Sep 11 2018 — Tasha Kheiriddin — Global News — This week, Ontario lost its constitutional virginity. It joined the ranks of Saskatchewan, Alberta and Quebec, provinces which have all seen their government invoke Section 33 of the Constitution, the “notwithstanding clause,” to override court judgments with which they disagreed.
Jun 13 2018 — Tasha Kheiriddin — iPolitics — It takes a lot to get Conservative leader Andrew Scheer cheesed off, but this week, one of his MPs crossed the line. “I have removed Maxime Bernier from the Official Opposition shadow cabinet, effective immediately,” Scheer stated in a short communiqué. “The shadow minister for science, Matt Jeneroux, will assume the additional role of shadow […]
Jun 9 2018 — Tasha Kheiriddin — iPolitics — The Ontario election is over, and the winner is… populism. Its anti-establishment broom swept the Progressive Conservatives to victory with 76 seats, and saw the NDP form the official opposition with 40. It blew the Liberals out the door with just seven – while the Green Party gained its first seat in provincial history. It […]
May 31 2018 — Tasha Kheiriddin — iPolitics — Damned if he did, damned if he didn’t. That’s the general consensus around Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to buy out the Trans Mountain pipeline. Kinder Morgan had set a deadline of May 31, after which it threatened to pull the plug unless the federal government could guarantee the project would go ahead.
May 24 2018 — Tasha Kheiriddin — iPolitics — As Ontarians get ready to go to the polls June 7, all bets are off on the outcome of the provincial election. What looked like a slam dunk for the PCs less than a month ago has morphed into a horserace with the NDP, while the Liberals limp along in third place. Voters fed up […]
Apr 19 2018 — Tasha Kheiriddin — iPolitics — With the Ontario election 50 days away, and the provincial Liberals trailing badly in the polls, Premier Kathleen Wynne did the inevitable: she played the Trump card. While making a health care announcement at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, the Liberal Premier compared PC leader Doug Ford to the US President. “Doug Ford sounds like Donald […]
Apr 11 2018 — Tasha Kheiriddin — iPolitics — Don’t cry over spilled milk. It’s one of the cardinal rules in politics, particularly when you lose an election. What’s done is done: best to move on with grace, even if you still seethe in silence, and wait for the next opportunity to reenter the fray. Unless you are Conservative MP Maxime Bernier, that is.
Mar 28 2018 — Tasha Kheiriddin — iPolitics — “As the saying goes, sunlight is the world’s best disinfectant. Liberals will shed new light on the government and ensure that it is focused on the people it is meant to serve: Canadians.” Thus spoke Liberal leader Justin Trudeau during the 2015 federal election. His words graced the pages of the “openness and transparency section” […]
Mar 11 2018 — Tasha Kheiriddin — iPolitics — Disaster. Debacle. Clusterf***. There simply aren’t enough epithets to describe the shambles that was the Ontario PC Party leadership convention this past weekend. Members, media, and twitterati watched in amazement as the counting dragged on for four hours while lawyers for the rival leadership camps of Christine Elliott and Doug Ford duked it out with […]
Mar 6 2018 — Tasha Kheiriddin — iPolitics — Check your privilege. In the House of Commons, that used to mean, check your constitutional rights and immunities. You can’t be sued for what you said in the House; members benefit from freedom of speech, from arrest in civil actions, and can regulate their own internal affairs. To be privileged was a good thing, because […]
Feb 19 2018 — Tasha Kheiriddin — Global News — On Feb. 9, a jury in North Battleford, Sask., acquitted white farmer Gerald Stanley of the murder of 22-year-old Indigenous man Colten Boushie. According to witnesses, Boushie and three friends had driven onto Stanley’s rural property after a day of drinking. Their SUV got a flat tire, they attempted to steal a truck on a […]
Feb 16 2018 — Tasha Kheiriddin — Global News — It should have been Ontario’s political highlight of the week: the PCPO leaders’ debate, between the four aspirants to the Tory crown. Instead, the main event was scooped by the latest instalment of the Patrick Brown Show, a hydra which is sprouting heads faster than the party can cut them off. The disgraced former leader […]
Feb 8 2018 — Tasha Kheiriddin — iPolitics — Does the promotion of anti-abortion views violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms? The issue recently arose in the context of the Canada Summer Jobs Program, a federal program which funds businesses and organizations seeking to hire students over the summer break. In past years, some MPs, including Liberal Iqra Khalid and Conservative Rachael Harder, […]
Jan 30 2018 — Tasha Kheiriddin — iPolitics — Elites, start your engines! The race for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, which unofficially began even before Patrick Brown’s corpse began to chill last Thursday night, has taken yet another turn – and it’s one that will define the race. Doug Ford, businessman, former Toronto city councillor, and of course brother […]
Jan 23 2018 — Tasha Kheiriddin — iPolitics — Ah, the summer job. Lifeguarding, camp counseling, ice cream scooping, lawn mowing — none of it funded by the taxpayer. That was before the era of interventionist government, of course, and before the creation of federal summer job programs. Such programs have been around for decades in various incarnations, from the COSEP (Career Oriented Summer […]