Apr 25 2019 — Andrew Coyne — National Post — Had it been contested on the same basis as the election that accompanied it, Tuesday’s referendum on electoral reform in Prince Edward Island would have passed handily, winning a solid majority of the province’s 27 ridings. As it was, however, the proposition failed for having the support of only 48.8 per cent of the vote […]
Apr 25 2019 — Marie-Danielle Smith — National Post — The president of the Philippines was threatening to declare war on Canada this week if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau doesn’t take care of a big pile of garbage. Following years of calls from environmental groups, anger from local politicians and a Filipino court order, dozens of shipping containers full of Vancouver trash are still sitting […]
Apr 24 2019 — John Ivison — National Post — The anger was to be expected; the hurt, less so. A new study of public opinion in Alberta by communications firm Navigator, based on eight post-election focus groups, suggests Albertans want premier-designate Jason Kenney to get very aggressive very quickly when it comes to taking on the federal government, environmentalists, intransigent provinces and anyone else […]
Apr 23 2019 — John Ivison — National Post — Political predictions are generally lucky or wrong. Anyone handicapping the 2015 Canadian election six months out might have given short odds on the Conservatives, who were eight points clear of the Liberals and 12 ahead of the NDP at the end of April. But those poll numbers masked deep unhappiness with the Harper government and […]
Apr 23 2019 — Douglas Quan — National Post — The RCMP is embarking on a new recruitment strategy that will substantially alter the complexion of the national police force, replacing scores of traditional criminal investigators with civilians who have specialized skills to help pursue terrorists, cyber criminals, money launderers, drug traffickers and fraudsters, the National Post has learned.
Apr 22 2019 — Andrew Coyne — National Post — The presidency of Donald Trump has been one long and largely successful exercise in defining expectations down, or rather in defining them into the ground. Trump is not just deficient with respect to virtually every quality one could reasonably expect of a president or a man: he is its opposite. Do you expect a president […]
Apr 22 2019 — Tom Blackwell — National Post — At least three Sikh-Canadian activists have been added to the Canadian no-fly list in recent months, more evidence the federal government may have changed its approach to advocates of Punjabi independence after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s controversial India trip. Under the Secure Air Travel Act, the three have been told there are reasonable grounds to […]
Apr 17 2019 — Andrew Coyne — National Post — The consensus forecast of the impact of a United Conservative Party victory in Alberta on the rest of the country was: trouble ahead. Hadn’t its leader, Jason Kenney, promised to “stand up” for the province’s oil and gas industry, and “fight for a fair deal” in the federation? Didn’t the party platform promise to cut […]
Apr 17 2019 — John Ivison — National Post — Jason Kenney saved his vitriolic interventions in the Alberta election campaign for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rather than his opponent, NDP Premier Rachel Notley. This made sense — political attacks rarely work when the target is more popular than source and many voters held Notley in greater esteem than Kenney. But there was an edge […]
Apr 17 2019 — Colby Cosh — National Post — In the end it was as written. The ultra-hard final numbers in the Alberta election, as faithful readers have been warned, are going to take a while to arrive. But it became apparent shockingly early on Tuesday night that the United Conservative Party would secure a comfortable majority in the Alberta legislature, completing Jason Kenney’s […]
Apr 16 2019 — Andrew Coyne — National Post — The Nov. 30, 2015 election that brought the Liberal party to power in Newfoundland and Labrador marked the demise of the last nominally Conservative government in the country. After the election of a Liberal federal government the previous month and the defeat of the once-mighty Alberta Progressive Conservatives in the spring, observers wondered whether Conservatism, […]
Apr 15 2019 — John Ivison — National Post — I have spent much of the past month in the U.K., watching the roof cave in on a Westminster House of Commons divided against itself. Canada has its own divisions but they pale by comparison. However, there are common attributes between the SNC Lavalin affair and the British parliament’s civil war over Europe — the […]
Apr 15 2019 — Maura Forrest — National Post — It was a curious remark, seemingly unrelated to the scandal that had brought the Clerk of the Privy Council before the justice committee of the House of Commons to testify for a second time. Towards the end of his opening statement on SNC-Lavalin, Michael Wernick suggested the committee might want to look into an obscure […]
Apr 15 2019 — Tom Blackwell — National Post — Silent Invasion, Clive Hamilton’s ground-breaking book about China’s covert influence on Australian society, has been both applauded as an overdue exposé and criticized as an exaggeration of the problem. But when he finished the book, he received some unwanted validation of its central thesis: three Australian publishers declined to publish it, citing fear of retribution […]
Apr 13 2019 — National Post — In a quiet Calgary neighbourhood in the city’s southeast, United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney pushes open the passenger door of the still-moving blue pickup truck and jumps out to greet a crew of volunteers. “He loves these rolling exits,” says Rebecca Schulz, the UCP candidate for Calgary-Shaw, with an edge of motherly disapproval. Laureen […]