Susan Riley

Susan Riley

Carney’s jarring, bloodless, defensive response to Trump’s war on Iran

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s response to war in the Middle East has so far seemed hasty, morally queasy, intellectually convoluted and—attempts at clarification, notwithstanding—continues to be deeply disappointing to many Canadians. His first statement, within hours of the beginning of hostilities, stopped just short of full-throated support for the United States-Israeli campaign, surprising from a prime minister who lectured the...

Susan Riley

The case for a Christmas election: bring it on

For many Canadians, if an election would rid the country of Pierre Poilievre’s snarky social media hits, his obsessive focus on enemies, his hypocrisy—lamenting the growing number of families using food banks, while living in a taxpayer-funded mansion with chef, driver and domestic help—they could hold the election on Dec. 25.

Susan Riley

Poilievre: we’re just not that into him

That was a very short-lived pivot by Pierre Poilievre. Yes, after internal party dissent and at the urging of various Conservative worthies, he now weaves more criticism of Donald Trump into his stump speeches. It doesn’t seem terribly heart-felt, but, to be fair, the opposition leader betrays no hint of admiration for the rampaging U.S. president.

Susan Riley

Bread, not circuses: dwindling appetite for politics as usual is helping Carney

Prime Minister Mark Carney will probably never be a spellbinding public speaker, at least judging by his first tentative forays. When he takes to the podium, he delivers his message with all the flair, passion, and levity of a central banker addressing a meeting of the International Metallurgy and Materials Congress. Unsurprising, given his resumé. But press conferences? He is...

Susan Riley

Who’s Tory now?

You don’t need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. In Canada, it is blowing right. That said, if recent polls are reliable, it isn’t blowing us directly into the arms of Pierre Poilievre. It is newly appointed Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney, with his business-friendly rhetoric and vaguely progressive environmental views, who has changed the...

Susan Riley

Trump is coming: quick, build a pipeline!

Donald Trump is an all-purpose distraction, a threat on so many fronts, that concern about climate has been temporarily pushed aside. But people still care. So much for climate change. It is no longer an issue, apparently; hardly an afterthought, in the current political moment. Donald Trump’s threats to our economy have spurred, among other things, a bizarre panic to...

Susan Riley

The battle to be Canada’s flag-bearer

Canadians will continue to boycott U.S. products, cancel trips down south, drop Netflix, Amazon, and Apple TV subscriptions, and wait for someone to lead the parade they have already started. Flags flying high.

Susan Riley

Are we happy? Are we supposed to be?

There are so many gloomy headlines these days—hysterical claims of economic peril from certain premiers, legitimate concern over Donald Trump’s itchy tariff finger, overwhelmed food banks, and growing homeless encampments—that they risk killing the holiday vibe. Add to that $10 boxes of Rice Krispies, overpriced onions (up 12 per cent in a year) and the ongoing, droning negativity of Pierre...

Susan Riley

Breaking: the CBC and our link to public broadcasting?

It will take more than nostalgia and ideology to save the CBC, notwithstanding its rich archive and historic importance as a cultural lifeline for our large and scattered country. It will take programming that—more—people want to see and hear, available on all media platforms; it will take focus, originality, and fun. In recent years, it has become difficult to muster...

Susan Riley

Trump, Trudeau and an ominous thunder

Two terrible events happened last week, but one is worse. First, of course, Donald Trump was re-elected president of the United States, with all the chaos, hostility, and hurt that will entail. Second—and strangely more dire—temperatures reached the 20 C in parts of Ontario at a time when people are normally fretting about freezing rain and getting out the snow...

Susan Riley

Can we talk about Poilievre? Whether his harshness is impulsive or strategic, it’s invidious

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is the latest public figure to face Pierre Poilievre’s lacerating criticism. Last week, on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel, the Conservative leader accused her of “pandering to Hamas.”

Susan Riley

Trade policy: where ideological purity goes to die

At a critical moment for the economy and the environment, the Trudeau government has been facing an impossible choice. It can downplay lofty climate goals, and slap a punishing tariff on affordable Chinese EVs as U.S. President Joe Biden did in the spring. Or, less likely, it could let cheaper, emissions-free Chinese cars into our market, and risk counter-tariffs on...

Susan Riley

Pumping more oil while the house burns down: how long will the fantasy last?

You really wonder what it’s going to take to shake us from our willful blindness. Our forests and communities burn at accelerating rates. One day downtown Toronto is awash in flood water; the next, iconic Jasper National Park is aflame. Winter is gradually retreating. Summers are becoming unbearable in some cities, especially for the elderly and those without air conditioning...

