More progressive nonsense from the Liberals and another poor Conservative campaign could open the door for populists like the People’s Party
The failure of the People’s Party of Canada to win a single seat was, to me, the most surprising revelation of the Oct. 21 federal election. The writing appeared to be on the wall for Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Conservatives seem poised to be squeezed by the insurgent populists. For the People’s…
A coalition partner could have been exactly what the prime minister needed to show Canadians that he needs a majority to do his job properly
After the Oct. 21 federal election, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that he would continue his progressive agenda despite his Liberals losing 20 seats and falling 13 seats short of a majority in Parliament. A coalition government was widely expected, with the NDP opening the door to talks. However, a strong left-wing, progressive presence in…
Fittingly, it fell to one of Canada’s finest expatriate essayists to succinctly describe with characteristic understatement the 2019 federal election. “There is no place in a democracy for gangster government,” Adam Gopnik wrote in The New Yorker the morning after Canadians went to the polls. “That reminder made Monday night a truly worthwhile Canadian initiative.”…
The diversity and complexity of Canadian federal politics echoes through the 2019 general election results
So I voted Liberal. What did that accomplish? The 33.1 per cent of the 66 per cent of Canadian voters who managed to vote in the 2019 federal election gave the Liberals 157 seats, or 46.4 per cent of the 338 seats in the House of Commons. Clearly first past-the-post system has its advantages. The…
The government has an impressive team, a strong record of legislation and has raised our international standing
Aided by corrosive social media, omnipresent angry groups and the need for climate tempering, the countdown to the federal election has been divisive and grouchy. While many viewed at least one of the leadership debates, I sense Canadians understand that there’s much more at stake than individual party leader street credentials in this election. Some…
The brutish mother of all federal elections is (mercifully) nearing its conclusion. But a few twists and turns are still possible, as the leader of the third party recently showed us. The Tories are ahead of the Liberals in most opinion polls, albeit by a narrow margin of one to two per cent. The former…
Why conservatives like Scheer are held to a different standard than liberals like Trudeau
Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer have both had to deal with some controversial matters during this fall’s federal election. It was revealed that Trudeau appeared in either blackface or brownface on three occasions, the last one at age 29 when he was a teacher at a private school. He and…
The Greens offer the most comprehensive plan. But it, like all the other platforms, is significantly shortly on details about costs
During this federal election campaign, my youngest grandchild turned three months old and I had my 79th birthday. What can I hope for our futures? I cast my first vote for John Diefenbaker’s Progressive Conservatives before most of today’s voters were born and steadily migrated through the ideological spectrum. I worked in Pierre Trudeau’s Liberal…
Democracy is not something that merely happens in the natural course of events. And it’s not an unsavoury meal you push away from
So begins the quadrennial Canadian season of sound with no substance, rhetoric with no relevance and promises with no perspective. In other words, dear reader, it’s election time. But wait, you cleverly elucidate, elections don’t manufacture vapid, gormless, pontificators; politicians are always with us, like potholes. Agreed: No, they don’t; and yes, they are. The…
David Yager, author of From Miracle to Menace: Alberta, A Carbon Story, talks about bringing the climate policy conversation back to reality
David Yager is an energy policy analyst, oil and gas writer and author of From Miracle to Menace: Alberta, A Carbon Story. Why did you write your book? Yager: As the climate change issue grew, it was accompanied by more advice that Alberta move from a sunset industry – fossil fuels – to renewables. B.C.…
The failure of the People’s Party of Canada to win a single seat was, to me, the most surprising revelation of the Oct. 21 federal election. The writing appeared to be on the wall for Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Conservatives seem poised to be squeezed by the insurgent populists. For the People’s…
