Jun 22 2022 — Stephen Maher — The Line — It is bitterly ironic that the first female commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police may have to resign for pushing the force to be more open, but it is hard to imagine that Brenda Lucki will be able to maintain public confidence after evidence presented Tuesday in the inquiry into the Nova Scotia mass […]
May 31 2022 — Matt Gurney — The Line — In my 15 years or so of writing about firearms policy, here’s been a constant problem: gun policy is complicated, the broader public doesn’t know much about it, and it’s hard (impossible?) to make any coherent arguments without laying out the context, both of the specific proposals and the broader background. Working through what was […]
May 27 2022 — Andrew MacDougall — The Line — As far as warning signals go, a politician announcing they watch YouTube channels “late into the night” is a big one. Hard to ignore, really. Because the pandemic has shown us that “YouTube” plus “late night” is more often a recipe for falling down a rabbit hole than enlightenment. (See: Taylor-Greene, Marjorie) What to make, […]
May 26 2022 — Ken Boessenkool — The Line — Jason Kenney made the most common mistake. He mistook Alberta’s conservative disposition — our propensity to delight in what is present — for conservative ideology. Alberta has a disposition to appreciate the present while preserving traditions. We have a healthy skepticism of radical change. It’s a key reason we take so bloody long to change […]
May 24 2022 — Paula Simons — The Line — What is a reasonable general concern? That’s not a rhetorical question. I really don’t know the answer. I’m not sure anyone else does, either. And that’s exactly the problem with Bill S-7, a new piece of government legislation, which amends both the Customs Act and the Preclearance Act. Bill S-7 set a new standard to […]
May 20 2022 — Jen Gerson — The Line — The first time I had a proper conversation with Jason Kenney was about six years ago. The NDP were in power in Alberta; the federal Conservatives had cast about for a successor to Stephen Harper and, it was decided by silent consensus, said successor would not be Jason Kenney. So the former federal cabinet minister […]
Apr 13 2022 — Jen Gerson — The Line — Hello fellow home-owning millennials, and the Gen-Z plebians desperate to join us. I understand house lust. I do. You want an okay spot in the city free of the oppression of the landlord. Or, if you’re at that certain time of life, maybe you want a detached house in a decent neighbourhood. Nothing too fancy, […]
Apr 12 2022 — Joti Heir — The Line — How long does the government of Canada think people fleeing an invasion of their country have to wait on a callback? “I don’t know how long it will take, they don’t tell you, it just says someone will contact you for the appointment,” says Katie about her application to get a Canadian visitor visa under […]
Apr 11 2022 — Mitch Heimpel — The Line — The Liberal-NDP deal is going to be received very differently by different slices of the NDP’s electoral coalition — and some might bolt. The first real numbers on the Liberal-NDP deal came out thanks to Ipsos Reid, and they painted an interesting portrait of the electorate. The deal is broadly popular with the people you […]
Apr 1 2022 — Paul Wells — The Line — I wanted to speak to somebody from Operation Unifier, the seven-year Canadian Armed Forces training mission in Ukraine, for two reasons. I knew a soldier would have particular insight into the way Russia’s invasion is playing out. And I suspected that the things Canada has been doing for seven years to prepare for this war […]
Mar 24 2022 — Ken Boessenkool — The Line — In 2011, Stephen Harper’s election rally cry was “You can have a Liberal, NDP, Bloc coalition… or you can have a strong, stable, national majority conservative government.” 2011 was the first election in which Stephen Harper used the word “majority” in a successful electoral pitch. He had clawed his way to a majority by first […]
Mar 16 2022 — Jean Charest — The Line — My Conservative government will make significant changes and upgrades to our nation’s military capabilities. National security is a necessity, not a luxury. The war in Ukraine has illustrated the need to bolster our security capabilities here in Canada. The current government has remained content to underfund national defence for too long. The Liberal governments’ inaction […]
Mar 15 2022 — Matt Gurney — The Line — The war in Ukraine is, obviously, a Ukrainian story first and foremost. But the scale of the war’s global impact is undeniably massive (see my recent column on how it blew up a generation of German public policy in a week). Here in Canada, it’s having one interesting impact — it’s a shot in the […]
Mar 14 2022 — Mitch Heimpel — The Line — Rearmament is all the rage for NATO countries these days. The Germans reversed 30 years of post-unification pacifism in a weekend. The Lithuanians, who’ve been an uncommonly active foreign policy actor of late, have decided to increase their defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP. The Poles are demanding F-16s, so they can give older […]
Mar 11 2022 — Jen Gerson — The Line — If you happen to be seeking a slice of optimistic post-Cold War nostalgia, may I recommend the following clip from the CBC’s archives. Dated 1990, and featuring a young-ish Peter Mansbridge, it features the opening of the first McDonald’s in Moscow, a cultural milestone, and the beginning of the end of the Soviet era and […]