Aug 21 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — If the Quebec election were held tomorrow, François Legault would become the first leader since René Lévesque to bring a new party to power in the province. For more than four decades since its initial 1976 victory, the Parti Québécois has been the main alternative to the Liberals. A Coalition Avenir Québec win could consign […]
Aug 17 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — The provincial riding of Marquette, in Montreal’s West Island, is one of the safest Liberal seats in Quebec. It has been a party fortress since its creation in 1980. Its current MNA, François Ouimet, first ran in 1994. Since then, in bad times as in good, his re-election has been little more than a formality. […]
Aug 15 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — One week before the first Conservative national convention on Andrew Scheer’s leadership watch — and the last such gathering before the next federal election — one would not normally expect Conservative MPs to be debating each other on social media about whether to draw a line on Canada’s diversity.
Aug 13 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — This is the time in the life of a majority government when minds usually turn to the drafting of a final throne speech. For a ruling party going into its last year before a general election, the occasion is an opportunity to try to articulate an auspicious ballot-box question but also, if need be, to […]
Jun 27 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — To mark the 50th anniversary earlier this week of the election of Pierre Trudeau’s first government, Radio-Canada’s version of CBC’s The Current set out to look back on what it called 50 years of Trudeauism. But can the last half-century of federal governance — including nearly two decades of Conservative rule — really be summed […]
Jun 25 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — There was a time when a rookie leader of the official opposition, fresh from scoring his first big electoral goal, would have used his moment in the sun to showcase his prime ministerial credentials. Now is not such a time. Last week, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer hit the ruling Liberals where it hurt by beating […]
Jun 23 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — The main takeaway from Canada’s uncommonly intense political spring is a wilder-than-ever Donald Trump card. That is first and foremost a challenge for a federal government that has had to deploy more resources to do damage control on the Canada/U.S. front than any of its recent predecessors — with so far less than optimal results.
Jun 19 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives are not going to allow Justin Trudeau to rebuild a Liberal fortress in Quebec without a fight: that’s just one of the messages from Monday’s Chicoutimi-Le Fjord’s byelection upset. And some of the other messages — in particular for the New Democrats — are more alarming than others. But first some essential […]
Jun 18 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — As the last national assembly sitting before the Oct. 1 provincial vote was winding down last week, a brief encounter with Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard yielded an unsolicited prediction. “I have a secret for you,” he told me on his way out of a Radio-Canada studio. “I will win the election.” Perhaps that was his […]
Jun 13 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Absent Monday’s federal byelection in the Quebec riding of Chicoutimi-Le Fjord Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer might not have so expeditiously booted his former rival Maxime Bernier from his shadow cabinet. Still it was probably only a matter of time before last year’s leadership runner-up found himself out in the cold. On Tuesday, Bernier lost his […]
Jun 11 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — A field of ruins. In the wake of this weekend’s Trumpian tweet storm, that’s what is mostly left of the fragile structure Justin Trudeau had painstakingly built to try to preserve Canada’s most important trade relationship. The fact that the prime minister did not have a hand in the demolition, or that the collateral damage […]
Jun 8 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Don’t expect Ford mania to seep into Quebec’s fall election campaign. The opposite is likely to happen. Rarely have Quebecers followed an Ontario campaign with as much fascination as the one that concluded with a Tory majority victory on Thursday. But that interest was based on a mix of incredulity and relief.
Jun 6 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — What do Catherine Callbeck, Alison Redford, Pauline Marois, Kathy Dunderdale and Christy Clark have in common: they are all women who broke the political glass ceiling to become their province’s first elected female premier only to have voters sour on them over just one term in office. By her own admission, Ontario’s Kathleen Wynne expects […]
Jun 4 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — To the surprise of no one except herself, Bloc Québécois Leader Martine Ouellet has lost her bid to remain at the helm of the federal sovereigntist party. On the weekend, two-thirds of the remaining BQ members showed her the door. The verdict could not have been clearer. Still, it took Ouellet almost 24 hours to […]
Jun 1 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — By any measure, the past week will go down as the defining one in Justin Trudeau’s current term of office. With back-to-back make-or-break decisions on the pipeline and the trade files, the prime minister is rewriting the terms of engagement on two crucial battlefronts for his government, but also for Canada.