Dec 8 2019 — Lorne Gunter — Sun Media — I can never understand commentators who seem surprised (even irritated) by the vagueness of a throne speech. Vagueness is the point. A typical throne speech is to legislative agendas what daydreaming about winning the lottery is to retirement planning. Vice-regal addresses are accurate indications of a government’s priorities — until all those best-laid plans get […]
Dec 3 2019 — Lorne Gunter — Sun Media — The United Conservative Party members in attendance for Andrew Scheer’s speech to their provincial convention in Calgary last Friday were polite, but far from enthusiastic. They didn’t wave the Scheer signs they had been given around much. And when he didn’t stay to schmooze after his remarks, they weren’t all that upset. Compare that the […]
Nov 17 2019 — Lorne Gunter — Sun Media — The latest numbers on economic productivity in Canada are extremely disappointing. And with the Liberals back in power, the numbers are about to get worse, especially considering that the Trudeau government is now held in office by three anti-development parties — the NDP, Greens and Bloc Quebecois. Even our “have” provinces fall far behind the […]
Oct 23 2019 — Lorne Gunter — Sun Media — One thing that’s certain, a Liberal minority is going to be expensive. The last time Canada had a Liberal minority propped up by the NDP was under Pierre Trudeau between 1972 and 1974. In order to keep the NDP happy with increased social programs, the Liberals back then ramped up federal spending by 27% in […]
Oct 6 2019 — Lorne Gunter — Sun Media — “Boring can win.” I’ve heard that line (and variations of it) from enough senior Tory campaigners that I have to think it’s not just off-the-cuff. It’s a scripted line in response to criticism that Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer lacks the personal charisma to defeat Justin Trudeau and the Liberals on Oct. 21.
Sep 29 2019 — Lorne Gunter — Sun Media — Now Justin Trudeau’s privilege truly is showing. I’m talking about Trudeau’s announcement Thursday that the planet can be saved and the plight of the urban poor reversed if only we would spend gobs of taxpayers’ dollars getting underprivileged urchins out camping. The alleged climate “crisis” and chronic poverty whisked away with some tents and sleeping […]
Sep 24 2019 — Lorne Gunter — Sun Media — You have to know that if Justin Trudeau hadn’t been caught wearing blackface at a private school fundraiser in Vancouver in 2001, his Liberals wouldn’t now be desperately trying to change the topic by promising a tax cut for anyone earning under $210,000 a year and lower cellphone rates. However, the blackface revelation has so […]
Sep 22 2019 — Lorne Gunter — Sun Media — Individual Liberal candidates have begun rallying around their leader, Aladdin Trudeau. That was to be expected. Their success in 2015, and any chance they have of repeating it this election, is intertwined with the Trudeau brand. They have to protect him. He’s their electoral meal ticket. Besides, it’s too late in the campaign to find […]
Sep 15 2019 — Lorne Gunter — Sun Media — I was once on a CBC radio panel in the late 1980s when the topic turned to then-premier of Nova Scotia, John Buchanan. At the same time, Brian Mulroney was prime minister. I’ve forgotten the issue, but it had to do with Buchanan’s integrity. The Maritime journalist on the panel said of Buchanan – who […]
Sep 1 2019 — Lorne Gunter — Sun Media — There is a yearning among voters for a change of prime minister. The problem? There is no obvious alternative to incumbent Justin Trudeau. In an Angus Reid poll this week, just 13% of respondents expressed any real enthusiasm for a Trudeau second term. That means Trudeau is only one-third as popular as his party, which […]
Aug 25 2019 — Lorne Gunter — Sun Media — In some ways, it doesn’t matter whether Elections Canada are the originators of the ban on environmental groups trumpeting their climate alarmism during the upcoming federal election or merely the enforcers of a supremely flawed law. The point is that by telling any groups – environmentalists, farmers, unions, energy companies, taxpayers’ organizations – that they […]
Aug 18 2019 — Lorne Gunter — Sun Media — How arrogant is it when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seems eager to apologize for everyone else’s sins but never his own? Since becoming PM back in November of 2015, Trudeau has offered apologies – both official and unofficial — to Inuit, Italians, Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus, Nazi-fleeing Jews, numerous First Nations and Indigenous individuals and LGBTQ […]
Aug 4 2019 — Lorne Gunter — Sun Media — Want to spend a frustrating afternoon this long weekend? Try finding a sunny beach in Alberta — large parts of which are experiencing the coolest, wettest July in 40 years. Or, if you’re not in Alberta, you could try predicting this fall’s election using the latest polling data. Using just polls released in July (courtesy […]
Aug 2 2019 — Lorne Gunter — Sun Media — Albertans can be forgiven for thinking we are being picked on. On Wednesday, the Petroleum Services Association of Canada (PSAC) revised downward its forecast for the number of oil wells that will drilled be in Alberta this year. Instead of 3,532 wells, PSAC now estimates just 2,425 wells will be drilled in our province – […]
Jul 14 2019 — Lorne Gunter — Sun Media — Justin Trudeau wants Quebec seats so badly in this fall’s election that he doesn’t care what he does to Alberta, as long as it brings him votes in Montreal. On Wednesday, there was the prime minister and Liberal leader hoisting clutched hands high with long-time anti-oil activist Steven Guilbeault who had just become Trudeau’s nominee […]