While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from James Moore.
The 114th Calgary Stampede has come and gone, along with its performative, clichéd pancake-flipping political festival. But this year, one visitor mattered: Prime Minister Mark Carney – or rather, how Albertans would receive him. A lot is riding on the prime minister’s rapprochement with Albertans, and the vast majority of Canadians are hopeful that progress is being made and that...
Canada Day is my favourite holiday of the year. I’m serious. Ask my wife. We’ve debated Christmas versus Canada Day many times and I’m holding firm. It isn’t because I was minister of Canadian Heritage at one point and it seems obligatory or because I’m a sappy nationalist. It is because I genuinely love Canada and I love that we...
The byelection results on Monday night in Terrebonne, Scarborough Southwest and University--Rosedale have given everyone much to consider about the shift from minority to majority Parliament and the anticipated and rumoured fallout to come. In our 343-seat national legislature -- unless there are additional floor-crossing MPs on the horizon -- having a two-seat majority is still very unstable. Health challenges...
Now that the federal New Democrats have selected Avi Lewis as their leader, Canadians know the leadership offering that they will be presented by the major parties in the next campaign. Now the race is on between the parties to try to frame the ‘ballot question’ of the next campaign – whenever that may be. But at this moment, given...
When it comes to where Canada is positioned regarding U.S. President Trump’s tariff and trade policies, it seems increasingly clear that time is on Canada’s side. That is a difficult thing to assert when I know that our business and investment interests, consumer confidence, trade-dependent firms and their workers are all craving stability in the Canada-U.S. relationship on trade and...
“I think this is it,” I said to my dad. “No, this can’t possibly be it,” he said in response. “No, this is actually it,” I said again. The “it” was our destination: a tiny tavern in the village of Quyon, Que. — about 45 minutes northwest of downtown Ottawa. That night at that tavern, the former member of Parliament...
Much of this week and next week will see Conservative Party partisans gathering in Calgary at the party convention and in Ottawa to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Stephen Harper’s election and swearing-in as Canada’s 22nd prime minister. These will be two weeks for Canada’s conservative movement, filled with reflections on past successes and examining today’s challenges. Much of the...
It is rare that a provincial opposition party leadership race has the potential to shift the national dialogue on a fundamental issue for the country, but that could be about to happen in British Columbia as the official opposition B.C. Conservative Party leadership race gets underway this month. Let me unpack this a bit. For those not from B.C., politically...
Consensus analysis of the 2025 election results includes this thesis: centre-left ‘progressive’ voters abandoned the NDP and voted for the Liberals under Prime Minister Carney and gave him his victory. Why? Two broad reasons: 1) to unite against Donald Trump and 2) to unite against the possibility that Pierre Poilievre could be prime minister. Of course, there is more to...
Ambassador Kirsten Hillman announced last week that she will be leaving her role as Canada’s Ambassador to the United States. Through some of the most challenging diplomatic contexts imaginable, Ambassador Hillman has served Canada with incredible distinction, poise, substance and grace. She was named to the role in March 2020, but before that she was part of the team that...
Across Canada, at all times, we are an appropriately judgmental people when it comes to holding our political leaders accountable. This is particularly true when we think our leaders have failed us, disappointed us or misled us. Whether it is a municipal politician caught in a scandal, a provincial cabinet minister who makes a terrible decision, an opposition backbencher who...
Andy Rooney once said that “numbers are the most certain things we have.” That can absolutely be true, and the one certainty about the numbers of the current Parliament is the baked-in uncertainty given the events of the past week. Some numbers to consider:
Recently I reconnected with a high school friend of mine who I long ago lost touch with. Turns out, about 15 years ago, Dave moved from Coquitlam, B.C. to go work in the energy sector in Alberta. He was always a builder. He is the guy who aced every woodshop project and metal works project in high school and fixed...
If Mark Carney is to succeed as prime minister – with success being broadly described as helping to make Canada more united, prosperous and secure through responsible leadership and policy – he has one of the great political balancing acts to engineer that we have seen in modern times. He has demonstrated an admirable willingness to be an agent of...
In Edmonton, Dawn Farrell, head of the new Major Projects Office (MPO) for the Government of Canada took to the podium to introduced Prime Minister Carney and summarized her mandate and the mission of the government thusly: “To get to one project, one review, one decision in a two-year timeline, (that) will set Canada apart globally and attract enormous inflows...
It is very hard to overstate how disastrous the leadership of Jagmeet Singh was for Canada’s NDP. I really don’t mean to be cruel or cheap more than four months since the April election campaign by kicking a former leader and party while it is down, but it really is astonishing how thoroughly Mr. Singh cratered almost every aspect of...
Pierre Poilievre is back as a member of Parliament and as the leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, and all Canadians will benefit from an energized, humbled and refocussed official Opposition. It has been over five months since Mark Carney became Canada’s 24th prime minister and while he has faced enormous challenges – principally President Trump, but also the weight...
When observing governments and political leaders, it is always wise to heed the counsel of the great poet and wordsmith Maya Angelou when she suggested that “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Regarding President Trump and his belief in tariffs, we must never forget that his belief in tariffs is not a bug of...
Since his election as Canada’s 24th prime minister, Mark Carney has enjoyed sustained strong approval ratings from Canadians, according to public opinion research. Among the reasons for this has been his willingness to reverse course on Trudeau-era policies that he either disagreed with, the public had demonstrated a clear dislike for, or policies that have been objectively proven to be...
Canada, and the world, lost the Honourable Marc Garneau this week. He was a truly great Canadian in every sense of the word. In the coming days much will be said about his achievements and legacy, and it will be a challenge to sufficiently summarize a life so well lived. With that said, I offer here a story about the...
James Moore is a former federal cabinet minister under prime minister Stephen Harper, and a columnist for CTVNews.ca. Perhaps the three most important words spoken by Prime Minister Carney during the campaign came after all the ballots had been cast and the results were known. During his victory speech on election night in Ottawa he said to Canadians: “Build, baby...
Do leaders’ debates matter? Will these coming debates matter? Yes, but no. First, Canadians should watch the debates with an open mind and keen eye for sincerity of presentation, signs of depth and credibility, and try to decide which of these candidates has the strength and substance to sit across from Donald Trump in the chair occupied not long ago...
In late June 1939, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Information produced three posters to boost domestic morale and focus the public anxiety about the war around them and the anticipated coming invasion. One poster read “Freedom is In Peril / Defend It With All Your Might.” A second poster read “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory.”
As is appropriate, election campaigns are about differences and divisions. Wedging your opponents against the voting cohorts they are seeking, pointing out their flaws and inadequacies, and dragging them into policy fights that are accretive to you politically with the groups of voters you aspire mobilize. That is politics; that is campaigning. Wading past the torqued divisions, however, lay a...