Jan 28 2023 — Arthur Milnes — National Newswatch — It was on this date in 1942 that one of Canada’s greatest parliamentary performers, R.B. Bennett, took to his feet for the first time as a member of the House of Lords at Westminster. His service in that historic chamber meant he now held a unique parliamentary. Bennett had now been a member of the […]

Jan 27 2023 — Andrew Coyne — Globe and Mail — The early 2000s were a fertile period for health care reform. The deficit reduction battles of the previous decade had left their mark. Federal transfers to the provinces had fallen to just over 2 per cent of GDP, half what they were at their peak. Provinces had in turn been forced to curb spending across […]

Jan 27 2023 — John Ibbitson — Globe and Mail — We like to blame social media or pandemic stress or economic hardship for what feels like growing political polarization. But our leaders fan the flames. Which is why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre should stop insulting each other. Mr. Trudeau started the latest dust-up. When Susan Delacourt of the Toronto Star […]

Jan 27 2023 — Arthur Milnes — National Newswatch — The political situation looked bleak for Sir John A. Macdonald and his Tories as January 1887 dawned. The party had been in power for almost a decade, was old and tired, and had seen reverses in provincial elections held in Manitoba and Ontario in December. Famed Macdonald biographer Donald Creighton described the scene. “It was […]

Jan 26 2023 — David Staples — Edmonton Journal — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has suddenly and dramatically moved off her scorched earth stance against the Trudeau Liberal’s Just Transition plan to radically change the Canadian economy in the name of slashing carbon emissions. In a new letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Smith invites Trudeau to meet in February with the goal of negotiating […]

Jan 26 2023 — Paul Wells — Paul Wells Newsletter — Here’s a former leader of Quebec’s Parti Québécois calling for people who walk across the Canada-US border and claim asylum to be packed onto buses and sent to Ottawa. The panel is an oddly popular feature on Radio-Canada’s all-news channel, featuring people who used to be involved in politics. The guy talking is Jean-François Lisée, […]

Jan 26 2023 — Arthur Milnes — National Newswatch — It is a great personal and professional pleasure to send out birthday greetings to one of Canada’s greatest living historians. I speak, of course, of Professor John English. Canadians are very much in his debt, particularly those who enjoy studying Canadian political history. In the last 30 years, for example, he has produced two volume […]

Jan 26 2023 — Geoff Russ — The Hub — This week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Cabinet met for a three-day retreat in Hamilton to plan for the government’s legislative and policy agenda for the upcoming parliamentary session. One voice who wasn’t around the Cabinet table but may be in the near future is Charles Sousa. The former Ontario finance minister will officially […]

Jan 26 2023 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Ottawa doesn’t need to brace this weekend for a replay of the convoy protest, says the new police chief, because “lots has changed since last year.” For one thing, the chief has changed. Eric Stubbs, who took over late in 2022, told CBC’s Ottawa Morning on Wednesday that while he hasn’t talked to the man […]

Jan 26 2023 — Rick Peterson — National Newswatch — One of Canada’s leading portfolio managers told me something a week ago that keeps popping into my mind. “One of the most important things a pension fund manager knows,” he said “is not to do anything that puts you on the front page of the newspapers.” That makes sense. The only time you really see […]

Jan 26 2023 — John Ivison — National Post — Canada is not broken, the prime minister insists, and to prove it, he has invited the premiers to Ottawa next month to finalize a new health-care deal. It’s a risky move. Parliament Hill is used to rabble rousers in February, after the occupation by the Freedom Convoy last year. The premiers may not bring their […]

Jan 25 2023 — Christopher Holcroft — Hamilton Spectator — I cherish medicare. As a teenager, I suffered a life-threatening anaphylactic reaction while on vacation in another province. My parents rushed me to the nearest hospital emergency room where I was rapidly treated and kept overnight for observation before resuming my holiday. Three years ago, my mother underwent complex cancer surgery that required significant rehabilitation. […]

Jan 25 2023 — Lisa Van Dusen — Policy Magazine — At a time when human rights are under attack across the globe — when the executions of Iranian protesters, the revocation of reproductive rights for American women, Russia’s daily brutality against Ukrainians, the accumulating atrocities of Myanmar’s military and a whole range of Orwellian violations of privacy and human integrity make up just the first […]

Jan 25 2023 — Jaime Watt — Toronto Star — A fearlessly pragmatic intervention or a desecration of our national fabric and everything we hold dear? A slippery slope certain to trigger a mass exodus of public health care workers or an innovative plan to boost collaboration and ease the burden across a strained-to-the-breaking point sector? Or, finally, rerouting water away from the dam (to […]

Jan 25 2023 — Colin Horgan — Substack — Canada’s former defence minister has always struggled with the facts about our next fighter jet. “The facts truly speak for themselves,” Canada’s former defence minister Peter MacKay triumphantly wrote last Monday in the Toronto Sun. He was talking about the F-35 fighter jet. Its procurement is among Canada’s lengthiest, and ended officially earlier this month […]