The last thing the Liberals want is for the NDP to take the spotlight or to start drawing votes on the left-centre
Why won’t Prime Minister Justin Trudeau call a byelection in Burnaby South? It’s a question some Canadians are still trying to figure out, even though the answer is right in front of them. Let’s take a closer look at this controversy. The Liberals aren’t obligated to call a byelection in the B.C. riding. Trudeau has…
This new party has a leader who wasn't elected and few members. It appears intended simply to soothe Bernier’s fragile ego
When Maxime Bernier, a former Conservative cabinet minister and federal leadership candidate, abruptly quit the party last month, he announced he would be starting a new political party. Well, the nameless entity with one public face was finally given an identity on Sept. 14: the People’s Party of Canada. He couldn’t have made a worse…
The rebel Quebec MP may have satisfied his fragile ego by starting a no-name party, but the risk is far greater than the reward
Quebec MP Maxime Bernier’s decision to bolt from the federal Conservatives last week surprised some political observers. But based on what’s known about “Mad Max,” as he’s often called, they shouldn’t have been. Bernier has long been an enfant terrible in Tory circles. While he has good economic ideas, including his support for abolishing supply…
Notorious art thief John Mark Tillmann managed to get two levels of government to rename a waterway just to torment Jewish neighbours
Should the governments of Canada and Nova Scotia name something after a neo-Nazi? It’s not a hypothetical question. Fall River, N.S., (pop. 11,526) is a community in Halifax’s regional municipality. By all accounts, it’s a lovely spot and the locals are nice. If you go hiking on a trail in the area, you may spot…
From Trudeau to Scheer, from human piñata Morneau to lightweight Joly, from the Aga Khan to #MeToo
It’s a cliché, sure. It’s hackneyed and overdone, true. It has been done a million times, agreed. But it’s fun: the columnist’s year-end political winner/loser list! And, this year, regular readers got in on the act! But, however … just as I was typing this, a bombshell landed. The federal ethics commissioner ruled that Prime Minister…
Just when you thought Melanie Joly couldn't mess up anything else, she blew $5.6 million on a temporary rink on Parliament Hill
Dear Canadian Heritage Minister Joly: May I call you Melanie? You’ve blocked my access to your ministerial Twitter account, so please forgive the formality of an open letter. I sense that I’ve upset you, which concerns me deeply. Let’s leave aside, for a moment, the propriety of a public servant (that’s you) blocking the access…
Was the prime minister simply late to a critical meeting on the trade deal or did he attempt to sabotage it?
Did Prime Minister Justin Trudeau intend to cause an international incident? That’s what many columnists and pundits are still trying to figure out after our national leader’s confusing absence, and sudden reappearance, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC). Let’s go back a few steps. Trudeau was in Danang, Vietnam, last week to meet with…
Private businesses and international investors have lost confidence in Canada as a competitive place to do business
By Niels Veldhuis and Jason Clemens The Fraser Institute It’s an old joke: Why did God create economists? To make weathermen look good. At times like this, nothing could be closer to the truth (full disclosure, we’re economists). Statistics Canada recently released its August economic growth numbers. They show that the economy contracted. Lo and behold,…
More seniors means slower economic growth and more spending on programs like health care. But some careful fiscal management can save us
By Taylor Jackson, and Jason Clemens The Fraser Institute The latest Finance Department fiscal update signals the federal government’s continued preference for running budget deficits, regardless of the state of the economy. Similarly, eight of 10 Canadian provinces are running budget deficits in 2016-17. The lack of fiscal prudence coast to coast raises serious concerns about…
Little wonder that the CRTC has been the focus of so much public contempt
Forget for a moment that roughly five per cent of your cable bill goes to subsidize films and shows that not enough people watch: the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is about to dip back into the 20th century and tell you what to watch and make you pay for it. The federal regulator announced last month…