Apr 23 2021 — John Ivison — National Post — The federal government finally did the right thing by banning flights from India and Pakistan for 30 days — but only after it had tried everything else. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said the higher number of cases of new variants required him to issue a notice halting direct passenger traffic from the two countries from […]
Apr 21 2021 — John Ivison — National Post — Less than 24 hours after his government announced $143 billion in new spending, Justin Trudeau was asked about provincial demands for more health-care transfers. “We have committed that we will increase transfers to the provinces — recurring and long-term…. We look forward to discussions about how we can make more investments in the long-term,” he […]
Apr 19 2021 — John Ivison — National Post — If the Liberal Party does not regain its parliamentary majority after lavishing $143 billion in new spending on every sub-set of the Canadian population, it should call a royal commission of inquiry. Chrystia Freeland’s first budget professes to be about finishing the fight against COVID and building prosperity for the future. But the front-end-loaded nature […]
Apr 15 2021 — John Ivison — National Post — Erin O’Toole is likely to find his party is 100 per cent behind his new climate change plan – that being the best angle from which to stab him in the back. The Conservative leader knew he would face criticism from a movement that is often loath to adapt to changing times.
Apr 12 2021 — John Ivison — National Post — Ontario’s Education Minister Stephen Lecce wrote to parents on Sunday suggesting that in-person learning would resume in the province after the April school break. Less than 24 hours later, Lecce was sitting next to Doug Ford as the province’s premier said the spread of COVID meant kids would stay home indefinitely.
Apr 7 2021 — John Ivison — National Post — The incoherence of the federal and provincial responses to COVID justifies the public inquiry being called for by Conservative leader Erin O’Toole. But Canadians should not be surprised at such disorganization, according to a senior public servant who has witnessed Ottawa’s emergency response in action (he agreed to speak to the National Post on condition […]
Apr 7 2021 — John Ivison — National Post — Two days before Superbowl LV in Tampa in early February, someone hacked into a water treatment plant in nearby Pinellas County and tried to poison Florida’s water supply. The unknown attacker used a password to break into the remote access software platform that controls the plant and adjusted the level of sodium hydroxide to more […]
Apr 5 2021 — John Ivison — National Post — The NDP policy convention, taking place online this week, rarely disappoints. In advance of the event, the party has released a raft of reckless resolutions submitted by riding associations across the country. In this modern socialist utopia, the rich are taxed into insolvency, the military is disbanded and capitalism abolished.
Mar 31 2021 — John Ivison — National Post — The Trudeau government’s brazen dismissal of the will of the House of Commons, when it comes to sending political aides to testify before parliamentary committees, is deepening divisions between partisans. “Why would anyone vote for the Liberals?” bemoaned one Conservative on social media, citing WE, SNC, rail blockades and vaccine missteps as evidence that hanging […]
Mar 30 2021 — John Ivison — National Post — If the Liberals are trying to bait the opposition parties into finding the government in contempt of Parliament and thereby sparking an election, they are doing a fine job. It would be hard to conceive a more convincing display of disrespect toward open government than Pablo Rodriguez’s performance before the ethics committee on Monday, where […]
Mar 25 2021 — John Ivison — National Post — It was a close shave but the Trudeau government has been given pass marks for its response to the COVID pandemic by the federal auditor general. In her report, Karen Hogan says the “all-hands-on-deck” emergency prompted a startling reaction from the bureaucracy, where a service mindset replaced the process-oriented approach that often sees the machinery […]
Mar 25 2021 — John Ivison — National Post — Parliamentarians are often derided as trained seals – interchangeable bobbleheads who always vote at their party’s call and never think for themselves at all. But it doesn’t have to be that way, as Liberal MP John McKay has proven in his nearly quarter of a century in the House of Commons.
Mar 24 2021 — John Ivison — Postmedia — One of P. G. Wodehouse’s best quips concerned the “confusion of ideas” between A.B. Spottsworth and one of the lions he was hunting, which resulted in him making the obituary column. “He thought the lion was dead and the lion thought it wasn’t.” A confusion of ideas explains Erin O’Toole’s problems with his party membership: […]
Mar 23 2021 — John Ivison — National Post — “He must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil”: Dromio of Syracuse in William Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors. This quote came to mind while reviewing last weekend’s Conservative convention. In truth, the plotline was more like one of the Bard’s tragedies, in which the flawed hero is consumed by his own ambition. […]
Mar 18 2021 — John Ivison — National Post — The Conservative MP was calm when discussing dismal recent polling numbers. “No-one’s headspace is in federal election mode,” she said. “All most people care about is ‘When is the vaccine arriving and when am I getting my shot?’” The drama of the vaccine rollout is for millions of Canadians the only political story that matters […]