Jan 17 2019 — Campbell Clark — Globe and Mail — There have been detentions, dark warnings and a death sentence. And the rhetoric in the seething dispute with China turned strangely to whether Canada has a lot of friends. In Beijing, the Chinese foreign ministry’s surprisingly pugnacious spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, dismissed Canada’s efforts to rally international support in its tense dispute with China, using what […]

Jan 16 2019 — Lorrie Goldstein — Sun Media — Few countries have been as willing to cut their own economic throats as Canada. We lose an estimated $15 billion annually in revenue to our economy — $40 million a day — because of our inability to get our oil to global markets, due to our lack of pipeline capacity. That means we have to […]

Jan 16 2019 — John Ivison — National Post — Occam’s razor, the problem-solving principle dating back to the 13th century friar William of Ockham, states that, other things being equal, simple explanations are generally better than more complex ones. A medical equivalent, Zebra, guides doctors to reject exotic medical diagnoses in favour of more commonplace explanations. “When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses, not […]

Jan 16 2019 — Kelly McParland — National Post — For a country that likes to boast of its 3,000 years of recorded history, China displays a notably crude and unpolished face in matters of foreign relations. Its behaviour since the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou has been, in turns, boorish, threatening and ill-tempered. Its approach has been to unleash a flood of insults, […]

Jan 16 2019 — Chantal Hébert — Toronto Star — A few months before the 1995 referendum, Parti Québécois premier Jacques Parizeau told a private gathering of European Union ambassadors to Canada that if his side prevailed in the upcoming vote there would be no way for Quebecers to change their minds and back out of the secession project. To illustrate his point, Parizeau compared […]

Jan 16 2019 — Linda McQuaig — Toronto Star — Long after the last factory has left Ontario, one can imagine Doug Ford still sporting a full-on Cheshire grin as he puts up billboards proclaiming the province “Open for Business.” Certainly, the premier didn’t seem even slightly embarrassed that he’d posted his billboards along the American border just before America’s biggest automaker announced plans last […]

Jan 16 2019 — Chris Selley — Postmedia — More and more New Democrats seem concerned that Jagmeet Singh mightn’t have been the best choice for leader, let alone deserving of a whopping 54 per cent first ballot victory. His various alleged crimes include rendering himself invisible for months, imposing draconian punishments on popular MPs, and going on TV to suggest we stop importing […]

Jan 16 2019 — Gary Mason — Globe and Mail — The only thing worse than being talked about, Oscar Wilde once said, is not being talked about. I’m not sure federal NDP stalwarts would agree. They wouldn’t mind if their leader, Jagmeet Singh, wasn’t talked about for a while, I’m sure. Every time he is, it doesn’t seem to reflect well on him. The seatless […]

Jan 16 2019 — Don Braid — Calgary Herald — Some Alberta fantasists thought provincial conservatives would truly unite after the mass floor-crossings of 2014, or the formation of the United Conservative Party in 2017. It was not to be. Maybe it will never be. Our homegrown conservatives are born to brawl. They’re at it right up to the eve of a crucial provincial election […]

Jan 16 2019 — Chris Varcoe — Calgary Herald — Premier Rachel Notley regularly needles Ottawa these days to “step up” and improve oil transportation in Canada, turning the Trudeau government into Alberta’s pipeline pincushion. There’s a reason for the frequent digs. Albertans overwhelmingly believe the federal government isn’t doing enough to ensure pipelines get built — along with half of all Canadians — even […]

Jan 16 2019 — Lorne Gunter — Sun Media — Give us your tired, your poor, your fashionistas yearning to shop freely. To be honest, I’m glad Canada stepped up and offered asylum to Rahaf Mohammed, the 18-year-old Saudi woman who claimed to be escaping abuse in home country. But why the haste? Why the bypassing of ALL our refugee regulations? Why the hero’s welcome […]

Jan 15 2019 — Brian Lee Crowley — Globe and Mail — The battle with China over the extradition case of Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, is not one that Canada chose. It is increasingly clear, however, that it is one that we cannot afford to lose, since China evidently believes that Canada is the weak link in its global contest of wills with the West.

Jan 15 2019 — John Ivison — National Post — The tale of the latest cabinet shuffle can be told in two contrasting pictures: in the first, from the swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall just over three years ago, Justin Trudeau can be seen gazing in patronizing fashion into Jody Wilson-Raybould’s eyes, his hands grasping her arms, while she beams back at him, bursting with […]

Jan 15 2019 — Andrew Coyne — National Post — Not content with taking Canadians hostage, China is now threatening to kill them. It took nearly four years from his December 2014 arrest for the Chinese legal system to convict and sentence Robert Schellenberg for drug trafficking. Since the Dec. 1 arrest in Canada of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of the Chinese technology giant […]

Jan 15 2019 — Donald Barry — National Newswatch — Talk of separation is in the air in Alberta, triggered by the plight of the province’s beleaguered oil sands industry. The focus of the angst is the alleged indifference of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government to the industry’s circumstances, especially the failure to proceed with the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to the British Columbia […]