Oct 1 2022 — Darrell Bricker — Global News — The so-called “freedom convoy” that blocked Parliament Hill and several Canada-U.S. border crossings may have dispersed earlier this year, but it won’t be leaving our political conversation anytime soon. At least, not if opponents of the federal Conservative Party and their new leader, Pierre Poilievre, have anything to say about it. The most recent polling […]

Oct 1 2022 — Arthur Milnes — National Newswatch — Most historians will agree that Lester B. Pearson, Brian Mulroney and Sir Robert Borden wrote the most comprehensive political and personal memoirs of our past national leaders. Borden’s two volumes, published after his 1937 death, were a decade-long project for Canada’s 8th Prime Minister. They remain a treasure trove for students of the Borden period […]

Sep 30 2022 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — Call it political slow-walking, or over-promising and under-delivering — this was the week it all caught up with us. Sluggish progress on confronting climate change left our infrastructure vulnerable on the Atlantic Coast. Years of hand-wringing on housing affordability has left our economy vulnerable to recession. And incremental progress on long-standing and well-known Indigenous wounds […]

Sep 30 2022 — Shannon Proudfoot — Globe and Mail — Nearly everyone who speaks about Bill Blaikie talks, somehow, about bigness. There was the towering intellectual and moral reputation he acquired over three decades representing Winnipeg for the NDP in the House of Commons, where even those who ferociously disagreed with him always listened when he spoke. He exerted a gravitational pull, so that people […]

Sep 30 2022 — Shachi Kurl — Ottawa Citizen — Plus ça change. It should not come as a surprise to any Canadian political watcher worth their salt that the Conservative Party of Canada appears to have a little wind in its sails after the election (well, coronation really) of leader Pierre Poilievre. After years of being essentially locked in a statistical tie with the […]

Sep 30 2022 — Bob Rae — Policy Magazine — The 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly began two weeks ago. We are meeting at a time of major disruption in the global economy, geopolitics and politics, the sustainability of the planet, global public health, the pace of technological change, and the inevitable human consequences of all of the above. The situation does […]

Sep 30 2022 — Arthur Milnes — National Newswatch — America’s First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, was in Ottawa on this date in 1999 joining our Prime Minister’s spouse, Aline Chrétien in advocating for young children in North and South America. Clinton delivered a passionate address calling attention to children’s needs, particularly in the developing nations part of our hemisphere. “Every two seconds another child […]

Sep 29 2022 — Arthur Milnes — National Newswatch — Only two days before he recommended (successfully) to the Governor General that Parliament be dissolved to make way for the famed 1988 free trade election, Canada’s 18th Prime Minister addressed the UN General Assembly in New York City. And in doing so, Brian Mulroney took his case for needed action by the Americans to combat […]

Sep 29 2022 — Sabrina Maddeaux — National Post — Jason Kenney’s right — Alberta offers more opportunities for young people than Ontario. “Actually, I love Calgary.” This is the sort of statement that, when uttered to other Toronto-based millennials, used to earn me blank stares and dubious eye rolls. Most could never see themselves leaving the city for nearby Hamilton, let alone Alberta. I […]

Sep 29 2022 — Max Fawcett — National Observer — If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. When it comes to electoral reform, that ought to be the attitude of both Justin Trudeau’s Liberals and Jagmeet Singh’s NDP. After failing to reach an agreement on the best way to replace Canada’s first-past-the-post system, both sides have since moved on to other priorities. But […]

Sep 29 2022 — Althia Raj — Toronto Star — For a party that prides itself on standing up for minority rights, supporting a Quebec law that strips the rights of non-francophones is a head-scratcher. The federal NDP and the Green Party’s Elizabeth May voted to endorse the use of the notwithstanding clause and Quebec’s controversial Bill 96 Wednesday, by supporting Bloc Québécois legislation that […]

Sep 29 2022 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — A fourth forecaster has projected a little recession for Canada, and this time it’s supposed to start next week. Deloitte Canada joins economists at Bank of Montreal, Desjardins and Royal Bank in seeing two straight quarters of “mild” economic contraction in our near future — perhaps as soon as the fourth quarter of 2022 which […]

Sep 28 2022 — John Ivison — National Post — For Justin Trudeau, the idea is more interesting than the implementation. He’s always more excited about “what’s new” than absorbed in executing decisions already made. The Liberal government’s proposals for a national dental-care program are a case in point. The Liberals have become converts to the idea of subsidized dental care for lower-income Canadians not […]

Sep 28 2022 — Thomas S. Axworthy — National Newswatch — On this date in 2000, Canada’s 15th Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Pierre Trudeau, passed into history.  To mark the anniversary, I turned to my friend Tom Axworthy, who served with distinction as principal secretary and chief speechwriter to Mr. Trudeau. By Tom Axworthy Pierre Trudeau passed away on September 28,2000 and this anniversary naturally […]

Sep 28 2022 — Leah Gazan — Hill Times — The prime minister has called it a genocide. The National Inquiry’s Final Report into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) offered a roadmap for action. Yet more than three years after its release, the crisis of violence against Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people continues unabated. We cannot have meaningful reconciliation in this […]