The chickens are coming home to roost
Could the Liberal-NDP agreement actually collapse if a proposed national dental plan for low-income Canadians isn’t implemented by year’s end? That’s what NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh reportedly threatened to do. The national dental plan was one of the centrepieces of the three-year agreement when it was signed by Singh and Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau…
Simply put, NDP and Liberal supporters found nothing of value in their parties' platforms
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives were triumphant in the June 2 election. That hasn’t stopped their critics and opponents from pouring cold water on this impressive victory for something not of their own making. The PCs won 40.82 per cent of the vote and 83 of the 124 contested seats. This was…
Playing little brother to the Liberals is not necessarily a winning strategy
In March, the federal Liberal and New Democratic parties agreed to a deal that would keep Justin Trudeau as prime minister until 2025. In return for policies that would increase spending on dental and pharmaceutical care and continue to strangle the oil industry, the NDP promised not to support any non-confidence motions against the Liberals…
Is the NDP-Liberal coalition attempting to whitewash the inquiries?
The Emergencies Act was invoked for the first time in Canadian history on February 14, 2022. While the public order emergency was repealed nine days later, it remains unclear whether the Trudeau government had a rational basis for concluding that it had the power to proclaim such an emergency, or whether the special parliamentary committee…
Does the party really believe women can't win in a fair fight against men?
Political parties propose and support many policies and ideas. Some ideas are top-flight and beneficial to their political fortunes. Others seem good in theory, but may require additional tinkering or minor adjustment(s). Still other ideas may turn out to be untenable, or require a significant overhaul or have to be abandoned. Then there are ideas…
Is it too much to ask for honesty from the Prime Minister?
George Orwell would likely have caught his breath at news of a prime minister caught in a flagrant fib on a day dedicated to capital T Truth. Orwell, of course, spent his journalistic career ferreting out and castigating the incessant political lying of the mid-20th century. His magisterial essay Politics and the English Language includes…
Our surfer boy PM has been a national and international embarrassment since 2015
When Justin Trudeau was first elected prime minister in 2015, there were political issues he said he wanted to tackle immediately. One of his earliest priorities was a desire to repair Canada's fractious relationship with the Indigenous community. "It is time for a renewed, nation-to-nation relationship with First Nations peoples," he told some Quebec-based First…
Recognizing the political power of Canadian cities has become a core element of national politics
The parsing of the federal election results is underway, as Canadians seek insights into leadership, party fortunes, regional concerns, and the priorities of special interest groups. This process often exposes major currents in Canada’s political culture and provides the country with a glimpse into what lies ahead. In my view, a major focus should be…
What Vuong did was morally, ethically and politically wrong. But to be expelled for a procedural matter would be quite stunning
You may be familiar with the phrase’ game it out.’ It’s a way to examine ideas, scenarios, concepts and strategies to figure out what could happen – and what the end result could be. In politics and the media, we game out everything from written pieces to communications strategies. For fun, let’s game out a…
We accept that the world intervenes in any plans for the future but we must still decide who gets our vote
The 2021 federal election is upon us. In Canada, we’re blessed to have fair elections, the results of which are peacefully implemented – so don’t forget to vote. There are many nations where people can’t vote. There are many more where their vote doesn’t matter because tyrants have predetermined the results or will use violence…