Hill Times

May 15 2019 — Samantha Wright Allen — Hill Times — Canada’s conflict with China has been so bad that being without a Canadian ambassador since late January likely hasn’t had much impact, say former diplomats, despite opposition MPs hounding the Liberals about the appointment. While it’s always better to have a high-ranking and high-profile diplomat in place, under the present circumstances, “it’s not urgent,” said […]

May 15 2019 — Hill Times — The Mark Norman affair serves as the culmination of the government’s poor performance on the veterans affairs file, veterans advocates say. During the 2015 election, the Liberals actively sought the vote of veterans, who typically have supported the Conservatives, vets’ advocates say, but they say election promises have gone unkept. The treatment of Vice-Admiral Mark […]

May 13 2019 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer is using the same strategy employed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prior to the last election, say pollsters and politicos, by rolling out policy speeches on key topics well in advance of the election campaign. Mr. Scheer (Regina-Qu’Appelle, Sask.) kicked off a series of planned speeches on policy with an […]

May 13 2019 — Abbas Rana — Hill Times — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is likely to lose a significant chunk of the 32 seats the Grits won in Atlantic Canada in 2015 mostly because there’s a growing feeling in the region that the governing party has taken it for granted, say political insiders, but senior Liberals also say it’s too early to make any […]

May 10 2019 — Les Whittington — Hill Times — Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer kept joking at the press gallery dinner the other night about the persistent questions about his party’s lack of a climate-change plan six months before a federal election. Yes, yes, it’s coming, he chuckled. This while newly elected Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, now considered the leader of the right-wing “opposition” to […]

May 8 2019 — Samantha Wright Allen — Hill Times — The Liberals say they’re “closely monitoring” the spike in Mexican asylum claims made in the two years since Canada lifted visa restrictions, as the Mexican government launches its own domestic campaign to help stem the tide. In 2018, 3,300 Mexicans claimed refugee status, more than doubling the 1,515 who made that claim the year before. […]

May 8 2019 — Emily Haws — Hill Times — Some public servants are reacting strongly to the news the government struck a tentative deal with most unions on the Phoenix damages, saying they are concerned about the amount of leave proposed and are worried the claims process will be emotionally taxing on public servants who have already dealt with the pay nightmare for three […]

May 6 2019 — Abbas Rana — Hill Times — With the upcoming election campaign expected to officially start in about four months, Liberal and NDP MPs are warning that it will be ugly and disruptive and predict that racist elements or “political forces that operate and are fuelled by anger” will use disruptive tactics in the October election. “I think things are going to […]

May 6 2019 — Abbas Rana — Hill Times — With the “clock ticking and ticking fast” to the next election, support for the federal Liberals is headed in the “wrong direction at the wrong time,” bleeding a significant chunk of their support across the country, say veteran pollsters, and the governing party should be “very concerned” that they control the national agenda, get the […]

May 3 2019 — Emily Haws — Hill Times — After two years of negotiations, the government and four federal public sector unions have reached a tentative deal to compensate bureaucrats for the problem-plagued Phoenix pay system. However, the government’s offer was rejected by the largest union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada. The Phoenix pay system was supposed to streamline pay, but instead, public […]

May 1 2019 — Samantha Wright Allen — Hill Times — The Liberals’ omnibus budget bill gives the government a political tool to stop issuing some visas or permits to people from countries it deems difficult to deal with in deportation proceedings, a measure some immigration lawyers are calling “overly broad” and a “blunt instrument” without the necessary checks and balances. One of the measures in […]

May 1 2019 — Samantha Wright Allen — Hill Times — The Prince Edward Island election last week creates an opening for Conservatives and Greens to capitalize on the success of their provincial counterparts, while the Liberals that own all the current federal Atlantic Canada seats should be “wary” of a growing unfriendly sentiment toward them in the region, pundits say. While the Green Party could […]

Apr 29 2019 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — The Liberal government’s new watchdog for corporate ethics is “disappointing” and “not in line” with what it has promised, says the chair of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights. The new office of the ombudsperson for responsible enterprise, as it is currently organized, essentially duplicates Canada’s OECD National Contact Point, which is […]

Apr 29 2019 — Laura Ryckewaert — Hill Times — The clock is ticking, with just under 40 sitting days left in this Parliament and 38 government bills still on the Order Paper, and the 2019 budget implementation bill will be front and centre in the House this week amid rising partisan tempers and pre-election posturing. The start of spring means the start of the […]

Apr 29 2019 — Abbas Rana — Hill Times — The governing Liberals and opposition Conservatives are playing in a politically dangerous field by using the divisive issue of racism as a tool to mobilize their support bases for the next election, which could backfire resulting in “mutually assured destruction” for both federal parties, says a leading political analyst. “We’re seeing an increase in weaponization […]