Feb 16 2020 — Penny Collenette — Toronto Star — Are political comebacks worth the gamble? Peter MacKay wants to be prime minister of Canada. Joe Biden wants to be president of the United States. They are both grasping for a political brass ring that they believe should rightfully be theirs. Biden, 77, has previously vied to be the Democratic candidate. After years in the […]
Feb 16 2020 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — As a surge of populism sweeps the world, many Canadian commentators climb onto their high horses, pat themselves on the back and declare Canada immune to this short-sighted selfishness. Problem is, if you look below the surface, that notion simply doesn’t hold water. Canada is not unaffected by the factors that are driving this shift: […]
Feb 16 2020 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — Establishments are always terrified of the young. If you are in power in Hong Kong, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Chile or France today you might be tempted to exclaim, “With bloody good reason!” Armies of Molotov cocktail hurling adolescents on the streets understandably spook the powers that be. But denying the young any effective voice about […]
Feb 15 2020 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Connect the dots between the widespread Liberal dissent over the approval of Alberta’s Teck Frontier oilsands mine, the Indigenous unrest that has paralyzed the country’s rail system this week and Canada’s uphill campaign to secure a temporary seat on the UN’s Security Council and what you find is a prime minister whose moral authority is […]
Feb 15 2020 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — That old saying about Benito Mussolini is getting a new workout this week in Canada — the one about how dictators get the trains running on time. No one in Canada is of course calling for a return of fascism, except perhaps somewhere on Twitter, where people will say anything. But the railway chaos set […]
Feb 14 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — If governments need another reason to settle with Indigenous communities and figure out once and for all who controls what land, they need only look at their own books. Thursday’s shutdown of rail service for passengers across Canada and for cargo in half the country is only a sliver of the cost of conflict between […]
Feb 12 2020 — Linda McQuaig — Toronto Star — I want to start by turning myself in to Jason Kenney’s investigators. I admit to being against further oilsands development, making me a person of interest to the sleuths in Kenney’s $30-million “war-room” who are tasked with vilifying oilsands critics. Of course, they’re really hoping to unmask “foreign-funded special interests,” and I don’t have a […]
Feb 12 2020 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — It’s still in the mandate letters that Justin Trudeau has been giving to cabinet ministers since he was elected in 2015: “There remains no more important relationship to me and to Canada than the one with Indigenous peoples.” Substitute the word “impossible” for “important” and that sentence adequately sums up where that relationship appears to […]
Feb 12 2020 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — A group of allies and former staff members is preparing to help John Baird win the Conservative leadership if the former cabinet minister decides to enter the race. Baird, who is expected to announce his intentions within days, is weighing his desire to join the race against giving up the private-sector opportunities he’s taken on […]
Feb 11 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Jason Kenney has issued a long list of utterly terrible things that will happen to Canada if the federal government doesn’t approve the Frontier oilsands project in Alberta. Investors will balk, global markets will slam the door on Alberta, angry Albertans will lose their cool, endangered species — caribou! bison! — will not get the […]
Feb 10 2020 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — At doorstep after doorstep last fall, many politicians were promising voters a kinder, gentler Parliament in 2020. So how is that going? Have members of Parliament upped their game, tone-wise, in this new, post-election world? It’s very early to make definitive judgments — the House of Commons has only sat for two weeks since the […]
Feb 9 2020 — Toronto Star — It’s standing room only in a Calgary convention centre when Ontario Premier Doug Ford rushes in from stage right to be ushered onto the platform by United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney with a high-five and a hearty backslap before the two thrust their clasped hands skyward and the crowd cheers.
Feb 9 2020 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — If there is one lesson we learned this week, it is that digital media continues to shape politics in ways we still do not understand. Since its inception, strategists and pundits have treated digital media as a tool: a way of better understanding constituents and expanding reach to them. The reality is very different. Over […]
Feb 9 2020 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — As a very young scrutineer in local election campaigns, I would sit for long hours witnessing the fairness of the voting procedures in my poll. A short dinner break and then I would then sit with the two other party reps and several election officials, for many more hours that night, scrutinizing the count. It […]
Feb 9 2020 — Tiffany Gooch — Toronto Star — This month, in Toronto’s Union Station, there will hang a quilt by Canadian artist and poet Nadine Williams in commemoration of the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (International Decade). The piece is an intricately stitched work of art depicting the indestructible threads that tie Canadians across the continent of Africa. Separate, […]