Nov 8 2019 — Colby Cosh — National Post — The answer he ought to give (without invoking ‘sin’ or the l-word) is that he aspires to lead a secular state in a religiously plural society. History, you know, does offer Catholic politicians a deathless riposte to awkward questions about their ability to participate in public life. In 1906 a Liberal candidate was giving an […]
Jul 26 2019 — Colby Cosh — National Post — On Thursday, the former MP Jay Hill, an Old Reformer from Fort St. John who rose to become Conservative Government Whip, published a Western separatist op-ed in the Calgary Herald. Well, the article is conditionally Western separatist, anyway. Hill writes that western independence is a “possible, some would say probable, consequence” of Justin Trudeau’s re-election […]
Jul 8 2019 — Colby Cosh — National Post — On Monday the Calgary Herald’s Bill Kaufmann published an amusing interview with Dr. Lyle Oberg, 59, a former Alberta PC cabinet minister from the Ralph Klein era. The article makes explicit self-reference to the ever-growing news genre to which it belongs: profiles of old conservative politicians who are now making a bundle in the legal […]
Jun 13 2019 — Colby Cosh — National Post — There’s almost no other way to put it: the prime minister seems to be losing his marbles. On Monday, the premiers of five provinces and the Northwest Territories sent him a polite, conventional open letter raising familiar concerns with the Liberal government’s resource bills C-69 (which creates a new regime for federal review of big […]
Apr 17 2019 — Colby Cosh — National Post — In the end it was as written. The ultra-hard final numbers in the Alberta election, as faithful readers have been warned, are going to take a while to arrive. But it became apparent shockingly early on Tuesday night that the United Conservative Party would secure a comfortable majority in the Alberta legislature, completing Jason Kenney’s […]
Mar 6 2019 — Colby Cosh — National Post — On Wednesday, in testifying about the SNC-Lavalin scandal that has punched a hole in Justin Trudeau’s cabinet, Gerald Butts left an impression of sincerity, or at least earnestness, and professed the best of intentions as Trudeau’s exiled principal secretary. Do you suppose it will help? The Liberal government’s SNC situation clearly has a traplike nature. […]
Feb 22 2019 — Colby Cosh — National Post — Like Michael Wernick, the clerk of the Privy Council, I am a strong believer in the traditions and the strength of our public service. I think, for example, that most of the persons who have occupied his position as the country’s senior mandarin are intelligent, sincere and thoughtful people. It is positively unprecedented for one […]
Jan 14 2019 — Colby Cosh — National Post — Maybe someone should put in a kind word for Jagmeet Singh on the rare opportunities when an occasion presents itself. The federal NDP leader found himself on the right side of a ridiculous argument over the weekend as his byelection in the riding of Burnaby South got officially underway. Singh’s Conservative opponent for the open […]
Dec 17 2018 — Colby Cosh — National Post — On Friday the Prime Minister promised that his government will amend the Parliament of Canada Act to allow his “reformed” Senate to organize itself a little better. The existing procedures of the Senate contemplate the presence of government and opposition blocs in the chamber, but the latest round of Senate appointments, announced in October, has […]
Nov 23 2018 — Colby Cosh — National Post — It has been a strange week in Calgary, all right. On Monday the city’s council met to hear the official, mathematical bad news about the plebiscite on a 2026 Winter Olympics bid. Mayor Naheed Nenshi introduced an omnibus motion annihilating all the various committees, boards and secretariats involved in preparing the doomed project. He then […]
Oct 22 2018 — Colby Cosh — National Post — Andrew Scheer published an “open letter to Canadians” in the Toronto Sun this Saturday. “Sunday marks exactly one year until the next federal election,” the federal Conservative leader observed, proceeding thereupon to a critique of Justin Trudeau’s government. As someone who is still trying to take stock of Scheer, I read the letter hoping for […]
Sep 17 2018 — Colby Cosh — National Post — Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that you have high hopes for the new Max Bernier Party. Perhaps you believe, as my colleague Andrew Coyne does, that there is still far too much fly-blown 1970s-style intervention and protectionism in Canada’s economy. Perhaps you are in favour of a more hard-headed approach to immigration policy, […]
Sep 8 2018 — Colby Cosh — National Post — What are the consequences of the Federal Court of Appeal’s Trans Mountain pipeline delay for electoral politics in Alberta? The FCA ruling has created undoubted consternation and rage here — perhaps not least among provincial New Democratic politicians, who had been posing proudly with shovels and hardhats at Trans Mountain’s Alberta work sites, and who […]
Aug 9 2018 — Colby Cosh — National Post — In yesterday’s Financial Post, the Calgary economist Jack Mintz asked the question “Why are carbon taxes so unpopular?”, pointing out that plenty of countries and jurisdictions have commitments to climate progress and energy efficiency but that few use this particular policy instrument. I guess Jack wouldn’t have had much of a column if he had […]
May 3 2018 — Colby Cosh — National Post — One thing Canada cannot ordinarily be accused of is being slow to pat itself on the back. And yet! When it comes to the failure of Kevin O’Leary’s quixotic campaign for the federal Conservative leadership, we have a sort of unnoticed national mystery that demands an explanation. Whether or not you were a fan of […]