Feb 24 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — It took Justin Trudeau about one minute to tell Joe Biden at their first summit meeting that the new president was a big improvement over Donald Trump. “There’s a lot to rebuild,” Trudeau said, thanking Biden for stepping up on climate change. “U.S. leadership has been sorely missed over the past years.” Moreover, Trudeau said, […]
Feb 22 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — On a sunny spring morning in 2004, the great Star columnist Jim Travers and I walked up to Rideau Hall in reply to a mysterious invitation. All we knew was that we were taking part in a breakfast of some type. We assumed it revolved around an award or a ceremony. When we were shown […]
Feb 21 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Vaccines are one miracle of science in this pandemic. But another scientific experiment has also produced surprisingly speedy and widespread results over the past year. It happened in the realm of behaviour science — and ordinary citizens were the laboratory subjects. One year ago, few people would have believed that science would come up with […]
Feb 19 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Virtual summits for world leaders can’t be as fun as the real thing. No cocktail receptions, no awkward family photos or handshakes, no chance to share a few laughs on the sidelines about the U.S. president. That was the other thing missing when leaders of the G7 nations met virtually on Friday — no Donald […]
Feb 14 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Remember when Canadian politics was obsessed with the middle class? No one could define it, but nobody could stop talking about it either. These days, politicians are more likely to be talking about what’s happening in the middle of the pandemic than arguing over who is part of the middle class. But the middle remains […]
Feb 10 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Anita Anand, the minister who holds a lot of Canada’s vaccine future in her hands, would prefer not to be undersold — or underestimated. In the rising clamour over the off-and-on COVID-19 vaccine supply over the past few weeks, one question in particular got under Anand’s skin — and it revolved around whether she, as […]
Feb 5 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Canada’s stockpile of vaccines isn’t large enough. Nor are Canadians’ reserves of patience, as it turns out. This is the week when the flagging supply of COVID vaccines met the flagging, pandemic-weary spirit of the Canadian public — and Justin Trudeau’s support has joined the downward spiral. A new Abacus Data poll confirms that Trudeau […]
Feb 3 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — In a year that tested some of our fundamental freedoms, Canada has managed to move up in the global democracy rankings — now in the top five democratic nations according to The Economist’s annual “democracy index.” Canada is now number five on the list — a jump from the seventh-place post it occupied last year, […]
Jan 31 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — After four years of dealing with Donald Trump, Justin Trudeau says that talking to President Joe Biden in the White House feels like “a dam breaking.” In a wide-ranging interview with the Star this week, Trudeau talked at length about how Canada-U.S. relations will be shifting in important ways with Biden now at the helm. […]
Jan 30 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Cambridge Times — Justin Trudeau says he came out of the bruising 2019 election wondering what his government could do to be more connected to Canadians. The answer arrived in an unwelcome form a few months later — a global pandemic. “You know, we are suddenly in a position where the federal government has really, really mattered in […]
Jan 28 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Julie Payette’s resignation from the governor general’s post is evidence that no one is too powerful to fail as a workplace boss, says Justin Trudeau. In an interview on Thursday with the Star, the prime minister said that the alarms raised in the media this summer set in motion the events that led to Payette’s […]
Jan 25 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — It appears to be sweeps week in Canadian politics — when troublesome political players get swept right out of the action. Justin Trudeau’s Liberals tossed an MP out of caucus on Monday amid controversy over conspiracy theories, just a few hours after Sen. Lynn Beyak decided to shut down her racism-infused political career, effective immediately. […]
Jan 21 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — For the third time in her life, Julie Payette has been brought spectacularly down to earth. Payette’s descent from the post of governor-general, she will no doubt agree, was bumpier and longer-lasting than any experienced in the former astronaut’s two space missions. Her lengthy resignation statement did not exactly confirm the reports that led to […]
Jan 20 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Dan Levy, the Canadian creator of the hit sitcom “Schitt’s Creek,” put his finger on it when he watched the presidential inauguration ceremony in the U.S. on Wednesday. “The decency of it all,” Levy marvelled on Twitter, which itself is a much more decent place now that Donald Trump has been banished from the platform. […]
Jan 19 2021 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — At least one party leader in Canada is taking some delight in Derek Sloan’s exploding political career in the Conservative party — and no, we’re not talking about Justin Trudeau. Maxime Bernier, head of the People’s Party of Canada, is positively upbeat about yet another former Conservative leadership candidate on the outs with the party […]