Sep 24 2018 — Laura Ryckewaert — Hill Times — Quebec is on course to be a two-way race between the Liberals and Conservatives in the 2019 federal election, say strategists, and the Québec City region is likely to be a hotly contested battleground amongst the federal parties. Despite the reunion of the Bloc Québécois on Sept. 17—with five MPs who had split from the […]
Sep 17 2018 — Laura Ryckewaert — Hill Times — The House of Commons is back this week for the last fall sitting before the 2019 election, and trade is set to top the agenda, with NAFTA renegotiations ongoing and a bill to enact the new Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement fresh on the Order Paper. Government House Leader Bardish Chagger (Waterloo, Ont.), in a phone interview […]
Jul 2 2018 — Laura Ryckewaert — Hill Times — Conservatives are already ahead in recruiting candidates for the 2019 federal election and all the political parties are using these critical summer months to start laying the groundwork for the next national campaign, say political strategists. “This is the last summer before the election. Next summer, we’re pretty well in a writ period, regardless of […]
May 28 2018 — Laura Ryckewaert — Hill Times — Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath, who saw a surge in support for her leadership and her party last week, has some big names working on her election team, including experienced campaigners from Manitoba, British Columbia, Alberta, and Ottawa. “What Andrea Horwath has done is assemble a team that combines experience and knowledge on how to […]
May 21 2018 — Laura Ryckewaert — Hill Times — The Ontario Liberals, led by Premier Kathleen Wynne, are in the political battle of their lives to win a fifth consecutive term in government on June 7 and have recruited some top talent to help out, including a number of former aides to former prime minister Paul Martin and former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty. “It’s […]
Apr 23 2018 — Laura Ryckewaert — Hill Times — British Columbia Liberal MPs say they’re touting environmental investments and protections brought in by the Liberal government for the $7.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project with constituents, with some suggesting their voters are split roughly 50-50 over the issue. But outspoken pipeline opponents NDP MP Kennedy Stewart (Burnaby South, B.C.) and Green Party Leader Elizabeth […]
Apr 16 2018 — Laura Ryckewaert — Hill Times — Ontario’s provincial parties are in campaign-mode, and new Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford has a tight-knit team in place, stacked with experience at both the federal and provincial levels. “They’ve all spent a ton of time together in the last 10 to 15 years, so even though they were thrown together quickly out of […]
Apr 9 2018 — Laura Ryckewaert — Hill Times — Canada’s privacy commissioner, who is conducting an investigation into the Cambridge-Analytica-Facebook scandal and a separate probe into whether Canadian privacy laws were violated by AggregateIQ in order to sway the Brexit vote, says Canada’s federal political parties need to be covered by privacy laws and voters should have the right to find out what personal […]
Mar 26 2018 — Laura Ryckewaert — Hill Times — Conservatives and New Democrats say they have never collected private information on Canadians without their permission, or asked to access their Facebook pages to gather information to microtarget voters, while the governing Liberals say they follow a privacy policy and don’t have access to any Facebook accounts beyond their own. The explosive fallout from the […]
Mar 12 2018 — Laura Ryckewaert — Hill Times — The government’s approval of Kinder Morgan’s $7.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project is expected to cost the party electorally in 2019, but most MPs in the pipeline’s proposed path say the majority of their constituents support it. “This could be one of the major issues in the next federal election, particularly in the Lower Mainland […]
Feb 26 2018 — Laura Ryckewaert — Hill Times — The federal Liberal government will pay a political price over its support for the $7.4-billion Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion among First Nations and B.C. voters in the next election, say pollsters, but how high a cost remains to be seen. “There will be a political price to pay, and I think there’s an […]
Feb 18 2018 — Laura Ryckewaert — Hill Times — NDP members elected a new party president on the last day of the party’s 2018 policy convention, with former Hill staffer Mathieu Vick being elevated to the role after garnering roughly 83 per cent of the votes cast. “I’m here for the same reasons as all of you. We need urgent action on income inequality, […]
Feb 17 2018 — Laura Ryckewaert — Hill Times — With more than 1,800 New Democrats gathered in Ottawa to debate and help shape future party policies, NDP strategist and former national director Karl Bélanger says a top priority this weekend is to “galvanize” members and regain the momentum that’s flagged since the leadership race. “The most important thing is to galvanize the activists and […]
Jan 8 2018 — Laura Ryckewaert — Hill Times — Liberal MP Alexandra Mendes says MPs should set up an informal, cross-party support system on the Hill to address sexual harassment and sexual misconduct as the #MeToo global movement against misogynistic behaviour hits Parliament Hill. “It’s a bit of perhaps a utopian kind of solution, but [to] kind of start, not a neighbourhood watch, but […]
Dec 18 2017 — Laura Ryckewaert — Hill Times — While some members of the Liberal government’s front bench soared this year, others sank, and strategists say Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly were among cabinet’s worst performers in 2017. “Morneau is regarded as strong on policy and weak on politics. You can survive in many portfolios as a minister with that […]