Nov 7 2019 — L. Ian MacDonald — Policy Magazine — Elizabeth May was in a good mood as the train pulled out of Toronto’s Union Station on its way to Vancouver. As May wrote for Policy Magazine in her contribution to our The Canadian Idea issue in July, the train is her favourite way of travelling for several reasons. The Canadian is the pride of […]
Oct 27 2019 — Don Newman — Policy Magazine — Monsieur Blanchet’s Tour de Force Column/Don Newman Take a bow, Yves-François Blanchet. In the federal election on October 21 st , you changed the political landscape in Canada by changing the political landscape in Québec. Almost singlehandedly, you have revived the Bloc Québécois, taking it from ten seats to thirty-two and making it the third […]
Oct 22 2019 — L. Ian MacDonald — Policy Magazine — Monday’s election results have generated a new political environment for every leader who’ll be standing in the House when the lights go on. Now that the results are in and the Trudeau government has been re-elected with a minority, set aside Nov. 4 as a good candidate for the swearing-in. For symbolic starters, it will […]
Oct 18 2019 — L. Ian MacDonald — Policy Magazine — Amid a whirlwind of minority government speculation, a quick primer on modern convention. If there were any residual doubt as to the overwhelming, catalyzing impact of polls on our political narratives, it was dispelled on October 11th. That day, CBC’s polling aggregator, Éric Grenier, reported for the first time since the federal election campaign began […]
Oct 11 2019 — L. Ian MacDonald — Policy Magazine — Perhaps it was indicative that the last leaders’ debate in French was a serious matter when the producers relegated Quebec’s Bill 21 on secular dress codes to the end of the two-hour program. “We received a ton of questions on laicité,” conceded debate host Patrice Roy, the veteran Radio-Canada journalist and anchor. Come to that, […]
Oct 8 2019 — L. Ian MacDonald — Policy Magazine — In the first of the federal election campaign’s two debates sanctioned by the new Leaders’ Debates Commission, Trudeau held steady, Scheer came out snarling and Singh became a better-known commodity. Two things happened away from the TV leaders’ debate studio that may have broken to the advantage of Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer. First, in the […]
Aug 22 2019 — Lisa Van Dusen — Policy Magazine — Before retiring from a distinguished foreign service career last year, Senator Peter Boehm served as Canadian sherpa to the 2018 G7 in Charlevoix, Québec. Ahead of the G7 summit in Biarritz, France, he spoke with Policy Associate Editor Lisa Van Dusen about his Biarritz Schadenfreude, the emotional roller coaster of Charlevoix, those notorious Donald Trump […]
Jul 10 2019 — Jeremy Kinsman — Policy Magazine — The 17th-century British politician and diplomat Sir Henry Wotton’s most enduring legacy was his observation that “An ambassador is an honest gentleman sent to lie abroad for the good of his country.” While the comment was meant wryly, the controversy over the leaked cables of Sir Kim Darroch, now-former British ambassador to the United States, […]
Jun 5 2019 — Policy Magazine — This is a big week for Joe Clark. On June 4th, 40 years ago, Clark was sworn in as Canada’s 16th prime minister. And June 5th marks his 80th birthday. Through all the years, in triumph and turmoil, the man from High River has marked these milestones with the two women in his life; his […]
Apr 26 2019 — Yaroslav Baran — Policy Magazine — By the time Ukraine’s voters cast their ballots in the second round of presidential elections on April 21st, it was all but certain what the outcome would be — change was in the air. Indeed, when the ballots were counted, 73 per cent of voters had voted for a new president. “Chocolate King” oligarch Petro […]
Feb 5 2019 — Policy Magazine — What a difference a year can make. Last year, a buoyant, synchronized global expansion set an optimistic mood at Davos, President Emmanuel Macron of France was confident that the battle against populism was turning, Britain was expected to muddle through on Brexit, President Donald Trump’s speech gave some hope that his tweet was worse than […]
Jul 20 2018 — L. Ian MacDonald — Policy Magazine — The mid-summer cabinet shuffle was about getting the Liberal government past rough patches through to the October 2019 election. And a lot of the campaign positioning from their perspective is about Ontario and Quebec, the heartland of Liberal dynasties going back to Laurier’s time. Ontario has been responsible for the last two majority governments, giving […]
Oct 18 2017 — Jack M. Mintz — Policy Magazine — As I write this article on the latest version of private corporate tax reform, not all the details have been revealed. Nor has there been sufficient time to fully digest the October amendments to the historic July 18, 2017 proposals and understand their economic impacts. As a reminder, the July 18 proposals included three major […]
Jun 16 2017 — Yaroslav Baran — Policy Magazine — The coming week will mark the beginning of a protracted political drama in British Columbia, with Premier Christy Clark recalling the legislature for a Speech from the Throne — presumably step one on the ill-fated road to try to establish the confidence of the legislature in her government. Many have predicted it will amount to […]
May 14 2017 — Elizabeth May — Policy Magazine — At a moment in politics when it seems positive firsts are few and far between, the news that the BC Green Party — the BC cousin of the federal Greens — will be forming its first-ever caucus in North America and in my home province was a rare blast of blessed good news. The results […]