Oct 27 2020 — John Ivison — Postmedia — Another incumbent provincial government wins a resounding majority. But the federal party loses support in two Toronto byelections. Opinion polls suggest the Liberals would regain their own majority if an election were held today.
Oct 22 2020 — John Ivison — Postmedia — The folly around the confidence vote the Liberals survived in the House of Commons on Wednesday has never been more disconnected from the stress being endured by citizens, whose movement and ambitions have been constrained by the pandemic. A candidate who proposed to bar from public office anyone who expressed a desire to be a […]
Oct 20 2020 — John Ivison — Postmedia — It reads like satire now but five years ago, the Trudeau Liberals were elected on a platform that promised electoral reform; stronger Access to Information legislation; an end to the use of omnibus bills and prorogation; and, more robust parliamentary committees that could better hold the government to account.
Oct 20 2020 — John Ivison — National Post — The government leader in the House of Commons accused his political opponents of “paralyzing committees with partisanship” on Monday, apparently struck by amnesia about last week’s Liberal filibuster and the prorogation that stopped those same committees digging into the WE Charity affair. Pablo Rodriguez didn’t even blush as he portrayed the Conservatives as the thieves […]
Oct 15 2020 — John Ivison — National Post — The stale jargon of Chinese diplomacy is designed to make threats and bullying sound respectable. China’s ambassador in Ottawa, Cong Peiwu, was asked to explain alarming comments made by President Xi Jinping that his nation’s troops should be preparing for war.
Oct 9 2020 — John Ivison — National Post — Lost amidst the noise of Justin Trudeau’s business relief package, and the highest one-day increase in reported COVID cases, was a conspicuous exchange in the House of Commons that deserves further comment. Friday’s question period is generally an exhibition game, sparsely attended and largely ignored by the media.
Oct 7 2020 — John Ivison — National Post — I doubt I am the only householder to be shocked by the revelation of how small a percentage of plastic is recycled from the small mountain we lug to the curb in our blue boxes. Just nine per cent of the three million tonnes produced a year is re-used, with the rest ending up in […]
Oct 2 2020 — John Ivison — National Post — It is a happy coincidence for the Liberals that just as new Conservative leader Erin O’Toole is blasting the government’s weak China policy, they are getting set to launch a new tougher approach to dealing with Beijing. The reframed China policy has been in the works since François-Philippe Champagne was appointed foreign affairs minister last […]
Oct 1 2020 — John Ivison — Postmedia — The address in reply to the speech from the throne is seldom a tribute to the political genius of the government, and Erin O’Toole’s maiden effort as Conservative leader was no exception. “Canadians deserve better than this Liberal government (which) was two months late in responding to the pandemic and whose clumsy response has made […]
Sep 29 2020 — John Ivison — Postmedia — It is becoming tedious to keep warning that we’ll pay for the government’s improvidence, like a joyless man of the cloth admonishing his flock for their self-indulgence. An anxious electorate has indicated broad support for renewed income benefits and paid sick leave, which is understandable as the second COVID-19 wave washes in. The latest weekly […]
Sep 29 2020 — John Ivison — National Post — David Longbottom spent 30 years working as a technology executive around the world. In 2016, he bought an old engineering warehouse in Ottawa and set up Flora Hall Brewing, which opened a year later.
Sep 23 2020 — John Ivison — Postmedia — Justin Trudeau beguiled the television networks into giving him free airtime to address an issue of “urgent national importance.” In the event, he delivered a political broadcast on behalf of the Liberal Party, a specious reiteration of the throne speech delivered hours earlier by the Governor General.
Sep 22 2020 — John Ivison — Postmedia — Dominic LeBlanc is living proof of the vigour of Canada’s health system. The minister for intergovernmental affairs underwent a successful stem cell transplant a year ago to treat non-Hodgkins lymphoma. “If I’m here one year later it’s because of that remarkable feat of medicine,” he said at a press conference last Friday.
Sep 18 2020 — John Ivison — Postmedia — The ruling by the ethics commissioner that David MacNaughton, Canada’s former ambassador in Washington, broke the conflict of interest laws should not have come as a surprise, but it did. John A. Macdonald once said that while he did not believe all Grits were horse-thieves, “I feel sure that all horse-thieves are Grits.”
Sep 16 2020 — John Ivison — Postmedia — When Chrystia Freeland was appointed finance minister, I dispatched a tweet about the prime minister having replaced someone with extensive business experience with a journalist. “As a journalist, I find that concerning.” It was intended to be mildly amusing – an echo of Jerry Seinfeld’s concern that his dentist had converted to Judaism for the […]