National Newswatch

Articles by Don Martin

The Groundhog Day massacre casts a shadow over Conservatives tilting hard to the right

Feb 2 2022 — Don Martin — — Born: August 24, 2020. Died: February 2, 2022. Erin O’Toole’s 526-day intra-pandemic Conservative leadership has been euthanized, taken down by a mercifully quick and decisive 75-vote backstabbing from his own MPs. It was stunningly brutal finish for a one-campaign leader, capital punishment enacted on incredibly short notice by almost two-thirds of the MPs who decreed […]

Trudeau’s ‘fringe’ may keep on truckin’ into something bigger

Jan 31 2022 — Don Martin — — In Justin Trudeau’s mind, the Freedom Convoy is a flat-tire “fringe” that’s going nowhere except, hopefully, away from downtown Ottawa. The protesting truckers and assorted nasty hangers-on blockading Parliament Hill are an unsavoury mix of Trump lovers, Nazi sympathizers, monument desecrators, statue vandalizers and rabid anti-vaxxers who are unworthy of being met, heard or heeded […]

The case against mandatory vaccination as Quebec dives into latest COVID-19 wave

Jan 11 2022 — Don Martin — — It’s never been done before, might not accomplish its hospital-buffering mission and is probably unconstitutional, but Canada is taking the first step toward mandated COVID-19 vaccination backed by financial penalties. The idea was first floated last week when federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos noted he personally supports mandatory COVID-19 vaccination and suggested this unprecedented action […]

Trudeau feels our pandemic pain — and deflects the blame

Jan 5 2022 — Don Martin — — On time and without any sign of the teleprompter to script his thinking, both a new look for Justin Trudeau, the prime minister took to the stage Wednesday to declare that 2022 was, to understate the obvious, off to a lousy start. And for that, you can blame the premiers. He didn’t point the finger […]

Borderline incompetence gives way to a common sense evolution in the fight against Omicron

Dec 15 2021 — Don Martin — — To return from the U.S., as I did last week, is to see the federal government’s Omicron-blocking efforts unmasked as borderline incompetence. The Canadian customs area was a super-spreader event jammed with a thousand bleary-eyed passengers in multiple zig-zagging lineups less than a jabbed elbow apart. Clearly overwhelmed border officers were not checking vaccinations, PCR […]

Mr. Dithers is back as government slows to a crawl on Justin Time

Dec 9 2021 — Don Martin — — Mr. Dithers is back as government slows to a crawl on Justin Time You can set your watch by Justin Trudeau. Just take the announced time of a prime ministerial event, media availability or photo-op and add at least 45 minutes. Insiders shrug and call it Justin Time. After all, cramming Trudeau’s brain with all […]

Ready. Fire. Aim. How the feds are targeting Omicron.

Dec 1 2021 — Don Martin — — Bobbing in the pool with a noodle for extra floatation, the Floridian gasped in disbelief as I listed Canada’s mobility limits on the unvaccinated. No planes, no trains, no buses. No restaurants, no bars, no theatres. No wedding receptions, no company Christmas parties, no federally regulated jobs. All off-limits because of what this seemingly-intelligent retail […]

Same old answers in a brand new question period

Nov 24 2021 — Don Martin — — You tune into the first question period after the Great Reset to see an in-person House of Commons for the first time since March 2020 with faint hopes it would be different. Perhaps, you try to delude yourself, it could be possible the tragic B.C. flooding emergency would sober up the discourse and calm down […]

With Trudeau’s return as a target, worst might be over for O’Toole

Nov 17 2021 — Don Martin — — If bad leaders come in threes, this week’s storm of ugly headlines clearly lump Erin O’Toole into the trifecta of disastrous Conservative leaders alongside Andrew Scheer and Stockwell Day. But the worst may now be behind O’Toole as his party prepares to return to Parliament in five days to take aim at the real target, […]

The friendly face of Erin O’Toole’s worst nightmare

Nov 9 2021 — Don Martin — — She’s been christened Canada’s Most Collegial MP by Maclean’s magazine several times, but Marilyn Gladu’s non-stop smile now masks serious long-haul suffering for her Conservative leader boss. The friendliest MP has become Erin O’Toole’s deadliest foe as Gladu steps forward as the personification of internal caucus sympathy, if not support, for anti-vaccination forces. As you […]

Does Trudeau love all of Canada? That’s a good question now.

Nov 3 2021 — Don Martin — — Midway through the 2008 federal election campaign, a mischievous reporter decided he’d had enough of boring news conferences and asked Conservative Leader Stephen Harper if he loved Canada. It was more about getting a rise out of the notoriously unflappable Harper and, if memory serves, the leader’s glare of an answer didn’t exactly prove he […]

The good, bad and ugly of the new Trudeau cabinet

Oct 26 2021 — Don Martin — — Keeping in mind that being a Justin Trudeau cabinet minister means you’re a force-fed enabler of the Prime Minister’s agenda more than influencer of policy direction, there are good, bad and ugly moves to be observed in Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony. The over-arching theme is how this gaggle of ministers is more lapdog than usual, where […]