There’s more to Jason Kenney than he allows to meet the eye
OTTAWA—By the time you read this column, Jason Kenney is likely to be the premier-elect of Alberta. Barring yet another Alberta surprise, Kenney will take the national stage again, this time as a first minister. A lot has already been written about how that will impact federal political dynamics for both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau […]
Defeated MPs to get access to more support services to navigate life after the Hill
MPs who get booted out of office in October will have access to more services helping them navigate what those who’ve seen an election defeat call a “terrible blow.” The Board of Internal Economy—a powerful group of seven MPs who make financial, legal, and administrative decisions for the House of Commons—approved on April 11 a […]
Assange extradition
LONDON, U.K.—Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is an unattractive character, and he also has very poor judgement. He should have gone to Sweden seven years ago and faced the rape charges brought against him by two Swedish women. (Those charges have since been dropped, but Swedish authorities are considering whether to reopen the investigation.) […]
MPs, political insiders question ‘endgame’ of former cabinet ministers Philpott and Wilson-Raybould
Jane Philpott may legitimately feel aggrieved by her and Jody Wilson-Raybould’s expulsions from the Liberal caucus, but both former cabinet ministers should be careful how they pick and choose their future political fights with the Liberal Party because people have already started to raise questions about their endgame, say Liberal MPs and political insiders. “What […]
Re-election calculus, base politics key reasons for Liberals to seek DPA for SNC-Lavalin: political analysts
Even after sustaining a serious political hit as a result of the most damaging scandal in his four-year mandate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are still not ruling out the controversial possibility of offering a deferred prosecution agreement to SNC-Lavalin because the 78 electoral seats in Quebec are critical to the Liberals’ re-election strategy, say […]
Liberals’ base could be smaller than Conservatives’, poll suggests
The Liberal base of committed, core supporters may be smaller than the well from which the rival Conservative Party is drawing, a recent poll suggests, and the Grits also lag the Tories by a nose when soft support is accounted for. One quarter of adult Canadians who took part in the Campaign Research survey said […]
Gould eyes U.K.’s ‘duty of care’ proposal for regulating tech companies
PARLIAMENT HILL—Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould says she’s taken an interest in the U.K.’s recently proposed plans to hold social media platforms accountable to a code of practice, as Ottawa considers whether to pursue more regulations. “What we must avoid is to have laws, policies that are not flexible enough for the future,” Ms. Gould […]
Don’t overlook the ‘exhausted majority’ in political coverage, journalist says
Journalists can do more to appeal to the so-called “exhausted majority,” those who are ideologically flexible, amid this sense of increased political polarization, says a Toronto Star journalist. “It is an option to try to define issues in such a way that we can speak beyond the black and white of stories and find commonalities […]
‘We don’t know why it’s taken so long’: critics question the wait on federal-provincial housing agreements
Housing critics are questioning why the government is taking so long to finalize the cost-sharing housing agreements with provinces, since it’s been more than a year since the unveiling of the Liberals’ National Housing Strategy. But many of the accords are on the cusp of an announcement, says Liberal MP Adam Vaughan (Spadina–Fort York, Ont.), […]
Foreign interference in Canada’s upcoming vote ‘very likely,’ spy agency says
PARLIAMENT HILL—Canada will “very likely” be a target of foreign interference, though it’s “improbable” that it will be on the same scale orchestrated by Russia in its 2016 presidential election, warns Canada’s electronic spy agency. In an updated assessment on the likelihood that Canada will encounter covert attempts to interfere in the 2019 election, the […]