Susan Riley

Who will be left standing in an uncertain political moment?

The failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a weekend rally has added even more uncertainty to a tumultuous political moment. Will the former president benefit from a sympathy vote? Will he vault ahead in the polls and stay there? As for Joe Biden, will this accelerate efforts to get him to step down, or cement his resolve to stay...

Susan Riley

Happy Canada Day, everyone! Or is it?

This will certainly be a happy day for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, whose long campaign to become prime minister looks increasingly inevitable after last week’s byelection victory in downtown Toronto. That also makes it a promising day for anti-tax crusaders—and the wealthier, the happier—who will undoubtedly find a Poilievre government reversing, or dialling back, modest Liberal increases in capital gains...

Susan Riley

Colonel Mustard with the knife in the Constituency? Maybe not

It has been like a long-playing Netflix series—alternately alarming, puzzling and ludicrous—but the great Foreign Intervention Scandal skidded to a shuddering pause last week, thanks partly to Green Party Leader Elizabeth May’s adult intervention. With the entire capital city hunting down unnamed federal MPs who were “witting” or “unwitting” pawns of Chinese and Indian intelligence agents—according to the latest of...

Susan Riley

Workin’ 9 to 5, that’s no way to make a livin’

The stereotypical “Ottawa” bureaucrat arouses as much sympathy with the public at large as a billionaire grocery exec whose yacht gets stuck on a sandbar in some tropical tax haven. Less, perhaps. Unfair, or exaggerated, as the image might be, it persists: federal public servants—especially the Ottawa variety—have cushy pensions, generous leave provisions, ample salaries, recession-proof employment, union protections, long...

Susan Riley

First they came for the carbon tax, are electric vehicles next?

Perhaps slowing sales of electric vehicles in Canada, industry caution, and political wobbles are a temporary phenomenon, prompted by the affordability crisis (although car sales, overall, remain brisk). The rapidly evolving technology of EVs also gives some potential buyers pause; a lot of consumers are waiting. If we are lucky, this is just an interruption en route to a necessary...

Susan Riley

How to navigate post-fact politics: skeptically, but attentively

Anyone looking for evidence that we live in a post-policy, post-fact, increasingly incoherent political moment only needs to look at the war against the federal carbon tax. It isn’t just that it appears to be succeeding; worse, it is drowning out serious conversations about climate change and other urgent issues. It is a case study in how politics works now...

Susan Riley

There are signs of resistance to the right-wing juggernaut, if you look hard enough

Lurking somewhere between despair and denial, you can spot tiny glimmers of hope for non-Conservative voters in this country—in what is, admittedly, an otherwise dire and discouraging political landscape. These glimmers may not shine brightly enough yet to stop the righteous armies of vengeance, the daily cavalcade of distortion and insult, the seemingly inevitable decline of a well-meaning—but flawed—prime minister...

Susan Riley

‘Baby-steps’ pharmacare a test of our humanity and of our political leaders

The recent announcement of the first baby steps towards a national pharmacare program was met with disdainful sniffs from some premiers, self-satisfied bromides from federal Liberals and the NDP, grumbles from the private insurance sector, and an ominous silence from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

Susan Riley

A rapidly changing climate and a glaring political disconnect

A block or so from Parliament Hill, Ottawa’s fabled Rideau Canal Skateway has been closed for most of this mild, miserable winter. Last year it never opened at all for the first time in 52 years. It is another daily, observable, inevitable victim of climate change—perhaps not the most significant, but emotionally troubling nonetheless.

Susan Riley

For climate progress, maybe the rest of Canada should join Quebec

At a Quebec all-seasons park, more than 100 kilometres north of both Ottawa and Montreal, there is an unexpected amenity for the cross-country skiers, hikers, mountain bikers and canoeists who flock there to take advantage of forests, mountains, and lakes stretching over 100 square kilometres. In the main parking area there are two electric vehicle chargers—in the middle of what...

Susan Riley

Will Trudeau’s third act include a surprise ending?

Will Trudeau’s third act include a surprise ending? And will anyone be watching? Today, the curtain goes up on Ottawa’s longest-running and often-dispiriting theatrical production: the Return of Parliament. Maybe they should just call this episode “Death Watch.”

Susan Riley

Oil and gas industry’s fancy foot-dragging wins the day, again

It has been a splendid couple of weeks for the oil and gas industry. Over the decades, it has gone from being the scourge of international climate conferences to running the show in Dubai at this month’s COP28. The conference president this year, Sultan Al Jaber, is also CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, and has been credibly...