Stephen Maher

While National Newswatch does not keep an archive of external articles for longer than 6 months, we do keep all articles written by contributors who post directly to our site. Here you will find all of the contributed and linked external articles from Stephen Maher.

Stephen Maher

The clock is ticking on Trudeau

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s plane touched down in Honolulu on his way back from a summit in Laos last Friday, reporters on the plane learned that a caucus revolt was underway in Canada.While they were in the air, the Toronto Star had reported that dozens of backbench Liberal MPs were trying to figure out how to make the prime minister step down to make way for a new leader. It is no wonder why. Trudeau has been in power since 2015 but appears determined to lead his party into another election, despite polls that show a huge Conservative advantage.

Stephen Maher, Andrew Sharpe

Adjusting the Sails - 2024 Atlantic Canada Momentum Index

This year’s Atlantic Canada Momentum Index offers evidence of a region at a critical juncture. The strong momentum outlined in last year’s index1 has slowed as the region struggles to adapt to the challenges that come with boom times and unprecedented population growth. Momentum remains positive, but it is more tentative now. Of the 25 indicators chosen for this study, 15 exhibit momentum (60 percent), down from the year before, when 16 of 20 indicators (80 percent) showed momentum.

Stephen Maher

I found out what really happened between Pierre Poilievre and CTV. The real story was even more depressing than the lie

The facts in the brief and dispiriting feud between CTV and the Conservative Party of Canada over a mangled clip of Pierre Poilievre will eventually be litigated, and I would not like to write anything here that prevents diligent workers from winning their rightful severance, but it is, I think, necessary to lay out some facts so that Canadians will not get the wrong idea about an important matter.

Stephen Maher

CTV wasn’t out to get Pierre Poilievre. The truth is more alarming

Somehow during the production of a two-minute news item for CTV National News last Sunday, the weekend crew mangled a quote from Pierre Poilievre.The story was about the Liberal government’s dental care program, which could have been jeopardized if the Conservatives had succeeded in bringing down the government with a non-confidence motion.I was told by two sources, independently of one another, th

Stephen Maher

Canadian parties choose to see, hear no foreign mischief

When about 200 foreign students arrived by bus at the Liberal nomination meeting in the leafy suburban Toronto community of Don Valley North in 2019, Han Dong thought nothing of it.“I didn’t pay attention to busing international students because … I didn’t understand it as an irregularity,” he testified later.Dong, who was born in Shanghai but has lived in Canada since he was 13, was seeking the Liberal nomination at the time, and he wanted the support of Chinese students because that was allowed under party rules – and his opponents could be expected to do the same. The prize was worth the trouble: Whoever won the nomination was almost certain to represent the riding in the House of Commons.Dong later testified that he was unaware that the Chinese consulate threatened the students and arranged the buses, as is now alleged, meaning Beijing got their chosen candidate into the House of Commons, apparently without the candidate knowing.

Stephen Maher

Conservative leader fights with broadcaster

While Trudeau was enjoying a New York broadcast, his opponent, Pierre Poilievre, was getting deeper into a fight with a Canadian broadcaster.Poilievre’s Conservative Party announced Tuesday that it will no longer give interviews to reporters at CTV, the country’s top-rated private news channel. The Conservatives are furious about a Sunday report in which the network put together several clips of Poilievre speaking to present a misleading quote. The network apologized, but the apology did not go far enough for the Conservatives, since it presented it as an error, not an effort to deceive the public.

Stephen Maher

Justin Trudeau is leading the Liberals toward generational collapse. Here’s why he still hasn’t walked away

Back in 2012, when Justin Trudeau was training for a charity boxing match that few people thought he was going to win, he ran into his stepfather, Fred Kemper, who asked Trudeau if he should bet on him.‘You sure about this?’ Kemper asked.‘Yeah,’ Trudeau said. ‘I got this.’

Stephen Maher

It’s not just Trudeau: The Liberals’ days as the natural governing party are done

Canada is likely on track for a significant milestone. If there were a federal election tomorrow, and Canadians vote as they say they would, there would be more elected NDP politicians at both the federal and provincial levels than Liberals. According to the latest projection from poll aggregator 338Canada.com, the Conservatives would win 212 seats in a federal election, up from the 119 they won in 2021. The Liberals would have 77 MPs, down from 160 in 2021, and the NDP would have 16 seats, down from 25. In the short term, the NDP, tarnished by a governing deal with the unpopular Liberals, would look

Stephen Maher

By slamming experts, Pierre Poilievre and his staff are degrading political debate

On Tuesday, when Doris Grinspun, the CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, told CBC that Ontario’s decision to close 10 supervised drug consumption sites is “a death sentence for people that use substances,” the federal Conservatives were quick to attack her. Sebastian Skamski, a spokesman for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, slammed her on X: “CBC’s so called ‘expert’ (with 23 letters behind her name) deems Trudeau’s crime ridden drug dens ‘essential’ & equates them to cancer treatment centres. These are the WACKO ‘experts’ Trudeau uses to defend his drug disaster. These are the WACKO ‘expert’ voices media peddles.”

Stephen Maher

Harris heads into convention on a high note

Speaking of good news for Kamala Harris, a Cook Political Report swing state poll released Wednesday shows her leading Donald Trump in five of the seven swing states that could decide the election.Cook, a highly rated pollster, finds Harris up in Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, tied in Georgia, and slightly behind in Nevada. If that holds through Election Day, she will likely win.

