Jun 23 2018 — John Ivison — National Post — The Gnomes of Ottawa may not be the secretive, underground creatures of modern fairy tales. But the men and women who have run Canada’s great institutions have tended to be equally shy and enigmatic. Until now, that is. Richard Wagner, the new chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, held a press conference Friday […]
Jun 23 2018 — Andrew Coyne — National Post — The journalist Susan Delacourt raised eyebrows recently with a column floating the possibility of a summer election. It wasn’t clear what set her off — it would rather fly in the face of federal legislation fixing Oct. 21, 2019 as the date, among other objections — aside from the mounting threat to the country’s well-being […]
Jun 22 2018 — National Post — One day in August 2000, Valerie Bourne — at the time the publisher of the Creston Valley Advance, a small community newspaper in British Columbia’s southern interior — received a visit in her office from one of the newsroom’s two reporters. The reporter, a woman in her early 20s whom Bourne later described as having […]
Jun 22 2018 — National Post — News broke late Thursday that the government was renewing the federal equalization program — with no changes. But Alberta’s United Conservative Party was ready for it. UCP leader Jason Kenney planted himself in front of some rail tanker cars and took advantage of Alberta’s mid-June bounty of sunlight — more than 17 hours — to […]
Jun 20 2018 — Andrew Coyne — National Post — You must understand, there is never going to be a turning point. People keep expecting, even predicting one: the dramatic “have you no decency, sir” moment when Donald Trump at long last goes too far, even for his supporters, and begins his inevitable decline and fall. But life is not a movie, and resists our […]
Jun 20 2018 — John Ivison — National Post — Promise made, promise kept — which is not something this government has been able to say very often. The passage of the pot-legalization bill before the summer recess was crucial for Justin Trudeau, who during his 959 days in power has garnered a reputation as a promise-breaker. After reneging on the pledge to usher in […]
Jun 20 2018 — David Reevely — National Post — Relief is here, premier-designate Doug Ford told his raucous new caucus at Queen’s Park on Tuesday morning as they prepare to take over the provincial government next week. Ford gave a quickie version of his stump speech from the Progressive Conservatives’ successful campaign before closing the meeting of six dozen Tory MPPs, most of them […]
Jun 19 2018 — John Ivison — National Post — The results of the Chicoutimi-Le Fjord byelection suggest the Bloc Québecois chapter in Quebec electoral history is over — and that the NDP’s is closing. The convincing Conservative victory on Monday night may not offer great insights into how the general election will play out next year, particularly given the low voter turnout of just […]
Jun 19 2018 — Andrew Coyne — National Post — For twelve exciting hours last week, Parliamentary business was held up by a Conservative procedural tactic forcing a vote on every one of 200 items in the Main Estimates. The marathon voting session was in protest at the Liberal government’s failure to release detailed projections of the cost to Canadian households of pricing emissions of […]
Jun 18 2018 — John Ivison — National Post — The Conservatives have made clear their preferred ballot question in the 2019 election — the cost to the average family of Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax. They filibustered all night last Thursday to highlight their point that finance minister Bill Morneau won’t release that figure, despite having the analysis to hand. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party’s Twitter […]
Jun 16 2018 — Chris Selley — National Post — The Supreme Court of Canada struck a brave blow on Friday for LGBTQ students who would be compelled to attend a proposed law school at Trinity Western University — a small, private, evangelical Christian school in Langley, B.C., whose “community covenant” prohibits sexual relations except among married men and women. That is to say, they […]
Jun 16 2018 — Andrew Coyne — National Post — The Great Trade War of 2018, historians will record, began June 1 with the imposition of steep tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum into the United States, including Canada’s. The war, that is, began without us. The only question is how we will respond. Opinion has divided sharply. The War Party, including the government […]
Jun 15 2018 — Maura Forrest — National Post — After a 12-hour filibuster that lasted through the night, the Conservatives ended their voting marathon on Friday morning, announcing they’d used “every tool” they have to force the Liberals to reveal the cost of their federal carbon tax. But the procedural tactic seems to have brought the Liberals no closer to releasing the documents the […]
Jun 14 2018 — John Ivison — National Post — The office of the auditor general has been deemed infallible since Sheila Fraser almost single-handedly brought down Paul Martin’s Liberal government with her report on the sponsorship scandal. Ministers whose departments have been unfortunate enough to fall foul of a critical audit have genuflected and promised to fix the problem pronto. That’s what made a […]
Jun 14 2018 — John Ivison — National Post — The idea that Bill Blair was ever an undercover cop in the Toronto Police Services drug unit does not speak well to the intelligence of the city’s felons. He stands erect as a grenadier at six foot four and might as well have: “Keep Calm, I’m a Police Officer” etched on his forehead. He maintains […]