Jan 28 2020 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Benjamin Perrin once worked at the highest ranks in Stephen Harper’s government and believed, like many Conservatives, that it was simply wrong to set up safe-injection sites for drug users. Perrin, now a law professor in Vancouver and a recovering politico, has had a profound change of heart on this most polarizing political issue and […]
Jan 25 2020 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Who would have thought that Harry and Meghan would prove to be inspirational to the Conservative leadership race in Canada? On the very heels of the royal couple’s exit, three prominent Conservatives have also chosen the path less public, standing down from a chance to lead the party, with all the fame, duty and title […]
Jan 22 2020 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Canada’s top public servant has some words of advice to the rookie politicians first elected last fall, which they could print out and frame in their sparkling new Parliament Hill offices. “You are more than a mechanism to make Ottawa work,” Privy Council Clerk Ian Shugart warned at an orientation session for new MPs on […]
Jan 17 2020 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Parliament has been sitting dark while Canada has been reeling from the air-crash tragedy in Iran. Has anyone missed it? In the initial days after Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot out of the sky by an Iranian missile on Jan. 8, killing more than 80 Canadian citizens and permanent residents, some argued that […]
Jan 16 2020 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — John Crosbie would have no doubt enjoyed how his funeral this week became a high-profile backdrop to the emerging Conservative leadership contest. Many of the main players were on hand in St. John’s on Thursday to pay tribute to Crosbie: the now-declared candidate Peter MacKay made sure to be there, as well as probable contenders […]
Jan 12 2020 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — One does wonder how Donald Trump would be reacting if dozens of Americans were accidentally shot out of the sky this week in Iran. Actually, no one needs to wonder. Less than a week ago, Trump was warning Iran that it would pay dearly if any missiles killed Americans as part of the escalating tension […]
Jan 10 2020 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Justin Trudeau was asked several times on Thursday whether Donald Trump bore some blame for the shooting down of the Ukrainian plane carrying 138 people destined for Canada this week. It’s not going to be the last time that question is going to be raised in the days and weeks ahead. It may be one […]
Jan 7 2020 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Reinvention or re-creation? With would-be leaders lining up to plunge into the Conservative leadership race, that is the basic, existential question facing the candidates — and the party as a whole. There’s been lots of talk about how the Conservatives need a leader who will recreate the old governing coalitions of Brian Mulroney or Stephen […]
Dec 28 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — It is fitting, perhaps to the point of a soon-to-be overused cliché, that Canadian politics enters 2020 in a quest for vision — not perfect vision, but something that pulls the country together. In the wake of a year that drove huge political wedges into the nation, the challenge for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is […]
Dec 23 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Justin Trudeau did not do any year-end interviews with Canadian newspapers as 2019 was drawing to a close, opting instead to concentrate mostly on TV and radio. One of those radio interviews, though, was a little different from the rest — far more personal than it was political.
Dec 22 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Selfies: friend or foe of democracy? Though Prime Minister Justin Trudeau likely has much in common with the candidates vying to lead the U.S. Democratic Party, a divergence of thought emerged this week on the subject of selfies: those ubiquitous self-taken photos that clutter social-media feeds.
Dec 12 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Andrew Scheer announced his departure as Conservative leader on the eve of a significant political anniversary in Canada. Forty years ago, on Dec. 13, 1979, the Conservative minority government of Joe Clark fell, setting in motion a chain of events that would transform the two big political parties in Canada for decades to come. Scheer’s […]
Dec 11 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Politics really is a two-faced business. Just days after Donald Trump was calling Justin Trudeau “two-faced” for laughing behind his back at last week’s NATO summit, the two leaders were chatting on the phone and pulling together a renewed free-trade deal between their countries and Mexico.
Dec 5 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — The education of Justin Trudeau as prime minister is a tale that can now be told in two speeches from the throne — one in 2015, one in 2019. Other prime ministers have used the pomp and ceremony of throne speeches more frequently in their mandates for resets of their governments, halfway through their terms […]
Dec 4 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Welland Tribune — Did you hear the one about the world leader behaving badly at the NATO summit? In what truly is a sign of just how much Donald Trump has disrupted the rules of political diplomacy in three tumultuous years in office, the punchline to that joke is not Donald Trump. Instead, the bad diplomatic behaviour award […]