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 […]
Jan 29 2017 — Lisa Van Dusen — Policy Magazine — Ten days into the previously unthinkable Trump administration, the outlines of a conceptual framework through which to view the new American president’s political philosophy are beginning to emerge amid the fog of confusion and perpetual avalanche of tweets. We can safely conclude that Donald Trump is not a realist, after a week that began with […]
Jan 24 2017 — L. Ian MacDonald — Policy Magazine — It was not a speech urbi et orbi — to the city and the world. Donald Trump’s inaugural address was a campaign speech, reiterating the isolationist, protectionist and nativist themes of the unlikely election result that made him the 45th president of the United States. I meant what I said then, he said now. Power […]
Jan 9 2017 — Lisa Van Dusen — Policy Magazine — The Le Carré-ish tale of Russia’s narrative manipulation of America’s presidential election is more than a geopolitical inflection point, it’s an object lesson in the redefinition of power. In the two decades since the dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution brought on by the internet, power has shifted from the post-Cold War status quo of […]
Dec 4 2016 — L. Ian MacDonald — Policy Magazine — It’s not every day you see a party with a majority of seats in Parliament submit a minority report on an issue they themselves put on the political agenda. But it’s not every day a majority government relinquishes its majority on a parliamentary committee, as the Liberals did last June in allowing the opposition parties […]
Nov 27 2016 — L. Ian MacDonald — Policy Magazine — Maybe it was the jet lag. Justin Trudeau woke up Saturday morning in Madagascar, eight time zones ahead of Ottawa, and was informed that Fidel Castro had died Friday night in Cuba. At noon local time, four o’clock in the morning back home, Trudeau’s office issued a statement that read as though the prime minister […]
Nov 20 2016 — L. Ian MacDonald — Policy Magazine — On January 20, Donald Trump will stand on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol and be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. In delivering his inaugural address, he will be looking out directly to the Canadian Embassy, just a couple of blocks away on Pennsylvania Avenue. Canadians gathered at the […]
Nov 18 2016 — Lisa Van Dusen — Policy Magazine — Among the many unsettling developments of the incipient Trump era, Oxford Dictionaries this week declared “post-truth” its international word of the year. The term is defined by the dictionary as an adjective “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” […]