Toronto Star

Mar 29 2020 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — Peter MacKay is self-isolating. The presumptive front-runner in the Conservative leadership campaign had sought to avoid this, keeping himself separate from his family after they returned from a holiday in Mexico and they then entered into isolation per Canada’s rules to prevent spread of the COVID-19 virus. According to his camp, Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay and […]

Mar 29 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Federal authorities have identified their economic arch-enemy in this crisis, and it is bankruptcy. Both the federal government and the Bank of Canada showered small businesses with money and measures on Friday — tens of billions in subsidies, credit and deferred taxes, plus many billions more to help the financial system function well enough to […]

Mar 29 2020 — Tiffany Gooch — Toronto Star — Today, the coronavirus growth curve in Detroit, Mich., is among the highest in the United States and as the city borders Windsor, Ont., new complexities in cross-border community and family care are occurring. For all of the focus on the impact on trade and supply chains between the U.S. and Canada, there has been far […]

Mar 29 2020 — Toronto Star — Responding to the events of the past few weeks, Canadians have proven their remarkable capacity for compassion, understanding and sacrifice. As the impact of COVID-19 has set in around the world, here at home our governments, businesses and fellow citizens have, for the most part, set out in earnest to do the right, Canadian thing.

Mar 29 2020 — Toronto Star — Managing a crisis successfully must be built on trust. Even authoritarian regimes don’t have the capacity to enforce the best behaviour of every citizen. No democracy would ever go there. But building a network of trust is a life’s work. A single bad decision can destroy that painstaking process, in an instant.

Mar 27 2020 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — –The federal Conservative Party’s suspension of its leadership contest amid the COVID-19 crisis was met Friday with stiff criticism from some party members. After weeks of mounting pressure, the party committee in charge of the race agreed to suspend the contest late Thursday night, reversing a decision from a week earlier to soldier on with […]

Mar 27 2020 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — By the time the federal Conservative party belatedly pulled the plug on its June leadership vote, Peter MacKay, the presumed front-runner to succeed Andrew Scheer, was well on the way to self-destruction. Knowing that campaign suspension train was about to leave the station on Thursday, MacKay’s team could apparently think of nothing better than to […]

Mar 25 2020 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — As an early adopter of self-isolation, Justin Trudeau could choose to get out of his home as early as Thursday. But while public-health rules could set him free, political-communication rules will probably keep Canada’s prime minister grounded for at least a little while longer. How long? No one is saying.

Mar 25 2020 — Alex Ballingall — Toronto Star — Many Canadians are seeing their incomes shrink amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, a new polls suggests, as businesses shut down, people are told to stay home and EI claims skyrocket. The national survey from the Angus Reid Institute found 44 per cent of respondents said someone in their household has “lost work” because of the pandemic. […]

Mar 24 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — What does the federal government know about the state of the economy that the rest of us don’t? The Liberals displayed a shocking lapse in judgment this week by lacing their legislation for economic aid with an attempt to corner vast tax-and-spend powers for the next 21 months. Aside from blundering politically and underestimating the […]

Mar 24 2020 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — The traditional distance between the government and opposition seats in the House of Commons is two swords’ length — roughly four metres — which just happens to be perfect for a Parliament sitting while the nation is in the midst of a pandemic. Political rivals, in other words, have been social distancing for centuries.

Mar 23 2020 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — There’s been help offered for homeowners, help for the unemployed, help for small businesses — hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies, supports and tax breaks, with much more to come as Ottawa tackles the current economic crisis. But there are many people who are still at risk of quickly falling through the cracks that […]

Mar 23 2020 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — A Fox News host recently proclaimed Donald Trump the perfect U.S. president to take on this pandemic because “he’s a germaphobe who’s tough on China and is a border hawk.” Whether or not you agree with Fox’s Jesse Watters, it is true that the COVID-19 crisis threatens to bring out the inner Trump in all […]

Mar 22 2020 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — As the spread of COVID-19 has utterly transformed life as we know it, it has also emerged as the most profound test of political leadership in a generation or more. Of course, the pandemic is, first and foremost, a health crisis. In the global response, doctors and public health authorities have been foregrounded, and rightfully […]

Mar 22 2020 — Penny Collenette — Toronto Star — “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” So said Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, on March 4, 1933. Governments exist to provide public safety and security for their citizens. But what happens when they can’t? How will our political leaders […]