Apr 21 2023 — Shannon Proudfoot — Globe and Mail — In its youth, the Trudeau government was very good at branding and grand mission statements. It was a skill that was slightly hypnotizing for its novelty at the time. If the Harper government’s instinct was to turn the hose on any kids it found playing on its lawn, then the Trudeau government promised to fling […]
Apr 9 2023 — Shannon Proudfoot — Globe and Mail — Consulting companies had profound influence on the National Gallery of Canada’s reimagining over the past few years, with senior management relying on hired guns to help craft the new identity of the country’s premier visual arts institution, documents released through access-to-information requests reveal. The documents paint a picture of the extent to which two consulting […]
Mar 25 2023 — Shannon Proudfoot — Globe and Mail — The canned political communication that emerges from Canadian-American bilateral visits like the brief and much-anticipated sojourn U.S. President Joe Biden made to Ottawa this week tends to emphasize the historic and monumental. There’s the 8,891-kilometre (or, if you prefer, 5,525-mile) border that dissolves in the warm glow of family and friendship ties, trade, manufacturing and […]
Mar 23 2023 — Shannon Proudfoot — Globe and Mail — By the time prime minister Stephen Harper left office in 2015, his tendency toward dour control freakery had generated a low hum of fatigue across the land. It could be dressed up in intellectual political garb, but the underlying sentiment was pretty much, “Dude, could you chill a bit?” Increasingly over the last few years, […]
Mar 4 2023 — Shannon Proudfoot — Globe and Mail — In the Mr. Men classic children’s books by Roger Hargreaves, the characters are all defined by a single attribute. Mr. Tickle has long, undulating – frankly, disturbing – arms for administering his greeting of choice. Little Miss Giggles conducts herself like a stoned hyena. Mr. Greedy is shaped like an eggplant, though he recovers from […]
Jan 26 2023 — Shannon Proudfoot — Globe and Mail — In the winter of 2022, Ottawa’s downtown core was a noisy scene of angry protest. Now it is quiet – but the silence speaks volumes about the issues left unresolved. In Ottawa, Wellington Street has always been an odd duck. It’s the home address of Parliament, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Supreme Court of […]
Dec 9 2022 — Shannon Proudfoot — Globe and Mail — A few days after the dismissal of four senior staff members at the National Gallery of Canada in mid-November, employees trudged into an all-hands virtual meeting. Angela Cassie, the gallery’s interim director and chief executive, spoke about a mandate for change, building collaboration and fostering a sense of belonging. She only glancingly acknowledged the terminations, […]
Nov 25 2022 — Shannon Proudfoot — Globe and Mail — In true headliner fashion, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is up last at the inquiry examining his government’s use of the Emergencies Act to quell the protests that roiled the country last winter. By this point, the weeks of testimony from cabinet ministers, police and government officials, bureaucrats, municipal leaders, furious citizens and aggrieved convoy leaders […]
Nov 16 2022 — Shannon Proudfoot — Globe and Mail — The Public Order Emergency Commission is unfolding in a room and building as aggressively bureaucratic as you can find in downtown Ottawa, where you have to grade on a curve for these things. But in spite of their bland setting and bloodless name, the hearings have been the site of intense moments of human emotion […]
Nov 7 2022 — Shannon Proudfoot — Globe and Mail — The only passport office in Ottawa lives in a dingy strip mall that seems ready to collapse from low self-esteem. A sign posted on the exterior doors commands, ominously, “FORM ONE LINE HERE. DOOR UNLOCKS AUTOMATICALLY AT 0700.” The mall now seems to exist only for the unfortunate souls who come to wait. There’s a […]
Nov 4 2022 — Shannon Proudfoot — Globe and Mail — If the convoy protesters built a medieval-style cathedral to their movement, Tamara Lich would surely get her own prominent stained-glass window, as their patron saint. It would depict a snow-swept downtown Ottawa street, with Ms. Lich, the self-described “mother hen,” surrounded by admirers offering tearful hugs and thanks for restoring their hope in a country […]
Nov 2 2022 — Shannon Proudfoot — Globe and Mail — Two very different Chris Barbers made appearances before the Public Order Emergency Commission on Tuesday, and the clanging contrast between them animated the first day of testimony from convoy leaders. One version of Mr. Barber was possessed of an almost childlike innocence. He knew virtually nothing about his fellow protesters or their darker dealings because […]
Sep 30 2022 — Shannon Proudfoot — Globe and Mail — Nearly everyone who speaks about Bill Blaikie talks, somehow, about bigness. There was the towering intellectual and moral reputation he acquired over three decades representing Winnipeg for the NDP in the House of Commons, where even those who ferociously disagreed with him always listened when he spoke. He exerted a gravitational pull, so that people […]
Jun 7 2022 — Shannon Proudfoot — Maclean's — Sexual misconduct in the military. A war in Ukraine. Canada’s global reputation at stake. It’s a good thing Anand knows how to solve problems. In press conferences, Anita Anand presents like the law professor she was for more than two decades: crisp, careful, occasionally prone to using obscure words that her staff are not above […]
Mar 16 2022 — Shannon Proudfoot — Maclean's — In a rare in-depth interview the Conservative leadership frontrunner talks to Shannon Proudfoot about his politics, parenting, and making Canada ‘the freest place in the world.’ In early February, Shannon Proudfoot interviewed Pierre Poilievre for our April cover story on the Conservative leadership candidate. It was a wide-ranging discussion with a politician who typically doesn’t […]