Sep 15 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — With the prime minister’s visit to Rideau Hall on Wednesday morning, Parliament was formally dissolved and the summer’s so-called “fake” election campaign, mercifully, brought to an end. And with it, Canadians began to hear not just the noise of the campaign messaging but the noise of the parties’ campaign buses and planes as well. It […]
Jun 23 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — As the warm weather finally sets in and the House rises for the summer, the leaders of our federal parties will begin to have visions of electoral success dance in their heads. Conventional wisdom tells us Canadians don’t want to hear from their politicians at this time of year — they would rather tune out […]
Jun 16 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — Two weeks ago, the Ontario Liberals began the long and arduous process of rebuilding their shattered party. Now reduced to a caucus of five — or what some impolite wags refer to as “the minivan caucus” — the party membership gathered in Mississauga to determine just how they will go about selecting a new leader […]
Jun 9 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — On the Normandy coast, the few remaining brave veterans gathered, their numbers depleted by the unrelenting ravages of time. They were joined by politicians from every nook and cranny of our country, military brass, and serving soldiers, sailors and airwoman and men.
Jun 2 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — As spring gives way to summer, so too will the predictable rhythm of governing in Ottawa and the ever-so-predictable antics of question period give way to the high-energy, much less predictable, winner-takes-all stakes of a federal campaign. And, as the parties’ planes and buses start their engines, commentators like me will surely lament that the […]
May 26 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — This week, as more than 25,000 tech execs and entrepreneurs from around the globe descended on Toronto for the Collision Conference, the parallels between Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party of Canada and the companies that define Silicon Valley, and (increasingly) Toronto and Montreal were striking. Both are largely founder-driven. Both are searching for organic growth, and […]
May 19 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — When Justin Trudeau took the stage in October 2015 to celebrate the Liberals’ majority victory, he spoke of his party’s “positive vision,” for Canada. Their campaign, he said, had “defeated the idea that Canadians should be satisfied with less, that good enough is good enough and that better just isn’t possible … this is Canada, […]
May 12 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — Another year, yet another unsuccessful highly public prosecution. On Wednesday, federal prosecutors announced a stay of charges against Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, ending a four-year circus that took an untold toll on the reputation, finances and family of a career public servant with an otherwise unblemished reputation.
May 5 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — In the cut and thrust of the increasingly divisive and polarizing way politics are being practiced today, one of the most worrisome developments is the loss of the bully pulpit. In some ways an old-fashioned notion, today’s practitioners seem to have forgotten its power of moral suasion, to forge consensus, to truly lead.
Apr 28 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — Each new provincial election brings more evidence that the wave of conservative victories across the country is turning into a tsunami. And with that, the inescapable conclusion that the Liberal brand is, if not in crisis, certainly not what it was on Election Day in October, 2015. Last Tuesday, Prince Edward Islanders not only elected […]
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.