There are people behind the scenes working hard to provide answers to hard questions, even if they’re hard to unravel
There’s been a lot of chatter over what was behind Justin Trudeau’s pregnant pause during a news briefing on June 2. Now, stopping to think before answering is not something politicians are known for. But in this case, it wasn’t a bad idea. After all, the prime minister had just been asked a very tricky…
Back in September 2012, I wrote a column suggesting that Jean Charest’s recent political retirement wasn’t the end of the story. A man in his mid-50s who’d spent almost his entire adult life in politics would find it difficult to irrevocably wash his hands of the whole business. Now, on the brink of his apparently…
The first month of a new year was named January after the Roman god Janus, who was always depicted as having two faces: one looking backward and the other looking forward. This suggests the first month is a good time to take stock of the year just ended and to look to the future. I…
A Conservative leader must be intelligent, confident, experienced, have miles of backbone, and the ability to build and maintain political bridges
Andrew Scheer announced on Dec. 12 that he would be stepping down as federal Conservative leader. Whoever succeeds him faces a tall task. Most political analysts knew that Scheer would have a real tussle on his hands to survive next April’s planned leadership review. He’d been attacked by the left and right flanks of his…
Neither the Conservatives nor Scheer displayed the remotest capacity to fight back by hammering home the counter message about a Liberal Party in disarray
In the end, it’s probably just as well for both the Conservative Party and Canadians that leader Andrew Scheer resigned. Drawing, quartering and hanging might have been all the rage in the Elizabethan era. But it is, to paraphrase a certain prime minister, 2019, and no one gains today by having public political execution preceded…
The sense of being marginalized and treated as second-class provinces has long been felt in the West. But opting out won't suit our needs
I was born in Quebec, and raised, married and had my children in Montreal. You might think that makes me a Quebecer but there are those who disagree. I’m an Anglophone. Some feel that only Francophones with generations of history in the province are ‘real’ Quebecers. For the past several decades, I’ve lived in B.C.…
An unexpected weather report predicts that gale-force umbrage will pelt the prime minister’s ‘sunny ways’ parade all the way to Parliament Hill
Pick any synonym for gob-smacked and you will probably find it on the crib sheet of adjectives commentators across Canada now enlist to describe Justin Trudeau’s decision to wear blackface in public at least twice in his privileged, white-man’s life. But, in the Maritimes, where the federal Liberal Party enjoys only the slimmest margin of…
Pierre Trudeau came perilously close to losing it all in 1972 to an unassuming federal Conservative leader. That fate may well await his son
A charismatic leader with most of the bloom off the rose near the end of his first mandate. An ordinary leader, elected from a province with the fraction of the population of a major city. The current Canadian federal election? Yes, but also the contest in 1972 – the first I covered as a young…
If not for government venality and incompetence, the vice-admiral would still be at his post, doing his job
Canada has often punched above its weight in military matters. Our contributions to both the First and Second World Wars were out of all proportion to our small population. Canada sent its best troops and the bravery exhibited by these fine souls was crucial to victory. Our troops and the competence our military leaders are…
The federal Conservative leader is in a real dogfight with Justin Trudeau and the provincial Tory leader’s help could make a difference
During a traditional political campaign, parties and leaders use as many weapons at their disposal as possible to win elections and form governments. In the Oct. 21 Canadian federal election, expect the major party leaders to campaign with like-minded premiers and opposition leaders as part of that strategy. Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will appear…