Oct 12 2021 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — Paul Wells talks to the former clerk of the Privy Council about his advice to Prime Ministers, the time pressures of governing, and political exits. Brian Mulroney was the prime minister the first time Michael Wernick sat at the back of a cabinet committee room, taking notes. One time the young civil servant found himself […]
Oct 6 2021 — Shannon Proudfoot — Maclean's — Hyperbole and a Half is a slyly brilliant web comic in which author Allie Brosh uses manic, deliberately crude drawings to dismantle ordinary human experiences into shards of genius and madness. In one, she laid out the “sneaky hate spiral,” a toddler-level total meltdown that otherwise reasonable adults fall into from time to time. “Sneaky […]
Oct 5 2021 — Justin Ling — Maclean's — The Liberal Party’s pyrrhic victory in last week’s federal election may have been closer to a defeat than the final tally would suggest. According to interviews with Liberal supporters conducted after the Sept. 20 vote, voters were less than enthusiastic about staying with Justin Trudeau’s party—but his oft-touted childcare plan may offer some clues as […]
Sep 29 2021 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — “Some have talked about division,” Justin Trudeau told a little victory party in Montreal on Sept. 20, election night. “But that’s not what I see. That’s not what I’ve seen these past weeks across the country.” The Liberal leader had just won his third consecutive federal election, a feat that, in his lifetime, only Pierre […]
Sep 28 2021 — Terry Glavin — Maclean's — The words make for a very snappy headline, but there is a very specific reason why “prisoner swap” is an unhelpful way to report last Friday’s departure of Chinese celebrity heiress Meng Wanzhou aboard an Air China flight from Vancouver to Shenzhen and the simultaneous flight of a Royal Canadian Air Force Challenger jet carrying […]
Sep 22 2021 — Stephen Maher — Maclean's — In the speech he gave Monday night, after his dreams were dashed, Erin O’Toole said that he would work to make sure “reconciliation is more than a box to check.” “It is the very keystone of Canada reaching its potential. And it starts with clean drinking water as a basic human right, still denied to […]
Sep 22 2021 — Jen Gerson — Maclean's — It’s come to my understanding that there is some considerable consternation about the future of Erin O’Toole, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, on the grounds that he underperformed in this week’s election. I cannot help but wonder whether those now implacably resolved to booting the man for being inadequately conservative might, perhaps, consider […]
Sep 21 2021 — Jason Markusoff — Maclean's — Erin O’Toole must have cast a scornful eye Monday night toward Alberta and Saskatchewan. He was poised to win nearly all of those provinces’ 48 seats, though a few shy of the 47 the Conservatives got last time. The likely cause of his ire? Two former Conservative MP colleagues were out on the prairie, having […]
Sep 21 2021 — Shannon Proudfoot — Maclean's — No one got what they wanted on Monday. Not Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who set all of this into motion for the obvious reason that he wanted a majority government, no matter how many times he claimed it was really because the electorate deserved to have a say in how the country emerged from the […]
Sep 21 2021 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — Justin Trudeau won the election. This will be obvious in the weeks ahead: he’ll visit the Clerk of the Privy Council in the next several days to begin implementing his agenda. After probably another fairly extended transition period like the one in 2019, the Governor General will read a Throne Speech largely written by Liberal […]
Sep 19 2021 — Stephen Maher — Maclean's — The PPC leader appears to be keener on doing in the Conservatives than winning seats. It all began back in 2017.
Sep 17 2021 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — A new projection prepared for Maclean’s by Innovative Research suggests the Liberals will lose seats but keep power. The biggest gains may be made by the NDP. Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party of Canada appears poised to keep power after Monday’s election, albeit with a reduced share of seats in the House of Commons, according to […]
Sep 16 2021 — Jason Markusoff — Maclean's — It’s not only the near-total abandonment of public health precautions that has embittered much of Alberta toward its premier, though the outcome of Jason Kenney’s decision led to an unfettered fourth wave, and unleashed the Delta variant with the effect of record-busting pressure on ICUs and the postponement of hundreds of surgeries. The thing that […]
Sep 14 2021 — Shannon Proudfoot — Maclean's — Justin Trudeau’s former principal secretary talks to Shannon Proudfoot about the debate, why the election is all but over, and the ground game that will consume the final days. Two weeks into the federal election campaign, Maclean’s spoke to Gerald Butts, former principal secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a key architect of the […]
Sep 14 2021 — Shannon Proudfoot — Maclean's — How a once undervalued, ignored and politically silent group is fighting back. From Maggie’s vantage point behind the cash register at a chain grocery store in a small British Columbia city, the first several months of the pandemic were frantic oblivion; most customers rushing the picked-over shelves didn’t seem to notice the employees, unless it […]