May 30 2020 — Chantal Hébert — The Peterborough Examine — Based on the recent past, the tears provincial and federal leaders shed over the failings of long-term care in Canada tend to dry up fast. If only for that reason, waiting for one or more post-pandemic inquiries to come up with advice as to how to address the oft-documented problems that plague the system may […]
May 23 2020 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — By the time Andrew Scheer hands over the Conservative party to a successor in late August, he will have been at the helm for a mere 39 months. As it turns out, that will have been more than long enough to squander the key pieces of Stephen Harper’s legacy. That starts with the status of […]
May 16 2020 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — In normal circumstances, the crowning this week of Dominique Anglade as the first ever female leader of Quebec’s Liberal party would have ranked as a top political development. Anglade, a former deputy premier of Haitian origin, made history on two fronts. It is the first time in Canada that a major provincial party is led […]
May 10 2020 — Chantal Hébert — Windsor Star — It is not necessary to subscribe to the horse-before-the-cart speculation about a snap federal election this fall to know that once Canada really is in post-pandemic territory, pressure will be on Justin Trudeau to cash in his electoral chips and make a bid for a governing majority. At that point, there will not lack for […]
May 2 2020 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Since COVID-19 caught up with Canada, no government decision has been quite as controversial as the bid by Quebec Premier François Legault to take the lead on the rest of the country by reopening part of his province’s school system later this month. Based on the current plan, all Quebec elementary schools and child-care centres […]
Apr 25 2020 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Canada’s climate-change agenda was a casualty of the 2008 global financial crisis. Will history repeat itself post-pandemic? The 2008 storm hit as voters were headed to the polls in a federal election. One of its immediate consequences was to sweep the campaign carpet from under then-Liberal leader Stéphane Dion and his climate-change platform.
Apr 17 2020 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — The COVID-19 pandemic has not been kind to the federal Conservative party. Its leadership campaign is on hold and the official opposition has lost its daily House of Commons platform as a result of a five-week parliamentary shutdown. At the same time, there are no signs of buyer’s remorse among the voters who just last […]
Apr 10 2020 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — There has been a dramatic shift in the political tectonic plates since the federal Conservatives set out to select a new leader. With the campaign to succeed Andrew Scheer on pause until at least May 1, should the party consider starting the race all over again?
Mar 27 2020 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — By the time the federal Conservative party belatedly pulled the plug on its June leadership vote, Peter MacKay, the presumed front-runner to succeed Andrew Scheer, was well on the way to self-destruction. Knowing that campaign suspension train was about to leave the station on Thursday, MacKay’s team could apparently think of nothing better than to […]
Mar 1 2020 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — The dust will eventually settle on the Coastal GasLink showdown and its attending rail blockades. But the episode is more likely to leave behind a political field of ruins than an expanded foundation upon which to build a less-fraught relationship with Canada’s Indigenous peoples. That there will be a before and an after to the […]
Feb 21 2020 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — One will never know whether the volatile crisis that has resulted from Indigenous tensions over a B.C. natural gas pipeline could have been averted had it not snowballed while the prime minister was out of country. That Justin Trudeau came late to the scene — at a time when most of Canada’s railway system had […]
Feb 15 2020 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Connect the dots between the widespread Liberal dissent over the approval of Alberta’s Teck Frontier oilsands mine, the Indigenous unrest that has paralyzed the country’s rail system this week and Canada’s uphill campaign to secure a temporary seat on the UN’s Security Council and what you find is a prime minister whose moral authority is […]
Feb 7 2020 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Out of the Trans Mountain frying pan and into the Teck Frontier fire. That pretty much sums up where Justin Trudeau’s government is at on a week it should otherwise have spent quietly celebrating the light at the end of the controversial pipeline’s legal tunnel. On Tuesday, the Federal Court of Appeal removed one of […]
Dec 20 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Jean Charest is well on the way to succumbing to his last big political temptation: a run for the federal Conservative leadership and, in his best-case scenario, a solid shot at the job of prime minister. As anyone who has talked to the former Quebec premier over the past week can testify, he has moved […]
Dec 18 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Quebec Premier François Legault had a great political year; Maxime Bernier not so much. Here is a look at some not-always-expected 2019 winners and losers. • Going forward, it will be hard for Legault to have a better year. Fifteen months after the Coalition Avenir Québec’s election victory, its government is riding high in the […]