Apr 17 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — And then there were none. As of the victory on Tuesday of Alberta’s United Conservatives, Canada’s first ministers’ club is once again male-only. Of the quartet of female premiers who led Canada’s largest provinces as recently as five years ago, not a single member is left at the table.
Apr 15 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Of the premiers of the four larger provinces who signed off on Justin Trudeau’s climate-change framework three year ago, only Rachel Notley is left. That makes her the second most prominent Canadian political leader — after the prime minister — to support the notion that it is desirable to strike a balance between pipeline building […]
Apr 12 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — The sound coming out of Conservative backrooms on Parliament Hill in the hours following the presentation of this week’s Ontario budget was that of a collective sigh of relief. From Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer’s perspective, his party dodged a pre-election bullet on Thursday.
Apr 10 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Justin Trudeau’s government already has a pre-election war on its hands with Ontario and a number of other provinces over its recently imposed carbon tax. Next week’s Alberta election could raise the climate change policy stakes to a new high just in time for the upcoming federal campaign. The result of that provincial vote could […]
Apr 8 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Justin Trudeau’s Liberal caucus may be done with Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott, but that does not mean either of the former ministers is done with politics. Each has accumulated enough political capital over the course of the SNC-Lavalin affair to have alternative options to explore.
Apr 3 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Only a fraction of those elected to the House of Commons ever get to hold a ministerial position and an even smaller number have the good fortune of taking the reins of a government department before they have even sat for a day in Parliament. Sheila Copps, who has been playing Liberal bad cop from […]
Mar 29 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — First, a confession: A few weeks ago, I lied on the CBC’s At Issue panel — or, at least, I delivered a partial truth. Asked by host Ian Hanomansing whether the SNC-Lavalin affair made me angry, I answered that I don’t do anger because it gets in the way of thinking clearly. That was true […]
Mar 27 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — The political stars are just about perfectly aligned for Quebec Premier François Legault as he opens the latest chapter in the province’s controversial securalism debate. The introduction on Thursday of the Coalition Avenir Québec’s most contentious piece of legislation to date comes at a time when the rookie government is riding high in voting intentions.
Mar 25 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — It is no accident that the start of a weeklong parliamentary break finds Justin Trudeau on the campaign trail in British Columbia. Nor was it that, prior to flying west, the prime minister spent part of the weekend in Montreal, his home base but also the place where the NDP is determined to make its […]
Mar 22 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Had former Treasury Board president Jane Philpott sought to sabotage her government by breathing new life in the SNC-Lavalin saga this week, she would not have acted otherwise. Her first post-resignation interview — given to Maclean’s on the day after the federal budget was presented — raised more questions than it provided factual answers.
Mar 20 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — By calling a provincial election for April 16, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley has opened a window for an early federal vote. If Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were so inclined, he could send Canadians to the polls before Canada Day.
Mar 15 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — With only months to go to the federal campaign Justin Trudeau’s re-election hangs on an increasingly frayed Quebec thread. The prime minister’s home province has long been front and centre in his electoral calculations. Absent gains in Quebec to make up for predictable losses in Alberta and Atlantic Canada next fall, the Liberals can almost […]
Mar 13 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — No one will accuse Transport Minister Marc Garneau of having rushed to judgment on whether to ground Boeing 737 Max 8 planes from Canadian air space until more is known about the causes of last Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash. By the time Garneau appeared on Wednesday to announce he was reversing his earlier stance that […]
Mar 11 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — As the SNC-Lavalin affair enters its second month, its protagonists are at the crossroads. From the main opposition parties to the prime minister and including the ex-attorney general at the centre of the ongoing crisis, all have strategic decisions to make on the way forward. Start with Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives. Polls show that even as […]
Mar 6 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — When Gerald Butts appeared in front of the House of Commons justice committee on Wednesday, he did not to try to topple Jody Wilson-Raybould from her truth-teller pedestal in the SNC-Lavalin affair — almost certainly an impossible mission — but he did chip away at its base.