Sep 13 2019 — Don Martin — CTV Power Play — The weasel word from week one of the campaign was ‘counterproductive’. It would be, as Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has put it every day on the hustings, ‘counterproductive’ for his government to actively defend Quebecers who are denied the right to wear religious symbols and clothing in public service jobs. It’s far more productive to […]
Sep 5 2019 — Don Martin — CTV Power Play — Every campaign war room has pails of political dirt held at the ready until it can be thrown for maximum muddy impact into the faces of reeling opponents. The unofficial Liberal rule is that there’s no statute of limitations on dredging up attack material from the ancient history of first-time leaders in a national campaign. […]
Jun 21 2019 — Don Martin — CTV Power Play — Let’s get the obvious out of the way first in delivering a eulogy to the 42nd Parliament, which has been put out of its misery after 438 sitting days over 3.5 years. The backbench MPs are still largely vote-on-command seat warmers in the House of Commons, the cabinet ministers just follow PMO-mandated orders and this […]
Jun 13 2019 — Don Martin — CTV Power Play — He doesn’t need to be the jolly green giant. But if Conservative leader Andrew Scheer wants to be the next prime minister, he needs to release a credible and comprehensive climate change plan next week. True, he got some dream attack material on Thursday.
Jun 6 2019 — Don Martin — CTV Power Play — Amid the frantic push to complete the government agenda, forcing increasingly-cranky MPs to sit past midnight many nights, some of the better speeches are being delivered in the House of Commons. They’re coming from the MPs saying farewell to politics, either because they’re sick of the place, fed up with the toxicity of the job […]
May 30 2019 — Don Martin — CTV Power Play — They languish in a House of Commons back corner surrounded by a handful of empty seats to contain them as an island of isolation from the party purebreds. They’re the independent MPs, seven refugees in a land of misfits, who have been kicked out of their caucuses for conduct unbecoming in the eyes of fellow […]
May 23 2019 — Don Martin — CTV Power Play — It’s easy to kneejerk a demand for the prime minister to resign, as the Conservatives do on the flimsiest of pretexts. It requires a lot more evidence to hoist a question mark over the leadership of the Canadian Armed Forces. But beyond Chief of Defence Staff Jonathan Vance’s rushed judge and jury execution of Vice-Admiral […]
May 16 2019 — Don Martin — CTV Power Play — Today was the 13th question period in the House of Commons this month. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has attended just three of them, only one being on a Wednesday when he dances around every opposition query. Mind you, Official Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer hasn’t exactly earned a gold star for House attendance. He’s only made […]
May 9 2019 — Don Martin — CTV Power Play — The vindication of Vice-Admiral Mark Norman comes with a potential casualty. Chief of Defence Staff Jonathan Vance comes out of this mess set up to be a fall guy. It was Vance, acting on the faintest shadow of suspicion, who quickly threw Norman under the proverbial LAV. It was Vance who publicly declared that he […]
May 2 2019 — Don Martin — CTV Power Play — It’s been 26 years since Jason Kenney stepped into the national spotlight just outside the Alberta legislature cafeteria. That’s where the 24-year-old tax-fighter calmly eviscerated the MLA platinum pension plan in verbal sparring with a cranky then-premier Ralph Klein as a gaggle of us watched with jaws dropped and cameras recording every word.
Apr 25 2019 — Don Martin — CTV News — It’s been a dozen years since I was assigned to follow garbage trucks down the 401 and across the U.S. border to watch them dump Toronto waste into Michigan landfills. To furious residents posting protest signs along the quiet streets rattled by thousands of our trucks every year, we were reprehensible Canadian trash. Their understandable […]
Apr 11 2019 — Don Martin — CTV Power Play — Overlooking a Loblaws Superstore in Ottawa this week, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna seemed blissfully unaware she was hosting a communications disaster. She was in happy handout mode, shelling out a $12-million subsidy to induce the extremely profitable supermarket giant to spend $36 million of its own money on carbon-cutting refrigeration upgrades. An equally oblivious pair […]
Apr 4 2019 — Don Martin — CTV News — And so, undoubtedly to the relief of a scandal-fatigued public outside of the parliamentary bubble, the SNC-Lavalin saga approaches the end of its two-month, non-stop news cycle. With the leaks, hearings, firings, aftershock scrums, more leaks and the reflective thoughts of the ousted now complete, the revelations and reverberations are largely a spent force. Unless […]
Mar 21 2019 — Don Martin — CTV Power Play — To know Jane Philpott is to understand the devastating impact her condemnation of the government’s SNC-Lavalin behavior registers on the prime minister and his foot soldiers. This medical doctor turned Liberal rookie MP is not a coattail-clinging, talking-point-reciting lightweight in the caucus. She was extremely popular and has consistently displayed lofty principle and public service […]
Mar 14 2019 — Don Martin — CTV Power Play — It’s no longer about the truth, if it ever was. It’s about ameliorating or amplifying the consequences of a political poop that defies polishing. The crystallization of that reality came Wednesday at an emergency justice committee meeting. MPs were supposed to deal with former attorney general Jody Wilson Raybould’s willingness to re-appear and continue tormenting […]