Jan 12 2021 — Alex Ballingall — Peterborough Examiner — The 905 is a key political battleground. And just as questions about a coming federal election grow louder in Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said goodbye to a top political lieutenant with strong roots and a solid track record in the crucial suburban region around Canada’s biggest city.
Jan 11 2021 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — Mon., Jan. 11, 2021timer3 min. read Google and Facebook received a growing share of the federal government’s advertising budget after the Trudeau Liberals took power, as Ottawa quadrupled how much it spent each year on ads from the American web giants between 2015 and 2019. Responding to questions from the Star, Public Services and Procurement […]
Jan 4 2021 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — Conservative MP David Sweet is stepping down as chair of a parliamentary committee after he travelled to the United States and stayed there “for leisure” without informing his party whip, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole’s office said Monday. Sweet, the MP for the Hamilton-area riding of Flamborough—Glanbrook, is the latest Canadian politician to face repercussions for […]
Nov 24 2020 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — The next U.S. president’s newly-named “climate czar” has a notable holiday connection with Justin Trudeau: they were together on the prime minister’s controversial trip to the Aga Khan’s private island in 2016. Former American Secretary of State John Kerry was among the spiritual leader’s guests over the holidays that year, as first reported in 2017, […]
Nov 16 2020 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — Canada has missed every climate target it has ever set. The federal government wants to make sure that never happens again. That’s the basic premise behind a new law promised by Justin Trudeau and his Liberal party that is expected soon in the House of Commons. Trudeau pledged more than a year ago that his […]
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 […]