Aug 9 2022 — Gillian Steward — Toronto Star — Doctors, nurses and other health care workers across the country are struggling to treat patients flooding into hospital emergency departments. It’s all part of the pandemic squeeze and it’s no different in Alberta. Of course things could always get worse for all those frontline workers and they did last week when it was revealed that […]

Aug 9 2022 — Arthur Milnes — National Newswatch — Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, his shaky minority government on the ropes, appointed George Nowlan of Nova Scotia as his new Minister of Finance on this date in 1962. Earlier, the finance minister who had held office under Dief, Donald S. Fleming, chose not to run in the 1962 election, requiring the PM to find a […]

Aug 9 2022 — Glen Pearson — National Newswatch — There will be an abundance of responses and memories shared this week prompted by the passing of former Liberal interim leader Bill Graham.  They will be honest, heartfelt, and uniquely welcome in a season where politics has become something Graham himself would have never been suited for. As a humble contribution to all the tributes […]

Aug 8 2022 — Max Fawcett — National Observer — In the three Conservative leadership races and nearly seven years that have transpired since Stephen Harper took his drubbing in the 2015 election, the prevailing formula for those trying to replace him has been the same: campaign on the right to win the leadership, then pivot to the centre in time for the general election. […]

Aug 8 2022 — Arthur Milnes — National Newswatch — One of Canada’s most significant modern-era Indigenous leaders was born on this date in the Northwest Territories in 1948. George Erasmus would go on to serve as National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations between 1985 and 1991. Earlier, he was leader of the Dene Nation and famously fought against the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. […]

Aug 8 2022 — Rosie DiManno — Toronto Star — Girl, what were you thinking? I know, from decades of covering sports, that many — if not most — athletes have a blinkered view of the world. That may have changed somewhat in the wake of Colin Kaepernick’s cancellation as a football pro for taking a knee during the American anthem, and the broader social […]

Aug 8 2022 — Althia Raj — Toronto Star — It was always going to be a gamble. Waging one’s reputation on the actions of someone else. But NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is clear, he isn’t bluffing. If the centrepiece of the NDP-Liberal supply and confidence agreement — a new dental program for low-income children under 12 — isn’t implemented by year’s end, Singh tells […]

Aug 8 2022 — Rose LeMay — Hill Times — There was a certain trajectory in the Pope’s speeches across Canada. His first included an apology and was sincere and meaningful but didn’t quite go far enough in taking institutional responsibility for residential schools. The Lac Ste. Anne speech reflected on family as a source of healing both for Indigenous peoples and for Catholics, and […]

Aug 7 2022 — Arthur Milnes — National Newswatch — I have no doubt that today is one of the most important anniversary days on the calendar for my Liberal friends to celebrate. On this date in 1919, the great William Lyon Mackenzie King was elected the party’s leader at Canada’s first-ever delegated leadership convention. Mr. King would go onto to become our longest serving […]

Aug 7 2022 — Bruce Dowbiggin — Todayville.com — As demons go, Stephen Harper always left something to be desired. While the media and his political opponents painted a picture of a diabolical schemer bent of hoarding power, Harper mostly bored ordinary Canadians. For all the strenuous efforts of newsrooms and chat rooms tapping him as Trump, The Harp lacked a certain je ne […]

Aug 7 2022 — Lorne Gunter — Sun Media — Jean Charest will not commit to supporting the Conservative Party of Canada in the next federal election unless he wins the party’s leadership next month. That makes his campaign nothing more than a vanity project. It’s all about Jean. All along, Charest’s campaign has been distinguished by its smug elitism and contempt for the Conservative […]

Aug 7 2022 — Lorrie Goldstein — Sun Media — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is on a two-week vacation with his family in Costa Rica and that’s fine — other than the fact his climate change agenda in Canada would suggest a vacation closer to home, to lead by example. But that’s different from recognizing that being PM is a tough job and he’s entitled […]

Aug 6 2022 — André Pratte — National Post — “Will Trudeau know when the moment is right for leaving?” was the title of the analysis authored by La Presse’s Bureau Chief on Parliament Hill. In a column published last Tuesday, Joël-Denis Bellavance, a well-informed reporter, speculated that the prime minister might use his vacation time in Costa Rica to reflect on his future. If, […]

Aug 6 2022 — Arthur Milnes — National Newswatch — Only a month before his election with the largest majority victory in Canadian history, Brian Mulroney promised his fellow Quebecers that he would end their symbolic exclusion from Canada’s reformed constitution. “We are on the threshold of true national renewal,” he famously said in an election speech at Sept-Iles, Quebec. “Let us end the bias […]

Aug 6 2022 — Rick Bell — Sun Media — The math tells one heck of a yarn. Danielle Smith winning the UCP leadership on the fourth ballot, with 46.4% support on the very first ballot, 20 points ahead of her nearest rival, Travis Toews. Smith’s get-tough-with-Ottawa Sovereignty Act popular with UCP members. Ditto legal protection under human rights law for the unvaccinated. Danielle Smith, […]