Jan 8 2019 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — Former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin is nominating Irwin Cotler, who served as his attorney general during their two years in government, for the Nobel Peace Prize. A human rights lawyer, the former MP is a longtime champion for political prisoners — including, at the time, South Africa’s Nelson Mandela — and devoted himself to […]
Nov 27 2018 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — A Conservative, a Liberal, a New Democrat and a political agnostic walk into a library. There’s no punchline. It is an autumn Saturday in Canada’s largest city. The four sit in the upstairs boardroom of a Toronto Public Library branch with 15 strangers. Paperwork, including Elections Canada forms and mandatory pledges of good behaviour for […]
Nov 10 2018 — Marie-Danielle Smith — Postmedia — As early as this summer, former cabinet minister Tony Clement informed a Conservative Party official that an Instagram account was “spreading lies about him” and that he was contacting the Ontario Provincial Police as a result, according to chief opposition whip Mark Strahl. Clement said publicly this week that he went to the RCMP with […]
Nov 5 2018 — Marie-Danielle Smith — Postmedia — The federal government spent $23 million buying more than 600 brand-new cars for use at this year’s G7 summit — and is now struggling to sell them off second-hand. According to figures the Royal Canadian Mounted Police provided to the National Post, 431 vehicles were to purchased to be used for “motorcade” purposes, and another […]
Nov 1 2018 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — Maxime Bernier believes Earth’s climate is changing. However, he has “no opinion” as to the cause, and his new political party doesn’t plan to propose any specific climate policy ahead of next year’s election, instead trusting the private sector to solve the problem. In an interview with the National Post, the leader of the fledgling […]
Nov 1 2018 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — Conservatives say the Liberals wanted revenge against a floor-crossing MP and didn’t follow proper procedure. Liberals say the Tories disrupted a meeting with alcohol. Conservative MPs are blasting the Liberals over what they say was a failed attempt to get revenge against a floor-crossing MP, putting the government and opposition in conflict over who is […]
Oct 30 2018 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — A Conservative senator felt compelled to weigh in on the ongoing beef between rappers Nicki Minaj and Cardi B on Tuesday after his Twitter account was apparently hacked — but, as he told the National Post in an email, “I happen to be more of a country gospel fan myself.” On Monday evening, gone was […]
Oct 24 2018 — Marie-Danielle Smith — Postmedia — Conservative leader Andrew Scheer is stomping out the notion he would re-criminalize cannabis, after headlines last week suggested he was not closing the door to that idea. During an interview with a Quebec radio station Wednesday morning, Scheer said he has no intention of fully rolling back the Liberals’ legal cannabis policy, but a Tory […]
Oct 1 2018 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — Canada’s efforts to forge trade deals with other countries are now far less likely to lead to free-trade negotiations with China, experts predict, because of a clause in the new North American deal that appears to give the United States unprecedented leverage over its partners’ other trading relationships. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which will replace […]
Sep 26 2018 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — Governor General Julie Payette is publicly apologizing to charitable organizations for the “perception” that it has taken too long for Rideau Hall to review its priorities and determine which relationships it will continue. In her first interview since the National Post published an investigation into her first year in office, Payette also defended her approach […]
Aug 28 2018 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — The Conservative party’s lawyers are warning Maxime Bernier not to access a party membership list he obtained during last year’s leadership vote, according to a letter obtained by the National Post. The Quebec MP said last week he was quitting caucus and forming a new political party, little more than a year after he narrowly […]
Aug 26 2018 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — However much Maxime Bernier’s announcement he was quitting the Conservative Party may have disrupted the first day of the party’s policy convention, by Saturday evening, as the convention wrapped up, his departure had begun to seem a blessing for Andrew Scheer. Instead of sending the gathering of thousands party members into chaos, by quitting Bernier […]
Aug 25 2018 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — By Saturday morning, Andrew Scheer was in a good mood, ready to move past the drama of Maxime Bernier’s public exit from the Conservaitve Party. In a sit-down with Marie-Danielle Smith from the National Post at the Conservative policy convention in Halifax, the party leader explained his positions on some of the policy resolutions that […]
Aug 19 2018 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — This week, the federal Conservatives are adding to their policy book for the first time under leader Andrew Scheer, and for the last time before the next election. On the table for the rank-and-file to discuss at the party’s convention in Halifax are changes to positions on everything from immigration to abortion to freedom of […]
Aug 17 2018 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — It was the last day of Parliament and Conservative Party MPs were sitting in a high-ceilinged caucus room, waiting for the man of the hour to give them a final pep talk before heading back to their constituencies for the summer. That man was not Andrew Scheer, who just over a year ago narrowly won […]