Jul 15 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — It’s one thing to try to depose a leader — Canada’s political parties have a rich tradition in such drama. But to oust a leader from a party altogether? The Green Party of Canada is in all-new territory here, according to the latest report from the Star’s Alex Ballingall on the slow-motion coup unfolding within […]
Jul 12 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Hope is not a strategy, but it’s easier to fight an election with optimism than without it. This is good news for Jagmeet Singh, according to the newest polling from Abacus Data, which shows the NDP leader surfing a wave of happy, optimistic sentiment in Canada.
Jul 11 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — By any measure, this has been a momentous week for Indigenous women in Canada. The country is about to have its first Indigenous governor general: Mary Simon. The Assembly of First Nations will be led for the first time in its history by a woman chief: RoseAnne Archibald. And Jody Wilson-Raybould, a woman who could […]
Jul 7 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — The Green Party of Canada is not ready for an election. No matter what is going on behind the scenes — reports of which keep leaking out to the media — the stark, obvious fact is that the Greens are not in good shape for a federal election that could occur within a month or […]
Jul 6 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Mary Simon is now officially the governor-general-in-waiting for Canada, until a swearing-in ceremony expected to take place soon. Unofficially, this accomplished Inuk leader and former diplomat has held that title for 11 years. Sometimes a government appointment makes so much sense, one wonders why it hasn’t happened already? In Simon’s case, it actually almost did […]
Jun 28 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Catherine McKenna carefully chose the spot where she wanted to say goodbye to her political career. The woman who made her name as Justin Trudeau’s environment minister spoke in front of a pedestrian bridge built across the Rideau Canal during her tenure as MP for Ottawa Centre — an accomplishment of some local-riding pride, she […]
Jun 22 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Our Windsor — Michael Chong, a Conservative MP who has thought a lot about how the House of Commons works, threw some existential questions into the seat of federal democracy this week. “Why do Canadians send 338 of their fellow citizens to this chamber if their decisions are going to be ignored?” Chong asked his fellow legislators.
Jun 19 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Sat., June 19, 2021timer4 min. read A lot of things have felt new to Omar Alghabra since he was promoted to Justin Trudeau’s cabinet as transport minister this year. One thing, regrettably, has not: the Islamophobia that keeps being used as a political battering ram against him. Even as the country and Parliament were reeling […]
Jun 17 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Justin Trudeau is not the Green party leader’s biggest problem, though Annamie Paul is increasingly portraying him that way. Over two remarkable days this week, Paul has been putting Trudeau and the Liberals on the hook for the strife that’s imploding within her party. If nothing else, this is a definite break from the past, […]
Jun 15 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — When exactly did Canada become a Constitution-bashing country? For nearly 30 years, the political class has adhered to an unwritten ban on talking about the Constitution. But that passive aggression seems to have given way recently to outright kicks at the constitutional can. Three provinces — Ontario, Quebec and Alberta — have taken some runs […]
Jun 13 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — The Lincoln Big Stop restaurant, just outside New Brunswick’s capital city of Fredericton, is not the type of place anyone would ordinarily associate with political intrigue. But last Saturday, sharp-eyed breakfast patrons might have been treated to a sneak preview of some major political drama unfolding on the national scene. At a table in the […]
Jun 8 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Justin Trudeau has made his clearest statement yet on what he will and will not do to stand up against Islamophobia in Canada. The prime minister says he will call out anti-Muslim crime, using the strongest words possible — “terrorism” — to condemn the killing of a family in London, Ont. Trudeau will not, however, […]
Jun 6 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Welland Tribune — Forget all the talk about politics being “cool,” Justin Trudeau advises. There’s nothing cool about it at all. Trudeau was talking on Friday about how to attract young people to politics, but the observation opened a larger, revealing window into his own education as prime minister over the past six years. Being cool was all […]
Jun 2 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — It has been a very tough week in Canada for the question of how people are remembered after their deaths. This is a country, we are learning again, where the deaths of hundreds of Indigenous children were forgotten while former prime ministers, such as John A. Macdonald, are perhaps remembered too much. The only way […]
May 31 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Canada held a memorial day on Monday, not in solidarity with Americans, but with 215 children who died without a memorial. Three days after the horrifying discovery of children’s remains outside a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., the country feels on the verge of an important moment — one that could punch through complacency […]