and vice versa. Risk and return are usually inversely related, but a properly diversified portfolio has been shown to […]
Jul 24 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — One of the things on which Canadians like to congratulate themselves is our generous treatment of refugees. And it’s true, up to a point. The protections afforded asylum applicants in Canada not only meet the standards set by the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, but also exceed them. Certainly if […]
Jul 21 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — Like all good scandals, the WE mess is not just one thing but several. It is only one part abuse of process, though that has been the focus of most attention: the rank cronyism, the failure to seek competing offers, the multiple undeclared conflicts of interest, the casual unregistered lobbying of a government that seems […]
Jul 17 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — By now, the Trudeau government’s indecision over whether to allow China’s Huawei Technologies to provide equipment for Canada’s new 5G wireless network has become something of a joke. It is two years since the government took up the question, more than a year since it promised a decision was imminent. Still, it dithers. What could […]
Jul 14 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — In fairness, who knew it was wrong to award a nearly billion-dollar no-bid public contract to the organization that hired your mom? This is the kind of finicky, fine-print obligation – like “do not accept personal gifts from people seeking money from your government” or “do not interfere in criminal prosecutions for the benefit of […]
Jul 10 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — A snapshot captures an image of the present – or rather a present, an instant. But snapshots conceal as much as they reveal. They do not show what happened immediately before or after the picture was taken. Neither do they show what lurks just outside the frame. They show you only what the photographer chose […]
Jul 7 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — People keep asking Justin Trudeau to do ethically dubious things. Whether it’s requesting he attend private fundraising dinners with Chinese billionaires, or inviting him to vacation on their private Caribbean islands at the same time as they are seeking money from his government, or seeking his help in avoiding prosecution for bribing foreign dictatorships, people […]
Jul 2 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — Oh, by the way, Hong Kong just disappeared. You may have been distracted by other things, what with Canada Day celebrations and baseball’s pending return and all. Certainly you would not have been disturbed by anything your government did or said about it. But it is true: What once was the world’s freest city, a […]
Jun 24 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — Ever since the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei Technologies executive and daughter of the company’s founder, the air has been thick with Chrétien-era Liberals lobbying for her release. John Manley, John McCallum, Eddie Goldenberg, Jean Chrétien himself: All have urged the current Liberal government to refuse to extradite her to the United States on […]
Jun 17 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — I think it is time we cut Justin Trudeau some slack. The Prime Minister has taken enormous flak – well, he has endured the occasional mild criticism – over his decision to suspend the normal business of Parliament for six months. It has been noted that the House of Commons has sat for only 39 […]
Jun 13 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — It would be charitable to say the Conservative leadership race – now in its sixth great month! – has failed to light a fire under Canadians. A more accurate statement would be that it has barely registered with them. But there are signs of life. The two leading candidates, Peter MacKay and Erin O’Toole, have […]
Jun 10 2020 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — That was quite a turnaround. Was it only last month that the Liberal government was issuing memos telling its employees not to alert investigators in cases of suspected abuse of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), but simply to cut the cheques as usual?