Oct 27 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — There are serious questions to be asked about the federal government’s response to the global pandemic. At some point, we’ll need a comprehensive study of how Ottawa has handled the greatest public health crisis to face Canadians in a century. And maybe the House of Commons is the institution to perform such a careful and […]
Oct 22 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — This week’s excitement ended quietly on Wednesday afternoon, brought to a formal conclusion by a vote of 180 nays to 146 yeas. The defeat of the Conservative motion — with the New Democrats and Greens joining the Liberals in opposing the proposal for what was originally billed as an “anti-corruption committee” — forestalls the immediate […]
Oct 17 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Are the Liberals playing a game of chicken with the opposition? “This is pure partisan politics,” Liberal House leader Pablo Rodriguez said on Friday, referring to a Conservative motion that would have the House of Commons establish an “anti-corruption committee.” It shouldn’t surprise Rodriguez — an MP with more than a decade of experience in […]
Oct 16 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Two hours after WestJet announced on Wednesday that it was curtailing its flights to and from Atlantic Canada, an email went out to all MPs and senators from Liberal MP Chris Bittle, parliamentary secretary to Transport Minister Marc Garneau. “The COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact on all aspects of the Canadian economy, but […]
Oct 10 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Two weeks ago, Justin Trudeau told Canadians the country was at a “crossroads.” On Friday, the prime minister said we were at a “tipping point.” Though the metaphors might now be mixed, it’s at least clear that the pandemic situation in Canada has become only more precarious over the last two weeks.
Oct 8 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — For all the alarm expressed in recent months by some pundits and politicians about government debt, surprisingly little has been said about one readily available option for managing higher public expenditures: asking at least some people to pay more in taxes. The idea of asking certain people — the richest members of society — to […]
Oct 4 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Delivering his first major speech in the House of Commons as leader of the Official Opposition this week, Erin O’Toole made this observation: “A time of crisis and uncertainty is not the time to conduct social experiments like those set out in the throne speech.” The Conservative leader did not specify which of the ideas […]
Oct 1 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — The NDP did not do well in the last federal election — but it did get lucky. The NDP lost 15 seats in last year’s vote and was knocked down to fourth-party status in the House of Commons. With just 24 MPs remaining, the party was reduced to its lowest share of the House since […]
Sep 27 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — On Thursday — a day after a throne speech vowed to take action on pharmacare, long-term care and child care — Conservative House leader Gerard Deltell stood in the House of Commons and accused the Liberal government of “setting the stage for fights with the provinces.” “Before the throne speech was even finished,” Deltell reported, […]
Sep 24 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — However grandly it’s staged, a throne speech is a difficult thing to judge. Just ask the opposition parties. The first official review of Wednesday’s speech came from Candice Bergen, the deputy Conservative leader, who stepped to the podium and said that the 6,800-word address was “full of Liberal buzzwords and grand gestures with very little […]
Sep 23 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Prime ministers rarely ask the television networks for time to address the nation, and when they do it is not always for the most serious reasons — for Lester B. Pearson in 1968, Paul Martin in 2005 and Stephen Harper in 2008, extraordinary appeals were delivered to Canadians only because a minority government was facing […]
Sep 17 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — The profound and urgent threat of climate change still hangs over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government — quite literally this week, after smoke from the wildfires in California and Oregon spread across the continent, casting a dull haze across the skies. Questions are being asked now about how quickly or enthusiastically the Liberals should turn […]
Sep 9 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Various observers and unnamed officials spent last week worrying aloud about how large a deficit the Liberal government might be preparing to run — and then the new leader of the Conservative Party more or less disavowed any interest in balancing the budget. “Economic growth is as important as controlling spending,” Erin O’Toole told the […]
Sep 1 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Defending his decision to have Parliament prorogued until Sept. 23, Justin Trudeau acknowledged the obvious on Monday — his Liberals do not occupy a majority of the seats in the House of Commons. “As we take a new direction, I think it is extremely important in a democracy that parliamentarians be able to pronounce on […]
Aug 29 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — “We need a new New Deal,” Chrystia Freeland said back in June 2013, invoking the reforms and support programs President Franklin D. Roosevelt implemented in the United States in the face of the Great Depression. This was before Freeland was elected as the Liberal MP for Toronto Centre, before the Liberals formed government in 2015 […]