Sep 26 2022 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — I suppose when you think you are the second coming of Peter the Great, you can convince yourself of anything. While world leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, were at the United Nations calling for an end to the bloody and senseless war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin thumbed his nose. The Russian president called up […]
Sep 19 2022 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — And so begins the spittle-flecked rule of Pierre Poilievre at the helm of the Conservative Party of Canada. With an apology for harassing texts, firings at the Conservative Party Fund, and another attack on the media, Poilievre, spurs and all, has announced that there is a new marshal in town. But it has been a […]
Sep 12 2022 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — Since childhood, I have been moonstruck. Sometimes, of a summer night, it seemed close enough to touch. I used to leave the curtains in my bedroom open to let the magical, silvery light flood in. The moon was entrancing in each of its phases, but ineffably beautiful when it was full. In its ageless solitude, […]
Sep 9 2022 — Michael Harris — The Tyee — When Thomas Hobbes wrote that without government life would be “nasty, brutish and short,” he could also have been describing the upcoming session of Parliament. When MPs return this month, get ready for rock ’em, sock ’em politics. But don’t worry. It won’t last long. By spring, the whole parliamentary Pier 9 brawl could well […]
Aug 15 2022 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — “We are moving closer and closer to a fascist form of government, where we no longer believe in the rule of law.” William Cohen, former U.S. secretary of defence, is not the first person to call out the Republican Party for its fact-denying, fascist ways. But when he recently said those words on CNN, they […]
Aug 12 2022 — Michael Harris — The Tyee — Ever since Stephen Harper took the Conservative Party of Canada below 100 seats in the House of Commons back in 2015, the history of the party has been like a sequel to the movie Groundhog Day. Like the weatherman in that film, the Conservatives are caught in a time loop. The only way they can […]
Aug 1 2022 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — Donald Trump has always been too rich, too powerful, and too lawyered up to ever get the comeuppance he richly deserves for a lifetime of lying and cheating. The most recent example was the decision by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office not to prosecute him for alleged tax fraud, even though Trump’s former personal lawyer, […]
Jul 25 2022 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — Bob Dylan once wrote that you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. Although he was not talking about meteorologists back then, it turns out that the weatherman, using his most basic instrument, the thermometer, might be the only professional to save us from the twin scourges of the age: short-term […]
Jul 4 2022 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — Every morning, I look out into the backyard at the Ukrainian flag hanging from the clothesline. It has been there since Russia invaded the sovereign country last February. Some days when the wind is brisk, it cracks and whips like a living thing. On others, it hangs straight down, like the head of someone who […]
Jun 27 2022 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — The Conservative Party of Canada has never really been a new party that came together in a merger. It has always been a dysfunctional hybrid in which the hard right of its Western roots conducted a hostile takeover of the Progressive Conservatives. Peter MacKay’s lingering legacy. Stephen Harper’s success was more the product of dreadful […]
Jun 20 2022 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — One wonders if the Conservative Party of Canada will ever hold a leadership race without turning it into a master class of mud-wrestling, hanky-panky, and mutual denunciation. They are usually so busy slagging each other, any notion of policy is at best an after-thought. Sorry guys, but squealing “freedom” at the top of your lungs […]
May 30 2022 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — If there was an early warning system for threats to our politics and democracy, it would be pulsing red after Canada’s prime minister had to cancel a public appearance last week in British Columbia. The RCMP decided that it would not be safe for Justin Trudeau to make a public appearance at a Liberal fundraiser […]
May 23 2022 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — The political plague of populism is sweeping across the United States at an alarming rate. Who could have imagined a traditional political party like the GOP standing for the Big Lie that Joe Biden and the Democrats stole the 2020 election, especially after that allegation has been thoroughly debunked in every official recount and court […]
May 16 2022 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — By any normal measure, Justin Trudeau ought to be planning for a career path change. Not many people in federal politics win the PM’s job and a majority government on their first try. Even fewer win three consecutive federal elections, albeit by lesser margins, in the age of drive-by-smear politics. Few besides Trudeau have inherited—and […]
May 2 2022 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — It is getting clearer by the day, that a red flashing light is flashing not only over Ukraine, but the whole world. The West decided last February that it would not use direct force to stop Vladimir Putin’s homicidal war against an innocent nation. Why? The Ukrainians didn’t have the right paper work. They weren’t […]