Jun 26 2019 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — “Stephen Harper with a smile” was the shorthand description embraced by both Andrew Scheer (while he was running for the Conservative leadership) and the Liberal Party, after Scheer became the second leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. Two years and five “vision” speeches later, that description seems only more apt. That Scheer has so […]
Jun 22 2019 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — This was a particularly interesting week for Steven Guilbeault — one of Canada’s most prominent environmentalists — to announce that he hopes to be a candidate for the Liberal Party in this fall’s general election. It would be a notable development regardless of its timing: the recruitment of a star candidate by a government seeking […]
Jun 20 2019 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Presenting the Conservative Party’s climate platform on Wednesday, Andrew Scheer exulted over the document’s length and weight. “Sixty pages,” he said, holding the document aloft. “Eleven thousand words.” It is, without question, a handsome document — in full colour and featuring many large photos. There are many words in it. Some of them are in […]
Jun 19 2019 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Justin Trudeau has his pipeline, again — a pipeline he owns both politically and literally. Legal challenges will again be filed against the Trans Mountain expansion. The government of British Columbia will remain opposed to the project and committed to appealing its case to the Supreme Court. In the meantime, construction will resume. The proverbial […]
Jun 18 2019 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — The socialist wing of the NDP should probably send Justin Trudeau a note of thanks. If Trudeau and the Liberals hadn’t trounced the NDP in 2015, and if they hadn’t done so while running on an aggressively progressive platform, the New Democrats would surely not have released the sort of platform they did on Sunday […]
Jun 15 2019 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — The simple math of climate policy rarely makes for straightforward politics. Consider this week’s analysis by the parliamentary budget officer, and the respective responses of the Liberals and Conservatives. Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions are projected to decline to 592 megatonnes by 2030 — a significant reduction, but still 79 megatonnes above the target to which […]
Jun 12 2019 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — The Conservative MP’s reference to ‘paid influencers’ raises spectre of election-rigging. If Pierre Poilievre was a basketball coach, he might be accused right now of “working the ref” — a tactic that has come to be an accepted part of professional sports. But because he’s an elected member of Parliament, and because he’s casting aspersions […]
Jun 8 2019 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — With less than five months to go before a federal election, Conservatives are making a special effort to establish just how dimly they view Justin Trudeau’s time as prime minister. This week, their lament was about taxes and the apparent plight of ordinary Canadians under the Trudeau government’s allegedly high-tax agenda. “When will the government […]
Jun 1 2019 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — R.B. Bennett might have warned Jagmeet Singh against framing the NDP’s climate plan the way he did Friday morning. “I’ve been inspired by people who want to bring a green new deal to Canada,” the NDP leader said. “Canadians need and want a new deal.” And so, Singh released what the NDP is calling a […]
May 30 2019 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Andrew Scheer’s immigration speech on Tuesday night rested its arguments on a debatable premise. “With each passing day,” he said, “Justin Trudeau and the Liberals undermine” Canada’s “proud legacy” of immigration. “They have managed,” Scheer said, “to undermine the long-standing consensus that immigration is indeed a positive thing for this country.” Public polling on this […]
May 28 2019 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott have decided to find out how much they can accomplish on their own. One or both might at least get re-elected — though the reward for that might be rather limited. If they do accomplish something here, a significant amount of credit will be due to the partisan political system […]
May 25 2019 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — It’s far too soon to measure the full extent of Justin Trudeau’s political legacy, but he has now managed at least one truly remarkable achievement: he has persuaded the Conservative Party to admit that balancing the federal budget, even outside of a recession, is not absolutely necessary. Trudeau might wish he hadn’t been so successful. […]
May 24 2019 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — “As I’ve said, many, many times before,” Andrew Scheer said on Wednesday, “a Conservative government will not reopen this debate. “I’ve been very clear on this … I’ve made it very clear. We will not reopen this debate.” A fait bit depends on how broadly Scheer defines the word “we.” At any rate, the example […]
May 4 2019 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — The Trudeau government’s federal carbon-pricing backstop has survived to fight another day. And there are many, many more days left in this battle. “The Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act is not unconstitutional either in whole or in part,” a majority of justices on the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled Friday, responding to a hostile reference […]
May 3 2019 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — If on Tuesday afternoon you were thinking that Jason Kenney might turn out to be a more relaxed member of the federation than he seemed while campaigning in Alberta’s recent election, you might have been taken aback by what he had to say Thursday morning. “This bill, if passed in anything like its current form, […]