NDP, Liberals and Conservatives all helped themselves to the wage subsidy meant for struggling businesses
Politicians are good at preaching, but they’re not so good at practicing what they preach. Case in point: the federal wage subsidy. Federal politicians have been moralizing about the evils of business executives taking bonuses while collecting the pandemic wage subsidy, but their silence on their own party taking the subsidy is deafening. At the…
He pivoted back to the ineffective Liberal plan against gun violence and moved forward
Most political parties face a few potential pitfalls during an election campaign. It seems rather obvious on the surface, right? Yet it’s astonishing how many parties and leaders are completely unprepared for what the march of history has repeatedly warned them to watch, learn and avoid. This year’s federal election has already witnessed a few…
The parties' records over the last 13 years are revealing
If Canadians are as concerned as they claim about the increasing number of unmarked graves found near former residential schools, the 2021 federal election will be pivotal. Each of the major political parties displays a clear track record exposing their views on Indigenous issues, domestically and abroad. The residential school apology on June 11, 2008,…
If you feel you’re paying more for food, it’s not an illusion
The Conservative Party of Canada recently promised to control food inflation for Canadians. It’s an odd promise for a party typically known to embrace market-free conditions but it holds great potential. What makes this promise even more atypical is that Canadians have access to one of the most affordable food baskets in the world, 18th…
$424 million(!) being added to the debt every single day
By Franco Terrazzano and Jay Goldberg Canadian Taxpayers Federation If the federal government’s fiscal policy stays on its current trajectory, Canada’s trillion-dollar debt will be a major drain on taxpayers’ wallets for generations to come. In this election, voters will need to closely examine parties’ plans to plug that drain. Unfortunately, the current Liberal plan…
If Liberals have a couple more weeks that resemble their first, re-election could be in serious jeopardy
During an election campaign, political parties are often faced with situations that could involve a few hiccups, some pitfalls, and even a major controversy or two. The Liberals, Conservatives, New Democrats and others aren’t immune to this. What differentiates them is how they handle these situations. From the initial response to the tactical use of…
Could we be witnessing a Liberal disaster in the making?
Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Carl Sandburg wrote, “Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.” Sandburg’s line from his famous 1936 poem The People, Yes could also be incorporated into a modern context for the Great White North. To wit, “Sometime they’ll give an election and nobody will come.” All kidding aside, many Canadians will obviously…
Bill Davis, the former Ontario premier, died on Aug. 8. He was the first Conservative I ever voted for. It happened in the October 1971 provincial election. My previous trip to the polls – in 1968 to vote for Pierre Trudeau’s federal Liberals – had been an enthusiastic occasion. Not this time. Davis wasn’t the…
The conservative intellect is lost in the proverbial forest
It’s officially silly season, with campaign-style announcements, candidate nominations, and parties ramping up fundraising and logistical planning, signalling a federal election is on the horizon. Incredibly, Teflon-Trudeau remains high in the polls, with a two-dose summer has Canadians spending and optimistic about the future, making it a perfect time to pull the plug on an…
The current Liberal iteration hasn’t been in power long enough for serious fatigue to set in and Justin Trudeau isn’t Paul Martin
Should the mooted federal election materialize, it’ll be the third time in 50 years that a minority Liberal government took an early trip to the polls. So will the result resemble Pierre Trudeau of 1972 and 1974 (a minority followed by a big victory) or Paul Martin of 2004 and 2006 (a minority followed by…
Politicians are good at preaching, but they’re not so good at practicing what they preach. Case in point: the federal wage subsidy. Federal politicians have been moralizing about the evils of business executives taking bonuses while collecting the pandemic wage subsidy, but their silence on their own party taking the subsidy is deafening. At the…
