Dec 11 2018 — John Ivison — National Post — Could the federal government really cancel the multibillion-dollar contract to supply Saudi Arabia with armoured vehicles? After all, it is the eve of an election year, and southwestern Ontario — where the light armoured vehicles are made, in London — will be a key electoral battleground. The Liberals hold two of five seats in the […]

Dec 11 2018 — C. Scott Clark and Peter DeVries — National Newswatch — The Liberals should not set a target date for a balanced budget, but they should take action in the 2019 budget to eliminate “unannounced” spending, included in the 2018 Budget and 2018 Update, in order to reduce the deficit in future years. In the weeks leading up to the Fall Update, the Conservative opposition has […]

Dec 11 2018 — Robyn Urback — CBC — Looking back now, Doug Ford’s campaign promise to conduct an independent audit of Ontario’s finances — essentially duplicating the work of the already independent provincial auditor general — was a harbinger of how this government would go about finding its “efficiencies.” The new PC government would hire former B.C. premier Gordon Campbell to lead its […]

Dec 11 2018 — Andrew Coyne — National Post — It took several days for news of the Dec. 1 arrest of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver to leak out. Judging by the reaction out of China, that was probably just as well. The arrest, vice foreign minister Le Yucheng fumed, was “in disregard of the law, unreasonable, merciless and very evil.” […]

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 — Chris Nelson — Calgary Herald — We hear enough from politicians these days so it’s with trepidation I step aside for a few paragraphs to provide a platform for our prime minister to regale us with his worldview. You see, while hardly Churchillian in tone or content, his expressed view is vital in gaining true insight. Therefore it needs reading and […]

Dec 10 2018 — Don Lenihan — National Newswatch — Tomorrow, Canada will sign the United Nations Global Compact on Migration in Marrakesh, Morocco, and so it should. For Canada, at least, this is a no-brainer. At least, it seemed to be, until Andrew Sheer shot up a flare in Question Period last week. Now everyone has a view. Sheer claims that the Trudeau government […]

Dec 10 2018 — Dan Leger — Chronicle Herald — Bears might be prowling the stock indexes, but shares in hate are enjoying a bull market like we haven’t seen in generations. Western democracies, once justly proud of their openness and tolerance, are seeing the intolerant minority growing bolder and more violent. In Canada, federal statistics captured almost 2,100 hate crimes reported to police in […]

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 9 2018 — Jim Warren — Sun Media — Last week, the newly elected Quebec Premier Francois Legault and his party the Coalition Avenir Quebec introduced legislation to raise the minimum age from 18 to 21 in Quebec to consume and purchase all cannabis products. The bill will also ban the consumption of all cannabis products in all public spaces including parks and playgrounds. […]

Dec 9 2018 — Joe Oliver — Sun Media — Next week in Marrakesh, Morocco, Canada will sign the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration which Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen said our government was actively involved in drafting. Canada will then be politically and possibly legally committed to migration principles that could erode our sovereignty, weaken our borders and cost billions. Yet […]

Dec 9 2018 — Lorrie Goldstein — Sun Media — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s accusation Ontario Premier Doug Ford is “moving the goalposts … (a) step backwards” on the province’s industrial greenhouse gas emission targets is laughable, given the Liberals’ sorry history on this issue. To say nothing of hypocritical. First, a brief explanation of why this controversy about “goalposts” erupted at Friday’s first ministers’ […]

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.