Jun 5 2023 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — The ghastly shitshow currently dominating Canada’s national politics is a multi-level disgrace. The slimy assault on the reputation and character of David Johnston is unforgivable. If he had recommended a public inquiry into China’s alleged interference in Canadian elections, the same people who are slagging him would be carrying him around on their shoulders.
May 29 2023 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — Poor Pierre Poilievre. He wants to be prime minister so badly that he has started to tell NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh how to do his job. Poilievre finds a scandal under everyone else’s pillow (under his own, of course, is a shiny bitcoin from the tooth fairy). He wants Singh to renounce his supply-and-confidence deal […]
May 22 2023 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — To be, or not to be leader: that is the question. Is Justin Trudeau at the end of the political road? If you believe some of the polls, Trudeau is a politician in winter. It’s not a lion, but three triple incumbent prime minister is facing a torrent of criticism—much of it the ad hominem […]
May 15 2023 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — With so many possibilities, from bots to the Tucker Carlsons of the world, it’s hard to say what might eventually kill democracy. But the recent town hall in New Hampshire featuring U.S. presidential hopeful Donald Trump gives a broad hint: hair-on-fire, serial lying without bounds or shame.
May 1 2023 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — For anyone who pays attention to Question Period, it is starting to resemble a particularly nasty cage fight. It is obvious that the Conservative Party of Canada enters Parliament every day with one thought in mind: how to personally demonize Justin Trudeau, and defeat the politician who has handed them three straight losses at the […]
Apr 24 2023 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — Here’s the bottom line on last week’s epic debacle in the Fox News-Dominion Voting System lawsuit: cash by the carload ensured that the truth did not prevail, took Fox off journalistic death-row, and left the network’s host-serial liars in the same positions of power they used to divide a nation with information they knew to […]
Apr 17 2023 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — Ever since Donald Trump hit the ground slithering in his 2016 presidential bid, the bar in politics has sunk to rock bottom. Not that the political arena was ever a monastery. There have always been politicians who couldn’t keep their zippers up, who telephoned judges on active cases, who told the occasional whopper, who drove […]
Apr 10 2023 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — So Donald Trump is the newest citizen in the Indicted States of America. He joins a host of former aides and associates who either went to jail or admitted to wrongdoing after working for him, including Allen Wiesselberg, Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, and Lt.-Gen. Michael Flynn. His former chief financial officer at the Trump organization, […]
Apr 5 2023 — Michael Harris — The Tyee — The Canadian Press picked the “Freedom Convoy” as the biggest news story of 2022. The Conservative Party of Canada made it the biggest political gamble of its recent history. Stay Sharp on Alberta. Sign up for Alberta EdgeStay Sharp on Alberta. Sign up for Alberta Edge The Tyee launches a new free newsletter with fresh […]
Apr 3 2023 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — No one can deny that the Conservatives’ Hate-Trudeau campaign knows no bounds. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre set the bar low when he effectively called the prime minister a traitor who was covering up alleged Chinese interference in Canadian elections, instead of calling a public inquiry. Two parliamentary bodies and a special rapporteur are looking into […]
Mar 27 2023 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — In America, the law is king, the king isn’t the law. That sentiment was expressed by 18th century English-American political philosopher and pamphleteer Thomas Paine. He wanted to persuade his fellow colonists that it would be better to break way from England and form a republic, a view he successfully advocated in his famous 47-page […]
Mar 20 2023 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — Opposition politics has always been the process of casting the appropriate lights and shadows over the other guy’s record—and the facts. No surprise there. The job of opposition is to oppose, so the characterization of incumbent governments has almost never been what might be called “good-faith” criticism. There is little credit for the good things […]
Mar 13 2023 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — For the 17th straight year, global freedom has declined. Despite Pierre Poilievre’s feckless rants, Canada continues to buck the trend. It is no accident that democracy is under attack worldwide. For years now, there has been a surge in the number of “strongmen” who have emerged with illiberal, populist agendas, a trend that accelerated with […]
Mar 6 2023 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — A lot of people are in a lather over alleged Chinese interference in Canadian elections. I am not one of them. Am I concerned? Of course. Would I like to know more about what happened in certain ridings? Absolutely. But is my blood pressure going through the roof like the editorial board over at The […]
Feb 27 2023 — Michael Harris — Hill Times — So it appears the liar choir at Fox News has been outed. According to court filings, the Big Three at America’s most-watched cable “news” channel all knowingly lied about the 2020 election being stolen. That’s Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity, the Fox News hosts with the largest prime-time audiences. More than that, court […]