Oct 20 2017 — Bruce Anderson — Maclean's — Political watchers were stunned a year ago when reality-TV personality Donald Trump swept past a field of seasoned politicians to win the biggest political prize in the world. Propaganda dressed up as news stories flooded the screens and phones of voters vulnerable to persuasion, in districts critical to the outcome of the race. Hillary Clinton […]
Oct 19 2017 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — Thursday marks the second anniversary of the Liberals’ 2015 election victory under Justin Trudeau. The first time in Canada a third-place party had ever stormed past an incumbent government and official opposition to take power. Over the preceding decade they had lost four-fifths of the seats they once held, but now they were back. As […]
Oct 14 2017 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — Come on, be fair now: Who among us hasn’t forgotten a villa in France, and the tax-dodging shell company we set up in our own name to manage it? Bill Morneau’s a square gee, a straight shooter, and if two years of talking about the middle class! and those working! hard! to join it! didn’t […]
Oct 13 2017 — Anne Kingston — Maclean's — How a small think tank called Canada 2020 gave rise to Justin Trudeau and became the country’s new nexus of power. In late September, Barack Obama spoke in Toronto at a brilliantly produced event offering the perfect forum for his uplifting “Yes, we still can” message. The occasion also provided a triumphant, brand-burnishing moment for […]
Oct 12 2017 — Meagan Campbell — Maclean's — There was talk of nuclear arms, tearing up NAFTA and a refugee crisis. The meeting between the PM and President was not a win-win. The Oval Office steamed. In fact, according to a handheld thermometer/hygrometer, as the U.S. president roosted on the edge of his armchair, pressing the pads of his fingers together in the […]
Oct 11 2017 — Evan Solomon — Maclean's — On October 1, 1972, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau joined 10,000 fans and greeted Team Canada as they arrived home from the Soviet Union. The country was wallowing in Cold war pride in the wake of the miracle victory in the Summit Series. After a near death experience—down 5-3 in the third period of the eighth […]
Oct 10 2017 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — In retrospect, it will be seen as fitting that finance minister Bill Morneau started working on the second draft of his planned overhaul of corporate taxation during the 2017 Thanksgiving weekend. First, because Thanksgiving is often used for cutting up turkeys. And it’s becoming clear that Morneau’s project, a bigger political gobbler than the Liberals […]
Oct 6 2017 — Murad Hemmadi — Maclean's — New NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has his sights firmly set on the next federal election, and his path to the prime minister’s office runs through, well, everywhere. The Ontario MPP took the helm of the federal party after a first-ballot victory in the long-running leadership race last weekend. Although Singh hasn’t conclusively ruled out running […]
Oct 5 2017 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — Success has many fathers, it’s said; failure is an orphan. Unless you’re Canadian. Thursday’s announcement by TransCanada that it’s abandoning the Energy East pipeline project inspired a nationwide orgy of paternity tests, mostly administered by politicians against their enemies. Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall said that “for the West to continue on like this in our […]
Oct 1 2017 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — Suspense is overrated anyway. Jagmeet Singh’s first-ballot thumping of his opponents in the NDP leadership contest makes big history: in the 150th anniversary year of Confederation, a major political party has finally broken the country’s uninterrupted string of white faces at the head of national parties. The scale of Singh’s victory makes him, at least […]
Sep 26 2017 — Evan Solomon — Maclean's — It’s getting weird and scary. Donald Trump called Kim Jong-un “Little Rocket Man” and threatened to “destroy North Korea.” Kim responded by labelling Trump a “frightened dog” and a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard.” Between checking up on the Elton John song references and running to the dictionary to look up “dotard” (a senile old man, […]
Sep 25 2017 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — It’s fun these days watching Pierre Poilievre go after Bill Morneau on the government’s proposed tax changes. Poilievre is the Conservative finance critic, and Morneau is the finance minister, and typically their exchanges go this way. Poilievre opens by asking why Morneau is hellbent on unleashing a plague of locusts on Canadian pizza parlour owners. […]
Sep 21 2017 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — There comes a time in every new opposition leader’s career when he discovers it’s a horrible job. This usually happens early. The reasons why it seems like it shouldn’t be a horrible job are: (a) All you have to do is make fun of the government; (b) Being an opposition leader, and therefore hating the […]
Sep 19 2017 — Meagan Campbell — Maclean's — Majority, schplajority; the Opposition made its side heard. Andrew Scheer warned new tax rules will force farmers to sell their land and rent it back from foreign owners, to tend their fields as mere tenants, clarified when Scheer’s colleague cried, “serfs!” Parliament made a rambunctious return on Monday, when members chirped and guffawed their way […]
Sep 14 2017 — Maclean's — Since the Liberals won the election, Trudeau has taken care to reward Canada’s big unions for their support. Canada’s unions are welcoming the federal government’s plan to close tax loopholes for very high-income earners, saying it’s an important first step toward bringing more fairness to Canada’s tax system.