Sep 22 2018 — Chris Selley — National Post — You’ll never guess what: There’s a new Ontario government, and it claims to have found glaring incongruities between the previous government’s financial reporting and reality, and we might all have to make sacrifices as a result. It’s like The Mousetrap of political theatre: it’s more than a bit hammy, and everyone knows how it ends, […]
Aug 20 2018 — Chris Selley — National Post — It is possibly good news for Justin Trudeau that the woman who successfully provoked him to histrionics at an event south of Montreal on Thursday may be a genuinely unpleasant person. According to fairly compelling evidence compiled by Twitter account Le Troupeau, she is a member of an anti-immigrant group calling itself the Front Patriotique […]
Jul 28 2018 — Chris Selley — National Post — Ford-brand chaos officially arrived at Queen’s Park on Friday — a little late, perhaps, but in full bloom. And in an unexpected twist, it’s back at Toronto city hall as well. More so, actually: At a morning press conference, Premier Doug Ford officially blew up the city’s municipal election, which is in just 12 weeks. […]
Jun 16 2018 — Chris Selley — National Post — The Supreme Court of Canada struck a brave blow on Friday for LGBTQ students who would be compelled to attend a proposed law school at Trinity Western University — a small, private, evangelical Christian school in Langley, B.C., whose “community covenant” prohibits sexual relations except among married men and women. That is to say, they […]
Jun 7 2018 — Chris Selley — National Post — Ontario voters rang down the curtain on 15 years of Liberal government on Thursday night by making, in many ways, the traditional choice. Over the past century, with only one not-very-fondly-remembered exception, Ontarians have installed either Tory or Liberal governments. An unusual number of voters preferred the other change on offer: the NDP finished strong, […]
Jun 5 2018 — Chris Selley — National Post — After three months of interminable comparisons between Doug Ford and Donald Trump, Monday brought us an unpleasant but useful reminder: The unusual politician seemingly poised to become Ontario’s next premier needs no foreign analogue. He is first, foremost and forever a Ford. He honed his political persona long before Trump honed his, and his family […]
May 22 2018 — Chris Selley — National Post — Let us peer back through the mists of history to a time called A Few Months Ago. Ontarians were telling pollsters they were sick of Kathleen Wynne and her Liberal government, but they nevertheless seemed tolerant of some of their policies: polls found solid support for the $15 minimum wage, expanding rent control and cutting […]
Apr 27 2018 — Chris Selley — National Post — Wednesday’s parliamentary outrage du jour was an online summer job posting from Dogwood, a B.C. environmental group. The successful applicant will “help (Dogwood’s) organizing network stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline and tanker project,” and she will make $15 an hour thanks to the generosity of the Canadian taxpayer. The Canada Summer Jobs Program distributes funds […]
Apr 17 2018 — Chris Selley — National Post — The first section of the 2014 Ontario NDP campaign platform, which was rather prosaically titled “Andrea Horwath’s Plan that Makes Sense,” promised to “respect your tax dollars.” That may remind you of someone and his brother. Among other things, Premier Horwath would have appointed a Minister of Savings and Accountability, who would have taken a […]
Mar 11 2018 — Chris Selley — National Post — In the end, maybe caucus had it right. If more than anything else Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives wanted to win on June 7 then maybe they should have stuck with interim leader Vic Fedeli. If the ultra-folksy MPP for Nipissing wasn’t the most compelling imaginable premier-in-waiting, he would certainly have cut a less divisive figure than […]
Feb 5 2018 — Chris Selley — National Post — Caroline Mulroney has name recognition. But recognizing her last name won’t tell most Ontarians much that’s useful about the latest candidate for leader of the provincial Progressive Conservatives — official announcement is to come Monday — and, if all goes to plan, the province’s next premier. On Sunday, in the pub attached to the north […]
Feb 1 2018 — Chris Selley — National Post — And … exhale. Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives took a step back from the brink late Wednesday night when the party executive approved rules for a leadership contest that for some time seemed in danger of not happening. Almost exactly a week after former leader Patrick Brown’s stunning middle-of-the-night departure amidst allegations of sexual assault and coercion […]
Jan 29 2018 — Chris Selley — National Post — It’s Stopped Clock Day in Ontario: Doug Ford is right. “We have seen backroom politics at its worst — insiders trying to politically capitalize at the expense of the people, elites who are disconnected from the grassroots of the party,” he told reporters on Monday in the basement of the Ford homestead, where he announced […]
Jan 29 2018 — Chris Selley — National Post — Say this for Ontario’s Tories: they know how to dream up creative losing scenarios. Patrick Brown’s sudden departure amidst sexual assault and coercion allegations last week made John Tory’s religious schools funding and Tim Hudak’s 100,000 public-sector job cut promise look like minor whoopsy-daisies. And just days later, many Tories are convinced something even more […]
Jan 27 2018 — Chris Selley — National Post — Many women often said they got a creepy vibe off Patrick Brown. His haircut was kind of odd. In question period, he was too shrill. The Red Bull fridge in his office put me off. I associate Red Bull fridges and their foul contents with terrible nightclubs full of muscle T-wearing jackasses on the make. […]