Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls it reconciliation. But until Indigenous voices are truly heard, it looks more like the same old bribery and bullying.

No one ever advances evidence of a specific carbon tax, in a specific place, killing specific jobs. Instead, this threat is accompanied by vague warnings.

The future of Canada’s oil industry, the future of oil itself, is a complicated and divisive issue, ridden with false claims. It may also be the defining issue of the next federal election.

The threat lies south of the border where a crazed, but effective demagogue has turned lies into truth and the media into the enemy. We can’t let that happen here.

The federal Liberals, self-described champions of climate action, are approving giant fossil fuel projects at breakneck pace, even compared to their predecessors, the oil-friendly Harper Conservatives.

But there is a sea change in the air as more elections—provincial and federal—loom.

History has a way of turning on former leaders, often long after the fact. They might want to consider what is happening to Sir John A. Macdonald.

Trying to please the party's various factions on the pipeline-climate change issue has kept the NDP silent, or disjointed, on a crucial policy front.

As with electoral reform and, increasingly, the environment, Trudeau is throwing that constituency overboard in an attempt to mollify, or win over Canadians who would never vote for him in the first place.

It is something to think about the next time you enjoy some shady park, or quiet beach, or lakeside boardwalk—or even breath in surprisingly fresh summer air. It takes politicians, and bureaucrats, with vision, shrewdness, and community support to beat back the greedy, self-interested, banal armies of the status quo.

And, brace yourself: it is almost certainly bound to get worse, as we head into an interminable pre-election period starting in the fall.

Those who urge Trudeau to jettison the supply management program are wrong. Canada would not be liberating its farmers to conquer the world as its critics claim. We'd be putting further distance between what we produce.

Justin Trudeau not only imperils his re-election chances in 2019, he risks squandering the small, progressive steps his government has taken over the last few years.

One that embodies the prudent policy and personal rectitude of a Peter Loughheed, Bill Davis, Joe Clark, or Robert Stanfield, not the extremism, vitriol, and defiant ignorance on offer from today’s right.

The future is unknowable, but perhaps Alberta oil will find a market in Asia. Maybe the oil will flow for 40 years so that Kinder Morgan makes back its investment. Maybe governments will kick our climate targets down the road a few more decades and keep pretending.

Kathleen Wynne’s party has been in power 15 years, long enough to accumulate a huge backlog of mistakes, mis-spending, broken promises and a patina of institutional arrogance. The premier could promise every Ontarian two free weeks in Cuba at this point and still lose, writes Susan Riley.

Now that Jagmeet Singh has, finally, condemned the authors of the Air India tragedy, he can move on to more universal concerns. And he may find that the media will stop persecuting him, too.

Reconciliation with First Nations and the future of Canada’s fossil fuel sector—are urgent and complicated. We need more clarity, fact-checking, and focused questioning from our politicians.

As for Caroline Mulroney, money and friends in high places can get you to the top of the ladder. But they can’t help you fly. That takes a rare combination of discipline, humility, and conviction. Politics can’t just be a hobby, or the next interesting life challenge.

A shift to questions that spring from open-minded inquiry would only make the government’s non-answers look more shabby and inadequate. Reform has to start somewhere. The daily show is getting intolerably stale, even for its most dedicated audience.

If the deal does unravel—and it will be a long, complicated process—we will revert either to the original Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (although it includes several of the NAFTA provisions that Trump finds objectionable), or, trade between our countries will be regulated under World Trade Organization provisions. Not exactly the Wild West.

All we know of the man is that he is a fit, good-looking, speech-making machine with nothing surprising, or even interesting, to say. 

We need political leaders who put ethical behaviour ahead of partisan advantage and we need a vigorous, well-financed media to search out and expose wrongdoing. But do we need a federal ethics commissioner? Not if it is going to be more of the same.

Our leaders are in the process of legalizing recreational pot, but they don’t want anyone to think they approve. The grudging message seems to be: you can smoke, as long as you don’t inhale.