Hill Times

Apr 21 2018 — Abbas Rana — Hill Times — It’s a three-day happy gathering of about 3,000 Liberal Party faithful, but one serious concern still being talked about in the hallways and backrooms is the propensity for self-inflicted wounds by top strategists and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s inability to do anything about it which could cost him the next election or could reduce the […]

Apr 20 2018 — Abbas Rana — Hill Times — As nearly 3,000 Liberals descended on this city yesterday to attend the party’s last policy convention before the 2019 election, some Atlantic Liberal Parliamentarians said it would be tough to win all 32 seats in the region again, with one Senator saying the party will need to avoid making “small mistakes.” “There’s no question, it’s […]

Apr 20 2018 — Sheila Copps — Hill Times — Thousands of Liberals from across the country will descend on Halifax this weekend to plan their path to a potential electoral victory. It will be the final national meeting in advance of the next election and, in keeping with conventions of a party in government, will likely be non-controversial and inclusive. Most raucous conventions, where […]

Apr 18 2018 — Hill Times — An Independent Senator launching a debate in the Senate on anti-Black racism nationally and on Parliament Hill says recent accusations of racism against a fellow Black Parliamentarian who called others out for denying that systemic racism exists are “disturbing.” Sen. Wanda Thomas Bernard (East Preston, N.S.) gave notice on March 1 that she would “call […]

Apr 18 2018 — Samantha Wright Allen — Hill Times — Whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gets the Kinder Morgan pipeline project built, as he says he will, voters will judge as a test of his competency, say pollsters. And the stakes are high, with the Liberals’ 18 seats in British Columbia at risk. Much of his credibility is bound up in his ability keep the […]

Apr 16 2018 — Laura Ryckewaert — Hill Times — Ontario’s provincial parties are in campaign-mode, and new Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford has a tight-knit team in place, stacked with experience at both the federal and provincial levels. “They’ve all spent a ton of time together in the last 10 to 15 years, so even though they were thrown together quickly out of […]

Apr 16 2018 — Samantha Wright Allen — Hill Times — When more than 2,500 Liberals sweep into Halifax for their last national policy convention before the 2019 election, Grits say the party’s senior leadership should look to the gathering to gauge, engage, and mobilize the base for the next general campaign. They also say the party’s top brass has to listen. While not likely to […]

Apr 11 2018 — Samantha Wright Allen — Hill Times — The federal government is spending $158,200 on headhunters to help it staff up Canada’s new foreign investment promotion agency, part of $1.1-million spent on executive searches last year that opposition MPs say raises questions about the effectiveness and cost of what the Liberals say is a merit-based process when it leads to appointees with Liberal […]

Apr 11 2018 — Hill Times — Speaking through tears, Conservative MP Kevin Waugh recalled bumping into Brody Hinz, a statistician for the Humboldt Broncos Saskatchewan junior hockey team, last November in Ottawa. The 18-year-old was one of the 15 people killed in a Friday evening bus crash carrying the hockey team. “Here’s a kid that was probably me 37 years ago. […]

Apr 9 2018 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — The Senate Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committee won’t be able to examine all the ways the government’s cannabis legalization bill will affect Canada’s international treaties before reporting back to the Senate by May 1, says Saskatchewan Conservative Senator Raynell Andreychuk, who chairs the committee. “It is going to be very difficult to accomplish what […]

Apr 9 2018 — Laura Ryckewaert — Hill Times — Canada’s privacy commissioner, who is conducting an investigation into the Cambridge-Analytica-Facebook scandal and a separate probe into whether Canadian privacy laws were violated by AggregateIQ in order to sway the Brexit vote, says Canada’s federal political parties need to be covered by privacy laws and voters should have the right to find out what personal […]

Apr 4 2018 — Samantha Wright Allen — Hill Times — NDP leader Jagmeet Singh’s clash with caucus last week reveals his team has neglected caucus management and good lines of communication that party sources say may have a lasting impact with an anxious caucus still getting to know their leader, who only recently made the jump from provincial to federal politics. Mr. Singh and NDP […]

Apr 4 2018 — Samantha Wright Allen — Hill Times — Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are lagging in the polls thanks in part to what insiders see as self-inflicted wounds brought on by an inexperienced team and an unwillingness to lean on veteran party members—grumblings that have some slinging accusations of ageism. But the claim that age might be a factor in the roles handed out by […]

Apr 2 2018 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — Anonymous and illegal political ad campaigns are probably already running in Canada, thanks in part to Facebook and other online advertising platforms that make it easy to skirt laws around political advertising, say political digital marketing specialists. “If you want to influence around the rules, it’s pretty straightforward to do so,” said Stephen Carter, a […]

Apr 2 2018 — Peter Mazereeuw — Hill Times — The Senate is breaking new ground with a sweeping study of the marijuana legalization Bill C-45, with five committees tackling the legislation that would fulfill a key Liberal campain promise, and Senators are expected to lobby peers on the Senate’s Social Affairs Committee who will decide which amendments to include or leave out of a […]