Articles by Alex Ballingall

Oct 16 2020 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — In duelling expressions of outrage, Liberals and Conservatives exchanged demands for opposing candidates to drop out of federal byelections in Toronto as advance polls opened on Friday. The Liberals took the first shot, when Quebec MP Greg Fergus — who is also the chair of the Parliamentary Black Caucus in Ottawa — condemned how the […]

Oct 9 2020 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — The new leader of the Green Party is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to make the extraordinary decision to suspend two federal byelections in Toronto, including the one where she is trying to win a seat in Parliament. Annamie Paul, who is running for former Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s vacant seat in Toronto Centre, […]

Sep 8 2020 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — It’s language typically reserved for armed conflicts or natural disasters. This week, Canada’s heritage minister used it for a regulatory spat in Australia. “The Canadian government stands with our Australian partners and denounces any form of threats,” Steven Guilbeault said in an emailed statement to the Star’s Susan Delacourt.

Aug 26 2020 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — Lynn Beyak, the Ontario senator who was booted from the Conservative caucus for refusing to remove racist letters from her official website, is now a People’s Party of Canada donor. After years of reliably contributing to the Conservatives, Beyak gave $1,000 last June to the right-wing splinter party founded by former Quebec MP Maxime Bernier, […]

Aug 23 2020 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — Jagmeet Singh wanted this. The day before last year’s federal election, the NDP leader urged voters to elect at least enough New Democrats to reduce Justin Trudeau’s Liberals to a minority government. That way, he said, his progressive team could “force” Canada to the left on a range of policies, from taxing the ultra-rich to […]

Aug 5 2020 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — It has been seven weeks since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised action “very soon” to address systemic racism in Canadian policing and other institutions. For Matthew Green, an NDP MP and member of the cross-party Parliamentary Black Caucus, “very soon” is now long past due — and can’t come soon enough. That’s especially the case, […]

Jun 16 2020 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — There are no excuses. The way NDP MP Matthew Green sees it, the Liberal minority government must swiftly fulfil the entire list of demands in a sweeping declaration from Black parliamentarians that charts reforms to address systemic racism in Canada. After all, the document was signed by more than 100 Liberal MPs, including Deputy Prime […]

May 12 2020 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — Need a federal loan to survive the crumbling pandemic economy? If you’re running a large company, you’ll have to show you’re “thinking about” climate change, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says. That’s one of the conditions attached to the government’s new “bridge loans” program, unveiled Monday, to help big corporations survive the COVID-19 crisis. But what […]

May 5 2020 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — The opposition parties that hold the balance of power over the Liberal minority government are all questioning its new ban on “military-style” weapons, with the Bloc Québécois and New Democratic Party taking aim at the plan to let current owners keep the newly prohibited firearms. The Liberals need the support of at least one opposition […]

Apr 30 2020 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — Glen Murray doesn’t want to change the Green Party of Canada. But he does want it to win. The former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister announced this week he will run for the federal Green leadership, making him — he pointed out in an interview with the Star — the only candidate to have actually won […]

Mar 25 2020 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — Many Canadians are seeing their incomes shrink amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, a new polls suggests, as businesses shut down, people are told to stay home and EI claims skyrocket. The national survey from the Angus Reid Institute found 44 per cent of respondents said someone in their household has “lost work” because of the pandemic. […]

Mar 21 2020 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is now advising Canadians to avoid travelling to neighbouring provinces, but the federal government still isn’t willing to restrict movement through emergency powers to stop the spread of COVID-19. Speaking outside Rideau Cottage for his daily press conference on the pandemic, Trudeau urged Canadians to avoid all unessential travel within the […]

Feb 18 2020 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — Grand Chief Serge Otsi Simon came to Parliament Hill Tuesday with a plea for his people. The rail blockades that have strangled commerce and passenger traffic should come down, he said. The message has been sent. Yet even as he spoke, some of his people were sending a message of their own. “I have a […]

Feb 8 2020 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — Like most everyone with a stake in the quagmire of Canadian climate politics, Colleen Thorpe does not know if the Liberal government will approve the Teck Frontier oilsands project. But she sure is worried it will. The executive director of Équiterre was among a host of Quebec environmentalists who met Monday with key cabinet ministers […]

Jan 9 2020 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — First the assassination, then the retaliation. And now — now what? After Iran struck back at American forces on Wednesday, firing missiles at two U.S. military bases in Iraq, much of the world is waiting to see if tensions inflamed by the drone-killing Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani will die down or intensify.