Apr 21 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — Just as it is for most people who do what I do for a living, our office is littered with television monitors tuned to a variety of news channels from around the world. And like it is for most of us, we become inured to the onslaught of images that come our way. Some real. […]
Apr 14 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — Among watchers of the Trump White House, it has become this season’s party game to speculate whether the latest reason for outrage will be the final straw in this quixotic presidency — something akin in significance to Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre, or the Supreme Court decision compelling Nixon to turn over Oval Office tapes. History […]
Mar 31 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — Although it may feel like ancient history, and remembered about as clearly, it was just last week that Finance Minister Bill Morneau introduced the Liberal’s final, pre-election budget, a 460-page basket of goodies titled “Investing in the Middle Class.” A government’s last budget before an election is usually its most strategic, and effective, opportunity to […]
Mar 24 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — You might think a province that can count the number of changes in government in its history on one hand would be one where predicting election outcomes would be easy. But if there is one thing the last three Alberta elections have taught us, it’s that all is not as it appears in the sunshine […]
Mar 17 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — Despite the conclusions you might draw from an “if it bleeds, it leads” approach to media coverage, there has never been a safer time to fly. What’s more, the objective truth is that commercial aviation is, by far, our safest form of transit. In 2017, airlines recorded zero accident deaths on passenger jets.
Mar 10 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — How different this week could have been if Gerald Butts’ testimony was a springboard and not a trial balloon. On Wednesday morning, the prime minister’s former principal secretary, who is among his closest friends and confidants, did exactly what was required to change the arc of the story. He established himself as a credible and […]
Mar 3 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — On Wednesday afternoon, in an event that exceeded its considerable billing, Canada’s former attorney general and minister of justice, Jody Wilson-Raybould, filled in many of the contours of Bob Fife’s early-February reporting that thrust the prime minister, his closest advisers, and the Liberal Party of Canada into a political firestorm. Her testimony was as astonishing […]
Feb 24 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — Not all that long ago, certainly in my lifetime, Ma Bell, as she was affectionately known, was a communications powerhouse; ever-present with an absolute monopoly over our American neighbours’ telephone service. By the 1980s the American Bell System — which spawned our very own Bell Canada — generated over $70 billion US in annual revenues […]
Feb 17 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — This week has shown the Canadian public is resolved in its belief that politicians and public servants must, at first instance, be up to no good. Take the so-called scandal around the SNC-Lavalin matter, and the emerging consensus that the government has misbehaved from the get-go.
Feb 10 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — With Paul Dewar’s way-too-soon death, on Wednesday evening, Canadians lost a giant. A gentle, principled, passionate giant. A giant who dedicated his very life to the service of others. There will be no shortage of epithets for Paul, but he would likely choose to be remembered for his honest and authentic engagement with his constituents, […]
Feb 3 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — Earlier this week, members of Parliament must have felt somewhat disoriented as they returned for a final session in their familiar, yet entirely new, surroundings. The House of Commons chamber has been relocated, albeit temporarily, to a spectacular new space in the West Block Courtyard. But more than just adjusting to a different home, each […]
Jan 27 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — So long shining city upon the hill. There are, of course, those who scoff that the idealistic notion of American exceptionalism never existed at all. Others might reasonably suggest that, in fact, it vanished years ago — not in one fell swoop, but incrementally with each passing hour of cable news, gerrymandered district, and bruising […]
Jan 20 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — When the Liberal government came to power, it did away with the approach to foreign policy practiced by its Conservative predecessors and replaced it with something a bit more “idealistic.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau embarked on an international media tour during which he repeatedly declared himself a feminist. The foreign service, all the way up […]
Jan 13 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — Only days into 2019 and we have already been sharply reminded of just how much the optics and messages of politics have changed in the last 10 years. These developments, of course, don’t represent a total change from the past. Image and narrative have long been central to politics. Pictures have built or destroyed the […]
Dec 9 2018 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — Many believe that, in politics, your successor is your legacy. Consider the straight-as-an-arrow Sunday school teacher Jimmy Carter after the Machiavellian Nixon years. Or the steady, competent, experienced John Tory after the roller coaster term of Rob Ford. Or more recently, Doug Ford’s approach to smaller government focused resolutely on every day family affordability after […]