Oct 16 2019 — Susan Delacourt — Toronto Star — Here’s a good-news, bad-news story from the 2019 federal election campaign — the Constitution has sneaked back into national political debate. It’s good news for the couple of hundred of us in Canada who really enjoyed the national-unity dramas of the late 1980s and early 1990s. It’s bad news, presumably, for the millions of other […]

Oct 16 2019 — Kelly McParland — National Post — If Vladimir Putin were on speaking terms with Chrystia Freeland, the Russian president might be on the phone to Ottawa now, requesting a clarification. For the past three years, Putin has been the object of regular denunciation for alleged attempts to influence the results of the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Special Counsel Robert Mueller dug […]

Oct 16 2019 — Andrew Coyne — Postmedia — After the loathing, the fear. For five weeks the Liberals and Conservatives have taken turns attacking each other’s leaders as, variously, a compulsive liar, an anti-woman American, a racist, a fool, etc. But with the campaign limping to its inconclusive end, party strategies have turned, as expected, to fear of what lies beyond. Gone is […]

Oct 16 2019 — John Ivison — Postmedia — In the course of an interview for my book on Justin Trudeau, Gerald Butts made a comment that crystallizes the Liberal leader’s challenge in the coming days – convincing people who voted for him in 2015 that he is still committed to doing politics differently. “I honestly think we’ve lost 5 per cent of the […]

Oct 16 2019 — Ajay Parasram — The Conversation — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh broke a cardinal rule of Canadian politics recently when he dropped the “c” word — coalition. Although coalitions are healthy, democratic and quite common around the world, Canada’s two biggest political parties use it as a blunt object to scare voters. Canada has been governed by Liberals or Conservatives for its […]

Oct 16 2019 — Andrew Parkin — Policy Options — With Canada’s population increasingly concentrated in a small number of large metropolitan areas, the question often arises: do the values, interests and concerns of citizens in cities differ from those of their counterparts living in smaller cities or towns across the country? Is there a specific metropolitan mindset or set of experiences that distinguishes those […]

Oct 15 2019 — C. Scott Clark and Peter DeVries — National Newswatch — If deficit elimination were so easy, then why haven’t there been more years of balanced budgets or surpluses? In the over fifty years between 1966-67 and 2018-19, the federal budget showed a surplus in only 12 years; in 1969-70 and between 1997-98 and 2007-08. The record in other advanced countries isn’t any better. The fact […]

Oct 15 2019 — Tegan Hill and Ben Eisen — Fraser Institute — With less than a week before Canadians go to the polls, there has been little focus on Canada’s tax competitiveness, which is unfortunate given the major real-life impact of tax policy on Canadians. Yes, both the Conservative and Liberal party have pledged to cut personal income taxes. According to party platforms, the Conservatives promise to […]

Oct 15 2019 — John Milloy — Globe and Mail — After a divisive brawl of a campaign, Canada may be looking at a minority government come Oct. 21. This might be seen as a good thing. There is a belief that minority governments force politicians to work together, put aside partisan differences and co-operate for the greater good of the nation – allowing the best […]

Oct 15 2019 — Heather Scoffield — Toronto Star — At the centre of the affordability promises that dominate every party’s platform in this election campaign is a riddle: it seems like everyone has a job, so why is no one able to make ends meet? Employers in Canada have been on a tear, as Justin Trudeau reminds us several times a day. The numbers […]

Oct 15 2019 — Toronto Star — Prime Minister Andrew Scheer. It may take some Canadians a little time to wrap their heads around that prospect — and of course, there is that small matter of an actual election to get out of the way first — but the Conservative leader is clearly getting in that frame of mind. Over the past […]

Oct 15 2019 — Paul Wells — Maclean's — Much of what’s happened in this miserable campaign has been healthy. If the seat projections from our friend Philippe J. Fournier are accurate, the two largest parties have both lost support since the campaign began. And the worst part of the campaign was the nine days that began with the TVA French debate on Oct. […]

Oct 15 2019 — Christopher Ragan — Policy Options — We are less than a week from the federal election, and the four main political parties have been pushing their plans to address climate change. Each has a vision for the future and the policies needed to move toward a low-carbon world. And the differences between them could barely be more stark. How can we […]

Oct 15 2019 — John Ivison — Postmedia — Barrelling down the freeway from Fredericton toward Nova Scotia it becomes clear why Canada was born as a nation of hewers of wood and drawers of water. The riot of New Brunswick’s fall colours — leaves of amber, flaming burgundy and copper — lined the route as Justin Trudeau made a whistle-stop tour of Atlantic […]

Oct 15 2019 — Michel C. Auger — Radio Canada — Ceux qui pratiquent l’art, parce que ce n’est quand même pas une science, de prédire le résultat des circonscriptions à partir des sondages laissent maintenant entrevoir de nouvelles possibilités, et ce, pour la première fois de la campagne. Alors que les libéraux étaient, depuis le déclenchement de la campagne, assez confortablement en avance, on peut […]