May 16 2018 — Campbell Clark — Globe and Mail — The debate on carbon taxes at the May 7 meeting of the Commons finance committee looked like it was frustrating one of the witnesses, University of Alberta economist Andrew Leach. Conservative MPs, and Alberta United Conservative Leader Jason Kenney, suggested a carbon tax won’t really reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, and Mr. Leach slapped back in the […]
May 9 2018 — Campbell Clark — Globe and Mail — U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from a nuclear deal with Iran drove a wedge between Canada’s major allies, but Justin Trudeau’s reaction was muted. This Prime Minister, it is fair to say, wasn’t looking to get mixed up in an international argument over the Middle East.
Apr 25 2018 — Campbell Clark — Globe and Mail — Senseless. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau picked the right word. There wasn’t a clear lesson to learn from a tragedy in which an individual drove a van into pedestrians, killing 10. In Ottawa, where political leaders took stock a day after the tragedy in Toronto, there was no sense of a nagging query about what should […]
Apr 16 2018 — Campbell Clark — Globe and Mail — As media-briefers go, Daniel Jean may be the world’s most incompetent. At least, judging by what the Prime Minister’s national security adviser told a Commons committee on Monday. Mr. Jean told the committee that when he briefed reporters in February on Justin Trudeau’s gaffe-filled trip to India, he was not alleging a conspiracy. He only […]
Apr 2 2018 — Campbell Clark — Globe and Mail — The Liberals can’t spend money fast enough. No, really. Justin Trudeau’s government hasn’t been able to pump out infrastructure projects at the rate it promised. That’s bad for the public and bad for the economy. It’s especially bad politics for the Liberal Party of Canada. The fact that the Liberals can’t get the infrastructure projects […]
Mar 25 2018 — Campbell Clark — Globe and Mail — Why has the Justin Trudeau lost his big popularity advantage? Because of the gender gap. Men aren’t sticking with the Liberal program. The Prime Minister who trumpets that he is a feminist and who appointed a gender-balanced cabinet still leads a party that’s most popular among women, according to regular polling by Nanos Research.
Feb 13 2018 — Campbell Clark — Globe and Mail — Finance Minister Bill Morneau is planning a gender budget, putting federal money behind Justin Trudeau’s declaration that he’s a feminist prime minister. It will include money to pay the costs of agenda-setting pay-equity legislation for employees in the federal government and federally regulated sectors, and will go beyond that into measures to encourage the participation […]
Dec 10 2017 — Campbell Clark — Globe and Mail — Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan’s appointment to the cabinet in 2015 garnered a chorus of wows in press stories that labelled the former lieutenant-colonel who had done three tours in Afghanistan as a “badass.” This week, he’ll unveil a plan to buy second-hand fighter jets from Australia.
Nov 15 2017 — Campbell Clark — Globe and Mail — It’s hard to decide whether a review of the government’s new promise-tracker should give them points for a step toward reporting results or lambaste them for using the kind of Orwellian descriptors that casually lie about the results. The new website – more precisely a mandate-letter tracker – grew from the “deliverology” notions that Justin […]
Nov 2 2017 — Campbell Clark — Globe and Mail — Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government is doing something no Canadian government has done for decades: It is gambling on a lot more immigration. There should be no doubt that it is a gamble. On the day that U.S. President Donald Trump was responding to a terrorist attack in New York by blaming the immigration system, exploiting […]
Oct 20 2017 — Campbell Clark — Globe and Mail — Justin Trudeau was once one of the loudest voices opposing the government wanting to force veiled Muslim women to uncover their faces. Now that he has a tribune as Prime Minister, his response to Quebec’s Bill 62 has been muted. The fear of being cast in Quebec as an interfering federal leader has softened his […]
Sep 4 2017 — Campbell Clark — Globe and Mail — As they head toward the midpoint of Justin Trudeau’s mandate, Liberal MPs seem to think the public credits them with getting the big things right but a bunch of smaller things wrong. In Mr. Trudeau’s circle, that’s supposed to be a win. The Prime Minister’s advisers say one of his political mantras is “Get the […]
Aug 31 2017 — Campbell Clark — Globe and Mail — There goes Kellie Leitch, who tried to climb the greasy pole of political leadership by pandering to anti-Muslim fears but instead slid to the bottom of the Conservative Party heap. New leader Andrew Scheer, faced with the choice of which of 35 shadow-cabinet roles to give to Ms. Leitch, gave her nothing. Mr. Scheer faced […]
Aug 25 2017 — Campbell Clark — Globe and Mail — Senator Mike Duffy was acquitted in a court of law. A judge even declared it was Stephen Harper’s PMO that was really to blame. But now Mr. Duffy wants to be declared the real victim here, and collect about $8-million. Let’s just guess that most people in this country will find that too much to […]
Aug 21 2017 — Campbell Clark — Globe and Mail — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s senior aide Gerald Butts took to Twitter to defend the appointment of his friend to a diplomatic post in San Francisco at a pay rate nearly double the official salary scale, arguing his compensation is in line with others the Liberals have recruited from outside the government – and that they […]