May 31 2023 — Jen Gerson — Globe and Mail — I had a run-in with a card-carrying member of the United Conservative Party prior to election day in Alberta – a sensible, establishment, man-in-good-standing type. This person, who shall remain unnamed to protect that very good standing, had questions about Danielle Smith, certainly; further, he noted that the party’s signature electoral promises, which included income […]
May 25 2023 — Jen Gerson — The Line — The facts before me don’t warrant any extraordinary leave from my ordinary degree of cynicism. Far be it from me to steal the thunder of my fellow editor, Matt Gurney, who did yeoman’s work combing through the Johnston report shortly after it came out on Tuesday. I think he did some of the most able […]
May 17 2023 — Jen Gerson — The Line — I couldn’t help but ask myself: “How much larger will this tent city be allowed to grow before someone cracks down on it?” Literally. What street will prove the border? Forgive me for starting today’s column with an old anecdote: when I was in high school in the late ’90s, early aughts (which does not […]
May 12 2023 — Jen Gerson — Globe and Mail — It’s actually pretty rare for something to come along that manages to transform the nation from perfect indifference to utter pique in the course of one day, but somehow this government has managed it. I am talking, of course, about the most important news to emerge from this week – our passport redesign. Ottawa has […]
Apr 19 2023 — Jen Gerson — The Line — If you want to fight, you have to know which battles are worth winning. Fight smart, not hard. Everybody is being dumb. Yes, I realize that most of my columns could start this way, however in the case of the incident in question, I believe the sentence above can truly be applied universally. This time, […]
Apr 6 2023 — Jen Gerson — The Line — In recent weeks, we’ve witnessed two once-rare phenomena occur nearly simultaneously. Two politicians have filed libel claims against media outlets, alleging that their reputations have been damaged by reporting based on statements by anonymous sources. There are two very different outlets involved, and the claims are coming from politicians sitting at opposite ends of the […]
Mar 24 2023 — Jen Gerson — The Line — I have no sympathy for the predicament the Liberal party now finds itself in. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and all his hangers-on are the authors of their own misfortunes. When it comes to the stories of Chinese electoral interference now dominating the headlines, this government is the victim of its own short-sightedness and arrogance, and […]
Jan 19 2023 — Jen Gerson — The Line — Have our public-health communicators learned nothing from the pandemic? The audience isn’t experts. It’s normal people. The bad news is that you’re going to die. The good news is that you might be able to squeak out a few more good years if you cut out all the things that make not dying worth the […]
Jan 13 2023 — Jen Gerson — The Line — Alberta is pursuing a very different path toward treatment of drug addiction. In this interview, a top provincial official explains why, and what kind of help Ottawa can offer.
Jan 12 2023 — Jen Gerson — The Line — In a recent video, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre highlighted the drug crisis, in British Columbia. He suggested Alberta provided a solution. How different are the two provinces, really? Marshall Smith has followed a circuitous route to his current position, the chief of staff of the Alberta premier. He began a career in government two decades […]
Dec 1 2022 — Jen Gerson — The Line — I have to be honest: my first reaction to reading Alberta’s Bill 1, the Alberta Sovereignty Within A United Canada Act, was laughter. Just a deep, body shaking chortle. It’s so dumb, so utterly, obviously bizarre that it doesn’t even read like a real bill. But I’m no legal expert, so I grabbed Ian Holloway, […]
Nov 29 2022 — Jen Gerson — Globe and Mail — “Albertans have had just about enough of this!” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told Jordan Peterson near the start of an hour-and-a-half-long interview posted online two weeks ago. Well, calling it an “interview” is generous: The good doctor fails to challenge Ms. Smith on any of her sometimes misleading characterizations of Alberta’s plight, and he frequently […]
Oct 20 2022 — Jen Gerson — The Line — I had the great joy of catching up with an old friend the other day and the subject of our conversation came around to politics, as it sometimes does. “It seems like the media is giving Danielle Smith a hard time,” she noted, implying that we had not given this woman so much as a […]
Sep 13 2022 — Jen Gerson — Globe and Mail — With Pierre Poilievre’s decisive victory in the federal Conservatives’ leadership race, the party now has a generational opportunity to radically reimagine what Conservative policies could be palatable to the Canadian public. A strong mandate at his back, the man nicknamed Skippy need only to win the trust of a plurality of the electorate to implement […]
May 20 2022 — Jen Gerson — The Line — The first time I had a proper conversation with Jason Kenney was about six years ago. The NDP were in power in Alberta; the federal Conservatives had cast about for a successor to Stephen Harper and, it was decided by silent consensus, said successor would not be Jason Kenney. So the former federal cabinet minister […]