Aug 22 2023 — Harrison Ruess — The Line — As a participant in the Canadian political system for many years on the staff side, and in an ongoing way adjacently through news and agency work, let me be crystal clear: putting more money — and government money especially — into the system will not improve Canadian political discourse, or our democracy. While I generally […]
Aug 9 2023 — Harrison Ruess — The Line — It’s (semi) northern Ontario, 20 kilometres east of a small, pleasant town called Mattawa. It’s a beautiful sunset. The Ottawa River isn’t far away. There’s a group of teenagers a short way over with an acoustic guitar, doing a good job singing some classic rock tunes (“they’re too young to know these songs,” my wife […]
Jun 28 2023 — Kevin Newman — The Line — I know, I know, dear Line readers. Enough with the traditional media navel gazing. Our day in the sun is over, and we probably deserve some of the decline. Social media has devoured our special status in society, and the fact we even felt we had special status is reason enough to burn our house […]
Jun 23 2023 — The Line — Those who follow my work will know that I am an unreformed Calgary evangelist. I like this city for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that I’m a member of the Calgary CO-OP, a chain of local grocery stores. For those who are lucky enough to enjoy something like this, a co-op […]
Jun 20 2023 — Matt Gurney — The Line — It’s important not to get so lost in the abstract that we forget the tangible. This is especially important during elections, like the one currently underway in Toronto. The city has real problems. And you can’t blame voters for being worried about them. These are their lives. It’s a weird election. John Tory, re-elected to […]
May 25 2023 — Philippe Lagasse — The Line — David Johnston is an honourable man. As a former governor general, he holds the title of Right Honourable and he wears it better than many former prime ministers who share that moniker. Johnston is also a champion of trust in democratic institutions; he literally wrote a book called Trust: Twenty Ways to Build a Better […]
May 25 2023 — Jen Gerson — The Line — The facts before me don’t warrant any extraordinary leave from my ordinary degree of cynicism. Far be it from me to steal the thunder of my fellow editor, Matt Gurney, who did yeoman’s work combing through the Johnston report shortly after it came out on Tuesday. I think he did some of the most able […]
May 24 2023 — Matt Gurney — The Line — Former governor-general and current special rapporteur David Johnston released his first report into Chinese electoral interference and the related, uh, kerfuffle, on Tuesday. Johnston has deemed a full public inquiry unnecessary; as so much of the relevant material would need to remain classified, Johnston said, a full public inquiry would be neither full nor public. […]
May 17 2023 — Jen Gerson — The Line — I couldn’t help but ask myself: “How much larger will this tent city be allowed to grow before someone cracks down on it?” Literally. What street will prove the border? Forgive me for starting today’s column with an old anecdote: when I was in high school in the late ’90s, early aughts (which does not […]
May 1 2023 — Karamveer Lalh — The Line — About a year ago, in an article for The Hub, I tried to offer a basic classification of the types of conservative thought. I will not rehash my argument in that piece. Still, as a high-level sketch of that argument, I suggested that there are at least three distinct types of conservatives in Canada: Populists […]
Apr 28 2023 — Philippe Lagasse — The Line — Canadian defence spending is back in the news, thanks to an open letter urging the government to spend two per cent of GDP on the military and a leaked document suggesting Canada won’t hit that NATO target. Like ending the monarchy, defence spending is one of those issues that gets lots of attention once or […]
Apr 21 2023 — Matt Gurney — The Line — Allies told us vulnerable Canadian women in a conflict zone might get abducted. We didn’t believe them. Guess what happened next. In recent months, maybe going back over a year, the big debate has been whether Canada is broken. It’s draining. The fact that we’re debating it at all is not a great sign. It’s […]
Apr 20 2023 — Harrison Ruess — The Line — Politicians talk out of both sides of their mouths. We know this. But one of the most amazing cases in Canada of late must be this: the new “luxury” tax on aircraft sales. The impact of this supposed tax-the-rich scheme is currently being studied by the Finance Committee. If this isn’t a topic you’re immediately […]
Apr 19 2023 — Jen Gerson — The Line — If you want to fight, you have to know which battles are worth winning. Fight smart, not hard. Everybody is being dumb. Yes, I realize that most of my columns could start this way, however in the case of the incident in question, I believe the sentence above can truly be applied universally. This time, […]
Apr 11 2023 — Paul Wells — The Line — My new book, An Emergency In Ottawa: The Story of the Convoy Commission, is an odd duck. First, while it inhabits the space between two covers and will be sold in bookstores, it’s not a freestanding book. It’s the second issue of Sutherland Quarterly, an ambitious new project in long-form journalism from Sutherland House Books […]