Feb 19 2019 — Toronto Star — The pamphlet slams the PPC for its support of marijuana legalization, and says PPC Leader Maxime Bernier is “open” to more safe-injection sites. It then asks, “How is this different from Justin Trudeau? Are these your values?” PPC candidate Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson, who is running in the Feb. 25 federal byelection, told Star Vancouver the […]
Feb 18 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — In a past political life, working for a long-ago premier of Ontario, Gerald Butts helped usher in a new provincial holiday called Family Day. Little did Butts know that he’d be marking Family Day in 2019 stepping down from a job at the very top of a government led by his old university friend, Justin […]
Feb 18 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — By resigning his position as principal secretary to Justin Trudeau as he faces allegations of political interference in the judicial file of the engineering firm SNC-Lavalin, his long time friend and alter ego Gerald Butts may hope to deflect the potentially lethal friendly fire that is headed straight for the prime minister. He was the […]
Feb 17 2019 — Toronto Star — Just two days after resigning as Minister of Veterans Affairs, Jody Wilson-Raybould was still keeping up with plans to visit with veterans. On Thursday, Wilson-Raybould visited the George Derby Centre, a senior care centre located in Burnaby, B.C., to help distribute Valentine’s Day cards made by students. The visit was planned while she was still […]
Feb 17 2019 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — Politicians of all stripes love whistleblowers — until they are in power. Then the offending civil servant, public employee, or angry citizen becomes a “disloyal, illegal leaker!” Of all the many hypocritical hobby horses in political life there are few that can match this dichotomy. The Ford government was badly bruised this month when their […]
Feb 17 2019 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — This week has shown the Canadian public is resolved in its belief that politicians and public servants must, at first instance, be up to no good. Take the so-called scandal around the SNC-Lavalin matter, and the emerging consensus that the government has misbehaved from the get-go.
Feb 17 2019 — Penny Collenette — Toronto Star — Surprising as it may seem, politics is built on principles, loyalty and trust. With Jody Wilson-Raybould’s recent resignation from cabinet, a rupture in trust has clearly occurred in the government. It was all so different in 2015. History was made when the PM welcomed Wilson-Raybould as the first Indigenous Minister of Justice and Attorney General. […]
Feb 16 2019 — Toronto Star — People who know former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould well believe she’s unlikely to leave the Liberals and cross the floor to another party in the imminent federal election — an election she told the Star she intends to run in. Wilson-Raybould initially said in a Jan. 23 interview she is still seeking re-election in Vancouver-Granville, […]
Feb 15 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Elections, at their most basic level, are exchanges of trust: voters choose which politicians get their trust, and politicians trust voters to make an informed choice. A sweeping new report, however, shows that Canada is heading into this election year with a not-insignificant trust problem, even at this most fundamental level.
Feb 15 2019 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — The NDP’s director of communications is one of three party staffers leaving their jobs as leader Jagmeet Singh campaigns for his first federal seat in a British Columbia byelection. Kerry Pither, a communications specialist who joined Singh’s front office last spring, will resign March 1 to spend more time with her family, said Singh’s chief […]
Feb 15 2019 — Tonda MacCharles — Toronto Star — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admits his former justice minister and attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould challenged her boss last fall to clarify if he was “directing” her to make a decision in the disputed bribery prosecution of SNC-Lavalin. Trudeau refused Friday to say exactly what he told his former attorney general or whether he indicated his […]
Feb 14 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — The story of Jody Wilson-Raybould’s departure from cabinet, incomplete as it now stands, is not a #MeToo moment in Canadian politics. The allegations at hand are, of course, not sexual in nature, and the sort of “undue pressure” to which Wilson-Raybould is said to have been subjected is by no means equivalent to the stories […]
Feb 14 2019 — Toronto Star — Liberals are lining up behind Justin Trudeau’s denial of allegations that his aides pressured Jody Wilson-Raybould over a criminal prosecution, with one even suggesting she was removed as justice minister because she didn’t speak French. Rocked by the most serious controversy yet to hit his government, the prime minister has the “benefit of the doubt” […]
Feb 13 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — In the wake of Jody Wilson-Raybould’s resignation from Justin Trudeau’s cabinet, a war of words between the prime minister and his former attorney general seems inevitable. If the developments of the past two days are any indication it could get ugly. Wilson-Raybould would hardly have resigned if her interpretation of the interaction she had with […]
Feb 12 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Justin Trudeau is often accused of being too emotional and talking too much. The prime minister exhibited neither trait publicly in the events that led to Jody Wilson-Raybould’s resignation on Tuesday, and that probably played a large part in this dramatic unravelling at the top levels of Trudeau’s government.