Oct 14 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — With a week to go to the federal election, the only question still to be answered about the Bloc Québécois is whether it will finish first or second to the Liberals in Quebec next Monday. Neither Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, nor Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives had factored in the possibility of a Bloc resurrection in their game […]
Oct 11 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — On the heels of the last French-language debate of the campaign, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer’s hopes for a victory on Oct. 21 may hang by little more than an NDP thread. By the same token, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s hopes for a second majority are fading fast and — at this relatively late stage in […]
Oct 9 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — The Oct. 21 election had barely been called when the issue of Quebec’s contentious secularism legislation first surfaced. Since then the law that forbids police officers, prison guards, provincial judges and prosecutors as well as public school teachers to wear religious vestments or symbols at work has consumed more and more of the campaign conversation. […]
Oct 9 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — If Monday night’s election debate — the first and last English-language encounter of the current campaign to find its main protagonists on the same stage — results in anything, it may be to have made the possibility of a minority government more probable. At the very least expectations the debate would break the Liberal/Conservative deadlock […]
Oct 4 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Ontario was always going to count for a lot in the outcome of this month’s federal election. On the morning after the first of two French-language leaders’ debates, it matters even more. For Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer in particular, winning big in Canada’s largest province later this month has become an absolute necessity. With time […]
Sep 30 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Time will tell soon enough whether Friday’s climate march will have been a watershed event in the federal campaign and if so, to which party’s benefit. But regardless of how last week’s pan-Canadian event plays out in the ballot box, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer’s pointed absence should go some way to clear the smoke that […]
Sep 25 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — It was not so long ago, less than a year, that Canada’s Conservative leadership — in the provinces and federally — proudly cast itself as the “Resistance” to Justin Trudeau’s climate agenda Maclean’s December 2018 issue captured the belligerent spirit of the time with a cover picture featuring Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba premiers Doug Ford, […]
Sep 19 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Chances are the teaching staff at Justin Trudeau’s prestigious Montreal college did not blink an eye when he painted his face black to sing a Harry Belafonte song at a high school talent show in the late eighties. Inasmuch as the young Trudeau was not mocking Afro-Americans but rather purporting to honour Belafonte, it likely […]
Sep 18 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — One week into the federal campaign, anecdotal evidence suggests most voters are not yet fully engaged in the election conversation. But that does not mean they have not started to pay attention. Here are some early impressions of each party’s campaign. Elizabeth May did not have the first week her party needed. Polls find the […]
Sep 16 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — The Oct. 21 election had barely been called last Wednesday when the gloves came off between Quebec Premier François Legault and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau over a possible federal court challenge of the province’s contentious securalism legislation. Within hours of the official kickoff, Legault — who only a few days before had instructed everyone associated […]
Sep 13 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — In the midst of an election launch a Quebec court has thrown the issue of medically assisted death back in the political arena. On Wednesday, Quebec’s Superior Court justice Christine Baudouin struck down key sections of both the federal and Quebec laws. In an extensive ruling, she found the restriction that limits assisted dying to […]
Sep 12 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — If day one of Canada’s 43rd federal campaign demonstrated anything, it is that an election, once it is called, tends to take on a life of its own. No sooner was it officially launched on Wednesday than the campaign conversation had veered off script. Neither Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, nor his Conservative rival Andrew Scheer […]
Sep 9 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Maxime Bernier’s bid to take part in the election debates took a big hit last week when Quebec’s biggest private television network declined to include him in its leaders’ roster. Things are definitively not coming up roses for the People’s Party leader in his home-province. Over the course of a few days, Bernier lost face […]
Sep 6 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — With the Oct. 21 election on the verge of being officially called, the Liberals are going in the campaign with a slight edge on the Conservatives in the polls. Neither can take anything for granted. Based on Justin Trudeau and Andrew Scheer’s performances over the course of back-to-back sessions with the Toronto Star’s editorial board […]
Sep 4 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — To take the full measure of the unprecedented plight of the New Democratic Party less than 50 days before the Oct. 21 federal vote consider the following: For the first time in decades the NDP will not be mounting a campaign tour on par with that of the Liberals and the Conservatives. Jagmeet Singh’s party […]