Articles by Tim Powers

May 27 2020 — Tim Powers — Hill Times — On the surface, it is symbolically stupid for Canadian political parties—including the federal Liberals, Conservatives, and New Democrats—to be claiming the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS). While they are eligible to receive this support because they are classified as not-for-profit organizations and therefore able to get assistance, it just smells wrong. Why? While this likely […]

May 20 2020 — Tim Powers — Hill Times — A key date has been passed in the Conservative Party’s leadership race. Friday, May 15 was the last day for people to join the party to vote in the contest. Peter MacKay’s team claims to have out-done his competitors in signing people up. While it is hard to verify the accuracy of the campaign’s assertion, […]

Apr 29 2020 — Tim Powers — Hill Times — Tiresome is a sentiment that has more potency in this time of COVID-19 containment. Many of us are tired of our house-bound routine and desire some return to what we had seven weeks ago before the new normal set in. Most of us get that there is still a way to go, and diligence is […]

Apr 22 2020 — Tim Powers — Hill Times — Normally it is not my wont to quote leaders of the Bloc Québécois, but I must admit a bit of personal fondness for Yves-François Blanchet. He just comes across as likeable and can be funny. He nailed the sentiment of many of us this week when he described the days of negotiating over the return […]

Apr 1 2020 — Tim Powers — Hill Times — The Leadership Election Organization Committee (LEOC) of the Conservative Party eventually made the right decision last week in deciding to postpone the leadership vote originally scheduled for June 27. The official reasoning the party provided was that staff resources and logistical challenges made it impossible to continue. It is right the party is making the […]

Feb 5 2020 — Tim Powers — Hill Times — It was disappointing, but not surprising, that the leading candidates for the leadership of the Conservative Party came out with the predictable language about tearing up “Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax.” Both Peter MacKay and Erin O’Toole were quick to make this point. Clearly, they are taking the view that in order to win the current […]

Jul 3 2019 — Tim Powers — Hill Times — While enjoying Canada Day 2019 this week I was left to ponder what Canada’s federal political and policy landscape will look like a year from now. Will more things change or will they remain the same? Recent provincial elections have taught us that there is a bit of a disruptive mood in the land that […]

Feb 6 2019 — Tim Powers — Hill Times — You could be forgiven if those old Heritage Minutes, seen most often on that dated medium of television, had slipped into the recesses of your mind. Not unlike the vintage National Film Board vignettes, my personal favourite being The Log Driver’s Waltz, these stories generate some warmth in a sentimental Canadian heart. Now, they are […]

Oct 31 2018 — Tim Powers — Hill Times — It is that time in the pre-election season when the framing for the next vote kicks into high gear. None of it is original but that doesn’t matter because, like the first snowfall, it seems to be all new, as if it never happened before. For a couple of weeks now, both the prime minister […]

Aug 1 2018 — Tim Powers — Hill Times — Ontario Premier Doug Ford has given new meaning to starting with a bang. Out of nowhere, except perhaps the deep recesses of his mind, he announced last week that he was cutting the size of Toronto’s city council from 44 members (which was to become 47, after a planned expansion this fall) to 25. Anyone […]

Jul 4 2018 — Tim Powers — Hill Times — Good for you, Paul Wernick, for speaking out on your own personal mental health and wellness. Kudos also for challenging the norms of the work routine on Parliament Hill; it is brave of you to do so. Wernick recently gained attention for coming forward to speak about his health and the influence he believed the […]

Jun 6 2018 — Tim Powers — Hill Times — Kathleen Wynne’s election concession some five days before Ontarians vote in their June 7 provincial election was the latest bizarre twist in Ontario’s crazy year of politics. Some members of Wynne’s team are framing this as a great selfless act that will liberate local candidates from the premier’s current toxic brand, potentially giving some of […]

Mar 7 2018 — Tim Powers — Hill Times — There was a federal budget delivered in Ottawa last week but you’d hardly know it, as the debate coming out of the House of Commons had more to do with the prime minister’s India trip than it did on the merits or demerits of gender-based analysis. The Trudeau government, normally very good at blowing past […]

Feb 21 2018 — Tim Powers — Hill Times — Patrick Brown may as well be wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat as he goes around pronouncing his innocence and looking to get his job back. He is living proof that Donald Trump’s style of politics has now fully invaded our political system. Brown has got the full Trump arsenal of tools: alternative facts, […]

Jan 10 2018 — Tim Powers — Hill Times — Who thought the Showtime hit drama Homeland was fiction? Because it seems we now have a copycat program playing out for real in Canada. Yes, the Joshua Boyle-Justin Trudeau meeting and the subsequent charges laid against Boyle have the feel of life imitating art. The oddity of Joshua Boyle and his lived experience has been […]