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.
May 30 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — To understand the counterintuitive political calculus behind Justin Trudeau’s controversial decision to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline, one has to go back to the fundamental equation that has governed this prime minister’s energy and climate change policies since his days in opposition. That Trudeau had no choice but to take over the pipeline if he […]
May 28 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — No one will accuse Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer of stepping in his Ontario counterpart’s limelight since the June 7 provincial election was called. Indeed, since Doug Ford was elected leader last March, Scheer has stuck to his federal knitting. If they are going to share a campaign stage it will have to happen soon.
May 25 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Reason suggests Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland does not seriously think Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals are headed for a “triumph” on June 7. Justin Trudeau’s go-to minister on the Canada/U.S. file predicted a big Liberal election victory at a GTA rally on Thursday. But if Freeland really does believe that, she may have had her hands […]
May 23 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — As Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals go in Ontario’s spring election, so too will go Philippe Couillard’s ruling party in Quebec in the fall? Given the turn of the campaign for the Ontario Liberals there certainly are too many parallels to comfort their Quebec cousins. But there are also striking differences. Wynne and Couillard became leaders of […]
May 16 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — A month after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stepped in to resolve the impasse between British Columbia and Alberta over the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline his government has little to show for its efforts. Trudeau’s offer to compensate Kinder Morgan — the parent company of the pipeline — for any financial losses resulting from […]
May 14 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — How serious is Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer about winning more seats in Quebec in next year’s s federal election? Serious enough to give Brian Mulroney pride of place – albeit by video — at a party gathering and to roll out the red carpet for a former Bloc Québécois leader. Both were marquee events at […]
May 10 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — A year into his new job as Conservative leader, Andrew Scheer is methodically trying to mend some of the fences broken by his predecessor. Fresh from a weekend appearance on Radio-Canada’s talk show Tout le monde en parle as part of a public-relations campaign designed to bring about a thaw in the icy relationship of […]
May 7 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Inasmuch as the first task of a political leader should be to do his or her party no harm, Andrew Scheer’s maiden appearance on Tout le monde en parle — the first ever of a federal Conservative leader — was a success. Over his tenure, Stephen Harper never graced the set of the much-watched Radio-Canada […]