Jan 24 2020 — Matt Gurney — National Post — There is one question that those who are madly speculating Stephen Harper may be about to mount some kind of return to political life have yet to satisfactorily answer. Do you get the sense that he particularly misses his life in the public eye? Is he so unhappy running his own consultancy back home in […]
Jan 23 2020 — John Ivison — National Post — Conservatives are often concerned about the unintended consequences arising from tight regulations. It seems the rigid rules governing their own leadership campaign may be having some unexpected results. Pierre Poilievre is the third prospective candidate in three days to drop a bombshell announcement around supper-time, withdrawing from a race in which he was considered one […]
Jan 22 2020 — John Ivison — National Post — Rona Ambrose is out and she wasn’t even in. The former Conservative minister ended weeks of speculation about whether she would run for the party’s leadership by saying that she is going to pass and “focus on making a difference through the private sector”. She said she struggled with the decision of whether or not […]
Jan 22 2020 — Brian Platt — National Post — ‘All the so-cons are mobilizing behind me because I’m the only candidate who is running that actually represents their values.’ he social conservative wing of the Conservative Party looks set to have at least one flag-bearer in the leadership race, as former party staffer Richard Décarie is collecting signatures and has a network forming behind […]
Jan 21 2020 — John Robson — National Post — While the Liberals are huddled in Winnipeg trying to understand how to fix this mysterious thing called “Western alienation,” the Conservatives are huddled somewhere in Ottawa trying to figure out how to make it worse. And I fear they are going to get there first with a leader repellent to the West and unattractive to […]
Jan 21 2020 — Kelly McParland — National Post — Just in case no one has made it clear to her yet, which seems unlikely, there are compelling reasons Rona Ambrose should quit stalling and seek the leadership of the Conservative party. She has been under pressure for some time, and is obviously torn, given that she hasn’t rejected the idea yet, even if it […]
Jan 21 2020 — John Ivison — National Post — You could tell the Liberal rookies after the 2015 election – there was a kind of new car smell and puppy dog naiveté about them. One veteran MP shook his head as he recalled how the new government allowed its opponents to control the agenda. “Once we got elected, people thought it would be just […]
Jan 17 2020 — Sean Speer — National Post — As the Conservative party’s leadership race gets started in earnest, there’s already plenty of commentary about how the party needs to eschew pesky social conservatives and their backwards-looking traditionalism if it wishes to win elections in modern Canada. It’s not just unsolicited advice from the CBC or the Toronto Star either. Various conservatives are making […]
Jan 17 2020 — Justin Ling — National Post — I always imagined it would happen in a dank and smokey bar. A woman in trenchcoat buttoned up to her ears would sit down, slide a manilla envelope to me across the rye-soaked table, and disappear as soon as she arrived. Pulling out the page inside, I’d take a deep breath and say: “Jean Charest? […]
Jan 17 2020 — William Watson — National Post — I met the late John Crosbie, whose state funeral was Thursday, just once. It was so long ago it was at a big GATT meeting in Montreal — remember the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade? — when the WTO was just a twinkle in international trade bureaucrats’ eyes. We were all waiting for a […]
Jan 15 2020 — Justin Ling — National Post — Four years ago, the Prime Minister’s Office announced something revolutionary: Justin Trudeau’s daily schedule would be public. The world would know what he was up to. Well, not that revolutionary. The U.S. president’s daily itinerary is both a matter of public record, and quite detailed. But in Canada, a land of polite secrecy, it was […]
Jan 14 2020 — John Ivison — National Post — “Clear your throat, sound confident and assertive and not at all nervous and key the mic…. ‘Tehran Air Defence, good evening…’.” The social media post by the pilot of an international airline flying into the Iranian capital just hours before a Ukrainian passenger jet was blasted out of the sky by a missile reveals the […]
Jan 13 2020 — Kelly McParland — National Post — Canada, the country that wants so desperately to be liked, once again finds itself caught in a situation over which it has limited control. Justin Trudeau may have the moral high ground in demanding “answers, closure, transparency, accountability and justice” from Iran in the downing of Flight 752, but that’s about the limit of his […]
Jan 10 2020 — John Ivison — National Post — Political leaders can’t change the cards they are dealt but they can control how they play their hand. The bombshell revelation by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that Ukrainian International Airlines flight 752 was in all likelihood shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile was an important moment in his political leadership. He has been caught […]
Jan 9 2020 — John Ivison — National Post — When the Conservative leadership last fell vacant in 2015, Peter MacKay had only been out of federal politics for five months. He was building a private sector career with law firm Baker McKenzie, had two young children and his mother was fighting cancer. He considered taking a run but ultimately decided to pass. Four years […]