Aug 12 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Monday was a tough day for Bill Morneau and a good day for those who want to speculate about whether Bill Morneau will continue to be the finance minister for much longer. First came word that Mark Carney, the highly regarded and dapper former governor of the Bank of Canada, has been advising Justin Trudeau […]
Aug 8 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — “Prime minister,” the clerk of the privy council is reported to have advised, “your biggest problem is in Rideau Hall.” That was in 2006, when Stephen Harper was prime minister and Michaëlle Jean was Governor General. Fourteen years later, amid a run of unflattering stories, Justin Trudeau and Julie Payette might try to find some […]
Jul 31 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Justin Trudeau says he was concerned about how it might look for him and his government to partner with the WE charity to deliver a student volunteer grant. But he was apparently not concerned enough. The prime minister’s extraordinary appearance before the House of Commons standing committee on finance on Thursday was a chance for […]
Jul 28 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — In March, at their last WE Day event before the pandemic made such gatherings inadvisable, Mark and Craig Kielburger shared a stage at Wembley Arena in London, England with the actor Idris Elba, F1 race car driver Lewis Hamilton, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and singer Leona Lewis. Less than four months later, the brothers found […]
Jul 11 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Justin Trudeau and his government have shown a remarkable ability to find trouble in novel places — a Christmas vacation, the Shawcross doctrine and the possibility of a deferred prosecution agreement for SNC-Lavalin, the prime minister’s choice of attire during a trip to India. And now, a national program for student volunteers. News that a […]
Jul 9 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — The federal balance sheet is a mathematical exercise that has real fiscal and economic implications. But outside of a debt crisis, the greatest value of a surplus or deficit estimate may be as a political idea. In that respect, the most interesting thing about the $343 billion deficit that Finance Minister Bill Morneau projected on […]
Jul 8 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — In a normal year, the federal government tables a budget in the spring and then an economic statement or fiscal update in the fall. But this is not a normal year. The budget that was supposed to be presented in March was pushed back and then completely swamped by the first wave of COVID-19, the […]
Jul 4 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Now comes the hard part. Finance Minister Bill Morneau has, in the space of a few months, approved the spending of nearly $200 billion in federal aid in a deliberate effort to shut down huge portions of Canadian society so that a contagious disease could be contained. Whole new programs have been created and adjusted […]
Jul 1 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — The Donald Trump era began in 2015 with a promise to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. Five years later, the Trump era may end with citizens in much of the rest of the world — Canadians, in particular — insisting on a virtual wall between themselves and the United States. With […]
Jun 25 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — The list of prominent people who think Justin Trudeau should do something different to address China’s detention of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor continues to grow. The question for the prime minister — and for all those who have attached their names to one proposed course of action or another — is how much worse […]
Jun 19 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — In the wake of last fall’s federal election and Andrew Scheer’s resignation as Conservative leader, most pundits would have been hard-pressed to predict that the sharpest clash of ideas at the English-language debate in the leadership race that followed would involve whether or not a future Conservative government should prioritize a push to reform the […]
Jun 18 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Justin Trudeau got Canada on the cover of Rolling Stone, but he could not get Canada a temporary seat on the United Nations security council. We can debate which of those prizes is more valuable, but Wednesday’s loss is a difficult one to bear for a prime minister who proudly told the world that Canada […]
Jun 16 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Beginning with Brian Mulroney in 1988, four different prime ministers have committed this country to nine different climate targets over the last 32 years. So far, five of those carbon emissions targets — for the years 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2012 — have been missed by wide margins. Stephen Harper set two different targets for […]
Jun 13 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — We are still all in this together. But after three months, it’s getting easier to draw differences and point fingers. A new analysis conducted by CBC News of cases in Montreal, for instance, found strong correlations linking higher rates of COVID-19 infections with low-income neighbourhoods and neighbourhoods with higher percentages of Black residents. Limitations on […]
Jun 8 2020 — Aaron Wherry — CBC — Greg Fergus spent much of last week in video conferences, talking to black Canadians and community leaders. The Liberal MP for Hull-Aylmer and chair of the parliamentary black caucus says many people are “traumatized.” But, he said, they also know that this moment is an opportunity for other Canadians to “finally see the systemic barriers […]