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 […]
Dec 18 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Is Justin Trudeau’s signature promise of a national pharmacare program headed for the same policy graveyard as the prime minister’s 2015 electoral reform commitment? It’s early days but the stars are not aligning for the advent anytime soon of a new national social program designed to offer all Canadians universal prescription drugs coverage. Notwithstanding the […]
Dec 13 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — By the time Andrew Scheer came to the inevitable conclusion that he was a dead man walking, few political strategists — be they Conservative or Liberal — still expected him to lead his party in another federal election. In their best-case scenario, the Liberals clung to the hope that Scheer would drag his party through […]
Dec 11 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Connect the dots between the events of the first instructive week of the 43rd Parliament and the resulting picture is that of a House of Commons more apt to be relevant to the political conversation than it has been in at least a decade. Here are some highlights:
Dec 6 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — The first tug of war between Justin Trudeau’s new minority government and the opposition parties was over before it had even begun. By the time NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh showed up in the House of Commons lobby on Thursday afternoon to blast the Liberal speech from the throne the rug of the balance of power […]
Dec 2 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — It is not just Andrew Scheer or the federal Conservatives who took a hit when the party snatched defeat from the jaws of a plausible victory in October. Their provincial allies in Alberta, New Brunswick and Ontario all need to rebuild bridges at home and across the country.
Dec 1 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — More than a decade has passed since the curtain last rose on a hung Canadian Parliament. And what a political drama the first weeks of Stephen Harper’s second term featured! Within days of the return of the House of Commons, the minority Conservatives had set the stage — with an overreaching fiscal update — for […]
Nov 29 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — It is difficult to spend time on Parliament Hill or in Alberta’s capital these days without picking up a lot of hopeful speculation about Rona Ambrose’s return to public life. Whether she wants it or not, the Conservatives’ former interim leader — who left politics after the party picked a permanent successor to Stephen Harper […]
Nov 25 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — In the ongoing Alberta-versus-Quebec debate, it is increasingly hard to differentiate facts from fiction. For example, to believe some of the commentary, both provinces — for different reasons — are deeply unhappy with Justin Trudeau’s re-election victory. The return in strength of the Bloc Québécois tends to be exhibit one in those analyses. But in […]
Nov 24 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — With every passing week, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer looks more like a politician trying to whistle past the graveyard of his leadership. Since the election, there has not been a week that has not featured new cracks in the support Scheer needs to survive a vote of party confidence next April. It is not as […]
Nov 20 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — In the game of dominoes that is behind the making of Justin Trudeau’s second term cabinet, Chrystia Freeland’s shift from the global scene to the domestic stage is the defining move. Her appointment as deputy prime minister solidifies her first place in the Liberal line of succession to Trudeau. But her lead position on the […]
Nov 18 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Over his years on Parliament Hill, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney built a solid reputation as a wily political operator gifted with a fine grasp on policy. When it comes to hands-on knowledge of the workings of the federal government, he stands head and shoulders above his fellow premiers but also his current federal Conservative Leader […]
Nov 6 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — It was former Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard who coined the expression “winning conditions” after the 1995 referendum to describe what it would take for his Parti Québécois government to again test the will of Quebecers to leave the federation. Bouchard never actually spelled out what the list entailed.
Nov 4 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Since he lost the federal election last month, Andrew Scheer has tried but mostly failed to make the case that his maiden campaign as leader has resulted, if not in the hoped-for return to power, at least in a moral victory. To sustain his thesis, Scheer has pointed to the party’s first place in the […]