Canada needs an eyes-wide-open approach to China to see the country as it is and not how corporate lobbyists would like it to be
When campaigning to become prime minister in 2015, Justin Trudeau was asked what country he most admired in the world. The people in attendance looked on in disbelief when he stated that he most admired China. His reason? Trudeau believed China’s “basic dictatorship” allowed their government to move swiftly to implement their agenda. Trudeau’s obsession…
And hiring a director of ethics won't do much to curb his natural tendencies
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will soon visit Canada’s ethics commissioner for the third time in five years. His ethical standards and lack of a moral code have been in question as the result of two previous controversies – visiting the Aga Khan’s private island and the SNC-Lavalin boondoggle. This new political controversy could be the…
It gives them an opportunity to totally dismantle the Liberal Party’s leadership and the party’s policies
The metastasizing WE scandal has many tendrils, like a noxious weed. It is spreading, inexorably, into the centre of the Trudeau government. It may kill it. The fundamentals are well-known. Justin Trudeau’s immediate family received hundreds of thousands in secret payments – after he became Prime Minister. Trudeau thereafter handed a billion-dollar contract to WE,…
The coronavirus pandemic is one of the biggest events of our collective lifetimes. You don’t have to take a poll. It just is. Millions of Canadians without work. Companies going bankrupt. Families in crisis. And, of course, 110,000 of us infected with Covid-19, and more than 9,000 dead. It has been a cataclysm. It has…
He’s become the Rodney Dangerfield of Canadian politics: no respect at all
Picture this imaginary scene. In a dark corner of dank Rideau Cottage sits Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He’s resting comfortably in an old armchair, thinking about his future – and what he might wear to his next costume party, one assumes. His political honeymoon ended what seems like several lifetimes ago. His role as a…
Judging by the amount of money at stake, and cabinet and family involvement, this may be the largest scandal in Canadian history
You learn a lot about people’s ethics when money is involved. Even really rich people can take the wrong route for money. The current Trudeau family scandal may be a litmus test. Mother, brother and wife received fees from a charity that received federal government funds. This may be how Justin Trudeau will be remembered,…
The WE mess shows sunny ways have been replaced with dark days of the same old cronyism in the halls of power
Just when you think our prime minister may actually be growing into his job, he does something so ill-considered, so tone-deaf and so contrary to generally accepted political convention that all the confidence he has earned in the past few weeks evaporates in a flash. Such was Justin Trudeau’s foolish and inexplicable attachment to the…
Conservative partisans detest the prime minister because he’s really good at visuals. And conservative politicians generally aren’t
Conservatives really, really don’t like Justin Trudeau. I’m a regular on Evan Solomon’s CFRA radio show with Alise Mills and Karl Belanger. My friends Mills and Belanger are articulate and thoughtful advocates (unlike me), and they’re prepared to criticize their own political party when it is warranted (like me). Solomon invites us onto his much-listened-to…
The PM had a chance to join a global effort to protect Canadian research and innovation, but he failed. And that wasn't his only failure
Before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's recent trip to Asia, the Liberal government promised to promote trade, economic opportunities and investment in Canada. But the trip didn't quite go as planned. At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering, world leaders hoped to revive the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal after the United States left the agreement…
How the prime minister presented himself during his town hall meetings across Canada tell us a great deal more than he may have wanted to reveal
What does the body politic learn from a political leader's body language? Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's town hall tour of the nation offered a tremendous opportunity to study how he interacts with average Canadians – and to try to understand the subliminal messages his body language and speech patterns sent to us all. Maya Angelou…
When campaigning to become prime minister in 2015, Justin Trudeau was asked what country he most admired in the world. The people in attendance looked on in disbelief when he stated that he most admired China. His reason? Trudeau believed China’s “basic dictatorship” allowed their government to move swiftly to implement their agenda. Trudeau’s obsession…
