Jun 25 2022 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — A funny thing happened during the depths of the pandemic: a plurality of Canadians felt their governments were having a positive impact on peoples’ lives. It didn’t last. But perhaps governments should be thinking hard now about how they can engender such good feelings, even outside of moments of profound crisis. In March 2020, just […]
Jun 23 2022 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Anthony Rota, the Liberal MP for Nipissing—Timiskaming, is the 37th Speaker of the House of Commons and the first Speaker to preside over hybrid meetings of the House — an innovation brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the spring sitting of Parliament wrapping up this week — the House is now adjourned until September […]
Jun 19 2022 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Two summers ago, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals started allowing themselves to talk ambitiously about a post-pandemic future — about learning the lessons of COVID-19 and seizing the moment to push the country forward. Two years later, nearly all pandemic-era precautions have been set aside and most Canadians seem ready to stop worrying about the […]
Jun 18 2022 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Erin O’Toole, who was dumped as Conservative leader in February, sounds a little worried these days. “Whoever the next leader is … they will have to get the balance right between conservative, traditional policies and populism,” O’Toole told CBC Radio’s The House in an interview airing this weekend. “And I believe as leaders we have […]
Jun 9 2022 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — On Tuesday, as the inflation debate that consumed question period this spring ground on for another day, interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland got into an argument over which of them was “out of touch.” Brandishing a new survey that suggests a quarter of Canadians have been eating less because of […]
Jun 4 2022 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Bill Morneau never seemed to like the political aspects of politics. That might explain both the rockiest moments of his tenure as finance minister and some of the complaints he chose to air during a speech in Toronto this week. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he is bereft of political insight. “Politics is, frankly, nothing […]
Jun 1 2022 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — In an essay published several months after he played a central role in the negotiations that led to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Constitution Act of 1982, Roy McMurtry wrote that he was “saddened” by “irrational allegations that the ‘notwithstanding clause’ was prompted by provincial politicians determined to retain the option of […]
May 29 2022 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — The confidence-and-supply agreement between the Liberals and NDP — now two months old — has brought a certain amount of predictability to Parliament. The institution is no longer dominated by questions about whether an election might be triggered by whichever bill happens to be in front of MPs at the moment. But that predictability shouldn’t […]
May 25 2022 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Attempts to follow the threads that led to the federal government’s historic invocation of the Emergencies Act in February have come upon a knot — the question of who, if anyone, provided the advice that led the government to declare an emergency. Unravelling that knot is vital to understanding how the Emergencies Act came to […]
May 20 2022 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — The common front against the carbon tax failed. What’s next? Late in 2018, Maclean’s magazine put five Conservative leaders on its cover and billed them as “the resistance” — an apparent play on the name of the movement that had emerged to oppose Donald Trump in the United States. The three premiers and two party […]
May 19 2022 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — There was some tittering on the Internet last week when Prince Charles, opening a new session of the British Parliament on behalf of his ailing mother, relayed the government’s commitment to helping “ease the cost of living for families” while sitting upon a golden throne. In fairness to Charles, he was only doing his job. […]
May 15 2022 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Providing space for good, healthy political debate on a national stage seems particularly important right now. But we’ve seen how easily attempts to do so can go astray, as evidenced this week by a gimmicky Conservative leadership debate and as explained at length in a new report by the federal Leaders’ Debate Commission. The Debate […]
May 12 2022 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Much about Wednesday night’s Conservative leadership debate — which included sound effects, props and questions about the candidates’ reading and streaming habits — seemed designed to limit the space available for actual debate. Maybe that was a reaction by the Conservative party to last week’s debate, which became a story about how readily the candidates […]
May 6 2022 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Twenty minutes into Thursday’s debate between five of the six candidates for the Conservative party leadership, Scott Aitchison appealed for calm and seriousness. “If we can’t go out and speak to Canadians in all parts of the country and make sure that we are trustworthy, that we don’t scare them … every time I hear […]
May 5 2022 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — In a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen said the “only ones reopening” the abortion debate “are the Liberals.” Unfortunately for Bergen, Arnold Viersen, a Conservative MP who describes himself as “pro-life,” had stopped to speak to reporters outside West Block two hours earlier. He was asked whether this was a debate […]