National Newswatch

How Anita Anand became the Trudeau government’s all-round fixer

Jun 7 2022 — Shannon Proudfoot — Sexual misconduct in the military. A war in Ukraine. Canada’s global reputation at stake. It’s a good thing Anand knows how to solve problems. In press conferences, Anita Anand presents like the law professor she was for more than two decades: crisp, careful, occasionally prone to using obscure words that her staff are not above […]

Pierre Poilievre on his combative style of politics and his plans for Canada

Mar 16 2022 — Shannon Proudfoot — In a rare in-depth interview the Conservative leadership frontrunner talks to Shannon Proudfoot about his politics, parenting, and making Canada ‘the freest place in the world.’ In early February, Shannon Proudfoot interviewed Pierre Poilievre for our April cover story on the Conservative leadership candidate. It was a wide-ranging discussion with a politician who typically doesn’t […]

‘Justin, can you imagine?’: Zelensky’s virtual trip to Ottawa

Mar 15 2022 — Shannon Proudfoot — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been the most compelling person on the planet for the last month, standing in the breach alongside his terrorized but indomitable people in the face of a Russian onslaught. The world has watched him grow paler and strained while his facial hair sketched itself into a beard. His spectacular ability […]

Why is Pierre Poilievre so angry?

Mar 10 2022 — Shannon Proudfoot — He’s smart, savvy and he’s steering a new brand of Canadian conservatism. How Pierre Poilievre became the champion of the anti-Trudeau mob. The bellowing honks of freedom nearly drowned out Pierre Poilievre’s voice as he stood on a frigid overpass in late January, cheering the truck convoy on its way to lay siege to downtown […]

What goes around comes around and its name is Charest

Mar 10 2022 — Paul Wells — In a world whose horizons have shrunk to the length of a TikTok video, Jean Charest’s career is still measured in decades. His Parti Libéral du Québec—sorry, that’s what it said on the buses—lost the 2012 election in one of the softest landings a defeated party ever managed, only 33,000 votes and four seats behind […]

News from Canada’s critical digital business revolution!

Mar 3 2022 — Paul Wells — It was a surprise to see the Prime Minister making an announcement on e-business on Thursday, since his government and most others around the world are properly preoccupied with events in Ukraine. Surprising but encouraging. Wanting to work on more than one thing at a time is so rare a merit that it should be […]

The Emergencies Act: What’s ‘seriously endangered’?

Feb 15 2022 — Paul Wells — “The War Measures Act is too broad and too sweeping,” Perrin Beatty told the House of Commons when he launched debate at second reading on Bill C-77, a proposed new Emergencies Act, in November of 1987. Beatty was the Minister of National Defence in Brian Mulroney’s government in those days. He said the War Measures […]

The Joël Lightbound crisis in the Liberal Party

Feb 8 2022 — Paul Wells — The MPs astonishing criticism of Liberal policy on COVID restrictions is the most serious threat to Trudeau’s leadership since Jane Philpott quit the federal cabinet. Here’s Dillon McGuire, Operations and Tour Assistant to the Minister of Housing, Diversity and Inclusion (that’s Ahmed Hussen, I learn), calling for Joël Lightbound to be removed from the Liberal […]

The Conservative Party’s identity crisis, post-O’Toole

Feb 3 2022 — Jen Gerson — Well, it looks like the Conservative caucus has decided to do the stupid thing. Shortly after the election, I wrote here at Maclean’s that dumping leader Erin O’Toole would be short-sighted—regardless of how angry anyone was over the disappointing results or their leader’s performance. Very few nail it on their first time out, and there […]

Meet the new new new new Conservatives

Feb 2 2022 — Paul Wells — I’m sorry to see Erin O’Toole’s leadership end. He really is a nice guy. Unfortunately they often finish, if not last, at least out of the running. Let’s talk numbers, then personalities, then sociology. I’ll start by updating some stats I keep handy. Of the last nine federal elections going back to 1997, the Leader […]