Jan 14 2019 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — Like the shuffle before it, today’s won’t change anything about a government that’s chronically stage-managed by a tiny cadre of staffers. The main thing to remember about today’s cabinet shuffle is that, outside of the extraordinary tales it tells us about the career paths of its protagonists, as a matter of governance it could well […]
Dec 13 2018 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — I mean, after all, why wouldn’t Justin Trudeau’s Liberals win the 2019 election? Only twice since Confederation have governments that came to power with a majority in the House of Commons been defeated outright at the next election: Alexander Mackenzie’s in 1878 and R.B. Bennett’s in 1935. Every other first-time majority PM has been permitted […]
Nov 29 2018 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — Rachel Notley doesn’t much like to go around the country complaining that Alberta’s neighbours are treating it unfairly, but she says it helps move public opinion. Alberta’s premier visited Ottawa and Toronto this week to talk about the crisis in her province’s energy industry, with prices collapsing and pipeline projects blocked or abandoned. She said […]
Nov 7 2018 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — Scott Moe had been the premier of Saskatchewan for all of a week when he ran into Jason Kenney at the Manning Networking Conference in February of this year, at a downtown Ottawa convention centre. The Manning conferences have lost some of their cachet as annual gatherings of the Canadian conservative clan. Turns out it […]
Oct 23 2018 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — It was the kind of day where everyone was so nervous that if you stood too close to a politician, they’d start to recite talking points. I said hello to a Liberal staffer and he started comparing the 10 years since Stéphane Dion lost the 2008 election to the 12 years we are all, as […]
Oct 6 2018 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — I’m as surprised as you are that Brian Pallister just became the most interesting man in Canadian federalism. The Progressive Conservative premier of Manitoba, impossibly tall and lanky, likes to talk like a straight shooter. But his politics are mostly cautious and moderate. In a national political landscape increasingly populated by firebrands—Doug Ford, Maxime Bernier, […]
Sep 25 2018 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — Oh good, a confidence crisis. The good people of New Brunswick having voted in Monday night’s election, the results are entertainingly not decisive. Even if you didn’t know which parties had received which seat totals, the numbers 22-21-3-3 would gladden the hearts of parliamentary geeks everywhere. And some of what happens next will depend on […]
Sep 11 2018 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — I’m with Emmett Macfarlane, basically: Justice Edward Belobaba’s ruling invalidating Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s law to reduce the number of Toronto city councillors from 47 to 25 is based on shaky constitutional reasoning at best. But the Ontario Conservatives saying “So of course the notwithstanding clause is the logical recourse” are being reckless.
Sep 6 2018 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — Whoever does advance work for the Coalition Avenir Québec campaign should get a raise. On a recent Monday morning in the pretty ski town of Bromont, the party’s leader, François Legault, arrived for a news conference to describe some of his policies for helping Quebec’s families. Legault was flanked by two local female candidates. Behind […]
Aug 23 2018 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — At least now we’re all reminded why he’s so fond of Twitter. “If we want conservative principles to win the bottle of ideas, we have to defend them openly,” Maxime Bernier told a room full of reporters, “with passion and conviction.” I checked his prepared text, which had been handed to us minutes earlier. “Battle […]
Aug 22 2018 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — It’s hard to shake the ominous feeling that Justin Trudeau’s shouted Sunday-night exchange with a woman at a corn roast in Sabrevois, Que., was the best foretaste we’ve had so far of the 2019 federal election. The exchange itself was impressively unedifying, and will be familiar to by now to anyone with a Twitter account. […]
Aug 7 2018 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — “What’s Hamish Marshall’s title again?” I asked a Conservative MP over after-work beverages in Ottawa in late July. “National campaign manager.” “And when does he start campaigning?” “He’s campaigning now. A bunch of micro-campaigns—messages to target audiences on several issues to test phrasing and collect email signatures.” On the Conservative party’s website, there’s a link […]
Jul 31 2018 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — I was just noticing all the civilized touches in the Ontario legislature when it stopped being civilized. There’s a countdown clock on each wall so members can see at a glance how much time remains in a given part of the day—in this instance, question period. Question period itself is the first item of business […]
Jul 31 2018 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — I’ve lived in Ontario for 46 of my 52 years but every time I make a conscious decision to cover its provincial politics it seems as exotic as any assignment anywhere. The red sandstone legislature building at the top of Queen’s Park in Toronto is a repository of a people’s neuroses, a Fort Knox of […]
Jul 28 2018 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — A few quick thoughts about Doug Ford’s plan to cut the number of Toronto city councillors from 47 to 25 and cancel regional chair elections in a bunch of places that all sound like that picture in your head of the typical Ontario community: 1. He didn’t run on any of this, but if he […]