Next Throne Speech must address seniors’ care, healthy aging
OTTAWA —While the federal parties make their promises on the campaign trail, the Canadian Nurses Association is urging them to not lose sight of health care. Our next government needs to take the important step of standardizing home health care across Canada, one of the most effective ways to keep our seniors healthy. Currently, home […]
Response to refugee crisis must include expanding refugee health care
OTTAWA—The haunting image of Alan Kurdi’s lifeless body lying face down on a Turkish beach, and the subsequent revelation of the Kurdi family’s intention to seek asylum in Canada, have prompted many Canadians to ask what we can do as a country to help Syrian refugees. So far, our search for an answer has rarely […]
Politics This Morning Election 2015: Foreign policy up for debate
Good Monday morning! It’s day 58 of the election campaign and foreign policy will be on the agenda today as Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau meet in Toronto for the Munk Debates. After controversy over how bilingual the debate would be, the show will go on. Foreign […]
Pathway to rebuild the Canadian economy
The three parties seeking to become the Government of Canada have differing views about rebuilding the faltering Canadian economy. One proposes to stay the course and allow the economy to develop in concert with the hoped-for global renewal; another proposes to expand our economy through new infrastructure; and the third seeks to re-energize specific components […]
Conservative candidate sees Muslim ‘agenda’
On the same weekend Conservatives expedited a refugee processing system in a nod to what they called “Canadian generosity,” one of their candidates seeking re-election was telling voters about an “agenda” to move Muslims into European countries. And that is something Joe Daniel doesn’t want to see in Canada. In a video obtained by The […]
The roots of Harper’s refugee conundrum
POWELL RIVER, B.C.—Watching the usually bold Stephen Harper scramble to deal with the refugee crisis is to be one of the most intractable and complex issues he has had to deal with. It has shone an extremely unwelcome light on one of the dirty little secrets of the prime minister’s old Reform Party political base: […]
Handcuffs aside, Bagnell and Leef aren’t taking any chances in Yukon
WHITEHORSE, YUKON—Larry Bagnell spent the entire afternoon knocking on doors. He got to 14. “Four weren’t home, but we did okay with the other 10,” says Bagnell, the much-liked former Liberal MP for Yukon. “That’s pretty good.” Welcome to Yukon. There’s a population of just more than 35,000 people here, and about 22,000 of them […]
Ontario biggest battleground, to determine who forms next government
TORONTO—Ontario is shaping up to be the big battleground that will determine who gets to form Canada’s next government. Yet the real economic challenges facing the Ontario economy are getting scant attention from the three major parties—and surprisingly, less from the NDP and Liberals than from the Conservatives when it comes to the all-important manufacturing […]
Minority government scenarios could make post-election more interesting than tight campaign
OTTAWA—Tom Mulcair didn’t mince his words. “There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell,” the NDP leader said last week when asked if his party would prop up a minority Conservative government if Stephen Harper’s party fails to win a majority of seats on election day. “There are no circumstances in which I would support Stephen […]
Mulcair’s caution could be his undoing
GATINEAU, QUE.—Thomas Mulcair has been hugging the ideological centre since this interminable election began, but sometimes he appears to be actively discouraging progressive voters. If that isn’t his intention, it could be the result. Last week, for instance, the NDP leader chastised Justin Trudeau for promising to reject the expensive and trouble-plagued F-35 fighter plane. […]
