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.
Dec 20 2019 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — Even Jagmeet Singh, a politician who carries himself as the embodiment of positivity, admits things were bleak for his New Democratic Party — very bleak, indeed. At the outset of the 43rd federal election, Canada’s national social democratic party faced the prospect of annihilation. One source describes meetings in late summer where officials discussed how […]
Oct 17 2019 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — The New Democratic Party and its leader Jagmeet Singh are making big gains in popular support and favourability in the final days of the campaign, a new poll suggests. The latest telephone survey from Forum Research shows a significant boost in voting intentions for the NDP from a similar poll the firm conducted nine days […]
Sep 23 2019 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — Billing himself as the antidote to health cuts by Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is promising to make a $6-billion “down payment” towards a national pharmacare program and improved access to family doctors and mental health services. Speaking to reporters during a campaign stop in Hamilton Monday, Trudeau said as prime minister […]
Aug 16 2019 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — A federal Green Party candidate was forced to drop out of the upcoming election campaign as he continues to call on the leader of the Quebec City mosque that was site of a 2017 massacre to denounce a man who allegedly lit his ex-wife on fire. Luc Saint-Hilaire, the Green candidate for the Quebec riding […]
Aug 16 2019 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — Trumpeting the need for men and boys to enlist in the fight for gender equality, the federal government is awarding $562,000 to four organizations in a bid to lay the foundation for its promised national strategy. Women and Gender Equality Minister Maryam Monsef is set to announce the funding Friday in Calgary, where she will […]
Aug 8 2019 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — The polls can tell you one thing about the federal New Democratic Party, and these days it’s not all that good, but a walk with Jagmeet Singh through the Metrotown Mall will tell you something else entirely. At least that’s how Marie Della Mattia sees it. It was a blistering hot day last summer, around […]
Aug 1 2019 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — At a certain point this summer, Kim Hughes admits, things started to look “pretty overwhelming” for the Green Party Riding Association of Cowichan-Malahat-Langford. In a place that, like pretty much everywhere else, has never elected a Green candidate to the House of Commons, there was a deluge of people that wanted to run. At its […]
Jul 18 2019 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — The federal Green Party’s openness to continued activity in Alberta’s oilsands has created a rift with some supporters — including party leaders in two provinces — who want to rapidly shut down the industry that employs tens of thousands of people and is responsible for a large portion of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions. Alex Tyrrell, […]
Jul 11 2019 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — The Liberals have maintained a commanding lead in their “Fortress Toronto,” with almost half of decided and leaning voters in Canada’s largest city saying they intend to support Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s party in the coming federal election, according to a new poll. The survey of Torontonian voters by Forum Research found that 46 per […]
Jul 10 2019 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — A slim majority of Canadians support the expansion of the government-owned Trans Mountain oil pipeline — including in British Columbia — while a third want to see the controversial project abandoned, according to a new poll. The survey from Forum Research found 54 per cent of respondents across the country support the multibillion dollar pipeline […]
Jul 9 2019 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh will swing through the GTA this week on a tour of Ontario ridings his party thinks it can win from the Liberals, as the New Democrats embark on a summer offensive in a crucial battleground for the coming federal election. Singh’s travels begin Tuesday in the western Toronto riding of York […]
Jul 8 2019 — Alex Ballingall — The Spectator — The environment has surged into a top-ranking concern for Canadian voters ahead of the federal election this fall, according to a new national poll. The survey from Forum Research found that 26 per cent of respondents chose the environment when asked to identify the most important issue in the coming federal campaign, placing it at […]