Stories by Lisa Van Dusen
Diplomacy strikes back: ‘State’ versus the shallow state
Like so many narratives catalyzed by Donald Trump, the targeting of America’s career diplomats is likely about more than just Donald Trump.
The real challenge presented by the Oct. 21 election result will be for Parliament to produce progress from division.
With elections being messed with in ways democracies are just beginning to fight, maybe protecting the process itself should be the ballot question.
The political wince-o-meter that once delineated interesting from incriminating is busted. The results are about what you’d expect.
As Ottawans make progress in preventing an eyesore addition to the capital’s iconic Château Laurier hotel, local artist Shirley Van Dusen (yes, relation) ponders the beauty of a favourite subject.
As Britain grapples with the ongoing chaos of Brexit, a second prime minister in as many decades delivers a 'my bad' for a balls-up.
With the disclaimer that these days, the 48 hours between filing and press time can produce a multitude of dumpster fires, our federal election actually seems pretty normal so far.Author
As cyberconnection obliterates boundaries, some speculate that truth stranger than fiction will render literature obsolete.
The word ‘conspiracy’ has been so tainted by crackpots, including the one in the Oval Office, it may be due for a semantic reclamation.
The first rule of campaigning No. 347 should be ‘Never speak publicly about your own electability.’
Political scandals can now be charted on a graph from detonation to amplification to stoking to fallout. There was one in 2008 that took a different turn. 
As we gear up for elections on both sides of the border, the new must-have campaign accessory is your very own ‘crap Rasputin.’
After achieving concessions through mostly peaceful means, Hong Kong's protests have turned violent, which only plays into Beijing's hands. 
The president of the United States is using Twitter as a racist flamethrower against his fellow citizens. 
Wiring our brains could open new possibilities in the treatment of neurological diseases. It could also leapfrog us to a whole new level of human rights abuse. 
After 30 years as Canada’s architectural avatar on ‘America’s Main Street,’ the Canadian embassy in Washington has become part of the local furniture.
As the public sphere has become unrecognizably dystopian, the toll on human health includes a range of symptoms it may take more than pharmacology to cure.
The principle that there are unalienable rights is under siege, including in the country founded on it. That makes Canada’s status as a functioning democracy all the more valuable. 
How did being a rampaging ass become a prerequisite for political success instead of a disqualifier? Good question. 
Like everything else in Trumpian Washington, impeachment would make previous iterations seem both sane and dignified. 
In normal circumstances, beating Trump in 2020 would be a laugher. But again, in normal circumstances, he wouldn’t be … you know.
The image of a man staring down a column of tanks in Beijing 30 years ago is an indestructible tribute to what the tanks of D-Day were defending 45 years earlier.
The supremely gifted and fatefully flawed diplomat died in 2010 after collapsing in the office he never got to occupy. A new biography unfurls the backstory.
Sure, people laughed when Barack Obama’s White House operating principle was revealed. Apparently, it needs to be revived and repeated. Over and over again.
The Trump administration’s relations with the media, which began as shocking and outrageous, have become predictably, dangerously normalized. 
The U.S. ex-vice-president’s experience on both foreign and domestic policy makes him a formidable presidential candidate. His decency makes him the perfect foil for Donald Trump.
Instead of enabling yet another circus in an era of circuses by impeaching Donald Trump, Democrats should defeat the symptom and clean up the system.
Things have changed since the pro-democracy revolutions of post-Soviet eastern Europe, in part because of another revolution altogether—the Fourth Industrial one.
The man likely to be Ukraine’s new president is a comedian who played the president of Ukraine in a Netflix series. This could be just the casting breakthrough we need.
Political actors are now being cast, scripted, and rewarded to perform in engineered narratives as a means to an end. Really.
Donald Trump’s obliteration of political norms has made plausible the anointment of an erstwhile hacker, punk rocker, and manny as his potential successor. Try not to be judgy.Politics This Morning
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