Harper’s got a refugee problem
In 1945, a top immigration official was asked how many Jews would be granted asylum in Canada in the wake of the Holocaust. His response, “None is too many,” has since been burned into our national consciousness as a moment of great collective shame. For decades, Canada was a leading light in its treatment of asylum […]
Problems inside Harper’s campaign real, deep
The problems inside Stephen Harper’s campaign are real and they are deep. They stem as much from the team around him in 2015 as the ghosts of architects of victories past who are no longer there for the Conservative leader. Whether campaign manager Jenni Byrne was yanked off Harper’s bus is in dispute but may […]
Election campaign offers chance to address party positions on warrantless access
OTTAWA—Canada’s controversial anti-terrorism bill, Bill C-51, has emerged as a key talking point in the current election campaign. Pointing to its big implications for privacy and surveillance, the NDP sees political opportunity by emphasizing its opposition to the bill, while the Liberals have been forced to defend their decision to support it (but call for […]
Is there something in the water in Campaign 2015?
TORONTO—Campaign 2015 has been noteworthy for plenty of things. There’s been the fact that all three of our main political parties—the Conservatives, the Liberals but also the New Democrats—have a shot at forming a government. That’s something that hasn’t really happened before. The length of the thing is a first, too. It hasn’t been one […]
Multiculturalism in Canada: what the data says
How well is Canada’s model of multiculturalism and citizenship working and how well are Canadians, whatever their ethnic or religious origin, doing? Will Canada’s relative success compared to other countries continues or are there emerging fault lines in Canadian society? My recent book, Multiculturalism in Canada: Evidence and Anecdote, aims to answer these question through […]
Harper fails to take high road on Syrian refugee crisis
It is not necessary to set one’s watch on polls to see that Stephen Harper’s business-as-usual reaction to the Syrian refugee issue has missed the political mark. One look at the lineup of critics who are, to put it mildly, underwhelmed by his low-key response to the resettlement needs of hundreds of thousands of Syrian […]
Canada’s got to reach out to help our wounded global community
OTTAWA—Fourteen years have gone by since 9/11—an event so dramatic it set into motion nearly a decade of what many have identified as an unnecessary war. The shooting that took place within our Parliamentary Precinct will have taken place one year ago next month. Each of these horrifying events and others like them have given […]
Harper will be Harper to the bitter end
GATINEAU, QUE.—Despite Stephen Harper’s misfiring campaign, there are still persuadable voters at large—people who regard Justin Trudeau as unserious and Thomas Mulcair as dangerous. But to lure them into his camp, the prime minister must learn to persuade. It is not his , at least not in front of domestic audiences. He prefers to order, […]
The c-word is back in play
OTTAWA—The c-word is back in play. At the beginning of this neverendem campaign, the Liberal Party was trailing in voter intentions and pundits were writing the party off. Conservatives and New Democrats were happy to minimize Justin Trudeau’s gravitas or ignore him altogether. Other than daily carpet-bombing via negative advertisements, Stephen Harper would not even […]
Election 2015: competence versus compassion
OAKVILLE, ONT.—This is going to sound like something “Captain Obvious” might say, but when voters cast their ballots on Oct. 19, they’ll be voting for the guy they think will make the best prime minister. In other words, they’ll forget all that stuff pundits like to obsess on—policies, platforms, issues—and focus instead on that quality […]