Stephen Maher

Justin Trudeau’s on the back foot, the opposition and media are no better. No wonder ruthless authoritarians are treating Canadians like a bunch of dim-witted lumberjacks

On Feb. 21, 2021, 800 days after the Chinese government locked up Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, Don Valley North MP Han Dong, a Liberal, called China’s Toronto Consul General, Han Tao, to discuss the case, which he shouldn’t have done.Dong testified later that he could not remember the details of the conversation, but a CSIS transcript of the call said that he encouraged the Chinese to keep the two Michaels in jail, because releasing them would help the Conservatives. Two CSIS agents were so rattled by this and upset about Liberal inaction that they told Global News about it. Global ran a story. Dong denied it and sued Global, and on June 21 a judge ruled that the case can proceed, which was bad news for Global.

Stephen Maher

Alberta oil flowing, but that won’t help Trudeau

A pipeline that gave Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a huge headache is finally delivering benefits — to oil companies, at least — although Trudeau should not expect to get political rewards for his troubles.Refineries in Washington state and Oregon are displacing Iraqi crude with cheaper oil from Alberta that is now available thanks to the expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline, which moves bitumen-heavy Alberta crude from the oil sands in the north to the British Columbia coast.

Stephen Maher

The foreign interference revelations show that Trudeau’s security committee is fulfilling its mandate

One of the bitter ironies in the dismal, long-running foreign interference saga is that Justin Trudeau – whose lack of leadership on this issue has been so disturbing – did one smart thing six years ago that is helping us get to the bottom of the mess.In 2018, Ralph Goodale, then Mr. Trudeau’s public safety minister, established the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), which earlier this month released a report alleging MPs and senators have been compromised by China and India.

Stephen Maher

Ottawa’s Response to the Trucker Protest Was Doomed from the Start

THE STORY OF how Ottawa failed to deal effectively with the three-week “Freedom Convoy” protest in January 2022 is a particularly Canadian story. As with so many problems we can’t fix, it involves jurisdictional overlap that allowed officials to do nothing because they would not be blamed for doing nothing.

Stephen Maher

Trudeau's blackface crisis: What Butts and Telford knew about the photos before news broke

Book excerpt: How the Liberal campaign team helped Justin Trudeau survive arguably his worst scandal of his political career

Stephen Maher

Prepare for the Meanest Election in Canadian History

IERRE POILIEVRE first came to my attention in 2004, when we were both new to Ottawa and I used to sit in the gallery of the House to watch Question Period. Poilievre, then a freshly elected twenty-five-year-old, stood out as unusually combative. He sought every opportunity to take cheap shots at his opponents, like a trash-talking hockey player, always slashing, trying to draw penalties. He would often deliver over-the-top partisan rants typed up by brash, young PMO staffers. I found his harsh recitations chilling because he gave the impression he would deliver the attacks no matter what the words said, so fierce and remorseless was his partisanship.

Stephen Maher

Trudeau needs to read the writing on the wall

In October of 2022, when I started working on my book about Justin Trudeau’s government, I told my interview subjects that I thought history would judge him favourably.It seemed to me then that Mr. Trudeau had changed the country more than Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin or Stephen Harper, and that his record could be measured against Brian Mulroney’s. Justin’s father, Pierre – who gave the country the Charter of Rights and Freedoms – is more significant, but I thought history might put Justin ahead of other recent prime ministers.

Stephen Maher

Poilievre refuses to be pinned down

Canadian Finance Minister Chystia Freelandsaid this week that she will put forward legislation to increase capital gains taxes before Parliament stops sitting for the summer, and she urged Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to take a stand on the issue, which he has so far declined to do.Liberals hope the measure — which will hit a small number of high-income taxpayers by increasing their tax when they sell a business or vacation property — will be a useful wedge for portraying Conservatives as sticking up for the well-off at the expense of those struggling economically. Freeland separated the item from the main budget implementation bill to force MPs from all parties to carry out a standalone vote on the measure, which will pin down Poilievre.

Stephen Maher

Who’s afraid of Mark Carney?

Mark Carney set the cat among the pigeons last week with a speech that gently criticized the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and tore a strip off of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

Stephen Maher

Biden and Trudeau face headwinds … from Gaza

Last Thursday, after Joe Biden promised during his State of the Union to build a pier to deliver aid to Gaza, Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet shook the president’s hand, congratulated him on the speech, and urged him to push Israel to do more on “humanitarian stuff.”Biden, caught on a hot mic, nodded in agreement and said he was pressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I told him, Bibi, don’t repeat this, but we are going to have a come-to-Jesus meeting.”The next day, in the multicultural Toronto suburb of Mississauga, Justin Trudeau's International Development Minister Ahmed Hussenannounced that Canada would resume funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. Israel has alleged that 12 employees were involved in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, leading most Western countries to withdraw aid.

Stephen Maher

Before Liberals can replace Trudeau, they would have to reckon with Gaza

If the race to succeed Trudeau takes place while Israel is bombing Gaza, would-be leaders would be under intense pressure to appeal to voters who want Canada to push for a ceasefire. A leadership race dominated by an emotional conflict over the Middle East policy could leave the Liberals in a worse situation than they are now.

Stephen Maher

Poilievre can dish it out, but can he take it?

Many voters may be glad to see him treat journalists with disdain — that is for them to decide — but our job is to test him and study his character before he takes over the country, and we should not shrink from the task even if it means taking some browbeatings.