Feb 18 2019 — John Ivison — Postmedia — A day or so after my arrival at Queen’s Park to cover the Ontario legislature for the National Post, a bearded, rangy, 30-something beanpole of a man unfolded himself on the ratty old office couch. That was my introduction to Gerald Butts. It was 2003, he was the principal secretary to the leader of the […]
Feb 16 2019 — John Ivison — Postmedia — The buck stops with any prime minister. He is the public face of those decisions — and in the SNC affair, he has become a figure of public derision It’s never good for a politician when they’re being laughed at. Justin Trudeau’s claim that Jody Wilson-Raybould would still be justice minister if Scott Brison hadn’t […]
Feb 13 2019 — John Ivison — National Post — Former prime minister Jean Chrétien is said to have told his cabinet the story of a farmer covered in cow dung. The farmer knew that if he tried to wipe the manure away when it was still fresh, he would spread it around and make it worse. Instead, he waited until it dried and then […]
Feb 12 2019 — John Ivison — Postmedia — In the words of parody news anchor Ron Burgundy: “Boy, that escalated quickly.” Jody Wilson-Raybould’s letter resigning from cabinet Tuesday — in which she thanked all Canadians but, conspicuously, not Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — has left the impression that we have a caricature of a government, as buffoonish and clueless as Burgundy and his […]
Feb 8 2019 — John Ivison — National Post — “It’s worse than Adscam” — the sponsorship scandal that ultimately brought down a previous Liberal government — according to one overcaffeinated tweet. We can probably all agree that if Jody Wilson-Raybould was pressured as justice minister to intervene in the corruption prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, and was then demoted for refusing to do so, we have […]
Feb 6 2019 — John Ivison — National Post — A Liberal source says they will describe Scheer as “The $6 Million Man,” a political lifer who has earned $2,956,000 in salary since first being elected in 2004, and a further $3 million in estimated pension benefits in that time. They contend that does not include the years he spent living rent-free at official residences, […]
Feb 5 2019 — John Ivison — National Post — While watching the daily question period in the House of Commons Tuesday, thoughts strayed to Dante’s eighth circle of Hell — where horned demons whipped panderers for eternity for deliberately exploiting the passions of others, flatterers were thrown into pools of excrement for corrupting the language to play upon fears and desires, and politicians were […]
Feb 4 2019 — John Ivison — National Post — Diversions are probably in short supply for Michael Kovrig as he approaches his second month in detention in China. But if he were minded to dwell on the absurdity of life, he might reflect on one initiative signed during his final month as a diplomat at the Canadian embassy in Beijing — the Canada-China High […]
Jan 31 2019 — John Ivison — National Post — The sticker price Kinder Morgan put on the Trans Mountain pipeline when it entered negotiations with the federal government last year was $6.5 billion. Hence, finance minister Bill Morneau and his team thought they’d scored a bargain when they sealed the deal at $4.4 billion. But it looks increasingly like he may bought a cat […]
Jan 30 2019 — John Ivison — National Post — Celina Caesar-Chavannes was perhaps a surprising choice to deliver the Reply to the Laddies at the Speaker’s annual dinner in tribute to the poet Robert Burns on Parliament Hill on Monday night. “Note that I am not Scottish,” said the Liberal MP for Whitby, who was born in Grenada. Burns suppers can be fusty affairs, […]
Jan 29 2019 — John Ivison — National Post — Just before the latest outbreak of hostilities in the House of Commons, Canada’s newest MP, Michael Barrett, rose to say how “humbled and grateful” he was to take his seat. The victor in a December 3 by-election for a seat in eastern Ontario, he said he promised to represent his constituents in Parliament and fight […]
Jan 29 2019 — John Ivison — National Post — This new House of Commons is going to take some getting used to. The resolution is sharper, the sound clearer — it’s like watching proceedings in high definition. The fresh surroundings in Parliament’s West Block are in some ways comforting and familiar — the green carpet, the old wooden desks, the mustard-coloured curtains that look […]
Jan 16 2019 — John Ivison — National Post — Occam’s razor, the problem-solving principle dating back to the 13th century friar William of Ockham, states that, other things being equal, simple explanations are generally better than more complex ones. A medical equivalent, Zebra, guides doctors to reject exotic medical diagnoses in favour of more commonplace explanations. “When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses, not […]
Jan 15 2019 — John Ivison — National Post — The tale of the latest cabinet shuffle can be told in two contrasting pictures: in the first, from the swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall just over three years ago, Justin Trudeau can be seen gazing in patronizing fashion into Jody Wilson-Raybould’s eyes, his hands grasping her arms, while she beams back at him, bursting with […]
Jan 9 2019 — John Ivison — National Post — In his State of the Union address in 1995, Bill Clinton said the U.S. is a nation of immigrants but also a national of laws. It is wrong and self-defeating to permit abuse of those laws at the border, he said. In his recent interview with the National Post, Justin Trudeau sounded more concerned with […]