PM Stephen Harper either backs off, blames a bureaucrat—or, better still, a Liberal—and waits for another day. What he never does, and never will do, is apologize, admit a mistake or allow the enemy to take a prisoner.
First, if you want to sell your magnificent record of environmental stewardship, in the hopes of allaying U.S. administration qualms about the Keystone XL pipeline, you don’t send Joe Oliver to Washington.
Trudeau vows to fight the personal attacks by not responding in kind—confessing to Mansbridge that his approach may be naive. But he is convinced that Canadians are disgusted as he is with Harper’s tactics.
The central quest of Canada’s newly-awakened First Nations activists could hardly be more profound. What they are asking for, in various ways and different languages, is respect, recognition of the injustices they have endured and, amazingly, reconciliation with the non-native majority.
I don’t know about you, but I’m confused. What does it take to be fired by Stephen Harper?
Trudeau’s controlled and cautious campaign points to a conservative, rather than transformative, approach to government—deferential to the oil industry, foreign investors, powerful interest groups, and, dream-like rhetoric aside, the economic status quo.
The federal minister of Human Resources and Skills Development is a low-wattage presence on the Harper front bench, but she keeps alight the flickering flame of Thatcherism.
Alison Redford of Alberta and David Alward of New Brunswick have been roaming the land recently, selling what sounds like an irresistible idea.
Haiti is a specially difficult case. Aid work can take decades. Development is not a career for the impatient.
The hero, even if young activists don’t see it this way, is Assembly of First Nations Chief Shawn Atleo.
So many fine minds, wasted. So many reputations, shredded. So many bright hopes, dashed. The dumpsters around Parliament Hill must be brimming with discarded principles this holiday season.
While Trudeau was backpedalling furiously last week over his gun registry blunder, Martha Hall Findlay called Stéphane Dion’s doomed Green Shift ‘brilliant policy.’ Now that is bold.
While environmental questions remain, this project could give oil producers the ‘social licence’ that Alberta Premier Alison Redford and others say they need to keep selling their controversial product—at least at home.
Who would have predicted, in 2005, that Stephen Harper’s Conservatives would become global champions of gay rights?
If Liberals are running a beauty contest, Justin Trudeau will win. If they want more, they are going to have choices.
It has taken a while, and the sensitive debate has mostly unfolded behind closed doors, but federal politicians are finally moving to trim their extravagantly generous pensions.
A national energy strategy won’t answer all the questions. But neither will an approach—Energy Minister Joe Oliver’s approach—that essentially says ‘pipe down and leave it to us.’
The larger problem is a culture that insists on loyalty above common sense, honesty and consistency.
Canada needs a return to rectitude in the private sector and recognition that public service can offer compensation more important than money.