Sep 17 2019 — Chris Hall — CBC — The stage is set for Maxime Bernier. His challenge now is to perform. The leader of the nascent People’s Party of Canada (PPC) yesterday got his coveted invitation to take part in the two televised debates organized by the independent Leaders’ Debate Commission. The debates — one in English and the other in French — […]
Sep 11 2019 — Chris Hall — CBC — For a guy whose campaign motto is “Choose Forward,” Justin Trudeau sure spent a lot of time dwelling on the past as he kicked off his re-election campaign today. The Liberal leader took time this morning to look back at the high points of his government’s record over the past four years, from renegotiating a […]
Sep 6 2019 — Chris Hall — CBC — The Trudeau government must be hoping for third-time-lucky as it prepares to head back to court with First Nations opposed to the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. The Federal Court of Appeal gave its approval this week to a handful of Indigenous communities along the route that argued the government had failed […]
Aug 19 2019 — Chris Hall — CBC — CPC insists it’s not a discount – but it is raising questions about the true cost of covering leaders’ tours. The Conservative Party is offering media organizations a dramatically reduced price to cover party leader Andrew Scheer’s campaign — a fee that’s a little less for the entire election period than what the party charged […]
Jun 30 2019 — Chris Hall — CBC — As party leaders hone their platforms and messaging ahead of this fall’s election, the easy part is identifying the issues voters care about. The challenge is convincing voters they are the best choice for prime minister to deal with those same priorities. Case in point: while Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are talking about the issues Canadians […]
Jun 19 2019 — Chris Hall — CBC — That the federal cabinet would (again) approve the proposed expansion of the Trans-Mountain pipeline was never really in any doubt. After spending $4.5 billion to buy the line last year, and with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s repeated assurances that the project would go ahead, the real question was how far the government would go to […]
Jun 13 2019 — Chris Hall — CBC — Eric Hoskins says the time is right for Canada to create a universal pharmacare system. The timing of his report calling on the federal government to finally do that might not be so bad, either. “We know (pharmacare) is going to be part of the fall election campaign,” the former Ontario health minister said in […]
Jun 1 2019 — Chris Hall — CBC — The meetings in Ottawa this week between U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau produced a lot of warm words about friendship, shared history, leadership and the importance of the Canada-U.S. trading relationship. It also injected a note of cold reality: this Liberal prime minister is prepared to go a long way to […]
May 16 2019 — Chris Hall — CBC — Stephen Harper made it next to impossible heading into the 2015 election for any political party to propose a tax on Netflix, Google and other foreign online services. But two provinces are now charging sales tax on those foreign media companies, suggesting that at least some politicians now see the economic benefits outweighing the political […]
Apr 13 2019 — Chris Hall — CBC — Andrew Scheer made a brief stop in Calgary late this week to campaign for former colleague and fellow Conservative leader Jason Kenney. Alberta is friendly turf for the federal party leader — even when the weather isn’t. The two stood on the back of a pickup truck in the middle of a baseball field Thursday, […]
Mar 20 2019 — Chris Hall — CBC — Bill Morneau’s fourth budget is in the books, and that’s a good thing since he didn’t get a chance to deliver his speech in the Commons on Tuesday because of the din made by Conservative MPs determined to keep the public’s attention on the SNC-Lavalin affair. The Conservatives jeered. They pounded their desks and they […]
Mar 6 2019 — Chris Hall — CBC — Gerald Butts intended his appearance Wednesday before the Commons justice committee to put an end to the SNC-Lavalin controversy that’s engulfed the federal Liberals for the past month. Whether he succeeded is far from clear. The former top adviser to Prime Minister Trudeau gave a measured and thorough presentation to committee members. His performance rivaled […]
Feb 28 2019 — Chris Hall — CBC — Jody Wilson-Raybould said she wanted to tell her truth on the SNC-Lavalin story. The story she told Wednesday at the Commons justice committee is so vastly different from everything the prime minister has said until now that the two versions simply can’t be reconciled. The former attorney general spoke of veiled threats if she didn’t […]
Feb 26 2019 — Chris Hall — CBC — Jagmeet Singh stepped before the microphones late Monday night, savouring a rare moment of victory. After 16 months without a seat in the Commons — and dire warnings from within his own party that he’d either win the seat or find himself looking for another job — the NDP leader defied his critics and the […]
Feb 20 2019 — Chris Hall — CBC — Jody Wilson-Raybould spent more than two hours waiting outside the cabinet room on Tuesday while her former colleagues hotly debated her request to address them about the SNC-Lavalin affair. Multiple sources tell CBC News that some cabinet ministers were concerned about the optics of her unprecedented request to attend a meeting of the inner circle […]