Apr 21 2018 — Colby Cosh — National Post — On Sunday morning, Jason Kenney — who would certainly be at the top of the board if there were betting on the next premier of Alberta — tweeted a link about the Trans Mountain pipeline crisis with the comment: “Canada is broken.” This seemingly flippant remark made a lot of people angry, and most everybody […]
Apr 20 2018 — Andrew Coyne — National Post — What is the worst part of the Supreme Court’s decision in R v Comeau? Is it the shoddy reasoning, the tendentious reading of simple declarative statements, the selective approach to history, the willful naivete? Perhaps it’s the grating hypocrisy: the lectures on the sanctity of precedent, from a court famous for discarding precedent when it […]
Apr 19 2018 — John Ivison — National Post — Francis Urquhart, the fictional chief whip in the original (and the best) House of Cards, described his role thus: “A pat on the head and a biscuit here; a short, sharp shock there – and a good boot up the backside where indicated.” In recent days, both the Conservative and Liberal whips’ offices have been […]
Apr 19 2018 — Andrew Coyne — National Post — One feature of the debate about the idea of a guaranteed annual income — minimum income, basic income, call it what you will — is wide disagreement about what it means, even amongst its supporters. How high or low would the maximum benefit, paid to those with no other income, be? How sharply or gradually […]
Apr 17 2018 — John Ivison — National Post — The Liberals are torn. They’d like to live up to their own lofty rhetoric about building a shining beacon on Parliament Hill. But they’d prefer not to be constrained in any way by the inconvenient logistics of Parliament. The government’s latest attempt to circumvent the scrutiny of the House of Commons is a streamlining of […]
Apr 17 2018 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — Federal opposition parties are raising alarm bells about a new $7-billion envelope — which they call a “slush” fund — in the main budgetary estimates that Liberals introduced to Parliament on Monday. Worried that Liberals are giving themselves billions of dollars worth of wiggle room right before an election year, Conservatives are asking for assurances […]
Apr 17 2018 — Maura Forrest — National Post — Amid criticism from the Conservatives that it has failed to provide enough information about the possible impacts of a price on carbon, the federal government has prepared analyses of how much its carbon tax would cut emissions and increase costs — but it has prepared them only for the three territorial governments. The analyses were […]
Apr 17 2018 — Chris Selley — National Post — The first section of the 2014 Ontario NDP campaign platform, which was rather prosaically titled “Andrea Horwath’s Plan that Makes Sense,” promised to “respect your tax dollars.” That may remind you of someone and his brother. Among other things, Premier Horwath would have appointed a Minister of Savings and Accountability, who would have taken a […]
Apr 17 2018 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — A legal battle between the Royal Canadian Mint and its counterpart in Australia is heating up as Canada cries foul over “Possum Magic” coins. The Canadian Crown corporation is alleging the Royal Australian Mint stole its method for printing colour onto metal, and has expanded a December lawsuit over red poppies on a run of […]
Apr 16 2018 — Andrew Coyne — National Post — It was not inevitable that we should arrive at such a pass over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion: province divided against province, First Nation against First Nation, with the economic union and the rule of law as potential collateral damage. A debacle this big does not come about without years of hard work on all […]
Apr 16 2018 — John Ivison — National Post — There can be no doubt that Canada’s national security adviser was telling the truth, and nothing but the truth, when he appeared before a parliamentary committee on Monday, in an attempt to clear up the Jaspal Atwal affair. But Daniel Jean was explicit that he could not tell MPs the whole truth, because much of […]
Apr 14 2018 — John Ivison — National Post — It is a grim irony that a Liberal government elected on a promise of renewing relations with First Nations based on “trust, respect and the true spirit of co-operation” is now being accused by some Indigenous chiefs in British Columbia of provoking a new Oka crisis. Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of […]
Apr 14 2018 — Andrew Coyne — National Post — More than two years after the Trudeau government introduced its system of “independent, merit-based” appointments to the Senate, transforming — so it was said — the Other Place from a house of patronage and partisanship to a house of virtue, the government’s “representative” in the Senate has given some thought to how it will all […]
Apr 13 2018 — Tristin Hopper — National Post — A B.C. NDP premier directly challenges federal authority, claiming his actions are necessary to protect coastal communities and the health of the ocean. The preceding sentence could describe the ongoing anti-pipeline moves by B.C. premier John Horgan, but it also neatly summarizes a 1990s saga in which then-premier Glen Clark tried to shut down a […]
Apr 12 2018 — Tom Blackwell — National Post — Battered by some of the lowest approval ratings in the country, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said Thursday she considered quitting before this June’s election, but was encouraged to soldier on by the backing of her colleagues. In an interview with the National Post, Wynne also suggested that her own personal unpopularity can sometimes sting, saying […]