National Newswatch

Progressives for Mayor Chow, prepare to be disappointed

Jun 27 2023 — Chris Selley — Progressives who want quick, dramatic change in this city may prove to be the biggest thorn in Olivia Chow’s side. Olivia Chow, the ultimate establishment-NDP candidate, squeaked out the “mayoralty of Canada’s largest city on Monday night with just 37 per cent of the vote. She replaces the ultimate establishment-Tory candidate, John Tory, who resigned […]

Poilievre puts an end to our pretentious political pleasantries

Mar 8 2023 — Chris Selley — On Monday in Ottawa, reporters wanted to know whether Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre would expel the three members of his caucus who met with Christine Anderson, member of European Parliament for the far-right Alternative for Germany party, last month — and if not, why not. After all, one journalist noted, Poilievre himself had called Anderson’s […]

Whiffs of impending death from Trudeau’s Liberals

Feb 24 2023 — Chris Selley — Counting out Justin Trudeau is a mug’s game, and no one should underestimate the fearsome (though eventually finite) resilience of the Liberal brand, if only as an alternative to eating your ballot or staying home. But with polls showing little good news for the prime minister or his party, it’s not hard to imagine this […]

Poilievre hints that he won’t be pandering to Quebec

Jan 19 2023 — Chris Selley — Pierre Poilievre embarked this week on a treasure hunt that proved mostly futile for his two predecessors, and not much more rewarding for Stephen Harper. Poilievre has been introducing himself to Quebecers, in hopes of winning their votes, and the path is uphill. As of Tuesday, 338Canada’s popular vote projection pegged the Conservatives at 35 […]

Poilievre’s anti-drug pitch is a failure of imagination

Nov 22 2022 — Chris Selley — In a video posted online over the weekend, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre gave us his take on this country’s ever-growing epidemic of opioid overdose. It’s an incredibly disappointing and potentially dangerous take, but let’s focus on common ground to start: The numbers are horrifying. From April 2020 to March 2022, nationwide, 15,134 Canadians perished from […]

Misogynist hashtag should be a wake-up call to Pierre Poilievre

Oct 7 2022 — Chris Selley — On Thursday afternoon, the Conservative Party of Canada announced it was calling off the search for whoever added the hashtag #mgtow to hundreds of videos on Pierre Poilievre’s YouTube channel beginning in 2018. The hashtag refers to “Men Going Their Own Way,” a group of proudly pitiful males who have decided society is too poisoned […]

The centrist case against the Poilievre panic

Jul 27 2022 — Chris Selley — Pierre Poilievre’s apparent chokehold on the Conservative leadership race continues to produce much worry among the chattering classes — worry for the future of the party, worry for the conservative movement and worry for the country. “This will be the most right-wing leader we’ve ever seen in our country’s history,” a Conservative source told Global […]

Patrick Brown is the inevitable product of broken leadership-selection process

Jul 7 2022 — Chris Selley — When the news of Patrick Brown’s expulsion from the Conservative leadership race broke on Tuesday evening, judging by social media posts, most everyone’s minds logically went in the direction of membership fraud — anything between buying memberships for genuinely interested people (which is illegal) to something far more complex and flamboyantly dodgy. Among the revelations […]

Ontario gives Ford a do-over. It will be even riskier than before

Jun 3 2022 — Chris Selley — The last poll Abacus Data conducted before Ontarians went to the polls Thursday pretty much summed up the story of the campaign: Doug Ford attracts extreme antipathy from his legions of detractors, but those legions simply aren’t large enough to trigger the sort of humiliating defeat they think he is owed — or indeed, defeat […]

Blaming bankers and bureaucrats only lets Liberals off the hook

May 22 2022 — Chris Selley — Candidates for the federal Conservative leadership have until June 3 to sign up new members; at that point, almost three months before the actual election date, the result may be more or less baked in. Pierre Poilievre must hope that’s true — not just because he seems to be the prohibitive favourite, but because his […]

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