Lamenting Canada’s political jungle
OAKVILLE, ONT.—Former chief electoral officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley once told the media, “It took us 40 years of scandal (and) sweat to come to a regime where we had the best in the world for control of money in politics. Now we are back in the jungle.” What did he mean by that? Well, that was just […]
Poor issues management plaguing Trudeau’s team, say strategists
The public relations problems that plagued Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent India trip are part of a pattern of poor issues management that politicos say will dog this government if it doesn’t change course quickly. Mr. Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) and his team are prone to self-inflicted wounds and not responding fast enough to nip an […]
Senators took a pass on votes nearly 200 times since election—a sign of ‘unconvincing’ speakers, says Sen. Cools
Yea, nay, or I won’t say: when it comes to voting in the Upper Chamber, Senators have collectively chosen to abstain from votes 190 times since the last election, about two-and-a-half times per vote. The Senate posted complete voting records online last month, covering each vote and each Senator since the last election. The Senate’s […]
Trans Mountain expansion could be ‘major issue’ in next election, says Riis, but most MPs in pipeline’s path cite ‘overwhelming’ support
The government’s approval of Kinder Morgan’s $7.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project is expected to cost the party electorally in 2019, but most MPs in the pipeline’s proposed path say the majority of their constituents support it. “This could be one of the major issues in the next federal election, particularly in the Lower Mainland […]
Italy: The Migrant ‘Flood’
Lucky old Italy just got two Donald Trumps for the price of one. One of the big winners in last Sunday’s Italian election was the Five-Star Movement, whose 31-year-old leader Luigi di Maio has promised to stop sending out rescue boats to save migrants from drowning when their flimsy craft sink halfway across the Mediterranean. […]
Efforts to make House Standing Orders more user-friendly underway, House clerk Robert says
The House Standing Orders, or the rules of the game, are being revamped to be more user-friendly, but MPs will be consulted throughout the process and will have final approval over any updates, House clerk Charles Robert told members of the Procedure and House Affairs Committee last week. NDP MP David Christopherson (Hamilton Centre, Ont.) […]
Budget 2018 not an election-year spending plan, but Liberals ‘pre-staging’ some issues: stakeholders
The Trudeau government’s third federal budget is not an election-year spending plan crafted with an eye towards the campaign trail, though certain elements could hint at what issues the Liberals will run on in the 2019 vote, say stakeholders. Nearly 200 representatives from the private and non-profit sectors gathered in the Reading Room in Centre […]
Trudeau’s personal approval rating drops, but voters still back his federal Liberal Party: poll
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s personal approval rating has dropped nearly 10 points since last May, but the Liberal Party of Canada has yet to take a hit, polling as strongly as it did when the Grits won a majority in the 2015 federal election, according to the latest poll from Campaign Research. The poll showed […]
Spies like us: America and the covert war
In his address to the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 16, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reminded attendees that in front of the new NATO headquarters in Brussels are two memorials. “One is a section of the Berlin Wall and the other, a twisted girder from the wreckage of the Twin Towers in New York,” the former […]
Seniors could be a decisive factor in the next election
Canada’s population is aging. The proportion of seniors in the population went from 13.7 per cent in 2006 to 16.9 per cent 10 years later, for the first time exceeding that of those aged 15 years and less. This signals the start of a big acceleration in the process of population aging, fuelled by the […]
