Dec 10 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — From the NAFTA front lines to Rideau Hall and the campaign trails of Ontario and Quebec, women were very much on the political centre stage in 2018. Here is a look at some hits but also some striking misses.
Dec 10 2018 — Robert Benzie — Toronto Star — Ontario’s fiscal watchdog says this year’s budget deficit is $12.3 billion — $1.2 billion lower than Finance Minister Vic Fedeli has projected. But financial accountability officer Peter Weltman also warned huge shortfalls will continue into the future unless the Progressive Conservative government makes dramatic spending cuts or increases taxes.
Dec 9 2018 — Tiffany Gooch — Toronto Star — As Michelle Obama embarks on her global book tour, connecting with audiences in promotion of her first book Becoming, she is proving herself to be a powerful political force for the causes she chooses to support. While she has been clear that she has no intention to run for public office herself, she has turned […]
Dec 9 2018 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — Among the craziness that has slowly taken over democratic politics in this century is the conviction that in campaigning, policy-making, and in governing itself, it is always and necessarily a zero-sum game. “I won because you lost, sucker!”
Dec 9 2018 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — Many believe that, in politics, your successor is your legacy. Consider the straight-as-an-arrow Sunday school teacher Jimmy Carter after the Machiavellian Nixon years. Or the steady, competent, experienced John Tory after the roller coaster term of Rob Ford. Or more recently, Doug Ford’s approach to smaller government focused resolutely on every day family affordability after […]
Dec 7 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — The last first ministers conference of Justin Trudeau’s current term in office was the most acrimonious. The imminence of a federal and an Alberta election certainly contributed to the tensions. But those tensions will outlast next year’s federal and provincial votes.
Dec 7 2018 — Jennifer Wells — Toronto Star — Premier Doug Ford owns this. The three Washington state commissioners who sat in judgement of Hydro One’s proposed $5.3-billion (U.S.) takeover of Spokane-based Avista Corp. could not have been more clear on this point.
Dec 7 2018 — David Rider — Toronto Star — The Doug Ford government has fired the chair of Waterfront Toronto and two other board members one day after the provincial auditor general criticized the agency over the Quayside project and more. Helen Burstyn told the Star provincial Infrastructure Minister Monte McNaughton called her around 9 p.m. Thursday, telling the chairwoman she was no longer […]
Dec 7 2018 — Tonda MacCharles — Toronto Star — Canada’s stunning arrest of a top executive of China’s telecom giant Huawei on a U.S. extradition request rippled through stock markets and around the world Thursday, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying he had nothing to do with the decision by Canadian justice officials. The arrest on Saturday of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer […]
Dec 6 2018 — Tonda MacCharles — Toronto Star — The federal government is considering further restrictions on handguns but will stop short of an absolute ban, as the cost to buy back legally owned handguns is pegged as high as $2 billion, the Star has learned. Escalating gun violence across the country, including Toronto, spurred calls for the federal Liberals to act. After public […]
Dec 6 2018 — Kevin Donovan — Toronto Star — Ontario’s new top cop, Ron Taverner, purchased a Toronto home privately last year from one of Premier Doug Ford’s closest advisers in both politics and business. Property records show that Taverner, the incoming Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner and a current Toronto Police superintendent, purchased the three-bedroom cottage-style home on Church Street in the Toronto neighbourhood […]
Dec 5 2018 — Toronto Star — Washington State regulators have rejected Hydro One’s proposed takeover of Avista Corp. citing political interference in the Ontario-based utility by the Doug Ford government. The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) said the $6.7-billion deal was not in the public interest because it was “evident” that decisions impacting Hydro One were influenced by “political considerations” […]
Dec 5 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — All is far from well between Rachel Notley’s Alberta government and Justin Trudeau’s Liberals. With the prime minister in the eye of the storm over the failure to get more oil to tidewater, no federal gesture between now and next fall’s election is likely to really lower the temperature between the two capitals. The combination […]
Dec 5 2018 — Robert Benzie — Toronto Star — The Ontario government’s chief accountant resigned earlier this fall because she refused to sign off on Finance Minister Vic Fedeli’s inflated $15 billion deficit, the Star has learned. Cindy Veinot, the provincial controller, quit in September because she “did not agree with accounting decisions made by the current government.”
Dec 5 2018 — Toronto Star — Former Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne’s signature “free” college and university tuition plan could soon cost $2 billion annually — a staggering 50 per cent higher than previous estimates, the provincial auditor general has found. Although the program, which will soon cost taxpayers about $650 million more a year than the old grant-and-loan system, was designed […]