Stories by Gerry Nicholls
Shattering political idealism
Politics is essentially a business where you need to persuade people quickly. So forget about any idea that’s too complicated or too nuanced or that’s in anyway counter-intuitive.
Basically the party has to raise a lot of money and it has to do it fast. And that’s certainly doable, but only if the NDP can successfully convey a sense of seriousness to its donor base.
And why Justin Trudeau would rather focus less on economic issues and more on issues that he thinks work better for him politically, i.e., gender equality and fighting climate change.
So perhaps Maxime Bernier can use his position as leader of the People’s Party to inspire Canadians or to popularize his libertarian philosophy. And that’s nothing to be sneezed at.
If things are different for viceregals, you better believe they’re also different for everybody else who holds public office.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should be adopting the UN approach and saying things like, 'To ensure future generations escape from the horrors of climate change, we must all make tough and painful sacrifices for the greater good.'
So yeah, 2023 looks a lot more interesting than 2019.
It’s possible the popular forces generating all that excitement in the provinces will eventually pierce the Ottawa bubble, forcing federal politicians to adapt. If that happens, then wacky politics could become the norm.Author
As I watched my wife’s life slowly fade away, it seemed so odd to me the way people were working themselves up into an emotional frenzy over things that more than likely wouldn’t impact their personal lives.
Stephen Harper always seemed to be ahead of the curve. That’s why I can say with absolute certainty that Right Here, Right Now will be jam-packed with insightful, well-thought out, rational analysis.
In a sense, Maxime Bernier’s sacrificing purity for the sake of votes. Can it work? Yes, so long as he doesn’t end up muddling his message.
If Prime Minister Justin Trudeau goes around calling Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, 'a Harper clone,' he might unwittingly be giving the Conservative leader a boost.
The NDP seems to be taking a huge risk by asking its members how they think NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is doing. 
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer, and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, all need to inject at least a little bit of phoniness into their respective public personas.
Federal-provincial conflicts and intra-party squabbles are just a part of the backdrop to the bigger dramas dominating Canadian politics right now, such as the NAFTA negotiations. 
Social media squabbles make it seems as though Canadians are at each other's throats, when most people are focused on summer holidays. 
Many Ontario residents are non-too pleased that their tax dollars are being spent on pro-government propaganda by the Ontario PC government, which is far from the only government to fund politically-tinged ads. 
True political advocacy should try to persuade the general public as to the rightness of a cause, not just whip up moral outrage among one’s base.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer are sometimes afraid of things they shouldn’t fear, which is leading them to make hasty, ill-advised decisions.
Liberals will likely whip up fear about what U.S. President Donald Trump is doing in America. In short, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer will become Trumpenstein.
Pondering the idea that Stephen Harper is furtively scheming to take on Trudeau in an electoral re-match, is about as fun as it gets.
Keep in mind the ‘ballot question’ a NAFTA election would inevitably create lots of new possible political outcomes that are anything but easy or simple to predict.
Let’s quit Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, cold turkey-style. It sounds crazy, but if we all kicked our social media addiction, at least for a few months, I believe it would do wonders for our nation’s collective psyche.
If I had to choose a leader who won the first six months of the year, I’d have to say, Andrew Scheer, if only by default. So will the fortunes of our political leaders shift? Ask me that in a few months. 
The ability of political parties to pragmatically compromise from time to time, helps to make democracy work. And surely even idealists and ideologues and activists can see that as a good thing.
Mind you, a politician having enemies is not necessarily a bad thing; Trudeau’s tiff with Trump, for instance, will certainly work to his political advantage. Making enemies in ways that can harm your economy is risky.
Justin Trudeau has to take a tough trade stance against Donald Trump. And that’s exactly what he’s doing; Trudeau, the free trader, has announced protectionist countecounter-measures against America.The reality of politics today is that whatever you’ve stated on blogs or on Facebook or on Twitter in the past can and will be used against you in the present.
Even though he’s heading up Canada’s main opposition party, and even though he’s potentially our next prime minister, Andrew Scheer seems to be getting less media coverage than his predecessor, Stephen Harper.
If the skills of persuasion are falling by the wayside, that’s bad for democracy. So maybe it’d a good idea if somebody persuaded our politicians to be better persuaders.
Conservatives can stop being bystanders and start being proactive, which is how, by the way, a political party can gain real momentum.
Bashing Ottawa is almost a political necessity in Alberta, especially if Albertans think the federal government is hindering oil exports. Politics This Morning
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