Oct 22 2017 — Jim Meek — Chronicle Herald — Finance Minister Bill Morneau has seen the enemy and it is he — or “him” if you like the language of the street. It turns out Morneau was the guy using a tax loophole; he was the multi-millionaire with a secret villa in France; he was the cabinet minister who waited till his neck was […]
Oct 16 2017 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — It would be worthwhile knowing if Stephen Harper has been consulted about the North American free trade negotiations now stumbling toward an uncertain conclusion. If he hasn’t, he should be. Harper happened to be in Washington last week at the same time Justin Trudeau was there for NAFTA-related talks with President Trump. Harper is now […]
Oct 9 2017 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — I know what I’m going to do pronto if the Conservatives and the business lobby manage to stifle the Liberal government’s tax reforms. I’m going to incorporate and grab some of that sweet tax relief for myself. As a self-employed writer in the lucrative freelance journalism industry, I stupidly have been paying my full share […]
Oct 7 2017 — Jim Meek — Chronicle Herald — Aside from the duplicity of the Trudeau government’s tax attack on small business, you have to question the politics at play. Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s tax “reforms” have Liberal backbenchers squirming in their constituencies, friendly premiers worried about losing doctors to the United States, and old allies questioning their loyalty to the Grits. Admittedly, Canadians […]
Sep 25 2017 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — A few years back, I got schooled on the meaning of free speech. It came after I wrote something I felt strongly about but had not thought completely through. In a column, I argued that Roman Catholic priests and bishops should shut up about moral issues like abortion and same-sex marriage because of their own […]
Sep 11 2017 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — Idlers on the shores of Halifax Harbour will no doubt soon notice the arrival of a new resident ship. Utilitarian in design and attired in a fresh coat of naval grey, Motor Ship Asterix will steam into a berth in the naval dockyard. From there, MS Asterix will be visible from the Irving Shipyard next […]
Sep 5 2017 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has issued a clear signal about where he expects Canadian Conservatives to stand on the race-and-class politics of the contemporary United States. He isn’t buying. In selecting his “shadow cabinet” last week, Scheer did more than just dole out critic titles and adjust the hierarchy of his parliamentary caucus. He demonstrated […]
Sep 3 2017 — Peter McKenna — Chronicle Herald — With the NAFTA renegotiations off to a rough start, and given his calculated efforts to ingratiate himself to U.S. President Donald Trump, perhaps Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should take a page from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s book. At the beginning of their first encounter at Trump Tower in New York, Abe presented then-U.S. president-elect […]
Aug 28 2017 — Andrea Gunn — Chronicle Herald — As the time nears for the federal New Democratic Party to select a new leader to take the helm from Tom Mulcair, some political types in Nova Scotia are having deja vu. “I see it as having a lot of parallels to the process we went through in our provincial party from the time of […]
Aug 28 2017 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — If there’s such a thing as a personality trait that is distinctly Nova Scotian, it must be the immense tolerance of our people. For bureaucracy. Just take beer. The modern world is intruding on cosy arrangements between the province and what I’ll call Big Beer. It is a case, pardon the pun, of a multitude […]
Aug 21 2017 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — Anyone who has seen a swarm of masked, black-clad anarchists rioting and attacking police can’t help but feel repugnance at their violent tactics. But are they a threat to the civil order? Few would think so. The so-called Black Bloc started as an informal guard for left-wing protests in the 1990s. But it’s really a […]
Aug 11 2017 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — Here’s an idea. Let’s sell shiploads of heavy weapons to a repressive autocracy run by a single, stupendously rich family not accountable to anyone. What could possibly go wrong? Nevertheless, that’s what your Canadian government did, apparently thinking that powerful armoured vehicles could be sold to a regime like Saudi Arabia but not be used […]
Aug 7 2017 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — Sometimes it seems miraculous that democracy survives, given the threats: the Russians, Donald Trump, the alt-right, the alt-left, populism, authoritarianism, extremism, partisan polarization and the demise of trusted media, not to mention the idiotic notion that “my opinions are facts if I believe them.” If democracy and rationality rely on the forthright exchange of ideas, […]
Jul 31 2017 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — Pierre Trudeau said “America sneezes and Canada catches a cold” because disruptions in the U.S. caused frequent problems here. Allies, partners and neighbours, the two economies were so interconnected that America’s maladies inevitably spread north. The first Prime Minister Trudeau was speaking when the U.S. was still healthy, with robust democratic institutions. America could be […]
Jul 24 2017 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — No doubt David MacNaughton meant well when he said last week that a new NAFTA agreement will have to produce a “victory” for Donald Trump to dangle in front of his core supporters. I don’t disbelieve MacNaughton, Canada’s ambassador to Washington, when he says Trump successfully campaigned against NAFTA, so he therefore needs to produce. […]