Jun 29 2020 — Postmedia — Even with travel fears, economic collapse and government restrictions there were still 201,866 border crossings from the United States into Canada in one week this month, according to the most recent data. For Canadians watching the seemingly uncontrolled rise in COVID-19 cases raging south of the border, that seems alarming. From the perspective of how […]
Jun 29 2020 — Postmedia — WE Charity, which has close ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family — and which will receive millions of dollars to administer a federal student volunteer grant program — has received a series of exclusively sole-source contracts from the federal government over the last three years, government records show. Sole-source contracts are government […]
Jun 29 2020 — John Ivison — Postmedia — George W. Bush never did say “Mission Accomplished,” as he declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq. In fact he said: “Our mission continues.” But the giant banner that was used as a backdrop aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln trumpeted that bombastic message, and the incident became a byword for hubris. Fortunately for […]
Jun 25 2020 — John Ivison — Postmedia — La Maison des Collines is a six-bed palliative care home for residents of the Gatineau Hills in Wakefield, Que. In normal times, it receives close to half its operating budget from the provincial government and raises the other half from fundraising events like golf tournaments, wine-and-cheese evenings and walk-a-thons. These are not normal times. With […]
Jun 22 2020 — Stuart Thomson — Postmedia — Erin O’Toole’s Conservative leadership campaign is alleging that someone in a Member of Parliament’s office passed sensitive login information to rival Peter MacKay’s campaign, giving his chief competitor access to virtually all high-level campaign activity, according to a letter sent to police and obtained by the National Post. The O’Toole campaign believes at least 138 […]
Jun 15 2020 — John Ivison — Postmedia — Planned obsolescence is more typical in industrial design than financing – think washing machines with wear-prone mechanical components that can’t be fixed cheaply. But the government may have designed its Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility to fail. The long-awaited liquidity backstop for big businesses hit by the pandemic was announced by Justin Trudeau on May […]
Jun 13 2020 — Adrian Humphreys — Postmedia — In an effort to discover if Nova Scotia’s rampage killer had any assistance in planning his April murder spree, the RCMP is tracking down all calls made on the phones at the gunman’s two denture clinics for more than a year before the murders, and for two days afterwards. The RCMP asked a court to […]
May 29 2020 — John Ivison — Postmedia — There was a wonderful incongruity to Justin Trudeau’s latest pitch for Canada’s bid to win a temporary seat on the UN Security Council. It came on the International Day of the Peacekeeper, at a time when Canada’s contribution to a force it helped create in 1956 is at its lowest ever level. Canada has just […]
May 27 2020 — Andrew Cohen — Postmedia — Stephen Harper has been out of office for four-and-a-half years, but he can still draw a crowd of conservatives and a chorus of critics. And nurse a hell of a grudge. We salute former prime ministers when they return to private life. They dislike each other – a venerable Canadian tradition – but we like […]
May 26 2020 — Matt Gurney — Postmedia — Premier Doug Ford must call a public inquiry into the state of Ontario’s long-term care (LTC) homes. That wasn’t true even a week ago, when Ford announced an independent commission, but not a public inquiry (a defensible position, I argued in a column at the time). But the details in Tuesday’s report into the horrific […]
May 25 2020 — Brian Platt — Postmedia — As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defends political parties making use of the federal COVID-19 wage subsidy, Conservative leadership candidates are slamming their own party for taking the money. The federal Conservatives, Liberals and NDP have all said they applied for the wage subsidy due to a steep drop in political donations, and have already received […]
May 23 2020 — Chris Selley — Postmedia — On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made one of his clearer attempts to explain his mostly baffling obsession with winning a temporary seat on the UN Security Council. Basically, he told reporters, the time after COVID-19 will be a lot like the time after the Second World War. It will require multilateral action along the […]
May 13 2020 — John Ivison — Postmedia — Extreme diseases require extreme remedies, but the debts racked up by Canadian governments to respond to COVID-19 run the very real risk of ruining the next generation. National Bank Financial warned this week that Canada’s triple-A credit rating could come under review because combined federal and provincial deficits this year could add up to $350 […]
May 6 2020 — Brian Platt — Postmedia — First quarter Conservative leadership fundraising data show Erin O’Toole biggest advantage is in Alberta and B.C., while Peter MacKay is stronger in Atlantic Canada and possibly Quebec. Ontario is more of a mixed bag for the two frontrunners; MacKay raised the most money in the province, while O’Toole has more individual donors.
Apr 14 2020 — Postmedia — Conservative leader Andrew Scheer fended off criticism on Tuesday after his family of seven flew to Ottawa on a small government jet, saying the decision was not at odds with the advice of public health officials. Speaking to reporters, Scheer said passengers aboard the nine-seat Challenger jet, which was taking Scheer and two other MPs […]