The clearest culprit in the current mess is an ideology—the neoliberal preference for small government, the stubborn and wrong-headed belief that private sector is always more efficient, a distrust of science.

The Trudeau government has shown it can move quickly, and mostly effectively, when faced with a health crisis. Wasn’t climate change supposed to be a crisis, too?

The Conservative motion is a fishing expedition, and, given the ongoing crisis, definitely out-of-season.

Taxing the rich sounds good in a campaign ad, but making it work requires careful design, clever marketing, and enduring commitment. These are not qualities associated with political leaders of any persuasion.

Why waste any more time and emotional energy blaming anyone, or everyone, when we need governments, political leaders, school boards, and public health agencies to start fixing what went wrong?

The climate crisis is accelerating with every passing season. If not now, when? If not us, who?

Canada's federal party leaders have another chance to deliver much-needed social reforms, if they can ignore the temptations of partisan politics.

He was wealthy, politically naive, and loyal to the point of tedium. It cost him his job.

As a political issue, the environment has definitely been downsized.

Some eternal verities are not so eternal after all—and that includes the present-day Conservative Party as a dominant force in federal politics. Increasingly, it speaks for a disappearing Canada.

It is crucial, however, that everyone shares equally the sacrifices and rewards that lie ahead. That will require uncommonly wise political leadership.

Canada's record on reducing carbon emissions doesn't match Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's rhetoric.

It may be too much to ask that our prime minister, premiers and opposition leaders not revert to familiar behaviours, to the old struggle for partisan advantage, and forget too soon the tragedy that unfolded on their wat

When it comes to when and how fast we should resume quasi-normal life as pandemic infection rates slow, the answer probably depends on how old you are, how broke you are, and where you live. Or so you would think.

We’ll get our democracy back when this crisis is over—along with the daily barrage of Quebec Period—but, in all honesty, has anyone really missed it?

Canadians are getting their first sustained exposure to the talent, variety, and weaknesses around the cabinet table.

Everyone needs to be rowing in the same direction. Well-paid and well-insulated critics, sniping from the sidelines, need to put their outrage in park.

In a macho political culture, peacemakers are not 'blessed'; they are suspect.

This moment calls for humility and understanding on all sides—not inflammatory attacks on imagined provocateurs.

A government that takes the climate crisis seriously, would manage down existing projects over coming years and pour all its energy, imagination and money into encouraging alternative enterprises.

It is early days, there may be other candidates stepping up, but at the moment it looks as if that prize will go to yet another ambitious, confident and aggressive white male politician straight from central casting.

We’ll soon see if Conservatives are interested in more of the same—however artfully it is packaged.

If the government rejects Teck Resources’ Frontier Mine, Jason Kenney declared, it leaves the oil industry in his province 'no way forward.'

John Wilkinson is well-versed on environmental issues and said to be a good listener. But his initial comments do not signal any urgent resolve to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.