Jun 19 2018 — John Ibbitson — Globe and Mail — Yes, the Conservatives had a popular hockey coach as candidate, but their thumping of the Liberals in Chicoutimi-Le Ford, Monday night, should worry the Grits. Canadian voters are not rallying to the Liberals in solidarity as Justin Trudeau confronts Donald Trump over tariffs and trade. If that confrontation damages the economy, watch out. Next year […]

Jun 18 2018 — Alan Broadbent and Kevin Page — National Newswatch — In his address to the UN General Assembly last fall, Prime Minister Trudeau made it clear that Canada’s advocacy on human rights abroad needed to be backed up by greater protections for human rights at home. With the release of the National Housing Strategy last November, the federal government took an important step in that […]

Jun 19 2018 — Glen Pearson — National Newswatch — I caught his stare as I was brought into the House of Commons for the first time and just couldn’t read it.  It was late-2006, shortly after I had won a by-election as a Liberal in London, Ontario.  Paul Dewar had entered the House as a newcomer for the NDP only a few months before.  […]

Jun 18 2018 — John Ivison — National Post — The Conservatives have made clear their preferred ballot question in the 2019 election — the cost to the average family of Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax. They filibustered all night last Thursday to highlight their point that finance minister Bill Morneau won’t release that figure, despite having the analysis to hand. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party’s Twitter […]

Jun 18 2018 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — As the last national assembly sitting before the Oct. 1 provincial vote was winding down last week, a brief encounter with Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard yielded an unsolicited prediction. “I have a secret for you,” he told me on his way out of a Radio-Canada studio. “I will win the election.” Perhaps that was his […]

Jun 18 2018 — Mark Winfield — Policy Options — Incoming Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s platform commitments present the new Progressive Conservative government with a complicated fiscal situation. There will be lost revenues if he goes forward with the elimination of the greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program and cuts to gasoline, corporate and income taxes. When you combine this with his spending promises, the government will […]

Jun 18 2018 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — You really have to hand it to Donald Trump. It takes a figure of unique capabilities to unite Canadians from sea to sea in one great passionate cause: despising Donald Trump. Who would have predicted that national unity would be achieved through shared revulsion at the blundering president’s vandalistic actions on tariffs and trade? But […]

Jun 18 2018 — Tom Parkin — Sun Media — If you’re a fan of politicians who play cynical political games at public expense, good times are coming. The federal government’s carbon pricing legislation passed in the Senate last week. Across Canada, carbon pricing will become mandatory on Jan. 1, 2019. Nine of 10 provinces already have carbon plans in place. But now a trio […]

Jun 18 2018 — Andrew Steele — National Newswatch — In the recent election, voters crushed the Ontario Liberals to just seven seats and elected Doug Ford as Premier. As a result, some may be tempted to call the defeat a repudiation of the broad Liberal policy. But the reality is the election served to enshrine the core Liberal transformations of the last fifteen years. […]

Jun 17 2018 — Vicky Mochama — Toronto Star — After five days languishing on the Mediterranean, the Aquarius, a migrant rescue boat, finally sailed into port in Valencia, Spain. The ship, carrying hundreds of mostly North African migrants, had been turned away by Italian and Maltese authorities. In Italy, the mayor of Palermo offered to open his city’s port, as did mayors in Naples, […]

Jun 17 2018 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — The fact Doug Ford won a majority government is now old news, so let’s turn to why he won. In the days after the polls closed, my firm, Navigator, undertook a research study to determine why voters made the choices they did. The research was based on a simple premise: If we could figure why […]

Jun 17 2018 — Tiffany Gooch — Toronto Star — The results of the provincial election delivered a devastating blow to the Ontario Liberal Party. This week, the remaining members of caucus met and unanimously endorsed John Fraser as interim leader as the party embarks on its rebuilding process. After 15 years spent sensibly building the province of Ontario, the Ontario Liberal Party now enters […]

Jun 17 2018 — Michael Smyth — The Province — What could possibly go wrong? That’s the question New Democrats and Green party members around B.C. are asking themselves after NDP MLA Leonard Krog confirmed the news revealed in this space last Sunday: He’s running to be the mayor of Nanaimo. Why is this such a big deal? Because Krog’s move sets up a crucial […]

Jun 17 2018 — Robin V. Sears — Toronto Star — In the spring of 1985, as a young staffer, I accompanied former West German chancellor Willy Brandt to Moscow. He led the first delegation of…

Jun 16 2018 — Chris Selley — National Post — The Supreme Court of Canada struck a brave blow on Friday for LGBTQ students who would be compelled to attend a proposed law school at Trinity Western University — a small, private, evangelical Christian school in Langley, B.C., whose “community covenant” prohibits sexual relations except among married men and women. That is to say, they […]