Apr 21 2018 — Robert Benzie — Toronto Star — Doug Ford has taken the unprecedented step of appointing 11 Progressive Conservative candidates to run in the June 7 election — including the son of former premier Mike Harris. The Tory leader, who took the reins March 10 in the wake of former leader Patrick Brown’s departure, placed his own stamp on the party Saturday […]
Apr 21 2018 — Toronto Star — Earlier this week, Ontario PC leader Doug Ford made an announcement that sent a shock wave through the canyons of Bay Street. His first act, should he be elected premier, said Ford, would be to fire Mayo Schmidt, the president and CEO of Hydro One, and the company’s entire board of directors.
Apr 20 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — At a time when federal-provincial tensions are on the rise, two court rulings this week offer a timely reminder that the Constitution does not cast the provinces as junior partners of a unitary federation. In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court found that New Brunswick is within its rights to forbid its citizens to bring […]
Apr 20 2018 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hauled out not one, but three of his 2015 election slogans last weekend when he held his pipeline-crisis meeting with the premiers of Alberta and British Columbia. He talked of “hope and hard work” and declared that “better is always possible.” Trudeau even urged the warring provinces to see their rivals […]
Apr 18 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — It is rare that a single issue costs a federal ruling party its re-election. Based on the latest poll to measure the impact of the ongoing pipeline crisis on the political fortunes of its various protagonists, the fate of the Trans Mountain expansion is unlikely to alone determine that of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in next […]
Apr 18 2018 — Toronto Star — Hollywood darling Rob Lowe is playing a character called the Halifax Explosion in the sequel of the cult-classic stoner flick Super Troopers. In an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live Monday night, Lowe said that he is “obsessed” with the Halifax Explosion. “That was not in the script. My name was the Explosion. I went to […]
Apr 17 2018 — Tim Harper — Toronto Star — Over the next 18 months, at least four elections will shape the future of this nation. Starting in Ontario, followed by Quebec, Alberta and the country as a whole, voters will go to the polls. New Brunswick also votes this year and another vote in British Columbia cannot be ruled out. But with these key […]
Apr 17 2018 — Robert Benzie — Toronto Star — Lock her up! That’s Doug Ford’s Trump-ian threat about Kathleen Wynne after he accused the Liberal premier of campaigning on the taxpayer’s dime. The rookie Progressive Conservative leader on Tuesday said if he is elected June 7 he will commission an “outside audit of Kathleen Wynne’s reckless spending on his first day of office.” “If […]
Apr 17 2018 — Kristin Rushowy — Toronto Star — Jerry Brown, the California governor who was in town to talk climate change with Premier Kathleen Wynne, was snubbed Monday by the Progressive Conservatives, who refused to allow him to address the Ontario legislature. Wynne noted her government’s rebuffed request after holding a “fireside chat” with Brown, a leader whose state’s economy is the sixth […]
Apr 16 2018 — Alex Boutilier — Toronto Star — Facebook Canada is offering closed-door briefings to MPs tasked with publicly grilling the company later this week over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the Star has learned. An email obtained by the Star from Facebook Canada’s public policy team invited members of the House of Commons’ Ethics committee to meet privately with the company before their […]
Apr 16 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — Notwithstanding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to double down on the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, the plan faces the same hurdles today as it did before he hauled the feuding premiers of Alberta and British Columbia to Parliament Hill for a Sunday meeting. The federal bid to take a financial stake in the […]
Apr 16 2018 — Gillian Steward — Toronto Star — In the end Justin Trudeau didn’t have much choice. He couldn’t be seen to look weak when it comes to asserting federal authority in the dispute between Alberta and B.C. over the future of a trans-provincial pipeline that would ship diluted bitumen from the oilsands to the West Coast for export to Asia. That would […]
Apr 16 2018 — Tonda MacCharles and Bruce Campion-Smith — Toronto Star — The prime minister’s national security advisor Daniel Jean says it was his idea to brief reporters on the Jaspal Atwal affair to “de-bunk misinformation” in the media that the government had failed to heed prior warnings about the convicted would-be assassin’s attendance at Justin Trudeau’s events in India. Daniel Jean, testifying before the Commons standing […]
Apr 16 2018 — Michael Coren — Toronto Star — Doug Ford has some thinking to do. Or to be more realistic, Doug Ford’s new team of political handlers have some thinking to do, because the man who would be premier is not big on the old thinking business. His people are, however. They thrive on political machinations, adore back room antics, and having worked […]
Apr 15 2018 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — It is not hard to understand why angry, disillusioned voters are drawn to the politics of confrontation. “Stopping the gravy train” or “Draining the swamp” are seductive messages for those fed up with incompetence, corruption or the simple failure to govern credibly.