Sep 26 2022 — Andy Blatchford — Politico — OTTAWA, Ont. — Mélanie Joly’s political resume is longer than you might think — student activist leader, out-of-the-blue candidate who nearly became a big-city mayor and now Canada’s face on the world stage. The foreign minister’s career — which includes a high-profile Cabinet demotion — has elevated her into a cluster of Liberals who could […]
Aug 22 2022 — Andy Blatchford — Politico — U.S. ambassador David Cohen has been tasked with repairing the U.S.-Canada relationship. First though, he has to help Canada get past Trump. President Joe Biden’s old friend David Cohen was settling into his new job when he was confronted by pimply, pulpy blobs festering in the U.S.-Canada relationship. “Something had to be done,” Cohen told […]
Jul 4 2022 — Andy Blatchford — Politico — The Canadian government has a quick fix for the crush of people standing in line for passports: 801 chairs — to be delivered ASAP. The Trudeau government has been under fire for weeks over long lineups at passport offices as a crush of Canadians look to travel abroad, many for the first time since the […]
Jun 9 2022 — Andy Blatchford — Politico — Erin O’Toole says Chinese interference is to blame for the defeat of as many as nine Conservative candidates in the 2021 federal election. The former Conservative leader’s remark, made during a podcast this week, advances an unusually specific allegation at a time of widespread warnings about state actors trying to undermine Canada’s democratic process.
Jun 2 2022 — Andy Blatchford — Politico — Ottawa is still buzzing about Bill Morneau and his sharp take on the Trudeau Cabinet. But it turns out Wednesday’s keynote was not the first time the former finance minister has taken his former colleagues to task. During a Feb. 25 speech in Washington, mostly overlooked after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a day earlier, Morneau […]
May 31 2022 — Andy Blatchford — Politico — Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly says Canada wants to better prepare its diplomats for an increasingly uncertain world. “Crises used to be something that happened every once in a decade — but now they’re happening every year,” Joly told POLITICO in an interview Monday evening. “We need to keep up with these challenging times.”
May 25 2022 — Andy Blatchford — Politico — Pierre Poilievre is on a quest to replace Justin Trudeau. He’s not out simply to upend the political establishment — he wants to burn it down. “The most powerful people in the country … will be accountable when I’m prime minister,” Poilievre, the frontrunner in the race for the Conservative Party leadership, says in a […]
May 12 2022 — Andy Blatchford — Politico — The presumed frontrunner to win Canada’s Conservative Party leadership race is vowing, if he becomes prime minister, to fire the Bank of Canada’s governor. Pierre Poilievre made the threat to central bank Governor Tiff Macklem when asked Wednesday during a leadership debate in Edmonton about Canada’s red-hot inflation.
Mar 22 2022 — Andy Blatchford — Politico — Jean Charest is warning that the fight for the leadership of Canada’s Conservatives could draw the country’s politics into bare-knuckle, U.S.-style campaigning. It’s in Charest’s interest to say this, of course. He’s trying to brand himself as the level-headed unifier — the “adult in the room” — in what is so far an eight-person race.
Feb 27 2022 — Andy Blatchford — Politico — “The tyranny we have witnessed in Canada in recent weeks should shock and dismay people all over the world,” Trump said Saturday night. Donald Trump fired up the Conservative Political Action Conference crowd Saturday night with a barrage of accusations directed at what would have been an unthinkable target just weeks ago: Canadian Prime Minister […]
Feb 4 2022 — Andy Blatchford — Politico — A Florida congressman says he’s pressing the Biden administration on Canada’s decision to skip an extended national security review of a Chinese state-owned company’s takeover of a lithium mining firm. “It was quite surprising to me to hear of this acquisition, given there’s a clear national security nexus and I would think there’s clear national […]
Sep 22 2021 — Andy Blatchford — Politico — Erin O’Toole’s upstart campaign against Justin Trudeau showed Canada’s Conservatives what it’s like to campaign to the left. The party’s faithful now have to decide if they liked it.
Sep 21 2021 — Andy Blatchford — Politico — Justin Trudeau’s election win will earn him a congratulatory call from a figure largely forgotten during Canada’s election campaign: President Joe Biden. But staying on Biden’s radar will be key for Trudeau, as he resettles into the Prime Minister’s Office.
Aug 15 2021 — Andy Blatchford — Politico — Justin Trudeau launched Canadians into an election campaign Sunday that on the surface gives voters a choice between competing visions for a post-pandemic Canada. But Trudeau also used his Day 1 words to shape the campaign’s subtext. Canada’s election, the Liberal leader suggested, could hinge on the philosophical clash between the vaccinated and the vaccine […]
Aug 15 2021 — Andy Blatchford — Politico — Chinese courts just dropped a pair of global headline-grabbing decisions that bring the bad blood in the Canada-China relationship to the center of the 2021 federal election campaign. Foreign policy debate will focus on bilateral tensions that can be traced back nearly 1,000 days to China’s arrests of two Canadians on spying charges. During that […]