Nov 15 2018 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Canadians are worried about a lot of things these days, according to a new survey, but they’re not the things dominating the current political debate. The results of this new Public Square Research poll, made available exclusively to the Star, are a wake-up call to those plotting next year’s federal election campaign. There appears to […]
Nov 12 2018 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — The year is not quite over, but 2018 may well come to be known as the year of buyers’ remorse when it comes to politicians and social media. Justin Trudeau came to power three years ago as arguably the most digitally savvy prime minister Canada has ever seen.
Nov 7 2018 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Political trouble often arrives in threes. It’s rare, though, for one politician to get in three kinds of trouble all at the same time. Tony Clement, the now-former Conservative, the long-time MP from Parry Sound-Muskoka, has somehow pulled it off. With the revelation this week of Clement’s confessed, sexting adventures with a would-be extortionist, this […]
Nov 6 2018 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — While Americans were rendering their verdict on Donald Trump’s politics on Tuesday, Justin Trudeau was on CNN, talking about the “elephant and moose” relationship between Canada and the United States. Canada is still “massively outweighed” in that metaphor, Trudeau told CNN interviewer Poppy Harlow, but “will stand securely in our own strength and our own […]
Nov 2 2018 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Over the past few days, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has called for the defeat of the prime minister, while members of Trudeau’s cabinet have called out the Ontario government for peddling false facts and the “politics of cruelty.” Trudeau and Ford must really be looking forward to the first ministers’ conference due to be held […]
Oct 31 2018 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — The prospect of Statistics Canada collecting Canadians’ personal financial data is the latest cause of burning outrage in the daily political drama in Ottawa — with some justification, it should be said. Privacy is a hot-button issue in a digital age. But another large data collection exercise, which has been taking place for years in […]
Oct 24 2018 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — It’s turning into a season of setbacks in the great Canadian fight against income inequality. Just kidding. There actually is no great Canadian fight against income inequality, as recent developments are illustrating. Premier Doug Ford didn’t come to office with any promises to narrow the gap between rich and poor in Ontario, and that’s probably […]
Oct 23 2018 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Justin Trudeau and Andrew Scheer seem to be agreed on one prediction for the next year in Canadian politics — things are going to get nasty. The prime minister offered that forecast on Toronto radio on Tuesday, cast in the form of battle-hardened wisdom he’d acquired over his past three years in office.
Oct 18 2018 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — There is something undeniably satisfying about blocking a troublesome person on Twitter. One click, and the noise is over. But that simple act, if carried out by a government official, could end up being unconstitutional in Canada if a newly launched court challenge is successful against Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson.
Oct 16 2018 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Kelly Coulter, the woman who helped change Justin Trudeau’s mind about cannabis legalization, says she is expecting to be “a little bit emotional” on Wednesday. Coulter, who is in the midst of launching her own marijuana farm in Nelson, B.C., will be thousands of kilometres away from Parliament Hill when cannabis becomes legal in Canada.
Oct 10 2018 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — In his new book, Stephen Harper warns that standing up for the environment makes for bad politics, especially in a populist age when parties are looking for the votes of “ordinary” people. “Political parties, including mine, have won elections just by opposing a carbon tax,” the former prime minister writes in the newly released “Right […]
Oct 5 2018 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — It was the election of Doug Ford’s government last June that helped propel Dominic LeBlanc into a new job in the federal cabinet this summer as Intergovernmental Affairs Minister. But several months after this major personnel shakeup in the Queen’s Park-Ottawa relationship, Justin Trudeau’s new point man with the provinces has yet to meet Ford […]
Oct 5 2018 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — All across Canada, people have been bracing themselves for this weekend’s awkward Thanksgiving dinner conversations. Holidays aren’t politics-free zones in Canada — some election victories in recent history may have hinged on them. The Christmas-New Year’s break in the 2005-06 is believed to have been a turning point in favour of Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, while […]
Oct 4 2018 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc, hit with a leukemia diagnosis late last year, has now received the two words that all cancer patients want to hear: “complete remission.” It took six treatments of chemo-immunotherapy — administered intravenously over two days every month at a Moncton hospital, but LeBlanc recently got the good news that the […]
Oct 3 2018 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Justin Trudeau has lost quite a few Liberal friends around the first ministers’ table since he was elected in 2015. With the ouster of Philippe Couillard’s Liberal government in voting across Quebec on Monday night, Canada’s three most populous provinces have sent Liberals packing in a little over a year: Ontario, British Columbia and now […]