Jan 14 2019 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — Justin Trudeau is lucky he’s facing voters this year and not in 2020, when the air will be so full of lies and fallout from the U.S. presidential campaign that political messages in Canada risk being obscured. For now, Trudeau’s Liberals are staying sunny. They’re leading the polls against lacklustre opposition, even while facing a […]
Jan 12 2019 — Jim Meek — Chronicle Herald — Scott Brison, who hails from an area of Nova Scotia where the phrase “old Tory warhorse” might have been coined, marked his resignation from cabinet this week by celebrating his husband Maxime Saint-Pierre and their twin daughters. Brison’s story — he ran for the leadership of Canada’s two major political parties and became its first […]
Dec 17 2018 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — It is not an axiom of international diplomacy that “no good deed goes unpunished,” but perhaps it should be, especially deeds undertaken on behalf of our dear ally the United States under its bumbling leader, Donald Trump. Last week, two Canadians were detained by security agencies in China, questioned and thrown into gulags. As this […]
Dec 10 2018 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — Bears might be prowling the stock indexes, but shares in hate are enjoying a bull market like we haven’t seen in generations. Western democracies, once justly proud of their openness and tolerance, are seeing the intolerant minority growing bolder and more violent. In Canada, federal statistics captured almost 2,100 hate crimes reported to police in […]
Dec 3 2018 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — The next federal election won’t be fought over immigration and refugees, despite their temptation as targets for your friendly neighbourhood populists. No, the election in 2019 will be about everything but, because other than one splinter party, there’s little to gain from attacking immigration. That exception is Maxime Bernier, the culture front’s loud but short […]
Nov 19 2018 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — So, how do you like populism so far? If you’re into broken norms, disorder and you think facts don’t matter, you’re probably enjoying it. But if you prefer stability, civil order and fact-based policy, you’re likely sick of populism and all of its shabby works. Populism is driving Britain’s determination to tear itself to pieces […]
Nov 12 2018 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — As a professional newspaper columnist, it’s my job to detect and warn of malodorous currents threatening to despoil our political waters. It’s a time-consuming occupation. Take this Tony Clement mess, where he got kicked out of the Conservative caucus for his online lechery. Clement, 57, exposed himself to blackmail after he exposed himself in photos […]
Nov 5 2018 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — For Canadians, observing U.S. politics is a bit like watching a movie scene where the hero is being stalked by some fiend whom we can see but the hero can’t. You yell: “Don’t open the door!” But the hero can’t hear you because it’s a movie. Then he opens the door. In movies, the hero […]
Oct 29 2018 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — With less than a year to go before voting day, themes are already emerging for the coming campaign. We’re told to expect either a dirty campaign or a decent one, which will be all about carbon tax grabs or saving the planet or perhaps more traditionally, about who can best steer Canada in these dangerous […]
Oct 8 2018 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — If there’s one lesson learned from scrapping with the United States over trade, it’s that Canada needs to find new partners and new places to do business. It’s time to move on, because America might never be cured of its malignant Trumpism. The talks for a new NAFTA exposed what President Donald Trump is doing […]
Oct 1 2018 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — One of my earliest political memories is of my late father kicking a politician off the front porch. This was in Moncton, in the 1960s. Dad respected almost everyone, but not that politician, Leonard C. Jones Jr. Jones was campaigning door-to-door. Dad shut ours. “I’m not talking to him,” he said, and stalked off down […]
Sep 29 2018 — Peter McKenna — Chronicle Herald — You’d have to go way back to the years 1980-82 for the last time that Canada’s relationship with the United States had hit such a bilateral low. Right now, the two longstanding friends are barely speaking to one another. At the recent gathering of world leaders at the United Nations in New York, beleaguered U.S. […]
Sep 24 2018 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — Forget the midnight flights to Washington and the clumsy presidential threats, the phoney deadlines and blatant negotiating ploys. If Canada is to achieve a renewed continental trade agreement under viable terms, it has to shrug off American pressure tactics and stay focused. There is no rush to get a new NAFTA because there are no […]
Sep 17 2018 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — The federal ethics commissioner’s finding that cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc blundered into a conflict of interest over a fishing licence wasn’t much of a shock. Liberals are known for skating along the edge of rules designed to curb undue coziness between politicians and pals. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was taken to task for vacationing with […]
Sep 10 2018 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — I challenge anyone to accurately and fairly describe the madness of politics in the time of Donald Trump. In the era of “fake news” and “alternative facts,” when “truth isn’t truth” in the “rigged witch hunt,” so little of it makes sense that words fail. But let’s try anyway. We could call the Trump presidency […]