Oct 17 2021 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — Each of the three national political parties is a hollow shell at the local level in many parts of Canada. Each party has ridings where the flag is kept flying by a handful of — usually — aging activists. This exposes them to takeover by determined outside groups. No one is more vulnerable to this […]
Oct 3 2021 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — When even thoughtful American conservative commentators like George Will muse about the need for a new response from his tribe to the risks to democracy of widening wealth inequality; when the wealth of billionaires has increased obscenely from the profits generated by homebound customers in a pandemic; and when even Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole demands […]
Sep 26 2021 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — It was not surprising that Canadians were leery of lining up in a public place with dozens of others to vote in our pandemic election. But Elections Canada made it far worse than it should have been. As of Friday, we have six ridings with no results, and dozens of others with partial, unofficial results. […]
Sep 19 2021 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — Justin Trudeau polished up the oldest of Liberal campaign tactics, the strategic fear machine. How early in the campaign they try to claim their sole ownership of progressive credentials — and how hard they batter voters with the “there is no alternative” message — is usually a sign of their own fears. That Trudeau blazed […]
Sep 15 2021 — Robin V. Sears — Policy Magazine — For two decades, it has been a cliché that the voters of suburban Toronto have a unique hold on who will form government for the rest of Canadians. It’s true that the GTA voters have been fickle, flipping between Liberals and Tories several times. But Quebec has been more punishing to each of the major […]
Sep 12 2021 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — The consensus about the English debate appears to be that Justin Trudeau’s snarling performance lost it for him, that Erin O’Toole and Jagmeet Singh landed a few effective blows, that Annamie Paul was the winner but it doesn’t matter, and that Yves-François Blanchet won the gold medal for angry petulance. But the real losers were […]
Sep 5 2021 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — Bozo candidate season has started now that nominations are closed. This year we have the craven as well as the loony. One repeat offender, Conservative candidate Cheryl Gallant, is back. This year she launched a hilariously wacko set of YouTube videos insinuating that the Liberals plan a “climate lockdown.” (What does that even mean? Perhaps […]
Aug 29 2021 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — Dozens of clichés predict success or failure in politics with widely varying degrees of accuracy. One of the oldest is that hope always defeats fear. The Clintons were the most determined advocates of this thesis in recent American politics. It worked for Bill, but not for Hillary; Obama reframed the call by adding that change […]
Aug 22 2021 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — On Dec. 13, 1979, after little more than a year as an MP, Bob Rae put forward a confidence motion that helped defeat Joe Clark’s Progressive Conservative government. On Christmas Eve, in the opening weeks of the 1980 election, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Midcampaign, on Oct. 12, 2008, CBC journalist Mellissa Fung was kidnapped […]
Aug 15 2021 — Robin V. Sears — Policy Magazine — Unnecessary, uncalled-for federal election campaigns can be surprisingly risky for incumbents. One called in the middle of a public health crisis has never been tried before, at least at the federal level. It is not clear it will go down as strategic genius. Even in non-pandemic times, a frenzy of burger flipping and boisterous mainstreeting […]
Aug 6 2021 — Robin V. Sears — Policy Magazine — As in Berlin in 1936, Shanghai in 1949 and other datelines suddenly facing subjugation by brutal regimes, the existential question for the politically vulnerable in today’s transformed Hong Kong is: “Should I stay or should I go?” A related question for those who hold positions of influence in Asia’s most cosmopolitan city is: “Should I […]
Jul 15 2021 — Robin V. Sears — Policy Magazine — “I want to know who killed my grandmother’s children! I want to know who led the schools where these atrocities took place.” These are among the so-far unanswered questions posed by second and third generation survivors of Canada’s brutal, racist residential school system. As the number of the victims’ unmarked graves now numbers in the […]
Jun 27 2021 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — During the Second World War, mid-level British bureaucrat named William Beveridge was instructed to do a study of a “tidying up” of the shambolic social welfare system in the U.K. Beveridge, ambitious and reportedly difficult, quickly built the role into a one-man royal commission — completely without permission.
Jun 20 2021 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — Premier Ford’s use of the constitutional hammer to squash his opponents’ ability to spend money to attack him is offensive. The imposition of limits on what “third parties” — anyone who is not a candidate or a party — can spend during and before an election were the creation of politicians of all parties to […]
Jun 13 2021 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — Sun., June 13, 2021timer3 min. read What a difference a year makes. It seems unlikely that the massive nationwide reaction to the murder of a Muslim family in London, Ont. a week ago tonight would have been as deep and all-embracing before the death of George Floyd. His death, and the global revulsion to it, […]