Apr 15 2018 — John Milloy — National Newswatch — Ontario seems to be heading into one of the most polarized provincial elections in years. For more and more voters, the choice they make on June 7 is going to be between good and evil. For some, it’s about voting for Doug Ford, the ordinary person’s champion, who will respect our tax dollars and get government off our […]
Mar 10 2018 — John Milloy — National Newswatch — As the Ontario PC leadership contest draws to a close, I have a confession to make. In a weird way, I kind of envied the candidates. They have all been able to promise absolutely anything, and if asked how they were going to pay for it, they all had the same easy answer — eliminate […]
Feb 27 2018 — John Milloy — National Newswatch — We live in a world of public outrage. Whether we are talking about sexual misconduct, the US gun culture, injustices against Canada’s Indigenous Peoples or even efforts by Tim Hortons to penalize their lowest-paid employees, people are saying: Enough is enough – this kind of behaviour must stop! In the words of Howard Beale, the […]
Feb 16 2018 — John Milloy — National Newswatch — Watching the three-ring circus that passes for Ontario politics these days, you forget that the legislature hasn’t even started its spring session. When it does begin next week, it is certain to be a wild ride. With an election in early June, the stakes are high. And for the PCs, caught in a leadership soap opera, this […]
Feb 7 2018 — John Milloy — National Newswatch — As someone who was a political staffer at both Queen’s Park and Parliament Hill and later employed political staff myself as an elected official, I am disgusted by the sexual misconduct allegations level against various politicians. I feel great sympathy for any woman who has been mistreated. Sexual misconduct, however, is only part of the […]
Jan 12 2018 — John Milloy — National Newswatch — “Political party infighting” might be the most boring phrase in the English language. For many, it’s up there on the excitement scale with debates over the best brand of lawn seed or watching darts tournaments on TV. Ontarians, however, might want to take a closer look at an internal fight within the Ontario Progressive Conservatives; […]
Jan 10 2018 — John Milloy — National Newswatch — There is something unsettling about recent changes to the federal government’s Canada Summer Jobs Program. Wanting to ensure that pro-life organizations are ineligible to have their summer students’ wages subsidized, applicants must now attest to the fact that they support “the values underlying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” including “reproductive rights” and the […]
Dec 16 2017 — John Milloy — National Newswatch — Why did Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown undermine his platform launch with a silly promise to resign if his top five promises were not implemented? It all seemed to be going so well. News that the PC blueprint for the next election would be presented at a PC gathering had generated considerable media attention, and Brown […]
Nov 29 2017 — John Milloy — National Newswatch — Has political correctness gotten out of control? As someone who works at Wilfrid Laurier University that question has recently been top of mind. News that a Laurier professor chastised their teaching assistant for wading into the transgender debate made the university the subject of national and even international attention. To many, freedom of speech and […]
Nov 8 2017 — John Milloy — National Newswatch — There are certain things that upset religious folk. Many of us may welcome discussion about God and the nature of our faith, but our mood usually changes when the dialogue starts to turn patronizing. Suggestions that those who believe in God are not as smart as the rest of society causes the faithful to bristle. […]
Oct 25 2017 — John Milloy — National Newswatch — It is probably no coincidence that two of our nation’s Liberal parties, one in Ottawa and one at Queen’s Park, both decided to tackle income inequality. Harnessing the growing frustration that the system is rigged in favour of the rich seems like a recipe for reaping electoral rewards. Both policy approaches appeared well-thought out. The […]
Oct 11 2017 — John Milloy — National Newswatch — A shooting at a Boston area abortion clinic brought six women together for a talk. Three were pro-life movement leaders and three were high-profile pro-choice activists. The dialogue, which began in 1994, spanned more than five years and was sponsored by the Public Conversations Project. This US based organization, founded in 1989, attempts to foster […]
Sep 27 2017 — John Milloy — National Newswatch — The federal Liberal’s attempt to reform the tax system for small business has not exactly been a high point of their time in office. Taxes are a funny thing. In our elementary and high school civics classes we learned that they were a way of pooling our resources to pay for public services that we […]
Sep 23 2017 — John Milloy — National Newswatch — Have you noticed a common theme around what passes as “scandal” in Ontario politics these days? The majority of political shenanigans seem to relate to the selection of local candidates by political parties. The Ontario PCs seem particularly vulnerable on this issue. There seems to be an endless stream of media reports about controversial nomination […]
Sep 7 2017 — John Milloy — National Newswatch — It has been fascinating to watch NDP leadership candidates twist themselves into pretzels over Quebec’s controversial Bill 62 which would prevent women with face coverings from delivering or obtaining government services. All four candidates are kind of, sort of, opposed to it. Quebec MP Guy Caron is personally against the bill, but believes that Quebec […]