Articles by Susan Delacourt

Feb 3 2023 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Two prominent, respectable people landed in the crosshairs of this often toxic Parliament on Wednesday, and they didn’t stand a chance, Susan Delacourt writes. Contempt of Parliament is a serious thing. Contempt by Parliament is what emerged this week as federal politicians decided that thorny controversies over Islamophobia and government contracting were best tackled by […]

Jan 31 2023 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Trouble for Justin Trudeau’s government has often landed in the early weeks of a new year — Donald Trump, an unfortunate trip to India, a fateful cabinet shuffle, ministerial resignations and of course, three years ago, a global pandemic. The first few weeks of 2023 finds the Trudeau government not in a crisis, but a […]

Jan 26 2023 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Ottawa doesn’t need to brace this weekend for a replay of the convoy protest, says the new police chief, because “lots has changed since last year.” For one thing, the chief has changed. Eric Stubbs, who took over late in 2022, told CBC’s Ottawa Morning on Wednesday that while he hasn’t talked to the man […]

Jan 23 2023 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — U.S. President Joe Biden will be getting out to a “shop floor” to meet Canadian workers when he pays a call on this country in March, says Justin Trudeau. While part of the official visit will be taking place in Ottawa, Trudeau says he’s reasonably sure that Biden will also want to mix and mingle […]

Jan 21 2023 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Justin Trudeau is very aware of just how much he’s become a lightning rod for anger in Canada. It’s kind of hard to miss. As we sat together in a meeting room at the University of Windsor this week, a gaggle of protesters with the now-familiar “F— Trudeau” flags were gathered outside, cheered on by […]

Jan 19 2023 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Justin Trudeau has decided — at least for now — to see Ontario’s moves toward for-profit medical care as “innovation” by Doug Ford’s government to resolve the health-care crisis gripping the country. Trudeau has been conspicuously quiet about the Ford government’s announcement to allow more medical procedures to be done by for-profit health-care providers. Too […]

Jan 10 2023 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — More than halfway through his first term in office, U.S. President Joe Biden has finally announced he will visit Canada in March. The long delay in paying a call to his northern neighbour— longer than any U.S. president since the 1970s — wasn’t exactly being viewed as a snub. But it did speak to how […]

Jan 2 2023 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Most of the world’s eyes were focused on Ukraine last February when the convoy protests were disrupting life in Canada. But Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says she was fielding questions from her international counterparts about what the heck was going on in this country.

Dec 31 2022 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — “Permacrisis” is the word of 2022, according to the Collins Dictionary. It also perfectly captures the state of politics in Canada — not just these past 12 months, but over almost the entire tenure of Justin Trudeau’s government as it blows past seven years in power. The year definitely kicked off in crisis mode here […]

Dec 26 2022 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — For Mélanie Joly, the year 2022 felt more like 10 years. Joly was still getting used to her new job as Canada’s foreign affairs minister early in the year when Russia started its illegal war with Ukraine. That crisis, on top of everything else on the global agenda, has taken her to 28 countries in […]

Dec 22 2022 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Once a week for the past three years, Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan has set aside an hour for a regular phone call with three trusted friends and advisers. On Dec. 12, the call didn’t happen, which was odd. O’Regan thought something was amiss with the schedule or the connection. It wasn’t until an hour or […]

Dec 15 2022 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Two large figures in the New Democratic Party — the current leader and the former one — have raised the spectre of a looming health-care election in 2023. It’s Christmas, not Halloween. Does either NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh or ex-leader Thomas Mulcair really want to scare Canadians as they head toward the holidays and a […]

Dec 12 2022 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Doug Ford has clearly had a change of heart in 2022 about the value of federal-provincial meetings. Last February, the Ontario premier expressed the view that the so-called “Freedom Convoy” protest paralyzing Canada’s capital and major border points would not be resolved by “a bunch of people sitting around a table talking.”

Nov 26 2022 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Justin Trudeau’s crises have been anything but ordinary in his seven years as prime minister. It was Donald Trump in his first term, a global pandemic in his second term and then, as if that wasn’t enough, a massive “Freedom Convoy” protest to kick off his third mandate. Trudeau is, in effect, the prime minister […]

Nov 21 2022 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — No one in Justin Trudeau’s government ever did agree to negotiate with the convoy protesters who blockaded Ottawa and key border points across Canada last winter. So this is a big week at the public hearings into the convoy — the final, most political week, when the lawyers for the convoy protesters get to put […]